Wooo, I am back. I am trying to get this up as fast as I can, but I'm typing it from hand written notes and my handwriting...god do I need to work on it. I just wanted to upload it as soon as I finished each chapter. So here we go, Chapter 1 of my new story, as terrible as it may be. But, meh, read, review, tell your friends to read it, force them to review it.


It was an unstable peace, a peace born out of necessity rather than want, but a peace none the less. Each of the five elemental nations had Ninja running all over their respective nations, handling low and medium level missions while the majority of their more lethal forces, mainly Jonin, stayed in and around their individual main villages to deter the idea of invasion during this time of vulnerability. Although it had been five years since the end of the Forth Great Ninja War, sparked by the remainder of the Akatsuki playing off the paranoia of the newly allied Ninja Villages, rebuilding was still going on in the outskirts of the nations, not to mention the number of Ninja that had died during the fray, it had near enough halved the numbers in each village, everybody was still recovering to some extent.

Part way into this 'Forth Great Ninja War' the Akatsuki made their final move, each of the five Kage saw this and knew that it was in their best interest to join together and stop them, even if it was temporary, they could kill each other later. The Raikage and Killer Bee had dispatched of Kisame when he dropped his ruse and attacked Killer Bee while he was thought to be alone, he didn't count on the brothers giving themselves matching seals on their upper arms to tell the other when one was fighting and where they were, once the Raikage had shown up the battle turned quickly, Kisame was immediately put on the defensive but was ultimately pounded into "Fish-paste" as Killer Bee so succinctly rapped, by a high level dual Lightning Jutsu released by the brothers and amplified by the water used by Kisame as he was sure they would not risk electrocuting one other, but by harmonising their chakra they ensured that any residual lightning that went toward either was swiftly absorbed and redirected into the original attack. Zetsu had had not fared much better as he was thwarted by the Mizukage and Tsuchikage after putting up unimpressive fight, the Tsuchikage, being a master of the Earth Element, stopped Zetsu from escaping underground, while the Mizukage took up the offence and attempted to dispatch him by using a Lava Ninjutsu, at which point Zetsu split and the White half closed the distance to the Tsuchikage in order to grab him so he could occupy the Mizukage, trying to split the two Kage from each other, this was done by make a clone of her, which he is able to do since he trapped her during the meeting of the five Kage, meanwhile the Black half dealt with the steadily growing lake of lava. It was all for nought though as Zetsu's 'clones' could not put up much of a fight for long and were killed in record time, no matter how many he made, he was unable to stop the inevitable. Much to the ire of both Kage, who stood sizing one another up, as the fight had not settled the adrenalin rush that is usually felt during a high-level clash. Both mentally decided that they had been away from their respective villages for too long, it had only been 1 week of non-stop searching before they found Zetsu and lured him into their trap, but a Kage-less Ninja Village was a prime target and as such one day was too long in both their books.

Kabuto/Orochimaru was nearing Konoha when he encountered Tsunade and Gaara; he immediately let loose the new and improved Resurrection Kinjutsu releasing Itachi, Sasori, Deidara, Kakuzu and Nagato onto the two Kage the battle became a free for all as Kakashi, Gai, and the original Ino-Shika-Cho team join the scrap and slowly the tide turns in their favour, it was an all out mini-war as the five-on-five grew and Gaara and Tsunade swap fists, snakes and sand with Orochi-buto. Kabut-imaru, now on the back foot, realising that he was being pressed, ulls out his 'Ace in the Hole' in the form of a sixth coffin, as the coffin rises, Kakashi swaps fighters with Gaara takes a page from the book of the Sandaime and focus' all his energy into stopping the Kinjutsu, the coffin jerks slowly up and down as both 'The Masked Wonder' and 'Mr I-Like-To-Keep-A-Live-Snake-Up-My-Sleeve-For-Personal-Reasons' struggle for dominance, this provides Tsunade with enough time to get close to her prey and strike, cancelling his hold on the technique and allowing Kakashi to nullify it. As Tsunade's fist collided with him, Kabuto, or whatever remained of the Kabuto side of him, was rendered unconscious allowing the Orochimaru side to fully gain control, but in a severely battered body. Tsunade took note of this and waved the others off indicating that Orochimaru was to be killed by her and her alone, the rest of the surrounding ninja had already finished their respective fights, knowing that they could not kill the newly resurrected nin, they opted to subdue them, using the Ino-Shika-Cho group, Inoichi pulled out a move that was thought impossible for any Yamanaka and forcibly ripped the consciousness of each ressurectee out of their respective bodies, while Shikaku used his own modified version of the Shadow Sewing Jutsu, which was to, instead of having 3, 4, 5 or even a 20 individual shadows piercing the opponent, the shadow was split even further and even more finely making a single shadow into over 100,000, this coupled with the double size technique used by Choza to hold them in place even further, as their minds were sure to return to their bodies at any moment, was enough to give the Godime enough time to deal with Orochimaru and Kabuto's body, cancelling the Kinjutsu...or that was the theory. As one both Kage level ninja charged, Orochimaru taking out Kusanagi and aiming at the Hokage's head, dodging to the lower left Tsunade charged her chakra for a punch, but left her hand unclenched as she thrust it forward, straight into her opponents chest, carefully aiming in-between the fourth and fifth ribs on the left side of his torso, with her whole hand embedded in Orochimaru/Kabuto's upper body the pushed her hand down, grabbing for the traitors heart breaking his fifth rib with a sickening snap that was barely audible over the scream he let out, she toyed with him for a second, telling him that "...the damage may be repairable if..." she let this hang in the air , looking into his wide eyes searching for any hint of remorse, before tearing her hand from his body "...I could forgive you for what you have done...I doubt even Naruto could." She finished in a quiet voice. The body fell to the ground as blood poured from the hole and Tsunade crushed the heart in her hand, and ordered the corpse burnt and scattered to the wind.

This was all five years ago now, all Kage were now back in their own villages overseeing all manner of requests and work, which inevitably incurred a large amount of paperwork forcing Tsunade to increase the size of her secret sake stash. She sighed out in frustration and rage at the ever compounding pile of paper that now towered above her, leaving back in her chair and looking up, the Senju Princess contemplated the ceiling, and the cost to install a giant hamster bottle full of sake, smiling to herself as she slowly drifted into a paperwork induced coma, 'It's three in the morning DAMN IT, I'M GETTING SOME SLEEP!' were the last thoughts through her mind as she fell to sleep and dreamt of the 'Giant Hamster-Human-Sake-Bottle' while slowly muttering "Not long now" and "Sakkkeeeee!" to herself . Many people in 'The Village Hidden In The Leaves' were also enjoying a well deserved rest, The Land of Fire was almost fully rebuilt, and the stability of trade negotiations were finally settling down as compromises were made and a few subtle bribes swapped hands, no-one liked it (except those profiting) but it was a necessary evil. But there was one mind in Konoha that was still turning, that refused to submit to the embrace of the dream world for a little while longer, this was the mind of The Protagonist...I mean Uzumaki Naruto. The boy, turned 21 year old man, lay in bed, eyes closed, focusing on the slow breathing of the woman who lay to his left and was currently using him as a pillow, opening his eyes and looking at his right hand which was coupled with her left, his thumb slowly caressing hers, his eyes now moving up her arm and to her face, he used his left hand to move a wisp of raven hair from her face. Hyuga Hinata unconsciously nuzzled into the hand that now took up residence on the left side of her face, thumb strumming her cheek. She had waited so long to reveal her feelings for him and then waited even longer to find out for his feelings for her. 'Has it really been five years since Madara? It doesn't seem like that long ago.' He thought to himself.

(Cue Inevitable Flashback)

Word had reached Naruto that all of Akatsuki had been dealt with...all but one. "Madara!" Naruto seethed to himself as the information from the past few days ran through his head for what seemed like the five thousandth time. He sat on top of the Yondime's head on Hokage Monument looking out over the village, he had fought for the sake of this village, for the sake of his friends and the people that recognised him for the pure kind hearted person he was, and he would continue to do so, against Madara, against Sasuke, against anyone he had to. Naruto knew that the only way to guarantee the safety of his precious people was to take Madara out of the picture. His fist clenched as he envisioned the man standing on top of Hokage Tower while Konoha burned around him, he was the man that had caused so much suffering, not only Naruto's life, but in the lives of countless other men, women, children, families...the list was endless and was sure to grow, exponentially, if nothing was done. Naruto never like the idea of killing another person, in self defence or cold blood, he couldn't see why someone had to die to ensure someone else lived...until now, he now knew that for every person that thought as he did, that there are alternatives to death, there was one or more that thought that violence, and thus killing, was the only option, and for the most part, these people will not be swayed. Regardless, he would protect every-single person he is able to, even at the cost of his own life. He would try to avoid killing if he could, but it always seemed like an inevitability to him, and as such he had to make his peace with it. As he reached this conclusion he felt a familiar presence looming above and behind him, "Sasuke?" he whispered to himself, straining his eyes in the fading light of dusk to make out the figure clad in a black robe with the red clouds of the Akatsuki emblazoned on it. "It's time, Naruto. We are going to end this...tonight..." as the last word registered to Naruto, Sasuke casually turned round and began walking into the woods "...follow me." He finished, his back still to Naruto who had jumped to the spot Sasuke once occupied, and now proceeded to follow his 'friends' receding figure into the trees. They jumped from branch to branch, slowly gaining speed, almost playing, seeing if the other could keep up, soon they were moving at speeds that even a seasoned Jonin would have trouble with. Sasuke landed on a particularly thick branch, focused more chakra into his landing leg and jumped high, propelling himself into the middle of the field ahead of the pair, Naruto, not wanting to be out done, smirked and launched himself with such force that the branch audibly craked underfoot he landed a good ten foot further than Sasuke, spun on his heel to face the rouge nin, kunai in hand, smirk still fixed in place.

"You never change Dobe, still childish as ever I see." Sasuke said in reply to his 'best friend's" antics.

"You can't improve on perfection...Uke." Naruto rebuked with a face splitting grin.

"Uke..?" Sasuke's eye twitched ever so slightly. "How long you been holding onto that little gem?"

"Since the Land of Iron...remember...the Kage Summit" The grin never leaving his face, his eyes affixed to Sasuke's.

"I have to hand it to you Dobe, I never thought you would keep a single thought in your head for more than a few hours." Sasuke dryly replied, a small grin of his own creeping onto his features

"Most things will and have changed since you left...Uke"

"And thankfully some things don't, for example you're still very susceptible to Genjutsu I see"

Naruto saw the world around him slowly melt as he found himself bound by chains, that had appeared from nowhere, to the floor, if you could call it that, he was just surrounded by blackness with a small bit of light eliminating a minute section of space around him, the source of which eluded him. He was contemplating this when Sasuke honed into view. "DAMN IT! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU'R BROTHER! DAMN THAT FUCKING SHARINGAN!" He yelled into the blackness.

"Naruto, be quiet, we don't have much time, it won't take him long until he is able to see into this world." Sasuke said sharply.

"What are you going on about? If this is some kind of kind of trick, it won't work. I will stop you, I will stop Madara, I WILL PROTECT KONOHA AND THE KYUBI WILL DIE WITH ME AND THERE IS NOTHING YOU..."

"Damn it Naruto..SHUT UP! WE DONT HAVE TIME AND IF YOU REALY WANT TO KILL MADARA YOU'R GOING TO NEED MY HELP! SO SHUT YOU'R BIG, FUCKING MOUTH AND LISTEN TO ME FOR ONCE!" Sasuke panted now standing inches from Naruto gripping the front of his orange and black jacket.

Naruto studied him for a moment, and could find no hint of insincerity in his eyes 'But this is a genjutsu, he can make me see whatever he wants...' he reasoned to himself '...may as well play along for now.' "Fine, but why now, why not when we were in the Land of Iron?" Naruto questioned.

"Madara is strong, stronger than me or you, stronger than Itachi was at his peak, I barely beat him when he was weakened. It was then that I learned the truth about my brother, about why he left the village, why he slaughtered my entire clan. I knew that I wouldn't be able to beat Madara unless had help, so I played along with his assumptions and how he thought I should be acting. I also needed one more thing..."

"Slow down a second, I knew that your brother wasn't majorly evil, I mean he did make me eat a bird that one time but he let me go when he was supposed to capture me."

"We don't have time Dobe, you need to trust me." Sasuke rushed.

"You want me to trust you...? Ha, after all you've done to me, to Konoha, TO SAKURA-CHAN? YOU WANT ME TO TRUST YOU?" Naruto stared down the 'last' Uchiha before taking a deep breath. "Look, to be honest, I want to trust you, I really do, but for me to do that, I need ALL the facts."

"We really don't have time for this..." Sasuke impatiently said, shaking his head.

"Humour me." Naruto snapped.

"FINE!" Sasuke then began to divulge every bit of information as concise and detailed as he could, the circumstances around Itachi's defection, his implanting Sasuke's Sharingan with Amerteratsu and fixing it to activate on contact with Madara's and what Madara told him about his brother. He explained Madara to Naruto as best he could, about his Sharingan being composed of his brothers and his own becoming the 'Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan', that he fought with the Shodaime using the Kyubi, formed the Uchiha Clan in Konoha and eventually formulated his plan to release and subdue the Jubi. "...and that's pretty much it, since we last saw each other after the 'Kage Summit' I convinced Madara to implant Itachi's eyes into my own under the ruse that it was all to beat you..." Naruto's face fell into one of shock. "...Itachi gave his last breath to ensure that Madara died, that attempt failed. He would want this, he would want to be a part of Madara's undoing, however indirectly." Naruto's face softened slightly but still remained in a state of shock at these words. "In any case, I now have an 'Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan' of my own, I haven't had much practice with it yet, but I should be able to negate his 'Space-Time Jutsu' somewhat, and because he won't be expecting it, it should give us a small advantage." Explained Sasuke. "OK, let's see if I have this right...You loved your brother...he killed you clan on the orders of Oji-San, Danzo (who you killed) and the two old guys that are always harassing Baa-Chan...so you then hated your brother...you fought him while he was weakened...killed him...learned why he did what he did...decided you loved him again and to honour his wish of protecting Konoha by sticking with the guy you brother tried to kill in order to gain the Sharingan 3.0, team up with me at the right moment (which is now, apparently) and finish what your brother couldn't do...ending Madara? Did I forget anything?" Naruto concluded. "I know it sounds farfetched, but it's the truth Dobe, I swear it." Sasuke pleaded. "Let's say, for arguments sake, that I do believe you, what do we do from...urgh" Naruto lurched as Sasuke appeared in front of him with his sword buried in his gut. Sasuke leaned in and whispered into Naruto's ear. "Madara is here, he can see and hear us, please believe me I will bring us out of this genjutsu and as soon as we're out head to your 4 o'clock, that's where Madara is. We are going to have to work out some sort of plan as we go." As Sasuke finished and was about to release the illusion, he was hit back, as he flew, the environment started to change into the Uchiha Clan compound training ground. "What's going on here?" Sasuke yelled at Naruto once he landed. "Don't look at me, I'm just as confused as you are right now." Naruto retorted to Sasuke's glare, as he now found himself free of his bindings. "I could shed some light on the situation for you." Both Genin stiffened at the voice, recognising it instantly.

(Inevitable Flashback will continue next chapter)


I'm sorry for all you NaruHina fans, but I promise there will be a huge amount of fluff coming your way, so expect to gag or squee soon, also I would like to point out that I am aware that I am shite at writing fights.

Please R&R, my life depends on it.