When the morning came there was still no sign of Asura, it looked as if he hadn't even slept in his bed last night. The three were starting to become worried about their sensei and decided to go look for him but there was no sign of him anywhere. They went to all the places they knew him to visit the ramen stand any were else with food the training grounds but it was if he had just upped and vanished.

They started asking around if people had seen him since last night, but on one they asked hadn't seen him or Aya and Shin. They were starting to get a bad feeling in the gut, "Where did Sensei go and why didn't he say anything to us?" Kasumi asked her two teammates.

"Last time I saw him was last night he went to the Hokage's office," they jumped when they heard Kakashi behind them. They turned to see him reading a his usual book, but he wasn't alone he was accompanied by a white haired ninja that they had never seen before he had red paint marks on his face extremely long white hair that was tided in a ponytail, "this is Jiraiya-Sama."

"Isn't he one of the legendary Sannin?" Ryu asked sounding impressed.

"I heard from sensei that you are the strongest of the three Sannin," Kasumi looking at the old man.

"So he thinks I am stronger than Orochimaru," Jiraiya said sounding pleased.

"But you don't seem like a pervert to me," she said causing Jiraiya to fall over in shock, she turned back to Kakashi, "do you know what he was doing in his office?" Kakashi shook his head slowly.

Last Night

Asura stood near the front gate, "so you two know what to do," Asura asked his face dead serious, this cold attitude seem to scare the other two. They nodded and the two vanished into the night sky getting ready for the day ahead of them. Leaving Asura behind his blue eye now crimson as he watched the fading sun then he vanished without a sound. Asura appeared outside of the Hokage tower he walked up stopping in front of the office door but unlike most times he came to visit he knocked on the door.

"Come in," a voice called out. When he opened the door the fourth was sitting at his desk doing paper work, "Asura what do I own this pleasant surprise?"

"I came just to talk if you don't mind," Asura said grinning, the Yondaime gestured to the open seat in front of his desk, "thank you Hokage-Sama."

"This is just a friendly chat no need to be so formal you can call me Minato," he said kindly.

"You have always been my hero and it is such an honor to talk with you," Asura said smiling weakly.

"Well it's an honor to be considered a hero," Minato said.

"But I was wondering are you nominating my students to become chunnin?" Asura asked.

"Why are you going to say something to them?"

"No I have something to do so it appears I won't be around to find out."

"Where are you going?" Minato

"Not sure yet," Asura said rubbing the back of his head.

"Since you did help my daughter I don't see the harm in telling you. Yes your students are going to be nominated to become chunnin," Minato said.

"Thank you Minato," Asura said getting up and walking to the door but stopped, "I once heard my father tell me he was proud of me I wonder if I will hear him say it again," he said leaving a confused Hokage in his wake. He appeared back at the hotel to see his students fast asleep, he wasn't surprised it had been a long day for them all, he hadn't been more proud of his student then he realized that he had never once told them that if he did they would probably think he was dying or something he thought to himself smiling. Well time was slipping away and he need to make sure everything was in his advantage. Tomorrow he would be fighting four members of Akatsuki. He was confident he could win, but there was a problem he knew who the other two were and they were no pushovers he needed to do this alone he couldn't be distracted he couldn't afford to be, not against them.

Back to present time

They made their way to the Hokage's office, hoping that he would know something so that they could find there sensei. When they got there, Naruto and Naoko were talking to their father.

"Hokage-Sama," Kasumi said quickly.

"What is it?" he asked kindly.

"Do you know where Asura -Sensei is?" Kasumi asked quickly, the Hokage shook his head.

"Shouldn't you guys know where he is, you are his students?" Naruto asked.

"What did you guys talk about last night?" Kakashi asked.

"Well he asked about his students then he said something about he wondered if he would ever hear his father tell him he was proud of him," Minato said thinking.

"Wait I thought his father…" Kasumi's voice trailed off her eyes wide in horror.

"What about his father?" Kakashi asked.

"He is dead, he told me no one other than him knew his last name," she answered slowly.

"You don't think," Minato said quickly.

"I do," Kakashi said sadly.

"Kakashi you and Jiraiya head out to help him and I will be there in a moment I need to talk to Sarutobi," Minato said getting to his feet.

"What's going on," Ryu said hearing the panic in the men's voices, but none of them answered. Naoko grabbed Kasumi by the arm.

"Father we will leave you to do what you need to," Naoko said the others followed Naoko out of the office and when they were outside she turned to them, "I heard them talking about a something called Akatsuki, that Asura knew this group was coming this way and I think he might have gone to meet this Akatsuki."

"Then we need to go help him," Ryu said.

"We will come along to," a cool voice said they all jumped back to see Gaara standing there with his siblings.

Naruto turned to Naoko, "you stay here you're not even a genin yet."

"But…" she started.

"No you should stay here," came Sasuke's voice.

"No I don't want to," Naoko said, without a word Emi put her under genjutsu.

"What are you all doing here?" Kasumi asked looking at the new arrivals.

"We saw Kakashi and Jiraiya off in a hurry," Sasuke answered.

"We don't have time to talk," Ryu said and off they went in the direction that Kakashi and Jiraiya had gone, but they lost them. "Summoning jutsu," Kasumi placed her palm the ground and a large steel gray cat with blackish blue strips appeared. They followed it through the forest but it did not take long from to catch up with Jiraiya and Kakashi who stood facing Shin and Aya.

"What are you guys doing we need to find Sensei," Kasumi said.

"No you all are not passing this point," Shin said his voice was cold Aya stood there looking ready to fight.

"What are you kids doing here?" Kakashi asked looking scared.

"We came to help," Ryu said.

"You fools go back," Jiraiya said. Ryu and Emi stepped forward along with the three sand siblings.

"We will hold them back you guys go find Sensei," Ryu said pulling out his two swords. The five ninja attack the two, Shin and Aya didn't want to hurt them but they couldn't let them pass this point. The other ran pass Shin tried to go after them but he had to dodge the sand that blocked his way.

Asura stood before four cloaked figures, "I never thought I would have to fight them…but then again I am dealing with you Orochimaru so I shouldn't be surprised," he said calmly.

"So you know who we are and yet you still come out here to face us alone. What a brave child you are, foolish but brave," Orochimaru said lowering his hat along with the other three. His eyes went from Sasori to Tobirama then Hashirama.

"As they are…they are no match for me," Asura said his eyes remaining on the two former Hokages, "I would have like to see how the first two Hokages compared to my power. But I guess it is for the best could you imagine what would happen if I didn't restrain my powers."

"You seem confident in your powers," Sasori said coolly. Asura reached up and tossed his forehead protector aside revealing his rinnegan and his other eye activated a sharingan.

"You could say that," he replied. He stepped forward he vanished and his fist smashed through Sasori's armor like it had been nothing more than paper. His new body jumped away but he still was missing a good portion of his upper body. Sasori summoned an army of puppets, and a smile appeared across face. As the puppets rushed in they were blasted back it looked as if someone had kicked them but Asura hadn't moved. A golden fox head formed around him and in the mouth of the fox was a ball pure chakra and it fired into the crowd of the puppets Orochimaru and Sasori managed to avoid the blast using Triple Rashomon and when the smoke cleared Orochimaru's defenses had been ripped apart but he and Sasori were unharmed. The two Hokages reformed at the blast.

"It seems that you have a reason to be confident in your skills," Orochimaru said with a smile, "it looks like we are going to have to stop playing around."

Asura jumped aside dodging an attack coming from behind he looked back to see the third Kazekage. Iron sand started to spill from the puppets mouth. In a blink of an eye Asura was standing where Orochimaru had been and Orochimaru had stood where he had been. Orochimaru looked down he was pierced by a rod made of the iron sand. Orochimaru spit up a new body as his old one hit the ground. Tree roots shot up from the ground ripping through Asura but it wasn't him Sasori was where he had once been.

"It looks like our time is running low so I need to finish this quickly," he raised his hand and there was a load screeching a sphere appeared over his head in the palm of his hand. Asura appeared behind Orochimaru and struck him in the back with his jutsu. He watched as Orochimaru's cells were being destroyed.

Asura dodged the attacks that Hashirama and Tobirama launched at him. He appeared before Orochimaru and he stepped on his neck, "you have no chakra left so you cannot save yourself but since it is you I will not risk it."

A black orb appeared in his and he turned into a staff and he put it through Orochimaru's head. Now he just had two to worry about the Hokages. He deactivated his sharingan when he noticed that they were no longer alone.

"Sensei," he heard someone call he looked over his left shoulder, Kasumi was standing there along with Kakashi, Jiraiya, Naruto and Sasuke.

"I just want you to know I am proud of you and the others," Asura said turning back to face his opponents, they all realized that his forehead protector and bandages lay on the ground. Kakashi and Jiraiya noticed the remains of the other Akatsuki member.

"You guys are just in time to see my last jutsu, I am going to end this on a bang," Asura said the amusement clearly evident in his voice, "Demon Release: Annihilation Jutsu," there was a massive amount of Chakra building up Kakashi and Jiraiya sensing the danger grabbed the young ninjas retreating to safety.

"What about sensei," Kasumi cried, "we can…" before she could finish her sentence there was a loud explosion. And in the confusion, Asura took hold of the two Kages and they all were gone in an instant.

"You all wait here," Kakashi said as he and Jiraiya left to see what happened. They weren't the only one their Minato stood in shock. They began to look around the area had been completely leaved. The only things that were left of Asura were his forehead protector his necklace and a pouch that had his book the first book ever written by Jiraiya. They picked up his things and went back to the others. The sand siblings, Ryu and Emi had just arrived when they got back.

"So where is sensei?" Ryu asked looking around. They lowered their heads handing over Asura's things.

"Okay there are his things but where is he?" Ryu asked still looking around.

"He didn't make it, he took all them out with him," Kakashi said.

"Why didn't he let us help him, he is always telling us to work as a team," Kasumi said tears running down her face.

"Sometimes the best team work is to let one take care of everything," Shin's voice came from a shadow of a tree.

"Why didn't you do anything to help him," Kasumi yelled at him.

"If we wouldn't have stopped you all and you had shown up apart from Kakashi and Jiraiya what do you think would have happened?" Aya asked.

"We would have helped him," Ryu said.

"No he would have had his attention split trying to fight them and protect you all and it would have limited the jutsu he could use," Aya said sadly, "the truth is that any of us would have got in his way none of us were on his level and he proved it."

"How he is dead," Ryu shouted.

"That is true but he also took out four of the strongest ninja in the world by himself, two of whom where former Hokages," Kakashi said.

"So Orochimaru summoned those two," Shin said.

"To think he was strong enough to face the first and second Hokage alone. He is even more amazing than I thought," Aya said looking back towards the battleground.

Kakashi gave Asura 's things to his team before they made it back to the village, Minato was still at the site looking around, thinking to himself, 'how can someone so young be so powerful,' he thought to himself.

That night none of his team spoke to each other, Ryu said looking at the book that his sensei had with him. Emi held his forehead protector tight tears running silently down her face, and Kasumi was in her room alone crying.

Hokage tower

Kakashi, Minato, Jiraiya and Sarutobi sat talking to each other.

"Hokage-Sensei I know Asura wasn't a part of our village but I feel we should do something to honor his memory for all he has given us," Kakashi said.

"I agree I think we should place his name on the memorial stone since he died in line of duty protecting our village in the process," Sarutobi said.

"I think we will do that and have a memorial service invite the hidden moon village to attend if they wish," Minato said getting up looking out the window.

"Daddy is it true a little blond burst in the room, is Asura…" Naoko asked on the verge of tears.

"It's true," Minato answered sadly.

"It's your fault he is dead you were supposed to save him you are supposed to be the strongest ninja in the world," she yelled at her father.

"I wish I could have saved him," Minato said.

"I don't think any of us could save him, he was dead long before we met him," Sarutobi said looking weak tired. But Naoko didn't want to hear that she only wanted to know why Asura wasn't here anymore, she turned out crying.

A week later

Asura's team had been made Chunnin, but they didn't really care they were still in mourning about their sensei. They remained at the hidden leaf village where they were met by a few people from their village the Tsukikage a few members of ANBU and Asura's old teammates.

Kasumi looked around for Shin and Aya but they had not shown up no one had seen or heard from them since Asura died. She felt hatred toward them she blamed him for their sensei's death. Unbeknown to any of them they were being watched by a masked man wearing a black cloak with orange and gold flames, he wore a fox mask.

"Why go through all of this what did you accomplish?" Aya asked watching the masked man.

"What did you bring us in on this it is more than obvious that you didn't need us?" Shin asked.

"I needed someone they would believe to tell them that I was dead," he answered.

"What makes you think we will tell them you are dead?" Shin asked his eyes fixed on the masked man.

"Because you have only felt a small portion of my power and once I take off this mask you will never find me unless I want to be found."

"What is your name?" Aya asked.

"Asura is my name but just of one many I have gone by, but it seems that allies has been retired. So will you do as I ask because I would really hate to force my friends to do something against their will."

"What are you?" Shin asked.

"I am whatever I need to be."

Down at the funeral

Kakashi couldn't shake the feeling that they were being watched, but he ignored it, as he took the seat behind Asura's former team. The Tsukikage was standing at the front of the group with the third Hokage on his right and the Fourth on his left.

The third stood before them, "we are here to say goodbye to a hero, a man who took the bourdon of the world on his shoulders so that the rest of us could hope for a better tomorrow, when I first met him he was at the memorial stone I asked if he was looking for someone he had had lost, he said "Yeah, but I won't find their names won't be on here because no has realized their sacrifice and no one but me will ever truly know," I think the same holds true for him I think none of us true understand what he has given up for us to face death with his head held high to insure the safety of not just his people but the world. He was happy to carry a bourdon no one should have to. He was a true hero he fought so we didn't have to he died so we could live," with that he took a seat. People lined up so they could have a last word with him.

"Sensei, I remember when we met, I hated you but now I conceder you my best friend and I will truly miss you," Ryu said.

"Sensei I will miss you," Emi said simply.

"You really are a bastard sensei, you didn't show you had a heart until the last moment I never got a chance to tell you, that I loved you, that I still love you," Kasumi said tears streaming down her face.

"You know you really are a bastard doing this to them," Shin said quietly.

"How can they miss something that was never there Asura they knew never excited, it's just another allies a clever mask to hide my true self," Asura said, "there is no one but me who knows my true name, has seen my true face no one can know my pain and if someone does that is one lonely person."

One after another people paid their respects, at the end Asura turned to his friends, "this is goodbye this is the last time we will meet," he teleported leaving no trace.