Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, Final Fantasy, or anything else depicted in this story.

Chapter 4-The Gathering Part One

As they walk up the Hokage tower Naruto can see it has change much since the days of the Sandaime. During his reign the tower was usually kept fairly spartan with only a few pictures of people Naruto didn't know. Now however the tower is much more ornate and militaristic with pictures of great victories and statues of gold and jade decorating the foyer of the tower. The group wait patiently until they are called in to see the Hokage.

For Naruto this is the first-time meeting Sai and he can say with certainty that he's not impressed by the Hokage of Konoha. Naruto had seen pictures of the Sandaime in his youth and can easily remember the proud well-built man who would rule Konoha for the longest in its history. Sai however to him is nothing more than a pale face thin wimp that while he may have the chakra of a Kage, but he lacks the build that many Kages acquire from hours of nonstop training. To Naruto Sai seems more of a bureaucrat than a warrior.

Approaching his desk, the group gives him a polite bow before Alma steps forward to address the Hokage. "Greetings sir, I am Alma Behoulve representative of the Ivalice Nation."

Sai nods and gestures for her to sit down in a chair. "Since this is your first time coming to the gathering, we will need to discuss protocol."

*Meanwhile*

In the land once known as whirlpool something is stirring, seeds of a great evil that had been planted several years ago have now begun to sprout and are ready to begin to strangle the world.

*Konoha*

After an hour of talking the meeting is finally over. Alma feels like she wants to rip her golden hair out by its roots after all the droning of protocol. Still she's glad it's over and turns to the rest of the knights. "Now that this part is done the hard part begins, all of you are free until tomorrow."

Everyone disperses and goes their separate ways, most retuning to hotel, though a few of the knights decided to go out and see the village. Naruto and Agrias decide to walk through the village taking in some of the sights when both their stomachs start to rumble and groan in hunger, both look at each-other and start laughing.

"Did you want to go get something to eat dear?" Agrias asks.

"I do, but I need to meet with my contact here in Konoha first as it's nearly time. Why don't you go do some exploring and we'll meet at that barbeque place we heard about in an hour? Its not like we haven't gone without eating for a bit."

Agrias nods in agreement and takes off down the street while Naruto heads towards the orphanage he grew up in. Naruto's memories of the orphanage are few, but all are horrible. Mostly they are of him getting picked on while the Matron did nothing except cash the checks every month and feed them horrible porridge while the building crumbles from neglect. That however is no longer the case. When Delita had ordered him to establish an intelligence network he knew of only one person to turn to, the Spymaster of the Hokuten knights Varys the Master of Whispers. A middle-aged who has been the leader of the Hokuten intelligence services for years the man loved children and although they are his main operatives, he does take care of them. After giving Varys the assignment, he gave him more than enough money to buy out the greedy Matron and fix up the building. Now the once crumbling building is now a small mansion with plenty of area for the children to play in when they are not gathering information for Varys. Children who also showed promise are taken Wave to be trained as knights or any other job they can handle, this pleased him greatly since it had the bonus of denying Danzo recruits for his root operations.

As he enters the orphanage Naruto is almost immediately assaulted by a wave of children who Rush him most of them recognizing that now leader of the Hokuten knights. Laughing the Naruto bends down and does his best to Encompass as many of them as he can in a gigantic hug loving the attention that he is getting an intern giving much attention to the children that he never got at their age.

"Now now children let's give Lord Naruto some space I'm sure he'll be eager to play with you all later my little birds." A regal voice says. From the back of the foyer a bald middle age man wearing a blue silk rob approaches them. The children all nod their heads and began to disperse all running in different directions. Varys Chuckles at their Antics and approaches Naruto giving him a bow it is good to see you again my Lord I was not expecting you for some time but not to say that this is not a pleasure as you can see the effect you still have on my little birds.

He Chuckles in agreement. "it's true I was not supposed to see you for a few more months however with the Gathering going on-."

"The true ruler of Konoha, meaning Danzo are trying to determine what your interest in wave is and what your plan is for the future that might interfere with theirs.

Naruto smiles widely, "I see you are keeping your little birds busy my friend."

Varys smiles at the compliment, "they do their job well which is to keep me informed and in turn many of them live like that very few children could even think of considering they are all orphans"

Stepping to the side Varys directs Naruto to a small foyer. "Please go and sit down, I'll bring us some sake and snacks to eat while I give the report you requested." Naruto nods his head and heads into the foyer.

While Naruto is getting a report from Varys Agrias decides to explore the village a bit. She went into several shops, most of them being clothing shop or weapon shops with poor quality weapons, finally she heads into another weapons shop, Tenten's Weapons. Hearing the bell ring as she enters, she looks around and sees behind a counter sharpening a kunai knife is a woman with her hair in two buns wearing a blue and red trim qipao dress.

Looking up from her knife she gives Agrias a courteous "hello" before resuming sharpening the knife. Agrias acknowledges her hello and begins to check out the eastern weapons on display around the shop. While she is looking around Tenten is subtly looking the female holy knight over, nothing catches her eye until she sees the curve scabbard at her left waist. From observation reports she had read about the knights from the Ivalice Nation they use double edge straight swords, but this doesn't appear to be one of them. "That's a nice sword you have there." She says.

Agrias's hand instantly goes the blade and she can feel the memories coming to her. The blade was a present from Naruto after they wedded. Within the scroll his godfather had given him when he escaped Konoha was a blade. The Arashi No Ha, the Blade of Storms. Apparently according to a letter from his mother the blade is a treasure of Uzu and passed down from one Uzumaki member to another usually a woman. During the war, while they were courting, her sword Save the Queen had been broken by a knight, after the battle Naruto offered her the sword, along with a very clumsy proposal, which she happily accepted. Turning to Tenten she responds. "Thank you, it was a present from my husband."

"May I see it please?"

Unhooking her sword belt, she places them on the table and draws the blade from its sheath. The sword is an Odachi style blade being almost three feet in length with a slight curve. The hilt is plain but what catches Tenten eye are the definite Fuinjutsu markings all up and down the blade. She instantly knows that it's the famous blade of Uzu, the Arashi No Ha. It is said that more than a hundred years ago a massive storm ravaged the island. In desperation the leader of the Uzumaki clan, Uzumaki Garp, had ridden out into the storm, he traveled until he reached the eye of the storm. Using his great skill in fuinjutsu he managed to seal the storm into the sword, after that he became known as the "Storm of Uzu" his sword able to unleash the very storm it had sealed away. Putting the sword back in its sheath Tenten comes out of her reverie as she sees Agrias putting the belt back on around her waist. Thinking quickly, she shouts, "200,000 ryo, I'll give you 200,00 ryo for the sword."

"Thank you but the sword is not for the sale." And with that Agrias leaves the store.

Running into the back of the store Tenten grabs a scroll and begins to write a letter to Sai telling him what she's discovered.

AN-please R&R