Chaos of Blades

Prologue - The Petty Plans of Men and Gods

The dank cave in which the lone figure paced was a remarkably average thing, as caves go. No remarkable stashes of long lost gold, no archaic and epic weapons of legend, no great statues of unknowable mysteries or monsters beyond mortal ken, not even a decent stalactite cluster. And it served the man's purposes.

His puppets had been defeated.

True, they had gone up against an entire village, and the most powerful of the Five Great Shinobi Nations at that, but that was not what had the self declared 'God' so furiously accelerating the natural course of erosion along the rock floor. No, it was beyond that now.

Heaven had finally lowered its Doom upon the world. He should know, he was Heaven's tool for the remaking of the world after all. But his task had just been made a trifle more difficult.

Revealing himself at this point was out of the question. It would be difficult enough seizing control of the Hell King from Madara's grasp; he didn't need the wily old wolf plotting with him in the mix. Best to trust in Madara's willingness to go out and pick up the last two pieces of the jigsaw, in the shape of the Jinchuuriki of the Eight-tailed and Nine-tailed beasts. Then he could emerge in the moment of greatest weakness, and grasp onto power with the minimum of fuss from Madara and Zetsu.

Uchiha Sasuke and his little group were wildcards, of course. There was no telling just where the teenager would cast his dice: in killing the last remaining killer of the Uchiha clan, or fighting at the side of his new mentor.

Oh well, best not over complicate things. All things would come in their time. And time was now to recover those bodies.

And the lank-haired figure simply faded out of the cave, leaving only the steady dripping of water and numerous scuttling insects where he had been.

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"Dammit, Suigetsu! Don't go schmoozing around like that when we've got work to do! I know you're healed already, so stop pretending!"

"Could you maybe stick a cork in that? I'm trying to savor the moment here, you little floozie! I mean, check out the water in this place! I could just stay in here for a month!"

"But you don't get to, not now! You know how risky it is sneaking into a village, much less Konoha, so we need to get our preparations ready! So get up and ...wait a minute, DID YOU JUST CALL ME A FLOOZIE?!"

Juugo sighed, a great exhalation which captured all his exasperation with the bickering duo before him. Ever since Team Hawk had been assembled, those two had always been at it like hammer and tongs, but this was getting ridiculous. This close to the riskiest thing Juugo had ever attempted, and this was all they could be bothered with?

Even as these thoughts moved through his head, light steps sounded in the corridor, and the door swung open to reveal the figure of their leader. The light coming in behind him seemed to give him a dark, almost forbidding aura. Then he stepped in the room and the illusion was broken.

Young though he was, Uchiha Sasuke cut an imposing, almost world-weary figure standing in the middle of the chamber like that. His short sleeved white tunic was marked with streaks of green and brown, doubtless from training, and his hair, normally immaculately coiifed, was in remarkable disarray. Even his fingerless gloves, made by a special process developed by Orochimaru himself, were cracked. And yet, strangely, he was...grinning?

"Calm yourselves, Suigetsu, Karin. And ready yourselves. We will be setting out to Konoha today!"

Karin immediately assumed a blushing, swooning demeanour, while Suigetsu smirked,a psychotic expression that spoke of nothing so much as a desire to see more blood. As for Juugo himself, he couldn't even summon much emotion, other than worry. He did think Sasuke was capable of pulling it off. After all, he was the man who carried the will of Kimimaro. But still...

The former giant merely rose on his haunches, and said "Yes, Sasuke."

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A new perception of the world and a new gift of raw power, that was Orochimaru's last, unwilling gift, to his most loyal servant. But servant he was no longer; Yakushi Kabuto was now a man of his own will, his own orders. Free to roam to the earth, doing as he wished, indulging every whim and caprice he had the power to indulge. And he was still not unbound. Not yet.

For he still had kills to conclude. Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke, they who had turned his world upside down and inside out, by blazing into the world and changing everything about it, would receive the greatest of his thanks at the edge of his blade. Even as the muted whispers of his former master threatened to overtake his mind, that was the clearest thought he possessed.

He strode over to the window ledge of the inn he had stayed in for the past two days and looked into the orange rays of the setting sun. Pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose, he smirked. And the whispers of blood and violence in his mind seemed to rise to a crescendo even as the smirk turned into a full-blown laugh.

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"Hm."

That simple exhalation held a veritable mountain of suppressed emotion; such was Danzou's anger at the failure. The old warrior paced and ruminated, even as his heart churned with the fury he could never display to his subordinates. The sunlight coming through the window seemed to hit his lone eye, only focusing the gleam of fury within. A finger rose and pointed to his right.

"Tetsuo. Kazuki."

"Yes, Danzou-sama?"

"Bring the one known as Sai before me. Bound hand and foot. Complete silence."

"Yes, Danzou-sama."

The two Root shinobi, identical in build, and wearing identical empty expressions, seemed to vanish, leaving Danzou at the window of the office that once belonged to his greatest nemesis, Sarutobi Hiruzen. The office that should rightfully have stayed within his grasp. The office that should never have left the hands of the Senju. The office that now demanded that another return it to the glory it had once borne within it.

Tsunade was no longer a factor, true. But allowing the Kyuubi's Jinchuuriki to return in such a manner, as a veritable saviour, had ruined his depiction of the boy as a loose cannon who needed to be under the control of wiser heads, who presented a danger to Konoha by his mere presence. Whose danger could only be counteracted by handing him to Danzou, to mold as a weapon for Konoha's use.

Now he was an untouchable hero in the eyes of the populace. He had the solid support of Hyuuga Hiashi, who's daughters Uzumaki had just saved. His master, Hatake Kakashi, still lived, and would doubtless be acclaimed Rokudaime Hokage by the council of clans. Even Tsunade's apprentice, Haruno Sakura, had created a legend for herself during the invasion, and doubtless be in complete concert with her teammate as well.

And all because his own tool had ruined his plans. Sai had been the one to summon Uzumaki Naruto back to Konoha. How he had managed to attach an invisible beacon to the boy, he had no idea, but even the death of the communication toad had not been enough to keep Uzumaki out of Konoha until after the inevitable Akatsuki attack.

Danzou had known nothing of the attack before hand. But it had only been a matter of time before Akatsuki had tried it anyway, and the old fox had been confident Konoha would repel them. Besides, the village's shinobi had begun to grow soft. A few disasters, coming hand-and-foot, would have served him well in hardening them into the soldiers they should have been.

His sharp senses caught a hubbub at the foot of the tower. Apparently the Copy-nin was here. Best to retreat and plan and his next line of attack. A wind seemed to pick up around the old man, and he began to pass through the floor of the office.

Oh well. He had a few aces up his sleeve, a few gambits left to play...

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And all this the ethereal being watched, and was pleased with.

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A/N Even though this is a Naruto/Avatar crossover, strictly speaking, this story is part of a trilogy, and the crossover only occurs in th second volume. And I'm planning to write this story in such a way that it can be read without ever encumbering yourself with a crossover if you so wish. Put more simply, this story is as much a stand-alne package as it is a crossover.

And much credit to my new beta, lonewalker. I'm already convinced this is gonna be a long and fruitful collaboration.