A/N Earlier this week I got a sudden urge to do something I haven't done in over 5 years, write a Fanfic. So I've slowly been writing this on my mobile during my spare moments at University and I hope that its passable. The urge to write a fanfic was so strong I'm just glad I've gotten the urge out of my head for the time being. If you have time to comment or review, I would be really grateful as my knowledge of the Naruto universe and its lore is shaky at best. So any suggestions are appreciated. Enjoy the Chapter.

Hiruzen Saritobi sat at his desk slowing going through what seemed to be the endless stack of papers. His pipe hung from his mouth as he went from reviewing academy scores to mission reports. His intercom buzzed loudly making him sit up straight in surprise. Putting the papers down he slumped forward reaching over and flicked the silence button on the intercom, grateful for the distraction.

"Kasumi, I thought I asked not to be disturbed till after lunch." He said jokingly to his secretary as he put down the paper he had been looking at.

"I'm sorry Hokage-sama," Hiruzen Straightened in his chair, Kasumi never used his title unless he was in a meeting or something was wrong. "The Advanced seal evacuation Team has asked for your urgent presence as well as emergency teams from the Hospital."

Hiruzen was already pulling his robes on and grabbing his hat of his desk. "Did they say what happened?" He asked as pushed the door to his Office open. He was greeted by Kasumi, who followed him as they strolled quickly down the corridor.

"The messenger stated that one of the seals had malfunctioned and has led the diplomatic mission to the Western nations to suffer Heavy casualties."

Hiruzen pause for a moment almost causing Kasumi to walk into his back. Shaking his head he continued walking, "Homura Mitokado was leading that mission. Why hasn't he sent a message, it's not like him. Is he injured?"

He had sent his old team mate and advisor on a diplomatic mission to newly discovered countries beyond the great western desert. They had already been gone four months and had been sending regular reports back. From what he had read there diplomatic mission had been going well and they had begun trading information with the local Shinobi village. He looked back at Kasumi inquisitively when she didn't reply. Kasumi Mitokado stood frozen in place further down the corridor, a sad smile on her lips as she hugged her clipboard close to her chest. She didn't have to say anything, Hiruzen had seen that same look on more faces than he ever wanted to.

20 minutes before….

In a room buried deep in the cliff behind Konohagakure two Chunin sat behind a desk in a large cavernous room. Opposite the desk, along the wall, were three large intricate seals. The room and seals were remnants of the Senju, having been created by the second Hokage. They had been by products of Tobirama Senju's research into time and space manipulation seals. They served as an emergency escape method for high ranking, high risk diplomatic missions. When the seal was activated it transported up to 50 individuals to the cavernous hall in Konohagakure from wherever they were in the known world. The individuals in question would have the smaller seal drawn upon them. When any of the individual seals were activated it would cause the individual master seal to pulse lightly with a glow. The Master seal would then be activated transporting the individuals with the precise seal to Konohagakure. The reason it wasn't used regularly was because of the amount of chakra needed for the seal to work was extremely large. To combat this it took a collective of shinobi storing up there chakra in the seals; this in turn could take up to 6 months per seal. Also the sheer size and intricacy of the seal almost made it extremely unwieldy.

The Chunin on guard that day were lying back in their chairs, bored and waiting for their shift to end. One was reading a book with a slight blush on her cheeks, while the other was trying to hit the light switch with a bouncy ball his kid had put in his combat vest that morning.

Shizuka took her eyes off her book and looked over at her comrade. "Naoki can you give it a rest you've been trying to hit the switch for 2 hours now. And you've missed. Ever. Single. Time."

"I know." Naoki grunted throwing the ball again.

"You can barely hit a target that size with a kunai let alone a small ball." She chucked.

"Oh Yeah!" He reached into his kunai sheath and twirled it. "Fancy a wager then?"

Shizuka snapped her book shut with a grin, "Sure. Whats the bet Bakka?"

"I'll bet you 500 ryo that I can hit it."

"Go on then. But remember to hit it with the rear on the kunai and try not to damage anything."

"I know. I know." He snapped. He faced his target and let out a slow breath, took aim and threw his kunai. For a brief moment the knife sailed through the air before hitting the switch dead on. It left the two with only the light from the corridor outside to illuminate the room. Naoki turned around with a cocky grin. "That's 500 ryo." He chuckled. However he stopped when he saw that she was not looking at him but at the wall. He turned to see one of the large seals slowly pulsing with a faint light.

"Oh Fuck." He stated under his breath. Quickly he was on the other side of the desk shouting orders "Get on the phone to the Jonin commander tell him one of the seals have activated and we have no idea how long it's been active." His hands blurred through the activation jutsu as he continued to swear. He planted his palms on the seal as the room was flooded with light and chakra smoke. Naoki then went to turn the light back on. As he turned it on a shadow came at him out of the smoke, forcibly grabbing him by his vest and pinning him against the wall. A face; a bloody, dirt covered face appeared inches away from his own.

"You Bastards!" the newcomer shouted "You Murdering Bastards!"

Shizuka was already asking for a medical team be sent down. But she paused when the smoke cleared as the Jonin commander kept asking for how many were injured. Snapping back to reality she stuttered into the phone. "A-all members of diplomatic team 2 are down plus 30 unknown individuals…Oh Kami, we have children down here. I repeat we have children down here."

The room was littered with bodies. Some were in neat rows under bloodied sheets, others were scattered around the room, left where they had fallen. Out of the 46 bodies that had appeared in the room only five were still standing. Near the back of the room were four panting individuals. On the floor was seated an elderly man in long brown robes, while surrounding him were three cloaked children in defensive positions all wildly looking around.

Naoki had by now grabbed his assailant putting a kunai to their throat. His assailant though, was unfazed by the knife pressing against his skin. The young man, dressed in his ruined ANBU Black Ops uniform still firmly pinned Naoki against the wall.

"Why?!" the ANBU member shouted, "Why?! We had them, it was text book. We got out clean, we were even able to secure some of our new allies women and children." That was when this member of Konoha's Elite shinobi let out an uncontrolled sob before he gritted his teeth. "Two days ago! Two Fucking Days!" He screamed as he shoved the chunin against the wall again.

Naoki and Shizuka were stunned. The seal had been active for two days. They had been on and off duty in that room twice over the last two days along with three other teams. All of them had missed it, every shift had missed that the seal had been activated.

That was the moment when the medic teams arrived, running in and checking over the bodies. Amongst this chaos the Hokage strolled in flanked by two members of his ANBU Guards, Boar and Eagle. Seeing the commotion he motioned for one of his guards to extricate the other ANBU member from the chunin. Boar made his way forward. He rested a hand on his fellow shinobi's arm, his skin sticking to his fellow ANBU's bloodied arm guard. He then motioned for Naoki to put his kunai away, before turning his full attention back to the other ANBU operative. It took him a moment to recognise the Shinobi. Though the ANBU only made up a fraction of Konoha's forces, its members rarely interacted on any large scale. Luckily Boar had been introduced to this ANBU member when he joined the close protection department.

"Kestrel, put the chunin down." Boar said calmly. Kestrel turned his head to face him. It was easy for Boar to see that Kestrel was burned out, the agent was shaking and when he looked at Boar he looked right through him as if he was unable to focus. Kestrel had been promoted to the ANBU at the same time as him. After their training they had both been assigned to close protection, though not the same squad.

"Boar?"

"That's right Kestrel. Now I need you to put the Chunin down." Boar continued trying to ease Kestrels arm down. and away from Naoki. But Kestrels hands tightened as he hung his head.

"We could have saved them Boar." He said through gritted teeth and even in his exhausted condition he was just about able to slam the chunin against the wall again. "But these Bastards..." Kestrels head shot up again his tears creating runnels through the blood and dirt on his face. "...These Child murders didn't do their jobs!"

Boars tried again to get Kestrel to lower the Chunin to the floor. This time Kestrel let him, slowly putting Naoki down and releasing his grip on the chunins vest leaving two bloody hand prints on the green material. Boar motioned to Naoki to move out of the way as two waiting medical shinobi came forward draping a blanket over Kestrel.

Hiruzen shook his head as he slowly made his way through the bodies. What could have happened to cause such a disaster. The group of survivors had moved to the back wall, still clearly on edge. The Hokage made his way over still flanked by his last bodyguard. He stopped a couple of meters away from the 4 strangers as he looked them over. They were bloody and covered in grime. The three children were as tense as coiled springs and were staring at him intently with their sharp, curious eyes from under their hoods.

The Hokage sighed as he took off his hat, giving them his kindest small. "Please don't fear children. You're safe now." He could see them tighten their grip on their weapons in uncertainty. The child in front lowered his sword as he looked at his companions. Finally the child looked over his shoulder as the elderly man they were guarding shakily got to his feet. The man, who around the hokage's own age, was dressed in a coarse brown robe. Giving the child's shoulder a reassuring squeeze he stepped past him. He looked tired and was as unsure on his feet as a newborn lamb. It didn't take the hokage long to realise the man was blind and felt he should introduce himself.

"I am Hiruzen Saritobi, the Hokage of Konohagakure. May I ask your names? "

The blind man smiled before bowing as he signaled to the children to put their weapons away and do the same. The Children followed, dropping to one knee. Hiruzen was a bit startled and quickly stepped forward to help the man up. He could feel that every motion for the strangers was a struggle as they battled exhaustion. The Hokage called over one of the stretchers as he supported the man's weight.

The blind man lent close to the hokages ear as he steadied himself. "I can... Only apologise for the loss of your men Hokage-sama." Hiruzan helped the man to sit down on a stretcher that had been produced by one of the medical shinobi.

"Please don't worry yourself, regain your strength and you can help us piece together the events that led to this tragedy."

"Anyway we can help Hokage-sama. " The man bowed his head as he sighed with relief. "If I may introduce myself, I am William Takahashi. I was Grand master of our village Archives."

"It's a privilege to meet you Takahashi-san." Hiruzan said resting a hand on Williams shoulder. "I just wish it had been under better circumstances."

William hand came up to grip the Hokages arm. "How many survived? They wouldn't tell me?"

Hiruzen gave the man's shoulder a squeeze as his gaze went first to the children, then to the bodies that were slowly being carted away. "Five." He heard William let out a string of profanity under his breath, his head hung limply against his clasped hands.

Hiruzen felt someone brush passed him as on the children moved passed him. They reached forward grasping their elders hands and forced them apart. Slowly they brought the man's hands to their own faces. Takahashi's face slowly rose as his hand traced their features. "Young ones... I am so sorry. You lost so much, But you held your ground against numerous opponents to protect this old fool." Silent tears stained his face.

Hiruzen helped the man lie down as the medical team started checking him over again as they started to wheel him away. With Takahashi gone the hokages attention turned to the children, who were silently watching Takahashi go. They were dead on their feet, they shook nearly imperceptible as they huddled together.

Hiruzan knelt down to the three's level as their attention switched from Takahashi leaving form to him. "Now children I need you to go with the lovely ladies from the Hospital." He nodded at a couple of nurses who had been standing off to the side, waiting for the Hokages go ahead. "They'll take you somewhere you can get some food and get some rest. Is that ok with you three?"

The three small hooded figures shifted as they looked from the Hokage to each other. One nodded and the others followed. The nurses moved forward as the Hokage stood up. "I'll come to check on you tomorrow." The Hokages attention then turned to the nurses. "Make sure they are put in the same room. Its hard enough to arrive to what feels half a world away after what they've gone through, without the uncertainty of where their comrades are." This was met with a chorus of 'Yes, Hokage-sama'

Two of the children were shepherded past him as one was carried. Hiruzan then felt someone grab his robes. Looking down to meet the hooded face of one of the children. There was a brief moment of silence as his old inquisitive eyes looked down into the bright unsure eyes looking up at him. The light caught the childs face, reflecting off the tears gathering at the corner of their eyes. Before he knew it the Hokage was enveloped by the arms of the child who clutched at him as they begun to cry. Hiruzan sighed as he laid a comforting hand on the child's head as a troubled smile played at his lips. He looked over to the other children as they sort comfort from the nurses. He had hoped to of seen that last war orphans nearly a decade ago. It had been a fools hope.