Chapter Twelve: Itari does some searching in the abandoned Uchiha District, while Naruto becomes the Namikaze pack mule. Namikaze also gets a new house, roomate, and servant. At the same time far away from Konoha; Tanshin investigates the strange chakra from last chapter, while Akatsuki's leader introduce's the organization's newest member.

Special Thanks to DragonKnightRyu for being this story's beta reader.

Disclaimer: I do not in any way shape or form own Naruto Shippuden, or anything unique to it. The show and manga are owned by Kishimoto-Massashi. I think I do own Namikaze Naruto though, or at least the one in this fiction since as of yet Naruto hasn't changed his name in the manga, and also Anko's snake summon. Tanshin is also one of my creations, along with some jutsu I made up. I do not own Uchiha Itari, both the name and her appearance belong to fellow author BigCC. The Fusion Sword belongs to the team who worked one FFVII: Advent Children and, just to be safe, Square Enix. Also, there may be parts of this story where I combine certain things from the English, and Japanese parts of Naruto.

"Normal Speech"

Normal Thoughts

'Human Speech' (Inside Mindscape)

'Human Thought' (Inside Mindscape)

"Lip Reading" (Not so often in this fic)

"Bijuu Speech" (Outside Mindscape)

-Bijuu Speech- (Inside Mindscape)

'Bijuu Thought'

"Summons Speech" (With certain exceptions)

'Summons Thoughts' (With certain exceptions)

(STNM)

Konohagakure, Uchiha District

The first thing she noticed walking down the empty streets, was how unkempt everything was. Never once in her life had she seen the district look anything less than perfectly maintained. In her family everything had to look absolutely clean and spotless. The almost biological desire to impose their superiority to outsiders was so strong that it had risen above the clan alone. Their martial skill alone had no longer been enough; their very home had to symbolize just how serious the Uchiha Clan was about becoming as close to perfect as possible.

For once Itari felt the urge to simply leave the abandoned district alone. She felt reluctant to continue further in and see physical proof of what could one day be her Clan's fate. Still, she would not have reached where she was in life if she had been one who froze up once outside their comfort zones…Still. There was no necessary reason to find her parent's home so soon.

Paying careful attention to the chipping paint of the Uchiha Fan painted on a door she strode off in the direction where she had her own home away from her parents. Along the way Itari closed her eyes and remembered how it usually sounded when she was walking home. Normally she would have been hearing the sounds of a few children here and there playing games with one another. She would have heard the gentle call of greetings given to her by cousins every so often which she would return with a slight smile. The sound of older men and women laughing would almost always be present no matter the time of day; veteran Shinobi and Kunoichi who had been forced to retire, or been fortunate enough to reach the old age and retire.

To her surprise the layout of the district was virtually identical to that of her own; aside from the lack of life that was. It had only taken ten minutes for her to come to a halt and open her eyes. Before her was the small home she had been living in by herself for the past five years. It had been a gift from her father, something to congratulate her on becoming Captain-Commander of the Black-Ops Division. It was simple and as far from extravagant as a small house could be.

She had actually waited until dinner was finished before walking over to hug her father that night.

Itari was unsurprised when the door fell apart as she opened it. Close to three years had gone by since the last Uchiha was even in the district; five more to that since there were more than two at any one time. She was however surprised to see that the house still looked lived in, at first glance anyway. A chair, a table, empty flowerpots, a stray pillow, and a small television set were still within the living room. As she entered she could see that it was the rest of the room that would tell someone that it had been sometime since a human being had been in. A layer of dust at least two inches looked to coat everything within sight. The pale blue paint was chipped all around, and in some parts peeled in long strips.

It looked similar to what she would have had in her own living room. Except for the television, that is. When she felt like watching something she would have gone to do so with the rest of her immediate family. The closest thing to entertainment she had even owned had been her radio, and that was standard issue for any Shinobi. Itari did however wonder which of her family had lived in the home. Was it even someone she knew, or an Uchiha who did not exist in her dimension?

She walked further into the home and saw that there was no door to her left. The door was to her right instead. She also felt that something was off about the home, but put the thought away for the moment. Opening that door she saw that the kitchen was still there, or at least a table and refrigerator were, along with a door on the opposite side of the room. The only thing remaining then was the bathroom. A bathroom that had gone without a proper cleaning for Kami-alone knew how long.

That did not stop her from entering it however. Although the smell did lack for an appealing fragrance, Itari moved for the medical cabinet above a small sink. The Uchiha woman looked surprised at what looked like an indentation at the top right corner of the back. Carefully removing the bottles, she herself had kept explosive materials hidden here, Itari slowly reached to push against it. There was a slow click from a mechanism behind the cabinet, followed by the sound of moving glass.

Stepping away she closed the cabinet and looked towards where the mirror had once been. The glass had separated down the middle and moved to the sides. A small black notebook was within her sight now. She reached to grab it and saw that it was barely any larger than her palms. Itari shifted it in her hands. There was a very faint trace of someone's chakra signature on the black covering. That should have been impossible after so many years. Unless, she started, a certain genjutsu was used. Itari activated her Sharingan and waited patiently. Sure enough, red kanji symbols began to appear on the cover.

"That explains a few things." Itari said slowly as she read what she saw was a person's name. "Uchiha Shisui."

(STNM)

Streets of Konoha

"Why am I doing this?" Uzumaki Naruto demanded while carrying a large chest weighing twice his own weight. He was also carrying it on his back and without the use of charka as well.

From roughly ten paces in front of him, Namikaze Arashi looked over his shoulder to answer Naruto. "Doing what? Carrying my new chest, or carrying my new chest using just your physical ability?"

"Both." Naruto ground out as he dodged out of the path of a group of children chasing after a small yellow rubber ball.

"As an answer to the first, you need to remember that I am now the new Clan Head of the Namikaze. As such I can no longer be lowered down to performing such menial tasks, like carrying something, without demeaning my family's good name." He smiled thinly at Naruto before sneakily plucking an orange from a passing fruit vendor. "I must now delegate such demeaning labor to the lowest of the low in the Shinobi world; Genin, of which you still are one."

"But I can kick the ass of half the Chunin in the village already." Naruto grumbled dejectedly as a proverbial cloud hung over his head.

"And for the second, well I don't like it when people address me by a wrong name, which you also did in the Hokage's office, by the way." Arashi said, not hearing Naruto at all, as he quickly began peeling the ripe orange with his fingernails.

"I used your name!" Naruto defended himself instinctively. Tragically he raised himself to his full height, and was pulled backwards by the weight of the chest. He was saved from falling to the ground by a pair of hands catching the chest from the other side. Naruto felt himself be pushed forward and heard the distinctive popping sound associated with Kage Bunshin.

"No you didn't. You called me 'Naruto', not 'Arashi' like I said to." Arashi mumbled out in pieces, lines of orange juice trailing down his jaw as he devoured his stolen fruit hungrily.

"Why does that matter? You used both!"

"But you're already Naruto. I was trying to keep things from getting too confusing for some people, so I decided that legally I would be known as Namikaze Arashi." He then tossed the remains of his short snack into a dumpster to his left.

From behind him, Naruto snorted. "Like anyone with a working pair of eyes would get us confused."

"Good point." Arashi mused before turning fully to face Naruto. The younger teen stopped as well and looked suspiciously up at the older man, and yelped as a hand suddenly gripped one of his cheeks. "I'm clearly much more handsome than you are. Still, I can't deny that I'm not a bit envious about your whiskers. I met a lot of women who found things like these most…intriguing."

Naruto quickly backpedalled away from the man wide-eyed. Thankfully the cobalt-eyed man merely smirked once before turning around again. He then pointed dramatically into the air before marching off in the same direction as before. Naruto sighed once before he began trudging after the ever-unpredictable blonde. Huh. Is this what the others felt like when I was younger?

The two blondes made their way through the village streets without many other distractions. The only times they stopped were at the Ichiraku's ramen stand. There Naruto had been forced to watch as Arashi shamelessly tried to flirt with Ayame while eating four bowls of ramen tortuously slow. For some reason he didn't see Ayame's dad anywhere at all.

Arashi calmly paid for his latest meal, and left a tip behind that caused Ayame's eyes to briefly resemble stars. Naruto was happy to get a move on again; the sooner he brought the stupid chest wherever Arashi wanted it the sooner he could double back for some ramen of his own. As the two blondes drew farther away both could hear joyous shouting from behind them.

"Tell me about yourself." Arashi spoke up above the sound of the crowds just as Naruto was finishing a long string of creative curses he had overheard during his three year trip with Jiraiya. The question caused the younger of the two men to narrow his blue eyes suspiciously at the back of the black Suna flak jacket.

"What do you want to know?" The blonde teen asked as he guessed the next sentence to come from the Namikaze's mouth.

"Things like your likes, dislikes, hobbies, dreams, etcetera."

"I knew you were going to say that!" Naruto said with trace of wistfulness laced into his tone. The Uzumaki remembered the day when Kakashi had asked the same of the newly formed Team Seven years ago. Good times. Sadly, his trip down memory lane was cut short as Arashi again spoke up.

"I don't care about any prophetic-notions you have kid, just tell me already."

Naruto felt his brow twitch in irritation at being called 'kid' by the Yondaime's son once again. He was a Shinobi, eighteen, and been exposed to a 'Super Pervert' far too long to be a kid for Kami's sake! Making a mental note to get even, Naruto answered, "I like being a Shinobi, ramen, the color orange, learning new jutsu, and every one of my friends. I dislike the Akatsuki, Oto-ninja, perverts, people who can't take a joke, scary women, not having a never-ending supply of ramen in my apartment, and you."

"My heart is heavy with sorrow born of your hurtful words." Arashi interrupted as he made a scene of looking quite pained while holding a hand above his heart. "I think you're wrong about the scary women thought. I feel that's more of a fear, one rightly justified."

"Oi! Don't interrupt me!" Naruto shot back quickly before continuing, "I take care of my own little home garden as a hobby, and for my dream…I have two. One is to become Hokage just like I told the Sandaime, and the other is to save one of my closest friends."

"You and the Sandaime were close?" Questioned Arashi, who was not at all surprised to hear that the longest serving Hokage knew Naruto personally. Keeping the identity of his family away from a newborn child was a decision that would have weighed heavily on the old man; playing the part of a surrogate grandfather was certainly up his alley.

A bittersweet smile appeared on Naruto as he nodded, "The Old Man was the closest thing to family I had growing up. He was…Pretty damn awesome, even if he was a really old pervert."

"That's it?" Arashi stated in surprise. His eyes shifted to look into a nearby window where he saw a look of confusion on Naruto's face. "You aren't going to say anything else about the only other Hokage you knew personally? If the Sandaime was the closest thing to family when you were a snot-nosed-whiny-little-runt-of-a-wannabe-ninja, I'd expect there to be more to say about him."

"The Old Man was a Hokage. If you really are the son of the Yondaime, then you'd know that's all that needs to be said." Naruto responded poignantly and without any trace of annoyance. Arashi was surprised at the flash of annoyance that he felt at the jab at his heritage, at least until he fully processed that Naruto hadn't meant anything he'd just said as an insult. "Did you know him to?"

"Huh?"

"In your dimension-" Was as far as Naruto got before Arashi had appeared behind him, feet planted on the chest. The younger blue-eyed blonde impressively managed to remain on his own two feet for all of three seconds before his face was linked with the street pavement. When he had dislodged his face from the short indent it had made in the ground, his face was bleeding and at least one tooth was missing. "What the Hell!" He exclaimed loudly, blood flying out from his mouth, and Arashi who was now belly-first on the street as well.

Paying absolutely no attention whatsoever to the perturbed looks directed at him by passer-byers, Arashi cradled his chin in one hand while the other was waving a finger at Naruto. "Bad-bad Fishcake, almost revealing things he shouldn't be speaking of in a public venue full of potential eavesdroppers. No ramen for you now."

"Teme!"

"Is this a bad time?" A voice asked from above the two blondes. Once again Naruto found his face leaving a deeper indent, courtesy of Arashi grabbing him by the hair and slamming him back into the ground. As the Genin flailed about trying to obtain some leverage to lose the grip, Arashi looked up to see his blue skinned friend, Hoshigaki Kisame. The oddly colored Kiri Swordsman had a trio of large scrolls under each arm, Samehada still resting on his back.

"Yes. You know where to go. I'll see you in about forty minutes. Do tidy up, by the way." Using the hand that was holding his chin up, Arashi made a dismissive gesture to the Kiri-nin. Grumbling under his breath, the man obliged managed a gesture with a single finger before leaving with a Shunshin. Without showing any sign of it, Arashi was vehemently cursing himself for hoping that the lone ROOT agent had ceased their pursuit.

Then again the only time he'd ever lost one tailing him was after killing them. ROOT was like that. Danzo was like that to.

He would deal with it however, at a time of his choice and not this world's take on one of his teachers. The Namikaze man could make more than one assumption from his friend's signal. First and foremost was that Shimura Danzo, the Shinobi to Shinobi, knew a new player had forced themselves onto the political stage. Two, anyone he had acknowledged for more than ten seconds would be watched as well for any inclination to possible correspondence. If this Danzo was half a manipulative ass as the one who had taught him then Arashi could expect to have all Namikaze assets looked over off-the-record by a number of either brainwashed or bribed informants across the Elemental Nations. Arashi also had the feeling that the ROOT were also following Kisame, no doubt preparing for a possible visit by Uchiha Itachi.

All in all Danzo knew nothing overly dangerous or damning to him at the moment, as long as he wasn't in any mood to go springing for an extravagant interior decorator. He did not even spare a sliver of worry for Itari. Both he and Kisame were doing their absolute best to keep attention off of Itari by being as visible as possible. Ignoring their joint efforts, his Uchiha fiancé was more careful than him and would not have been seen unless she herself wanted to.

Thus the only question on his mind at the moment was just how to handle Danzo. His training under the man urged him to just wait for ROOT Commander to approach him, but that would signal to Danzo that he could be controlled to a degree. At the same time Arashi doubted that a simple confrontation with the agent tracking him would have any positive benefit. The best he could hope to earn was the agent's death not to be explosive-based, but still put Danzo on the defensive and against any form of cooperation with him.

That would not do. Arashi needed Danzo's network to better track down Orochimaru and his forces, as well as the Akatsuki. There was no doubt in his mind that the old Commander had some form of contact with either group, more than likely using them as a third-party internationally. To be honest he would have been surprised to learn that at least one person wasn't with either organization on Danzo's orders and feeding ROOT a steady stream of information.

As all this went on inside the Namikaze's head, Naruto would find out that the older blonde had a habit of tightening his grip when in deep thought.

(STNM)

Treetops of a forest

Tanshin caught the scent of ash and blood breezing past him as he rapidly closed in on the source of the large chakra surge he had detected minutes after…Arriving wherever he was. As he drew nearer the Hatake man could detect numerous smaller chakra burst concentrated directly between him and his target. In other words, he was about to run straight into a battle between two forces of almost-certainly life threatening Shinobi. He chose almost-certainly because even if one side was Konoha he would have to return to the village, and if he returned to the village after not informing anyone of his plans…

He hoped Jiraiya could at least allow him a quick merciful death as punishment rather than have his parents come for him.

His chakra-enhanced ears picked up on the sound of clashing steel and a shout of pain. Tanshin's feet landed on a large branch where he chose to remain. Collecting his chakra he pricked his right thumb on one of the blades hooked to his sash before going through a number of hand seals. Wordlessly he turned to face body of the tree before slamming his hand onto it. A second later a brown lizard with an unusually long tail appeared, the tail wrapped around his forearm.

The lizard blinked its obsidian eyes slowly before hissing in annoyance, "What the hell did you do, Human? This forest feels nothing like that storm-drain of a village you last summoned me in."

"Sukauto," Tanshin said in response before shaking his arm. The brown lizard in turn tightened its hold on the arm by digging its claws into skin without drawing blood. "I have a job for you."

"I vehemently refuse to associate my scales with anything remotely similar to the duties which you assigned Yamori." Sukauto said briskly, although with a more noticeable lisp than most lizard summons. Unlike most of Tanshin's lizard summons Sukauto disliked most anything related to humans, including language. He only obeyed Tanshin because he had proven himself in combat against the two great Chief Lizards.

"Watch your tongue," Tanshin threatened him lightly. Yamori was his most common summon, and one of his great friends. Even if he often had the lizard house sit for him. "Your new job right now is to go and scout out that." Here the violet-haired man turned his arm to face the direction he had been heading towards. "There seems to be a battle going on in that direction as well. Ignore those Shinobi, I'll deal with them myself. Go around them and find the real battle and report back to me, understand?"

"Like a hatchling." Sukauto confirmed briskly.

"Then move." Here Tanshin turned and threw the arm the lizard had wrapped itself around upwards. In the blink of an eye Sukauto's tail had completely released his hold on Tanshin's arm, and the brown lizard summon was sent flying into the sky. His legs were pressed against a scaly underbelly until he had reached the apex of the throw before kicking out and revealing a layer of skin that stretched to catch the air beneath him. Sukauto flapped his new wings once to test the currents before stilling. Using his tail to turn the direction and circle once above Tanshin, he took off in a direction to avoid the nearby battle before then turning to glide towards his destination.

Tanshin stood still for a minute as he tracked the path of his aerial reconnaissance summon. Once he was sure that Sukauto had not been spotted by some group of Shinobi scattered around the forest he smiled thinly beneath the green cloth over his lower face. "If he ever changed his personality, I might just keep him around more often," Tanshin spoke out loud as he brushed his thumb against the leg of his scale-suit, removing the now dried blood, and then leapt back towards the battle.

Less than three minutes later he was crouched down behind a tree above a small valley. Beneath him a river, likely joined at some point to the stream he had his face under earlier, cut through the valley and carried with it a handful of bodies. Farther up the river he saw twenty ninja engaged in combat. Curiously he saw that the larger force, twelve in total, was made up of a group wearing forehead-protectors adorned with a musical note of all things. Who the hell are these clowns? Facing off against the unknown ninja were two teams of Takigakure ninja, although they were clearly losing as he saw one take a kunai to the knee.

The ground shook faintly as the sound of another explosion rocked the valley. Tanshin saw a Taki-nin take their eyes of an opponent to throw a heated glare in the direction before barely avoiding a barrage of senbon from a duo of the musical note ninja. As the battle continued on Tanshin saw the Taki force try and fail to break past the encircling hostile several times. His brown eyes narrowed ever so slightly as he noticed the controlled desperation he saw in their behavior. If he was right, and he probably was, then the Takigakure Shinobi had another force near the explosion.

Still, he couldn't let that happen. Taki was one of the smaller villagers at war with Konoha and thus the ninja down there were his enemy. Tanshin knew that there was a chance he was in another dimension, a dimension where the war between the two villages was nonexistent, but old habits were known to die rather hard. And Taki did owe him more than a few lives for the ninja he'd lost because of them. Besides he had a perfect solution to keeping any possible peace: he would just have to make sure there were no witnesses. The same went for the other foreign group of ninja.

In the event that either of the two sides weren't warring with his village, and their Shinobi didn't attack him, then he'd find some other use for them. As one of Konoha's top deep cover operatives he had infiltrated and then manipulated numerous bands of Nukenin. Tanshin closed his eyes and channeled a steady amount of chakra just above his skin. He formed the Ram seal and held it in place. "Ninpo: Sukēru Yoroi (Ninja Art: Scale Armor)."

The scale-suit he wore glowed faintly as the scales began rubbing against each other. They expanded in size and moved to full envelop all his skin and stopping only at the top of his facemask. The glow faded away and showed the violet haired man garbed in a pale green scaled armor. Rolling his joints and muscles at the familiar initial discomfort of the scales, especially where his sandals pushed down on his ankles, becoming actual scales, Tanshin let his left arm hang loosely at his side. Concentrating he had the scales open up above his wrist and caught the kunai that came out.

Holding the kunai he again formed a hand seal, this one the Snake, with his right hand. "Kinton: Seikatsu Burēdo (Metal Release: Life Blade)." The blade pulsed with unseen chakra as he jabbed it up to his fingers into the ground. He felt his chakra flow through the earth beneath him, the charge in the air, and the rising temperature. Tanshin then rose up from his position on the ground; his weapon coming up from the ground with him. He looked up and down the length of the former kunai which was now a blade similar in length to a katana. In the faint rays of sunlight breaching the tree tops, the added metal took on a green shine to it.

Looking towards the still battling group of Shinobi Tanshin saw that the Taki side had removed two more enemies at the cost of one of their own; the one he first saw paying more attention to the source of the explosion rather than senbon needles. He could see that both sides were growing more and more tired. Unseen beneath the scaly face mask on his face Tanshin smiled a bloodthirsty smile that would make his mother proud as he readied himself to fight. Ten tired music Shinobi against him? Three minutes at the most since he would avoid using any of his Ninjutsu. And if the Taki side got involved as well…Two minutes and thirty seconds with his Ninjutsu.

With that thought fresh in his mind, the man outside forces called Steel Blood descended onto a new battlefield.

(STNM)

Amegakure, Tower of Pein

Uchiha Madara was without a doubt the epitome of the Sharingan wielding Clan. He was gifted with intelligence to obtain innumerable victories against rival Clans during the old days. And not just on the battlefield; the Uchiha had enough influence to force the Damiyo's hand on several occasions thanks to his political affinity. In combat he was forever counted among the greatest of Shinobi, for his power, his name carrying a reverence reserved almost solely for deities in life. He left behind scars in the surface of the planet itself such as the Valley of the End.

It is a good enough name to take as any, thought a man hidden by dark tiger-striped mask and a large robe as he waited atop the tallest spire in Amegakure no Sato. The tower he was standing on was high enough that he could run a hand through the clouds if he was ever possessed by such a juvenile fancy. Not unlike what the person behind him was doing, in fact.

"Otōsan this is so cool! The clouds are so wet!"

"Tobi, silence yourself."

"But the clouds Otōsan!"

"Tobi." The man, Madara, said curtly. Behind him he could hear the rustle of fabric as Tobi continued to be fascinated by the clouds, simply without vocalizing his every thought. He wore an orange-spiraled mask but the short spiky black hair and slashed Konoha hitai-ate strapped to his wrist revealed him to be the same person whom Madara had brought back to life with aid from his prisoner. The first of many such people, Madara thought morbidly. He already had the bodies stored away to be reanimated after all. All that was needed were Shinobi and Kunoichi to donate their very life force to power these corpses.

It was unfortunate then that he had no way of finding these people. Orochimaru had only identified one person whom his research found to be a possible match before his desertion from Akatsuki and near total annihilation of his work. In the seven years after her capture Madara had not found anyone else who carried the right genetic makeup found in Inuzuka Rin.

He blinked once behind the mask he wore before three other Akatsuki members appeared. The one in the center had orange hair, purple ringed eyes, and multiple piercings on his face. Standing on his right was a beautiful woman, Madara was old but not too old to stop appreciating that quality, with blue hair. She had a single piercing beneath her lip and an origami flower in her hair. On the opposite side of the center man was someone who looked like a monster. His body was black on one half, white on the other, and a plant sprouting around his head.

"I take it," Began the orange haired man, "That is to become Sasori's replacement as Deidara's partner?" The 'that' was still trying to grab the clouds while the new arrival spoke. "He is not what I expected you to have chosen."

Madara hummed before responding, "It is to be called Tobi, and you would be correct. However do not be mistaken Pein. I assure you that Tobi is more than qualified, a fool or not."

"Tobi is not a fool!" Interjected the orange masked man as he quickly came to stand by Madara. He gave the trio a thumbs up before enthusiastically proclaiming, "Tobi is a good boy!"

"…I like him." Zetsu's white half said in the short silence that followed. His other side also made his opinion known, "I don't care."

The woman, Konan, silently appraised the figure as well. He was now directly in front of Zetsu and shooting questions off fast enough that she had to struggle to catch them. The questions themselves were more than simple enough to answer without much thought, but possessed a sort of childish innocence that the woman admitted to missing lately. Tobi would be interesting to have about for a few days at the very least. She tilted her head to her left and towards Pein, who caught her sign of agreement easily.

"Zetsu," Pein spoke up monotonously, for a God need not speak with any mortal inflections when he desired to be heard. "Deidara has nearly fully gained the use of his arms. Go introduce the two, and make sure that if Deidara tries to kill him that he is forbidden from using his explosives."

"Can Tobi get his ring first?" Tobi asked hopefully before Zetsu put a hand on his shoulder and Shunshined the pair away. Now alone, Ame's God and Angel pair stared down at the stripe patterned mask of Akatsuki's chief benefactor. The man in question had his hands hanging by his sides and peered at them in turn from behind his mask with a red orb.

Madara moved for the first time since taking up the space he now stood upon, tilting his head back to catch a brief glimpse of what he knew to be the sudden behind the dark clouds. His head remained like that as he then asked, "How has the playing field been changed?"

"New enemies, it would seem, and potentially problematic ones at that." Konan responded to the question. It was beneath Pein to answer most questions and the female Akatsuki knew what kind those were. "Itachi and Kisame each encountered a separate individual while utilizing the Shōten no Jutsu (Shapeshifting Technique) to stall for more time to finish the Ichibi's extraction, which the Kazekage seems to have somehow survived."

"Hm," Madara said simply. His head returned to a level position once more, "Do I detect a trace of suspicion in your tone, Konan?"

"Of course not, but I do believe you would be the one to know of any surviving Uchiha women."

"…An Uchiha woman?" Madara whispered, his interest fully directed towards Konan's words.

The woman shrugged slightly before responding, "Or a woman carrying transplanted eyes like that of the Copy-Ninja. Itachi stated in his brief encounter that the woman was a member of Konoha's ANBU Black Ops division, a Captain by her cloak, and that she carried fully matured Sharingan eyes. She also knew enough of how to use them to see through his Genjutsu, and was able to work in conjunction with Hatake Kakashi to immobilize Itachi's puppet long enough for it to be destroyed."

Madara's eyes narrowed into slits as he digested the new information. He knew for a fact that there was no possibility of this woman being born to the Uchiha Clan. Both Itachi and he had wiped out the entire Clan to the very last, except for young Sasuke. His research on the dojutsu itself imparted to him the knowledge that having two Sharingan implants would be unfeasible. Implanted dojutsu, for the most part, needed to remain active full-time and using them was a delicate matter. Madara theorized that the cause of this permanent state was a direct result of many dojutsu, like the Sharingan, needing to be awakened under specific conditions and not present at birth like the Byakugan.

The amount of chakra that would be necessary to keep a pair of implanted Sharingan active would be massive; enough that someone like the legendary Sharingan no Kakashi would only be able to evenly engage low-Chunin level opponents for a few minutes at most before fully exhausting their reserves. Only ninja with Jinchuriki-level chakra stores could off-set the drain, and he would have known about any such person long ago. The only possible way for the ANBU woman to make good use of the fully matured eyes would be for Uchiha blood to be flowing through her veins.

"A bastard half-blood then," Madara growled out as fisted his hands in controlled anger. That was the only possible explanation. The stoic personality of Itachi was very much common among the Uchiha but not as much as outsiders thought. There was always a black sheep or two present in the Clan, the records Zetsu brought him on Tobi's early childhood was proof enough of that, and were generally estranged from the Clan. They were less inclined to behave traditionally in most ways, including children.

There was no law or order that restricted Uchiha from producing offspring outside of the Clan. Indeed it was encouraged to a lesser extent so as to keep the risks of inbreeding low. It was keeping any such child that was taboo. The stance of the Clan was that the children would be declared legitimate only if they were raised in a traditional Uchiha household. If an Uchiha was discovered to have kept a half-blood child secret, well then…The Police Force was Uchiha. Obviously someone was keeping their illegitimate whelp better hidden than most, Madara angrily decided. His rage was partially relieved with a snarl as he ordered Konan, "The other problems."

Konan gave the robed man a withering glare before she responded. "The man Kisame encountered actually identified himself. 'Kazuma Arashi' poses perhaps the greater danger to our goals of the three however."

"Why." Madara did not ask this time; his tone showed that he would not allow Konan the opportunity to refuse an answer. Pein did not miss this threat and readied himself to defend his only living friend.

"Kisame described the man as the second coming of the Yellow Flash, in appearance and ability."

(STNM)

Konohagakure, Namikaze Mansion

Arashi decided that he would have to find to buy himself a camera as soon as possible. With his feet resting atop the ceramic-topped wooden office desk the Namikaze was smiling wickedly as he leaned back and into the black leather office chair. The chair was perhaps one of the most expensive items that he had seen since setting foot within the long abandoned Namikaze Mansion. It was a true sign of how much Minato had detested paperwork that he had attempted to lessen his suffering by having a good chair in his office. It really was a good chair to; Arashi was practically sinking into it and felt like he could even sleep in it.

Lying on his back, neck propped up by a small pillow in a shark-decorated sleeve, Kisame could be found on a crème-colored couch reading up on the history of Kirigakure in this dimension. Samehada was resting on a pile of several large pillows and making a strange humming sound that it made when sleeping. The man's grey flak jacket was hanging on a stand behind the couch, along with both Arashi's white trench coat and black flak jacket.

The third person in the room was busy opening and then closing his mouth repeatedly as he tried to form a cohesive sentence. Finally Naruto was able to collect his thoughts to sum them up in the most educated way possible, "That's my stuff."

"Are you sure?" Arashi questioned as he started to fumble through the cabinets of the desk. He made a sound of pleasant surprise as he found a half full bottle of Lightning Water and a pair of saucers. Cautiously he set the bottle down and went about dusting a saucer off.

"Yes I'm sure! That's my mattress, that's my table, and that's the old pot for my little garden!" Naruto cried out less shocked and more irritated as he pointed at the aforementioned items atop an unfurled scroll and the two still sealed scrolls on either side. "Why's my stuff here in this office?"

"Oh that's an easy question for once." Arashi said as his hands set down the saucer and reached for the bottle. Within seconds the saucer was half filled with Lightning Water. The sound of the liquid had caught Kisame's attention, and his eyes gleamed with joy at seeing the strong drink on the desk. Arashi saw this and reacted by lifting his saucer up in a mock toast to the Kiri-nin. "I am soon to be a Clan head in a Hidden Village, as you already know. Traditionally all clans have at least one servant to assist the Clan head with day-to-day things such as keeping track or records, cleaning the floors, preparing meals if there is no kitchen staff, etc. This servant is also required to live in the Clan compounds if requested by the Clan head." Arashi's eyes moved to lock with Naruto's own cobalt blue as he brought his saucer closer to his lips, noticing the growing look of worry in the teen's eyes. "Tsunade and I negotiated on purchasing your services to fulfill this role. You're my servant now." Shooting the younger blonde a victorious smirk Arashi emptied his saucer of its contents in a single gulp. He allowed his body to shiver as a sudden tingling sensation flooded his system and strange warmth latched to his heart and lungs. Good stuff.

"You bought me!" Naruto shouted out in a mix of outrage, disbelief, and betrayal. But mostly outrage. Strange; he didn't expect this version of himself to know the Academy Instructor signature 'Big Headed' jutsu. Arashi made a note of finding out who had taught him that.

"Yeah, I bought you. You are now under my power, a living being whose sole purpose is to do what I see fit. If needed, you will also die in my stead." Arashi said this with a menacing glint to his eyes and smirk still in place. "Oh and do feel some pride Fishcake. You were worth a whole two-hundred thousand ryo. The Hokage seems to like you for some reason since my starting price was five."

Naruto sputtered at hearing that he had a price at all. Kisame calmly turned the page of his book before adding in his own ryo. "Oi, Arashi. Since he's going to be living here to, may I order him around as well? The Seven Swordsman had their own group of servants you know."

"Of course Sempai, you didn't even need to ask." Arashi said as the tingling soon became something akin to an extended burst of static inside his body. He had to suppress the unmanly laughter that would have come from feeling his insides tickled. "You'll be staying in the fifth room I showed you on the second floor. You remember right, the one with the balcony and the view of the Yamanaka Estate? With the right equipment you might get to see your Hime changing for bed or taking a bath."

"Go to Hell you bastard!" Naruto yelled loudly as his anger intensified to the point where Arashi prepared to avoid a Ōdama Rasengan. Quickly the Namikaze man had taken out and tossed the Lightning Water toward Kisame; it would be a shame to lose such an exquisite drink, desk, and chair all at once after all. "I'd rather deal with the Fox for a whole week than be your servant! I'm out of here!"

"I'll pay you ten-thousand ryo a month, in addition to what I did with the Ichiraku's Ramen Stand." Arashi still had his victorious smirk as Naruto stopped in his tracks, back towards the Namikaze. "Don't be a little brat and turn this down. Genin get paid the lowest when it comes to dividing up anything earned for C and above ranked missions. Just consider being my Clan's servant a part-time job, something to earn a bit more cash when not on missions. Heck, I think I'll even pay you something while you're on missions too."

"…What did you do with the Ichiraku's?"

"In case you forgot, those squeals of joy coming from the lovely Ayame and her less attractive father? They weren't just from me leaving them a generous tip." Arashi set his feet back down on the floor before pushing the chair back and standing up, his hands pressed against the desk's top. "I also took the liberty of setting you and myself up with a tab. A hundred-thousand ryo's worth actually for the two of us."

Naruto stayed where he stood for a moment longer before continuing on out. Interestingly, when he slammed the door shut it was much gentler that what Arashi had predicted. "Well, I think he's considering it." Abruptly all trace of emotion vanished from his face. His left hand moved to one of the numerous seals on his right arm to arm himself with a single tri-pronged kunai blade. The electric-blue eyes turned to look at his blue-skinned companion as the red shirted man stepped around the chair. "Anyone aside from Naruto, Itari, or the Hokage tries to enter I want them disabled."

Kisame nodded as he set the book aside on a nearby coffee table and moved to a sitting position. "Finally going to get that guy tracking us off our backs? Bout damn time; I was getting tired of letting some Konoha ninja go unpunished for that." Kisame blinked before looking around the room. "Freaking Namikaze and Uchiha! Why do they always leave me alone when I'm about to say something to them?"

AN: If you guys want to know a bit more about my implant idea, here's my explanation. Let us use the obvious example of implanted use, Kakashi. In this story Kakashi for example could in theory will his Sharingan to deactivate right after receiving it from Obito, but because he was not of Uchiha blood he would not be able to reactivate it at will, or if he ran out of chakra and the eye shuts down because of that. In time the eye would have become permanently attached to his body, and the risk of it deactivating because of a lack of ample chakra nonexistent, but it would still require a constantly channeled amount of chakra to keep at top level. And of course, the problem with trying to reactivate it is always there.

I know I promised that I'd get in the Council Meeting this chapter and I'm sorry if you were excited for that. This chapter was already getting close to what I like as my max word-count and the Council meeting would have added in 1000-2000 extra words possibly. At the same time I did follow through with the Akatsuki intro. I'll be interested to see what you guys think the Oto guys Tanshin saw fighting Taki happen to be there for. All I can say is that I really am enjoying the whole fight I've got planned for him next chapter. Oh, and Arashi's as well.

Also, I gotta say I'm sorry about not posting in a good while. The College Application process was one troublesome and nerve wracking time in my life, the like which I hope I never have to go through again. Then there's this whole new girl I'm interested that's causing me a whole lot more stress. Seriously, I'm worrying over a sophomore as I'm about to enter College. Whatever, this is also going to be another long wait between this and my next post. Mass Effect 3 comes out in less than three days at the time of this writing, so I expect that to suck up a ton of my life now.

So yeah. Hope to see some of you in the multiplayer if you gotta 360. My gt's on my profile page if you're interested and want to try and save the galaxy from a Reaper invasion with me.

-SpartanCommando.