A/N: So first story r&r please. also I don't own Naruto and while I usually love it don't think I could handle that responsibility.

Amegakure

The Chamber was dark and cavernous located in the highest tower of the hidden village. In it was a desk with a various stacks of paper in severe disarray laid upon it. Also in the room was a statue with an aura of darkness surrounding it. Attached to the statue was a man with several black rods protruding from his back, his short red hair hung concealing most of his face save one eye, an eye whose pattern was oddly reminiscent of a rippling pond. All of sudden without any noise there was a man wearing a mask. The mask had a pattern of dark clouds swirling from the center which just happened to be the man's right eye. This man's eye was strange as well similar to that of a three pronged pinwheel.

"What Happened?" The red haired man asked

"The Yondaime proved more persistent than expected." The Masked man responded grimly

"I'm assuming you were unable to retrieve the Kyuubi."

"Unfortunately…" His silence became foreboding.

"So where do we go from here."

"I have a few personal matters that need to be taken care of. So in the meanwhile I'm going to need you to rebuild your little organization," he dropped one of folders at the feet of the Man attached to the Statue completely ignoring the desk.

"What's this?"

"Somehow I doubt that you and your paper doll will be able to collect all nine of the Bijuu by yourself, six paths or no. They're dossier of several powerful rogue ninja who may be amenable to our goals." The masked man turned as if to leave

"And what If they're not"

"…Persuade them" with that the man disappeared as if he was never there.

Konohagakure-

In the Hokage's chambers were two men. The first was standing, he had long spiky white hair, was rather tall and slightly pudgy with the air of one who really never aged beyond 13 despite his many wrinkles which hinted at an advanced age. The second of the two men was sitting down behind a desk his hair was also spiky but where the older man's hair was white from birth or age the younger mans was pure gold. In further contrast the younger man seemed to hold the weight of the world on his shoulders and seemed almost as if he was ready to break. He looked up at the older man and with a voice raw with emotion he spoke.

"Jiraiya-Sensei, please tell me you have something good to tell me. After today I just…don't think I can take anymore" Almost immediately Jiraiya's buoyancy reduced dramatically and he began to look critically at his former pupil.

"What's wrong Minato?" For a brief moment Minato's eyes glazed over lost in the remembrance of the day's events.

"It all went straight to hell sensei. The Kyuubi was set free."

"Minato I'm so sorry how's Kushina is she all right?" The younger man's shoulders sagged and he began weeping as if the world itself had collapsed.

"She's gone," He whispered "Kushina's dead, and I couldn't save her."

"Oh Minato," Jiraiya walked over to embrace his former pupil. "It's okay I know you did everything you could."

"But that's just it, I'm the Hokage. How am I supposed to be able to protect an entire village if I can't even defend my own family?"

"Your family?" Jiraiya's tone became more insistent "Minato how's the baby, is it alright"

"No," Minato sighed tears still streaming down his face "My child's been kidnapped I don't where to yet I've put the Tsume's clan on his trail but I haven't heard anything back yet."

"Minato how could something like this even happen" The news of the loss shocking the normally unflappable ninja.

"I don't know do you think I wanted things to turn out this way" Minato barely stopped himself from shouting.

"No. No!" Jiraiya attempted to reassure Minato and sighed. "Just start from the Beginning okay." It took Minato a few seconds to completely pull himself together and begin to speak. Jiraiya noted the deep circles surrounding the Hokage's eyes.

"Today was the day. Everyone knew that our son would be born. Kushina was so scared of the childbirth. The council said that in order to protect the village, the actual birth needed to take place outside of the village inside of a sealed barrier. Everything was going fine until he showed up. He used some sort of dimensional jutsu to get inside of the barrier and somehow he got hold of my child. I had to get hold of my child so I used my …. Jutsu to get my child away from him, but that just left Kushina alone with him. He ripped the Kyuubi out of her, and by the time I got back it was too late. She was already on her way to death. I brought her to my child so she could have some peace and kept going to try and seal the Kyuubi before it was too late. It was then I failed Konoha again. While I was able to break the masked man's control of the Kyuubi I couldn't stop the Kyuubi from rampaging into the town. I knew that in a few years it wouldn't matter if I killed the Kyuubi because even if I could the Kyuubi would just reform and we'd be going through this all over again. So, I'd decided to seal it." At this the Yondaime stopped speaking his gaze downcast he seemed lost in thought, scared and a little ashamed. Jiraiya frustrated began to shake the Hokage a little.

"Who did you seal the Kyuubi into?" Minato looked up at Jiraiya emotions dancing across his face until finally he seemed to resolve himself.

"I'm sorry Sensei I can't tell you that."

"Why Not?!"

"No one knows and the Sandaime made me promise to keep it that way for now"

"Sarutobi, why would he say something like that?"

"The Sandaime believed that the best way to keep the jinchuuriki safe was if we made sure that no one who exactly he or she was and while I don't agree with it I thought it would be best to respect his last request."

"His last request… Sensei is dead?"

"I'm sorry Jiraiya when I was about to perform the Shiki Fuin in order to seal the Kyuubi he took my place" Jiraiya struggled for a moment then his face went devoid of emotion.

"It's not your fault Minato, sensei chose this and if he said to keep the identity of the Jinchuuriki then of course you can't go against his wishes. I just wish…"

"I know Sensei."

"So what's the damage to the town?"

"One of the walls was breached and we had about 50 casualties 43 of which were shinobi. We had 16 Shinobi deaths and 2 civilians as well."

"So, 18 dead altogether." Jiraiya sighed shaking his head at the needless loss of life. "Well I wish I was the bearer of good news but we're not so lucky"

"Why what happened"

"Nothing conclusive but the 'Rice Paddy' village seems to be moving past their internal conflicts due to a mysterious savior. There's talk of him developing a hidden village there"

"Really?" Despite the current problems of his village the 4th new the importance of Jiraiya's reports and relied on his Shinobi training to process the information. "What course of action do you recommend?"

"To be honest I haven't been able discern anything too sinister and we do still have to worry about threats from Iwa especially now that our infrastructure has been wrecked by the threat of the Kyuubi. Along those lines now would be the perfect time for enemy spies and shinobi to infiltrate Konoha leaving us vulnerable to attack in the coming years."

"I see" Minato rubbed his forehead and took a few minutes to think. "In that case your orders are simple. Stay here, find, and train a successor." At this Jiraiya visibly blanched.

"Minato be reasonable it's unlikely that I'll find someone that the toads will accept quickly enough for me to continue my operations, and if I were to stop operations now it would take years to build it back up again."

"Jiraiya sensei, you're misunderstanding. I don't want you to find another toad sage. I want you to find another spymaster. If you could train more spies as well that would be great."

"I see, however even so, the time it would take me to find an apprentice would still make it harder for me to continue at what I do best. " Jiraiya said this last bit with an overly provocative grin. Minato just smiled amused by the antics of his former sensei.

"Jiraiya, I'm sorry and while I do appreciate your efforts in defusing foreign threats, I'm beginning to think that in the coming years we're going to need to focus more on counterintelligence. The masked man who awakened the Kyuubi knew the exact time and place of Kushina's pregnancy. Things he would only know if he had someone in Konoha feeding him information. You said it yourself its likely we'll have an influx of enemy ninja's infiltrate Konoha. Furthermore with Konoha weakened as it is it couldn't hurt to have one of our most powerful shinobi here as we rebuild." Minato knew he was laying it on a bit thick but he knew that his Sensei could be a little bit too stubborn unless bombarded physically or in this case mentally. "Jiraiya please the village needs you for a multitude of reasons that I can't even begin to go into right now." Jiraiya just sighed.

"Not to mention the fact that I'm old right." He waved his hands when he saw Minato try to interrupt and smirked. "Don't even try it, I've known you for quite a while and it would take 100 years for you to be able to deceive me. You're afraid of me dying out there like the Third Hokage aren't you? You're forgetting that I've been able to take care of myself for quite a while now. Don't worry about me though because you're right. Not about the whole trying to protect me thing because Hokage or not I won't let even you protect me from my own choices. I am Jiraiya of the Sannin after all. However, what you said before about enemy spies was probably true so …I'll stay. With that he gave a tremendous grin that traveled from ear to ear. Minato couldn't help but give a soft chuckle at the Toad Sage.

"Well, great I'll get you set up with an office at ANBU Headquar-"

"Whoa an office" Almost immediately Jiraiya began shaking his head "Sorry Minato no can do, an office means infrastructure and infrastructure means infiltration" Minato nodded slowly adjusting to a completely new way of thinking.

"So what will you need?"

"Full access to all your files secret or not and ability to question and recruit anyone I want civilian or shinobi."

"Civilians, Jiraiya are you sure…" Minato began.

"Trust me, Minato you'll be surprised at how much of my information comes from people who are supposed to know nothing" Minato just closed his eyes in resignation. "Anyways I gotta go see ya' in about a year kid."

"Wait, a year?"

"Come on Minato, as much as I love this village, I need to tie up a few loose ends up before I comeback.

"I understand, but Jiraiya just make sure you come back okay?" Jiraiya gave him a trademark smile and replied

"Of course, and two pieces of advice to you kid, the best way to keep a secret is to tell absolutely no one." At this Minato visibly flinched before dispelling into a cloud of smoke the signature of the Shadow Clone. The 4th Hokage leaned back in his chair and planned for the future.

The sound of wailing permeated throughout the forest. A newborn baby wrapped in orange swaddling cried out in hunger in the bare arm of a man. The man wore all black shinobi gear that with metal gauntlets and mesh armor around his ankles. His face was covered with black and red wrappings that were overlaid by a hitai-ite with the symbol Iwagakure crossed out. While his left arm carried the child his right hand was holding his right side. The man limped through the forest leaning heavily on the trees he walked by.

"Shut up Brat, or else I'll kill you just like I killed your mother." He snarled weakly before falling to the ground. "Shit." He brought his hand from his side to in front of his face. The metal encased appendage was covered in blood.

Well I guess it doesn't matter now" he muttered as he reached down towards his side pulling out the kunai that he had originally kept in. Blood flowed freely from his side and the ninja knew he was reaching his final moments. The ninja reversed his grip on the kunai and brought it up to the throat of the infant. 'I guess all that's left is too make the Hokage pay.'

Blood flowed as a cry pierced the forest.