This is the End

by Amber Jack

...of everything we knew. The world was in shambles and we were barely holding on. In a last ditch effort we decided to break the laws of the universe to fix it...we could be making things worse, but we were out of options. So here we were all over again. Rating for language and adult situations.

Hello everyone! Yes I know I haven't finished my Harry Pottery story yet, but I am having some writer's block and I decided to turn to another story until the block lifted. This is something I have been working on for a while now and what started off as a 10 page one-shot turned into a monster.

I have watched very few Naruto episodes, but have read a lot of the fanfiction and I tend to like Naruto fanfiction more than the anime because it's so slow.

I don't know when Part 2 will be up, but it will be up eventually. I always finish what I start, it just takes some time.

I wanted to see how this story would do, so I've decided to start posting it.

Warning: There will be mentions of blood, sex and adult situations, but I do try to keep them more suggestive than explicit. There will be mentions of slash and threesomes…because well its fanfiction and I can. There is also a back and forth of POV because that is the way I write…everything is labeled.

Disclaimer: This is fanfiction…I am not making a profit on anything I write. I just enjoy warping the characters for my own amusement and hopefully the amusements of others.

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This was this end. The end of everything we knew. We had all suffered unbelievable loses. But this is how we got it all back in the end.

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"Shit! DUCK INO," a dark haired shinobi yelled over the clashing sounds of battle, as he too ducked out of the way of an incoming enemy's kunai. An intoxicatingly beautiful, but incredibly deadly blonde, covered in the blood of her enemies cursed as she ducked down just in time to avoid the enemy's deadly sword.

"God dammit! When is that fucker going to be done?" She cursed as she killed the offending cannon fodder who dared to think he could kill her.

A petite dark haired ninja came up behind her, not to kill her but to offer her the support she needed at that moment. The woman threw a couple of mid-level but slightly overpowered fire jutsus at another set of attackers before murmuring in a voice so cold it could freeze the very fire she had just created, "You shouldn't speak about Naruto-sama like that. Its highly disrespectful and I won't have it." Granted it seemed that even if she was helping the blonde at the moment, it didn't mean that the dark haired shinobi wouldn't off her if she was given half a chance and the blood knew it but didn't care.

"Oi, I'll speak however I fucking want too, you fucking bitch." She bit back to her companion.

Her companion smiled a mirthless grin, "One of these days I'm going to cut your impertinent tongue out of your mouth."

"I'd like to see you try Hinata." Ino bit back as the fighting continued around them. A moment later the dark haired shinobi from earlier caught one of their enemies in his shadow and quickly made work of the enemy before making it over to the two bickering women.

"You are both being ridiculous and need to take this more seriously."

"Fuck you Shikamaru," They both said simultaneously as he ducked and they threw kunais at where his head had been a moment ago. He turned behind him and saw the downed enemy and sighed, "I hate you both."

Hinata just smirked and shot off to where another dark haired shinobi was fighting. Ino smiled happily at Shikamaru and pounced on him, knocking him to the ground next to the fallen enemies and proceeded to kiss him senseless. "Is this really the time?" a pink haired woman asked them as she looked down at them, red lips pursed in bemusement. Surprisingly she was not as covered in the blood of their enemies as the others, but then again she did know several bloodless ways of killing and she was very, very good at it.

"You're asking them?" A red eyed man asked as he came up behind her, making sure that she knew that he was already there before speaking, he had no wish to have his throat cut.

She sighed, "I should worry about the mental state of your mind on principle." She muttered as she helped Shikamaru up after her companion bodily picked up the noncompliant blond. "Fuck you Sakura," the blond bit out as she attempted to break free from the iron grip the red-eyed man had on her.

"So eloquent," she muttered distastefully. "Anyway we're ready for the final stages. Naruto will be out here in a moment and we all want to be in the cave before that." Ino stopped struggling against her ally and pouted. Shikamaru nodded.

"Hinata, Neiji…its time," Sakura yelled across the field as the duo finished off their last opponent.

The six looked at each other, nodded and disappeared in a swirling of blood-soaked leaves. In that moment a blonde appeared upon the battle field. His intense blue eyes were tinted red in bloodlust as he looked upon the dead who had dared to fight against his people. Sensitive ears picked up distant sounds and he grinned, sharp teeth glinting in the fading light. More of their enemies were coming this way and they were going to fall right into the trap that had been set. The blood of their enemies would feed the seal that had been so painstakingly placed and this nightmare would soon be over. But that didn't mean that he could have a bit of fun before the end…right?

He stood proud and regal in the face of the oncoming tide. Two tantos appeared in his hands and an unseen signal sent a tide of sharp 3-pronged shuriken flew through the air. The enemy didn't even hesitate as they attempted to swarm the blond. "Fools" he murmured and waited until they were within the boundaries of the seal. "You are within my field of divination." He smirked stealing a once favored line of one his people.

The next moment the forest was filled with the sounds of the dying. The battle was over before most could even draw their weapons or even think of preparing a jutsu. The blood saturated the forest floor. In the sudden silence the blond could be seen back at where he first started. Red chakra was pulsating around him. He dropped the tantos and formed two hand-seals and disappeared from the area. The seal was activated and the blood red chakra of a demonic presence was released and any who had not been dead a moment ago expired from the poison that was the red chakra.

…Back in the cave…

The six appeared, saw their leader acknowledge them right before he disappeared. An older but very frail looking woman walked past the six with three scrolls in her hands. She huffed for a moment and in a flurry of movement that would have been unexpected in an ordinary elderly woman, released the specially sealed and crafted blades that could destroy an army in an instant. Each of them shivered as they felt their leader's chakra come to life in a fiery instant. They could see the red chakra poisoning the air as the enemies fell upon the blades of their beloved leader. Instead of backing up like any other sane human would have, they were drawn to the chakra that could kill in an instant. They had to stop themselves from moving further than the initial step they had all taken.

"Such a man who does exist in the darkness of light can only be the demon of my heart…" Sakura and the red eyed man murmured together. Hinata looked at them sharply and then let it go. She was fanatically loyal to the blonde, but they were beloved by him and no harm was allowed even if she dearly wanted to stick a blade into the red-eye's gut for his past betrayals and the in the pink haired harpy for the general annoyance Hinata felt around her.

The blonde appeared a few moments later and smiled a blood thirsty grin that made each of them relax from the blood lust that had captured them earlier. "Well let's get this party started."

"Naruto-sama?"

"Yes Hinata?"

"Are they dead?"

"Every last one of them and anyone who dares to walk into the clearing thinking they could get the drop on us."

"Thank you."

He grinned, "No Problem my lovely Hinata." The visible red chakra faded as he turned to look at what was left of his family. The frail looking woman who had waited in the caves; she'd been too weak to help in the initial fighting-the war had taken its toll on her but she been able to help in the seal preparation and had been acting as backup the entire time, including when she'd been needed to release the scrolls. Had she been needed, though, not a single one of them had a doubt in their mind that she would have been fierce to the very last breath.

He walked to her and hugged her fiercely, "Tsunade, thank you for your service." She looked close to tears but had hugged him back just as fiercely. She murmured, "No thank you Naruto. You have done us all proud."

He nodded and released her to go stand by Neiji and Hinata. "I love you both as the siblings I never had and honor you as the warriors you are, thank you for your service."

Neiji could not speak but Hinata spoke for them both, "Naruto-sama, we will follow you into death and beyond. You are the darkness that blinds the light and protects us on the battlefield." Neiji nodded and Naruto clasped hands with him and Hinata both.

He turned to the shadow user, "Shikamaru, thank you for your service. You have done your clan proud." The dark haired man said nothing but nothing needed to be said. Like the others, he had been willing to walk into death blindly for what Naruto had done for him and Ino.

Ino looked at them both, blue eyes flashing in annoyance. "Fuck you." Naruto smiled and kissed her forehead. She had forgotten how to love, but still knew logically that she cared for them all. Her mind had been broken beyond repair, had she been anything other than a Yamanaka she would have been a vegetable. As it was, all that had been left was her cold calculating side, the crass language that war had brought out in her, the never ending blood lust, the sexual drive of a hormonal teenage boy, and her unwavering loyalty to the blonde and the dark haired man from her youth.

The blonde went over to the last of the six, "Sakura, Sasuke…" No other words were needed. Naruto kissed Sakura on the lips and she grabbed him by the hair to keep him a moment longer. She released him, a single tear running down her cheek. He went over to Sasuke and repeated his actions. "The best for last?" Sasuke murmured against his lips.

Naruto laughed "Bastard."

"Don't ever forget it." Sasuke murmured back.

"Okay, the blood of the enemies have bought us our way through time, now the blood of the warriors will feed the path. Sasuke you're on the left, Sakura you're on the right, Hinata you're at my back, Shikamaru in the north, Ino in the south, Tsunade in the west, and Neiji in the east. We have one shot at this. If this works we'll all theoretically awake around the same time, barring the expected issues that I believe will cause up some general problems. If you somehow awake before I do, try to keep your chakra sealed- without the demon seal, it's very possible that you'll destroy your internal chakra coils and we don't want that. If needed our code word will be 'free us from damnation'," They all nodded in understanding as the blond continued on.

"Once I start the hand seals you are to cut your wrists open. Let the blood feed into the seal array, try not to pass out too soon and whatever you do, do not use your chakra. Remember the will of fire burns through us."

"Yes Hogake-sama," six voices rang out as one and the silent one nodded. The blonde smiled sadly and began to run through the seals. As one they slit the main artery on their wrists to feed the seal array. An array that had taken the blonde a little over a year to develop and create, an array that no one in their right mind would ever have attempted. Granted, no one ever claimed the blonde or anyone else that followed him to be in their right mind. The war had taken everything from them. They were the very last of their once vibrant village. The civilians had been evacuated years ago; the younger shinobi who had survived had been disbanded and absorbed by their various allies, mostly by Suna. Most of elite had died in protection of the younger ones who carried the future on their shoulders. Those few that did survive the initial wave did not survive much longer. Suicide missions had been known to take out entire squads, camps and villages of their enemies. Each lost soul was another that the survivors carried branded in their memories, another scar on their souls'.

What they were doing at this moment was a last ditch effort than had come from a drunken night of remembrance; a half-baked idea that had come to fruition that night. Naruto had taken the idea and expanded it in his semi-drunken state as his friends slept around the fire. It had taken him three weeks to perfect it. He had created a blood array that had never been attempted before. Blood arrays had never been something well documented and had been something that Jiraiya had been reluctant to teach him. It was a forbidden art and for good reason. Someone with the correct know-how and power could destroy the world. And Naruto had the correct know-how and more than enough power. Essentially that was exactly what he was attempting. He was going to destroy their current reality and rewrite their past so that this future would never happen.

A light was beginning to fill the cave. The only sound was the dripping of blood to feed the array and the soft movements of the blonde's hands. It was almost over. He looked out at his people and gave a small smile. They were pale from the blood lose but standing strong. His hands made the final seal and his red chakra pulsed outwards, his eyes almost purple with the change. The world was falling apart around them. There was a blinding flash of light and then complete darkness…

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Naruto-

He was talking to Konohamaru when he suddenly froze and fell to the ground. There was no expression upon his face and he did not utter a sound. Anyone who looked at him would never have guessed that he was in excruciating pain. Konohamaru along with Iruka were looking down at him with concern at his sudden collapse, while the rest of the class was peering at him with mild curiosity.

Pain, that's all I could feel; excruciating-mind numbing horrifying pain. It felt like my body was being ripped in half and then dismembered. I couldn't tell if I was screaming or not. My world was pain. It was the worse pain I'd ever felt. I couldn't tell what exactly was going on. There was nothing but the knowledge of excruciating pain and then it was gone. For a moment I couldn't tell what was worse, being in pain or the absolute absence of it all. I slowly opened my eyes to see several curious and a couple of concerned stares. I assessed them and dismissed them in the same moment. They were not important in this instance. I could smell them around me but there was too much confusion to decipher where they were but they were here, all except one and I knew where she was and she would be back soon. The beast within me was satisfied and settled. I slowly let out the breath I had been holding and allowed myself to be picked up by my mentor, a man I'd not seen in 15 odd years. It made my breath catch and I know he saw the hesitation but ignored it; he probably just chalked it up to a 'Naruto thing'. He'd done that a lot when I'd been younger.

"Are you okay Naruto?"

"Ne, Iruka-sensei I'm fine." I said as sheepishly as I could muster. Trying to shake of the last of the pain from the transference.

"Ni-san?"

I ruffled the kid's hair in remembered fondness. He'd been one of the first to fall after the village was in ruins and with his death I had gone into a Kyuubi induced rage. Sasuke had been the one to snap me out of it, but not before I'd destroyed a good part of the invading forces. It had been a blood bath and I still wasn't sorry for it. "I'm okay Konohamaru. I just fell over, I just wanted to say hi and see how you kids were doing before I met with my team."

"Okay." He said with a confused pout.

I smiled and left, leaving Iruka staring after me in bemusement. I didn't want to wait around. I wanted to see…No I have to see them…so I ran. I didn't bother with jutsus. I needed to get to them. I needed to see them, even if they weren't mine yet…they would still be them and so gloriously alive and that was something I needed to assure myself of. I followed their tantalizing scents.

I couldn't quite believe I wasn't a dribbling vegetable and Kyuubi ransacking the village. Hell I couldn't believe it had worked and I was back in Konoha before the fall. I hadn't been sure of the exact results of the seal that I'd created as a last ditch effort. I'd only discussed the very worst possible consequences with Sakura and Sasuke so they would know in case they had to do something about it. I trusted all of my people, but I trusted them to do what had to be done regardless of the circumstances and no matter how much it would hurt.

I had no way of knowing if the others were back, but the scents were there. I came upon our meeting space. They were already there, looking like two glorious desserts for a starving man.

"You're late." Sakura said tonelessly. I could have kissed her but held back, but it wasn't easy. Depending on who she was, she could take that fairly poorly and I really didn't feel like having my head bashed in with one of her right hooks that she never checked herself on.

"Nah, I'm exactly when I'm supposed to be." I smirked and Sasuke gave me a sharp look but didn't say anything as Kakashi choose that moment to make his presence known. I was suspicious but unsure when Sakura didn't yell at him; instead she just seemed to soak up his appearance.

"Okay my cute little genin; we have a very important mission today." He gave the customary eye smile. The three of us were immediately suspicious. He seemed disappointed that we didn't rise to his bait and seemed a bit down about that. I fought the smile that threatened to break out. "Well you three are needed to clear out a rat infestation in field 3. No jutsus allowed." We nodded in understanding all of us waiting for his lead. He looked at us in slight confusion and hesitation but just gave us the ANBU 'move out' call sign and we were off. It was a standard dismissal that he'd used for years, I just couldn't quite remember when he started using it.

I remembered this assignment. It had been one of our first ones after the fiasco of the wave mission and a colossal failure because Sasuke and I had gotten into one of our fights and burned the whole damn place down. We'd been docked pay and had been removed from missions until the start of the chunin exams. I smiled at the memories. They may not have been the happiest but it had been quieter times.

We worked in the field for a few moments before Sakura gave Sasuke a covert glance that wasn't that covert and sauntered, yes sauntered towards me in a hauntingly familiar and tantalizing way. I bit my lip as she came up to me and closed her eyes and then I was ducking from a well thrown punch and instinctively retaliated with a sharp side kick, only to be blocked and her body was suddenly pressed against mine and we were on the ground, her lips close but not touching and she whispered "Free me from Damnation, hogake-sama." I gasped and she kissed me and I could feel her burning from the inside out. Her chakra was too much for her younger underdeveloped body.

"You idiot," I gasped when she paused for breath. "You should have told me immediately."

"I had to be sure." She whispered and then there were tears and my mind must have shut down for a moment, because the next moment of awareness had me holding her close to me as I just took a moment to breath in her exquisite scents and I was using my blood to draw a temporary demon seal upon her flesh.

The demon seal was a seal I had created so that Sakura and Sasuke could draw upon my chakra in times of need. It allowed me to feed them the Kyuubi chakra without tainting their own chakra and they could use my chakra when their reserves started to run dry to prevent chakra exhaustion. I had to tweak it a bit before coming back so that instead it acted as a cycle, pouring chakra through the seal and into me and back through the seal and through their bodies again so that their coils could get used the sudden influx that would happen when we came back. Though a bit of my power would always flow through them, making them mine. Eventually they would be able to consciously draw upon my chakra when needed but for now the excess their bodies couldn't handle would go directly into me and burned up by the Kyuubi chakra and no one would ever be able to tell because my Chakra was always so out of control that any variance would be ignored by those that could feel chakra. Sometimes it was good to be me.

"I don't have the proper supplies for the permanent seal right now, you'll have to come by my place later tonight and I'll do it properly." I looked over at Sasuke and raised a brow. He rolled his eyes and closed them and opened them again. They were the final stages of the sharigan and it was the only proof I needed to know that he was back too. "Come here you idiot."

He huffed and sat next to me. In a rare moment of affection he leaned his head on my shoulder and closed his eyes, "Free me from Damnation, hogake-sama."

"You should have come to me immediately, both of you. I warned you that you guys could have burned your chakra coils out. Hell with the way the way you were burning up Sakura, you wouldn't have lasted much longer." I sighed as I made sure we were not being observed. Kakashi must have been in a meeting as I couldn't feel him nearby. "How long have you been back?"

Sakura closed her eyes, "I woke up at the end of the wave mission."

I ran my hand through her soft pink hair as I waited for Sasuke to answer. "Just since yesterday."

I was surprised I had not been the first one to wake, I should have been but that could have had something to do with the demon inside me. "Has anyone else woken up?"

"Not that we have been able to determine." Sakura answered as she watched me take off Sasuke's shoulder armor off and then draw the demon seal on his shoulder blade.

"These are only going to last about 16 hours. I'll need to get the materials for the permanent seals after we're done with this mission. You guys need to come by and we'll get it figured out. I'll check the rest of the group out to see if anyone else is showing signs of being back." I finished with the seal and put the armor back in place. They nodded and we finished the mission, revolving around each other as if we were each other's personal suns. Not letting the other out of their sight.

We were home.

Sakura-

The awakening was painful, but what was worse was the knowledge that no one else was back yet. I was alone, alone in a way that I had never been before. I woke the moment that Naruto released the Kyuubi energy on the bridge in wave. The chakra had actually helped with the pain, but I knew that I would not be able to use much of my chakra until Naruto woke. I had perfect control so I would be to use some of my chakra until he woke but I would have to be careful. I estimated I had about two weeks before my body would burn out from the sensory overload.

The travel back to Konoha was quiet. The boys weren't speaking to each other and Kakashi kept sending them concerned glances. I drank in the country side. It had been a long time since I had seen such lush greenery anywhere. Not even the forest had been green. We'd camped there for two months, preparing the seal that would lead us back into time. The forest had been soaked in our enemies' blood and green had been replaced by red and orange and sometimes black…that still made me squeamish. The world had been dying; there'd not been a lot of life left when Naruto hatched his brilliant but dangerous plan.

I wanted to kiss my boys senseless but it wasn't the right time. Naruto would take it the wrong way right now and Sasuke would attempt to incinerate me…I just had to wait. Luckily I didn't have to wait long. I knew that moment Sasuke woke, as his charka energy increased 100 fold and he was bollocks at controlling it. Tsunade would have to whip him into shape all over again. I smiled at that thought; Sasuke was going to be pissed when he realized he would have to do the chakra training all over again. Being careful not to use my chakra I ran to the Uchiha compound. Sasuke was on the ground in a fetal position breathing heavily. I wanted to rush over to him but I knew to give him time. So I waited. It seemed like it took a centaury but it was mere moments later when he looked at me, his eyes the red of the Eternal Mangekyo, I frowned. He shouldn't have had the eternal version as his eyes were theoretically still his own. We'd have to research that later.

I smiled at him in amusement, "Your chakra control fucking sucks."

He scowled, "You try to shove 100 times your normal chakra into a body that's not ready to handle it and see how well you do."

"I have." I said dryly.

He looked at me, "Ah. Fuck you."

"Don't temp me." I murmured as I lay down next to him. We resisted touching each other for a few moments before we were glued together. I buried my head into his chest and cried.

"Has Naruto come back?"

"Not yet."

"Has anyone else?"

"Not that I have been able to figure out. We'd know if Hinata or Ino were back." I laughed, "The whole fucking village would know if those two were back without Naruto to curb their more insane side."

"True." Sasuke sighed, "So Hogake-sama hasn't returned yet."

"No, but he should be back soon. We just have to wait a bit more."

"Yeah." He pulled me closer and we both drifted off clutching each other like a life line.

Sasuke-

Holding Sakura in my arms was like a breath of fresh air. It was odd being so young again but I wasn't too disappointed about it. Whereas I had been a broody bastard as a preteen and not much better until Naruto knocked some sense into me, these had been simpler times.

We would need to deal with Orochimaru and the chunin exams would give us the perfect cover, but it was Yakushi, Kabuto that needed to be obliterated. He had managed to survive for far too long and had contributed to the fall of Konoha by helping our enemies and taking over for Orochimaru after his death. He'd destroyed Ino's sanity and had tortured Neiji in an attempt to gather information but Neiji had bit his own tongue off so that he could not betray his Hogake. When I'd rescued them, Ino had been near death and Neiji had not been much better. Yakushi had taken his anger out on Neiji when he'd realized what Neiji had down to silence himself.

Hinata had gone berserk when she'd found me carrying them to their campsite. Hinata had lost her marbles after she'd lost her sister and then her son. Her unwaveringly loyalty had been focused solely on Naruto. She'd almost killed me before Naruto could vouch for me. I'd rescued Ino and Neiji and had tried to kill Kabuto but wasn't strong enough. That was when Tsunade had made me her student over Sakura. I had been stunned and so had everyone else, well everyone but Naruto. Naruto had always believed in me.

I sighed as I looked at Sakura's sleeping form. She looked so young. It made my heart ache at her youth. I couldn't help but to love her. She shifted in her sleep and my thoughts turned to Naruto. He hadn't given up and he'd once again done the impossible. He'd given us a fresh start. Maybe things would be worse or maybe they'd get better, but whatever the outcome we could change it.

I did feel bad about Kakashi; he was going to have a massive headache trying to figure out how the hell all of our personalities changed and the dynamics of the team shifted practically overnight. Naruto was our leader and we automatically defaulted to his judgment. It was our universal truth. The others would do the same once they were awake, because that was how we were wired now. There was also the fact that Naruto was very affectionate towards us. He loved to touch us and be near us and I never turned Naruto's affection down; it was like a drug, absolutely intoxicating. It wouldn't take Kakashi too long to put three and three together. It was sure to be an interesting conversation once he broached the subject.

Sakura shifted again and the morning sun broke the horizon, it would be time to meet up with him soon and hopefully Naruto would be Naruto.

Naruto-

I spent the afternoon reacquainting myself with Konoha. The weather was glorious and the civilians were so beautifully alive. Granted they still glared at me as if I was the devil reincarnate but I was okay with that. They were alive! That and I kind of was the devil reincarnate if you thought about it too deeply. In the past Kyuubi and I had more or less merged to one being, the Kyuubi within me now was a puppy compared to what we became and what I was now. That was going to be fun trying to explain to my god-father because he was going to realize the seal was very different from the original design and there would be hell to pay...I could only hope that Tsunade would be awake and back before that. Otherwise it was just going to be awkward.

I shook the internal musings away and looked out at my village from the top of my father's giant stone head and extended my enhanced senses and took it all in. I knew where each one of my people were, they didn't remember me yet but they would. Ino was in her family's flower shop, Shikamaru was cloud watching, Neiji was on the training field with his insane team and Hinata was walking this way. Tsunade was out there and I knew she would come back as soon as she was herself again. Sakura and Sasuke were testing each other by beating the ever loving hell out of one another. I smiled fondly at the quickly moving blurs I could just make out from my vantage point. They were worse than Sasuke and I had ever been as teens. Then again it was probably a substitute for sex…yeah that was probably it…oh the possibilities…

"Hey Naruto." A voice from behind me interrupted softly. I turned around and saw the woman that I would have married in another life time had it not been for circumstances that ruined her sanity and changed the love that she had felt for me to fanatical loyalty. That and Sakura and Sasuke were mine and they didn't share with anyone else by themselves.

"Hey Hinata, how are you?"

"I'm okay. The world shifted recently. Things have changed and they're not quite the same anymore." She smiled grimly, "You wouldn't happen to have had anything to do with that would you?"

I looked her over. She wasn't quite awake yet, but she was close. My loyal, fanatic Hinata was almost back. I would miss her innocence, but looked forward to her coming back to me. Besides our code words, had she been fully awake I knew she would be addressing me as Hogake-sama, Namikaze-sama, or Naruto-sama depending on how annoyed she was at the time. I smiled at her and she gave me a quirky grin back.

"Maybe, would you be upset over that?"

"Nah, things need to shift." She murmured as she moved close to me gazing upon the village as I did. She sighed, "I don't understand why you love them so much. They are nothing but vermin and so far beneath you that they shouldn't even be allowed to look upon you."

I put my arm around her shoulder and pulled her close. "Oh sweetie, you know why I love these people you just haven't remembered it all yet."

She sighed, "I suppose."

"When you have, make sure you come to me immediately. This is very important. Do you understand me?"

"Yes sir."

"Okay." I kissed her forehead. "I have to go meet my team. Remember your promise Hinata." She nodded and I started down the hill. It was imperative that she had the demon seal as soon as she awoke. She had been one of the few Hyugas who was extraordinarily gifted in ninjutsu and unfortunately her normally perfect control would be useless with the massive influx of chakra that would be coming to her and it was highly likely she would lose control and burn out her coils within an hour because her clan did not believe in teaching their youth jutsu beyond the basic three and chakra meditation.

It seemed that the seal had affected everyone differently. I should have awoken first and was not sure why I didn't. I was highly impressed with Sakura and how she was able to control it all without burning herself out. She must have been able to help Sasuke as well as he'd been bad but not as bad as Sakura was before I'd place the temporary seals upon them. Had Sasuke had to wait any longer, it would not have turned out well for him or anyone near him, the massive overload of chakra would have hurt anyone within a few hundred yards of him.

I had bought the ink, needles and silver bowl earlier. The only thing I had to do was mix my blood into the ink and once I had it tattooed into their skins, I would seal it with my chakra. It would connect me to them in such a way that they would be able to use my chakra in times of need and I would always know where they were. It didn't matter where they were, I would be able to locate them even if they were in the very depths of hell.

It didn't take me long to get back to my apartment. They were already waiting for me at my door. I smiled at them and they smiled back and I rushed them and we were through my door (I'd have to fix that later) in a pile on the floor. Among the splinters of my destroyed door, we just stayed there for a moment. Glad to be back in the presence of each other.

I kissed them both and they let me. They always did.

"You know, if you start doing that in public than people are going to talk." Sasuke murmured.

"Let them," Sakura shot back as she attempted to maneuver out from under me. I acquiesced to her silent request and got up and pulled the both of them up with me. "They're always going to have something to talk about, might as well give them the truth, its far more exciting."

"Perhaps," I murmured with a small smile as I sat out the supplies and grabbed a sharpened kunai. Without flinching I cut opened my wrist artery and let the blood flow into the silver bowl I'd bought solely for this occasion. I had to cut the vein a couple of times as the damn fur-ball kept healing me. "Hinata is starting to remember. Something is blocking the complete awakening though so I'm not sure exactly when she's going to be back completely so you'll have to help me watch for it. If she doesn't get a seal almost immediately she'll run the risk of being chakra blind and that wouldn't be a good thing for her."

"We'll make sure to watch out for it Hogake-sama." Sasuke said.

I rolled my eyes, "And another thing, make sure that you do not address me that way in public, we really don't want to get arrested by the ANBU and questioned over the fact that you all call me something that should be reserved for the leader of this village."

"Naruto you are our leader, we can't change that and we wouldn't even if it were possible, but we'll make sure to only call you that in private. Though you'll have to let Hinata know because you know she'll refuse." Sakura said as the both of them moved to the table and sat down.

"Yeah, we'll deal with that when it comes." I said with a frown thinking of the best way to do this. The table top would work. "Who wants to go first?"

"Do Sakura, she's been here the longest." Sasuke said as he leaned back.

She glared at him in annoyance and I took the opportunity to leer a bit as I asked her to jump on the table and take her dress off. I planned to place the tattoo over her heart. She rolled her eyes and took off the dress she was wearing. She was still young and not anywhere near as endowed as she would be, which would make tattooing her a lot easier than if she had larger breasts as I would be placing it right under her left bud. I was actually somewhat surprised to see she was wearing underwear as I know she stopped doing that at some point after the chunin exams as she claimed they were more of a hindrance than any kind of help. That and she enjoyed being nude. There had been several instances when she had just forgotten about her clothes completely. I didn't complain and I know Sasuke never said anything against it.

Shaking the thoughts from my head, I mixed the ink together with my blood and began. With a steady hand, I started the process of inking the seal under the first few layers of her skin. It didn't take too long and she didn't utter a word during the process. Once I'd finished I sealed it with the Kyuubi's demon chakra that was more mine that it's at this point. I kissed her forehead once I was done and she laid there for a few moments as she felt my power flow through her once again. She smiled and pulled me down for a proper kiss before murmuring. "Thank you."

"Anything for you," I murmured back to her as Sasuke took off his shirt and Sakura removed herself from the table top.

"You do know that if anyone comes by that broken down door right now, they would be asking a hell of a lot of questions." Sakura muttered as she took Sasuke's seat and he lay down on the table top.

"True, but that doesn't necessarily mean we would have to answer them." I said to her as I started on Sasuke's seal.

"Hmm, it'd be good for the old scarecrow to have his head messed with for once." Sasuke murmured as I put the finishing touches on his seal.

Sakura laughed, "Nah, it'd give him too many ideas."

"True." He murmured and then pulled me down for his own kiss. I happily complied as Sakura laughed.

I sat down and they looked at me. "So are we staying here or going to the compound?"

Sasuke and Sakura did that silent thing when they thought I was being stupid and then rolled their eyes at my question. "As if we'd let you stay in this hell hole a moment longer than necessary."

I smiled at them and Sakura took over, Sasuke had pretty much reached his word quota for the week, "I'll need to tell my parents that I'll be staying elsewhere but yeah just pack a bag and let's go home for a bit. We can worry about everything else tomorrow. I think the dignitaries start arriving tomorrow and we have some plans to make for the chunin exams."

"True. Let's go home."

\\\

We slept that night in a pile of blankets on the floor. We were too young to enjoy each other in the way we would have in the past…or rather the future…but we could still enjoy the comfort of being together. More importantly we could take comfort in each other without having to worry about the enemies hunting us down.

During the 2nd part of the exam we were going to annihilate Kabuto. Hinata would not be pleased as she had wanted her revenge against the bastard. He'd killed her child and had tortured Neiji near to death. Neiji had bit his own tongue out to avoid betraying us. He had snapped Ino's sanity so she had been useless to him. Everyone had thought that Orochimaru was the big bad wolf, but it had really been the bastard who had been able to manipulate every cell in his body to practically make himself immortal. We wouldn't make a move against Orochimaru until the finals. We'd only get one chance with him and that was when he would be preoccupied with the old man, I would let Hinata have him. She would be pleased with that.

Sakura would deal with Danzo during the invasion. She could make it look like an accident and I knew that she would be able to deal with him quickly and practically unseen. She had been the bloodless assassin because of her ability with medical ninjutsu. She had reversed engineered everything Kabuto had ever fought us with and made it her own and then improved it. Danzo wouldn't know what hit him. I would deal with Gaara before the invasion ever happened.

Gaara had been a great ally, but an even better friend, it had hurt when he'd died. Without the one-tailed within him he'd been more vulnerable. He'd not been able to recover from the mortal wound he'd received protecting his sister. His sister had then gone on to being the next Kazekage. She'd opened her borders to the rest of the Konoha survivors.

I would be able to help him in a way I'd not been able to before. Shukaku was insane but he'd been weary of the Kyuubi and I would make him terrified of me. It would give me the change to fix the damn seal and give Gaara a better control of his ever slipping sanity.

After the first part of the exam was over, we would figure out what to do from there. A lot was riding on whether or not Tsunade was awake or not. If she arrived it town before the finals, then we would know and we would make new plans.

\\\\

Kakashi-

I started shadowing Naruto the moment I noticed the dynamics of my team shifted. The tension that was always palpable between Sasuke and Naruto was gone. There was an unusual subservience to Sasuke now that I had never seen before. It was unsettling and I was concerned.

Sakura no longer constantly tried to bash Naruto's head in; instead she leaned into every touch and returned every smile. Sasuke wasn't as obvious, but he didn't turn down the attention that Naruto fed his way. It wouldn't be long before the other shinobi started to notice and if it got back to the council something drastic would be done.

I had been against the structure of this team from the beginning; I had done everything in my power to stop it, but I had been instructed that it didn't matter; I would pass them regardless of the results of their final genin exam. I had not been pleased over these orders and had such been trying to figure out ways against them.

The team had been created to purposely derail the growth of Naruto. They didn't care if Sakura, a genin from a civilian family, survived. To them she was a no-body even if she had been one of the smartest girls in her class. She may have had perfect chakra control, but she had very little actual chakra…which to the council meant she was practically worthless. After all, what good was control if you didn't have firepower to back it up? They wanted Sasuke to find a way to develop the last level of the sharigan and had informed me it was my duty to make sure it happened. They would prefer that Naruto died in Sasuke's progress and the Kyuubi die with him, but they didn't realize that was not the way it worked. My sensei, Naruto's father had made sure that the Kyuubi would sustain Naruto through hell and high water and it would take far more than a mortal wound to kill him. I needed to find a way for him to get the training he needed. He was a power house, which didn't happen often. If he had the appropriate training he could be unstoppable.

The damn council seemed to have forgotten that Naruto was Minato's son, but more importantly he was Kushina's kid. Minato had been an absolute genius with seals and had had a few great tricks that he had perfected when added together he'd been a nearly unstoppable killing machine. Kushina had been a powerhouse the likes that no one had ever seen before. She could throw high cost chakra techniques around like it was nothing. It had been fascinating watching her in battle, but when Minato and Kushina fought together…they were unstoppable. I saw the potential within Naruto and I wanted to see that develop but I wasn't allowed to and it pissed me off.

But now everything was different. I had watched my genin for the last couple of weeks. I had noticed a change in Sakura first. It had been subtle, just a small shift, but it was hard to hide from me. She made an admirable effort though. She had real potential for uncover work. I was actually rather proud. She also wasn't using anything but the bare minimum amount of chakra, mostly sticking to physical moves. I didn't have a problem with that, it would help her with her rather week taijutsu (which wasn't as weak as it had been), but I did have a problem with the way she was acting towards the boys. People don't just shift their entire personality in a day and she had and then after about a week the boys did too. Then Sasuke's chakra control went to shit and his chakra reserves increased too quickly over too short a period. I was actually surprised that no one else noticed…maybe it was because I was around them everyday…I don't know but I wasn't going to say anything to the Hogake until I knew for sure what was going on because if I told the Hogake, the council would know and then we'd have a real problem on our hand. I just hoped that I wouldn't get accused of treason over it all, but the kids were my responsibility and I would do what I could to make sure that they survived.

In the end I decided to shadow Naruto over Sasuke or Sakura because he had to most alarming change. What I found just had me more confused. Little more than a week after we got back from Wave, the team was living together. Furthermore they were living together at the Uchiha compound. I'm not sure how Sakura managed to talk her parents into that or maybe they didn't know, but they were living together, living together as if they had been for years. They had the seamless teamwork that only came from being teammates for years possibly decades, not the mere months that they had been forced together for. The tension that was always so thick in the air between Sasuke and Naruto was gone, as if it had never existed in the first place. It was puzzling and well quite impossible.

The sparing I had them do was more like an exotic dance between the three of them. They knew each queue that the other threw and they were amazing. If they were just a bit older I would swear that they were using the sparing in place of foreplay…but they were still just kids on the cusp of adulthood.

I felt Gai's presence before he spoke. "Your kids are certainly something else my eternal rival."

"Hmm."

"In fact, if I didn't know better I would swear I was seeing the past come back to life."

I looked at him sharply. He was sometimes far too intelligent for his own good. "Hn."

"You know the fact that you are not speaking, suggests you see what I see and if I can see it than you know the council will be able to see it too. I suggest you do something about it before it becomes an issue, because that," He pointed to where Naruto was now watching Sakura and Sasuke fight each other as if they were born to do it, with a proud smile, "is a leader watching his two generals train. He's going to lead this village to a new age, but the question we need to ask, is whether or not it's going to be an age that we will survive."

I looked at him and raised my only visible brow, "A leader?"

"Yes, but is it Kushina or Minato? Because I remember what Kushina was like and frankly if Naruto is as much like his mother as everyone always claims, then we are in a hell of a lot of trouble. If he's like his father, than there may be hope."

I laughed, "What if he's a perfect mixture."

"Then I weep because he has the Kyuubi within him."

"Yeah…"

"Your kids are going to absolutely destroy the competition."

I looked at Gai but didn't say anything. There was nothing more to say. The exam started tomorrow which would give me a bit of time before anyone else noticed the oddness about them. Gai finally left and I continued to watch the children. I wasn't worried about him going to the Hogake; he would let me decide on what path I needed to take. He still considered me his superior and for the moment that worked in my favor. People didn't give Gai enough credit, he was an odd duck, but most of Konoha elite were insane or just plain weird. Gai saw the world in a way that most ignored. He was right though, they would destroy anyone who came their way.

I sighed, I did have to go the tower and put in my team for the chunin exams, I had the feeling that if I forgot I'd get the ire of my team turned my way and with them not being quite themselves I wasn't sure what to expect.

I arrived at the tower in a blink of eye and the other Jounin were already there. The Hogake turned an exasperated look my way I gave a sheepish look.

"As I was saying, the chunin exams are being held in Konoha this year. We want to put on a good show. The rookies this year seem to be rather promising and this will give them a change to grow in a somewhat safer environment than if the exams were in a different village." What left unsaid was that the nine-tailed vessel would not be allowed to leave. I kept my face expressionless as the talk continued and the Jounin instructors put their team forward or declined.

"Kakashi?"

"I believe my team will put on a good show."

"Are they ready?" Kurenai asked.

"Are your kids?"

She frowned, "They'll be fine."

"So will mine." I wanted to say more but the Hogake called us to order. We went over a few unimportant details and I left before I could be called to stay. I knew he was suspicious but I didn't know if I could trust him at the moment. My loyalties were changing and I didn't know how to feel about that.

\\\\

Kakashi-

I continued to shadow Naruto into the night and I found him and Sakura and Sasuke with three of the Sunagakure competitors. I took a closer look at them and saw that they appeared to be the children of the Kazekage. I sighed…my genin really couldn't keep out of trouble.

There seemed to be some trouble brewing and I was about to step in to diffuse the situation when Naruto said a couple of things that I couldn't quite make out and the two older Suna kids stepped back in confusion while the younger one just got more upset. Naruto smiled at him and then said "I'm sorry about this." And then he kidnapped the dignitary. I wanted to groan but attempted to pick up his trail.

It took a little while, but I found him. He was on the rooftop of his old apartment building talking to the kid.

"…is not your mother." Naruto was saying.

"How do you know?"

"I'm like you, but the one who place the seal on me knew exactly what he was doing. Whoever placed the seal on you didn't know his way out of a fucking paper bag. Its complete crap. It's no wonder you're completely insane. I would be too if I have a 4-point seal when the ichibi or Shukaku needs at least a 7 because of its ability to manipulate the desert. "

"How do you know this?"

Naruto smiled as he clutched the kid closer to him and the kid let him. From reports we'd received about the Jinchuriki he was little more than a crazed sociopath that did not allow anyone to touch him. I wondered how Naruto did it, made people fall in love with him, follow him without question, and even change their very loyalties that they'd held all their lives. It was unsettling.

I missed what he said and tried to pay closer attention. My thoughts were running away from me and I needed to focus.

"I am going to help you sleep and then once you have a full nights rest, I am going to have you ask your question again and I will answer then."

"I can't sleep, mother will take over."

"Don't worry kid; Shukaku is far more afraid of me than you are afraid of it. It will be fine. Sleep now." Naruto murmured as he moved a thumb over the kid's forehead. I saw a flash of seal activating and then Naruto was hefting him up over his shoulder. He looked to where I was hiding and gave me a small nod. It looks like he had known he'd had a shadow for the last several days.

I sighed and nodded back. Looks like I was going to have to have a talk with my kids sooner rather than later.

\\\\

Sasuke-

Sakura and I were waiting for our idiotic leader to get back to where ever he had stolen Gaara to. Sometimes he didn't think things through the whole way and left us to deal with the fall-out. We had to…well it mostly Sakura, but we had to placate Gaara's brother and sister and then lead them to our house. Sakura tried to placate them and I just watched her. She was the one with the bedside manner, not me. Eventually Sakura got annoyed enough that she just told us that if we wanted something to eat, we could scavenge the kitchen but she was going to take a bath.

I watched her leave the room with a small smile and then my face went expressionless once again. Temari and Kankuro sat watching me in silence and did not move and I did not talk. So we waited, in some rather awkward silence as night fell.

I could hear the sounds of Sakura bathing when Naruto showed up with a sleeping Gaara in tow, which had Temari panicking and shouting loudly that we'd all made a big mistake. Naruto turned a glare her way and a shiver went down my spine. I'd not seen that look of such intense dislike and command in a long while. It was a turn on. I wanted to smile but kept my face expressionless.

"Your brother is fine; I just made it possible for him to have a good night's rest. We'll have things to discuss in the morning. Right now we are about to have a guest, so you guys can sleep here if you'd like or you can sleep where you were assigned. Gaara stays here because I can control the ichibi if needed." Naruto said.

For a moment nothing was said and then Temari loosened her stance in a defeated way and said ok. Kankuro went back to his assigned sleeping place. Naruto placed Gaara in the guest room and I sat a cot up for Temari.

After awhile I asked "Guest?"

"Yeah, Kakashi has been shadowing us for the last few days and saw me tonight and I more or less told him to come over."

"What are you going to tell him? We can't exactly tell him the truth. He would never believe it."

"I thought I'd show it to him."

"How? It's not like we have Ino that could have guided a memory walk."

"A seal," Naruto smiled a smile that could undo me every time. The smile he gave me right before he kissed me senseless, which he leaned over to do and a knock upon the front door interrupted us.

"I'm going to kill him." I hissed as Naruto laughed and gave me a quick kiss.

"We need him."

"Such a pity."

Naruto laughed again and went over to the front door. Kakashi was standing there looking at the two us with suspension. "Hey sensei, I'm sure you have some questions."

"Are you actually going to give me answers?"

"How about a trade of information?" Sakura's voice said from the entry way. We looked over at her and I saw Kakashi blanch from the corner of my eye and it confused me for a moment before I realized that Sakura had gone her usual route and forgone the clothes.

"Sakura," Kakashi said in a high slightly strangled voice.

"Yes sensei?" She asked.

"Can you put some clothes on?"

She looked down at herself. "Goddamn it boys! Why didn't you say something before I walked into the room?"

"Ne, Sakura-chan you look lovely."

"Can it Naruto. I'll be right back."

Naruto laughed and I rolled my eyes, business as usual.

\\\\

Naruto

I leaned in to kiss Sasuke and there was a knock at the door. I laughed when Sasuke muttered his desire to kill our dear sensei. I gave him a quick kiss and opened the door to let him in. He gave us a suspicious look and I gave a sheepish smile as I waved him in. Sasuke glared at him, still sore over the interruption.

"Hey sensei, I'm sure you have questions."

"Are you actually going to give me answers?" He shot to me.

Before I could answer, Sakura's voice drifted into the room. "How about a trade of information?" The three of us turned to her and I drank in her glorious form. I smiled and then remembered that we had company and I turned to Kakashi. He looked a bit pale.

"Sakura," Kakashi said in a high slightly strangled voice. Huh I didn't know his voice could go that high.

"Yes sensei?" She asked sweetly. She truly was a glorious vision.

"Can you put some clothes on?"

She looked puzzled and then looked down at herself, "Goddamn it boys! Why didn't you say something before I walked into the room?"

I smiled at her, "Ne, Sakura-chan you look lovely." There was no use telling her that we wouldn't have noticed in the first place. She'd just slap us.

She huffed, "Can it Naruto. I'll be right back."

"Is that a usual occurrence?" Kakashi asked.

"Only when she's home or drunk," Sasuke answered. "Naruto mentioned that you've been shadowing him. Why?"

I looked at Kakashi, even though I was fairly certain I knew the answer, I was curious as to what he would say.

"Let's wait for Sakura to come back and we'll go from there."

Sasuke hmmed and continued to quietly sulk. I would have still kissed him senseless regardless of the company but I didn't want to push Kakashi too far yet. There was a lot that we needed to go over, so I pushed Sasuke over and sat down on the couch next to him. "You can take a seat, we won't bite."

"I'm beginning to wonder." Kakashi muttered.

"Now Kakashi-sensei, no need to worry, we don't really share." Sakura said as she walked in wearing one of her favorite red dresses and then sat on my other side. "So what has you worried enough that you are shadowing us?"

Kakashi looked at us, assessing and dismissing and then reassessing. "Gai came up to me and pointed out a couple of things and if he's noticed than soon enough other people will notice and if the council gets involved then we're going to be in a hell of a lot of trouble.

"You kids haven't been acting like yourself and that's causing me concern. Sakura a couple weeks ago you were nothing more than a fan girl that had little hope of even surviving the chunin exams let alone pass them. Sasuke you were on the fast track to becoming a traitor." I was about to say something in his defense but he held his hand up, "Ne, I'm not finished yet. The council wanted you to activate the sharigan…which you did in Wave…and then I was to push you until you activated the more advanced levels. If I were to rebel, actions were to be taken against me…so I haven't done much of anything one way or the other."

"We know." Sasuke muttered dryly. I punched him lightly on the shoulder and Kakashi continued.

"Naruto, frankly your development was purposely delayed so that you would stay an idiot. The council doesn't want you to be anything but a mindless drone and frankly they would love to see you and the Kyuubi 6 feet under. In the last week your chakra control has sky-rocketed as quickly as Sasuke's unraveled. You are far more intelligent than you were and when you three spar, it's like watching the elite. You also understood the ANBU call sign that you shouldn't have known yet. I need to know what has happened, how it has happened and what the hell I need to do to cover your asses because you are my team and I won't fail you."

I sat there a bit stunned at the last bit. In the past Kakashi had not been as forward with his allegiance to his ideas of 'team'. I wondered what changed.

"So how are we going to do this Naruto?" Sakura asked as she looked at me curiously wondering what I had up my nonexistent sleeves. I grinned at her. "Well fuck, I'll get your tools." She huffed as she sat up muttering about how much easier this would be if we had Ino with us.

"Ino?" Kakashi asked.

"We'll get to that." I pursed my lips thinking how to start. Sakura handed me my box which had several specially prepared inks that I could use for a number of seals. I tapped the box in thought and Kakashi looked at it and his eyes widened as he realized what it was or rather whose it was. I gave him one of my more dangerous grins, one that had had enemies backing up in fear and allies wondering what I had planned. "So I guess I should start by saying that I know that my birth name is Namikaze Naruto and my parents were Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato. The 4th Hogake, my father, put the Kyuubi in me. I know very little about what actually went on, I know that my mother was against the plan but that's all I know of that part of it. I know the Third has attempted to protect me from the council but that protection only goes so far."

Kakashi was starting at me, mouth agape beneath his mask. I waited to see if he was going to say anything but he didn't so I continued. "It's going to be hard to explain everything. I can tell you the truth, but you wouldn't believe it. You'd think it was only a story. It would be easier if we had Ino, because then she could show what you'd need to know, instead we have my seals. I am a seal grandmaster. I am going to draw a scrying seal upon your forehead and then I am going to transfer you an information burst. You are going to get a migraine from it and its going to be confusing, you may not get the information in the correct order because I am not a Yamanaka and do not have the training to really do this. It's more theory than anything, but it is sound theory and I am confident I can do it."

"What?"

Sasuke took pity or something because he started to speak, "Hogake-sama is speaking the truth." Kakashi gave him a sharp look. "Yeah you heard me right. I know it is treason but if you allow Naruto to place the seal you will understand."

"We are far older than we look and we have seen horrors that you can't even imagine." Sakura said and cut Kakashi off before he could say anything. "No, we understand that you survived two wars, but we survived the end of all. We were some of the last shinobi…hell some of the last people left. We watched our village get razed to the ground, nothing was left but ash. We watched everyone we loved or care about die. " Sakura trailed off.

"Kakashi-sensei, we lost more than we care to remember. We came back so that we could have a chance of making things better. We don't know if it will work, but it's got to better than it was."

Kakashi looked at me, "Tell me something only I would know that you couldn't possibly know right now."

I didn't want to say it because I knew it would cut deep, especially once he learned the truth, but it was the only thing I could think of, "Everyone assumed you were in love with Rin, but it was Obito that stole your heart and you didn't know what to do about it and then he died and you threw yourself into training before becoming ANBU." Kakashi closed his eyes in sorrow.

"When did I tell you this?"

"My 21st birthday…you didn't make it to see my next."

"Ah. Okay, let's say I believe you, how does this work?"

"I use this," I opened the box and took out a vial that held a silver vial, "to place the seal. I will then activate the seal and you will most likely pass out. There will probably be pain, it might even feel like your head is splitting open, but we will be here and you will be fine. Both Sakura and Sasuke are trained medics. So if one of them can't figure it out the other will." I looked at with a serious expression, "Shall we begin?"

Kakashi nodded. I got up from the couch and walked to where he was sitting. I used the silver melted ink that had a touch of my blood in it to place the seal. I looked at the seal to make sure everything was correct and then looked at him with a blank expression, "What I am doing is basically throwing a ball of memories at you. The memories are going to be scattered and most likely not in a linear order. The point of view is going to be mine, which is not going to be easy for your mind to understand completely."

"Why?"

"Kakashi-sensei I am not human." I told him simply and before he could react I activated the seal. He passed out and slumped to the floor.

"That wasn't very nice."

"Meh, come here you bastard and help me place him on the couch."

"Hn." Sasuke said as Sakura pushed him off the couch. In little to no time we got him on the couch. All we could do now was wait.

\\\\

I was chained to the wall. Blood draining into the ground to keep me weak which was only strengthened by the fact that the chains sealed chakra, I could barely open my eyes at the moment. I don't even know how they captured me but I knew that it hadn't been easy…the fur ball was strangely silent. For the first time in a long time I was worried.

The chunin exams were a whirlwind. The questions confusing and people were laughing at me again. I let it brush off because I was with my team and that was all that mattered.

Sasuke was at the gates threatening to burn the whole village to the ground if the council didn't come clean. I was pleased to see him but so very confused as to what was going on. The fur ball was laughing at the chaos saying something about how the Uchiha was going to burn the village to the ground and there was nothing to be done about it.

I didn't want to believe it, but he did make a good effort of it. The council was dead and baa-chan was pissed. I think she was about to burn the place to the ground herself. I had never seen her so mad. Sakura was pacing restlessly and just looking at me with pity.

I asked what was going on and Tsunade looked me.

She told me that my mother had survived the Kyuubi attack all those years ago and had been imprisoned within the ANBU tower. The very tower that had been destroyed in the chunin exams during Orochimaru's attack. Said tower had been rebuilt but no one knew why it had crumbled. We did now. Kushina had destroyed it, killing herself in the process.

It was a pity that Sasuke had murdered the council. After that bombshell I wanted my own crack at them. Then we found out that they had ordered Itachi to slaughter his clan and he had done it but only so he could save his brother. They had made sure that my training was sabotaged and if wasn't for my god-father I would have still had the mentality of a pre-teen.

There was anger, so much anger and Kurama just laughed.

I was dying, it was okay. I was okay with that. I was sad to leave them but they still had each other.

"Get away you monster." Someone threw rotten vegetables at me…I was young…I didn't understand. I had only wanted some of the sweet ice that the man had given the other kids.

I cried as I ran away and someone pushed me into a vendor stall. I curled into a bawl expecting the slap that never came. Instead a young girl was looking at me.

"Papa, we have a customer!" man did she have a set of lungs on her.

My eyes widened as the large man came forward. He peered at me and after a moment nodded to himself, "right, one miso on the house. Get the rascal a table."

I had passed the first part of the exams on a technicality. Sakura-chan did not but the bastard did with flying colors. Sensei took him for training and once again I was left behind. Why am I always left behind?

Pain, my world was pain, excruciating pain. Was I being tortured or saved? I cursed Kurama for whatever he was doing. I was dying…at least previously I was just tired. Fucking hell oblivion would be kinder at this point. The torture hadn't even been this bad.

Konoha would recover. Sasuke had only burned a few things to the ground. Sakura and I had helped. We got drunk that night. So fucking drunk. It was not a surprise when we were found the next morning in one bed…naked…bloody and completely debauched…

Sasuke came back to us. Konoha was razed to the ground and there were only a few of us left. Two of our number had been captured by that bastard and there was nothing I could do about it and then the bastard came back with Neiji and Ino on his back.

I thought Hinata was going to kill him and I just thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. We were injured, broken and homeless but we had each other.

Kurama had been right.

Ramen was the nectar of life and these people reminded me that my village was beautiful so I would continue to smile and ignore the voice in my mind that would attempt to seduce me to let go and let the village drown in its own blood.

Looking at the stars I wondered what it would have been like to know my mother. I would never know now. It was a hollow despair knowing that I could have known her and had it been taken from me so cruelly.

Sasuke came up to the roof and sat down next to me. No words were spoken and he gave me the sake bottle. We drank and then he pounced on me or maybe it was I who made the first move but we were kissing desperately and I was clawing at his clothes. We fell through the roof and landed with an oomph barely pausing.

I turned him over so that I was the one on top and saw Sakura looking at us from the corner of my eye and I made a come-hither motion. She didn't hesitate as she pulled my head back and kissed me as Sasuke found the ties to my pants.

Sasuke tasted like ash and tomatoes while Sakura tasted of blood and honey. They were mine and the fur-ball approved.

Demon chakra bled through but it did not burn them. My chakra would never burn them.

We fucked, we had sex, we mauled each other, we drank, we did it all and in the morning when Tsunade came to our door, she just laughed.

"We will die like this. Both of us, but if I do this, you must promise to make sure you destroy those who dared to caged my brothers and sisters. The ones who dishonored my father's legacy by doing what he forbade."

"I will. They will burn for thinking they could stop us."

"Then boy, I bequeath you my power."

I screamed.

God-father, he was my god-father? Why wasn't he here?

There were days when I wanted to let go. To give into the voice and rip out their throats. She stopped me. Purple eyes and a gentle soul. A small kiss, thanking me.

Hinata holding her blood soaked child, screaming to the heavens. Neiji no-where to be found. Red filled my vision and I let go. I let go for her.

Sasuke left. Sakura cried in my arms.

Red haze covered everything. The enemies were near…a smile…there will be no quarter left…death...fighting…pack safe…destruction…seal ready…blood

I took to seals like a house on fire. I was good at them but I also blew a shit load of stuff up. Jiraiya had been drunk when giving me my father's diary, otherwise I probably wouldn't have gotten it. The very first seal exploded spectacularly letting recon know where we were and taking them out at the same time. He called me an idiot savant…I looked up the definition and made sure that the second seal was perfect. He never made a crack at my ability again.

I walked into the room and walked right back out, seeing more of Hinata and Neiji than I had ever wanted to.

Hinata cursed and chased after me.

She stopped, "Naruto-sama it's not exactly what it looks like."

I rubbed my head, "Aye, I don't care you know that." I really didn't…I mean from had been explained to me they were technically brother and sister because their father's had been identical twins.

"My aunt and uncle lied about Neiji's father…we're cousins."

"Hey I'm not judging…I mean…really you know who shares my bed…I have no reason to judge." Wait…"Cousins?"

She laughed, "Yeah, Sakura did the genetic test to make sure but apparently my uncle couldn't have children because of an injury he received on active duty and they still wanted kids so they had a friend help them out…I'm not going into detail…but yeah Neiji is still Hyuga by blood but not directly related. Oh and I'm pregnant."

Shika took Ino and Hinata took her husband while Sakura and I went to Sasuke. Sakura checked him over while Tsunade checked on Neiji and Ino. Sasuke waved her off and she slapped him upside the head before kissing him and rushing over to help Tsunade with Ino and Neiji.

"What happened?"

"I was searching for Kabuto, I didn't know he had taken them. I wasn't able to kill the bastard but I got fairly close. I did basic field work on Neiji but Ino has been out since before I grabbed them."

Red covered my vision as the demon within started to come to the surface. Sasuke looked at me oddly before asking, "What happened to the Kyuubi?" The question was loud enough to where all of my people looked over at us.

"Hogake-sama?" Hinata asked as Tsunade continued to work on Ino and Sakura on Neiji.

The rage was still at the surface but I answered calmly knowing that it would work them into a frenzy. "When I disappeared for week I had actually been captured by Obito and his band on followers. They were trying to get the nine-tails out of me and nearly succeeded but it was killing both of us. Kurama decided he wasn't going to be defeated so he gave up his life for mine. He allowed himself to merge into my chakra and body, releasing his consciousness and allowing me access to his memories and every last bit of his chakra. Let's just say it was painful." I sighed, "When I came to the whole damn village was destroyed and I was at the epicenter. So the fur-ball is no longer here. I am no longer human and I have more chakra than I know what to deal with."

"Oh."

"Yeah and unfortunately it came too late to do anything for our village or our people."

The traitor came back and decimated the entire Hyuga clan. Blood covered the grown and my lovely Hinata was clutching the small body of her child. She was looking straight ahead until she saw me. I felt the moment her sanity snapped and Red covered my vision and hatred filled my heart.

That bastard would pay for it.

Tsunade and I stood up on stage. There were tears in her eyes. I've never seen her look so proud of me. Sakura was standing to my right. The only one missing was the bastard. For a moment I was distracted by a shadow and I smiled…he was here after all.

"I present to you the Sixth Hogake-Naruto Uzumaki." A great cheer and Tsunade passed on her hat.

Neiji would be fine. Sasuke got to him in time. Ino would never be the same again. We patched her together the best we could but she would never be sane. We tied her loyalty to me and everything else to Shikamaru to keep her in the present and as functional as possible.

Drinking…wondering how things could have been…fiddling with seals and coming up with ideals…more drinking…fucking…Sakura and Sasuke laughing and telling me they had faith in me…coming up with the seal that would require a great sacrifice…agreement…success…

Kakashi-

"I think he's waking back up." One of my students murmured. I think it was Sakura. Oh my god. The memories had been too scattered and were floating around and I couldn't make sense of them. It felt like I had a drinking contest with Anko. What the ever loving fuck?

I groaned as Naruto laughed. Little bastard.

"I'm assuming you have questions. Let Sasuke look at you to make sure I didn't do any permanent damage and we'll have a sit down and I'll do my best to explain."

"I thought Sakura was the medic?"

"Aye she is, but she's our field medic. Sasuke is the one we trust to work with the inner workings of the human body because of his sharigan. Since Ino can't be here to check your mind, Sasuke will be able to make sure I didn't damage anything and fix the chakra drain that your eye causes." Naruto explained as I held my hands to my face as if it could relieve the pounding in my head.

Sasuke stood in front of me and moved my hands to place his on either side of my face, "I need you to look at me with both eyes, Kakashi-sensei." I looked at my student and saw an unfamiliar face. My eyes not really focusing but it didn't matter as the next moment I was plunged into a genjutsu. I looked around and saw nothing but darkness and my student was sitting cross-legged with his eyes closed.

"What are you doing?"

"Looking at the pathways that were burned and making sure that your mind can handle the information download."

"Is this similar to what you guys went through?"

"No, we had to concern ourselves with the chakra. Our minds were already our own. Naruto essentially bulldozed a path directly into your mind and bombed it with memories. He's the only one who could do that in the way he did because of who and what he is. Sakura and I wouldn't be able to."

"So what's the verdict?" I asked after waiting what seemed like hours but was likely only minutes.

"It's scrambled but you'll be fine. You might have a constant headache for the next week or so as your neuropath ways adapt but you'll be fine. I'm actually impressed he didn't do more damage." Sasuke said. He sighed and I raised a brow. "I still can't believe that you wear a mask even in your own mind."

"Identity is important."

"Hn."

"What are you checking now?"

"I am fixing the ocular nerve endings that your former teammate butchered almost beyond repair. Once I have finished, I will then rewire the chakra pathways and blend them together with yours, which is something that one of my clan members should have done when you came back into the village. The procedure was fairly common when the Uchiha were still alive.

"They must have been rather pissed that someone outside of the clan had an eye. I'm actually surprised that Rin didn't transplant both eyes."

"I wouldn't let her. I didn't want to rob Obito in his death."

My student laughed in bitterness and a memory of Naruto's surfaced as he muttered, "You should have."

"Wait a minute, Obito is alive?"

"Hmm, yeah. The bastard is going around as a dead man at the moment. He sometimes goes by Tobi and other times as Madera."

"What?"

"Do you know who the Akatsuki are?"

"No."

"Ah so when Jiraiya comes back he must give the Third the information on the threat to the tailed demons."

A sudden thought, "You realize it is treason to give your loyalty to a leader who is not in charge."

Sasuke smiled, "Hmm, perhaps but he has been our Hogake far longer than the Third was and when the others are awake they will follow him because we trust him. You will follow him too. He is the flame and we are but the moths that circle around him, completely entranced by his flame."

I looked at him in disbelief but before I could inquire further he got up and said, "It's time to wake up."

\\\

Naruto-

It didn't take long for Sasuke to finish putting Kakashi-sensei back together. Once he opened his eyes he nodded to let me know it was finished and I settled down as Kakashi composed himself.

It didn't take long before he was staring at the three of us in quiet contemplation. We were silent, waiting for him to speak.

"That was a lot of information, what was the purpose?"

"Ah, straight to the heart of the matter," I murmured. "I needed you to believe what we said was true so I gave you several of my most significant memories. Memories that would help you understand."

"Yeah a few of those I could have done without. Honestly I did not need to see the three of you having sex that many times..." Kakashi trailed off as Sasuke hit me upside the head.

"Really Naruto? What the hell."

"Hey, they're part of my memories, some of my most important ones. I couldn't help it."

"I had actually expected that of Sakura. Not yourself." Kakashi murmured.

I laughed, "Trust me; Sasuke is not the brooding bastard he once was and occasionally reminds us that he is human. It's the little things."

"I'm not even going to open that can of worms." Kakashi responded. He sighed, "Okay, so I'm going to need you to explain some things. The most important thing is the Kyuubi. I need you to explain to me what the situation is with it. I need to make sure that there is not a problem. I need to know that if I'm going to be committing that the safety of the village is assured."

"Ah, that's probably the easiest question to answer. You saw that I was captured and tortured and left to die as they attempted to extract the Kyuubi from me. Kurama took offense to their presumptions and offered me another option. We had never really been on good terms, but during that time we came to an understanding and he sacrificed himself so that I could get the revenge he desired. It was nothing more than a business transaction. The merging was far more painful than the attempted extraction." I laughed bitterly, "The bastard laughed as he released his energy into me. I have the feeling he knew what the end result would be."

I looked Kakashi in the eye as I explained, "The result of the merging was simple-my chakra pathways were burned and reformed, my blood is acidic and my body may look human but it no longer is." I explained, giving him the simplified version.

He frowned, "What about the Kyuubi within you now? Has it merged into you?"

I blanched at the thought, "Oh god I hope not. The fur-ball's asleep." I raised my shirt so he could see the seal.

He gave a soft whistle, "That is not the original seal."

"No, it evolved. My father was quite brilliant and knew exactly what he was doing when he sealed the Kyuubi into me. His plan was for my body to eventually absorb all of Kurama's chakra and he would then die when I die a natural death. It's why I was always so damn hard to kill. However because of the merging and coming back to the past the seal changed along with it." I sighed at Kakashi's inquisitive look, "We are going to have an issue because when Jiraiya comes back, he is going to insist on looking it over after what happened in Wave and if he does that we'll find ourselves in front of the old man which is something none of us right now. Jiji is a war general; he is always going to be so. He's not going to understand what we are doing."

"Do you plan on telling him?" Kakashi asked when I went quiet.

"It depends on whether or not he had anything to do with my mother being imprisoned." I said coldly. I had loved the old man once and I still did after a fashion but if he had anything to do with the imprisonment of my mother, that love would be buried under several layers of rage and I don't know what I would do.

"Yes please explain that."

Sasuke took over for me as I still got angry when speaking about it, "After I killed the council and Tsunade-sama had it sanctioned retroactively, we found papers that had been classified and stashed in Danzo's office. In them we found a redacted file for Kushina Uzumaki. The file itself had very little information. It was her registration number, birth date and some odds and ends about her ability with the chakra chain. But the file let us know that she had survived Hogake-sama's birth." Sasuke always gets formal when he is annoyed or feeling protective. "By the time we learned where she had been locked away, the original tower had been destroyed and we searched for her in the new tower and learned that it was most likely her that collapsed it. We believe that she collapsed it herself and was killed in destruction of the tower. After we found out about her survival and subsequent death that was only a few years before we got very, very drunk and I'm sure Naruto showed you that memory." Sasuke stayed, "I stayed in the village for two weeks after I killed the council." I grabbed his hand in response to what I knew he was going to say next and Sakura grabbed my hand.

"My biggest regret in everything I have ever done was that I left them afterwards and I didn't come back until I returned Ino and Neiji to their Hogake. This was ten years after the fall of Konoha and we were scrambling to pick up the pieces."

"I'm going to stop you there," Kakashi interrupted before Sasuke could continue. "I do want to know all of that, but there are a couple of things that we need to clear up before I start committing treason. First off; Naruto what was that look earlier when I asked if the Kyuubi was going to merge with you?"

"Ah, yes that was me not wanting to think about what could happen if the younger version of the Kyuubi merged with my already very overflowing chakra coils. Let's just say it would be very bad and leave it at that for now. Next question."

Kakashi didn't look happy but didn't press the issue. "Okay, we will revisit that later and you will explain. I need to know who is coming back or waking up. Who is going to be following you Naruto?"

I sighed, "That's where it gets more complicated. I should have been the first to come back, but I wasn't. Sakura was followed by Sasuke. Hinata is halfway here; something seems to be holding her back. As soon as she is back, she is going to need the demon seal ASAP. Her body will not be able to sustain her chakra at all. She will have minutes."

"What do you mean?"

"The Hyuga do not teach their children how to develop their chakra coils when they are young. Most never learn more than the basic three you learn in the academy. They spend all their time developing their family taijutsu techniques and neglect the other areas." I sighed. "After Hinata went as far as she could with the family techniques and then she branched out. The short of it is that she has about 1000 times more chakra than she did as a child and at the moment she has an underdeveloped chakra system. Shove that much chakra into a body not ready for it you have a ticking time bomb that will go off at any moment. She would not survive and anyone within a 100 foot radius would end up dead or wounded. I hope to avoid that."

"Ah."

"Neiji will be trickier because of the seal, but I have a plan for that. Tsunade will be back when she remembers. I'm not worried about her like I am the others as she's an adult and will be able to handle herself." I looked at him. "Ino and Shika are going to be the interesting ones. Shika can't remember unless Ino does and Ino won't remember unless Shika does."

"Why?"

"It's because of what we had to do when Ino lost her mind. To keep her connected to us so she didn't fade away or become a psychopath, we had to tie her loyalty to me and then everything else that we could string back together we tied it to Shikamaru. It kept her mostly grounded but it did turn her into a high functioning sociopath: which is okay in a ninja as long as they don't turn on you and she never did, but what she did do was just as terrifying. She developed her family techniques and was able to rip through the minds of others. She could completely rewrite a person from just a glance or rip them apart. She could have Shika hold them in place and they would be completely under her mercy. They were the perfect team." I stopped for breath and Sakura took over.

"Here's the main problem with Ino. If she wakes up then her mind will be even more split than it was because she will not be able to fully merge with her younger self because of the way her mind worked in the future. She didn't have a lot of feelings past that of loyalty to her Hogake and the desire to make sure her comrades were safe, especially Shikamaru. Everything else came second. She was stunning on the battlefield and brilliant in many other ways. She's an innocent right now." Sakura gave him a small smile.

I gave her hand a slight squeeze and continued where she left off. "Kakashi-sensei, whereas she will be a brilliant asset if she wakes up and we could use her and the techniques she employed I enjoy seeing her innocence again, so I'm hoping that she doesn't wake up. But if she does we are prepared for it. So Shika won't remember unless she does but he will probably figure it out before he knows what he is actually figuring out because he's a genius of unparalleled gift. We'll have to see."

"Well I guess that brings me to question number three. What are your plans?" Kakashi asked.

"What do you think?" Sakura shot back from my side.

He rubbed his forehead as she forced him to think, "How much of what you are planning is going to be happening during the chunin exam?"

"How far are you willing to go to help your team?" Sasuke asked before I could say anything to prod at him.

We stared at each other in silence for a couple of minutes waiting for Kakashi to think about it before he answered. We knew we already had him, but we wanted to make sure he understood that he was mine.

"You kids." He laughed and it was a different tone from anything I could remember hearing from him, "I'm committing treason just by listening to you, I already made the decision to help you when I knocked on the door. So what are your plans?"

"Sasuke, check on our guests. I'll get us something to drink."

"And I'll get us some food." Sakura murmured. "Want anything specific Kakashi-sensei?"

"No. Whatever you have will work." Kakashi responded and Sakura laughed.

"Oh Kakashi sensei, you never want to say that in our house, you'll end up eating something you may regret later. Sasuke can only cook his blasted tomatoes and I tend to burn anything that goes into the pan. Naruto's the only one of us that can cook anything halfway decent." She said with a smirk.

"How about some cheese and crackers?" Kakashi responded in a bit of a dumbfounded voice, most likely surprised at her honesty.

"Sure thing Kakashi-sensei," she said with a laugh. "I'll even grab the sake."

\\\

We drank and talked into the night. I explained my plans to Kakashi; Sasuke and Sakura jumping into the fray when they needed too. Kakashi listened to us, only asking questions when it was necessary, his ANBU training showing through.

The chunin exams started tomorrow. We would go through the written exam more or less like we did last time, except I wasn't going to speak up. I had no need too, Hinata would not attempt to quit this time, even though she didn't remember quite yet, she had a confidence that she never had in the past.

Once we got to the forest, we were going to utterly obliterate Kabuto. We needed to get to him before he could develop his high level regeneration techniques and abolish every cell in his traitorous body. Hinata would be pissed about it, but would forgive me for it in the end…most likely…possibly…. Anyway we planned to give her Orochimaru if she remembered everything by the invasion time frame. Sakura was going to make sure Danzo had a permanent accident and Sasuke was going to take care of the council. Of course all of this could only happen once Tsunade came back into the village, but if my theory was correct than she should be arriving in a couple of days, roughly around the time when the preliminaries were finished. Once she did, she would be roped into becoming the next Hogake which meant she would be able to sanction the plans so it wouldn't be paramount to treason. She would also be able to name me her successor should something ever happen, granted we had no intention of letting anyone else know that until she was well into office and both Danzo and the council were six feet under. Once those annoying flies were dealt with it wouldn't matter anymore.

We would have a month to plan for the invasion. If Tsunade was back she'd take Sasuke back under her wing and Kakashi would take Sakura. Sakura needed to refresh her assassination techniques and Sasuke needed a refresher on some of his chakra control exercises as well as some of the more refined medical jutsus that they had created in the future. Of course we couldn't have people know that so Sasuke would use my special henge as Sakura and vice-versa. Depending on what was going on, I would make plans accordingly. I needed to avoid Jiraiya so I would do everything in my power to do so. Kakashi was going to assure the Hogake that my seal was fine and I knew that Jiraiya would be distracted by other things. He was brilliant man, but let his urges of the flesh get in the way too often when he felt that there were no dangers around him. It had gotten him into trouble more than once.

During the chaos of the invasion I was going to find my mother. I couldn't do anything until then, but we didn't have too long to wait and she wouldn't take down the tower for a couple of months yet, so even though I was desperate to get her out and to assure myself that she was actually still alive (that childish urge to see and know your mother never really goes away-no matter how old you are), but 20 odd years of war had cooled my temper and had given me patience, something I had been sorely lacking when I was younger.

The invasion would be interesting with Gaara on our side this time around. Sound would still put up quite the resistance but with Sand on our side (once they found out their leader was dead), the destruction this time should be far more manageable than it was last time. It would also provide us the cover we needed to take out the people that needed to disappear.

Once the invasion was over and Tsunade was settled we would recall Itachi. We needed him here to help with the Akatsuki. At this point he would have more information than Jiraiya and it would be sorely needed. If we were able to get in front of it all before things got out of hand, then it might just work out. That and Sasuke wanted more information about the massacre and the reasons why Itachi participated the way he did.

There were things that could and probably would go wrong with the way we were messing with time but we had to take that chance. It was the only choice we had. Any future was better than no future at all.

Kakashi had his reservations but he would support us because we gave him a reason to live and to him that was a reason worth committing treason.

\\\\

End of Part One