Well, here's the next chapter... Man I'm taking longer and longer to write these chapters. I really wish I could push past writers block and general laziness to and just get things done. As always I will be going over the chapter once more to try and fix any mistakes that I can find.

Now, back several chapters ago I made a comment about what I thought the level Karin is interns of power, speed, ect., and I compared her to Naruto in his current sage mode. Well that was completely wrong, Karin above and beyond that, while yes Chakra allows Naruto to create some powerful techniques, no they won't compare to anything Karin should be able to do if she stops holding back. Also in the Naruto world, while computers do exist I notice that people don't really invest to much in them unless they are being used for monitoring health.

As for the power levels speculations: For the end of Z saga when I take the new movie into account all levels for the saiyans is base and the humans and Piccolo will have Tenshinhan's Spirit Burst technique as 10 times multiplier.

Goku: 875,000,000 Vegeta: 905,000,000 Gohan: 215,000,000 Goten: 180,000,000 Trunks: 182,000,000 Piccolo: 45,000,000,000 18:13,200,000,000 Krillin: 135,230,000 Tenshinhan: 300,000,000 Chiaotzu: 9,300,000 Yamucha: 121,029,000

Captain class shinigami will be somewhere between 15,000,000 to 45,000,000.

Karin: 34,500,000 Tatsuki: 33,345,900 the Trunks from this story: 345,000,000 Gotenks: 504,000,000 Edit: Gogeta: 14,000,000,000 Vegeto: 26,250,000,000

Alister: The problem with this is the fact that Frieza himself has a power level of 120,000,000 at full power and in the same movie that Gogeta appeared, Gohan one shot Frieza in his 4th form without going to his ultimate or super saiyan form. Yes its obvious because of his body that he was not at 100%, but Frieza could raise his power level between 530,000 to 60,000,000 in an instant, as it was shown by how he managed to take Goku's Kaio-ken x 20 Kamehameha during their fight on Namek. if you take Goku's 3,000,000 power level during Namek and give it the multiplication for all 3 super saiyan forms, he ends up with a level of power of 1,200,000,000 which shows that if he even doubles his own power in the 11 years between Namek and Fusion reborn he would be almost as strong as Gogeta is suppose to be. But you have a point about Gogeta's base power, it should actually be 14 billion not 3.5 billion, with a current super saiyan pl of 1,050,000,000,000 and with his fusion reborn pl at 300,000,000,000 and super saiyan 3 goku during the movie at 187,500,000,000.

Chapter 68

15 Minutes Before Danzo Confronted The Kame House Crew

Flying west, away from Konoha, while keeping himself hidden in the clouds, his usual aura not present. Trunks made his way back to the No Ma Ni village, the first village that Karin and him had visited in this world. Hearing a sound coming from the knapsacks on his back, he sigh, feeling both tired from the over use of a dangerous technique, and guilty about kidnapping a total of 6,400 people.

'I really wish I had put more thought into this plan.' he thought as the sounds from the knapsack came once more, reminding him of the sounds of people crying out in fear.

'No time to let guilt get in the way.' he reminded himself as the village came into view. 'As long as Danzo agrees to back off, he will get back his people.'

'But the experiments are another matter.' Trunks finished with determination, not liking the implication of finding all those sharingan and half plant people in the lab.

As he was about to descend towards the main road that would lead him to the village, he felt several approaching chakra signatures, heading towards No Ma Ni from the north west.

'They're coming from the air.' He concluded and quickly flew towards the ground, heading towards the surrounding forest, not wanting to take the chance that they would spot him.

Once he landed on the ground he began to make his way around the trees in the direction of the village, all the while keeping his Ki senses trained on three approaching people.

'From what Zaisan-san told us, it's safe to assume that's the Tsuchikage and his back up on their way to Konoha.' he thought as he reached the edge of the tree lines, that stopped several meters away from the village wall.

'And if that guy is making his way to Konoha, then the Raikage must be on his way as well.'

Shaking his head at the thought of the escalating events, and wishing that the two factions had stayed at home. The half saiyan, quickly took off the two knapsacks, and carefully placed them on the ground. Before doing the same with the red cloak and boots, placing them beside the bags.

Opening one of the bags, he reach inside, being mindful of the jars inside, and took out the laptop he had stole from Root. Placing it on top of the red cloak, beside the boots, he reached further down, and took out the sweat pants he had been wearing earlier.

Laying the pants on top of the bags, he removed his stolen pants, throwing them on top of the stolen clothes, before putting on the sweats. Grabbing the boots, Trunks put them on and reached for the computer, picking it up he placed it inside the open bag over half the jars, before doing the same with the cloak and closing it.

Grabbing the brown pants, he opened the other bag placed them inside, closing it. Hoping that the clothing on top of the jars would muffle some of the noise coming from the jars.

Reaching for both bags and placing them around his shoulders, the blonde haired man headed out of the tree line, and towards the towns western gate; removing the sun glasses, he folded them and placed one of its temples inside his shirt to hold it in place.

'Hey.' he sent out to his other self who had been waiting at the Kame House. 'Danzo is going to be heading your way soon, so I thought you should know...'

He proceeded to tell himself about the plant like bodies and the sharingan that he had found. As he walked up to the gate from the side and spoke to the guards on duty to confirm he was only looking for a place to stay and heading in.

'Not to mention.' he continued as he stopped after walking for several minutes and looked towards the sky as three forms slowly descend into the village, drawing the attention of the villagers and guards who were still walking around during this time of the night. Causing them to point and talked among themselves. Excited at seeing three people drop from the skies, with the ease of a bird.

'More problems are headed your way.' was the last thing, he told his other self, when he and the old man with wrinkled skin, white hair, a large nose, and a triangular beard with a mustache with angular corner; met each others eyes.

Holding the stare for a couple of seconds, Trunks blinked and turned away. Heading further into the village, avoiding the people who had come to see the three shinobi as gossip traveled, and hoping that whatever the future had installed for them. That they could get through it without causing a war between the nations of this world.

10 Minutes Before Danzo Confronted The Kame House Crew

Trunks was having a blast!

Running around the village with 30 shinobi chasing after him, Trunks took enjoyment in being able to outrun them. While pretending he was clumsy, and almost getting caught on three different occasions. Currently he was breathing as hard as he could, having stopped once or twice to wash his face and drink water within a fountain in the west side of the village, to maintain his ruse that the chase was tiring him, while the shinobi themselves kept on going strong.

But he knew it would have to end, as much fun as he was having allowing himself to let go of his usual serious nature, to make everyone believe he was someone else. He already felt when his other self had reached No Ma Ni village, and how Danzo had ran out of his base. Looking up and around himself, Trunks saw that to his left, there where many cloth lines had been set up to in between buildings.

Jumping into the air, he avoid the kunais thrown at him by one of the groups of shinobi that were chasing him and turned around quickly, putting his left arm up; blocking a kick from the shinobi that he had felt up earlier.

Allowing himself to get taken with the momentum of the kick, the half saiyan gets thrown to his right, towards the rooftop of a three story building, where another group of shinobi, waited for him with a net. Throwing his weight to his right, he spun and flipped his body in mid air. And just as the group threw the net, Trunks grabbed the edge of the roof top and pulled himself aside into a roll; avoiding the net and rolling towards the other side of the roof.

Where he jumped to his feet in a hurry while stepping forward as exaggerated as he could, faking losing his balance, while windmilling his arms backwards, to make it look like he was trying to catch himself from going over the edge.

"Doton: Doryu Taiga!(Earth Style: Earth Flow River!)" another shinobi called from behind him.

Turning his head to the side as he caught his balance, Trunks' eyes widen in surprise at the river of mud that was flowing in his direction. But instead of jumping out of the way, he allowed the mud to hit and take him over the edge. Where he fell on the clothe lines on his way down, his stolen sunglasses falling from his face, as mud got into his eyes, and mouth.

"Augh, augh, augh!" he cough and gagged as he tried to force the mud from his mouth. "Augh, augh! Oh man, I think I'm gonna be sick." he protested as he felt his arms and legs had been locked in place, by the clothe lines that had tangled around his body during the fall.

"Good." he heard the now familiar voice of the short brown haired shinobi. "Because that's the least of your problems." she finished as she walked into his line of sight on the lines, keeping herself perfectly balanced.

"I-" he coughed twice, before locking his green eyes on her again as she pulled something out from a pouch at her side. "Don't suppose I could apologize and turn myself in willingly?"

"No, no you can't." She replied, revealing a paper packet and opening it, before kneeling down, taking a deep breath and bringing the paper to her lips; blowing the contents on his face. "But don't worry, I'll be sure to return the favor for what happened in the forest, when the interrogation begins."

'C-crap!' Trunks thought, as his face started to become numb. 'This will really make it difficult for me to talk.'

"Now why don't we get you down?" she asked as a smile graced her scarred lips, before she sat on top of him, and pulled out a kunai; cutting the lines holding him in place. Allowing gravity to do its job and dragged them down to the ground two stories below, where he crashed face first, with her still sitting on his back.

"Oof!" the blond grunted, as he felt the air leave his body.

'If I were anyone else that really would have hurt.' he thought as he tried crawl from under her, only to feel as though he was trying to move through quicksand.

"Should we really let Mikaeri process this guy?" one of the male shinobi that had joined the group, a bald man with hooded eyes and now eyebrows asked, knowing full well that the brown haired woman had a vicious streak when angered.

"I think it will be good for him." a woman with mid-back length blue hair, replied with a warm smile. "After all, if his parents never taught him to keep his hands to himself, then is our responsibility to do so, don't you think?"

Looking at her face, the male shinobi with nodded solemnly and turned away, shooting a look of pity towards Mikaeri's prisoner.

Kame House 2: Present

2:45AM

For a second, Sasuke felt his body cease up, when the killing intent from Danzo hit him, but his experience with both Orochimaru's and Zabuza's killing intent. Allowed him to focus his chakra and pull himself away from the feeling of helplessness that was threatening to overcome him. Looking to his left he saw that Naruto and Sakura were doing the same, while Temari and Nezu remained seemingly unaffected.

'If this level of blood lust is enough to cause me pause, I won't be able to defeat Itachi any time soon.' he thought somewhat bitterly as he turned his gaze back to Danzo, but not before catching the concern looks on his teammates faces.

"Return what exactly?" Zaisan asked with a raised brow, already knowing that Trunks had taken something from him, but not what.

Other than sparing her a quick glance, Danzo kept his eye focused on Trunks, before he spoke.

"My men." Danzo replied after a second, as his lips forming a grimace. "Or I will go to the other elders with the information I have on you and your dealings with the Sound village."

'His men?' Zaisan questioned herself before glancing at Trunks from the corner of her eyes. 'He must have captured some important people if Danzo came all this way.'

"I don't know what you're talking about." Trunks replied as he crossed his arms in front of him.

"Don't play dumb." the dark haired man replied, his nose wrinkling with disgust. "I know that you were the one who broke into my HQ. I know you captured over 6000 of my anbu!"

"What!?" Everyone gasp in surprised, as they turned to look at the half saiyan.

"Just that information alone would be enough to have Konohagakure and every other nation, to reconsider any alliance with your nation. But if I tell them about the fact that you're harboring a criminal." Danzo glanced over to Nezu when he said the word, getting team 7, and Temari to turn their heads to the right and look at the other blonde.

"Specially one who had a hand in Sarutobi's demise..." he finished to let their imagination do the damage and felt a small amount of satisfaction, when he saw Sasuke and Naruto's eyes narrow at the blonde.

"You helped killed the old man?" Naruto asked his voice taking a dangerous edge to it.

"What of it?" Nezu asked him, as she raised an eyebrow at him, not bothering to put up any airs. "I was working for Orochimaru when I was order to trap him." She continued with a shrug.

"The fact that your Hokage, gave Orochimaru so much of a fight just shows that he wasn't the pushover I thought he was." Nezu continued."Besides, If your leader has you try to kill the leader of an enemy nation, can the ninjas of that nation look at you with anymore hate then you do to me? We are ninja, isn't it our job to follow what we are told? Our job is to kill, murder, for our nation. What makes yours any better then mine in doing so?"

"Grrr!" Naruto growled out, grinding his teeth together before baring them to her. "I don't know! But I know that Sarutobi-jiji would never have force anyone of us to try and simply for the sake of gaining power! But that doesn't matter." he said and turned to look at Trunks and Karin. "The only thing I want to know is why the hell are you're here? Why did Trunks bring you back? Are you two working with Orochimaru?

"Of course not." Karin replied as she walked around Trunks, who hadn't taken his eyes of Danzo and towards him.

Stopping in front of Naruto, she placed her left hand on left his shoulder, causing him to tense up and look her in the eyes.

"Naruto, believe me when I tell you that neither Trunks nor I are working for Orochimaru." Karin began and held up her other hand when he began to protest. "I also think that bring Tayuya with him was a stupid idea." she continued as she had him focus on her.

"Che!" Tayuya let out as she rolled her eyes.

"But since Trunks seems to have a ridiculous notion that someone so blood thirsty can actually be reformed." she continued undeterred. "I want to at least give his stupid idea a chance, because this way I can keep a close eye on her to make sure she doesn't try anything."

"I-" Naruto began as he looked away from Karin's eyes, and focused his on Trunks."I want to hear it from him. I want him to tell me that he's not working with the man who killed Sarutobi-jiji, that the training that he gave you, gave us, wasn't some trick to get us to trust him."

"Naruto- "

"He's right." Sasuke interrupted the brunette, getting a look of appreciation from Naruto. "I've been wanting to know, why did you two decided to let us train with you?"

"What does that matter?" Trunks asked as he finally turned his head to the right, to look at them with a curious look on his face.

Only to blink, when he saw the serious looks on Sasuke's face, a look that implored him to answer, told him that whatever the answer to this question was specially important to the Uchiha boy.

"Well.." Trunks began with a small shake of his head an a rueful smile. "Since Danzo isn't holding back I guess there's no reason I should."

"Sasuke, Naruto." He addressed the two nodding as he said their names. "I'm not working for Orochimaru and I never plan on doing so."

He looked at them each of them in the eyes in turn, and hoped that they believed him, dropping his arms to his side, he continuing after a beat.

"As for why I wanted to train you guys, at first is was because Karin considered you three her friends." He admitted with a glance at the dark haired girl. "But after I saw you guys in action, learned about your circumstances, and saw how hard you dedicated yourselves to the training. I knew that I couldn't just say no, heck if I did I'm sure Gohan-san and Muten Roshi-sama wouldn't have ever forgiven me."

"Now that I've spent time with you, I really have come to care for all of you." he told them, deciding be straightforward with them. "Not to mention, I think that you three have so much potential that your going to end up making some huge impacts in the future."

'Man I couldn't have been any more sappy if I tried.' Trunks thought as he saw that the two still hadn't broken their gaze.

"As for Tayuya, well... most of the people that I call friends, used to be enemies." he thought about everything his mother told him the Z fighters. "I just figured I could-"

"I-it's alright." Naruto interrupted with a small stutter, his lips slipping into that easy grin that Trunks has come to see on his face often. "It's obvious you chose me because I'm such a badass!" he boated bring his hands behind his head and interlocking the fingers causing Karin to let go of his shoulder and step back.

"You a badass?" Sasuke asked rhetorically. "Maybe in another 3 years, but right now you're still too much of a clown."

"OI!" Naruto began to protest, his arms falling to his sides and his hands clenching into fist. "Teme-"

"As touching as this is, you still don't have much of a choice but to do as I say." Danzo interrupted, a sour taste on his mouth at seeing how easily, Trunks got the two back on his side. "Having someone like you run around without a leash, may as well be consider a declaration of war to any nation you step into."

"I did say I wasn't going to be holding back." Trunks replied as everyone except Tayuya glared at the man. "I am holding every single one of your men hostage."

"I already-"

"And if you ever want to see them again, you will make sure to keep everything that could potentially cause our alliances to come under scrutiny to your self." The half saiyan interrupted the older man, turning to look at him.

"Just admitting it out loud is enough proof for me to have you hunted down and killed on sight." the Root leader retorted with a snort. "So don't think you can threaten me with killing my subordinates."

"I'm not." Trunks shrug. "I'm just going to make it so that your men and your research are completely impossible to find. But of course, I will have to reveal all the sordid details about said research to your fellow elders, Jounin council and every single person who will find it interesting."

"I'm sure the involvement Orochimaru had with making it possible, and how you specifically decided to take the research for yourself." Trunks continued as he smirked at the older man. "Ignoring all of Sarutobi-san's wishes, will be more than enough to remove you from any position of power."

"And the crown jewel of it all." he said with a flourish as he watch Danzo's left eye twitch with anger. "Your secret harvesting project."

"You miserable..." Danzo began as he gritted his teeth and set his mouth in a grimace. "How did you find out about that? All those files where under heavy inscription?"

"I'm not as good with computers as my mother and grandfather." Trunks admitted. "But I did learn enough to know how to navigate my way around such a simple security measure."

"I'll kill you!" Danzo yelled as he finally lost it, running at Trunks with his right arm extended in front of him.

But he didn't get to take more than two steps before Karin, who had been carrying Orochimaru's sword on her back, appeared in front of him, with the it drawn and help in both hands. The tip of the blade at the bottom of his jaw and a threatening look on her face, that caused him to stop cold.

'Damn.' He thought as the dark haired girl pressed the tip further into his jaw, digging into his skin just enough to tell him that she wouldn't hesitate to kill him. 'Using Izanagi now, would only be a waste of Shisui's sharingan.'

"Well." Zaisan spoke up as glancing between Trunks and Danzo. "Looks like whatever leverage you had is moot, so I will 'suggest' a deal that will be beneficial for all of us."

"Trunks, you're going to return Danzo's men first thing tomorrow morning." the red haired woman said in an authoritative voice. "But I want you to keep this research to yourself, take it to that that hiding place of yours that will make it impossible for him to find."

"As long as we don't keep it in the village Danzo won't make any attempts at infiltrating the village to retrieve it."

"Yes ma'am!" the purple haired man answered with a salute, earning himself a roll the Morikages eyes.

"Danzo." she continued as she looked back at the dark haired man, who was doing his impression of a statue. "As you already know, the company that Trunks is starting is already planning on sharing its tech equally between all nations. While that will still be true, your little backroom deal, oh excuse! I meant to say extortion." she amended and smiled when she saw the dark look he directed at her.

"Will no longer be in effect." The Morikage continued. "So no advance weapons, and no jutsu for you."

"Karin, you can let him lose." Zaisan ordered and the Kurosaki, slowly pulled the diamond hard sword tip from Danzo's jaw and backed away.

Once the girl had stepped far enough for him to feel comfortable, Danzo brought his bandaged right hand to the bottom of his chin and rubbed it. Bringing his hand to his line of sight, he saw that the blood that had rubbed off on his bandages was minimal, Danzo turned and headed away from them, pausing at the edge of the trees, to look at the group facing him off over his right shoulder.

"This isn't over." He warned and walked into the tree line making his way back to Konoha at a leisurely pace.

'All I need to turn this around is time.' he thought as he opened Usui's sharingan behind his bandages. 'And I will make you submit to me.'

After waiting for several minutes in silence to make sure that Danzo wouldn't try anything, Karin put her newly acquired sword, between her back and her fan. Turning around slowly, she gave Trunks a meaningful look, expecting a complete explanation as to why he had kidnapped so many people. But she wasn't the only one, as everyone present, was looking at the half saiyan with the same look.

"Well?" Temari spoke up for the first time since Danzo had made his appearance. "Are you going to tell us how you manage to capture those anbu while in their own base? Or is that strictly forbidden?"

Konoha Military Police Building: Holding Cell 5

7:00 AM

Trunks hung upside down inside his cell, his weight supported by a rope tied around his ankles, that was looped around sturdy looking pulley on the ceiling, before going to the wall where they were tied to a hook.

Dressed in nothing but the brown pants that he had stolen from the store, with his arms tied behind his back, exposed Trunks' upper body and all the bruises he had acquired during his interrogation, the result of keeping his Ki down to a level he could be hurt, by Mikaeri's blows. But it was difficult, as he constantly had to battle with the large reserves of energy given to him by his super saiyan form, and the almost instinctual need to lash out at his interrogator.

Looking down through slightly swollen eyes, he stared warily at the barrel filled with boiling water below him. Having already become quite intimate with it and several other torture devices in the last five hours, Trunks was beginning to get irritated at the way he was being treated.

'At the very least the drugs have worn off.' he thought as he directly his look at the brown haired woman, who he regrets ever touching. 'Next time I'll make sure to keep my hands to myself, having been a pervert as part of my character really doesn't pay off.'

"Ready to tell me what you were doing in the village?" Korudo Mikaeri asked with the same serious look she's had on her face since she brought him here.

"I already told you." Trunks replied sounding as though he has been repeating himself often. "I was on my way to Konoha to see my brother, but I got robbed on my way here-"

"By a short, blue haired woman with green eyes?"

"No." he replied in a deadpanned voice, already used to her conveniently 'forgetting' what he had told her. "She had brown hair and purple eyes, and she was almost as tall as I am."

"Uh huh." the brown hair woman said her tone, implying she didn't believe his story. "What makes you think that I would even believe such a story? After all, you also stole a knapsack from the store that has mysteriously gone missing in the woods. As far as I'm concern, that just means you had managed to steal what you were after and pass it on to someone."

"Now make this easier on yourself and fess up." She continued as she walked to the hook. "Or are you just that happy to spend time with me?" she asked, while pulling the rope to lift him higher and untying it from the hook.

"I've already told you! My name is Midway Briefs! I came here to see my- bwaaah!" he began desperation that he didn't need to fake on his voice, before he was forced to stop in mid sentence. When she unhooked the rope, and quickly lowered him into the barrel down to his waist.

Outside the cell, a video camera that was pointed towards it, kept an eye on the proceedings of the investigation. And at the other side of the camera, was a room full of monitors and radio equipment that were being watched by three different shinobi, one of those a member of the Hyuuga family. While Ibiki stood behind the Hyuuga on duty, watching the proceedings of Trunks' interrogation.

At first, the commanding officer of the torture and interrogation force didn't have any interest in the captured thief and possible spy. Even if the report suggested he managed to evade thirty shinobi for well over 20 minutes, without employing any ninja tactics to hide himself. Once he had been processed at the police headquarters, they had found that other than having a tail and an underdeveloped chakra network, there was nothing out of sorts with him.

But, after having him be tortured both physically and psychologically for over five hours without rest, with no results beyond his tired out story of having been seduced and tricked, by a woman he had met on the road. And that his brother was a shinobi from Kusagakure, Ibiki could feel that there was more to the blond than he was willing to say.

'But so far everything we've tried hasn't worked.' Ibiki thought as he watched Mikaeri lift the blond haired man out of the barrel, who struggled to cough up the water he had swallowed.

'And all tries to discover if he knows his brothers techniques have been in vain.' the commander thought, as on the video Mikaeri tied the rope back to the hook and walked up to the prisoner.

"Any changes in his chakra?" the scarred man asked the Hyuuga, who watched the live feed closely.

"No." the pale skinned, shoulder lengthed haired man, dressed in the usual torture squad's grey uniform, with a bandana like hitai-ate said with a shake of his head. "So far everything I've seen indicates that he's not able to use his chakra, but the reports about his speed contradict this."

Nodding down at Hono, Ibiki once more considered that the reason that their captive was so fast and resistant to damage, wasn't about how well he could use his chakra. But because he had a powerful body, similar to the Senju, Uzumaki and the Uchiha's.

'If that is the case, then we can use him as a bargaining chip.' Ibiki thought, before reaching his hand over Hono's shoulder pressing a button to the radio equipment, and leaning down to one of the microphones.

"Mikaeri." the commander spoke, causing the woman on the monitor to stop trying the drown Midway. "Were not going to get any more from him, so we'll move to plan B."

Back in the cell, Mikaeri pulled the half saiyan out of the water, and tied the rope to the hook; turning she left the still heavily breathing Trunks behind as she headed out.

"Looks like today's your lucky day." She commented, stopping half an arms length away from the cells bars and with a buzz, they slip open in front of her. "But don't worry, I'm sure we'll get some more one on one soon." she continued, smirking over her shoulder at him as she walked out of the room and the cell doors closed behind her.

Walking away from the cell, Mikaeri waited until she had left the cell area of the police headquarters before bringing her left hand to her right fist; rubbing it to return the feeling in her knuckles.

'Damn it!' she thought with gritted teeth, angry that her chance to pay him back for grabbing her that night was had become such a double edge deal, that she was forced to stop beating him for information.

'What the hell is his head made off?' the brunette asked herself as she made her way to the medical room, intending to get her hand healed before sending them to work on Midway's injuries.

Hokage's Mansion

7:25AM

Sitting around a table going over reports from different missions, and status reports from spies sent out to make sure that no other village was mobilizing to attack Konoha during their time of recovery. Homura and Koharu, worked quickly, doing the job that their old team mate Hiruzen was usually in charge of.

As they worked, confirming information, handing out, signing off on orders, over looking budgets and balancing the books while taking into account the loss of contracts to Kusagakure. The two had kept an eye out for any news from Jiraiya, whom they had contacted two days after Hiruzen had met his end. While they haven't gotten any news back from the sannin, they were still sure that he would return in time for the funeral, which is when they will approach him about becoming the next Hokage.

Koharu, who was facing the door to the office that the two were occupying, was the first to spot the messenger as he stopped at the door to the room; three new scrolls on hand. Stopping what she was doing, she signaled for him to step forward, drawing Homura's attention.

"Sumimasen!" the short black black haired man, with slightly tanned skin, dressed in the standard Konoha shinobi uniform apologize as he entered, and walked up to the table.

"Mitokado-san, Utatane-san." he began to report greeting them both. "We just got three new reports," he state the obvious bringing his left hand and two of those reports to bare. "These two are from border patrol, from the borders between the lands of Oyu and Mori."

"They state that the Raikage and two of his shinobi are heading towards Konoha from the east, and from the west the Tsuchikage is doing the same." he continued to explained, before placing the reports on the table. "This report only came recently from the torture and interrogation division, I didn't have much time to read it, but Ibiki-san wrote the report himself."

Once he placed the last report on the table, the shinobi turned and walked away, heading back to perform his duties.

"Hmm." Homura hummed with interest as he picked up one of the reports from the border patrols and began to read it. "Looks like those two really aren't planning on waiting around to find out about Kusagakure's techniques." he commented after a minute of reading

"I can understand the current Raikage coming all this way himself." Koharu began and reached for the other border patrol report, before thinking better of it and picking up the one from Ibiki. "But I would have expected that old fence sitter to wait and comfort Zaisan after she and her shinobi had returned home."

"This just means he's found something of interest in those two." Homura replied, while still reading. "I just hope they are at least respectful enough not to start a fight within the village. Although..."

"If you're thinking we can take this opportunity to try and coerce the Raikage and Tsuchikage into an alliance I-" Koharu paused as and reread the part of the scroll she was going over, getting Homura to look up from his.

"What's wrong?" Homura asked, seeing that she was reading the scroll sent by Ibiki.

"Our problems with our lack of missions may have just been fixed." Koharu answered, with a smile before reaching under the desk and pressing a button.

"Oh?" the bearded man said, as he waited for his long time friend to elaborate.

"Just read for yourself." she replied handing him the scroll before calling for the shinobi that had left the room not to long ago.

"Koa." Homura greeted the short haired man with a nodded once he returned, before looking over to her friend and smiling when she saw the understanding in his eyes. "Contact Ibiki and tell him to proceed with caution."

"Hai." the younger man affirmed and walked away, leaving the two elders to their work.

Ichiraku Ramen

8:15 AM

Sitting at one of the stools of the Ichiraku Ramen shop, as she waited for her order and Ino to arrive. Sakura bit her bottom lip, as she contemplated whether to tell Ino about what had happened last night.

'At the very least, maybe I should tell her that Trunks is hiding the escaped Oto kunoichi.' she thought, before shaking her head and letting go of her lips and frowning.

'But will Sasuke and Naruto forgive me for it?' the pink haired girl asked herself. 'For that matter will Karin?' Sighing to herself she drew Ayame's attention, who smiled at her before speaking up.

"Is everything alright?" The brown haired woman asked wondering at the troubles of the pinkette.

"Oh, ah, yeah! Everything fine." Sakura assured her with a nervous laugh, and a small shake of her head. "I'm just a little preoccupied with my training as of late."

"Really?" Ayame asked and received a nod in answer. "Then that must be some tough training. What do they got you doing as of late?"

"Well, between all the medical books I have to read, the chakra control exercises and..." Sakura talked on, allowing her least important problems to push her thought of what she would tell Ino aside.

The two had been talking with Ayame asking more about the time Sakura has been spending training as a medic and teasing her about how she was growing up so fast. It was about fifteen minutes later when Teuchi interrupted with a laugh as he brought Sakura's bowl of ramen to the counter, with a plate of melon.

"Here you go Sakura-chan, one vegetable ramen with a side of melon." Teuchi said before placing a set of chopsticks beside the bowl.

"Ah, thank you!" Sakura exclaimed cutting off the conversation as she pick up the chop sticks.

"Itakima-"

"So Ino what are you having?" Ayame asked while turning to the blonde haired girl, who had arrived during their conversation, sitting at Sakura's left; causing Sakura's words to die on her lips.

"I'll have a bowl of what forehead is having, but with some apples slices on the side." The blonde haired Kunoichi said with a smirk, when she saw her friend turn towards her with a sour look on her face.

"I thought we agree to stop using those nicknames." Sakura said through gritted teeth.

"I remember you saying something about stopping, but I don't remember ever agreeing." Ino replied with shrug, a smile on her lips.

"Hmph." the pink haired girl replied as she turned her head away from her friend and rival. "If that's the case, then expect a present worthy of your nickname in the mail."

"What are you up to?" Ino asked suddenly wary of Sakura's calm reply.

"Oh you'll see."

Taking a quick look around the shop, Ino decided to ignore Sakura's words, and when she noticed that Ayame had gone to the back of the shop as her father was working at the other side. She proceeded to hand her friend a piece of paper, without anyone else noticing.

Sakura for her part took the paper and opened it without hesitation. Seeing the question on the paper, gave the pinkette pause in her eating before she crumbled it in her palm, and proceeded to begin eating. As she did, Sakura saw the look Ino had thrown her, imploring and curious, as to how her spying had gone, and while she really wanted to tell her friend that Tayuya had been hiding out with Trunks since her escape.

Sakura also didn't want to betray her team, who had reluctantly accepted Trunks' actions, and her new friendship with Karin. So with a small shake of her head, she told her blonde friend that she hadn't found anything, before starting a conversation about how Sasuke has been doing to get the blonde girl riled up enough that she would forget her pause.

'I just hope I made the right decision.'