Ch4

As Tsunade continued to have a fight over who will be the next hokage, Danzo could see that their visitors were beginning to get annoyed. He motioned an ANBU, who was secretly one of his ROOT soldier, and said, "Will you please escort our guests to their hotel?"

"Actually, would it be all right by you, if we can stay in an empty house," Kami asked, "I would like for the house to be able to accommodate all of us."

Danzo scowled. He had personally attended to the hotels so that his spies will be able to watch the visitors so he could discover their weaknesses.

"I'm sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused," Kami apologized, not realizing that Danzo was angry because of his plans were being ruined. "We are willing to rent a house for a month and pay for it."

With that being said, Kyou pulled out a small burlap sack and tossed it onto the table. Jaws dropped when the cloth bag opened and gold coins spilled onto the table. "That should be more than enough to rent a house for a month," he said. His red eyes glared at them, as if to dare them to try and scam them. Before the old bags of flesh could even open their mouths, Kyou interrupted them, "We already checked to see how much one month rent would be and our banks were able to convert the amount of gold we needed to cover. So don't even think about trying to weasel out more gold from us."

Tsuande agreed that the amount these people brought is more than enough. She picked up a gold coin and inspected it. The leader's gold and silver staff and these gold coins may very well be proof that Tengokugakure is a very rich nation. The coins were all in the same size with smooth sides and no symbols or icons on them. "Your village must be very rich for you to carry all this gold," she said.

"Where do you mine for all these gold?" Homura asked. Perhaps if they know the location, they could send a team to excavate the gold for themselves.

Kokoro shivered as she felt the greedy aura rolling off the two advisors. She held onto Hiei's hand and leaned against him, hoping his aura would cancel out the bad feeling vibes.

Hiei's red eyes glanced over to his daughter and realized that she wasn't feeling too well. Kokoro had always been more of an empath every since she was a baby. "I'll appreciate it if you would tone down your greed," he said angrily.

Homura and Koharu began to sputter out how they have no idea what Hiei was talking about. Danzo took notice how Kokoro was looking pale.

"Your daughter's not looking very well," Danzo said. He held out his hand and tried to smile as friendly as possible. "If you like, I'll bring her to infirmary." Of course, he was planning on something much more devious, like trying to brainwash the young child to do his bidding.

"There's no need, Danzo-san," Kami said, once again putting an end to his plan. Lifting one hand, he motioned towards Kokoro. "Kokoro, come here," he said in a soft voice.

"Kokoro-chan, are you okay?" Ai asked.

Kokoro walked over to Kami and sat on his lap. She leaned her head on his shoulder and sighed in relief as she felt a cool hand rest on her forehead.

"Kokoro-chan, what's wrong?" Ai asked, worriedly, when the older girl didn't respond immediately.

Kouga rubbed his daughter's head and smiled at her curiosity. "You know how sensitive she is to negative energies, Ai," Kouga explained to her.

Ai gasped in shock as the other children glared in disgust at the much older humans, who should've died years ago. "Are they thinking bad things about us?" she demanded to know. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a yellow yo-yo. With the hand clutching the round toy, she pointed to them. "You better stop thinking about bad things or my daddy will kick your butt!" she shouted.

Spluttering was heard yet again as the members of the new village laughed or chuckled.

Kokoro grinned at Ai. "It's okay, Ai-chan," she said, "I feel better now so there's no need for Kouga-san to beat them up." She glanced over to Kami and beamed. "Thank you, Kami-sama!"

"Are you a healer, Kami-sama?" Tsunade asked, hoping to change the mood.

"Somewhat," Kami replied. He patted Kokoro gently on the back to signal her to get off. He watched as Kokoro ran over to Hiei, who wrapped an arm protectively around his daughter. "I'm as good as many in healing, but I don't think anybody will ever be as good as you, hokage-sama."

Tsunade laughed. "That's true," she said, not really bragging since it was known throughout the lands that she was brilliant in the medical field. Tsunade gathered all of the gold coins and p;aced them back into the leather bag. "I believe we can arrange for you to rent out a house for a month. It would take us a few days to get the paperwork all filled out."

"They should pay some more gold to rent a house," Koharu said, trying to keep the greed out of her voice. When she heard several unhappy growls, she quickly added," As insurance. After all, I'm sure you youkai don't always know your own strength so sometimes there are damages."

"Don't know our own strength? Who do you think we are, newborn pups?" Kouga shouted.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his golden eyes. "This Sesshoumaru haven't lost control of my own strength for over 400 years."

The humans' eyes bulged out when they heard that age. Nozomu grinned cheekily as he said, "Otou-sama is old." Sesshoumaru placed a hand on his head and gently pushed it down.

"I believe the damages you would find would not be from us," Kurama said keeping a strong grip on his son and daughter, who looked like they were about to pounce and attack.

Homaru snorted. "Nonsense, then where would the damages come from?"

"Perhaps someone from the village that wants to drive us out," Chikara muttered, "After all, something like this happening wouldn't be the first time."

"They could stay inn one of the houses in my compound," a low hoarse voice came from the doorway.

Everyone turned to see Uchiha Sasuke standing in the doorway. His once cold hard prideful eyes now held a more solemn gaze. He still looked the same only his hair was slightly longer and he had grown much taller and slightly muscular.

"Uchiha, what are you doing here?" Tsunade asked, "Can't you see we're in a middle of an important meeting?"

A confused look came on Sasuke's face. "Didn't you ask for me?" he asked. An ANBU had shown up as he got back from a mission, telling him that the hokage wishes to see him, which seemed really strange since the hokage never wanted to see him unless it's necessary. It's been like that ever since that fateful day when he tried to defect to a traitor's side and was brought back by his teammates. Then his one and only friend, the one who never treated him differently because he was an Uchiha, was executed by the civilian council, lying to everyone that he was on a secret mission and that Naruto had no right to stop and injured him. Nobody was able to stop it, not even the hokage, and ever since then, the majority of his old classmates turned their back and no longer considered him a friend.

Tsunade looked perplexed. "No, I did not ask for you," she said.

Just as she said that, Homura and Koharu walked over to Sasuke. "Uchiha-sama, come. We want you to meet the leader of Tengokugakure," Homura said as Koharu added, "It is best if our future leader meets with the leader of our future allies."

Sasuke wanted nothing more to do than to rip their old hands off his arms as they pulled him to the visitors. "Future allies?" he thought suspiciously. He studied the anger and hatred rolling off the youkai. "More like future murderers." He had heard stories that these youkai held loyalty to family to the highest esteem. To shinobi, their village is their family, and he had betrayed them once, no matter how long ago it was.

Kero flew out and stood in front of them with his arms stretched out, preventing them from going any further. "Hold it right there, you old dinosaurs!" he shouted.

"Oh great," the two advisors muttered under their breaths, "This stuffed toy again."

"A summon?" Sasuke asked, looking at the flying bear with intrigue. His eyes noted the light orange color and immediately the intrigue became sadness as he remembered his friend.

Seeing that Kero was going to give a long and loud berate, Kami held out his staff horizontally with the symbols facing Kero. Very softly, he said, "Silent."

Danzo watched with amazement as a ray of blue light came out and struck Kero's back. At first, Danzo was disappointed when he saw that the annoyance was still flying, but was then amazed to see that Kero was now mute.

Kero was about to start yelling when he realized that his voice was now gone. He clutched his throat as his mouth opened and shut a few times. Finally realizing what had happened, he turned teary eyed towards his master. He trudged through the sky towards Kami with his arms stretched out and tears coming down.

Ignoring the overly dramatic guardian, Kami brought the staff back down. Kero opened his mouth widely as if to sob loudly as he flew faster to Kami. He hugged his neck tightly and kicked his feet in a tantrum. Surprisingly during all of this, Kami's hood remained intact and didn't budge an inch.

"That's what you get for constantly running your mouth," Spinel said from his spot. His long tail flickered from side to side to show that despite his monotone voice, he was amused by what had happened.

In a blink of an eye, Kero's crocodile tears vanished as he angrily glared at Spinel. He flew over to the black cat and proceeded to make jabbing motions at him, as Spinel just yawned and looked bored.

"Is he always like this?" Tsuande asked the leader, who acted like this behavior is nothing new.

"As long as I knew him," Kami responded, "I first met Kero, Yukito, Spinel, and Nakuru about ten years ago."

Yukito grabbed Kero and held him close to his chest when he felt that his co-guardian was getting close to transform. "Believe me, hokage-sama, when I tell you that Keroberos' behavior hasn't changed since our first master," he said, smiling gently.

"First master?" Danzo said, his eyes glinting, "May I ask what happened to your first master?"

All four guardians held a sad look on their faces, making Tsunade's stomach drop. "Don't tell me…" she muttered to herself.

"Our first master and creator died long ago," Yukito said, "His reincarnation created Spinel Sun and Nakuru as Keroberos and I had a new master."

Nakuru squealed at the memory of the cute little girl who grew into a beautiful kind woman. "Sakura-chan was so cute!" she said, "I love how she refused to be your master but rather your friend."

"WAIT! So you're not human!" Tsunade shouted, slamming the table as she stood up. A slight crack was formed and no doubt, Shizune would get upset since this table is brand new. Tsunade was sos sure that the teenage boy and girl were human.

Nakuru tapped a finger to her cheek and made a soft humming sound as if thinking how to answer the response. "I guess you can say that we're half human, especially in this form." Sensing that they wanted to know more, she moved her finger to her lips and winked. "Unfortunately that's all I can tell you."

"What happened to your previous master?" Danzo asked, trying to get as much information as possible.

"They passed away," Spinel replied, "No matter how powerful they were as sorcerers, they were still human and would die."

"So Kami-sama became your master when he killed them," Danzo muttered. If that was true, then it should be no problem getting four new weapons. Unfortunately after saying that, he knew he must've said something wrong when everyone from Tengokugakure in the room either snarled angrily or growled.

"Kami-sama did not kill Sakura-san," Yukito said in a disapproving tone, "Sakura-san and her husband died centuries ago."

"Besides, by killing our master, it doesn't automatically make you our new master," Nakuru said, "In fact, that will just make you have zero chances in being our master."

"In order to be our master, you must pass our tests," Spinel said.

"Damn," Danzo thought to himself.

Kami looked to the children and saw that they were starting to feel restless. He turned to Sasuke and asked, "Do you have any housing that can fit all of us?"

For some weird reason, Sasuke felt at peace for once in his life. The last time he felt like this was fifteen years ago. Nodding his head, Sasuke responded, "The Uchiha compound is still empty and there are plenty of houses to choose from."

"Sasuke-sama, to allow these visitors to stay in the Uchiha compound…" protests from the two advisors came out.

Sasuke glared at them and said sternly, "It's my home and I can do whatever I want with it," causing the two to reluctantly shut up.

"Rin," Sesshoumaru said, causing the young woman in miko garments to look at him. "Take the children with you and choose a house for us to stay in."

Rin beamed and answered cheerfully, "Hai, Sesshoumaru-sama!"

"Shiori, go with them please," Kurama said, "And you know what to do once you picked out the house."

The tanned hanyou nodded her head and held onto a small red glass bead that hanged around her neck in a necklace. "Hai, Kurama-sama."

"Children, listen to Rin and Shiori," Kami ordered. He lightly tapped Kero on the head with his staff to cancel the spell and then gestured them to follow as protection for the children.

"Hai, Kami-sama!" the kids shouted gleefully, happy to finally leave the stuffy room.

Sasuke created a shadow clone and instructed it to bring the group to his home. He watched as they left. He wasn't surprised to see the children waving goodbye to the youkai, some more reserved than others, which he heard were their fathers. He was surprised to see the human miko also waving cheerfully at the silver haired youkai, who in turn nodded back.

Sasuke wasn't the only one who had seen the gesture. "Is Rin-san Nozomu's mother?" Koharu asked.

Sesshoumaru's face remained mostly indifferent except with the look of disgust in his gold eyes. Hiei just smirked as Kurama covered his mouth to disguise his chuckles as coughs. Kami's shoulder's just shook quietly. But Kouga was the only one to outright laugh.

Kouga walked over to Sesshoumaru and slapped his shoulder. "There's no way that Rin is Nozomu's mother," he said, still laughing," She;s more like Sesshoumaru's daughter than a wife."

Sesshoumaru's gold eyes started to turn red. "Touch this Sesshoumaru again, wolf, and your organs will be ripped out of your body," he snarled.

"Sesshoumaru," Kami said softly but sternly. Everyone watched in amazement as the red eyes turned back to normal. "Please excuse him, you see, Sesshoumaru saved Rin when she was a little girl and she became his ward because she had no family left."

"So where are the children's mothers?" Koharu asked, "I'm surprised that they would let the children come by themselves to a foreign village."

"You'll meet the mothers later," Hiei said stonily, "The purpose of this visit is to see whether or not we will have an alliance, not for you to meet our families and be friends."

Kami sighed as he felt the five youkai moving towards him when Sasuke continued to look in his direction. "So about tomorrow," he began, hoping to break the tension, "A battle of five versus five. Four of my guardians and myself versus five of your best."

Tsunade nodded her head. "After you are well rested, we will test each other's strengths."

Danzo turned to Sasuke. "You will fight against Kami-sama," he said, "As our future hokage, it seems fitting for you to fight their leader."

Tsunade's teeth clenched tightly. No matter how many times she kept telling them that Uchiha Sasuke would never become the hokage, they refused to listen. The only redeeming factor is that Sasuke is also against becoming hokage.

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "If that's what Kami-sama wishes, then I'll fight him," he said, "For now, I believe it would be wise for them to settle in and rest for tomorrow." He silently prayed for them to agree so he could leave the three vultures.

"Of course, Sasuke-sama," came the replies to his prayers.

Sasuke turned to the leader and asked, "Shall we leave?" Seeing the silent nod, he began to lead the visitors out of the room.

After leaving the tower, Sasuke gave a huge sigh of relief. "I know full well that you do not like me, but I want you to know that I will not harm you and your children," he said.

Kyou stepped closer to Kami. "We shall see," he said, eyeing the young man suspiciously, "Especially with what happened fifteen years ago, you can see why we don't trust you and your village entirely."

Sasuke turned towards Kyou with wide eyes. He opened his mouth to speak when a shrill voice shouted, "SASAUKE-KUN!" Upon hearing this, Sasuke closed his eyes and groaned.

The five youkai had to cover their ears due to their sensitive hearing. "The hell is that?" Kouga shouted.

"Sakura," Sasuke muttered. Out of all his old friends, if he had the right to call them that, Sakura was the only one who stuck by him. Over the years, she kept flirting with him and trying to get him to marry her. Her efforts increased after Ino wanted nothing to do with him and moved her affections elsewhere.

Sakura was walking towards the Hokage Tower when she got wind of Sasuke returning. She brushed her hand through her hair had grew out her hair again so it reached her waist. During the last few years, she worked at the hospital, trying to convince Tsunade to take her as an apprentice. She thought that with Naruto out of the way, she would be able to get closer to Sasuke and he would finally look her way, but if anything, Sasuke continued to play hard to get with her.

When she spotted Sasuke coming out ofh te tower, she sighed dreamily. Sakura didn't know how it was possible for Sasuke to become hotter throughout the years, but he did. She ran over to him and quickly wrapped her arms around one of his arms, making sure to push her breasts against him.

"Who the hell are you?" Hiei asked.

Sakura turned and her eyes widened at seeing five very handsome guys next to her Sasuke. At first she was disgusted with the fact that they have some nerve to stand next to her Sasuke, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel aroused by these gorgeous demons. "Sasuke-kun, who are these creatures?" she asked, not caring that she insulted the youkai for calling them that.

"Sakura, these are the visitors from Tengokugakure," Sasuke said, "It would be wise for you to be polite to our guests."

"Where are you taking them?" Sakura demanded to know.

"I'm bringing them to one of the houses on the Uchiha compound," the last Uchiha responded, silently praying that she'll leave.

Sakura's green eyes narrowed in envy. She had been trying to get Sasuke to allow her to live in one of those houses ever since she turned eighteen by dropping hints that she wanted to move out of her parents' home but couldn't find a house that was suitable or affordable. Unfortunately her Sasuke was very shy and didn't offer a house. "Why are they staying in one of your houses? Why couldn't they stay I na hotel?" she shrieked.

"Somebody shut her up or I'll rip out her tongue," Kouga muttered. He flexed his fingers and growled. When he felt a hand softly touch his arm, he turned his head to see Kami looking at him. It was like magic when all the frustrations stared to dissipate.

"Uchiha-san, I believe it's best if we head to the house first," Kami said, "I'm sure you'll have time to meet again later."

"Who are you to tell Sasuke-kun what to do?" Sakura demanded, "He is the last Uchiha, one of Konoha's best shinobi, and our future hokage!"

"Until he becomes the hokage, Kami-sama has the right to order him," Hiei said.

"What!" the pinkette shouted, her hair flailing around in the air, reminding Kurama of the stories about Medusa.

"Sakura," Sasuke said sharply, causing the girl to stop screaming and looked at him with love struck eyes. "Kami-sama is the leader of our future ally so please show some respect. Also hokage-sama specifically asked me to bring them to a place where they can stay. I'm sorry, but we must be going."

Sakura beamed. "Okay, Sasuke-kun," she said, "I suppose it's only fitting that as our future hokage, you will house the leader of another village. They must be so grateful that we are even allowing them an alliance." She blew a kiss to Sasuke and skipped down the street with daydreams of Sasuke being the hokage that controlled the youkai and her as his dutiful beautiful wife.

"Sorry about that…she's a moron despite her intelligence," Sasuke muttered. He wasn't blind to ignore the death glares the five youkai gave her.

"Perhaps a quicker route to your home would be much better," Kurama suggested.

"We could sprint there. How fast can you go?" Sasuke asked.

Hiei glared at him. "Are you suggesting that we cannot keep up?" he said, "If anything, I doubt that you can't keep up with us."

Sasuke bit down on his tongue. He has a feeling that these youkai get easily offended when it comes to them strength and speed. Years ago, he'd probably would've baited them or said something that would've gotten him killed.

Kurama patted his longtime friend on the shoulder. "Why don't you go ahead and lead us and we'll follow from behind?" Kurama said. When Sasuke turned around, Kurama whispered to Hiei. "I think it's best if we get him to rest as soon as possible." His green eyes glancing over to Kami.

Hiei kept silent but agreed with a nod. Sasuke took off on the roofs with the two friends following behind him.

Kouga turned to Kami and asked, "Flying or running?"

Kami grinned softly. He clutched onto his staff, which glowed for a bit before a pair of angel-like wings sprouted form his back. The wings flapped a bit as it lifted him into the air for a few seconds and then he took off after Sasuke, Kurama, and Hiei.

"Flying it is," Kouga said, shaking his head. He knelt down and with a burst of power in his legs, he began to give chase.

Sesshoumaru narrowed his eyes as Kyou smirked at him. "Race ya," the redhead said jokingly. He turned into a red fox-shaped fireball and darted after his friends.

"Immature," Sesshoumaru muttered. He too turned into a ball of light and soon caught up to Sasuke, who had reached the Uchiha compound.

/-/

Tsunade looked over the paperwork Kami had left behind to highlight his village. "They have alliances with multiple small villages," she said.

Koharu grew perplexed. "Why on earth would they do that? There's no advantage to allying with those villages? They're small so it would mean that they don't have any shinobi nor any wealth."

Homura shook his head. "For a new village to make this foolish mistake just shows that they're not ready and need our guidance."

Ignoring them, Tsunade continued to read the parchment. "All of those villages have either agricultural or other natural resources that they trade with Tengokugakure for their protection and business."

"You mean like gold and silver?" Homura asked, "Where are these villages? Maybe we can get some ourselves."

"Unfortunately, Kami-sama didn't mention more about them other than they trade with each other," the hokage said.

The two advisors grumbled as they tried to come up with a plan on finding out the villages' locations. Tsunade rolled her eyes as she thought back to Shikamaru's complaint that they should've been forced to retire years ago.

Danzo had been suspiciously quiet. He was more or less watching the visitors from the window. He was shocked to see wings sprout out on Kami's back and then he flew out. "It must be that staff of his," he thought, remembering when the cloaked leader took away Kero's voice. "I must find some way to get that staff."