Otogakure was as peaceful as it could be, nothing at all looked a bit out of place. In fact, for all intents and purposes, the village looked like it had every day for about a dozen years now. Inside the town, the people went about their business in peace, shopping, training, eating, or socializing. Nothing in this village would have been seen before 13 years ago. The person who understood this fact better then anyone else was the man who was in charge of the village, the Otokage. The Otokage had to be the first shinobi in history to hold the title of kage in two different villages. Sitting up in the decent building the villagers had built for him, the Otokage watched the people of his new home peacefully. Still, on this day his mind wondered back to the time when he was the Hokage, and before everything had gone terribly south for him.

Things had started from the beginning, the peace between the First Hokage, and the Uchiha was always weak to begin with. Then Madara became even less loyal, and in the end it took the battle at the valley's end to determine the village's fuure. The First Hokage was the stronger of the two. Still things never went altogether smoothly between the descendents of the First Hokage, and the Uchiha.

They had problems when the second Hokage was named. When he was put in charge the first time, things were fine since the great shinobi war took the chance of the two groups hating each other away.

That didn't exist though when he became the Hokage again, and this time, there were too many of the elders who wished to do away with the Uchiha. How he lamented these short sighted views, and the choices they made were so harmful to any chance that they would ever have had for peaceful coexistence. The elders had already forced the Uchiha into a small area of the town, and began the systematic process of destroying the importance of the Uchiha. They took most all rights the Uchiha had in the village, and of course, even then he knew this would cause problems for the future of the village. He tried his best to bridge some kind of peace between the factions, but this was not to be.

Then, the night of the uprising had happened, and his life, as well as the life of the village, was changed forever. On that night he was forced to make a decision which put him where he was right today. The strike by the Uchiha, and their allies happened so quickly, it caught everyone totally unprepared. The Uchiha forces rose up against the elder's and the rest of the village. The opening battle was fierce, but short-lived, and for the most part resulted in few deaths. The main exceptions were the elders, who were targeted for assassination from the start of the uprising.

Surprisingly, he had not been targeted at all, maybe they did not want to tangle with him, who knows. He knew that had he been targeted, things might have turned out differently.

After the opening move of the uprising, the situation took a turn that he could never have imagined. One of the young Uchiha walked into his office. With one look at the shinobi, he knew exactly who it was, it was the supremely dangerous Itachi Uchiha, one of his own ANBU captains. The Hokage wondered if Itachi had been sent to try to assassinate him. One look in his eye told him that this was not the case. Itachi's eyes told him he had come as part of some mission.

"Lord Hokage, the Uchiha clan have control of every major area of the village, you must surrender to us," Itachi said forcefully.

"That may be the case, my young friend, but you know as well as I that they could be retaken, and that the battle is far from being decided."

"True, but you know as well as I what would happen if that happens," Itachi replied quickly, "If we have that fight, then the rest of the shinobi villages would destroy Konoha no matter who won our fight."

"Hmm, so you want us to become the slaves of the Uchiha, in order to save the village. You know that won't work. It can't work, we will end up right back in this situation in a matter of years, perhaps with you in my place."

"No, I don't want the other clans to be the slaves to the Uchiha. I talked with my father and convinced him to allow anyone who wishes to leave the village to do so. This would leave the village weaker, but more then strong enough to defend itself against other possible attacks from other villages."

"Hmm…interesting, if you don't mind me asking, how will he agree to this plan of yours?"

"It was the price for my help with the attack, if he turned it down, I would have gone through with the plan to destroy my clan. This is the only way, that we can both survive. Please, Lord Hokage, for the sake of the people," Itachi said. He was almost pleading with him to take up the deal.

The Hokage, thought about it for a moment, and he knew that it was true, if they fought, there would be countless deaths. Then the survival of everyone would be at risk. HIruzen would be just as bad as the elders. That was if he survived to see his village be destroyed by another one of the Hidden Villages.

"Fine, I will relent, but if you break your word, I will give the order to unleash hell against you."

Then, it was over, the following day, Fugaku became the 5th Hokage of the leaf village. Sarutobi had given up his powers again, and for the last time in his life. He was just an average villager again, but not for long. True to their word, the Uchiha allowed anyone who wished to, to leave the village. The numbers leaving were about the same as the number who decided to stay under the leadership of the Uchiha. Sarutobi was quickly put in charge of those who left, and slowly moved to the north, crossing into the Rice country. The Uchiha upheld their bargain and didn't attack the refugees once. In fact there were rumors, that a couple of the Uchiha had helped against a plot by one of the other villagers to kill the exiles.

As soon as the Exiles crossed into the Rice country, the lord of the country was there to meet them, or actually, to meet with Sarutobi. It would seem that he wanted to start up a shinobi village in his own country and was not going to let this chance pass him by. He gave them their choice of land, which Sarutobi choose an area near a large bay in the north of the country. The land was perfect to start a village. It was on a small crescent shaped hill which mirrored the bay which it sloped gently towards. It also was an area with plenty of large trees which could be used to start the new village.

Sarutobi smiled as he thought of the building of the village. The town went up one building at a time, the roads where prepared before the block would be built. It was a fun time, he wondered if this is how the First Hokage had felt when Konoha was started. Of course he was named the 1st Otokage, which was a great honor. Another thing which made him proud, was that the villagers became closer due to the challenge of starting a new village. Even Naruto, the young child was treated well, the fact he held the demon fox was known. The fact was not considered as important as there were larger issues. Another reason for this was that a number of Rice country villages relocated their own populations near Otogakure. In fact, some of the families had taken turns looking after the young child.

Now, the Otokage looked out on the village and smiled, the town was not small anymore. He felt a pride in how it had grown over the last years.. He could only wonder though, what surprises would lay before him in this new land.