~A/N~

This is my fic attempt at a fic EVER, so bear with me. Also I just found out that fighting scenes are not my specialty, so I'll require a lot of help there. And remembering all the Jutsus is a pain so I'll own some of them.

- This takes place during the time Kakashi explains everyone the basics of Kamui and formulates a counter attack for Obito. Remember, this series starts from there, and that I am changing bits from here and there to suit my purposes.

So… Here goes nothing!

Claimer: I CLAIM THAT NARUTO DOES NOT BELONG TO ME. IF IT DID, BOY WOULD I BE LUCKY! (And witty too)

~A/N~

Chapter 1: I Am Back (Part 1)

"Stand up, fool, ya fool" Killer Bee shouted, looking at Naruto. Naruto grunted and tried to lift himself. He found it quite difficult to do.

"I can't… Chakra levels are low", Naruto said, as he frowned. All heads turned towards him, and everyone stared at him as if Naruto had said he was dickless indeed. Everyone, that constituted of Bee, Obito, Kakashi, Guy… and The Gedo Mazu statue. But the statue, before soon, went back to its work.

As unrealistic as it may seem though, Naruto was actually serious here. It was an all known fact that he had massive Chakra reserves, so if Naruto said that his Chakra was low it was as if Lee beat someone in a lowest chakra capacity contest, which was quite possible, if highly unlikely. Not one to let something like this stop him, Naruto proceeded to stand up, and managed it seemingly easily. He had fight to win after all. Everyone depended on him to do it.

They were all fighting the till sometime before called the mysterious masked man. And they were all contributing in their own unique ways. Bee in his full Biju Mode, Guy in his full green spandex and Kakashi in his daze. True, he was more or less just standing in shock on the battlefield. A very stupid activity to do, at such a place, but no one really blamed him. He did get the shock of his life, after all. And Guy was good at covering for Kakashi anyways.

That was not to say that fighting Obito was easy. It was insanely tough, what with Obito's Mangekyo ability, which allowed him to pass through any and all the stuff they might think of throwing at him. They were still trying to hold a stand against him though. And trying and failing.

Obito was yet to break a sweat and while he toyed with the 4 shinobis, the Gedo Mazu statue was busy sucking back the 6 Biju chakras that were granted to the ex-Jinchurikis. That was not the plan, however. Obito had planned to pit the ex-Jinchurikis against the assault team, but they got knocked out pretty soon. A pity for the Shinobi's was that they would have gone useless soon anyways, even if not fought with, because apparently the caster of the reanimation technique shut it down. Because all of the ex-Jinchurikis' souls passed one, right before the final blow could be delivered.

It was quite possible that someone shut the caster down himself. Not that they had any way to find more about it, not now at least. All in all, it was a terrible waste of energy, but there was no helping it now.

Going back to the fight now.

"Take some chakra from me." The Kyubi told Naruto, "I am ready to go. You can activate the Chakra Mode again now." They had powered down to save some chakra, and allow Kurama to replenish Naruto's own reserve. Naruto wasn't using the Sage Mode right now either, so he was feeling relatively weak.

He released a burst of golden, flame like chakra, as he summoned the power and he felt his fatigue vanish and his orange and black jumpsuit change into the standard Chakra Mode golden jumpsuit. It was a bit different in appearance, but its presence was the same, if a bit stronger than before.

"ALL-RIGHT! Thanks Kurama!" Naruto exclaimed as soon the change settled, pumping one fist in air, saying "This was definitely worth the wait." Unlike Naruto, who had not noticed any changes in the power up, the viewers could see them easily. Instead of a closed collared jacket he had an open collared cloak much like the Yondaime Hokage's cloak. His whisker marks thickened and words 'ROKUDAIME HOKAGE' were written in kanji on the back of the jacket. It exuded a powerful aura in itself.

'M-Minato-Sensei!' was all Kakashi and Obito could think. Though Obito in anger and Kakashi in awe.

"Rokudai-me, now why is that written on ye?" exclaimed Bee when he saw it. Naruto got busy deciphering Bee twisted way of speaking, and seeing his expression, Guy jumped in to help.

"YOSH, NARUTO! What Bee-san meant to ask was that why is Rokudaime Hokage written above the flames of youth on your jacket?" Guy asked in his usual loud tones.

"Guy, not all flames are your 'flames of youth' "sighed Kakashi, momentary shock forgotten.

"Eh-? What?" Naruto looked behind his bulky cloak and saw the words 'ROKUDAIME HOKAGE', "Ku-Kurama?" He asked, bewildered.

"Oh? A misprint, huh?" Kurama said, and Naruto sweat-dropped. Kurama chuckled and explained, "You are the second human in I have seen in my whole life, who deserves MY respect. Don't ask about the first, ain't telling. But I admit that your dream to become the Hokage is nearer than ever, and, though I don't see the need of becoming the Hokage to protect your kind, I respect your wishes and you have my acknowledgement. Keep the gift."

This surprised Naruto much more than he let on. And since he let on nothing, this definitely meant he was quite surprised. Pretty sentimental too.

'I… you… thank you, Kurama!" said Naruto. Others looked at him with a raised eyebrow, annoyed that they were out of the loop. He turned to them and started explaining, "Kurama told me it is a gift of friendship, and that he likes me."

"Hey! Don't say it like that you fool, it gives the wrong impression!" Kyubi shouted, in Naruto's mind.

"Naruto, you did well." Kakashi said simply, noticing that he could not find anything else to say. This was happening a lot lately. 'Just what I expect from sensei's and Kushina-nee's son though. This guy keeps achieving wonders… he will leave us behind before long… maybe he already has.' Kakashi did not show it, but he was pretty startled at the fact that Naruto managed to befriend THE KYUBI NO KITSUNE too. This spoke a lot about Naruto; and about Sasuke too, as he was the only one able to resist Naruto's ability to turn people sane.

"YOSH NARUTO! You definitely are worthy. Your flames of youth shine as brightly as my youthful apprentice!" shouted the bowl cut shinobi.

"Fool ya fool; you'll be the next Hokage, making girls drool!" Bee said, making good on his fame as a bad rapper.

"At the expense of sounding clichéd, your dream of becoming the Hokage ends right here. MWA-HAHAHAHAHA" Screamed Obito, jumping forward as he readied the first Uchiha's fan to attack.

The actual first Uchiha was not so far and he was quickly gaining in on Obito's location. Though he was confident in his subordinate's abilities, he was also aware of the fact that the Kyubi Brat was becoming more powerful by the day. Not nearly as strong as the original Hokage, but strong in his own right.

After beating the living daylights out of the current 5 kages he could truthfully say that he was really unimpressed at the strength of the 5 strongest shinobis in the world. They were jokes on the title of Kages, and THEM wearing the hat made it somewhat worthless for him. Madara vowed to himself to make stronger counterparts of them in his world. He loved a good work out after all.

While Madara was absorbed in fantasies, he did keep an eye on the road, and soon came across a scene where he saw the Gedo Mazu statue claiming back the last of the 6 tailed beasts' chakras. While he briefly wondered why in the blazes they were released at all, he also grinned like a maniac since all now remained were the 8 Tails and 9 Tails.

Pushing past his limits, Madara increased his speed. It was a really easy business, pushing past the limits in this body. This form of reanimation, though clashed with the powers of Rinnegan somewhat, was indeed the perfect method to be revived through, for now. Maybe he would reward Kabuto for his interference after all.

The Uchiha Legend reached the battlefield in the blink of an eye, and to the untrained eye, it would seem like he appeared out of the blue. Madara gave Obito a critical look, and covering the distance between them with a final leap, Madara said, "This better be because you are being lazy. I can grant you death for your incompetence. And I just might do that." Obito glared at Madara, and as Madara held out his hand, he threw him the fan. He spared Naruto a glance imagining Kyubi's reaction on seeing the actual Madara, and could almost feel its dilemma, over whom to hate more, as both of them had at some point had The Kyubi under the influence of their Sharingan.

He did not bother with the thought much though, as he could see Kakashi, and simultaneously Guy, tense a little, 'getting ready to come after me, I guess' thought Obito. He started walking away from the group. Guy gave Kakashi a nod, and they both followed him.

Madara saw it happen from the corner of his eye, but let it slide. He gave Naruto and Bee a maniacal grin, at which the Kyubi shuddered.

"NO! Kit beware! It's HIM" Kyubi screamed inside Naruto's mindscape. The ringing of his voice was getting louder with the second and Naruto was forced to cut the link between them, else he feared his friend would make him brain dead. As his luck would have it, Naruto's natural chakra was not yet refilled, so he proceeded to blank out immediately after disconnecting.

It was going pretty badly, Bee admitted, but when he saw that Naruto was out cold, and looked at the grinning face of the reincarnated Madara Uchiha, inside a blue Sus'sano, he just couldn't help the shudder that went down his spine.

Naruto woke up in his mindscape. The water level, which never rose beyond ankle deep, was nearly knee deep now and was throwing waves. It was a direct image of his state of mind currently after all, which was shaky at best, terribly freaked out at worst. Hopelessness took its hold over him, as just one thought ran through his mind over and over.

'The 5 Kages… couldn't beat him…'

Naruto could not remember feeling nearly this scared or hopeless ever in his life.

He was not this frightened when he was attacked by the mobs on his birthday, as a kid.

He was not feeling this hopeless when Mizuki told him about the fox.

He wasn't this scared when he faced the Ichibi.

Hell, he was not this frightened when Orochimaru attacked them, Sasuke, Sakura and him, during the chunnin exam, when he was a complete novice.

After that, life was easier. He grew stronger, much more confident in his own abilities, and was all in all a much better, stronger, and humbler version of the 13 years old Naruto Uzumaki. Jiraiya was the most amazing master he ever had, and did great to train him. Then, his master went to fight a completely unknown adversary, and though he fared exceptionally well against him, he could not make it out of the fight. That was one of the most hopeless periods of his life. It was only because of Iruka, and his friends that he pulled through. Then said adversary, namely Pein, with sights on him attacked Konoha and utterly destroyed it, with just one flashy move.

Then came the most frightening thing that happened to him. It was when Pein, nearly, very nearly killed Hinata. A girl that came in as a hero to save the day. A girl that died fighting a fight that should have been his own. A girl that stupidly gave her life for him.

'I faintly recall this happening… I should scold her the next time I see her. How would I live with myself if I let such a beautiful girl die on me?' Naruto said to himself. Then muttered quietly, 'said she loved me…'

It was then he realised completely what he was saying, 'Huh? She does? Where did that come from?' thought Naruto. Then his sad joke for a mindscape, with just darkness and ambient surrounding redness, erupted in white, releasing with it a lot of suppressed memories. One of them being-

"Because…I love you."

It is often said that a near death experience causes a lot memories, happy and sad alike, to flash in front of your eyes. What Naruto was going through was nothing different. But even as Naruto was going through his own life like a book, the Kyubi was busy thrashing against the bars of the cage. While warning Naruto about Madara, the kit had stupidly shut him out. Now, Naruto was out like a dead man, waiting for his naturally fast healing abilities to recover a decent amount of chakra. For some weird reason, Naruto's casted mental barrier between them did not lift after he blanked out. Kyubi was being suppressed for some reason, one that he did not know… which made it worse.

But he knew very well what was going on with Naruto right now.

"Damn you Naruto! All your life you never gave up. YOU gave me hope in humanity. YOU are the child of prophesy. Not that Toad Sage's prophesy, though you might be the one from his too. But actually from the one my father gave, the original Rikudo Sennin. The… First man… I ever… trusted. I am absolutely sure! DO NOT GIVE UP NOW, KIT! DO YOU HEAR ME!?" shouted the Kyubi.

Kurama gritted his teeth. This wasn't working, that much he could see. Then Kurama grinned and started forming a Bijudama in the mindscape. He would force his way out now, no matter what.

"Because…I love you."

'H-Hinata?' Naruto thought in bewilderment.

As a lot of different suppressed memories came back to him, this on stood above them all. Apparently, Naruto did not remember that fight as completely as he had thought previously. It would be correct to say that he had absolutely forgotten about that incident, though not forgotten as in a bad husband forgetting his wife's birthday, but actually completely forgotten, as if it had never even happened.

'Well, I did lose control there, maybe all this was buried beneath the excitement...' Naruto thought to himself. Then-

"Oh shit… I have been hanging this for a long time. I need to answer her as soon as I see her next. Wait… what do I tell her? I don't know…"

Love was something he never had in his life. Hell, he never had 'like' in his life till late. Being an orphan he never knew parental love, and living with Jiraiya for 3 years had made it clear to him that 'lust' definitely was not love.

'Do I love Hinata-chan or do I even like Hinata-chan back? I… don't know…I like Sakura-chan, yeah I do, but I do feel something has changed between us. Not that there was much to be changed though. Or that it went where I had wanted it to.' Naruto thought, chuckling ruefully.

"I…I…Aaaagggghhhh, I don't understand it at all! What do I do damnit!?" Naruto screamed in confusion.

"NARUTO!" Kyubi's voice boomed in his mindscape.

"Ku-Kurama?' Naruto squeaked.

"YES ME DAMNIT! Wake up kit!"

"Huh?-"before Naruto could squeak further he heard a muffled voice.

"Gentle Fist: Multiple Chakra Pulse Points" And then, his sad joke of a mindscape, which had gone back to its usual colors, turned brighter than before, so much that he was forced to shut his eyes.

"Huh?" was the first thing he said as he sat up. Rubbing his eyes, Naruto looked in front of him and saw… saw shinobis from all around the world amassed into a crowd and all his friends in the front lines.

"CRAZY LORD OF FOXES!" His eyes went wide.

"HEY!" Kurama retorted.

"Oops! Sorry Fuzzball" Naruto apologized… or more like, tried to.

"HEY!" Kurama growled. And he went on saying something about 'Knuckleheads' and ' should be eaten'.

But Naruto did not pay him much attention. He heard a very familiar giggle from beside himself, and turned his wide eyes towards the girl that giggled.

When his widened eyes took in the girl's, whom his brain identified as Hinata, features in, he gulped. Hinata was there, standing beside him, and bending towards him, with that smile, which was a bit too much for his Jiraiya-fed brain. Her posture also gave him an eye full of her rack, which was BIG. Naruto couldn't even look her in the eye, which was not related to her rack at all, he told himself.

She had a few bruises here and there, and here baggy outfit was missing all together, replaced with the normal chunnin gear, without any chunnin vest. But to him she looked mesmerizing, bent forward and all.

No…scratch that. Naruto's vocabulary did not support such a complex word. It was more like-

'She is looking so damn CUTE~.' Naruto cooed in his mind, when he caught himself.

'HUH!? What am I thinking?!' Naruto thought desperately.

"C'mon kit, it's about time your hormones started acting. I thought all that ramen had chocked your hormones down, actually. Good for you, good for you." Kurama said, even as he laughed at Naruto's expense.

While Naruto bantered with the Kyubi in his mind, his body continued the last activity he was doing, namely staring at Hinata. Someone, right behind him, cleared his throat to grab Naruto's attention. And then another very familiar voice said. "I didn't know Sakura was free these days… Dobe"

Hinata started blushing when she heard that, and proceeded to stand back straight. The sentence served its purpose though, which was to bring back Naruto to the world of reality. Naruto's reaction was pretty predictable, for once.

Naruto stood up, and gave Sasuke a hard gaze. No one moved an inch, looking at the scene unfold. Naruto spoke first.

"What are you doing here?" asked Naruto, voice devoid of any emotion.

"I…I-", started Sasuke, but couldn't speak further. Never had he heard Naruto talk like that. Naruto's voice was always full of dependability. Like you could ask him to cut the moon in half, and rest assured that he would do it. You could depend on Naruto to be your source of energy, as he sure had enough to spare. His words themselves had always been a strong weapon, one that did not at attack anyone's life, rather their way of living. A shame it had never worked on him.

Naruto's eyes kept on staring at Sasuke, who took it as permission to speak his mind. He let out a breath then started talking.

"I… am here to join forces. With the Shinobi alliance. I shall atone for my sins by killing HIM." Sasuke said as he glared, pointing towards a Madara, who had just appeared, with a massive grin plastered to his face.

Naruto's eyes widened again, but there was no urge to look at Hinata this time. Something big was happening here. His, believe it or not, heart told him so. But his mind was trying to overrule his heart.

"Teme, what are you plann-", Naruto began but was cut off by Hinata. She pulled Naruto nearer to herself, but blushed at her own boldness. The proximity was making Hinata blush too, but she was surprised to find Naruto blushing with her.

While Hinata contemplated her bold action, all Naruto's brain could do was think, 'I WILL NOT TOUCH HER. DARK-NARUTO! GO BACK TO YOUR CAVE!'

Dark-Naruto countered with, 'I always know what you are thinking Naruto, I shall go back now, but you won't be able to resist for long', as his hold on Naruto's mind subsided. Naruto sighed in relief, but when he came back to reality and looked at Hinata, he found out something disturbing.

'He is right… I… can't… I WILL HAVE TO! This is Hinata! I WON'T!' thought he, arguing with himself. Dark Naruto sent Naruto a thought memory, which played, "Because… I love you. Love you. LOVE YOU-", Naruto blinked back to the world of reality, again, but couldn't hold back his blush.

Going back to the duo.

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-san has promised to aid us. We found him midway. He was pretty adamant to come, and swore on his Uchiha name not to hurt anyone. He has-" Hinata started to explain but it was effectively cut off by Madara.

"What? You think that you are gonna chat like hags and we" Madara said pointing to Obito and himself, "are gonna just sit here and twiddle our thumbs? What do you think we are?"

"TOBI IS A GOOD BOY" Obito said, in fake Tobi-voice.

Everyone was forced to face-palm at that.

"You are probably wondering what happened to me, are you not?" Sasuke asked Naruto. Naruto shrugged and said, "Not really. I-" Then he noticed Sasuke's glare. He gulped, and said. "Yeah, sure, what happened?"

Sasuke crossed his arms in satisfaction. He started, "Wellll, It just so happened that on this dark day the sun was shining brightly, and I was planning to extract my revenge on all of Konoha. Then I noticed Itachi making his way to… somewhere. I muttered, "Damn. I thought he died. You, Itachi, unless you have a legitimate reason for being here, shall face the fire of my wrath." And I followed him to wherever he was going. It led me to…"

~FLASHBACK~5 DAYS AGO~

Itachi sheathed his Totsuka no Tsurugi and smirked at the beaten body of Kabuto. One of his eyes had gone completely blind and turned white, the price of using Izanami. But the battle was long over, and the brothers were enjoying a healthy chat. With the elder telling the dark tale of his life, and the younger contemplating whether destroying Konoha makes as much sense as it did before.

Kabuto himself was very much alive, but he had called quits on trying to control his world, which was anyways going to hit the shit, courtesy of his summon Madara, on whom he couldn't for some reason end the jutsu. He had to admit that this was a pretty fucked up situation he had managed to walk into. He wished to study the Mangekyo Sharingan more than ever now, but the desire to survive was overruling it.

Kabuto's original plan had been rather simple. Just 'Send Itachi after Sasuke, the guilt should be enough to help capture. And of course, the Mangekyo~~'

Somewhere between summoning Itachi and coming in contact with Sasuke, a certain blonde Jinchuriki somehow managed to thwart the plan. Fortunately, Itachi nonetheless brought Sasuke back with him, though unknowingly. Unfortunately, both of them were hell bent on taking him down. Well, he had acquired the sage mode for situations like this. Though, he could have never imagined this particular situation to arise.

He had wanted to capture Sasuke to extract the last piece of Orochimaru's lost soul and use Anko's cursed seal of heaven to see if Orochimaru could be resurrected. Kabuto would also have liked to experiment on the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan Sasuke possessed, since Madara was not likely to give his on an easy bargain.

Then he got the word that Itachi had defected from his goal. Kabuto gritted his teeth, and tried to take back control of Itachi's soul, but to no avail. Finally, when he got fed up of trying, he just went to Itachi's and his original waiting place, knowing that Itachi was bound to come there. Then this happened.

For some reason, this Itachi had a better control of the Sharingan that when he was alive, and his mastery of the Sharingan then itself was nothing to sneeze at either. The reason was simply that the alive-Itachi was, for all intents and purposes, blind from overuse, and reanimated-Itachi had a complete 20/20 vision. Until he sacrificed one of his eyes, at least.

Sasuke, for a while, was in a bit of dilemma over whether to aid Itachi in fighting Kabuto, then his desperate young brother mode, that demanded answers got hard to control, and joined even if to only quickly end the battle. So, Kabuto, like the genius he was, fought them two-on-one. 'SAGE MODE~~'

Now, after his sage mode received a major ass-kicking, he found himself sprawled on the floor, while listening as Itachi confirmed Obito's tale. He gave his reasons when asked, but they were mostly related to his loyalty to village. A pity that such a patriotic soul had to take such a dark path. He had always put Konoha before himself, and Sasuke before Konoha.

They also said something about Orochimaru. Maybe it was time to stop faking death, and make a comeback… Nah! But it was time to focus on what was being talked about.

"I need to see him aniki. End of discussion." Sasuke pleaded like a true Uchiha. "I will bring about a revolution in the ninja world, and for that I need to know what NOT to do. Whatever has already been done was something that shouldn't have ever happened. I shall make it so that no elder brother is forced to slaughter his clan, and leave his younger brother alone, become a criminal, and generally hated by all, while being one of the most amazingly nice, and patriotic people this world will ever be graced with. For that I need the Hokages, for them I need an experienced pedophile, and there's only one. Say, Kabuto…" Sasuke kicked Kabuto's body. When it showed no reaction, Sasuke frowned, and charged a Chidori.

Kabuto's eyes snapped open right that instant. Sasuke smirked, but did not power down. He said, "How do you bring back Orochimaru?"

"Why should I tell you?" said he scathing. Sasuke's Chidori flared a lot, but Kabuto did not break. Sasuke sighed and powered down.

"I want you to reanimate his soul. Or even resurrect him if you can. I just need his expertise." Sasuke said.

"Whatever he could do, I can do too. And I anyways refuse." Kabuto, and then added smugly, "And because I refused, since you yourself never were into the 'Edo Tensei', are option-less. But it breaks my heart to see you so desperate. I allow you to try pampering me, maybe then someday I will revive him."

Sasuke gritted his teeth. An Uchiha will never stoop so low, to serve the likes of him. Itachi saw the expression on Sasuke's face, and sighed. His brother was still the sore loser he always was. Albeit they hadn't even lost yet.

"Hey Sasuke, I haven't yet given you the permission to go ahead with it now, have i?" interrupted Itachi, stepping forward, "But yeah, seeing this guy" Itachi said, pointing towards Kabuto, "so smug is too much for me, so yes, you may."

It was then that Sasuke noticed the place Itachi was pointing at.

Looking at Kabuto, or behind him to be precise, Sasuke saw a small puddle of water, reaching the bound Kabuto. Sasuke's eyebrows rose and he smirked. It was all about precision now.

"Chidori! Arrows!" Sasuke announced as he back-flipped, and shot bolts of electric chakra at Kabuto and the leaking water.

The result was shocking, to say the least.

"Buzzzzz" said Itachi and Sasuke gave him the 'seriously' look, and Itachi responded by, "What? It IS electricity, isn't it?"

Sasuke just shook his head. What else was he supposed to do? His brother had returned to life a few days ago and gained back control a few hours ago. If anyone was entitled to a few childish activities, it was him.

In Kumo, while training Naruto to change into Nine Tails Form, Killer Bee was brain-storming for a new poem.

Suddenly, they both sneezed.

This reminded Sasuke.

"Itachi, where did you find the Totsuka No Tsurugi?" Sasuke asked, "And you never said, how are back in control? It strikes my mind now that you should be following Kabuto, not beating him. He said something about Naruto… How does he have anything to do with this?" Now that Sasuke started asking, questions flew from his mouth like the blood flowing from Kabuto.

Itachi, who had taken a seat in the ruins, stood after hearing that, and walked up to Sasuke, saying "Foolish brother" said Itachi, while poking Sasuke in his trademarked style. Before he could continue Sasuke poked right back. "Hey, don't you dare do that! You do that, then you make some half-assed excuse and then you forget about it" said Sasuke, frowning.

Itachi poked him again, smirked at Sasuke's annoyed expression and continued, "As I was saying, before I was interrupted, this Totsuka No Tsurugi is actually a little something I discovered in one of the Uchiha ruins, back when I was an official member of Konoha's ANBU. It takes an active Sharingan user to locate it, and an active Mangekyo Sharingan user to actually be able to use it." Itachi drew out the blade as he explained, handed it over to Sasuke and continued, "It is because I am currently 'inactive' that I could not seal Kabuto with it. I have decided to give it to you, as it will be more of use to you as alive, than me as dead."

"As for how I'm alive…well…-" Itachi began but was cut off.

Kabuto coughed, "Hmph, you should be paying more attention to me, should you not?" He waited a moment before continuing, "What was that for anyways? You do know that you don't kill people you need favors from, right?"

Itachi answered for Sasuke, "You are our PRISONER Kabuto. And we are your evil masters. You should know what 'masters' can do if they just plan to pick at you, shouldn't you? Let me help in jogging your memory." Itachi said gleefully.

"No, you wouldn't-" Itachi cut Kabuto in between, by suddenly closing the gap between them and saying, "Tsukuyomi!" Sweat ran across Kabuto's brow, as he was trapped in the world of Tsukuyomi.

"ANIKI! Did you just HAVE to do that?! ", Sasuke shouted angrily.

Itachi nodded. "Yes, I had to."

Sasuke continued, "And now, we HAVE to wait for this snake sage to wake up from his dreamland. That will take a GOOD 3 DAYS!"

"Nah! Since Amaterasu was a very destructive technique, which I see you use frequently, I kept it as a weak trump, before my Sus'sano of course. I made Tsukuyomi my signature technique, and have an excellent control over it. We just have to wait 3 minutes or so, and administer another doze if required. I have to admit, seeing clearly with both my eyes again was a nice experience. I had forgotten what it felt like." Itachi told Sasuke.

Sasuke was more surprised than he let on, and as couldn't think of anything other to say he said, "Hn"

Itachi slapped his forehead, "God! And I thought you were cured of it! Never said it once during the fight too", Itachi said, more to himself than to Sasuke.

'Forehead huh…isn't that what Ino used to call Sakura when we younger' thought Sasuke, and then, 'Hm, why am I suddenly thinking about them…'

Meanwhile 3 minutes came to pass and Kabuto came back. He looked totally terrified.

Sasuke whispered to Itachi, "Just what did you show him?"

"Nothing much. I just replayed whatever he considers his worst memory ever for ¾ of the time in." Itachi whispered back. Sasuke raised an eyebrow, and asked, "The rest ¼ of time?" Itachi answered, "His best memories. It's a psychological thing. When good stuff turns into worst nightmare, you lose all hope." Sasuke nodded at that.

No longer did Kabuto look like a proud Snake sage, he looked like a terrified kid. "I'm doing it right now, if you promise to keep him" pointing to Itachi, he continued, "away"

Sasuke nodded.

~ A few hours later~

Kabuto already had all the material he needed to revive Orochimaru, and had planned to do that after he conquered the world. Forced to do so, he summoned Orochimaru.

Orochimaru as a summon was quite an ironic thing to happen, but nobody, not even Orochimaru himself, had time to appreciate that. They worked him like a new guy on job, and forced him to use the shinigami mask to summon the Hokages up to 4. That was the only reason Kabuto himself had not summoned them, though they would make a very formidable force in themselves. The user of shinigami mask has to die. Or actually, the soul of the body that used the mask is sealed. Orochimaru had a pretty easy way to bypass that restriction.

After Sasuke was done with chatting with the summoned warriors, he killed Orochimaru again, this time erasing his existence from the face of the world. Sadly, The Hokages passed on from this world, with Orochimaru. All that was left now was Naruto-

"So, what is gonna happen to me now?" asked Kabuto, as they made their way to outside Konoha, where they had gone to look for Naka shrine.

"I don't need you now." Said Sasuke simply, as he used Amaterasu on Kabuto, and sent him after his master. One other thing happened with that, one that he had not planned to, and hoped it does not.

"Sasuke, my time has come too." Itachi said, as he walked up to Sasuke, "I always lied to you, and asked you to forgive me. Deliberately keeping you at a distance by my own hand, all because I couldn't bear the thought of you getting caught up in this. But now I believe I went about it the wrong way. So now, I want to impart this truth to you. You don't ever need to forgive me. And no matter what you do from here on out, know this…" Itachi poked Sasuke again, even as his body was deteriorating. His body was nearly gone, and he couldn't speak any longer, but he whispered nonetheless.

"I will love you always" and he vanished, once and for all.

'I have already forgiven you brother… And I am going to do something you will be proud of me for…It's time to return… Naruto' Sasuke thought, as he made his way to the battlefield.

~REAL TIME~

"And that's it" completed Sasuke, as he let out a sigh.

Naruto nodded at him, and simply raised his fist towards Sasuke. Sasuke stared at it in confusion. Naruto sighed, and said, "We need to re-teach, or teach actually, you social signs… Bump your fist against mine." Sasuke shrugged and did that. Naruto had closed his eyes, and his brow was creased, but he opened them soon, and said, "He is clear. This is our Sasuke, back from darkness. Damn, Itachi must have had a deep impact on you. I never managed that."

'You did… As if I am going to tell you that.' Sasuke thought.

Naruto now couldn't hold it back. He had been trying to control himself, and seem professional, but that was SO not like him. He gave Sasuke a foxy grin, and shouted on the top of his lungs, "YES! I MANAGED TO BRING YOU BACK, DATTEBAYO!"

After all that happened, or maybe because of it, Sasuke was a lonely guy trying to prove everyone wrong, just like himself, which was why Naruto always saw him as a brother.

When Naruto failed his self-given mission of bringing back Sasuke, countless times at that, he got pretty confused. He couldn't think of anything to do now. All the years he spent acquiring power were so that he could one day be able to bring him back, but bringing back someone hell bent on destroying the world wasn't very practical. Being honest with himself, he had almost lost all hope on the future where Sasuke was back with them. And then came along Madara, and the target to bring back Sasuke was shifted to the back of his mind, with focus on only stopping the masked man. Since the only thing Naruto could do was train, he trained his ass off. Thus far, it had not proved positive results, but he had to admit that without it, there damn well WOULD have been negative results.

But, now that Sasuke was admitting his mistakes, crimes more like, Naruto couldn't help but thank his stars that Sasuke was willing to let his past go, finally, and begin thinking about his future, heck, the future of this world!

Sasuke smirked back at him, and thought, 'Now where is the pink haired…', but stopped when he noticed Naruto smirk. "What?" he asked. Naruto gave him a weird pervy look, and said, "The pink haired, who?"

That's when Sasuke noticed, 'He is reading my mind… how?', and Naruto answered, "Oh, it's one of my new powers, like this one" As he activated 9 Tails Chakra Mode.

"Shall we begin?" asked Sasuke, sighing, as he brought his hand back. Before Naruto, or Hinata, who had been standing silently till then, could say anything, someone shouted.

"Hey! Are you sure we can trust this guy?" And a murmur began to spread. When Sasuke heard it, he gritted his teeth and looked down. Of course he knew that he had done quite some stupid stuff. He knew that he had pulled some crappy shit, and understood their fear, or hate for him. He even knew that just aiding in this war wouldn't be enough for them to pardon his crimes, but he had hoped they would at least be-

Then Iruka used his infamous big head Jutsu, the one he used to calm the young kids during his classes, "Shinobis of all over the world. I know exactly what is going through most your minds right now, and I know I feel the same way too. But, I am above holding personal grudges. He has pulled a lot of crap on lame reasons, but even the worst scum deserves a second chance, if they are willing to change. And that position currently belongs to Madara anyways, so you are encouraged to-"

"TO HELL WITH ALL THAT! ALL I KNOW THAT THIS IS SASUKE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT. HE MIGHT BE THE BIGGEST TEME, BUT EVEN IF ANYONE OF YOU DOESN'T BELIEVE HIM, I DO" Shouted Naruto at the top of his voice.

"Me too" said Hinata simply.

"If Hinata-Sama believes him then, me too" Said Neji, walking up to them

"It might be more troublesome to believe him", started Shikamaru and Sasuke looked down again, his hair covering his eyes," but I believe him" walking behind Neji.

Choji nodded towards Naruto, then Sasuke and walked up to them too.

"If these two believe him then I do too" said Ino, landing near Hinata, seemingly from the sky. They all looked up and saw Sai riding on his 'Ink Bird'. He landed gracefully and said.

"I'll believe dickless since gorgeous believes him."

"HEY!" said Sasuke and Naruto in union, since neither knew who was being referred to.

"His aid will provide us one more Naruto-level fighter, which will be beneficial in this war. Konoha appreciates your support." was from Shino.

"YOSH SASUKE! THIS SHOWS THAT YOUR FLAMES OF YOUTH HAVE NOT EXTINGUISHED! HELP US IN MAKING THEM PAY FOR GUY-SENSEI'S DEATH!" said Lee, in his normal voice.

Tenten drew a very sharpen kunai, and stated twirling it, "No comments here. But if you dare betray us again, I know plenty of ways to make your death painful." she said smiling, but it was not a pleasant smile.

All of a sudden someone grabbed Sasuke's head and pounded it before burying it in Earth. Sasuke got up and cleared himself calmly, expecting something like this, even as Sakura (because it was obviously her) said, "Even though I want to kill you right here, right now, it will have to do for now" said Sakura, smiling darkly.

"Thanks guys, don't worry I won't betray you again. And get ready, 'cause…" Sasuke claimed.

"I AM BACK!"

"Good. I thin-", Naruto started, but lost his voice when he noticed something.

'Octo-pops… Kakashi-sensei… Guy-sensei… They are… gone…' Naruto thought as he recalled what Lee had just said. His Chakra flared to ridiculous, or for Madara -average, levels, as he turned to glare at grinning faces of Madara and Obito. It was a scary face indeed, and the aura he released was would have made a younger Obito piss his pants.

"YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SURVIVE TODAY… I WILL MASSACRE YOU."

~A/N~

So, how was it? Was it good? Was it lame? Was it okay-okay?

Tell me, this is my first fic, as i said before. Actually, my first attempt at writing anything.

Thanks for reading. And review please.