So everyone, I am sincerely, genuinely glad to welcome you back to Genesis of the Nindo. Now, I have been gone for quite a long time- I am aware of that. So I want to explain some things to you, my loyal and enthusiastic readers. Not excuses, just an explanation to better understand where this story is going to go.

I work in the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. I can say that now because you'll never know which state and that soothes my paranoid soul. Now, like many others, Harry Potter was the original favorite canon for me and it still is. My love for Harry Potter was strong even through my introduction into anime, and let me tell you . . . it has only grown since I started working in wwohp. I still love Naruto, make no mistake, but it was laid to rest for me after the final Naruto chapter. I don't follow Boruto or whatever, so Naruto had ended a long time ago for me and it's difficult to muster that same, original zeal we all felt when the new chapter was released every Wednesday on our website of choice.

I WILL finish this fic. Don't ever doubt that. But instead of going like 30 more chapters as I had foolishly planned in the infancy of this story, I'm going to wrap this up and cut out all those unnecessary arcs I had planned; which really, is going to better for you readers. We're in the war, we're focusing on the war- You will get nothing but the meat of the story, the rise to the very climax of the fourth war. In . . . six or seven chapters more this story will be finished. Which I am kind of happy for because writing stories this big is a responsibility, and I've learned over the course of writing that I'm not big into writing elaborate writing scenes but that's what I expect of myself for fics so . . . I think for the war itself I'll only focus on Naruto and his group solely, with spare mentions of the other fights going on. It'll be much easier and allow me to write faster. Anyway- seven chapters, we're a go!

The Match, Uzumaki Naruto!

"Alright . . . who's reading next?" Tsunade sighs.

"I'd much rather watch this portion." Obito mumbles mutinously. With an imploring look to the television on the wall he asks, "Oh please, can't we see this fight? We'll never get another chance to see the Sandaime fight like this! Or the Sandaime Raikage?"

The group looks to the television, which stays silent. They wait for a whole minute before Jiraiya breaks and cries out, "Enough of this! Get reading one of you brats!"

"Boo!" Rin and Obito groan, when a familiar chime breaks up the potential fight. Eagerly everyone turns to the television and reads the words that form upon the screen.

Of course you can watch the fight! We just wanted to see who was going to break first.

"Sons of bitches!" Jiraiya grumbles petulantly, with his large arms folded as the pixels swirl across the screen and form the battle ground in the Royal Palace. The picture forms while every opponent is in mid-jump towards each other. Most of the group's eyes go to Naruto, who inevitably ends up fighting Sasuke, but the older generation focus on Tsunade and Orochimaru or . . . Jiraiya, Oonoki and Hiruzen!

"We need to protect the Daimyo." Gaara orders, sparing a sweeping glance to the rest of the room where battles are being fought. "They take precedence, and there are more than enough here to battle the enemy."

"Right!" Temari and Kankurou bark, following the orders of their Kage.

"Naruto, I leave things to you." Gaara calls briefly, and earns a sizzling stare over a red clad shoulder as Naruto grins in a wicked manner. They nod at each other before the Sand party exists with haste, and Naruto returns to his showdown with Sasuke.

"You picked the wrong place Sasuke!" Naruto shouts, hands deftly slipping through seals for a jutsu. "Fuuton: Dust Cloud!" Through his overlapped hands a stream of dust-filled wind flew directly towards Sasuke, who dodged around it like sidestepping a kunai and rushed in an arcing path to Naruto's stationary figure.

"What is this elementary chuunin bullshit?" Kakashi protests, glaring at Naruto. "Do better!"

"You idiot it's not like they're really enemies!" Rin reprimands, smacking Kakashi on the back of his head.

"Striking Snake Technique!" Sasuke hisses, his right arm coming up and making a punching motion, as his arm extends the sleeve of his kimono top covers his fist and bulges out as multiple snakes erupt form his arm. The snakes projectile towards Naruto, whose eyes widen as they wrap and constrict around his body, mouths open wide to inject him with fast acting poison. Sasuke is there a mere two seconds after he registers the futility of trying to escape the snake prison, crouched on the balls of his feet as the kunai his left hand had hidden whips up and sinks into Naruto's body just below his ribcage.

"Guh!" Naruto grunts in surprise and a sharp bit of pain, looking to the dangerous wound where blood seeps out past the dark metal of the kunai and onto the pale skin of Sasuke's hand. Wide blue eyes stare into apathetic black, before Naruto's mouth stretches into a grin, ribbons of blood escaping in the motion. "Heh."

Sasuke's eyes pop open just as Naruto detonates, revealing the body Sasuke thought was Naruto to be an exploding clone. The explosion is contained to only that small area, the smoke quickly dissipating as if it followed the command of some other. On opposite sides of the room, almost by the walls, are Naruto and Sasuke.

"Stupid little cousin, you really forgot Naruto positively spams clones? Are you forgetting who his sensei was, what he does with shadow clones?" Obito mocks.

"Dumbass." Naruto laughs, pointing to Sasuke's ruined right sleeve and the burn on his arm. "You actually expected me to be there?"

"Should have realized you'd use shadow clones like a loser." Sasuke retorts in a dismissive tone.

"If I'm the loser, what does that say about the guy who fell for the loser's trick?" Naruto asks Sasuke with a taunting smile.

"Hn." The Uchiha scion merely unsheathed his tanto, and Naruto's eyes narrowed at the small arcs of electricity that crackled around the blade like a wreath.

"Have you forgotten that my wind beats your lightning every time?" Naruto drawls, adding wind chakra to the edges of his blades. Axe and tanto clash, first the two axes in a cross motion before Naruto slides the second one along the edge of the blade and makes to chop off Sasuke's hand at the hilt. Sasuke's hand comes out cobra quick to jab the blade away before his leg sweeps up to Naruto. Naruto jumps away, and unlocks his gravity seals. Sasuke can sense the change in Naruto's body language, and his matured Sharingan immediately flares into life, the crimson irises staring Naruto down.

This is going to be a tough battle. There's no doubt in my mind that Sasuke hasn't worked that Sharingan of his into overdrive with Orochimaru guiding him, Naruto thinks to himself as he speeds forward.

Sasuke and Naruto meet in a clash of steel and a whirl of feet. Each axe is avoided and parried away, even as Naruto never falters in his pacing. No ground is gained, more like exchanged as each opponent both backs up then presses forward. Naruto's axes spin, one toward Sasuke's face then the second toward his throat. Sasuke's tanto blocks the axe homing in on his throat then ducks under the axe to his face as he lowers his body then spins. His tanto is still connected to the axe when he mutters, "Chidori current!"

His Chidori appears without any hand seals, spreading in every direction and catching Naruto in its paralyzing wake. Naruto's body stiffens as his muscles convulse under the contrasting electrical impulses.

"Ah! A variation of your chidori Kakashi!" Rin cries.

"Impressive . . . he experimented with my original technique, much in the same way Naruto did his. Only, given the differences in nature it seems like chidori is more versatile." Kakashi notes. "That must be painful."

"You think Naruto is convulsing and screaming just for fun?" Obito asks acidly.

While Naruto's mind is screaming, release and run, Sasuke's chidori whispers lies and a command to stay still. With one turn Sasuke's free hand fluidly reaches into his weapons pouch and pulls out a kunai, the smaller weapon lashing out and catching Naruto with a deep cut just between his hipbones. Naruto cries out and flings himself backwards, body overcoming the strong lightning jutsu thanks in no small part to his own training with it. Both men disengage and leap away, an unspoken lull between them.

Naruto fingers the deceptively thin scratch in his kimono and gently pushed past the barely parted material. Immediately blood is on his hand, and so with a grimace he brings Kurama's fire to his hand and presses down upon the wound. Groaning at the pain of cauterizing the wound, nevertheless it finishes in a few seconds, and he looks up at Sasuke with a grim look. Definitely, not an easy fight . . .

"Ah?! What kind of shoddy, shit healing is that?" Tsunade gawks. "Kurama, what the hell are you teaching this kid?"

"How to make due with overloaded chakra stores that will never ever in a million years allow you to learn medical ninjutsu." Kurama deadpans.

Sasuke looks down at the hand gripping the handle, and watches dots of blood make slow trips down the side of his knuckles from the cut Naruto had given him in their last tussle. So, even with my Sharingan, he's still an opponent I have to be careful of . . .

"Round two?" Naruto asks.

Sasuke's answer is the raising of his blade, the very tip levelled at Naruto's heart. The blonde Uzumaki grins savagely, sealing away his axes and replacing them with his claws.

"STAND—" Smash! "STILL!" Boom!

"Tsunade." Jiraiya sighs.

"What?!" Tsunade snaps. "It's a battle. We are battling."

"In the Daimyo's court! You think he'll care about how hard the battle is when you're ruining the precious court's décor?" Jiraiya points out waspishly.

"Tsunade, watch it!" Jiraiya barks from afar. "Those damages will come out of the budget!"

Tsunade growls, enraged almost beyond the point of caring as her honey brown eyes hone in on Orochimaru's smirking face. With a huff of exertion Tsunade blasts forward and engages Orochimaru again. A combo of frontal and reversal crescent kicks are evaded in a slippery undulation. Her jabs at his solar plexus are leapt away from, and she then must dodge a round of snake missiles ejected from the foul shinobi's mouth.

Orochimaru chuckles. "Hmm, Tsunade, what good is your superior strength if you cannot catch me? You've grown lax in the years sitting behind your desk . . . you weren't even at full strength when you became Hokage, the decades before spent in a drunken stupor."

"Bastard!" Tsunade hisses.

The truth hurts, Kurama muses but tactfully stays silent on the matter.

"Don't think I can't detect a slight lag in those usually slippery moves of yours as well Orochimaru." Tsunade hisses with a savage snarl. "You need a new body and soon, don't you?"

Orochimaru merely smiles, before throwing his hands forward. "Hidden Snake Shadow Hands!"

Tsunade snorts, hands flowing through a jutsu of her own. "Katon: Pheonix Flame!" Sharp bullets of flames erupted from her pursed mouth as she aimed them toward Orochimaru. The flames took out his snakes, creating a small explosion that covered the two opponents' views. Through the brief smoke Orochimaru's head lunged forward as his neck extended to abnormal lengths, Kusanagi jutting out from his parted mouth. Like a cobra strike the blade sunk into Tsunade's body just underneath her bust, the woman gasping in shock before her body erupted in smoke.

Orochimaru's brow furrowed even as he frowned around the blade before his body caved under the pressure of Tsunade's foot. Her heel dug straight into Orochimaru's spine, the serpentine body coming straight down to the floor in its own personal crater. "Damn you!" Orochimaru spat as he sunk into the ground.

"Huh, Hiding in Surface technique is it?" Tsunade mutters, lifting up her foot and sending a concentrated deluge to the soles of her feet. "I know how to counteract that."

Her foot comes down hard, and the aftermath is ten times worse. In the immediate area the ground caves and cracks as if a sinkhole opened underneath them, aftershocks of her chakra's force making the floor ripple as if it were water and causing the other fights to be momentarily halted as all participants were forcefully displaced by the floor literally shifting beneath them.

"Tsunade!" The group groans, while the woman in question is completely unapologetic.

"OI! HOKAGE-SAMA!" The angry bellow from Naruto makes her grimace for a heartbeat as she realized that was probably going a little too far. But it wasn't far enough for her to feel bad—

"TSUNADE!" Jiraiya shouts, making her duck a little in penance. Ah, the budget was getting cut . . .

"GOD. DAMN. IT!" The Raikage's pissed off roar is followed by the chilling zap of an overpowered lightning bolt and then a thunderclap as the room is momentarily lit up in dazzling white light.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?!" That voice sounds familiar . . . Gaara's sister? Temari?

Fifteen feet away from Tsunade, Orochimaru disentangles himself from a cluster of broken pieces of the floor that has left minor cuts on his body, dust coating his features and smeared on his clothing. To her confusion, Orochimaru smirks. "Watch yourself, Tsunade."

"Huh—" gasping, she looks down but it is too late as a pair of snakes at each ankle sink their poisoned fangs into her legs. "Guh!" Tsunade quickly snatches the snakes up and snaps their necks with no problem, stumbling as the too-fast acting poison works on her. Her eyes narrow as she realizes quickly that the poison truly is too fast acting to cause such pain and she surges her chakra, breaking through Orochimaru's genjutsu just in time to see the man slash at her with his hands coated in chakra— ah, his lackey Kabuto's chakra scalpel abomination. Tsunade bends back like a sapling in a storm, her upper body parallel to the floor as her left knee comes up and she snaps it into Orochimaru's abdomen, stopping the snake in his tracks as he is sent flying.

"Damn bastard." Tsunade grunts, lightly touching her right shoulder with a glowing left palm. He did some damage, and it was enough to make her want to grind him into paste.

"You're dominating this fight, Tsunade." Jiraiya notes with some pessimism, an opinion shared by his buxom teammate.

"Something is not right." She murmurs, confusing the kids but only settling a grim realization for the others.

"It seems I'll need some assistance in taking you down." Orochimaru muses, a trickle of blood going down from the corner of his mouth to his chin.

Tsunade's eyes narrow at Orochimaru's weakness. I was even more right than I knew . . . he needs a new body fast, this much combat is wearing out what is already a failing body. He must know this, must know that this kind of fight will further the degradation of the body. He's going to use Sasuke soon, then.

"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" Orochimaru laughs, a large burst of smoke soon giving way to reveal an adder the same length as Orochimaru and twice as thick.

"We're doing a summoning battle now?" Tsunade snorts, hands poised to being her own chain of seals when a large thump by her side makes her look over automatically.

"Tsunade." The older toad, as large as her and mottled with mint green and leaf green greets her gruffly, the sharp tip of a naginata being used comically to scratch mist grey hair on top of his head.

"Gozu-dono!" Minato calls the toad's name in a hushed, respectful voice. "I thought he wouldn't bother with something like this."

"Gozu-dono!" Tsunade realizes with surprise. She thought the old battle-weathered toad had retired to tutor the tadpoles of the clan, done with decades of battles that had been fought even well before Jiraiya had acquired the summons. "He sent you?"

"Well," Gozu sniffed, eyeing Orochimaru and his adder with distaste. "There's plenty enough teachers in the clan now, and my batch of students from this generation have passed their tests. Figured I'd kill time by killing snakes. You don't mind?"

"Of course not." Tsunade grinned evilly, looking over at a faintly perturbed looking Orochimaru. He knew Gozu even better than she did, and not for the right reasons either. "I'll be delighted."

"Judging by the smug looks on both your face and Jiraiya's," Kushina observes with a grin. "I'd say Orochimaru is looking at a one-way ticket to severe pain."

"Oh, I can only hope." Minato answers with relish.

"Kill that disgusting creature!" Orochimaru screamed at his snake, who immediately slithered forward, moving like a turbulent river. Gozu was right there with it, the point of one naginata already embedded in the floor where a portion of tail would have been if not for a timely maneuver. The other naginata was swinging at black scales, creating a line of red that infuriated his opponent.

"Hum. The youth." Gozu grunted with a glare at Orochimaru.

"GYAHAHAHAHA!" Kushimaru's high-pitched, manic laughter grates on Mei's ears.

He slashes his needle-like sword with something that to the untrained eye might look like reckless abandon. Mei's eyes are honed to catch even the subtle nuances of a shinobi, and so she knows that rather than reckless abandon it's a frenzied yet very experienced frenzy. Mei ducks and sways under every slash and jab, maintaining distance by utilizing her Melting Apparition technique. The first few times she had used it, it stalled Kushimaru who was unused to the Boil release.

Mei's Boil release allowed her to use a very useful jutsu called the Melting Apparation, wherein she could charge acidic, viscous fluid inside her body before spitting it out. It could be any size, any pH from mildly irritating to downright skin corroding. So, she at first tried to melt Kushimaru back to the grave, allowing him to think that she had been caught unawares before spraying him liberally with the acid. Kushimaru hadn't been completely covered but she knew there was more than enough on there to make him go away.

"What a powerful jutsu. I suppose she can make short, concentrated bursts with maximum speed and then slightly slower, diffused sprays for a greater range." Minato postulates.

"I know even at this time, Boil release is a rare thing. Something so powerful, plenty of shinobi have their eyes set on the heads of such a clan." Jiraiya tells the group.

Unfortunately, Edo Tensei was not a particularly well known jutsu, being a closely guarded kinjutsu of Konoha. Meaning she had no idea that the reincarnated souls were granted immortal bodies. She found that out when Kushimara started cackling even as his body was halfway between melting and regenerating.

"Well that's disturbing." Kakashi admits.

"Hello, new star of my nightmares." Obito chirps.

She meant to charge up more acid to thoroughly douse the undead swordsman but he regenerated faster than she could charge acid and thus he learned his lesson. Now Mei could only really use the jutsu to give herself ground and make Kushimaru back off, along with trying one or two more times to try and melt him.

Such as now— Mei jumps up over Kushimaru and leans down to look directly down at him, mouth bulging as she spits out corrosive acid onto Kushimaru's arm. The limb immediately dissolved and Mei uses that opportunity to land a kick right in the middle of Kushimaru's face. Kushimaru's head snaps to the side as a chunk of ash-created flesh is destroyed and flies from his face like confetti paper. Mei jumps back when he stands his ground though, using his blade sunken into the ground as support.

Kushimaru chuckles, a deeper and more chilling thing than even his regular high cackles. "You've been clever, jumping around like a cute little bunny Mei. You remind me of a pet bunny I once owned as a child. His name was Junpei—"

"Is there a point to this?" Mei interrupts.

"Patience! Anyway . . . Junpei liked to jump around. But one day Junpei was a bad boy, and he jumped into a house of cards I had painstakingly created. Well, Junpei had to be punished . . ." Kushimaru's masked face turns to her, a design so simple made into a warped illusion just be who wore it. "So I cut off his feet. Longsword Ninja Art: Earth Spider Sewing!"

"That is so fucked up. Who hurts bunnies?" Obito whines.

Mei's wide eyes dart down to see wires erupt from the ground with cutting precision as they hone in on her ankles and calves. Before they can divest her of her ability to walk, the ground shudders, then cracks, before erupting in jagged stones and becoming a wave of rock that creates thunderous roars. Mei wonders briefly, as she is half tossed around, if the Earth itself has finally tired of humanity.

"Oh, so your impatience did some good after all." Jiraiya jabs at Tsunade, chuckling when the woman merely glares at him.

Then her mind clears, and she kicks off of a particularly large slab of rock to hang in mid-air with Kushimaru.

"OI! HOKAGE-SAMA!" Naruto's angry roar, and the formal title almost makes Mei wobble as she cuts her eyes to see the blonde young man shaking off debris whilst his Uchiha opponent moves a rock aside with bloody arms.

"Ah . . . sorry Naru-chan." Tsunade chuckles nervously.

"At the very least our allies can use this as a good distraction or good cover." Minato sighs.

"TSUNADE!" The censure in Jiraiya's voice brings a smile to Mei's lips, even as the reminder that Kushimaru is a sitting duck for her acidic jutsu turns that smile into a shark-like grin.

Kushimaru giggles insanely. "Oh, shit."

"Chojuro! Keep sharp!" Ao barks as he rushes to his opponents. Ao wants to look back to assure that Mei is alright, but that would be both disrespectful and stupid. Mei is Godaime Mizukage for a damn good reason, so an undead cretin like Kushimaru should be no problem for her. Also, Orochimaru's freak creations are not something he particularly wants to leave unattended. His choice of battle partner leaves something to be desired, but that's the thing about war. You don't really have a choice.

"Four of them," Chojuro informs Ao, the elder barely resisting rolling his eyes at the obvious statement. "So two on two?"

"That's the plan." Ao grunts, hands flipping through seals before calling out, "Suiton: Water Whip!"

A whip formed in his hands, wrapped around his wrist as it arced towards the group of experiments forcing them to leap away as it crashed between them. Ao smirks as it did what he intended, to split them up for Chojuro and he. "Don't think I'll let you get off easily if you get killed by these rejects." Ao's harsh parting words to Chojuro made the younger boy wince and sulk.

"I-it's not like anyone plans to get killed . . . maybe those guys are really good, considering Orochimaru enhanced them!" Chojuro counters weakly as a last argument before splitting from Ao.

"Man, Ao sure is tough on that kid." Rin notes sympathetically.

"Who gives a shit about these guys can we just get to sensei and oonoki?" Jiraiya insists.

When Ao meets his opponents, they at first lunge at him with kunai in their hands and savagery in their hearts. Ao responds with a neat tuck and roll that takes him behind his opponents and then a quick turn for a double mule kick in mid-air that sent them flying again. Ao is on the move again before they even have time to bounce up from their harsh landing on the ground, kunai slipping into his hands and then into the hands of one opponent, pinning him to the ground as the impaled man groaned with pain.

Meanwhile Chojuro meets his opponents by suddenly skidding to a stop several feet away from them, and with taunting grins they stop too.

"Why don't you go home to mommy brat?" One heavy-jawed, yellow-eyed man spits.

"Look at the kid, can't even meet his opponents head on. That's what you get for being such a wimp!" The other laughs, a runty but crafting look about him. Chojuro doesn't respond, at least not verbally. He lets his weapon do the talking for him. He swings it, and from that single swing blue, glowing crystal-like projections fly at the surprised enemies. Only the crafty shinobi makes it out in time, the other slack-jawed at the attack and thus the crystals imbed into his body and decorate the floor and a small radius around him with the crimson of his blood.

"Orochimaru has fallen into a trap some commanders do . . . they think quantity can overcome quality and honestly, nine times out of ten this just isn't true. Unless, of course, the quantity is some ratio like one thousand cannon fodder to one warrior." Kurama points out.

"Guh . . . uhu!" The heavier shinobi stumbles back, face twisted in pain before falling and coughing wetly. Chojuro looks away from him and follows the last enemy, who has taken out a ninjato. Perhaps the man was a swordsman . . . perhaps better than him? No! He couldn't think that way! Chojuro pushes forward and meets his opponent in clash of steel as he promises to win for Mei-sama's stake. The two shinobi clash again and again, each time Chojuro's blade winning in weight advantage but the crafty shinobi knows enough of a swordstyle to always let Chojuro's blade always just slide off his own as if Chojuro's blade fought against oil.

Ao nearby was facing his opponent left, someone wearing a half mask over their mouth but appearing to be a woman (he wasn't too confident in his assessments anymore, not after meeting Haku), spins her kunai in hand and starts to circle him. After one full rotation she suddenly disappears in a burst of speed.

Ao was not deterred. "That's a useless trick against me." He announces to thin air. "Against me, an extremely capable sensor . . ." he pauses as he suddenly turns and grabs a leg extended out into a kick that had it connected, would possibly have fractured his jaw. "Hiding is impossible!" He quickly throws the woman, a kunai following her to sail into her cranium. "And I know that's a clone. But you're actually underneath me!"

True to form a hand breaks from the ground underneath trying to catch his ankles but he just steps back and then raises his left foot to crush one hand down on the ground, bending it back so far that her radius and ulna shatter and break out from her skin. The rest of her follows quickly, a bloody scream tearing out of her throat, but it's a different kind of scream altogether. Ao grunts in surprise as his eyes start to see double and blur slightly, his balance unsteady as her scream enters his ears and doubles, triples, shatters.

S . . supersonic . . . voice?! Ao wonders unpleasantly, still not addled enough not to register the second opponent who has finally released himself from the kunai's grip. Ao ducks to the side and staggers back, gritting his teeth as he decides what to do.

"Oh, that's interesting. A genjutsu or a doujutsu that actually makes use of her voice?" Minato wonders, looking to Jiraiya.

"They are both equal possibilities." The sage murmurs in answer, also looking interested.

If one of my senses is a liability, then I have to rely on my other senses to compensate, Ao muses to himself. "Barrier Talisman!" he cries sharply, the talismans in his ear suddenly moving as if alive and covering his ears. With the possibility of her scream affecting him again now snuffed out, he can focus on beating them another way. After all, he is an extremely capable sensor.

Ao blows out a slow breath, focusing on the murderous looking duo before him. The woman clutches her arm and the man's hands are just about ruined. What are they going to do? What can they do?

Nothing, and neither can he apparently, when the ground beneath them explodes and crumbles.

Ao, mid-air and face cut from sharp debris snorts and mutters, "Damn it Konoha."

"This is a damn insult." The Sandaime Raikage grumbles, cocking his head to the left to avoid a heavy fist and letting his body twist with that small motion to bring a fist to A's ribs. The blow connects and leaves A heaving as he is twisted and forced back. "Are you not taking me seriously because I'm dead?!"

"The Sandaime Raikage was A's father . . ." Minato mentions, frowning slightly. "I couldn't bear to see it, if I was manipulated to fight my son. I at first doubted it would happen, as when you're locked in the Shinigami's stomach it is for all eternity. The same thing I believed happened to the Sandaime Hokage though, and yet here he is outside."

"That's what you're insulted by?!" A yells, stopping his momentum by digging his feet into the ground, crushed and broken as it is. Behind him some kilometers away, C and Yugito deal with Hidan and Kakuzu, Karui and Omoi backing them up. They had all been forewarned earlier by Konoha about Hidan's strange abilities, and knew to avoid his scythe at all costs.

"Good." Kushina sighs, remembering the horror Hidan caused in Waterfall.

"Yondaime-sama!" Darui runs up to A's side, scratched and bleeding from cuts on his arms but otherwise fine. "Never thought I'd be facing the old man again . . ."

"You and me both." A growls. "I just know it's the snake's doing here— if Tsunade knows what's good for her she'll kill the abomination, otherwise I'll be more than happy to rip him in to pieces and fling them across the city."

"You still talk a lot of crap huh kid?" The Sandaime Raikage suddenly interjects, sighing heavily. "You think it's just going to be easy to get past me? Where's your sense— didn't I teach you better than that?"

"Oh shut up old man!" A snaps. He concentrates and his muscles bulge with an increase of tension as A rockets forward, feet skipping across the ground to move his body in a wide zig-zagging pattern towards his should-be-resting father.

His father merely loses his former levity and the intensity that he gains is made visible by the crackling arcs of lightning, thin as strings, dancing around his arms and ribs. The two meet in a heavy clash of fists, arms blurs as they take two steps forward, two steps back, and circle around each other. A blocks, parries, jabs and sways in a taijutsu dance with his father. He hates to admit it, but the old man wasn't much slowed down by the time he died and so was quite the even match for his son.

And then the balance tipped. The Sandaime makes a 'tsk' noise and says to A, "You've lost some edge behind the desk. Don't you go out of your tower at all? I set you with Killer B for a reason, blockhead." He then grabs both of A's fists in his own (silently reflecting the years when they weren't matched at all, and his hands could engulf smaller, smoother ones in play battles) and cocks his head back before bashing it straight into A's nose. A reels back, neck almost snapping from the force of the hit, and his fists are abruptly let go of so his body can start tipping back. Before he can correct his balance the Sandaime delivers a punishing blow to his stomach.

"Lightning Straight!"

Briefly, before contact, A thinks 'oh fuck this is going to hurt' and then that heavy, giant fist plants into his midsection so deep the hand nearly disappears into sinking, stretching skin before physics grants him mercy and propels his body far, far away. He flies away from his father, and crashes into C who had been about to cut off Hidan's arms. The two men go skipping across the room further before crashing into a wall and disappearing under the resulting rubble.

"He's sloppy, shaken from having to fight his father." Tsunade mutters. "Does he know that those under Edo Tensei are able to regenerate for as long as the jutsu holds?"

"Raikage-sama!" Darui gasps, eyes hardening and black lightning engulfing him as he holds off the resurrected Sandaime while A gets his bearings back. "Raiton: Black Panther!"

The black lightning around his body condenses and shifts to form a snarling, white-eyed black panther that pounces for the undead Raikage. The man leaps back and takes the panther on a chase, forming his own black lightning to combat and eventually overwhelm the other. Darui curses when the Sandaime's much larger, much bigger panther pins his own jutsu creation and tears its throat out, the panther fizzing out in a shower of sparks and a last yowl. The panther, with no prey, sets its sights on Darui, who pales as he plays keep away with the swift, deadly panther.

"You've improved your use of the black lightning Darui, I'm proud to say . . ." Sandaime sighs. "But it is not enough."

A deep, maddeningly gleeful roar cut across them, the sound of displaced air sliced through by a sharp blade. "SUITON: EXPLODING WATER COLLIDING WAVE!"

Minato is the first to shout it, but only by mere seconds as the intent of the enemies are obvious either through logical deductions or sudden flashes of intuition, "NO!"

The panther flares brightly as the water rushes to it. Darui's eyes widen even as he jumps. The world explodes in white and a clap of thunder.

The sounds of clanging steel are bellowing screams between two titans of the blade. When the battle started, Zabuza and Kisame had gravitated towards each other like there was no other option. Zabuza actually preferred it this way, because he sure as well would have gotten enraged if he had to hear Kushimaru's voice had he taken that opponent on. He'd leave the revived bastard to his Mizukage.

"Man," Kisame growls as his Samehada deflects a blow from the Kubikiribocho. "Doesn't this bring back memories?"

Zabuza smirks underneath his bandages. "Nostalgia attacking you right now? That just means I'm taking things too lightly with you."

Both swordsman duck back into the fray, their respective blades coming head to head time after time. Both were too experienced, too good, to get anywhere near the other's body. For every overhead swing of Samehada, Kubikiribocho is there to flick it away. For every deadly arc of Kubikiribocho, Samehada's scaled hide is a stalwart defense, masterfully held in place by the power of Kisame.

"You haven't lost your edge." Kisame muses, blade spinning as he parries and dodges jabs of the Executioner's blade that are so fast it's just flashes of silver. "Do you have any idea how rare that is? Seems to me like just one hint of the word peace and shinobi go soft. And after heading back to the Mist, I expected you to have . . . well, gone soft."

"Are you kidding me?" Zabuza barks a harsh laugh as he flips Kubikirbocho to present the flat of the blade, muscles jarring as he prevents a direct stab from Samehada. He slips Kubikirbocho just slightly so it catches beneath a scale, and heaves upward, breaking the two swordsmen apart again. "I was a missing nin. There were plenty of greedy bastards, gorged on the pride of winning the rebellion, eager to show me what a loyal ninja was, who challenged me time after time. Not to mention the people that just plain pissed me off with their judgements, or their stares . . . or their faces."

"No, this is how!" Jiraiya groans.

"HA HA HA!" Kisame guffaws. "Ah man . . . dumbasses."

"I know." Zabuza snickers, before he gets serious. "Oi, Kisame . . . don't you want to see the Swordsmen back up and running? The hell are you doing this for?"

"Feh!" Kisame swings across, a motion that would have opened Zabuza up shoulder to hip if Zabuza's blade wasn't there to offer a definitive defense. "I dropped the Mist a long time ago . . . in fact, it would help greatly if everyone in that place would just die." Here he pauses, with a roguish grin. "Just because you fell for the sentiments of a pussy, doesn't mean I will."

Zabuza's eyebrows would have twitched had they existed, because he knew Kisame was referring to Mei. However, deep inside a spark of amusement lit in him because Kisame had unknowingly meant Naruto, and what he would give to tell the brat that and see his face . . .

"I can't even get with the levity of this because it's all converging to one point!" Obito moans in fear.

"We're not getting anywhere with just kenjutsu." Kisame sighs, a falsely put-upon sound, and it makes Zabuza edgy. He had gotten stronger since joining back with the Mist, something that had surprised him at first since he thought the opposite would happen. However, his strength even now might not match up to the overall abilities and prowess of Hoshigaki Kisame. Two rows of perfectly sharp teeth, a perfect match to the other aquatic features of Kisame's body, appeared on that blue face. "So let's move on to more interesting things."

"For fuck's sake, you did this every time back then too. Do you have to build aquariums wherever you go?!" Zabuza growls, hands coming up and together to cast a jutsu at the shark-loving shinobi.

"Ah, he even said it! Come on Zabuza!" Rin whimpers, but she knows her please are all for naught because one this hasn't happened yet and two the point where all the views converge will happen regardless.

A wry grimace is followed by a humbled response. "Damn it if you aren't right but this time I've been given very specific orders to not turn this place into a fish tank. So, I'm restricted in that sense . . . but since when has a little thing like restrictions ever stopped me?" Kisame's hands come together and fly through hand seals. "Suiton: Water Shark Bullet Technique!"

"Suiton: Water Dragon Missile!" Zabuza counters, and it was awesome to see two titan predators rage against each other. The sinuous dragon careens straight for the bulky lethality of the bull shark Kisame conjured, both colliding with a roar of waves crashing as if one were in the midst of a squall at sea, and the explosion of water soaks the whole room.

"For FUCK'S SAKE!" A howl from a very familiar Hokage was heard in the background, and unheeded by the two Swordsmen sending jutsu after jutsu at each other.

"Suiton: Great Water Drill!" Kisame snarled, a drill of water enveloping Samehada as he leaps up and guns for Zabuza, who barks a laugh.

"You really think I'm going to just stand there and let that hit me?!" he yells, leaping straight up to get out of Kisame's path, the drill around his sword destroying the ground underneath them for a fifteen yard radius.

"No, I just needed a little space to do this." Kisame grins, and it is so insidious . . . so pleased . . .

Zabuza's eyes widen as something dawns on him.

'How did I become a Swordsman . . . ?'

"SUITON: EXPLODING WATER COLLIDING WAVE!" From the man's mouth, a veritable tidal wave rushes forward and engulfs all in water. Douses grand fireballs, sucks under rushing opponents, and covers every inch of the surface in water two feet deep. His comrades are in the water.

"Damn it, it's too late!" Kushina cries, hands coming up to grip both sides of her head. "Naruto!"

'When I couldn't see this . . . he's a fucking Mist shinobi . . .'

The words burst out before he's halfway finished the thought, an instinct his body only half understands and his mind has barely caught up to yet. "GET OUT OF THE WATER—!"

His shoes make contact with the crest of a wave just about when it hits.

"So, Itachi . . . I see you caught up with Sasuke." Kakashi makes light conversation as he and Itachi stand stock still together, eyes and more importantly Sharingans locked as both battle a fight of minds. Itachi of course remains silent, which Kakashi expected, but he did so love trying to needle the younger shinobi. It was a shameful piece of a past they shared as ANBU together and even though Itachi was thoroughly and unequivocally a disgusting, blood soaked traitor in his eyes there was just that little piece of history there he thought to try and revive now. Not like he had many old friends from days gone past he was trying to kill anyway . . .

"Oh I hate this, I hate this!" Obito hisses.

"Kakashi." Itachi's low monotone voice had Kakashi's attention. "You have taken your Sharingan to a level even most Uchiha had not reached before their end. Your skill is, as always, unparalleled."

"Flattering." Kakashi smiles lightly even as he pushes more chakra to fight off the genjutsu Itachi seemingly never runs out of. He has a brief moment to think of a "what if": If Itachi had never left Konoha he might have been Kurenai's mentor and the horrors those two could come up with are— "But it might be an erroneous statement. Who knows how many of the children you killed could have had the potential to best me, or you . . . the only one left to prove you wrong is Sasuke now."

"You are aware pathos is not the way to get me?" Itachi asks, a single fine black eyebrow arched too carelessly to make it a serious inquiry.

"Logos is always a headache when it comes to you. And ethos shouldn't be tried on a man who killed his own family."

"The Uchihas were slowly rotting from the inside. Before that once powerful clan broke down and eroded into nothing more than middling talent, it was for the best to cleanse the filth and sickness." Itachi intoned in a way that Kakashi might have thought Itachi had answered this question more than a hundred times.

"Mm," Kakashi makes a vague noise even as two silver eyebrows arch in a mocking fashion. "How long do you plan to keep this genjutsu battle up . . . Itachi?"

A thin pulse of chakra whispers across the floor to encompass both. "Hn. I said it before Kakashi . . . it's impressive, to see a non-Uchiha take the Sharingan so far. But this, is genius."

Kakashi knows what that signals, and is prepared with a water jutsu using the convenient pool of ankle-deep water Kisame and Zabuza provided to counter Itachi's fire jutsu with a water jutsu, and then use his doton ability to launch thick, spiraling projectiles made from the recently destroyed marble floor as a cover for another jutsu. One that must be aborted when Itachi flings several balls of flame in rapid fire and unerring accuracy at his location, followed by earthen golems much like the stylized lions that sit at the front of the palace.

Kakashi sprints across the field, dodging a barrage of shuriken with a solid wall, and then fires back with a combination of shadow shuriken and one of only three futon jutsus he knows, the weapons laced with explosive tags.

"That is not enough." Itachi's quiet voice precedes a startling clap and then a shuddering boom that breaks chunks off from the ceiling when the shruiken rotate back around to Kakashi's wall with Itachi's assistance. "And you aren't paying attention."

"Huh—" Kakashi's body is moving on instinct even before Itachi's started enunciating the last word, but a sharp slice of pain slides up from his left hip to left shoulder shallow enough that he knew he'd live for another day or so if it wasn't treated, makes him stumble and his body buckle as it tumbles away. Kakashi lands in a heap amongst a pile of rubble, crashing hard and smearing blood along the ground where his body slid and pressed.

"Careless." Minato snaps, and Kakashi winces slightly, but his focus is on the screen.

Itachi flicks a short tanto with lazy grace, the stained blade disappearing again inside the voluminous Akatsuki cloak. Blank red eyes regard the pile of rubble interspersed with strewn limbs with apathy.

Kakashi leaps up with more grace than would be expected of an injured man, but he only just favors his left side and his clothes are torn. "It was foolish of me wasn't it . . . to expect that my skill with genjutsu would keep up with yours."

"In such a short amount of time . . . yes." Itachi replies without hesitation. "And it will be your last mistake Kakashi."

Both men tense, but simultaneously their eyes flicker to the left and then they leap away and up as water rushes underneath, as a bright lights bathes the room and the sounds of screams fill the air.

Two Kages stand facing each other, one of the Leaf and one of the Rock.

"It's been a long time Oonoki." Hiruzen greeted with a placid face.

"Not long enough apparently, our next conversation should take place only when we're both dead." Oonoki sighed. He glanced to his left where Jiraiya stood, and then to the right where Han remained a silent sentinel. Thoughtfully Oonoki pursed his lips. The addition of Han would not only be unnecessary in this fight, but perhaps a liability in the amount of people in one clash. With Akatsuki here it would be better to . . .

"Han." The armor-clad man didn't move to give any indication but Oonoki knows he heard him. "Leave this place, and make your way to the safe house with utmost speed. We can't let them get the bijuu inside of you."

"Ah, to keep Han safe from the enemies in the room!" Rin mutters, sounding as if she greatly approved.

Minato however, was far less approving. "Leaving him defenseless when enemies could be everywhere . . . what is Oonoki thinking?"

"He is most likely thinking that his jinchuuriki can handle any Akatsuki members he crosses paths with. After all if Konoha and their young jinchuuriki can do it, certainly this more experienced one can." Jiraiya answers with distaste evident.

"He did seem to be on board with the rest of the Kages, however. He really could be trying to keep Han away . . . after all, his village needs the security and power of a jinchuuriki like Han. He wouldn't be so willing to throw him away, like Taki was willing to throw away Fuu." Kushina mentioned, grim.

Han remained very silent, and for a moment Oonoki wondered if Han would disobey him, and remain here. He was starting to puff up, anger roiling when Han's head finally tilted forward the barest inch and returned to previous state as the rumbling voice consented with a, "As you wish, Tsuchikage-samam." Han coiled and the shot away, breaking through a piece of the wall as if it were paper, leaving the oldest living Kage and the Toad Sage alone to battle the Sandaime Hokage.

"Oonoki, maybe you ought to hold back from this fight." Jiraiya mutters to the Tsuchikage, who glares at him with pure fury in his eyes.

"How dare you take me lightly boy! I fought against Madara Uchiha, I'll be damned if you think I can't handle this!" Oonoki spits, turning to look at his rival now a mere undead puppet at the hands of the enemy. As much as Oonoki despised the Leaf and its shinobi he had held great respect for Hiruzen for just being Hokage for so long, making them the two oldest veterans of the kage sector and veterans from a world long past. To see him like this, at the hands of the other's traitorous student, was infuriating. "Hiruzen, you've gotten yourself into a fine mess haven't you?"

Hiruzen sighs, the skin though cracked like badly glued together porcelain surprisingly elastic, allowing for fluid movements. "Honestly I really wonder why I held back on killing him at this point."

"Because you're sentimental and no one, not even us, ever wanted to think Orochimaru could get up to this." Tsunade whispers, anxious and just wishing for this chapter to be over.

"Well you always were a damned fool." Oonoki points out smugly.

"I also wondered why I didn't just kill you when I had the chance. I wonder why a lot of people are still alive at this point." Hiruzen counters with an amused smirk, growing into a grin when Oonoki fumes and his face turns red.

"As if you could kill me!" Oonoki yells, flying through hand seals. "Doton: Golem technique!"

Immediately from the ground in front of Oonoki three hulking giants of stone and earth form and at the completion of each one, they start to lumber towards Hiruzen at a pace far faster than one would expect from such cumbersome looking creations. Hiruzen lowers his head and smirks, before his own hands fly through hand seals almost too fast to catch.

"Suiton: Water Bullet!" Hiruzen keeps his fingers locked in position as his cheeks bulge and he spews a stream of water that jettisons towards one golem and pierces it through with such force it automatically crumbles back into the dust from whence it came.

"We need to trap him long enough for me to perform my detachment of the primitive world technique." Oonoki quickly mutters to Jiraiya by his side, hands already moving to create a new jutsu. "Keep him in one place and I can blast him apart!"

"Sensei needs to be sealed away . . . he should have been locked inside the Shinigami's stomach nearly four years ago but somehow he's out here now." Jiraiya replies. "I'll arrange him to be trapped but then you need to give me time to seal him otherwise he'll just come back again and again."

"Fine. You better hurry." Oonoki grunted. "Doton—"

"Not this time," Hiruzen chides, taking out three shuriken and throwing them. "Shuriken Shadow Clone technique!" what once was three is now three hundred shurikens hurtling for the sage and Tsuchikage.

"Damn!" Oonoki shouts "Doton: Earth Style Wall!"

"Needle Jizo!" Jiraiya follows quickly, hair lengthening to curl around him in a protective barrier as well as hardening to something akin to steel just in time for the barrage of shuriken to get lodged or bounce off depending upon the angle of attack. Inside the cocoon of steely hair Jiraiya winced as he felt many of those shuriken embed themselves in the spikes of his hair, knowing that it was only thanks to sensei actively fighting to hold back all of his strength that kept him from becoming shredded.

"Why didn't you create a wall yourself?! Stupid, using that jutsu, now is not the time to be careless!" Tsunade hisses, slapping Jiraiya on the shoulder.

Hiruzen wasn't finished though, only doing this because he was ordered to kill Jiraiya and Oonoki. "Katon: Pheonix Sage Fire Technique!"

Oonoki growls, knowing he'd have to help Jiraiya as the other's technique wouldn't stop him from being cooked. "Go!" he barks at his second golem, who moves to cover Jiraiya and sacrifices itself to the flames of Hiruzen's making. Jiraiya winces at the heat as his hair recedes, but he uses the opportunity to call for some help.

"Hair Needle Senbon!" Jiraiya rolls away from the smoldering, crumbling golem and crouches, letting his hair sharpen again and sending them as wicked fast projectiles towards Hiruzen. The needles pierce Hiruzen straight through, leaving tiny holes in the left part of his abdomen and through several fingers. Jiraiya smirks in triumph, and then his face falls comically fast as Hiruzen just grins cheekily before dispelling in smoke. "Oh come on."

"You ought to know better Jiraiya." Hiruzen's amused voice is right behind Jiraiya, and the larger man twists his entire body to move out of the way just in time as a fuma shuriken embeds itself into the ground right where Jiraiya's body used to be. "Your own student uses that trick too . . . who with shadow clones does not? Dodge Jiraiya!"

From out of nowhere with a speed to rival any young S-rank today Hiruzen hurls three other fuma shuriken at Jiraiya making the man dodge and leap in a scene reminiscent of when Hiruzen was just a jounin instructor and Jiraiya his unruly student. Judging by Jiraiya's disgruntled and mortified face, he makes that connection too.

"Pay attention to the battle Hiruzen! Doton: Fist Rock Technique!" Oonoki roars as he shoots forward and plants an enlarged, earthen fist that covers up to his shoulder into Hiruzen's back. Hiruzen is sent flying, skipping along the ground leaving deep cracks and fissures in his wake as he rolls into the wall and creates a body shaped crater. "Jiraiya!"

"Right! Katon: Flame bullet!" Jiraiya spits out a large glob of fire that speeds towards Hiruzen who is glaring at them from the wall. Using the wall as a support he quickly evades the speeding ball of flames but the heat has done him some damage, leaving singe marks along his body.

"Five Release Great Combo Technique!" Hiruzen calls out, and the fuma shuriken he had once attacked Jiraiya with dispel their henges in clouds of smoke to become his shadow clones, each finishing their hand seals just as Oonoki and Jiraiya realize that whether or not they dodge the attacks will hit their comrades. From there it's a mix mash of voices as everyone calls out a technique, four voices in hard tones, and two in desperation.

"Damn it there was more than just the electrocution from the Sandaime!" Kurama curses, leaning up on two arms as if prepared to leap into the screen.

"No, no, can they even survive that?!" Rin shrieks, clutching Obito and Kakashi.

The first clone. "Katon: Fire Dragon—"

The second clone. "Doton: Earth Dragon—"

Oonoki. "DOTON: MOVING EARTH—"

Jiraiya. "KUCHIYOSE NO JUTSU!"

"GET OUT OF THE WATER—!"

The third clone and Hiruzen. "Wind Water Wild Wave!"

From an aerial view, it's as if someone put mentos in a bottle of soda and shook very hard, because the entire roof of the meeting hall was just blasted off. From that explosion smaller ones rung out that rushed through the breezeways connecting the hall to other parts of the palace. The explosions rocked the ground and scattered hundreds of thousands of hot, fast pieces of rock all over the area. The citizens fled, screaming and stampeding from the scene of a sudden battle to take cover far away. On the inside . . .

"Oh no," Rin sobbed, looking at the palace and the people engulfed in the white lights and flames of explosions.

"Damn it . . . damn it, this is so much worse than what we thought it would be." Kakashi trembles slightly, almost overcome.

Bodies lay scattered over the area within a 40 kilometer radius, broken and torn bodies of guards who weren't fast enough. Some low-level scribes and government officials who froze in fear in their nearby offices were also seen, bleeding and singed. What used to be the hall which only minutes ago the Rice Daimyo was being judged was completely and utterly destroyed. The wooden stands were decimated, planks of wood sticking out from piles of rubble.

Various body parts were seen underneath piles of rubble, and by the western wall which had been mostly destroyed save a waist high piece of it, Kakashi's doubled over body was leaned against it with one arm slung over the back and the other in his lap.

"No, Kakashi!" Kushina bemoaned.

"I'm probably still alive." Kakashi deduced with dark eyes.

Blood dripped from his head down to his tarnished silver kimono, the strands soaked in crimson. The wall behind him was swathed in his blood from the injury Itachi dealt him. Underneath a pile of rubble on the other side of the wall a slim, pale hand was seen with palm upturned to the sky. The hand twitched, and then formed a fist. The rubble shifted and fell from a slowly rising form, revealing Mei with a kimono so torn only the grace of god held it together to protect her modesty. Her face was covered in blood and her left arm hung uselessly by her side. Her right arm was wrapped around her waist, and she tottered uncertainly, panting.

"None of them will be able to do a thing should the enemy return to finish the job." Kurama sighs, growling.

"Don't move . . . Mei." The hoarse growls made her lips tremble into a smile as she took in the sight of the first comrade seen alive. Zabuza hobbled to her, his sword used as a crutch. He was frazzled, bleeding and cut all over and definitely sporting burns of a serious nature. They all were most likely, after being electrocuted by the Raikage's powerful black lightning technique. Her smile faded when she saw his right arm was black, so burnt and dangling at his side.

"Zabuza." Mei uttered.

"Can it." Zabuza snorted, with a glare. "Anyone else alive?"

"I . . . I don't know." She glanced over and saw Kakashi, and moved slowly to him. Kneeling she checked his pulse, and noticed it steady and sure. "He's still alive."

"As expected of the Sharingan Kakashi." Zabuza coughed, hacked up blood and spit it out before looking around. He spotted a shifting pile of rubble, and then a glow of red. "Mei."

"I see it." Mei nodded, rising up slowly, grimacing. They watched as hands of glowing red chakra suddenly sprouted from the rubble and blasted it away, revealing Naruto's form underneath. Naruto was bleeding from his head, a gash on his arm, and had what looked like a broken leg. Still, gritting his teeth, the young shinobi looked around and used his chakra arms to push aside rubble to reveal more comrades.

"Oh thank you, thank you," Kushina whispered over and over as she turned her face to Minato's shoulder and huddled against his side, trembling. Minato however, was fervently praying that their enemies wouldn't touch their son, otherwise Naruto was dead anyway.

"Naruto, don't waste your strength. This isn't over." Zabuza warned through a groan. Naruto looked at him and froze.

"Zabuza . . ." Naruto murmured. "I . . ."

"Gaki, don't even try and say a word or I'll impale you." Zabuza chuckled.

Naruto gulped, eyes flitting to behind Zabuza before his eyes widened upon seeing Kakashi. "Nii . . .!"

"He's alive Naruto." Mei reassures the young man.

Tsunade was unearthed and she coughed, a trail of blood running from the corners of her mouth. Immediately she started trying to sit up, helped by Naruto who was slowly starting to crawl to her.

"Naruto, Tsunade-sama." Mei called, walking towards them with Zabuza in tow. Both blondes whipped towards her and sighed in relief at first upon seeing them.

"Mei-sama, I'm so glad everyone is alright. Zabuza . . . I'll take care of that arm, just give me a minute. Do we know where the Akatsuki and Orochimaru went?" Tsunade was quick to take stock of the situation, looking at Kakashi and then the others that were either starting to rise or were totally knocked out. Naruto had unearthed nearly every ally so far, but the only others still conscious like them were A, and Darui. They hadn't found Jiraiya and Oonoki yet—

"Jiraiya." Naruto muttered, eyes starting to glaze over and he swayed slightly before catching himself. His eyes were lowered to the floor and half-lidded from utter exhaustion, but his head tilted slightly to the left, and a chakra arm moved to that side and a few yards over where a large crater stuffed with wooden boards and broken plaster lay. It dug around and rooted through the debris before shaking Jiraiya and Oonoki out. The Tsuchikage was out cold, but Jiraiya was just clinging to a waking state, one eye shut from swelling and his body having taken a hard toll. The kimono was ripped apart from shoulders down to his waist, and a leg was missing from it, revealing bleeding flesh.

"Good find gaki." Jiraiya murmured with a small, humorless smile.

"Naruto, stop using Kurama's chakra." Jiraiya said as soon as they touched the ground, and Naruto complied. The young man shook in place, elbows nearly locking up, and he panted harshly as if he couldn't get any air in.

"What if he has chakra exhaustion . . . he could be in serious trouble! He's defenceless!" Rin cries.

"Rin, we know." Jiraiya stops her from continuing on sharply, looking at Kushina who pales at the thought of her son being taken to die.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Kushina." Rin whispers.

"We're . . . in a bit of a rough spot." Naruto pants, dragging in air with almost painful sounding gasps.

"They haven't left. They all planned this attack, even that last one. We were in their hand this whole time." Jiraiya noted grimly, looking around.

"We can't protect anyone like this. We certainly can't keep them from taking the jinchuuriki." Zabuza growled, leaning more heavily on his blade.

"Like hell . . . we have to try until there's nothing left!" A growls.

Tsunade sighs, flipping through seals. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

The boss slug Katsuya is summoned, and without a word she dissolves into thousands of smaller slugs, several taking space on each body as they engulf the injured in a glow of soothing mint, and the many others go out to find surviving civilians that can still be helped.

"But where are they?" Obito is desperate to know.

"Nngh . . ." Ao starts to wake, eyes cracking open, but Mei rushes over clutching the soothing slugs to her chest and sets a hand upon Ao's arm.

"Ao, please be still . . . you need to rest." Mei chided.

"Mei-sama . . ." Ao grunted. "You're alive . . . I'm so relieved."

Mei smiled warmly, tears wishing to fall but she wouldn't let them here. When she heard the sound of rocks shifting, she was the first up and glaring at the line of black cloaks standing above them on the last vestiges of wall. They were there, though not without wounds nearly as serious as theirs(a small, childish part of her rejoiced at the sight of their efforts but the larger part of her was spent making sure her fear and desperation were kept to a simmer), the most beat up of them all being Hidan and Orochimaru. She noticed with some suspicion that the youngest Uchiha was nowhere in the group. Then, the Akatsuki and Orochimaru's minions all shuffled to the side and created an opening in the center of the line-up. Soft footfalls echoed before a new member came up to them.

"What happened to the ones resurrected by Edo Tensei?" Tsunade asks, voice strong and filled with ire.

"Completely forgot about them!" Kakashi gasps.

"Shh!" Tsunade hisses.

"Oh . . . they won't be necessary." The new voice answers loftily. "More to the point, Orochimaru is not capable of keeping that jutsu up any longer."

"Shit." Zabuza growled. This person hadn't been with the others fighting, evidenced by his untouched, unmarred body and the feeling of tightly coiled chakra hovering around that body like planets in gravitational pull.

The newcomer wore the same black cloak as all of them, but his face was completely covered by an orange, spiraling mask that had only one hole for his eye—

His—

"What the hell are you doing with a Sharingan?!" Tsunade snarled like a feral bear, limbs trembling as sheer rage forced her body up. "All Uchiha except Itachi and Sasuke were killed in the massacre! What are you doing with that eye?!"

"So the rogue Uchiha who bewitched the Mizukage is here . . . what remarkable power." Minato growls.

"Well obviously I wasn't a part of the massacre." The masked man finally spoke, his voice carefully modulated and even lofty. "I had left the village of Konoha long before the decision to kill the Uchiha off ever came to mind."

Tsunade stiffened, the words of the masked man setting her on edge. Not even Sasuke knew . . . unless Itachi told not only him but the newly uncovered Uchiha but that made no sense . . . Itachi was determined to take the secret to the grave, Sasuke said he couldn't get anything from Itachi at all!

"What . . . what the hell does that mean." Kushina whispers, trembling.

"It almost sounds like . . ." Tsunade's breath catches, and then she sighs mournfully. "Oh, uncle, you suspicious fool . . ."

"That sounds very suspicious." The calm, quiet voice of the only Uchiha amongst them makes Minato, Jiraiya, and Tsunade cringe. They look to Obito, whose face is a careful, blank mask. "That sounds like the decision 'to kill off the Uchiha' was quite official and dare I say . . . bureaucratic."

"Obito, please, don't think like that." Minato says the words before he can even think them through, and winces at his own shallow, cold comfort. It was looking quite bad for Konoha, and no doubt the book would explain further.

That was a month ago however.

"In fact," the masked man was speaking again. "I've only visited the village once since leaving after my battle with Hashirama."

That stopped them all cold, a feeling of incredulity and ice spreading through their veins sluggishly. ". . . Your battle with Hashirama?" Oonoki's rough, grating voice startled them all, unaware he had awakened. Oonoki's voice grew rougher, louder. "What the hell are you trying to call yourself bastard! Don't think you can pretend to be—"

"Oh, there is no pretending involved." The man interrupts with almost amusement. "I am Uchiha Madara."

The announcement is met with stone cold silence, until a soft growling can be heard that only grows. As one they all shift their focus to the last (male) Uzumaki, whose eyes are no longer their brilliant blue but a searing, glowing crimson that denotes who is in control of the body now. Blackened lips part to reveal two rows of sharp teeth, and his whisker marks thicken to broad strokes. The growls become throatier, harsher, enough to unnerve many in the room. The crimson eyes lock on to a single Sharingan, unafraid of being controlled by the shadow of the Sage's force as the three tomoe show.

"What . . . what the hell . . ." Rin breathes. "He should be dead by now, unless he did as Orochimaru has done and switched bodies— but that wouldn't make sense, to continually switch the Sharingan—!"

"It wouldn't be possible, the eye could be rejected by the host body." Tsunade discounts.

"More to the point . . . the three tomoe is a sign of a fully matured Sharingan. I'm unclear of any other indication . . ." Obito admits. "His claim may have some truth."

"You . . . it was you . . ." Kurama's absolutely murderous expression twisted onto Naruto's face gave many pause. Madara looked down at Kurama and though his face wasn't seen a smirk could be heard in his voice from the smugness. The slugs that had covered Naruto's body quickly slink off, nearly leaping from the scalding chakra that starts to bubble inside as it is stirred by the bijuu's rage. They go back to Tsunade and huddle behind her, lightly shivering.

"The man who pulled you from your life Kurama, and made you fight against Hashirama Senju and lead up to your sealing." Minato murmurs. "I'm sure you want badly to kill him."

"I would not risk Naruto in such a manner. Against Madara . . . but it seems so unlikely . . ." Kurama trails off, frowning.

"So . . . Naruto became an excellent jinchuuriki. And you, Kyuubi? You actually remember that night?" Madara asked as if inquiring about the weather.

"YOU. STARTED. THIS! It was you who killed them!" Kurama roars, the force of his chakra acting like eddies of wind that blasted against them.

"Killed?" Kushina repeats, looking quizzically at Kurama who merely frowns pensively.

"Kurama, please, think of the seal." Jiraiya hisses, and he knows the fox caught it when he subsided but still kept up a murderous glare.

Madara's head tilted. "To be fair Kyuubi . . . it was your claw that impaled the Fourth and his wife. You did the act that killed them. And yet I understand your point . . . as I was the one to take you from the previous jinchuuriki."

The effect of that statement was a round of deep flinches, bodies contorting away from the truth. Kurama's eyes glow and his teeth grow as he takes more of his chakra from Kushina, who doubles over and holds tightly to her seal not in pain but in some form of shock and mingled hope to comfort Kurama.

"Kurama please . . . !" She pleads.

"So . . . I see. I was placed under a genjutsu again. That lends even more credibility to his claim. Madara," the name was a curse, a malediction, the foulest of names. And yet it was said as his lips widened into an almost impossible large grin, one filled with teeth and malice.

It was as if Tsunade and Jiraiya had been struck by a bolt of lightning. ". . . You mean to say," Tsunade breathed. "You were the one who ripped the Kyuubi from Kushina?"

Kushina shudders. "Ripped is vertainly a good adjective for that . . . how it would feel I bet."

"Yes, even then I had the plan to take the bijuu to complete the operation. But credit is due to that Yondaime Hokage, who even with the short amount of time he had foiled my plans. I severely underestimated a man who, had he lived, might have been Konoha's greatest Hokage." Madara admits.

"To receive such a compliment . . . and yet if it comes from that man's mouth I feel nothing but disgust." Minato mutters, blue eyes frozen over in his hatred for the one who had planned all along to break apart a family he had dreamed of.

"It was you . . . you did that . . . took my student from his family . . . broke them all apart." Jiraiya whispered, eyes locked on the figure of Madara.

"Ah? Again, I didn't force the Hokage to curse his own son to such a fate, but I did start the whole process I suppose . . . but I don't like to repeat myself." Madara chides. "I see that getting the Kyuubi even now is a difficult task . . . you're in a good position to break out of the seal, Fox, but doing so would mean you're instantly caught by us. Stalemate, wouldn't you say?"

"I will burn you." Kurama promises, the malice dripping from each consonant and vowel like corrosive acid.

"You will try." Madara concedes.

"Wait!" Mei cuts in forcefully before Madara can continue to speak. "What is your plan with the bijuu? Why is Rice and Rain involved?"

"Finally, some important information." Kurama teases, lips twitching when Kushina and Minato glare at him.

"Oh, the villages aren't involved in the plan per se, but added numbers are always good." Madara answers after a pause. "As for the bijuu? Well . . . simply put, I wish to use them and their power to make this world a better place."

"That's a load of bullshit if I ever heard." Zabuza snorts. "How is all of this destruction and death you've caused to aide in creating a better world huh, dumbass?"

Madara shrugged. "I wouldn't expect you to understand Zabuza, you who killed any for money, regardless of circumstance. You abandoned your village, hurt hundreds, and still you stand by the Mizukage as if you have any real right to be there. How can one who is part of the problem truly understand the problem?"

"Now, now," Madara shushed them once he saw them all ready to come up there and deal with the enemy. "Listen closely. I'm going to explain to you my plan, and then ask you a simple question."

"We get it, you have a twisted view on how to make the world a better place. You're not the first." Ao grunted, pushing himself up to his elbows.

"No, no . . . there's so much more to this plan . . . Operation: Tsuki no me." Madara corrects. As if the words were a signal, the rest of the Akatsuki leapt away and the shouts of the palace guards were heard from afar as the rogues escape.

"So that lessens the imminent danger at least." Kakashi sighs. "But I'm not sure it even matters with Uchiha Madara."

"I find myself at a loss as to why the great Uchiha Madara needs to use these subtle tactics . . . when one with your immense power, power enough to battle the first Hokage, could easily accomplish anything you need." Oonoki argues, wobbling upright, glancing around for his granddaughter. When he sees her still passed out he narrows his eyes and looks to Madara.

"My injuries from the fight with the Shodaime were so severe I never could really recover." Madara explains. "Besides . . . one does not always need to use brute force to get things in life, wouldn't you agree . . . Godaime Mizukage?"

"So . . . are you fessing up to something Madara? The manipulation of a Kage perhaps?" Kurama snarls.

Madara chuckles. "Hush, Fox, I'll get back to you." Madara spreads his arms out, like a story teller prepping his audience. "This plan is quite something, if I do say so myself. Now . . . I believe everyone here is familiar with the Sage of the Six Paths?"

"You don't even deserve to say his name you filth." Kurama growls.

"Do you have a lot of respect for the Sage of Six Paths Kurama?" Rin asks, voice hushed and strained as the situation got more out of hand for Naruto.

"Hm. I don't know if I'd like to call it respect, but perhaps that is the best term for it." Kurama admits. "He was a pesky human with ideas above his station and a power he wielded maybe too casually, but he did do me the favor of releasing me from the ten-tailed monstrosity . . . so he has my gratitude at least."

"That was your rebirth?" Minato asks.

"No, the second one." Kurama corrects. "The first rebirth was . . . quite a spectacle. If Naruto doesn't hear it, I'll tell you the tale some day."

"The Sage said to be the father of all ninja? The very one who gave us chakra?" Mei prods the discussion along as she takes note of the growing shadows along the floor. The day grew long, and towards its end.

"Yes," Madara acknowledges in a soft tone. "A man much like any here, revered as a god at one time. Do you know why he was looked upon as so? The Sage of Six Paths saved them all— this world— from a common enemy. A monster . . . and do you know what that monster was? Eh, perhaps you Kyuubi."

A low, icy hiss from Kurama made Madara pause, but he continued then. "He was the culmination of all the tailed beasts you took for your own greed. An existence that possessed nigh infinite chakra . . . its name was the Ten-Tailed Beast."

Oonoki's eyes narrow and he turns to (not) Naruto. "Is this true, Fox?"

Kurama's volcanic eyes rove from Madara to Oonoki, a sharp and short jerk of his head his answer. "We all had been fused for a time into the ten-tails . . . some sort of freak occurrence, don't ask for the details."

Unknown to anyone that Kurama would inform no one of those details but Naruto, and no one quite grew suspicious of his words.

"I don't like where this is going," Oonoki growls. "So this is your reason for trying to gather the Beasts?"

"The Sage had a special system to subdue the greatest bijuu; we are all aware of the jinchuuriki sealing method yes?"

"You don't mean to say . . . the Sage himself was . . . ?" Mei breathes, as if saying it any louder would bring forth the monster itself.

"Yes, the Sage was the jinchuuriki of the Ten-Tails!" Madara sharply announces, a short chuckle escaping him. "And so . . . you can start to see a part of my plan, I believe."

"You're fucking crazy," the voice came from the same feral face but one eye had shifted into a light violet, and the voice had lost some gravelly timbre. Naruto glares at Madara and laughs incredulously. "You really think you'll be able to become the jinchuuriki of the ten-tails? As if— as if you're some reincarnation of the Sage himself!"

"Oh bravo Naruto, I thought you weren't able to listen what with the Kyuubi taking over you . . . is the Fourth's seal starting to weaken?" Madara asked idly.

Naruto grins savagely, but the image was marred when a wave of blood flowed from between his teeth and over his lower lip, puddling on the floor. His voice came out as if two spoke at once. "Come down here and find out Ma-da-ra."

"Naruto you fool!" Minato and Kurama are in synch as they curse the boy.

"How I await the chance to beat some sense into you, brat." Jiraiya chuckles without any sort of humor.

"Naruto!" Jiraiya snarls, body jerking as he crossed over to shield Naruto from Madara's view.

Madara sighs, but it sounds amused as if viewing the actions of an old friend. "As Naruto correctly deduced I'd become the ten-tails and with that power . . . well, I'd enhance the already awesome powers of the Sharingan and launch a particular jutsu exclusive to those of my ilk."

"What jutsu?" A demands, muscles tensing and straining underneath his skin, reinvigorating as Tsunade's summon heals them all. "What are you plotting?!"

"Do you know of the Sharingan jutsu, Tsukiyomi?" Madara asks curiously.

"An ocular technique," The low voice, heavy from waking yet growing more alert as they continue to speak prompts everyone to look at a conscious Kakashi. He slowly rises to a knee, breathing slowly and deeply. "It casts a genjutsu that is impossible to penetrate without the caster being disrupted or ending the jutsu itself."

Madara doesn't spout a quick rejoinder or say anything at all, as his head turns to stare directly at Kakashi with an unreadable Sharingan eye. "You've had experience with this." Even Madara's tone was indecipherable, with no emotion clearly defined but a definite edge of something.

"Yes well, after becoming the jinchuuriki I will cast a super-genjutsu where I project my eye off of the moon's surface . . . creating an Infinite Tsukiyomi. Can you just imagine it? All humans on this earth under my control, and so I will unify them all! I will create a world with no wars, no blood . . . true peace, that is Tsuki no Me."

"The . . . the twisted, convoluted logic you must have used to delude yourself into thinking that is the right answer!" Kushina splutters.

"That is the right answer." Kurama's blunt, dead tone makes them all look to him in shock.

"You can't be serious!" Obito yells, standing up and glaring at the demon. At Kurama's glare he wavered a little but held firm after a deep breath.

Kurama sighs. "You humans are so . . . stupid. You're destructive. The Sage gave you chakra with the express purpose of you all coming together, and instead you decide to drive each other further apart with it. So long as humans have chakra, have powers that rival nature, peace will be nothing but a dream."

"That's not true of everyone!" Tsunade argues.

"For every seven of you in here who care about humanity, there are seven hundred who wish to destroy it!" Kurama barks. "Will you deny this? Deny that this war you currently fight is the result of human avarice? Will you tell me, who has seen the world die and live again because more often than naught humans brought down their own destruction, that there's always a chance?"

The silence that follows is unsettled and filled to the brim with held-back recriminations, justifications, and pleas of change. Kurama sighs, the sound loud in the dead silent room, and waves a hand as if brushing away cobwebs. "Well? Will we watching this drama unfold? You were so vehement the TV paused out of courtesy for you."

"You're insane . . ." Ao mutters, glaring up at Madara.

"They say there's a fine line between genius and insanity." Madara counters placidly. "And now my dear Kage, the question I will ask you."

Two beats of silence before Tsunade's cold, clipped voice rings the truths in their minds. "What is it then?"

"Will you surrender the jinchuuriki to me, and spare your countries from needless bloodshed?" The question, voiced innocuously, was like a sharp jolt through their systems as each one of those on the ground looked at Madara with both incredulity and rage.

"You . . . after admitting what you would do with the bijuu you think we would allow you to take them, the jinchuuriki?" A shouts, looking nearly incoherent with rage. "We will never allow you to take the jinchuuriki!" then the Raikage smirks, "You haven't had much luck with that anyway. One bijuu, eight still out of your reach."

Madara is silent for a while, head tilted in thought before he speaks. "Is that what you think?" It is these words combined with a pleased, even amused tone that makes them all tense.

"No . . . no don't let it be what I think it means . . ." Kakashi groans.

"What, they caught Isobu it's sad but we know that already!" Rin frets.

"No!" The shout from A, makes them all whip around to see what was Yugito's still body starting to pale . . . becoming paler . . . and when she is completely white her body morphs like pliable clay and it is no longer Yugito but some strange entity with half of his body resembling a venus fly trap. The being grins at them and then sinks into the ground.

"What the fuck is that?!" Obito yelps, pressing back into the cushions of the couch.

"Oh, no Yugito! Nibii!" Kushina moans, head sinking into her hands.

"Yugito!" Naruto gasps. Then, it hits him with the force of a sledge hammer. "Tsuchikage-sama where is Han?!"

"You bastards!" Oonoki roars as he brings his hands up and he shoots a fire ball to Madara. The jutsu hurtles towards the Uchiha and he doesn't even move, the fire ball coming upon him and then moving through Madara's face as if the man was a mirage— his body becoming almost opaque. The fireball sails on and explodes against the last piece of wall on that side, the Akatsuki becoming dark silhouettes against the burning flames.

"Calm yourself Tsuchikage-sama." Madara advises. "The surprises have only just begun." The space in front of him begins to warp, and from what seems like his eye two bodies emerge and drop to the ground. It is Yugito and Han, both like lifeless dolls.

"Matatabi . . . Kokuo . . ." Kurama murmurs.

"No!" Naruto shouts, rising to his feet in a surge of strength that immediately leaves him once his vision doubles and Jiraiya yanks him back down to the ground behind him.

". . . There's nothing you can do." The cold voice of Jiraiya makes Naruto shake with rage and regret, with fear for the two jinchuuriki.

"Hm, the Toad Sage is right Naruto. You've lost this round . . . and after all the hard work you did to get the villages to come together. Don't you see Naruto, we're working towards a common goal here— peace! You're still young, you think mere words can save this world . . . but you must realize that when the choice is left up to humans, they'll choose wrong."

"And you think this is any better? I'll kill you, I swear it Madara! I WILL KILL YOU." Naruto screams.

Madara shakes his head. "Stubborn like your mother. She too would not lay down and just die."

"Who the hell do you think I am?!" Kushina snaps, hair waving briefly in the force of her chakra before settling down with restrained anger.

"You DARE—"

"Well I have your answer, you won't give up your remaining jinchuuriki without a fight, is that it?" Madara asks in a resigned manner. "So be it." Again the space in front of his body twists and morphs, and Yugito and Han are sucked in again.

Naruto jerks as if to push past Jiraiya, but the older man pins him down with the full force of his weight and spears him with a dark look. At the same time A rushes forward and both Tsunade and Mei hold him back; faces a mix of rage, defeat, and chagrin.

"We'll avenge them. We'll get these bastards for this." Tsunade swears.

"It'll be hard to do, after this . . ." Madara cuts in. "Because I am now declaring war against the hidden villages. This is the start of the Fourth Shinobi War!"

The screen cuts to black, and the group knows its over for this chapter, and what a grim ending it is.

"God we were thrashed." Jiraiya sighs in disgust.

"Not as bad as our defeat to Hanzo, but just sad with our experience." Tsunade agrees, knuckles kneading her forehead to alleviate some stress. "Damn it, to think . . . to think we'd be so careless! Two jinchuuriki lost in one battle! I can only thank the heavens Naruto wasn't taken as well, it's hard to say whether or not we could have protected him."

". . . A fourth shinobi world war." Rin whispers, head downcast and her chin-length hair hiding her face. "Was all that we did . . . was it for nothing?"

"Listen child, this had been stirring for a long, long time . . . long before even the first shinobi world war. Madara was a suspicious, cautious man who kept many things hidden. His disdain, even hatred, of Konoha however was an poorly kept secret. I have no doubt Madara had such plans early on, and was only waiting for the right opportunities to present itself . . . which they did nearly a century later. Only stubborn bastards like Madara could pull this off." Kurama explains to Rin, tone growing darker the more he spoke of Madara.

"Is that supposed to make us feel better?" Kakashi drawls.

"No." Kurama replies with a grin.

"Ugh . . . I'm just so glad Naruto was spared." Kushina sighs, leaning into Minato and wrapping a pale arm around his waist. "Jiraiya, I know you'll train Naruto properly, give him what he needs to survive."

"I only hope everything I can give him is enough." Jiraiya admits, rubbing a hand through his hair. "Shit, I don't know if the following chapters won't be as bad . . . or worse, than this. The war starts now."

Whew! Many months later and this is the end result. I have mixed feelings about it, but mostly I'm just satisfied I can be done with this chapter. Don't even ask me when the next one is coming out because I'm graduating this winter, I'm looking for more permanent employment, a new apartment . . . life is taking top priority. Rest assured . . . it's coming out. With some time. So, thank you for continuing to read this story, continue to wait patiently, and read and review!

Love,

Bloody Mad~3