Deception is a ninja's greatest weapon. - Sandaime Hokage

"Sensei! Look at me, I did it! I did it!" The young ninja's jubilant cry of triumph echoed softly in the granite halls of Iwa's genin academy. The young child of twelve beamed as he held a smooth stone in his palm with only his chakra, defying the pull of gravity.

Mura Koga scoffed to himself. "Cheh." They were supposed to be like stone, steadfast and stoic, such was their code of ninja. To show glee at such a minor achievement was a sign of immaturity and inability. The child should be punished and taught how harsh the life of a shinobi was. He would never realize the hypocrisy of the thought, but Koga was a few scrolls short of a full set. His scowl increased as the teacher walked over to the child and congratulated the ninja-trainee.

"Disgraceful." He spat out. "Once we were feared throughout the nations as the most brutal and vicious of the five. Now we are nothing more than relics of a past glory. Shades of our legends who have all withered to nothing." His diatribe was delivered with such intense vitriol that he was spitting near the end. His form was massive, dwarfing the average man by a good kunai length and his thick, corded muscles bulged as he shifted slightly. Despite his large figure, he made nary a sound.

"You better hope no one heard that. If word gets to Tsuchikage-sama, you will be in for a world of hurt." The admonishment was without bite. His fellow ninja supported his view, but unlike him, refused to stir up anything.

Tsura Kuno was almost half his height, but had muscles that looked like a scuplter had carved them out of stone. His feature were bland, easily forgettable, but no one who fought him ever forgot his face. His shaved head was decorated only by five red dots in the form of a pentagon in the middle of his forehead, rumored to be some sort of archaic kinjutsu, and his brown eyes blazed with an inner vigor. He was one of the very few ninja in the village that had an S-rank threat rating and was fiercely devoted to the current and previous Tsuchikage.

"Your loyalty to Tsuchikage-sama is touching." He sneered. The mocking undertone was clear to anyone who heard him. Too late he remembered who it was with him. Koga was far too used to being the stronger one in a partnership and had let his tongue momentarily slip in his rage.

His companion stiffened and he realized far too late that it was not a good idea to antagonize one of the few people in the village that could pulverize him with ease. A miasma of killing intent flared briefly, paralyzing Koga who choked as his voice was sealed shut from the pressure of the killing intent, his apology unuttered.

"You were upset. I will pretend that never happened." His partner paused and the killing intent dissipated. "Make no mistake. The next time you insult our kage, I will feed you your testicles." His voice was without inflection and Koga knew that the threat was legitimate. Beads of sweat trickled down his back as he realized that Kuno's expression had not changed since they met at the rendezvous point.

The silence stretched on for a second, the other man's threat hanging in the air. Koga swallowed nervously, acutely aware that the S-ranking his partner had was completely deserved.

"I apologize. My comment was out of hand." He bowed his head in deference.

"Put the next generation out of your mind. It is our duty to protect and enforce the will of our village and guarantee their future." Kuno said at last. "Go pack for our mission." Here Kuno paused, no doubt thinking about the mission. "Failure is not an option, we will assassinate the Hokage's son."

"Hai, Kuno-sama."

The two of them blurred across the landscape, darting through the tree tops in a straight line toward Konohagakure. Everything had been carefully vetted and planned years in advance and the Konoha's lookout squad that usually patrolled the area with diligent vigilance had been knocked out, courteous of their mole.

Koga felt the breeze gently caress his face, marvelling at the warmth of the summer wind and enviously wishing he had been born a Konoha ninja. He shook his head and threw the thought out of his head with no small amount of vehemence. There was no room for such weak thoughts.

This would be his last mission and although he felt a little apprehensive about dying, there was no hesitation. He had made his peace a while ago when he learned of the mission. The Tsuchikage had chosen him for the suicide job because he fit the profile perfectly. He was one of the few who harbored resentment toward his Kage, he had very little in terms of friends and he had no surviving family. He was still in his prime, but in another few years he would be twenty one, the average age of death for shinobi. Besides, his three years in black ops had taken his humanity and left only rage and fury in its place. He snorted softly to himself. At least the Tsuchikage was deserving of his position. Although Koga hated him for conceding defeat during the third shinobi war against Konoha, he still respected the old fossil. After all, his Kage could pound him into the ground without too much effort. Besides, this was their chance to formally declare war against Konoha. What better way to start then by killing the enemy leader's heir? Namikaze Minato was an S-ranked monster who deserved to die, and if he was too hard to kill, then his spawn would suffice as replacement.

Speaking of S-ranked shinobi, Koga looked at his companion. Kuno was held in high esteem in their village, and with the accolades to his name it was hard not to hold the man in high esteem. A prodigy that soared through the ranks during his youth, he made himself into a legend during the last war by single handedly decimating an entire Suna AnBu squad. Although Suna was looked down upon as the weakest of the five, their AnBu squads were known to be deadly and only Konoha and Kiri's black ops were considered stronger. A full platoon held five members, two ninjutsu specialists, one taijutsu specialist, one ninjutsu specialist and one well rounded shinobi to shore up the group's weaknesses. That was the general combat squadron, although variations were plentiful depending on what was required. Kuno had emerged victorious and bore the scars of that encounter with pride. There was also rumours that he had fought the Third Hokage alongside the famous Nidaime Tsuchikage.

The brunet's thoughts flitted to their mission. Their lives in exchange for that of a ten year old child. It was a completely disparate trade. In the favor of Kumogakure, of course. The ten year old boy was not only a prodigy, son of the fourth Hokage, but also was the jinchuriki of the nine-tails. As long as they succeeded in their mission, they would deal a crippling blow to Konoha's military strength. And who knows, maybe the sealing was badly done and the Kyubi would decimate Konoha once the brat died.

"Halt." Kuno murmured softly and the two of them came to a stop before a clearing. "Konoha has a 360 degree chakra surveillance dome covering the entire village. The dome of detection starts right in front of us. Any chakra signature chunin or higher is instantly flagged and tracked and there is no way to fool the seal's sensor. Our mole will disable the sensor for a brief moment at 0820. We will wait here until the barrier falls."

Koga marvelled at Konoha's defence system. No wonder they were touted as the strongest of the five. Such an ingenious security system. He glanced at his watch and grimaced. 0222. "I'm going to take a nap." He announced after another minute of shuffling aimlessly.

Kuno shrugged. "Do as you will." The bald ninja smoothly seated himself cross-legged and began to meditate. He was no doubt preparing himself for the mission ahead. Koga snorted at the passivity of his fellow nin. Nothing seemed to faze the man, and only the mention of Tsuchikage-sama seemed to ruffle his feathers.

"Sandaime-sama!" The Konoha chunin desperately yelled, knowing he was too late to do anything but watch as the third Hokage took the full brunt of the combined assault of four A-ranked doton jutsu.

"Raiton: Gian." The soft murmur was drowned out by the roar of the stone avalanche bearing down on the frail form of the Sandaime Hokage. With a searing flash of light that illuminated the entire forest, a crackling spear of electricity penetrated and shattered the incoming wave of earth before continuing to lance forward at the enemy ninja.

"Wow." The Konoha chunin gasped as the supposed B-rank ninjutsu tore through it's A-rank counterpart like shuriken through rice paper. Two of the jounin on the other side perished instantly as they were caught in the surge of lightning and another collapsed bonelessly as the electrical discharge clipped him. The remaining jounin had wisely leapt to the side and was looking to bolt when a thunderclap roared through the dark clearing.

"Raijin-sama always strikes twice." The composed form of the venerable Hokage spoke softly from the chunin's side. A bubble of compressed air shielded and muffled the roar to tolerable levels, but the poor Iwa jounin had been caught unaware and suffered the full force of a near point blank wave of sound and compressed air.

"Ho-ho-kage-sama." Umino Iruka stuttered as he realized how close he had come to dying. Without even being in the fight. And how had the aging ninja get beside him? When had that happened?

The Sandaime chuckled and gestured toward the enemy ninja who had collapsed on the ground writhing in agony. "We should put him out of his pain." Iruka winced. The man's eardrums had no doubt shattered along with his inner sense of balance. They could not hear his screams, but it was for the better as the mere sight was already disturbing enough. "He is bleeding to death internally. The sound wave must have shredded his internal organs." The Hokage remarked neutrally.

Iruka shivered as he walked alongside his aged leader. In direct contrast to his nervousness, the Sandaime looked as if he was taking a stroll in the park. As they passed through another clearing, Iruka realized that the surrounding corpses were all Iwa ninja and not a single Konoha headband was on the ground. He smiled uneasily as he took this to mean that they were winning the fight, but if Iruka had looked at the third Hokage, he would have seen a small frown on the old man's face.

The envoy that had been sent to discuss a peace treaty between Konoha and Iwa had devolved into a full fight when Iwa sprung their ambush. The Sandaime had been prepared in the event such an act occured, and the hidden Konoha reinforcements had made short work of the initial wave of Iwa nin. Nonetheless, in the ensuing melee, the Hokage had been momentarily separated from his AnBu force and a few of the enemy ninja had decided to take the chance to strike at him. Only to find out that it was a very bad idea.

A sudden spike in the ambient chakra had Iruka tensing, but before he could decipher what was going on, two blurs darted into the path of the Hokage and his chunin companion.

"Forgive us Hokage-sama. We were detained." The cool voice of the AnBu operative was apologetic and slightly shaky. Iruka noted in equal spades with no small amount of awe and fear that both ninja were covered with blood. None of which was theirs, at least from what he could see.

"Status report." The Sandaime was imperturbable and the strength of his voice reassured Iruka. Even the AnBu relaxed slightly, as evidenced from the loosening of the shoulders and a slight fidget from his partner.

"Things are not going well, Alpha squad was lured …" Before the operative could finish, the Sandaime stiffened and suddenly the Iruka's world split apart. With a tremendous roar, the earth beneath him heaved and trembled and erupted. One of the AnBu managed to catch him as a chasm opened beneath him and he felt himself lifted, carried away from the jagged tear that ripped through the earth. Within seconds, an entire canyon separated the Hokage and the three Konoha ninja.

"Doton: Doryukatsu." The owner of the deep voice stepped forward from the trees. "Greetings, Sarutobi-sama." A bald monk with three red dots on his forehead approached the old man who made no move except the folding of his hands into his white pristine coat.

"Ah, Kuno-san. What a pleasant surprise." For a second, Iruka actually thought that the Hokage was pleased. Even Kuno seemed somewhat surprised that the Hokage continued to look as tranquil as ever.

"As composed as ever. Does nothing faze you, Sarutobi-sama?"

"Many things. Why, just recently my grandson…" He cut off suddenly and an incredible wave of killing intent descended upon the entire clearing. Even the Konoha shinobi felt the air turn into sludge and Iruka's breathing became labored.

"I would not do that if I were you, Mu-san." The Hokage's voice was deceptively mild compared to the amount of pressure he was releasing. The grass part around him and the nearby trees shook.

"Ha ha ha. Amazing." A slightly muffled laughter came from right behind where Iruka and the two AnBu were standing and they all whirled around in surprise. An Iwa ninja stood within striking distance of them, completely at ease with himself and entirely relaxed. He was a strange sight to behold, wrapped from head to feet in pristine white bandages, with two grey pupils gazing out from pitch black corneas beneath an Iwa headband. He was wearing a combat vest and had a long flat sword strapped to his back.

With a start, Iruka recognized the Nidaime Tsuchikage. A bead of sweat trickled slowly down his neck and the acute sensation of a thousand senbon needles prickling his back told him that he had just narrowly avoided dying. His eyes began prickling, but Iruka refused to blink. His instincts screamed at him to get away, but his body was frozen and locked in place. This must be what a mouse feels in the hands of a cat. He knew that if the other ninja wanted, they would all be dead and the Hokage was too far away to help. Neither AnBu members had been able to detect the Tsuchikage even though he was a mere five feet away!

In fact, Iruka could sense nothing in front of him. Had it been anyone else, Iruka would have assumed that a genjutsu had been cast and the ghastly image of the Nidaime was but a trick. But the Tsuchikage was renown for his ability to hide his presence from his enemies completely and utterly. Still, it was one thing to read about it and an entire other beast to experience it.

"You were able to detect me?" Mu seemed slightly amused. "Well, I am impressed, you old monkey." The voice changed from soft amusement to ice in a matter of syllables. "Still, I seem to have three hostages over you. What will you do?"

"Only two." The Sandaime's voice was almost cheerful. A few feet away in front of him, Kuno suddenly jerked before freezing as the cold steel of a kunai touched his throat. The bald ninja's eyes widened in shock as he registered that there was a Kage Bunshin of the Hokage right behind him.

"Please refrain from any sudden movement, Kuno-san. I'd rather not kill you accidentally." The clone's voice was cold and without emotion. Kuno stopped his reflexive urge to swallow, knowing that the slightest movement would result in a slit throat.

Iruka started as he heard a soft growl. Mu's eyes had narrowed into slits and for the first time since Iruka laid eyes on him, there were traces of anger in the Tsuchikage's eye lines.

"That technique…" He hissed. "How were you able to replicate it?" Iruka saw his death flash before him as a spark of light appeared before the Tsuchikage's frame. The infamous dust release, known for its incredible destructiveness. The rumors that it was able to completely vaporize on a molecular level didn't seem too farfetched now. The sheer amount of chakra condensed in that spark was the equivalent of an A-rank jutsu. And Iruka could not even see the spark clearly yet. The jutsu grew quickly into a triangle the size of an eyeball. Iruka paled noticably and his two fellow shinobi drew their weapons.

The Sandaime chuckled and Iruka felt the pressure lighten ever so slightly. Such was the power of the third Hokage's presence. "You are not the only shinobi to wield three elements at once. I admit it was quite tricky to get the balance right."

For a second, Iruka was almost sure that Mu was about to kill them as the triangle grew into a cube the size of his head, containing more chakra than he had ever seen or felt bar the Kyubi no kitsune, but Mu abruptly turned around and began to walk toward the Sandaime. The Nidaime levitated himself across the massive ravine and stopped a few feet away from his venerable counterpart.

"What are your terms," He growled out, knowing that the Sandaime had one upped him. Somehow, the old monkey had managed to detect him through his prided invisibility jutsu and on top of that had replicated the jutsu. Mu had spend decades creating it and the Sandaime had somehow broken it in a single confrontation. Mu would have been severely impressed if he wasn't smarting from getting outmaneuvered. Kuno was a fledging A-rank ninja bordering on S-rank and was extremely talented, and was of far more worth than the trash on the other side of the ravine. Mu could not fault him for failing to sense the Hokage, after all, even he hadn't sensed it until it was too late.

"Call your forces off. Since it seems that we cannot reach an accord, you will have your war. But not today." The Sandaime's smile was cruel and Mu knew that his plan had been found out. The two squadrons sent with the peace committee were mere bait and was supposed to lead the Konoha Alpha squad into an ambush zone. If they were given more time, Konoha would most likely lose one of their strongest AnBu squads and Iwa would emerge ahead by a large margin. They needed that edge for the upcoming war. But now he was being forced to retreat and Hiruzen knew that they had no intention of forging a peace treaty. A once in a lifetime chance where Konoha was vulnerable and he had to let it go. On top of that, they had sacrificed two chunin squadrons in order to lure the Konoha AnBu into position.

Mu mused to himself for a moment. Was Kuno's life worth the entire Alpha squad? Not completely. If it were just that, he would sacrifice the young monk, but there was another factor that forced his hand. Somehow the Sandaime had copied his technique. If Kuno was removed from the field, Mu was not sure if he could survive a full on fight with the old monkey. Sarutobi could detect him through his invisibility jutsu, but he could not do the same if the Hokage used his jutsu against him.

"Very well. You win this one, old monkey." He was relaxed again, accepting that he had lost this round.

"What a pity things could not be settled peacefully." Sandaime's soft whisper carried across the clearing. Mu sneered and dismissed his earth clone beneath the trio of Konoha ninja. Normally, he would have mocked the sentimentality of the old monkey who was well known for his pacifistic nature. Now though, he wondered how much of it was falsified rumors and how much was actual truth. If there was one thing he knew, it was that the diminutive ninja before him was a monster of the highest caliber. After a moment, Hiruzen nodded to him. So the old bastard really could sense his double as well. It was a good choice to concede this fight. Mu sent the cube of dust release into the air where it detonated with a colossal whumph. Immediately the earth trembled and multiple Iwa chakra signatures began to retreat. Five flickers of chakra indictated that Konoha's Alpha squad had survived. Iruka collapsed onto the ground as his legs finally gave out. It was finally ending.

Simultaneously, Sandaime's shadow clone behind Kuno dispelled and the bald youth collapsed onto the ground. He quickly stood up, resuming his stoic stance. Only a minute tremble in his hands betrayed his shattered calm. Mu gritted his teeth and gestured to Kuno to follow before leaping into the trees accompanied by the bald ninja.

"You will see me again, old monkey."

The Sandaime closed his eyes for a second before walking to the edge of the ravine. "Doton: Dosekiryu." A dragon made of earth rose from the ground, its frame briefly coiling around the Hokage before flowing forward to form a bridge between the two sides of the unnatural canyon. The old man sedately crossed the bridge before stopping before his three ninja.

"Well," The Hokage said in his calm scratchy voice. "It seems I've done my daily exercise for the day. Shall we go home?"

Iruka laughed helplessly. He could feel his tension bleed into his laughter and he knew that the laugh was tinged with slight hysteria. As abruptly as it started, it stopped and Iruka felt all the tension flow out as the familiar weight of the Hokage's chakra blanketed him. He quickly stood and kneeled before his leader, hoping his momentary lapse in control was overlooked. He didn't want the man who had just single handedly won against the second Tsuchikage to think that he was crazy or worse, laughing at him. Still, he could not help the small smile that grew on his face as he recalled the Sandaime's words. Only he would think getting the drop on both Tsura Kuno, the juggernaut of Iwa, and Jinton no Mu, Nidaime Tsuchikage, as daily exercise.

The Sandaime was quietly chatting with the two AnBu, and now that Iruka had the time to scrutinize them carefully, he realized that both of them were from Delta squad, one of Konoha's best hunter teams. Even they had not detected the Nidaime Tsuchikage, but somehow Sandaime-sama had. S-rank ninja was in another league altogether he quietly mused to himself.

"Come," The Hokage glanced at him. "Umino Iruka-san, was it?"

"Hai, Hokage-sama!" Iruka was flattered that the Sandaime had remembered his name through the whole debacle, completely forgetting that he still had his name label on his front vest.

Kuno's eyes opened abruptly. "Get ready."

Koga snapped awake and did a few quick stretches to loosen his body in anticipation for the upcoming fight. His watch read 0800. He quickly steeled himself mentally for the task ahead. He had no illusions on what his job was, a suicide distraction that he was to mask as an assassination attempt in order to buy time for Kuno to kill the Namikaze brat.

"Remember that they will be ready for us. Once the barrier falls, they will increase the guards around the Hokage tower. You will have five minutes before they realize you are targeting the academy. My jutsu takes twenty minutes to fully charge, you must last that long." Kuno paused and fixed Koga with an intense stare. "Never hesitate, never waver. Never fear, never doubt." He began reciting the Stone Code.

"Ours is the will of the stone, unstoppable and immovable." Koga finished, knowing their sacrifice was for the better of their village.

"The barrier has fallen. Go."

Two blurs vanished into the brightening forest. The sun steadily rose, fulfilling its timeless ritual, unheeding of the events about to occur.

As the walls of Konoha stretched into his vision, Koga broke off from Kuno and muted his chakra as best he could. No doubt a sensor had already detected him by now, but as long as he kept his pace, they would not be able to immediately pinpoint his location. He hoped. He needed to buy his partner 25 minutes. Five minutes to find the heir and twenty to guarantee his death. Unless he was with his father, in which case their entire plan was for naught. Luckily, the spy who had sabotaged the barrier was no doubt getting interrogated and as per tradition, the Hokage would have to attend an emergency meeting, leaving his son vulnerable. Uzumaki Kushina might be a problem, but Kuno had been chosen specifically to counter her skill set. He would be able to last at least twenty minutes against her, by which time it would be too late.

Civilians were coming out of the woodwork at this hour, opening their stores and flaunting their wares as they chattered among themselves, spreading the lastest gossip like vermin spreading disease. In his rush, he knocked over several stalls, but he could not care less. They would only catch a glimpse of him and by the time anyone was alerted, it would be too late. The academy was looming ahead, and he smiled. Perfect. Several chakra signatures were converging toward his destination in an attempt to cut him off, but he was an elite jounin for a reason. He made it to the establishments three seconds ahead of the closest signature and darted through the open door. A nearby chunin looked up, startled at his sudden appearance.

"Can I help…" He never finished his sentence as Koga slid behind him in one smooth step and plunged his own kunai into the base of his spine. Immediately, screams erupted from the children around him as he let the bloody corpse fall to the ground, and darted toward a door with the number 6 on top of it. Their informant had said the clan heirs were in classroom 6. Grinning savagely, he kicked down the door and sent several shuriken behind him, wrapped with explosive notes.

"Hello, brats." Multiple terrified gazes met him as he let loose his killing intent and chakra, just as a multiple explosions erupted behind him.

On the other side of the village, Kuno crept carefully around the two AnBu guards situated outside the complex. The Namikaze heir would be attending lessons at this hour and guarded by his sensei and a few AnBu. Easy pickings since Alpha squad was out of town and the remaining three captains would be at the emergency briefing. Leaving only a few A-rank ninjas around to defend the brat. He sent a small pulse of chakra and found only three AnBu in the entire complex. He could probably take them all, but there was no need to rush. He would wait for the optimal moment before striking.

He caught his first glimpse of the target as he stepped behind a tree close to the clearing where a heavily scarred elder was giving instructions to a blond youth. He carefully located the third AnBu guard, who was situated three jutsu length away to his right and waited patiently. As an explosion echoed in the distance, the two AnBu at the entrance of the Namikaze complex left to lend their aid.

Making sure that there wasn't another chakra signatures nearby, Kuno allowed a small smile to blossom on his face. Things could not be more perfect. A sudden flare of chakra told him that Koga had started his fight. Time to get to work. He slowly stepped out from behind the tree and advanced toward the blond child.

"Naruto. Get behind me." Kuro cursed under his breath as he recognized the other ninja. Unfortunately, Kushina-sama was at the hospital, and Inu was away on a mission. This was the worst possible scenario. The lone AnBu guard was no match against an S-ranked ninja. Things were looking very bleak indeed.

Naruto shivered as the bald monk fixed him with an intense glare. He instinctively followed his sensei's instructions, never letting his gaze waver from the advancing monk. For a second, Naruto thought that this might be a test. Then everything shattered.

Tsura Kuro took a deep breath and spoke only one word. Simultaneously, he let loose his entire killing intent. "Die." The blond flinched and in that single moment, he struck.

Mu slammed his hand onto his desk in a rage. The wood creaked in protest, but did not shatter. Mu managed to control himself at the last second and lessened the strength behind the blow. His spies in Konoha had found out that the Sandaime Hokage had not in fact been able to detect his invisibility jutsu. Although the old monkey had been able to replicate his jutsu, no one yet knew how to detect a user of the jutsu. Apparently, the Sandaime had been bluffing. Either that, or they had broken the jutsu and was attempting to cover it up. Whatever the case, he detested being played for a fool. At least one thing was for sure, he was not the lone use of the invisibility jutsu.

"Truly you deserve the moniker of The Professor." Mu mused to himself. The invisibility jutsu used a perfect balance of fire, air and earth chakra to erase one's own chakra signature by camouflaging it with the nearby environment. There were only a few environments where the jutsu actually failed to work, but those were rare indeed. Conventional cloaking techniques tried to erase a user's chakra signature, but that left a gap in the environment which meant any sensor worth their salt could detect the disturbance. Although the more skilled ninjas could project the gap elsewhere, it gave away that someone was there even if they could hide their location.

Mu's jutsu was by far better, he had always assumed that it would take someone who could use all four elements to break the jutsu. But then again, he had never thought that the old monkey could master the three elements of fire, air and earth. Two of which were in direct opposition with each other, meaning nothing short of a kekkai genkai was needed to be able to master it. To his knowledge, the Sandaime Hokage did not have such a kekkai genkai. It was a mystery how he had been able to use elemental manipulation for all three elements. Maybe the Sarutobi clan had a kekkai genkai after all? Not only did the jutsu require elemental chakra manipulation of the highest degree, the delicate balance between the elements had to be constantly maintained and adjusted, otherwise the jutsu would break. Even breathing required minute adjustments. Thus, it required perfect chakra control. Mu could only hold the jutsu for ten minutes and even then if he made any offensive move, the jutsu would be broken.

Shaking his head, Mu pondered what his next step would be. It certainly had not looked like the Sandaime was bluffing, but he could not be sure. If the old monkey had seen him before he erected the jutsu, it was possible he could have guessed that the Tsuchikage was going to target the three leaf ninja and use them as hostages.

Mu began to retrace their confrontation. The old monkey had used the folding of his hands and his words to lull Kuno's guard down. Then he had formed a kage bunshin which Mu had dismissed as a defensive technique for escape usage. The clone must have used his invisibility jutsu while everyone was distracted by his appearance. Everything could be explained except that nod when he had dispelled his clone. But now that he thought about it, it could have been a fluke. There had been the slightest of delays between his dispel and the Sandaime's nod.

Mu snarled as he realized that no matter how he looked at the situation, he could not decipher the Hokage's movements completely. Still, the possibility of being bluffed was making him see red. He paused, perhaps there was a way to find out. He would persaonlly infiltrate Konoha's seal corps. If he was detected, then the Hokage had not been bluffing. If he wasn't… his fist clenched at the thought of being tricked.

As Kuno limped away from the training grounds toward the hospital, Mu glared at no one in particular. He had taken his rage out on the bald monk, since there weren't many shinobi he could spar with, Kuno being one of the rare few who could survive his full strength.

The old monkey had indeed bluffed him. Mu had managed to infiltrate into Konoha's seal corp and successfully stole a scroll detailing their initial defence systems. After duplicating it, he had returned it without anyone noticing. They had only noticed him after his ten minute limit expired and although the ensuing chase had cost him one of his better jounins, it ultimately benefited their village.

Still, his black eyes blazed and he spat on the ground, unable to get the acrid taste of defeat out of his mouth. He glanced down at the duplicated scroll. Every three years, at exactly 0820, the 360 seal that covered Konoha was vulnerable. Mu grinned viciously as he detailed an infiltration plan on how exploit Konoha's defences.

"One day, old monkey. You will regret playing me for a fool." Mu finished the scroll and put it into the 'For the Tsuchikage's eyes only' folder. Even if he could not use that particular plan now, someday someone would.