Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other series that I might use for inspiration.

Author Notes:

Last chapter I realised that I made a calculating mistake, I made it that Naruto was 14 years old at the time Yahiko and Kisame went to Konoha, whereas I intended for him to be twelve. I just wanted to make yaw all aware that he is supposed to be 12, and I will edit that asap

Revelations and Preparations

"Yahiko? What are you doing here? And why did you bring Kisame-san here of all places?" Juugo asked curiously, watching uncomfortably as the duo walked out of Yahiko's lucid void technique.

He, Juugo, still looked for the most part pretty much the same, except his body from the top of his head to the sole of his feet was covered in spiral zetsu, revealing only his orange coloured right eye, his only item of visible clothing being his Akatsuki cloak, blue shinobi pants, white leg warmers, and blue shinobi style sandals.

"They probably had a direct confrontation with Obito and the yellow flash in Konoha. It is the only explanation for this." Naruto answered coolly.

"You were expecting this?" Juugo asked the question that was on everyone's mind.

"I suspected that Yondaime Hokage Minato, being a former student of Jiraiya much like Yahiko, would recognise Yahiko and thus, raise a few questions of concern for Kisame. Also, Obito knows about Madara-sensei, and Yahiko has a strong hate for traitors, so I imagined something would give if the two of them came into contact with each other." Naruto answered.

"If you anticipated all of this, than why didn't you send a different team to Konoha?" Juugo asked.

"Because, out of all our maintstream members, the two of them were probably the most suited to deal with those guys. Also, with Obito and the yellow flash in Konoha, it's almost impossible to escape Konoha without an advanced space-time ninjutsu." Naruto explained.

"I see..." Was all Juugo said.

"Good. Now, I'm guessing you have alot of questions for us, Kisame-san?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Just one, what's up with the weird masks? Are you guys into cosplay or something?" Kisame asked with a toothy grin.

"Heh... Yahiko already explained everything to you didn't he?" Naruto asked retorically, confident in his mind that Kisame's first question would have been otherwise completely different from the one submitted.

"Indeed." Kisame replied.

"And...?" Naruto inquired curiously.

"I like the plan, the infinite tsukiyomi. I am wolly behind it and I shall do everything in my power to get to that world. However...I don't like that I have to take orders from a bunch of snot nosed brats." Kisame said with a small frown at the end.

"An understandable and even justified sentiment. But you don't have to take orders from me, Pein is still the official leader of the organisation, and he is the one who gives out orders."

"The orders are still made by you, even if he is the one distributing them." Kisame countered.

"Not neccessarily. Akatsuki, with the exception of Madara-sensei, does not have one singular leader. It is a ring-leadership between me, Yahiko, Konan, Juugo, Pein, Zetsu, and now you. Basically everyone who knows about the real plan and Madara-sensei. One of us brings up an idea and the rest of us discuss it together and come up with a unanimus decision. So you see, you don't neccessary have to take orders from a bunch of kids, Kisame-san." Naruto explained

'This kid. He's not quite what I expected. He's not arrogant or cocky at all, and he doesn't try to pretend he's an adult or something. He's fully aware of how his situation can be perceived by others and acts swiftly to nullify that effect. That's probably why he and Juugo are dancing in the shadows of the organisation for now, waiting until they are old enough to be taken seriously before stepping out of the darkness. Naruto, Juugo, the two of you have earned my respect.' Kisame thought

"Are you okay, Kisame?" Yahiko asked curiously.

"Yes, I'm fine. And I have decided...if you trust and believe in Naruto enough to entrust the future of the world to him, than so will I. I accept the status quo, and will continue to serve the organisation as I have to the best of my abilities." Kisame declared with a serious tone.

"That was quite a quick decision:" Juugo pointed out.

"I want to see for myself why Yahiko-san has so much faith in Naruto, and by extention, you too, Juugo of both Scales." Kisame replied.

"I don't go by that name anymore, my violent rampages are a thing of the past. I have Naruto to thank for that." Juugo explained.

"Well you do kind of look different, I suppose it wouldn't be too far of a stretch to think that your...personality...has changed as well." Kisame said carefully.

"In any case. I had a little chat with Konan and Pein earlier on. We've decided to postpone the collection of the tailed beasts. We'll be resuming activities in four year's time. They'll be a meeting in four day's time to make the announcement." Naruto explained.

"Are you sure about that, Naruto? Won't this give Konoha enough time to make preparations for us? Nevermind that, won't it give them enough time to track and follow our movements?" Kisame inquired skeptically.

"Not only that, but now that they have seen me, they will, if they have not already, figure out that Akatsuki is based in Ame. If they were to share all the information that they have with the other villages, Ame could be under a serious threat, from all five of the Kage nations." Yahiko said with concern.

"I'm well aware of all of those possibilities. But trust me, the Five Kage will not listen to anything Konoha has to say, you're underestimating the level of distrust and hatred between the elemental nations if you think otherwise. Also, Konoha is a prideful and arrogant organsisation, they are unlikely to seek help from any of the five Kage to begin with, especially since the three known ring leaders are the students of a former sannin. Instead, they will be met with even more skepticism." Naruto explained, taking a slow breather before continuing where he left off.

"Konoha will be forced to do everything on their own, and if that is the case, than that serves our purpose just fine. After all, we have to eliminate the tight security around Sarutobi Konohamaru in order to capture the Kyubi. It's even better if we let them come to us." Naruto said.

"So you accounted for all of this from the start? Everything is going according to plan?" Kisame asked in awe.

"Precisely." Naruto said simply.

"That's all well and good, but...there's something else, about the yellow flash. I don't know if I was the only one who felt it, but..."

"I felt it too. Samehada has never been more excited than he was when he felt it, that is, if you're talking about the bijuu inside the yellow flash." Kisame said, causing Juugo's eyes to widen in surprise

"What did you just say...?"

"It seems like Konoha actually has two jinchuuriki, and one of them just so happens to be the most feared man in the elemental nations." Yahiko repeated clearly and concisely.

"But that's impossible, all the bijuu have been accounted for! That would mean that there are ten bijuu instead of nine!" Juugo argued vehemently.

"No, Juugo, on the contrary..." Naruto trailed off with a thoughtfull expression, not that anyone could see it behind the mask on his face.

"What do you mean? You anticipated this too?" Kisame asked incredulously.

"I wouldn't go as far as saying that I anticipated it, more like, I already knew about it. This is also part of the reason I organised for you two in particular to go to Konoha. I needed a second opinion, someone to verify the information when it is announced to the rest of our comrades, as I can't attend meetings yet." Naruto explained.

"So you're also a powerful sensor type?" Kisame asked, eyes narrowed in curiosity.

"Yes I am. Now, listen carefully, I'm going to explain how the devious Sandaime Hokage used an Uzumaki clan's kinjutsu to give an immense amount of power to his grandson, and to create what now is potentially the most powerful weapon in the history of the elemental nations for his village. In other words, how the yellow flash became a jinchuuriki, and how it is that Konoha acquired two Kyubi's. Do any of you know anything about the dead demon consuming seal?"

Tanzuki Town:

"There's no doubt about it, this is the guy I fought earlier today, and that's definitely the rinnegan on that red haired kid." Obito confirmed, staring for quite a while at the picture Jiraiya had given to him to confirm if it really was Yahiko that they had encountered earlier.

'The rinnegan is an ocular jutsu awakened only by those with both Senju and Uchiha dna, and even then, it takes exceptional circumstances to be able to awaken this power. Madara mentioned that he'd given his original eyes to another, however, I never imagined he'd given the eyes to a mere kid, not even of Uchiha or Senju...wait a minute! Madara...no, no-one for that matter would give such a powerful tool to a kid unless he was already inherently talented, he would also require an enormous amount of chakra and lifeforce to control an implanted rinnegan...which means, that red hair is not a coincidence. Nagato is...Uzumaki Nagato!' Obito thought with sudden realisation.

"What is it, Obito?" Minato asked quickly, his discerning eyes quick to notice that something was up with his former student.

"I was just wondering if you guys know anything about Nagato's lineage?" Obito asked curiously, handing the photo over to Konohamaru as he awaited a response from either Jiraiya or Minato.

"Take a good look at this picture and commit every detail to your mind. These are the people that are after you and the Kyubi. You might have to face them one day, that is, if they can get through us." Obito said neutrally, patting the 12 year old Sarutobi lightly on the head.

'So these are my enemies huh? It looks like they were quite a bit younger than me in this picture. They look so innocent and happy? Are these really the people that are behind such a dangerous criminal organisation?' Konohamaru thought, finding it extremely hard to suspend the disbelief that he was feeling regarding the Ame ophans. Konohamaru is young chuunin with dark brown, gravity defying hair and dark eyes, wearing an exact copy-cat battle outfit to his grandfather with the exception of the head gear.

"Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato asked, he himself honestly not having a clue as to the lineage of any of his sibling students.

"No, having been orphaned at such a young age, they either did not know their surnames or they had simply forgotten them. Trauma might have had a hand in the forgetting too, who knows." Jiraiya answered.

"Why would you ask such a question, Obito?" Jiraiya asked.

"Before I tell you what I think, tell me about Nagato's chakra? How was it? Strong in potency? Large in capacity? Or just normal?" Obito asked.

"He had incredible chakra, insanely strong with ridiculous chakra reserves for someone his age. His control of it was frighteningly good too, he'd mastered all the five nature elements by the age of ten." Jiraiya said, Minato, Konohamaru, and even Obito's jaw too hitting the ground, such was the incredulity invoked by Jiraiya's words.

"Well that just confirms it, he's definitely an Uzumaki, distant relative of the Senju. I have to give it to him, Madara is a man of incredibe intellect, and he has a very keen eye for talent." Obito thought to himself.

"Well, are you going to tell me what you think or not?" Jiraiya asked impatiently.

"I think that Nagato might be a member of the Uzumaki clan. The red hair, the potent chakra, and the incredible reserves are requisite traits of an Uzumaki." Obito explained much to both Jiraiya and Minato's surprise, and Konohamaru's confusion.

"Uzumaki? Just what is the Uzumaki clan exactly, I've never actually heard of them?" Konahamru asked curiously.

"The Uzumaki clan, well, it's a long story, I'll tell you all about it in detail later, okay, Konohamaru-kun?" Minato promised with a kind smile.

"H-hai, Hokage-sama." Konohamaru bowed respectfully.

"Now, more importantly, what do you think, Jiraiya-sensei?" Minato inquired.

"I can't believe I was such a fool. It seems so obvious now. It's just, well, I never imagined that the rinnegan would be an Uzumaki-clan bloodline limit." Jiraiya said with frustration.

"Well, about that, there's something I need to tell you, Minato-sensei. However, you're going to have to give us some privacy for this part, Konohamaru!" Obito said with a pat on Konohamaru's shoulder, the 12 year old genin getting sucked into a space-time void originating from Obito's right eye in an instant, before he could even think to object or cry out for help.

'So that's Obito's jikukan ninjutsu that Minato told me about. Apparently he can also make himself intangible, all with the power of that lone sharingan eye. The members of the Uchiha clan are truly blessed with good genes, to think that he could rival or even defeat a sannin with that one eye alone, and almost definitely if he used both his eyes.' Jiraiya thought wearily, remembering Minato's explanation for the dull look and missing tamoe in Obito's left sharingan eye, that he had used a technique known as Izanagi, a technique that could turn reality into illusions for a full ten minutes. Just how ridiculous was that.

"That was a bit harsh wasn't it, you could have just told him to take a walk around town or something couldn't you?" Minato said disaprovingly.

"And what happens when Akatsuki capture him during our little conversation?" Obito retorted.

"I incorporated my hiraishin formula into his jinchuuriki seal when he was still a little baby. Akatsuki will have to kill me first if they want to successfully capture Konohamaru." Minato countered in turn.

"Well, what's done is done, no use crying over spilled milk. Now, do you want to hear what I have to say or not? It has to do with how I really survived the incident at Kannabi Bridge, and it also has to do with how I think Nagato acquired the rinnegan. And yes, those two situations have a direct link to each other." Obito expained much to the shock and confusion of his two senior compatriots.

'Kakashi will probably tell them about what happened with Yahiko anyway. It is best that I reveal everything now before he gets to them, that way, I can tell the story they way I want it told, and I can gain some brownie points by revealing the true origins of Nagato's rinnegan. That should pacify any suspisions against me, although it probably won't eliminate them completely.' Obito thought strategically.

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'I can't believe it! Was Uchiha Madara really alive all this time? And is the rinnegan really a product of Senju and Uchiha? Does that mean that Obito might awaken the rinnegan too? Or...has he perhaps already awakened it? Another one of his well kept secrets perhaps?' Minato thought wearily.

He'd told Obito to transport himself, Konohamaru, and Jiraiya back to Konoha and help to fortify the village in his absence. He'd decided that he would handle the Tsunade situation all on his own after all. Ofcourse, Jiraiya had protested vehemently, pointing out how much it was a risk and even illegal for the Hokage to venture out on his own without a guard of skilled Konoha shinobi to protect him. However, Minato had pointed out that Shizune and Tsunade, as they were both skilled, and both Konoha shinobi, easily met those requirements. Jiraiya had, uncharacterisitically, continued to argue against Minato, uncharacteristically because he usually trusted that Minato always had a well thought out plan. Minato suspected that Jiraiya might have thought that he planned to kill Tsunade, which was something he wouldn't do just yet, he had three very good cards that he could play on her. If he played all three and she still wanted nothing to do with Konoha, than...he would have no choice.

Jiraiya had even gone as far as to suggest that Minato wouldn't be able to track Tsunade without him, as she was very good at covering her tracks and that he, as her former teammate, and as a spy master, would at least half the time it would take to track her. However, that excuse had also been shot down, Minato pointing out that he was one of, if not the best sensor types in Konoha, and had a very good tracking jutsu that Jiraiya knew about himself, where Minato could track a great number of people at the same time by simply placing his index and middle finger on the surface of the earth. And if that was not enough, Minato's declaration of knowing exactly where Tsunade was at that moment because she was already within his chakra radar had been enough to tuck the discussion into bed. On top of that, Obito transporting Jiraiya and Konohamaru away to make sure Minato was not followed.

'I guess I'll have to forget about the rinnegan for now. If the prophesy is to be taken literally, than Nagato is definitely the harbinger of destruction that the great toad sage spoke about, which means, I will have to rewrite the prophesy somehow, and to do that, I'm going to need as much firepower and as many resources that I can get. Starting with Senju Tsunade, the best medic in the elemental nations.' Minato thought as he arrived outside the building that Tsunade was supposedly inside of, actually, definitely inside of, unless it was a shadow clone that he was sensing inside there, which was highly unlikely in itself, after all, he was the best sensor type in the village since Kushina died, he couldn't be tricked that easily.

'A restuarant-come-pub, why am I not surprised.' Minato thought as he walked into the establishment.

'There she is...she hasn't even noticed my presence. That, or she is very good at pretending.' Minato thought as he walked at a slow but purposeful pace.

'She only arrived not even a minute before me, and I don't see a drink in front of her or Shizune, meaning, unless she was drinking already prior to coming here, than she should be sober. That's good...' Minato thought as he neared the two medical kunoichi, student and mentor sitting on two bar stools right next to each other.

"It's been a long time, Tsunade-hime, Shizune-san." Minato greeted softly, not too casually but not too formerly either, sitting himself right next to the Senju princess as if this was nothing but a passing between neighbours at the local bar.

"M-Minato...!" Tsunade whispered with quite a meek voice compared to her usual standards, a reaction, on her part, that frustrated her to no end. She hated showing any kind of weakness to any man, even more so one so much younger than her, and that baphoon Jiraiya's student of all peoplel

"H-hokage-sama! W-what are you doing here?" Shizune stuttered in complete surprise and to a certain extent, horror. Silently wondering if Minato had finally come to kill them for their, to be honest, treasonous sabbaticle.

"Fear not Shizune-san, I'm not here to kill the two of you if that's what you're wondering." Minato re-assured, causing Tsunade to snort arrogantly, as if to say 'you couldn't even if you tried to, brat!', and Shizune to visibly relax at his words, although taking a quick and nervous glance at Tsunade's reaction.

"I doubt you came all the way here to share a drink with us, but if you're here to ask me to go back to that hellhole, than you can forget about it!" Tsunade declared, anger slipping into her tone at the end of that sentence.

"I'm not here to ask you anything either, I'm here to make a bet with you, unless you're not confident that you can win a bet against me that is." Minato said with a small smirk.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Tsunade asked incredulously, Shizune also secretly wondering the same thing, although she would never say that out loud like her master just did.

"It's not a joke at all. Would I come all this way just to tell you a joke?" Minato asked retorically.

"Coming all this way to make a bet is not too far from that you know." Tsunade countered.

"Well, this bet is very important, it has the potential to completely catapult your life should you lose." Minato said, now adopting a serious tone and expression.

"What sort of bet is this?" Tsunade asked, eyes narrowed in suspission, the atmosphere in the room taking on a completely different feel, from fun and relaxed to tense and dangerous.

"I bet that I can beat you in an arm wrestle competition, and if I should fail to beat you, I will remove you from the Konoha shinobi register and make sure you are never entered into our rogue nin bingo book. I will grant you complete amnesty from your duties and responsibilities to Konoha and will make sure no Konoha shinobi alive ever tries to bring you back, by force, or by persuasion for the duration of my reign. In principle, should you win, you will be completely free by fact and by law to live your life as you please...you may even join another shinobi village if it suits your desires." Minato said with a dark undertone.

"Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Ahahahahahahahahaqhahahaaha! You think you can beat me in an arm wrestling competition? That's so cute!" Tsunade laughed mockingly, showing complete disregard and absolutely no respect for the Hokage, however, if Minato noticed, or even cared, than he certainly didn't show it, simply carrying on from where he left off, perhaps planning to make her eat her own words very shortly.

"If you should lose, you will go back to Konoha and re-join the force. You will accept your role as Chief of Medical Staff and I will do everything within my limits to support the program you tried to introduce in the third shinobi world war and others that might be to the benefit of village, that is, as long as they don't infringe on the rights of others. Oh, before I forget, did I tell you that there is a 200 million ryo bonus if you beat me?" Minato said with a cheeky smile, knowing full well that a chronic alcoholic and gambler like her would not be able to resist such a generous offer, especially taking into acccount the sheer size of her gambling debt.

'He's preying on her arrogance and all of her weaknesses, and Tsunade-sama is falling for it hook-line and sinker. Yondaime-sama is indeed a once in a lifetime prodigy, however, does he honestly believe that he can beat Tsunade-sama in a battle of strength? I mean, sure, there are other ways to win an arm wrestling competition either than pure brute force alone, the Raikage showed us that a few years back. But the Raikage himself was ridiculously strong to begin with, Yondaime-sama on the other hand...' Shizune thought skeptically, Tsunade also thinking along the same lines as her apprentice.

"Hn! This is why I hate Konoha so much. They make naive little kids like you into heroes and Hokages and expect it to magically make the shinobi world and the village a better place. You became Hokage and now you think that you can do everything and anything in the world, like you're some kind of super man. You need to be brought back down to earth, kiddo! Come, follow me, lets end this quickly." Tsunade said as she swiftly got up and walked out of the establishment, Minato and Shizune following close behind the busty blonde.

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"You're quite the show off for such an old...err...experienced, for such an experienced shinobi." Minato said, scratching the back of his head nervously at the glare that had been directed his way as soon as he said first letter of the world 'old'.

The reason he was calling her a show off was because she had just pulled out a signifcantly huge slab of earth from the surface in order for them to use as a 'table' for the arm wrestling competition. A low level earth jutsu would have easily sufficed but nooo! She had to go and do something like that. In any case Minato was a little more concerned than he was at the beginning, that is because Shizune had told him about Tsunade's encounter with Unruly Ay of Kumogakure no Sato, and apparently Ay had used the tactic that he was planning to use on her as well, which meant that his plan was useless now, Tsunade would be expecting something like that from him as well.

'Still, I'm not out of options yet, I can still take her down, although, I might have to reveal a few more secrets than I am comfortable with in order to do that.' Minato thought to himself, his eyes closing in concentration for the moment.

"Lets get this over with, Kozo." Tsunade said, once again showing complete and utter disrespect for the Hokage.

"Okay, lets do it." Minato said with a deadly glare, opening his eyes to reveal what seemed to be a completely new set of eyes, his eyes not even looking human anymore, looking like those of a toad with orange rings around the eye sockets.

"Sennin mode...!" Tsunade said with a heavy gasp, eyes widening slightly in surprise.

"You didn't really think I didn't have a trick up my sleeve did you?" Minato asked retorically.

"Hn! You honestly think that mode is going to give you strength on par with mine? You're just as delusional as I thought you were." Tsunade said with a cocky smirk, her confidence returning once again, not that it ever left, just that she was a little surprised by the recent turn of events.

"There are different forms of strength. A bodybuilder might not be able to punch as hard as a heavyweight boxer, but does that mean that the boxer can lift heavier weights than the bodybuilder? Ofcourse not, most likely, the bodybuilder will be able to lift a significantly heavier load than the boxer, who's punch is significantly more devastating than that of the bodybuilder. If I had to ask you, taking all of that into consideration, who is the stronger of the two? Who would you say is stronger? The boxer who can exert more force in his punches? Or the bodybuilder who can lift a heavier load than the boxer?" Minato asked.

"What are you trying to say exactly?" Tsunade asked with narrowed eyes.

"I'm saying that most of your strength feats are impact feats. When people talk about your strength, they talk about the force that you can exert in a kick or a punch. They never really talk about how heavy a load you can lift. You're strong in all facets of strength, there's no doubt about it, but I think that your weight lifting strength is lagging compared to your impact strength. I think you're the boxer." Minato explained with a neutral tone.

"Hn! And I suppose you're the bodybuilder. Strong overall but pack a weaker punch compared to your lifting ability? Is that why you think you can beat me in an arm wrestling competition? I always knew that Jiraiya overated your intelligence. You think Jiraiya hasn't tried to use his senjutsu to overpower me before? You're even more of a fool than I thought. Come, let me show you the error of your ways, brat." Tsunade said, crouching down and placing her elbow on the boulder that she had just pulled out of the earth.

'I already figured that Jiraiya-sensei may have attempted this before. However, Jiraiya-sensei is not a perfect sage, and I seriously doubt he would go as far as to summon Ma and Pa for a simple strength competition. If he had attempted what I am about to, he would have been using a very miniscule amount of senjutsu chakra. His strength would have paled compared to what I am capable of right now.' Minato thougt analytically.

"Lets do it." Minato said neutrally, linking his own hand around Tsunade's own, the two blondes competing in a staring competition very briefly before Minato decided to initiate proceedings.

"These are the rules, only one flesh and blood limb may be used. Chakra may be used in anyway to aid your own performance, but it may not be used to impede the opposition's performance. Namely, you cannot suddenly shock my hand with raiton, slice up my arm with fuuton, or burn it with katon. You may not paralyse me with any ninjutsu, medical or otherwise, and you may basically not do anything that will impede my performance, and neither can I impede your own performance. Do you agree to these terms?" Minato asked with a deathly tone.

"Yea whatever! Lets just get this over with already." Tsunade said with a bored tone.

"Shizune..." Minato trailed off.

"H-Hai! Yondaime-sama!" Shizune stuttered out, scurrying quickly to position herself between the two contestants, on Minato's left and Tsunade's right side.

"Three...two...one...Hajime!" Shizune shouted, immediately jumping away from the immediate vicinity of the two powerhouses.

To Shizune, or anyone else watching the scene, or even within the borders of the City itself, it would have felt like a high scale earthquake was about to hit town, such was the devastating impact caused by Tsunade and Minato's battle for supremacy. The earth beneath them seemed like it would give in at any moment, and the earth growled as if it were in pain.

For a while, it seemed the duo would be locked in a complete stalemate, neither arm moving backwards or making in any forward progress. But eventually, Minato started overpowering Tsunade, perhaps because of her lack of activity over the years, her stamina was not what it used to be. Or maybe, perhaps Minato really was stronger than her in this particular department. Whatever the case may be, both Shizune and Tsunade were clearly caught by complete surprise by the sudden turn of events, neither having really even remotely considered the possibility of losing, at least, not to the yellow flash of all people. After all, speed was supposed to his forte, not strength.

'No! This can't be possible! Tsunade-sama!' Shizune thought with concern, before stopping herself in her tracks.

'But than again...t-this...this doesn't neccessarily have to be a bad thing, going back to the village is actually a good thing. If it has to come down to her pride taking a knock for that to happen...t-than...than so be it!' Shizune thought with a surprising resolve, although, deep down, still concerned for Tsunade's mental wellbeing. For the longest time now she'd been known, and even prided herself as the strongest human in the elemental nations, her confidence was bound to take a knock if she lost a battle of strength. The raikage didn't count, he'd used speed to win, that was forgiveable, but this...

'T-this is impossible! How can he be so strong! At this rate...I'll' Tsunade thought frantically, watching in horror as, despite her best efforts, her arm just kept going backwards and downwards, slowly but surely.

"Had enough yet, Tsunade-hime?" Minato asked with a cocky smirk.

"Krrrrrr!" Tsunade gritted her teeth furiously.

"Perhaps Shizune-san will not mind if I asked her to start making preparations for your return trip to Konoha!" Minato taunted, doing eveything in his power, and succeeding it might be said, to make it look like this was far easier for him than it actually was. However, the mere thought of going back to that hell hole was enough to send the Senju princess over the edge!

"Don't get ahead of yourself! Gaki! Byakugo!" Tsunade exclaimed furiously, a series of seal markings rapidly spreading from the diamond on her forehead and all over her body, making her look almost ten times more intimidating than she already did. However, her appearance was probably the least of Minato's concerns, as the tide immediately flipped around upon the release of the Senju princess's new technique, Tsunade seemingly experiencing a massive boost in strength, so much so that Minato was now the one who's arm was being pushed back, all the way until his arm was a quarter way from touching the earth.

'I...I can't push her back anymore! Her chakra levels and frequency just skyrocketted out of nowhere! That seal...I know that she uses it to build up and store a massive amount of chakra over-time, and than releases it all at once to boost her healing and medical capacity. However, I never imagined she would used it in this manner!' Minato thought wearily.

"I usually use this technique for healing, however, when the situation calls for it, it can be used to boost my overall body performance rather than for healing. Speed, reflexes, agility, and more importantly...strength! You did say that chakra may be used to enhance one's own performance after all." Tsunade explained with a cocky smirk.

'So that's it than! I didn't expect it to go this far, but she leaves me no choice.' Minato thought, closing his eyes briefly before his own body was set alight in a gold/yellow chakra cloak, a sealing matrix forming around his shoulders and the centre of his stomach, with black , thick lines extendting on his limbs, a golden hue also mixing with his eyes.

Immediately, before anyone could blink, Tsunade's arm was pushed back significantly, however, she was alert enough to stop herself from getting completely overwhelmed, recovering quick enough to halt her backward movement at the point of origin, just as they were when the competition started. Still, despite either competitor's best efforts, no-one was able to get a clear advantage, the two blondes finding themselves in a stalemate once again.

'That chakra...just what is that anyway? I can't believe that he's keeping up with Tsunade-sama even after activating Byakugo. I thought I'd seen everything in the shinobi world, I never imagined anything like this. Just what is that chakra cloak? It has so much life-force it's unbelievable, the fact that I can feel it so vividly despite not being a sensor type is testament to just how much chakra he is utilising right now. This is an insane level altogether, in truth, we're lucky that he didn't challenge us to a real shinobi battle, otherwise...' Shizune thought morbidly.

"J-just what are you! What the hell is this chakra!" Tsunade shouted in frustration.

"I'm sorry, but I can't trust anyone who doesn't want to be part of the village with that kind of information. If you come back however..."

"Never!" Tsunade exclaimed, channeling every ounce of her strength and passion into the dual now.

"We'll see about that..." Minato trailed off as he focussed his chakra, causing one...two...three...four...five chakra limbs to protrude from the his spine, the chakra limbs swivelling around his right side and wrapping around his right arm to aid him in his push to everwhelm the Senju princess.

"W-what are you doing? You said only one limb was allowed!" Tsunade exclaimed indignantly, watching in horror as she was quickly overwhelmed, getting pushed back all the way until only a quarter of the way was left to touch ground.

"I said only one flesh and blood limb was allowed. I never said anything about chakra limbs. Also, you'll remember I said that chakra can be used in any manner to give oneself an advantage so long as it does not infringe on the other's ability to perform." Minato said with a mock innocent smile, causing a look of absolute terror to appear on both Shizune and Tsunade's facial expressions.

"It's over...!" Minato said as he added another four chakra limbs to the dual, making it nine altogether.

BOOM!

Was the the deafening sound of Minato's victory and Tsunade's defeat, the sannin's eyes widening to an inexplicable extent, such was the surprise and horror she was feeling in that particular moment, her body laid on the crater that had formed when Minato smashed her against the ground.

"I...I lost...!" Tsunade muttered, disbelief, and even shame audible in her tone.

"Don't think any lower of yourself, the fact that I had to use a total of ten limbs in conjuction just to defeat you is a true testament of your strength. You're still the strongest woman in the w..." Minato trailed off suddenly, a concentrated, almost battle ready expression morphing instantly on his facial features.

'Such a strong amount of sinister intent, I can't believe I didn't notice it until now! I guess it was too difficult to focus while I was wrestling her.' Minato thought wearily, mixed with a hefty amount of frustration with himself for not noticing such a ptential threat to his physical health up until now.

"What's the matter, Yondaime-sama?" Shizune asked worriedly.

"Did you really think you could just sneak up on us like that without detection? Carrying such a strong amount of hate and sinister intent as you are?" Minato asked seemingly to the air itself.

'No way...he couldn't have...'

"Minato...what the hell are you...?"It happened in literally a blink of an eye, scratch that, it happened faster than even the blink of an eye. One moment Minato was seemingly going crazy and talking to himself, the next thing he was on the other side of the clearing with his right arm stuck into the earth, the Yondaime Hokage pulling out of the earth, by the scruff of the neck, what appeared to be a paper white man in his mid twenties. The man was completely naked and didn't seem to have any genitals, and only half of his body seemed intact, the other half of his face missing along with that half of his body, which just seemed to be gooey and disfigured somehow.

"You...!" Minato trailed off with a deathly tone.

"You're Zetsu, aren't you?" Minato asked retorically, relatively sure that this indeed was the man that fit Obito's discription, with the exception of the venus fly trap-like construct supposed to be covering his body.

"I can't believe that you were able to detect me of all people? I've illuded every single sensor type shinobi that I have ever encountered. There's no doubt about it, you must have mastered the kyubi's powers to the extent that you can utilise it's ability to sense negative emotio...nani! What have you done to mwaaaaaaarg!" Zetsu cried out as his body seemingly became rapidly overwhelmed by Hashirama's cells, his body transforming into a tree in a matter of a few seconds, Minato having quickly dropped the genetic abomination as soon as he realized what was happening.

'This guy...he tried to absorb my chakra and this is how he ended up? The effect of Kurama's incredible life-force perhaps?' Minato theorised accurately.

"Minato...! What's going on?" Tsunade shouted, she and Shizune landing next to the Yondaime Hokage in quick succession, having utilised the shunshin no jutsu to speed up their arrival.

"You see that humanoid figure at the bottom of this tree?" Minato said with a pointed finger, both Tsunade and Shizune following the direction that he was pointing at.

"I-Is that the enemy? Who is he? And what happened to him?" Shizune asked curiously.

"He is a member of an organisation of S-ranked criminals known as Akatsuki. And, an arguably more important fact you should know is that his existence is a direct consequence of dna/genetic experimentation by the Akatsuki..." Minato trailed off darkly.

"Dna experimentation...?" Tsunade trailed off in surprise, however, her medical research instincts quickly taking over and sweeping away any hesitation on her part.

"If what you say is indeed true, than it isn't arguable that this piece of information is more important, it's obvious." Tsunade said with intrigue worthy of a mad scientist.

"You don't understand, it's not the fact that the Akatsuki created him through dna experimentation that makes this an issue of importance, it's the issue of who's dna was used to create him that is important. Take a closer look at his body, and what happened when he tried to absorb my chakra." Minato said suggestively.

'What does he expect me to...see...!' Tsunade thought, her heart almost stopping completely from where she stood.

"N-no way! It can't be!" Tsunade exclaimed, the tree growing out of the humanoid figure's stomach reminding her vividly of someone else, someone close to her that had the ability to grow plants and trees from his own chakra and body.

"I'm afraid it is exactly what you think it is. This man, according to Uchiha Obito, was meant to be a clone of your grandfather. The experiment failed, however, even so, Akatsuki still found many uses for him. I'm a sensor type shinobi but I was unable to detect his chakra signature until I pulled him completely out of the earth. Clearly he is part of Akatsuki's intel division." Minato explained.

"Y-Yondaime-sama! Are you saying that this...man is able to completely assimilate himself with nature itself?" Shizune asked wearily.

"Hard to say. According to Obito, he is actually able to assimilate himself to any surface whatsoever, regardless of whether it is part of nature itself or if it is a man made construct." Minato answered.

"Obito as in the Uchiha brat who was your student? How the hell does he know so much about this guy?" Tsunade asked furiously.

"It's a long story, I'll tell you all about it on our way back to Konoha. I want you to take his body and find out anything you can about it's secrets." Minato ordered authoratively, showing a new attitude now that he had won the arm wrestling competition, an attitude, posture, and tone that demanded respect and commanded authority over others.

"Back to Konoha huh...I haven't seen those walls in years. I wonder if they are still intact. I heard Orochimaru attacked the village recently." Tsunade said with a sad expression, for some reason, finding it hard at that particular moment to look anywhere else besides the ground.

'Tsunade-sama has never payed up any of her gambling debts, is she really going to go back to the village or is she just saying that to get Yondaime-sama to back off? She does seem different though, is it because she lost the bet that she never thought she'd ever lose? A battle of strength?' Shizune pondered.

Minato on the other hand just chose to remain silent for that moment. Tsunade may have known about Orochimaru's attack, mostly because everyone in the elemental nations knew about it, but she didn't know exactly how Orochimaru had tried to attack, nor did she know how he was defeated.

She didn't know that Orochimaru had used Edo Tensei, her grand uncle Tobirama-sama's technique, to summon not only him, but her grandfather and her sensei too. Basically, he'd attempted to use some of the people who were not only precious to her, but the village as a whole to attack Konoha, even going so far as to break into the Uzumaki clan temple in order to use the shinigami mask to free Hiruzen from the dead demon consuming seal just to see him destroy Konoha with his own hands.

Ofcourse, Orochimaru's plan had been flawed, he clearly had no idea who he was dealing with when he challenged Minato. For one, Minato was a teleporter and was the fastest man alive with the fastest reflexes too. Evasion was his bread and butter and so was closing the distance between himself and the opponent. Orochimaru had known this ofcourse, and hadn't been overly concerned because he couldn't be killed, he was immortal as far as he was concerned. While there was no such thing as true immortality, Minato still hadn't, as far as he was concerned, ever demonstrated any jutsu powerful enough to take him out. And if he did have one, it would have to be large scale jutsu, which was something he was sure Minato wouldn't use in the middle of his own village, where he could end up harming his own comrades.

There was the issue of Minato being a seal master, but Orochimaru had been quick to point out that sealing him away would make it impossible for him to win as in that case the Edo Tensei would remain active for all eternity, because he was the only one who could cancel it as he was the one who cast it in the first place, the same thing would apply even if Minato had a way to kill him. This way, Orochimaru had almost certainly ensured his victory, putting Minato in an impossible situation with impossible decisions to make.

However, one thing Orochimaru was not aware of, and didn't account for, or rather, one jutsu in Minato's arsenal, was the contract seal. Such a simple but deadly technique in the right hands, used under the correct circumstances. The simple fact was that the contract seal was an Uzumaki clan technique designed specifically to counter against the summoning technique. It's job was simple and straight forward...severe the link between summoner and summon.

Edo Tensei required the jutsu caster to summon a soul from the afterlife, or otherwise the pure world, into the land of the livng, or otherwise, the impure world. Hence the name 'impure world ressurection'. To simplify it, Edo Tensei is a summoning technique, or at least a variation of the summoning technique. When Minato applied the seal on Orochimaru, his link and control over the edo tensei technique was completely severed.

With the link severed, Orochimaru technically didn't 'own' the technique anymore, he lost his rights to the jutsu so to speak. He couldn't control the reanimated Hokages anymore and he couldn't even cancel the technique as his link to it was completely severed. This resulted in the Hokage regaining awareness and control over themselves, and naturally, they were chose to protect the village from Orochimaru rather than to aid him.

Minato, in order to minimise the corpse count, had not stayed long and left the scene, using the thousands of markings he had around the village along with shadow clone technique to end the war prematurely, leaving Orochimaru to the mercy of his predecessors. It is needless to say that Orochimaru was swiftly defeated, three Hokages being more than enough to deal with any enemy regardless of how strong he was. Tobirama had managed to mark him with his hiraishin formula and weekened him with a consistent barrage of fatal attacks. Orochimaru had regenerated all of those injuries, but at an incredible cost to his chakra levels and energy. He'd gotten so weak that Hashrama had been able to catch him with his Mokuton and subdue him. Where Hiruzen had followed by sealing him away with the dead demon consuming seal, or at least, would have had the sound four not interfered before he could finish the ritual. As a result, he'd only been able to take away Orochimaru's arms, and a vast majority of his ninjutsu with them, at least he hadn't died for nothing, died again that is.

In any case, Orochimaru was able to escape certain death by the skin of his teeth, in fact, he'd had to sacrifice the whole sound four and use oral rebirth again, this time, in order to get rid of Tobirama's marking, in order to successfully get away from the two remaining Hokage.

"The village is fine. There were losses yes, and it is sad, especially for the families of the deceased. But their sacrifices prolonged the lives of others and their own loved ones. They are sad yes, but they are also proud of the selfless and examplary service by their sons, daughters, fathers, and mothers. I should know, I personally made a point to visit each and every person that lost a loved one, it won't bring their loved ones back, but it was the least I could do, having failed to protect what was precious to them like I swore I would." Minato said with a sad expression.

"The Hokage position is stupid, and it's a curse. You should have never accepted it. I pity you." Tsunade said, quickly activating a chakra scalpel and severing the tree that had grown from Zetsu's stomach from the base and than following up by punching it onto the side.

"I guess I'm a fool too and should be pitied for losing a battle of strength to you, for allowing myself to be your subbordinate...what the...!" Tsunade exclaimed in shock, a long and thick root suddenly sprouting out of the ground, wrapping itself around Zetsu, and sinking back into the ground in an instant, an instant in which Minato was the only one able to react to, forming a rasengan and smashing into into where the root had sunk into the earth a single split second ago in an instant, an explosion of chakra, earth, debri, and smoke resulting from the incident. However, when the smoke cleared, there was nothing in sight but a crater, as if the root had simply disappeared when it entered the earth.

"It's gone...!" Shizune trailed off in shock.

"Minato! How did this happen? What kind of sensor type are you? Why didn't you warn us?" Tsunade exclaimed furiously.

"I told you, this guy has the ability to completely hide his chakra signature." Minato explained.

"I'm sorry Yondaime-sama, but this is confusing. How did you spot him in the first place if you couldn't sense his chakra? Back than, it seemed like you were feeling out his location." Shizune asked with a suspicious look.

"You see this chakra cloak? When I'm in this mode, I can sense negative emotions. What I sensed earlier was his sinister intent." Minato explained.

"So than why didn't you sense the sinister intent of whoever retrieved that body?" Tsunade asked.

"Honestly, I don't think that attack was launched within the vicinity of this town, actually, I don't think it was even launched from this country." Minato replied.

"W-what!" Shizune exlaimed incredulously.

"I'm serious. Whoever retrieved Zetsu's body...they're not in this country. I'm using both sage mode and this mode to enhance my sensing abilities, my range extends far and wide. I'm telling you, this person is somewhere else in the world. That means, he has an even more advanced sensing ability compared to me." Minato explained.

'And he and his jutsu can traverse insane distances underground almost instantaneously.' Minato thought wearily.

'I don't think there's only one Zetsu, he must have many other clones, or can create real live clones.' Minato thought.

"You keep saying this mode and never actually call it by name. Just what is this power you're using anyway?" Tsunade asked suspiciously.

"I'll let you know all about it later, right now, we need to get back to the village." Minato countered.

"No!..Ahem... I mean, there's something I have to take care of first. We'll leave tommorrow." Tsunade said nervously.

"No, I'll take care of Orochimaru...and yes, I know that you met with him, and I have a good idea what kind of proposal he might have made to you. But trust me, that man is not be trusted, and you really don't want to meet your loved ones under those circumstances. It would be like taking a dump on their sacrifices and everything that they believed in." Minato lectured.

"Here, take these kunai, both of you." Minato said, holding out two tri-pronged kunai, one for each one of the two medics.

"You might need our help though..." Tsunade argued half-heartedly, taking one kunai and giving the other to her apprentice.

"Don't worry, I'll be fine. Just make sure you stay in the village, even if you plan to run away again, you'll definitely want to hear what I have to say to you before that. There are things that you aren't aware of about the Senju clan, secrets that you might not have run away in the first place had you known about them. I'll tell you all about it upon my return." Minato said with a grave tone.

"O-okay! But you better not d...!" Tsunade shouted only to be cut off by Minato's flying raijin technique, the Yondaime teleporting her and her apprentice back to Konoha in the blink of an eye.

"I'm sorry, Tsunade, but that's enough chit chat for now." Minato said to the empty space. Following that, Minato quickly blazed through a set of hand seals before clasping his hands together in concentration, two male figures instantly appearing infront of him immediately after the fact, Minato once again using the flying raijin no jutsu.

"Shodaime-sama, Nidaime-sama! Forgive me for calling on you with no prior notice, but if I remember correctly, one of your main goals for remaining in this world was specifically for the opportunity to rid the world of the one who summoned you back here...so that your eternal sleep may not be disturbed again." Minato said with a respectful, apologetic tone.

"Minato-kun, what became of my granddaughter? Haven't you found her yet?" Hashirama asked anxiously.

"H-how did you know about that?" Minato asked with a little surprise.

"The trees have ears you know, as your predecessor, I expect you to know at least that much when dealing with me." Hashirama said with a small smirk.

'So they have been spying on the village this whole time they've been in hiding? I guess I shouldn't be surprised.' Minato thought.

"Well umm,..., I challenged her to an arm wrestling competition and won the bet. The deal was that she would go back to the village and resume her duties and responsibilties to the village. So ummm...I teleported her back to the village afterwards. You have nothing to fear, Shodaime-sama." Minato replied.

"Ahahahahahahahahahahaha! I should have known gambling would be her undoing in the end. I can remember the first time I introduced her to the world of gambling, she was only 4 years old at the time." Hashirama said with a nostalgic smile.

'Y-you're the one that made her like this..?' Minato thought with a sweatdrop.

"Enough of your foolishness, brother! More importantly, Minato, did you tell her about you and Konohamaru?" Tobirama asked authoratively.

"I umm...well, she already knows that Konohamaru is a jinchuuriki, and after seeing me in this mode, well, I gues she might figure it out eventually..."

"That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about your Senju lineage? Her departure from the village might have happened due to her losing her sense of belonging with her thinking that she was the last living Senju! It's only logical that you should have told her that you were my grandson and especially that Konohamaru is brother's great grandson sired through the Sarutobi clan, he does resemble Nawaki alot after all." Tobirama chastised.

'Does he always have to be so strict?' Minato thought with a mental sigh.

"Don't be so hard on him, brother! We should be greatfull that a man like him was born in the Senju clan, especially that he became the Fourth Hokage. Just look at everything that he has achieved, the reputation that he carries, the way that he carries himself, the kind of man he is, and not to mention the sheer level of his talent and skill. You know, I see a whole lot of you in this young man. Do you see him? Do you feel that chakra? He's perfectly balancing his own chakra, sage chakra, and the Kyubi's chakra inside and outside of his body. I've never seen or felt anything like it before. Honestly, I wish Tsunade were a little more like him." an awed Hashirama praised.

"I know what he is, no one could be any more proud than I am right now. However, that doesn't mean I should ease up on him, In any case, more importantly, why did you feel the need to activate not only sennin mode, but also your initial tailed beast state at the same time?" Tobirama asked, well, more like demanded actually.

"I needed sennin mode to even have a shred of hope in matching Tsunade in strength. However, she had a trick up her sleeve and inevitably I was forced to activate this mode too in order to win. But that's where things got a little interesting, it turns out there was someone spying on us the whole time, he has the ability to completely conceal his chakra and I was only able to detect him because I entered this mode..."

"You're able to sense negative emotions then? Like Mito?" Tobirama asked curiously.

"Yes, just as you said. In anycase, I will give you a full briefing about that later on." Minato said.

'I seem to be saying that to a lot of people lately...' Minato thought, wondering just how many conversations he had postponed today alone.

"So you also sensed Orochimaru's presence in this town? You seem to have implied earlier that you've brought us here because of him." Tobirama reasoned.

"Yes I did, but I had discovered him even before that. He was actually speaking to Tsunade earlier. I think he wanted her to heal his arms. They used to be teammates, so he would know better than anyone which buttons to press to get her to help him. I figured he must have promised to ressurect Dan and Nawaki if she helped him. Anyway, that's beside the point now, I can take you to him and we can end this once and for all." Minato replied.

"No! Let us take care of this ourselves, Minato-kun. It is the least that we can do, you've already done so much." Hashirama said with a kind smile, patting Minato on the shoulder in a grandfatherly manner.

"He's right, Minato. Let us handle this! You must go back and protect the village now, you're the Hokage after all." Tobirama said, still showing no emotion on his facial features, his face as stern as the rocks forming the Hokage monument.

'It's a good thing that Minato sealed off the Uzumaki temple, otherwise Orochimaru might have just gone back there and retrieved his arms from the Shinigami like he did Hiruzen.' Tobirama thought.

"Okay, well, here, take this." Minato replied, pulling out another tri pronged kunai from his kunai pouch.

"What am I going to do with this?" Tobirama asked as he examined the piece of equipment in his hands.

"This is different from my other kunais. This one is imbued with a sealing formula for the reverse four symbols seal. If you stab Orochimaru with this, he'll be sealed away into this kunai for all eternity. Following that, I'll teleport the seal to the bottom of the deepest pit of the ocean where no one will ever find it again." Minato explained.

"I see, so it will be similar to last time. Hashirama will restrain him and I'll attack him from close range. Stab him with this kunai and that will be the end of that? Impressive." Tobirama said with an impressed tone and expression, although one would have to listen very carefully just to catch the slight change in tone.

"You seem to impress me even more with every passing minute, Minato. You're a much better Hokage than I ever was. I'm glad to know that the future generations have surpassed their predecessors..."

"Stop sucking up to him already, brother, lets just go and get this over with." Tobirama said, turning swiftly and walking away rapidly.

"Wait! I haven't told you where he is yet...!"

"You're not the only sensor type shinobi in the world, Minato." Tobirama snapped.

"D-did I do something wrong?" Minato asked dejectedly.

"No, you were perfect. He is just too emotional, even more than me. So in order to hide that about himself, he overcompensates for that by acting distant and unaproachable. Trust me, Tobirama loves you, and he's very proud of you...!"

"Hashirama!"

"See what I mean?" Hashirama said with cheery smile as he ran after his brother, waving goodbye at the Yondaime Hokage as he ran along.

000000000000000

"I see..." Naruto trailed off thoughtfully.

The red haired Uzumaki-Uchiha had just received, probably one of the most disturbing news he'd ever heard in his life, definitely in the top 5 most disturbing. There, lying in front of him was a dead Zetsu spore, and upon examination, it was clear that his insides had been transformed into a tree and the tree had grown further out of his torso before being chopped down. This was not so much disturbing more than how it actually came to be this way, to think that the yellow flash had not only mastered toad sage mode, but could combine and balance it with the kyubi's chakra. The effects of these developments would have been quite literally overwhelming for the average shinobi, especially considering who it was that wielded these abilities, namely, the ability to sense negative emotions, and the effect that he had on Zetsu. But Naruto was no ordinary shinobi, even though even he was signifcantly disturbed by this turn of events.

'Zetsu is supposed to become our main military weapon against the five nations should war...or rather, when war breaks out. If the yellow flash finds a way to distribute that chakra across all battlefields, which in all likely hood, given his hiraishin no jutsu and the ability to use the shadow clones, he probably will, than Zetsu will only serve as a large scale distraction at best rather than his initially intended purpose as our trump card. This is not good...' Naruto thought wearily.

"This is bad Naruto. What are we going to do now? Is it even possible to capture the Kyubi now? The Yondaime Hokage is too strong now, and lets face it, there's no way the other Kyubi, Sarutobi Konohamaru doesn't have his marking on him. We have to kill Minato first in order to get to him, and to get his own kyubi, but that doesn't seem even remotely possible." Zetsu said with a panic, the dual personalised espionage expert seemingly completely rattled by his recent encounter with the yellow flash.

"You're seriously underestimating us, Zetsu, and you're disrespecting Naruto." Juugo said with a deadly tone.

"I'm not..."

"That's enough you two! There's no need to argue about this. However, Juugo, you have to understand where Zetsu is comimg from, he has not seen me train since Madara-sensei was alive, for the most part, I've been training inside the senkaimon dimension, first alone, than with Nagato, and now with you. He clearly doesn't have an accurate gauge of my power, I shouldn't have to tell you this." Naruto chasticed, causing Juugo to bow his head apologetically.

"And you, Zetsu, I understand that there is no way I could understand how you feel, you're the only that has faced or even seen the Yondaime Hokage in his Bijuu Sage Mode, and therefore the only one that can truly comprehend the danger that he poses against us, however...that doesn't change the fact that your behaviour right now is a hindrance to our cause and frankly pathetic for such an experienced shinobi. We need to stick together and believe in each other if we ever hope to realise our goals. If we start to allow fear and doubt to dictate our thoughts and actions, than we might as well commit seppuku right now, because otherwise we will not have even a shred of a chance of survival both individually and as an organisation." Naruto said with the power vested in him by Uchiha Madara himself, Zetsu internally cursing himself for his rather genin like behaviour, after all, they still had Pein-Nagato and the rinnegan on their side, and the Gedo Statue too. And if Naruto and Juugo were as strong and skilled as they seemed to imply, or at least as Pein-Nagato's respect for them seemed to imply, than maybe things as they were weren't as bad as they initially seemed. Maybe he really was letting his emotions get the better of him.

'You of all people shouldn't have doubted Naruto you know, the strength and magnitude of his chakra alone should be enough to calm anyone's nerves. He is obviously strong enough to challenge Namikaze Minato and Konoha.' White Zetsu spoke to his other half in his thoughts, black Zetsu, uncharacteristically, not replying to his lesser half in a superior and chastising tone as he usually does, in fact, not responding at all.

"I should apologise for losing control for a moment there, but my concerns, regardless of the power that any of us wield, are not entirely unwaranted..."

"We're not naive little kids,Zetsu, we understand exactly what this means." Naruto cut in swiftly.

"Than what are you planning to do about it?" Zetsu asked in an almost demanding tone.

"You're still going to be our military weapon whether we manage to capture the Kyubi before, during or after the war. We'll use you to draw them out if we haven't captured them already, and if we have, well then, killing off the enemy will be a piece of cake for you." Naruto replied.

"I see...Well then, what do we do about the information that we have acquired regarding the Yondaime-Hokage's power and Tsunade's return to Konoha? Do we withold it or do we distribute it?" Zetsu asked.

"We definitely have to distribute it, this kind of information is more harmful kept a secret from the organisatiom than it is given to them. Tell them everything, and be sure to remind them to lay low for the next few years. Make sure they understand that this recent development changes nothing, that it is just a routine intel delivery." Naruto ordered.

"Consider it done! See you soon." Zetsu replied as he sunk back into the earth, his destination? Well, to meet up with each and every member of the Akatsuki ofcourse. He didn't have any space-time ninjutsu to get him to each and every one of them in a manner like Nagato, Naruto, or Yahiko could, but he might as well have, given his ability to travel through the root system to any other part of the world in a very short amount of time.

"He seems really rattled by his encounter with the yellow flash, I've never seen Zetsu like this before." a concerned Juugo pointed out

"Don't worry about him, he just needs time to sort everything out. Maybe a little rest too, he's been working very hard lately. While his body composition may be different to normal human beings, I'm pretty sure his mind, just like everyone elses, needs moments of calm and rest once in a while." Naruto replied.

"I guess you're right. But you know, I'm really getting bored around here, all we do is train in your dimension, sometimes inside your genjutsu, eat, sleep, play shogi, and some other mundane stuff like that. It's really hard for me to swallow the fact that we now have to wait another four years before we reveal ourselves to the world." Juugo said.

"Living in the shadows, this kind of life-style is more difficult than one might think. I'm sorry Juugo, it is because you're my partner in the organisation that you also have to live like this. I would assign you a different partner, however, Zetsu is the only one who doesn't already have a partner, and he pretty much lives the same lifestyle as we do." Naruto said as he sat down on his thrown, well, it was actually Madara's but he was currently dead so Naruto didn't think he'd actually mind.

"No it's okay, I prefer to be partnered with you regardless. Although I imagine that might become a little difficult with you planning to mascarade as Madara-sama in four years' time." Zetsu replied.

"Hmmm...yeah I guess it will be, our partnership will have to be different from the others, whereas they are equals in their partnership, you will have to assume a bodyguard/assistant type of role, to make it more believable that I'm Madara-sensei." Naruto explained.

"Do you think you can pull it off? To make everyone believe that you're really him?" Juugo asked curiously.

"Well...I dunno hey, I mean, with Itachi being alive and all. He's the only one outside the organisation that has seen my mangyeko sharingan. He would immediately know that I'm not him, and he'd probably rat me out." Naruto said.

"Honestly, I don't get why we haven't killed him yet. I know it's because of Sasuke, but you have just as much right to avenge your clan as he does, plus, we don't even need Sasuke anyway, why do you want him to join us so much?" Juugo argued.

"Same reason I was eager to recruit you and Nagato, he's family, Juugo..." Naruto trailed off.

"Also, I understand everything that he went through when Itachi and Obito massacred the clan. Speaking of which, I have to hand it to Itachi, Danzo, and Obito, capturing Sasuke into a genjutsu to make it seem like Obito came to his aid and saved him from Itachi, hn, what a brilliant plan." Naruto said nostalgically.

"What a vile plan." Juugo argued

"All good plans are vile, Juugo. Well, at least as far as the shinobi world is concerned." Naruto replied.

"But...I am having second thoughts about the idea to mascarade as Madara-sensei. If I can't pull it off successfully, it will just make us look stupid and unrealistic. Maybe it was just my childish exuberance that got me to cook up this plan. I mentioned earlier that Itachi had seen my eyes, however, does allowing Sasuke to kill Itachi change anything?" Naruto said thoughtfully.

"What do you mean, Naruto?" Juugo asked.

"Itachi is a master of the sharingan, it wouldn't be hard for him to show someone else, like perhaps Obito, Danzo, or even Minato, through genjutsu, an image of my mangyeko sharingan. Furthermore, it's not even about the shape of design of my eye, there's also the fact that he saw me use the Flying Demon Technique. That's another piece of information he might have passed on. Imagine me showing up pretending to be Madara-sensei, only to be called out as the Uchiha half breed that somehow escaped the massacre." Naruto explained.

"Wow Naruto, I never really thought that far ahead when you told me about the plan. However, in hindsight, it does seem like an obvious loophole. But do you really think that Itachi would have gone to such great lengths to expose your powers? I mean, there's no way he could have foresore you trying to mascarade as Uchiha Madara of all people. As far as he should be concerned, you're hiding somewhere around the elemental nations, you could be dead for all he knows."

"True. However, I still don't want to take that kind of chance. I think it's better to just be myself and no-one else. Or I can still keep the Otura alias, perhaps the mystery of my true identity can give us some kind of advantage, however small it may be." Naruto argued.

"No, I don't think it would matter once the war commences. At some point, you're bound to use your senjutsu. Itachi saw that too, no doubt Obito, Danzo, and Minato will have been made aware of that fact if Itachi has passed on information about you."

"Hmmm...it does kind of seem like I don't have as many secrets as I thought, while having alot of them at the same time. No matter, I've gotten alot stronger since we I left Konoha, and I'm still getting stronger. Konoha will be put in it's place when the time comes. And we'll use the rinnegan and Nagato instead of Madara-sensei's name, it should have the same effect, after all, the rinnegan is supposed to the eyes of the progenator, the sage of the sixth paths himself. A person revered as a God and disregarded as a myth by skeptics who can't fathom the idea of a single individual wielding that kind of power." Naruto said with a dark undertone.

'True, the rinnegan is incredible, but Naruto, I'm far more terrified of the power that you wield within you. I wonder if you know just how terrifying you are, or just why Nagato respects you so much.' Juugo thought to himself.

8 hours later: Secret Chamber In The Hokage Mansion

"You're back I see, took you long enough. Honestly, I was starting to get worried for a split second there." Minato said casually, the Yondaime remaining seated on his desk as continued to do his 'homework', having taken home some of the paperwork that he'd missed during his momentary leave of absence, not to mention the long and intense meetings he'd had with Jiraiya, Kakashi, Obito, Konohamaru, Tsunade, and Shizune during the day, and the briefing he'd had to give out to all the jonin and chuunin in the village about the existence of Akatsuki and the threat that they posed to the village.

"There was something else I had to take care of. It has to do with Yakushi Kabuto, the kid who was working for Orochimaru as a double agent." Tobirama explained.

"Yakushi Kabuto huh? He was Orochimaru's right hand man wasn't he? I sensed his chakra next to Orochimaru in Tanzuki Town, I didn't give any orders regarding how to deal with him because I thought I'd let you excercise your own discretion regarding him." Minato replied.

"First of all, I don't take orders from you, it's actually the other way around. As the second, I outrank you by at least two positions, one now that Saru is trapped inside the deathgod. By the way, when are you planning to release his soul? You have access to the Uzumaki temple do you not?" Tobirama demanded.

"I've already done that, I did it before I sealed away the temple. More importantly, what did you do with Yakushi Kabuto? Were you able to get any information out of him?" Minato asked.

"I...well, I rehabilitated him." Tobirama said with a smug expression.

"And yes, I was able to get everything about Orochimaru out of him. He had alot of repressed anger and hatred for Konoha, especially Danzo and Saru, both of whom I mentored at some point. Turns out they used him and his mother as a spies for the village and than attempted to trick them into killing one another. However, Kabuto defeated his mother, who didn't remember him because Danzo's men had been sending pictures of another look-alike kid to his mother instead of his over the years. In any case, I managed to cut a deal with him." Tobirama explained.

"A deal? What kind of deal?" Minato asked.

"You were not involved in the games and tricks that Saru and Danzo played on this boy, and neither was I or my brother. Believe it or not, Kabuto acually harbours a great deal of respect for us. It's Danzo and Saru that he has issues with. Kabuto and his shadow clones were able to give me and my clones a crash course through Orochimaru's organisation, Otogakure, and his research. I eliminated some of the more, inhumane fields of research and managed to establish some new rules and regulations. But otherwise Kabuto is now leader of Otogakure, and he works for you, the Hokage. Oto has been renamed too, we now call it, KIRA." Tobirama explained.

"KIRA?" Minato asked with a deep frown.

"Konoha Intelligence and Reseach Association. The intention is for this organisation to succeed and surpass Danzo's ROOT. In a way, one could say that it is a revolution. This is how he will attain his revenge, by taking away everything that Danzo has, legally, and without the use of violence, while leaving him alive to face and live with his failure for the rest of his existence. At best, Danzo can become Kabuto's subordinate, that would be an even bigger victory for Kabuto. Killing Danzo is simply too easy for him, he won't feel any pain whatsoever." Tobirama explained.

"Wow, this is quite an elaborate and quite frankly amazing ending to this Orochimaru saga. However, I must ask, why the sudden compasion? You're not the type that can tolerate traitors. Why give this guy a chance? What did you see in him that was so special?" Minato asked.

"I admire his thirst for knowledge, I myself was quite the mad scientist back in my days. After all, I was the one that invented this cursed technique...edo tensei. However, don't get me wrong, I originally had every intention of disposing of that kid. It is just that, well..." Tobirama trailed off darkly, looking at his brother off the corner of his right eye.

"It's because I wouldn't allow it. Kabuto is just a young and confused boy. You don't have to be a genius to see that. I wanted us to give him a second chance. Orochimaru was different, he is even older than the two of us, and therefore has, theoretically, even more life experience than us individually. There was no changing what and who he was, but Kabuto...I just couldn't bring myself to believe that it was over for him." Hashirama explained with a pained expression.

"When you become Hokage, you become like a father, and everyone in the village are your children. All you want is what is best for them and the village as a whole. Having to kill even one of them with your own bare hands, and one so young even, is something that shouldn't happen. So, I forbade my brother from killing Kabuto." Hashirama explained.

"I see..." Minato trailed off.

"You must understand, I don't always agree with Hashirama, but I respect him and his wishes, and I love him. But he's an idiot, a wise idiot, but an idiot nonetheless. He has noble ideas and he is full of charisma, but lacks the practicality and pragmatism to see them through. This is where I come in. The chunin exams, the academy, the shinobi rankings, the A.N.B.U, the former Uchiha Police Force. These are all organisations and branches that I came up with in order to make sure that the ideal became a reality and that it survived. This village is founded on Hashirama's idealism and my realism and pragmatism..." Tobirama trailed off.

"I don't have the vision that Hashirama has to conceive ideas and deep ideals, but I have the intellect and skill to make his dreams possible and applicable in the real world. That's why we ruled so well together, with him as Hokage and I as his advisor, this what happened with the Kabuto situation. Minato, you have inherited alot of my personality and traits, but I also see alot of Hashirama in you. That is why it is so easy for me to make the decision to return to the afterlife.

Three and a half years later: Akatsuki Base in Ame

"You've done well for yourself, Guren-chan, Yukimaru-kun." Naruto said softly.

And he really was proud of his two students, the third and fourth of his four students in total, the others being Nagato and Juugo, although, being so young himself, he prefered to think of them as his training partners. It was two years now since Zetsu found the kunoichi and the young shinobi. Zetsu's long term mission, his side mission since Juugo's discovery had been to closely monitor Orochimaru's activities, and it hadn't taken him too long to discover that Orochimaru was somehow, for some reason, completely missing in action.

It had baffled them for a long time, because Orochimaru wasn't the type to sit quietly for too long, he was almost always causing a ruckus somewhere in the world. There was also the fact that Zetsu was the earth itself, if anyone was good at finding people, from anywhere in the world, it was him. However, when Zetsu mentioned that he had sensed Orochimaru in Tanzuki Town that time when he encountered the Yellow Flash, it didn't take long for Naruto to put two and two together. To him, it was clear that Orochimaru was no longer in this world, he was either dead or sealed away somewhere, which served him right as far as Naruto was concerned.

In any case, despite Orochimaru's death, Otogakure seemed to have been unaffected, and that issue was of serious concern for Naruto. He wanted to know who was calling the shots at Oto, and whether he was a potential threat or not. He was surprised to find out that Sasori's spy, Kabuto, had taken over the reigns, but more importantly he was surprised by the change that Kabuto had gone through. It seemed like Kabuto had transcended into a better version of Orochimaru, self proclaimed better version that is, it was yet to be put to the test.

Naruto had thought about approaching Kabuto with a deal to make him a maintream member of Akatsuki, however, Naruto's powers of insight and perception told him otherwise. Kabuto was clearly imitating Orochimaru, one doesn't do that unless they have a strong and deep admiration for that person. If he had imitated Sasori, than definitely, Naruto would have made the offer.

And so he'd just ordered Zetsu to keep an eye on Oto and Kabuto's activities, but not to make any direct contact, until one day they saw the leader of Oto himself giving chase to a very talented Kunoichi, who seemed to be able to manipulate the crystal element bloodline limit. Also, this kunoichi seemed to be protecting a young boy, and was struggling to ward off Kabuto and his entourage while trying to flee and protect the kid at the same time.

Naruto knew about this young woman ofcourse, and he knew about her history with Orochimaru and Kabuto. Zetsu had reported about the scientific research base she was formerly in charge off, and how she absolutely despised Kabuto for trying to replace Orochimaru. It had been a risk on his part, but he'd ordered Black Zetsu to hold off Kabuto and his entourage for a while and for White Zetsu to help them escape and lead them to his base in Ame. The plan had worked perfectly, Black Zetsu's large scale Mokuton being more than enough to kill all of Kabuto's lackies and to hold Kabuto and Kimimaro off long enough for White Zetsu to escape with the two rogue nin.

The reason Naruto had attempted to save them, apart from the fact that he was interested in having a shoton user on his side rather than her falling in the hands of the enemy, was because of the origins of shoton, the only known users in the past originating from Uzushiogakure no Sato. As such, he felt that it would be only logical and natural for them to be able to come to an understanding with one another. Also, he wanted to show her everything wrong about the way that Orochimaru probably treated her, he wouldn't even have to say anything, just from the way that he treated her and Yukimaru, Guren would be able to compare on her own and come to her own conclusions.

Ofcourse, it had been a nightmare when Guren first arrived, she'd absolutely refused to co-operate and tried to kill him at every opportunity she got. However, Naruto had been very quick to stop that nonsense behaviour, and he'd made it clear that they had no choice but to become his apprentices, that he wasn't giving them a say in the matter. He did however promise that he'd allow them to make their own choice when the training was over. That he'd make a proposal to them and if they refused, he'd let them do as they wish.

That time had finally come, he'd taught them everything he could in the last two years, and the results were staggering. He'd be lying if he said he wouldn't be sad or even unfulfilled if they chose to go on their own path. He wanted them to become part of his close circle allies.

"Yeah but it was all thanks to you, Otura-nii. I don't know what would have become of us if it wasn't for you." Yukimaru said with a warm smile.

He'd grown quite a bit over the last two years, now fourteen years of age. He was quite tall too, and was actually in the middle of a growth spurt. He was a young boy with long, pale blonde hair and magenta eyes, wearing a red muscle shirt with dark blue pants and white leg warmers, along with navy blue shinobi sandals. On his right thigh was a black weapons pouch and on right waist hung a sword guard with no blade at all, the guard being the Raijin no Ken that Naruto gave to him a year into their training, claiming that he had taken it from the corpse of a Konoha and later Ame traitor who had stolen it from the Hokage's office. Next to her was Guren, who was wearing tight fitting black pants and black, female style combat boots, with a provocative sleeveless top much like Konan's, except this one was purple in colour

"Well, anyway, I apologise for forcing you into this, I know you must hate me for it, but I thought it was for your own good. At least now you'll both be strong enough to successfully ward off Kabuto if he comes after you again." Naruto said.

"W-what do you mean? I mean, I was angry at the time, who wouldn't? No one likes to be told what to do with their own life, especially by some masked weido. But, having spent all this time together, and found out who you really are, I couldn't possibly hate you. Actually, I'm happy that we met you when we did, who knows what would have happened to us otherwise." Guren replied.

"It means alot to me that you feel that way, but your training is complete now. So, once again, how you live your life is in your own hands." Naruto replied.

"W-wait a minute! Didn't you say you were going to let us join Akatsuki after the training, Otura-nii?" Yukimaru pleaded desperately.

"Actually, that's not what I said, but I did say that I would have an interesting proposal for you, that is, if you're interested in hearing..." Naruto replied.

"We are! R-right, Guren nee-chan?" Yukimaru cut in with a puppy dog eyes no jutsu, rendering Guren completely powerless to resist his persuasive power, not that she wanted to anyway.

"Ofcourse we're interested! But it better be something epic." Guren said with a confident smirk.

'I've become so much more powerful now, and I can use jikugan ninjutsu in battle now like Otura-kun. I'm ready to join the Akatsuki.' Guren thought with anticipation.

"Well, regrettably, my proposal doesn't directly concern Akatsuki, at least, not initially." Naruto said, causing a Guren and Yukimaru to both facefault with a collective 'whaaaat!'.

"B-but you said..."

"I know I know! But every rank in the mainstream Akatsuki is taken, not even Juugo and I are official members actually. You might have noticed that I don't have a ring like the others..." Naruto trailed off, displaying all ten of his fingers to Guren and Yukimaru as evidence of his words.

"But if you're not letting us join Akatsuki, than what was the point of all that training?" Yukimaru whined.

"The main purpose of the training was to make you two strong enough to protect yourselves and your loved ones. That's always the main objective when I agree to mentor someone. However, I have to admit that I had an ulterior motive. Yukimaru, I want you to join the Amegakure's black ops as a squad captain, the unit known as the Angels of God, formed by, and named after Konan, the Angel of Amegakure." Naruto said, causing stars to suddenly appear and block Yukimaru's vision, or it at least, that's how it appeared with the expression that Yukimaru spotted on his face at the news.

"Wow! That's not so bad! I thought you'd make me a genin or something, but this is even cooler than jonin. Yeah!" Yukimaru exclaimed with a fist pump.

'Hehehe! Well he's excited, I was a little worried with him expecting an Akatsuki membership instead.' Naruto thought with relief.

"That doesn't sound too bad, in fact, it sounds quite awesome. You'll be reporting directly to the Angel herself Yukimaru-kun. Congratulations, I'm really proud of you." Guren said, ruffling Yukimaru's hair with a loving smile on her face.

"Thanks! Hey Otura-nii, what about Guren nee-chan?" Yukimaru asked excitedly.

"Guren huh...well, we have decided that she will be the Jonin Commander and Army General of Amegakure no Sato, pending on whether the two of you accept the offer or not." Naruto said, Yukimaru, without even consulting Guren, exclaiming joyfully that ofcourse they would agree, that they could never deny an offer that was almost just as good as being in Akatsuki.

'Hn, nice work, Yukimaru. I was counting on you to have this kind of reaction. Guren loves you more than the world itself, and she won't want to take away one of, if not your biggest dream. Also, she won't want to leave your side either. At the end of the day, she now has no choice but to accept the offer even if she had previously intended no to.' Naruto thought with a small smirk.

"Come down Yukimaru-kun! Jeez! I haven't accepted the offer yet..." Guren said, causing a deathly silence to take over the base, the type of silence where a pin drop would sound as loud as a church bell.

"Guren nee-chan...?" Yukimaru trailed off with a shocked and betrayed expression.

"Oh don't give me that look! I didn't say I wouldn't accept, just that, my acceptance has conditions." Guren said with a dead serious expression.

"A condition?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow, not that either of Yukimaru or Guren could see it behind his mask.

"Yes, in fact, it's a couple of conditions." Guren replied.

"I see...well, come on, tell me all about it." Naruto urged.

"One, I want you to remove your mask and show us what's underneath. I want to trust you, but if you can't even show us your real face after the two years we spent together, than I'm afraid you don't deserve our trust and loyalty, in spite of everything that you've already done for us." Guren said with a stern expression.

"And the other condition?" Naruto asked simply.

"Well, depending on what I see when you take off your mask, I want you to take me out on a date in Amegakure, your treat." Guren said casually, causing both Yukimaru and Naruto's eyes to widen in surprise.

"I knew it! You're inlove with Otura n...mmmmmmmm!"

"Shut up! It's just a date damn you! It's not like we're getting married!" Guren shouted, her hand firmly wrapped around Yukimaru's mouth to stop him from revealing her secret, as if it wasn't already obvious.

"Besides, I'm just helping him out, Otura-kun needs to get laid, he can't stay a virgin forever..." Guren mutted under her breathe as she finally let go of her adopted brother.

"I'm not a virgin." Naruto said simply.

"Prostitudes don't count, that's a virgin in my book. If you can't get it without paying, than you're just a virgin." Guren answered.

"I have never been with a prostitude, but regardless, isn't it ironic that I have to pay on our date?" Naruto asked retorically, causing a tickmark to appear on Guren's forehead.

"You're not paying me for sex! You're paying the restaurant for food!" Guren shouted angrily.

"Besides, I don't believe you, if you had a girlfriend at all I'd have sniffed it out. Call it a woman's intuition." Guren said confidently.

"Well, I've never had a girlfriend either, so I'll give you that." Naruto replied.

"See, I told...wait a minute! You're gay?" Guren exclaimed with a horrified expression.

"I'm not gay Guren. I just took it upon myself to master all the shinobi arts, including the seduction arts. That's where my experience comes from." Naruto answered, trying and failing to supress a mental roll of the eyes at the insinuation that he was a homosexual.

"Oh...okay, well, that's a...umm, a relief I guess. So anyway, do you accept my conditions?" Guren asked, now adopting a serious expression again.

"Well, it's not a problem for me, I've grown quite fond of you myself, in fact, I was going to ask you out anyway...eventually." Naruto said, causing Guren and Yukimaru this time to facefault, the two wondering just how long 'eventually' meant.

"Okay than, that settles it, but, it still isn't official yet, I need to see what's under the mask. I'm not risking the looks of our children on the faint hope that they inherit my looks instead of yours." Guren demanded.

'I can't believe she's already talking about children. I hope she knows I still want to wait a bit before I start making little Narutos.' Naruto thought with trepidition, the 18 year old kunoichi staring dead into his eyeholes impatiently, as if daring him to try and back out of the deal.

"Before I show you my face, I think there's something you'd like to know. My name is not really Otura, actually, that's just an alias I use. It's actually part of my name pronounced backwards. My real name is Naruto, Uchiha Uzumaki Ryuchi Naruto in full, but you can just call me Uchiha Naruto." Naruto said as he removed his mask, only to reveal another mask under the one he was wearing, this one a black ninja ski mask.

Yukimaru and Guren didn't know what surprised them more, the fact that his real name was 'Fishpaste', or the fact that there was another mask underneath the one that he was wearing. Just what the hell was he trying to hide so much anyway, a scar, a disfigured face? What?

"There, I've adhered to your demands, and that completes our agreement..."

"What the hell? You didn't show us your face!" Guren screamed with a pointed finger.

"Yes, but that was not the agreement now was it. The agreement was that I show you what is under my mask and agree to go on a date with you. I've complied, I hope you're not planning to go back on your word, Guren..." Naruto trailed off with a deadly glare, causing both Yukimaru and Guren to fear for their lives.

"Ummm...I..."

"Hehe! I'm just playing with you." Naruto said, pulling off the shinobi ski mask and revealing his real face, with all his red spiky hair, his whisker like markings, his slightly elongated canines, and his ocean blue eyes now that he'd deactivated the sharingan. Needless to say, he was the most handsome man Guren could say she had seen in her entire life, or at least one of them, the shoton user staring blankly at the young Uzumaki, unable to move, speak, or even think about anything else either than what she was looking at.

"Well, I guess I'm not quite the monster you were expecting, like Kabuto...or Orochimaru." Naruto said with a taunting smile.

"I...I don't believe it, why would you want to wear that mask all the time when you look like this? I mean, there's not a single blemish on your skin, and you're so...so hot!" Guren asked incredulously.

"Well, the mask is neccessary in order to hide my identity. I imagine it would be hard for some of the Akatsuki members to respect me knowing that I'm just a kid not even close to the end of his teen years, I'm barely sixteen as it is." Naruto explained.

"I see..." Guren said with a contemplative expression.

'Maybe it's a good thing that he wore that mask for so long, he might have already been taken before I even met him otherwise.' Guren thought.

"In any case, you guys should not worry too much about joining Akatsuki, technically, you're already part of the Akatsuki, and you are an important cog in the organisation." Naruto said.

"What do you mean, Ot..I mean, Naruto-nii?" Yukimaru asked curiously.

"We're expecting to go to war with the five elemental nations, at this point in time, it seems inevitable that war is on the horizon. We have a military strategy in place to deal with the war, however, if that plan should fail, I'm currently working on a back-up plan. You two and the roles you will play in Amegakure are part of that back-up plan." Naruto explained.

"I'm not sure I understand Naruto-kun, what's your military strategy exactly?" Guren asked.

"The plan is that we will use the energy from the tailed beasts that we will collect to make thousands of Zetsu, roughly one hundred thousand. They will be our foot soldiers with the original Zetsu being one of the main captains, along with the other Akatsuki members. Pain will be the Army General and I will be the Supreme Commander. That is our basic military strategy." Naruto explained.

"It sounds legit, especially with you having the bijuu on your side, however, I think the fact that most of your army is the same person could prove to be disadvantageous to you. There's not enough diversity and if one Zetsu is figured out than pretty much your whole army is." Guren replied.

"Exactly. Zetsu was intended to be our trump card because of his ability to shape shift into an exact replica of any person whose chakra he absorbs, even replicating their chakra signature and kekkei genkei abilities. However, three and a half years ago, Zetsu had a direct encounter with the yellow flash of Konoha. We discovered from that encounter that the yellow flash has the ability to sense negative emotions thanks to mastering the Kyubi's chakra. It is unlikely that we will capture the Kyubi before the war, most likely, the yellow flash will be the last jinchuuriki we capture, if he sends out at least one shadow clone to each battlefield, he'll effectively counter our strategy." Naruto replied.

"In a worst case scenario that all the Zetsu are defeated, Amegakure will have to get involved in the war. It is not something we want, and therefore, we will try everything we can to prevent it from happening. However, we can't run away from the possibility." Naruto explained.

"But what difference can Ame alone make? I mean, sure we can make a difference, but will it be enough?" Guren asked skeptically.

"You're underestimating yourselves, you were my students, I know better than anyone how strong the two of you are. The two of you alone joining Ame has already doubled Amegakure's strength, it's like having two Hanzo's joining Ame." Naruto praised, causing Guren to blush and Yukimaru to smirk confidently.

"Besides, I'm working on another angle too. Actually, our date will have to wait until tommorrow, I've got another date now with the Leader of Kusa. I want to get to her before anyone else does." Naruto replied, causing a betrayed expression to appear on Guren's facial features.

"That was just an expression, it's not a real date. She doesn't even know I'm coming." Naruto re-assured, causing Guren to visibly relax, exhaling the breathe that she didn't even know she was holding.

"Why do you have to meet the leader of Kusa?" Yukimaru asked.

"From what I've heard about her, it seems to me like she might be an Uzumaki, her name is Karin, and she's the same age as me. She must be special to have made leader of a ninja village at such a young age. There's rumours that she is a better medical ninja than even Tsunade of the Sannin. Therefore, I want to secure an alliance with Kusagakure no Sato. So me and Pein are going to pay her a little visit, we want Kusa to be the other back-up plan. Eventually, we want to unite all the small ninja villages under one banner. This will be the back-up plan if the Zetsu army fails. We absolutely can't afford to lose this war." Naruto explained.

"I see. Well in that case, our date can wait until tommorrow. Go and organise eveything Naruto-kun, and than come back to us...to me." Guren said, Naruto putting on his mask and activating his sharingan again before replying.

"I'll definitely comeback, Guren-chan." Naruto said before disappearing into a space tunnel, using the flying demon technique to leave the Akatsuki base.

'Trying to fight the war against the five great nations with just Akatsuki and Zetsu? Hn, you're such a softy Naruto-kun, you really don't want anyone from Amegakure or the other small ninja villages to get involved do you? But...you're still strong enough to face the reality that you might have to get them involved if push comes to shove.' Guren thought with a healthy dose of love, concern, and even admiration.

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"It's been over three years now since last we heard from Akatsuki, three and a half to be exact. And still nothing, no movement whatsoever from them regarding the jinchuuriki. Not even word about them from my spy network." Jiraiya explained to the Hokage, Obito, Kakashi, Konohamaru, Sakura, Uchiha Sasuke, Tsunade, Shizune, and the Hokage's advisors, Koharu, Homura, and Danzo.

"So no one made an attempt on Konohamaru during your travels together?" Kakashi asked curiously.

"No, not at all. " Jiraiya answered.

"Perhaps it was my fault, after all, I was the one that got rid of Orochimaru. Perhaps it would have been more prudent of me to capture him and get as much information about Akatsuki as possible, or perhaps, as Akatsuki's enemy, he would have released as much information about them as he could into the shinobi world if he were still around." Minato said, hoping that would comfort Jiraiya for his failure to collect any meaningful information about the Akatsuki.

"What about you, Danzo-san? Anything on your side?" Minato asked curiously.

"We have ascertained that Akatsuki's base of operations is definitely inside Amegakure no Sato without a shadow of doubt. However, even more troubling is that it seems possible that they have a very advanced spy network, better than anything comprehensible, certainly better than anything I've ever seen or heard of before." Danzo replied.

"Please continue..." Minato ordered calmly.

"In the past three years, we have sent dozens of A.N.B.U personnel to Amegakure no Sato, however, all of them, even before they could even get close to the village, were killed before they could even react to threat. When we found their bodies, the same situation kept reaping itself, they seemed to have died without any form of resistance whatsoever, and one of their squad members had gone missing afterwards. It was the same for every single squadrant that we sent." Danzo explained.

"What...? How is that possible? Are you saying that every squad that you sent had at least one traitor in their ranks? An Akatsuki spy?" Kakashi asked in disbelief.

"That is how it appears." Danzo replied.

"I find it hard to believe that R.O.O.T alone could have been penetrated by so many Akatsuki spies. There has to be another explanation to this. Perhaps someone was controlling them with genjutsu, or a type of mind transfer technique." Obito pointed out.

"Itachi...!" Sasuke concluded with clenched fists.

"Unlikely, Sasuke-kun. We have word that Itachi has indeed made contact with Akatsuki on numerous occassions, presumably requesting membership to the organisation. However, he has, according to our knowledge, been rejected on every occassion." Minato explained.

"Why? Why would such a criminal organisation reject Uchiha Itachi? He seems to fit the criterior just fine if you ask me." Konohamaru asked with a confused frown.

"If indeed Uchiha Itachi is the one protecting Amegakure and killing off Konoha squads, it could be that he is doing it in order to win favour from the Akatsuki organisation. Perhaps he is hoping that if he continues to aid them, that they will allow him to join the organisation." Minato suggested, although deep down he knew that it was complete bogus. Itachi would never harm Konoha shinobi simply because he wanted to join an enemy organisation, or would he? After all, this is the man who killed off his own clan in order to protect the village, who's to say he wouldn't kill a few Foundation agents for the same cause.

"That Itachi! Hasn't he done enough evil yet! And now this? I'm going to kill him this time! I'm finally strong enough to do it!" Sasuke thought out loud, rage and hate burning up in his eyes.

"Sasuke, don't be so hasty to jump to conclusions like that, we still don't have enough evidence to make that conclusion. In any case, Danzo, you should have told me earlier about this anomally, perhaps I could have designed a special tracking seal to place on each member of the squads you sent out. That way, we would be able to conclusively determine if the missing A.N.B.U agents were still alive or not." Minato chasticed.

"I will keep that in mind next time. In any case, I think it's time we sent Uchiha Obito in. His jikugan ninjutsu is even superior to yours in the sense that he doesn't need to place a marking in Amegakure in order to teleport inside the ninja village. Also, if anything, he could maybe take some of your markings and set them up around Amegakure no Sato in case we go to war with Akatsuki in the near future." Danzo suggested slyly.

"That's a good idea, Danzo. I agree with him, Minato. Right now, Obito is the only option that we have." Koharu urged on.

"I too agree with both Danzo and Koharu. We cannot just sit back and hope that Akatsuki have abandoned their mission. They'll definitely come back into the picture soon enough. We need to take proactive action." Homura added too.

"No! I will not allow it. It's too dangerous. You must remember that the leader of this organisation is a wielder of the rinnegan. We have no idea just what kind of abilities he has access too. And I for one don't believe for a second that they didn't anticipate what would happen if they sent Yahiko to Konoha. Am I the only one that feels like we're being bated here?" Minato said.

"You may very well have a point, but it is this kind of cowardlyness and indecision that weakened Konoha during Hiruzen's reign. If you want to win wars, you have to take pre-emptive measures." Danzo argued.

"There's nothing cowardly about preserving one of your greatest military assets. Or have you forgotten what happened last time Obito engaged the Akatsuki? Kisame and Yahiko literally tore him to bits even with his intangibility and teleportation. He'd be dead now if it wasn't for Izanagi. I don't even want to think about what would happen if he ended up engaging the Akatsuki leader in his own homeground." Minato said with a strong, authorative voice.

"If we're going to use Obito again, it will be under the right conditions, when we have more intel on the Akatsuki. We no longer can take for granted that he will just phase through an opponent's attack, Akatsuki showed us that three years ago."

"Than what I we going to do? We can't just sit back and wait for Akatsuki to make their move..."

"Actually, we can, and that's exactly what we're going to. We have to do anything possible in order to derail Akatsuki's plans, even if sitting back and doing nothing is what it takes to do that. Anyway, it's not like we didn't try anything, you all know what happened at the Kage summit that I called for. None of the other Kages, with the exception of Sabaku no Gaara-kun, were willing to listen to reason. They either believe Akatsuki is not the kind of threat we're making them out to be, or they simply don't trust that our intentions are sincere. They believe we are trying to blind side them by using Akatsuki so that we can attack them. Frankly, I don't really blame them given the circumstances." Minato explained.

"I reckon we should form platoons, at least three four man cells to hunt down the Akatsuki. Akatsuki work in two men cells, and there's nothing to suggest that their two men cells work within the same Geographical areas. If we could form four platoons, and each one of them took out an Akatsuki cell, that would be eight Akatsuki down. Than we'd be left with maybe one or two."

"I'm not abandoning my goal to kill Itachi, if he's not part of the Akatsuki, than don't even think about involving me in your Akatsuki plans..."

"Sasuke! You're not different to anyone else here, you're not the only one who has lost loved ones! You're under Yondaime-sama's direct orders just like everyone else, don't fool yourself into thinking that you have a say in this matter, because you don't."

"It's alright, Kakashi. I'll allow Sasuke the freedom to persue Itachi, however, Sasuke, this special treatment will remain in effect so long as Itachi is alive. If Itachi dies, by yours or anyone's hand, and you continue to act in this insubordinate manner...I'll kill you..." Minato trailed off with a deadly glare, a drop of sweat running down the side of Sasuke's face.

'Those eyes...he's completely serious. It's not a bluff or threat, it's not even a promise, he's...simply stating a fact.' Sasuke thought, unable to control the fear that was bubbling at the surface of his soul, a fear he hadn't felt since that day Itachi killed his family, a deathly silence all of a sudden taking over the room, everybody stunned by the Hokage's blunt declaration.

"..."

"In any case, Sasuke-kun, I've been thinking carefully about your situation, and I think it is prudent that we set some ground rules about your persuit of Itachi. For one, I'm only allowing you one shot at him, in other words, one straight-up one on one battle. If you cannot beat him, than you will have to forget about hunting down Itachi...I'm not finished!" Minato said hastily, holding up a hand to silence the young Uchiha's protests prematurely.

"Allow me to finish explaining, and only then will I gave you a chance to voice your opinion." Minato said, Sasuke clenching his fists in anger and resentment at the yellow flash of Konoha.

"The reason I am making this condition is to prevent you from running head on to your death. With this condition, you will have to think carefully about your timing of your encounter with Itachi, and choose the appropriate moment when your skills have developed enough. Also, when the time comes that you feel you're ready to take on him, you must come and tell me so that I can organise a four men cell for you, one that you will be in charge of. This cell will help you to track down Itachi and will serve as back-up in case Itachi has made any new comrades that might interfere in your battle with him. They will also protect you and take you back home if you sustain serious injuries during your showdown with Itachi." Minato explained, pausing momentarily to make sure that Sasuke took in everything before continuing where he left off.

"Last but not least, as I've already stated, if you should lose against Itachi, but survive the battle, you will no longer be allowed to persue Itachi and your team will be disbanded. You will then rejoin team Kakashi. However, if there are any missions in the future that might cause you to encounter Itachi, I will make sure they are given to your team, that is, provided you can prove to me that you are indeed capable of defeating him." Minato explained, much to Sasuke and in fact everyone's surprise at just how much thought the Hokage had put into Sasuke's personal dilemma.

"Why...?" Sasuke whispered.

"Excuse me?" Minato inquired.

"Why go through so much just to help me get revenge? What is it to you?" Sasuke demanded.

"As a member of the A.N.B.U, Itachi was my direct subordinate. It is a failure on my part that I was unable to perceive the darkness in his heart, and that I was powerless to stop him from doing what he did. As Hokage, I should have been able to forsee the threat and protect the Uchiha clan, after all, it is my sworn duty to protect all the citizens of Konoha." Minato said, closing his eyes briefly in order to control his emotions.

"Also, Sasuke-kun, when a person becomes Hokage, he becomes a father to everyone in the village. Everybody looks to you for guidance and protection, they want and need you to make them feel safe, and it's also a desire of each and every Hokage that has taken this seat to fulfill the role. So in a way, the people of Konoha are my god sons and god daughters, and as your god father, it is my duty to guide and protect you, to help you become the great man that I know you can be." Minato replied.

"I...I see..." Sasuke stuttered out, totally surprised by the Hokage's response, never having expected anything of the sort from him.

'Tou-san, why was I never able to get that kind of acknowledgement from you' Sasuke thought with his eyes closed.

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"So, if I sign, I'm going to be the last member of the Akatsuki Empire to sign on the dotted line?" The leader of Kusagakure no Sato, Uzumaki Karin, asked with a small frown, finally agreeing to sign on the dotted line now that Naruto had revealed his face to her.

"Yes. As you can see, Uzumaki Fuka of Takigakure has signed, so has Hiruko of Hoshigakure no Sato, Pein of Amegakure no Sato, and Shinnou of Onigakure no Sato, formerly know as the Sky Village. The only one missing now is you, Uzumaki Karin of Kusagakure no Sato." Naruto replied.

"Well I'm not stupid, if I don't sign this agreement I'll be the odd one out and my village will suffer regardless of who wins between you lot and the Five Kage Nations. If the Five Kage Nations win, they will make ridiculous policies that will stifle the growth and impact of the smaller villages even further than they already, or even worse, they might just outright destroy the remaining small villages. And you guys win, no doubt you'll won't forget who was the one that refused to join the alliance and fight for the cause..." Karin trailed off thoughfully.

"Well, there are so many Uzumaki involved in this plan, up until recently, I had no idea that so many were even alive. I just have one question for you before I sign." Karin said with a dead serious expression.

"And what would that be?" Naruto asked curiously.

"How did you get Fuka to sign? You of the Akatsuki are tailed beast collectors, and they have the nanabi jinchuuriki. Fuka is not the type that would just give away the life of a comrade just like that, so then, how?" Karin asked.

"Pein is a wielder of the rinnegan, his scale of power and variety of abilities is limitless, therefore, you should not be too surprised when I confide to you that he has the power to ressurrect the dead." Naruto said matter of factly.

"You're right I'm not surprised, in fact, I too have the power to ressurrect the dead." Karin said with a cocky smirk, causing both Naruto and Nagato's eyes to widen slightly in surprise.

"Are you serious?" Nagato asked with slightly widened eyes.

"So you talk after all? I must admit, I'm surprised by the deep and rough texture of your voice, you look so...girly." Karin said, causing a tick mark to appear on Nagato's forehead.

"But Naruto-kun on the other hand...well, I feel like it's the first time I've ever seen a real man, you know, perhaps you could stay for dinner and desert, I happen to have some of the finest wine in the elemental nations in store, perhaps we could pop a bottle? You know, to celebrate our new alliance." Karin said with sultry tone.

'Is it possible that I have a permanently activated genjutsu on me that makes women that I make friends with act like this in front of me?' Naruto thought comically.

"Ummm...well..."

"If you say no, I won't sign these papers!" Karin said with a dead serious tone.

"Oooooh? Silly girl, why didn't you say so from the start then? Ofcourse I'd love to have dinner with you." Naruto said with a sheepish smile, scratching the back of his head as he laughed nervously.

'Well, it's not like I'm blackmailing him into sleeping with me, just to have dinner with me. From then on, everything else will be entirely up to my own skill and womanly persuasiveness.' Karin thought, trying to justify her actions to herself so that she wouldn't feel like she was harrassing the red haired Uchiha Uzumaki.

'I'm sorry Guren, but this is beyond my control.' Naruto thought regrettably.

"Anyway! Tell me more about this ressurrection technique of yours." Nagato asked curiously.

"It's my Atral Dragon Technique, I use chakra manifestation and chakra shape manipulation to manifest my chakra outside of my body in the form of a chakra dragon. I can either make one colossal sized dragon or I can make a number of smaller ones depending on the type of enemy or situation I'm in. In any case, this is, you may have realised, is not just a simple dragon made out of chakra, in which case you would right. This dragon has the ability to absorb all chakra and ninjutsu that it makes contact with, and therefore serves as my ultimate defense. However, because of this, it also serves as my ultimate offense. If it touches you, your chakra will take a nose dive as it will be absorbed into the dragon, and if it passes right through your body, not only will all of your chakra be absorbed, but the dragon will also rip out and devour your soul." Karin explained, causing Nagato and Naruto's eyes to widen slightly in surprise.

"W-what?" Karin, having noticed the weird expressions, asked with narrowed eyes.

"Nothing, just that, your technique sounds similar to one of Pein's own jutsus, well, more precisely, similar to the Gedo Statue's ability." Naruto replied.

"You mean the thing that you guys seal the beasts into?" Karin asked curiously.

"Exactly." Naruto replied.

"Hmmm...that's quite fascinating!" Karin said with an aura and expression of serious contemplation, although, an entirely different story was actually taking place in her mind.

'S-sugoi! My power is reminiscent to that of the Gedo Statue? There's no way Naruto-kun won't fall for me now! Kuso, honestly, tonight seems awefully far away right now, I just want to jump him right now! Stupid Pein-Nagato! Why did he have to tag along...no! If he hadn't tagged along, I never would have believed someone with a rinnegan actually exists! Kuso!' Karin thought frantically.

"Well, anyway, I just wanted to ask, have you actually used this ressurrection/revival technique of yours?" Naruto asked.

"But ofcourse. It's not just my battle prowess that won me the favor of the people, it's also my ability to ressurrect their lost loved ones. Although, at some point, I imagine people will start to act reckless and uncaring of their lives, knowing at the back of their minds that leader-sama will bring them back to life, so I've set some ground rules regarding that matter, I won't ressurrect someone who recklessly threw their life away, I'll weigh and judge every situation myself before making a decision." Karin explained.

"I see, well, it seems like your ressurrection jutsu is even superior to Nagato's rinne tensei, Nagato can't ressurect anyone without forfeiting his own life. On the flip side though, he can ressurect as many people as he wants with one application of the jutsu...he can even create a body for them in the process if their body was destroyed." Naruto replied.

"Create a body for them? S-sugoi!" Karin said with stars in her eyes, feeling slightly jealous that she couldn't do that.

"No, what's even more impressive is that you seemed to imply that you can ressurrect people without consequence." Nagato cut in.

"Well, ofcourse. A heavy sacrifice is required in order to perform a ninjutsu of that calibre, those type of ninjutsu work with an 'eye for an eye' principle, in other words, a life for a life. Even the Nidaime Hokage's jutsu worked on that principle, but instead, he sacrificed the lives of his captured enemies in order to ressurrect the dead. My jutsu works on a similar principle to Edo Tensei, I trade the souls of my enemies that the Astral Dragon has eaten in exchange for those that I wish to revive." Karin explained.

"Hey wait a minute! You said that Pein-Nagato would die if he revived someone irrespective of the number of people didn't you? Does that mean that you lied to Fuka when you said that you would promised to ressurrect her jinchuuriki after extraction?" Karin asked, eyes narrowed in anger and suspision.

"That's not it!" Naruto replied firmly.

"Then what!" Karin snapped.

"Relax, there's always a loophole in every jutsu that can be exploited. We were planning to use the lifeforce of her own extracted bijuu to ressurrect her. If Nagato sinks with the Gedo Mazo after extraction, it would be easy to access some of the nanabi's life force." Naruto explained.

'Aaah...so the cornerstone of this jutsu is life force huh? Interesting...' Karin thought.

"So...is everything to your satisfaction? Or do you have any more questions?" Nagato asked.

"Hmmm...just one..." Karin trailed off with a deathly glare.

"What is it?" Naruto asked with trepidition.

"When do I get my own super cool Akatsuki uniform?" Karin asked with stars in her eyes, causing both Naruto and Nagato to sweatdrop at their fellow Uzumaki's childish antics.

Chapter End