I do not own Naruto.

Prologue

Land of Iron

Gokage Summit

The Gokage and their aides each gazed upward to the spiraling face of their strange adversary, a masked man claiming to be Madara Uchiha. Mifune, Samurai General of the Land of Iron, spoke up, inquiring "What are you scheming?! What is Operation Tsuki no Me?"

Seating himself cross-legged, Madara answered "For that lengthy story, I'll need to sit myself down."

"What kind of plan is it?!" said Kankuro of Sunagakure, becoming frustrated.

To the irritation of all, Madara simply held up a finger. Then, his voice sinisterly calm, he replied "All shall become one with me, and result in a complete possession form that unites all!"

The room seemed to tilt, as if the impact of the Akatsuki's words was a physical thing. The Kage and their aides each felt the same shiver run down their spines.

Growling, Ohnoki, the Fence Sitter of Tsuchigakure, asked in fearful confusion "Become one…? Unite all…? What do you mean?!"

With narrowed eyes, though none could tell, Madara continued "There is an ancient stone tablet passed down within the Uchiha clan. It still exists in a room underneath Konoha."

"Upon it are written secrets engraved by the Sage of Six Paths himself. They cannot be read without ocular powers. With the Sharingan, the Mangekyo, and the Rinnegan, respectively, more and more knowledge is progressively revealed."

"Your tale is becoming progressively fantastical. The Sage of Six Paths…?" spat the Tsuchikage.

"It is the truth," Madara asserted, "He did indeed exist. And he left this stone tablet behind."

Leaping from his perch above the floor of the meeting room, The Raikage of Kumogakure barked "You digress! What has the Sage of Six Paths have to do with your plan eh?!"

"Do you know why he came to be a legendary figure that is revered like a god of shinobi?" Madara said tonelessly. "That is where the link between that man and my purpose lies."

Speaking up for the first time in the discussion, Mei Terumi of Kirigakure murmured "...Uchiha Madara... you possess the Mangekyo Sharingan, and one of your other Akatsuki fellows possessed the Rinnegan. So you know all of the secrets, don;t you?"

"Let us Hear them." said Ohnoki, alighting next to the Raikage.

Madara nodded and resumed his tale "The sage once saved the world, from a certain monster…"

Curious, Gaara of the Sand whispered "Monster…?"

Turning his masked face to the Kazekage, the Uchiha addressed him "Gaara… you once held merely one piece of that monster sealed within you. He was the aggregate of all Biju… an existence that possessed almost infinite chakra…"

The ancient Uchiha paused for effect, and then said slowly, eerily "...Ten Tails."

If Madara's first declaration were a punch, the impact of this one upon the shinobi gathered round him was like an explosion.

"I thought the Biju only went up to Nine Tails?!" cried Temari in confused unease.

Coldy, Madara retorted "I just told you… he was an aggregate of ALL of the Biju."

"The nine current Biju, from One Tail to Nine Tails, are merely creatures containing Ten Tails' chakra split up… by the Sage of Six Paths' hand."

"For saving humanity, the Sage was revered like a god. But the Sage feared that upon his death, the seal would come undone and Ten Tails' immense chakra would re-emerge. So in his final moments, the sage of Six Paths used the last of his strength to partition Ten Tails' own chakra into nine pieces and scatter them all across the world. He sealed away the chakra-less body of monster and hurled into the sky, and it became the moon."

"This tale is ridiculous… what human can do such things?" drawled Darui, the Raikage's right hand.

"As Ten Tails' jinchuriki, the Sage of Six Paths had already advanced beyond the realm of humanity." answered the Uchiha.

Kankuro grimaced and said "So that's why the Akatsuki were collecting the Biju… I don't like where this is heading…"

"The Sage of Six Paths developed a certain ninjutsu in order to protect the world from the Ten Tails…" Madara continued, "... and that ninjutsu is still being secretly passed down to this day. It is the sealing jutsu process of jinchuriki. The Sage… was Ten Tails' jinchuriki. he sealed Ten Tails within himself to suppress the monster."

Mifune interrupted "So you're trying to reassemble those nine separated chakras… in other words, all of the Biju, and obtain that immense, inhuman power. I understand that. But… what are you planning to do with that power?"

"Revive Ten Tails!" exclaimed the strange shinobi, "and become its jinchuriki. I would then use that power to multiply my ocular powers, and launch a certain jutsu."

Shouting in frustration, the Tsuchikage asked "A certain jutsu?! What jutsu?! What are you plotting?!"

Slowly, Madara Uchiha gave him an answer, "A super genjutsu where i project my eye off of the moon's surface. An Infinite Tsukuyomi… All humans living on earth under my Genjutsu! By controlling them all, I shal unify the world!"

The temperature in the room seemed to drop several degrees with this statement. All felt the chill in their spines intensify tenfold, and their minds blank with shock.

"I will create a world with no bad blood, no wars. Everything will become one with me, and be united together," Madara drawled, "That is Operation Tsuki no Mei."

In his regular raging tone, the Raikage protested "Insane! I'm not handing the world over to you!"

"Peace that exists only as illusion is just that… an illusion!" Gaara interceded, "Peace is only meaningful when it is actually achieved for real."

"So what does exist inside such a genjutsu world?! There's no hope, no dreams! It's just an escape!" Mei Terumi added.

Sagely, the old Fence-Sitter gave his own input, "Unite the world eh… interesting that Danzo mentioned something similar, but your plan smacks more of you wanting to make the world yours and yours only than truly uniting the world."

With a sinister chuckle, Madara quipped "And what have you Gokage accomplished? You of all people should know this to be true… There is no hope!"

"To hope is equivalent to giving up, and is the biggest deception of all. So hand over the remaining two, Eight and Nine Tails, cooperate… or this is war."

"War?!" the Gokage barked simultaneously.

"Eight Tails?" Raikage Ay murmured in disbelief, "What do you mean?! You took Bee!"

"Eight Tails' capture failed and he escaped, now he is a shinobi who is perfect jinchuriki material… and he lives up to being your little brother." replied the Uchiha.

"Oh dear.." Darui muttered as his leader seemed to deflate, "So it was true… I did have a feeling it might be…"

"THAT FOOL!" Ay roared, "So he used this opportunity to get out of the village and play hooky, eh?! UNFORGIVABLE! I'll subject him to the IRON CLAW!"

Back to the point, the young Kazekage affirmed "I will not hand over Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Nor will I!" said Mei.

Eyes still on Madara, Ohnoki inquired "What about you, Raikage?"

"Of course I won't hand over my little brother!" he rumbled.

His demeanor chilling further, Madara Uchiha countered "I may not have strength, but I do have the powers of the seven other Biju that I have already collected. You have no chance of winning."

"Neither will we abandon our hope." Gaara shot back with narrowed eyes.

"Very well… then I hereby declare war on you all… The Fourth Great Ninja War."

Gasping, The Tsuchikage replied "The Fourth Great Ninja War?! You can't mean that!"

"I would never say such a thing in jest." said Madara, as he began to swirl away into oblivion, "We will next meet on the battlefield."

And so began the most Earth-shattering event to take place in the shinobi world… one the likes none had ever seen before. The powers of each of the great Shinobi nations would be heavily tested. Lives would be lost, by the hundreds, and even thousands. Good would make a final stand against evil. Order against Chaos. Politeness against… rudeness?

Chapter One

Land of Lightning

Kumogakure

One Year Earlier

"Hm…" mused the chunin in charge of mission assessment. The mission booklet outlined the requirements, assignment date, completion date, and assigned shinobi. Everything checked out, save for one thing…

"You broke a man's jaw, humerus, four fingers, and nearly ruptured several of his internal organs… because he used foul language?" he inquired, raising an eyebrow.

The man before him, standing without regard to posture, or seemingly authority even, gave a sigh and complained "I didn't break his fingers, he did when he attempted punching me."

"So you made him break his hand on something, broke his arm, and punched him a couple times?" said the chunin, hunting for the exact events, for procedure of course.

Sighing once more, the interrogatee muttered "No, he broke his widdle hand on my big mean cheekbone, so I snapped his arm, backfisted him in the face, and kicked him in the gut. All with merely the necessary force for self-defense, and to teach him a lesson."

Giving a sigh of his own, the chunin reprimanded "Mr. Mushoku, you are not only one of Kumo's proud jonin, but a member of its Anbu! Besides showing the self control of a shinobi, you are expected to remain indiscreet. Getting into a fight over profanity falls short of each of those!"

"There were kids and elderly folk there, he was being utterly rude. Should have taken his drunken rear-end home like a real man." retorted the jonin, adjusting his flak jacket.

"Hoshi…" the chunin breathed, temporarily slipping out of formality, "I know being respectful and polite is part of your shinobi way, but if incidents like this keep popping up for every simple intelligence mission, some kind of action has to be taken. I don't see why that needs to be, especially for a ninja like you."

Mushoku Hoshi, jonin ranked member of Kumogakure's Anbu Black-Ops, renowned within the village for his skills, yet an utter secret to the rest of the shinobi world, adjusted his black fingerless gloves and flak jacket once more, and asked nonchalantly "Will that be all?"

"Hm." said the chunin, shaking his head. "That will be all, Mr. Mushoku. I'll send this report to Lord Fourth."

With a flash and hiss of sparks, Hoshi was gone. In his place, the kanji for "Star" lay engraved on the floorboards. The chunin shook his head once more.

"Hmph, showoff. Real polite to just Body Flicker away and vandalize the floor." he grumbled, moving to fetch a broom.

Trudging along the walkways and suspended bridges of Kumo, Hoshi puzzled silently over his life. He ignored his surroundings, the hustle and bustle of daily life in the powerful shinobi village. I know I messed up. he thought to himself. I know I went both against my own nindo and even faith, but I couldn't help it. My stupid temper- he pondered further, until being tackled to the ground as he rounded a corner.

"Hoshi!" squealed a pair of young trainees, pinning him to the earth by his arms.

Sighing, he wheezed "Hey Enkei, Jinsoku. Sup?"

The two grinned down at him and replied "Practicing, as usual. Looks like we got you this time!"

"Oh?" Hoshi smirked, and, in a crackling flash, was no more. The two youths gaped in shock, and gasped as they were lifted off their feet by the collar.

"Takes a lot more than a couple jokers like you two to get me. Better luck next time?" Hoshi gloated, and let them down, resuming his stroll.

The youngsters followed at his heel, initiating their routine harassment of him, bombarding him with questions: "Hoshi where are you going?", "Hoshi how did you escape us?", "Hoshi can you teach us a super secret jutsu today?", "Hoshi where was your secret mission?".

The trio, not quite unnoticed, slowly edged out of the village limits and toward Storm Cloud Ravine. Hoshi's tails kept their chatter going throughout, rendering a continuation of his earlier train of thought impossible. As they came upon a stream punctuated clearing, Hoshi halted just in time to avoid a kunai impaling his foot.

A strange, yet familiar beeping noise elicited a growl from the jonin. "Tensai, what's the database say?" asked a voice just as familiar, one with an audible sneer sliding from every word.

More beeping and a second voice droned "Database identifies Mushoku Hoshi: Jonin rank, member of Kumo Anbu, age 20, six-foot-zero inches in height, one-fifty-five pounds in weight, unknown blood type, pale complexion, white hair with characteristic gold, lightning shaped streak. Known techniques include-"

"That'll be plenty." said the voice. A pair of men around Hoshi's age materialized on the other side of the stream; the taller one, dressed in a plain black body-suit, flak jacket, headband, sandals, and with dirty blonde hair pulled into a tail, continued "So, what do you suppose brings Mr. Bigshot here, Tensai?"

His shorter companion, dressed in a grey, sleeveless shirt, black shorts, sandals, irregular goggles stamped with the Kumo symbol over his eyes, and with a short black mohawk, answered snidely "Probably here to sulk and pout as usual, Iyashii."

Iyashii, grinning like a gavial closing in on its prey, inched forward "Instead of all that, why don't I welcome our old pal back from his mission with a friendly sparring match?"

Upon his advance, Osoi and Jinsoku leaped into a nearby tree, whilst Hoshi reached to his hips and thumbed the twin tanto at them from their sheaths, all three anticipating violence.

"Ah ah, none of that now. Hand to hand, and, just to make it interesting, how about the winner gets those famed blades of yours?" suggested the blonde nin mischievously.

Speaking for the first time during the exchange, Hoshi snorted and shot back "And for whatever reason would I wager my tanto, passed down from generation to generation in the Mushoku clan, on a five-second practice brawl?"

This sent Iyashii's eye atwitch with concealed fury, who answered civilly, but coldly "Because if you don't, I'll be taking them from your lifeless fingers anyway, so you might as well."

With a grin, the pale shinobi assumed a defensive position. "And what do I get when this reaches its inevitable conclusion?" he teased.

"Hmph!" Iyashii withdrew into his own stance, spitting "You get to live and keep your toothpicks. Enough mudslinging, time for your beating!"

Having followed the lead of the young trainees, Tensai called out from atop a nearby cliff "Ready?"

The two rivals were engulfed in lightning chakra, in the Hidden Cloud style of Nintaijutsu, their stances intensifying. Looking from one to the other, Tensai paused for effect, taking a breath and adjusting his goggles for better observation. And…

"Begin!"

I'm back! Yes, I've finally gotten around to rewriting these, and it feels good! I'll be updating semi-regularly now, so you can expect to see the adventures of Mushoku Hoshi to continue! Any and all reviews (mostly anyway) are appreciated, and please let me know of any mistakes I made if you spot them; hell, even suggestions are welcome. Please continue to enjoy!