August 10th

Minato rubbed his forehead tiredly as he doggedly completed his paperwork. To his right, Kushina happily played with a settled Sasuke, and he could vaguely feel Itachi sitting on the roof of the tower. It had either been sending them both to an orphanage, or taking the two boys in. Guess which he did.

Damn his conscious.

He lifted the last sheet, and grimaced as he read through it. 273 confirmed dead, 18 still in the hospital, and only 3 people still whole enough to use the Sharingan. Two of them were Itachi and Sasuke, though the latter was still a baby. With the Nibi sealed inside of him, it was guaranteed that he would have the Sharingan when he was older. The Uchiha district was completely unlivable now, and the form was a request to tear down what remained of the buildings. What remained of the Clan was going to be integrated into the Village proper, especially since most of those in the hospital were civilians, without the Sharingan anyway.

He signed it and put it with the rest of the forms to go out, leaning back in his chair with a sigh. They had gotten very lucky, with the attack. No one knew that it had been a Bijuu, and fueling those rumors had been easy. The only ones who knew were directly around him.

His eyes shot open when something wriggly was plopped in his lap, and he looked down into the giggling face of one Uchiha Sasuke. He glared at his wife in mock anger as she covered her mouth with a hand and laughed, and it only got worse when Sasuke grabbed one of his bangs, tugging on it hard enough to make him squeak.

Scowling and blushing in embarrassment, he adjusted the baby into a more secure position. "I'm happy I amuse someone," he grumbled.

Kushina just laughed and walked over, a hand on her distended belly, and kissed his cheek. "You amuse me all the time dear."

Itachi scrambled in through the window then, and pointed back out. "There's something red and white coming this way," he said warningly.

Minato frowned and opened his mouth, but the warned red and white blur flew through the window, and was shown to be a broadly grinning Jiraiya. He returned the grin, always happy to see his sensei, but before he could say anything Jiraiya was petrified as kunai littered the wall surrounding him.

"You ass! You should know better than to scare a pregnant woman! Why I should cut off your balls and feed them to you for-! Oh!" Kushina's tirade was cut off with a surprised look as she grabbed her belly with both hands.

Happiness immediately turned to concern. "Kushina? Is everything- Meep!"

His hand was grabbed and pressed to the distended skin. "He kicked! Minato, he kicked!"

Awe filled him as he indeed felt the tiny kick, right against his palm. Another hand was placed next to his, and he glanced up at the uncomfortable face of Itachi. He smirked as it changed to one of awe and wonder, and the other hand slowly crept up to join the others.

"Sugoi…" Itachi blushed slightly at the word as Minato and Kushina chuckled. As though realizing the attention he was getting Naruto kept moving around.

"This is going to be your new baby brother Itachi," Kushina said with a bright grin, making both of them look at her in surprise.

"Kushina," he said warningly, but wilted again when she glared at him.

"Don't give me that tone Namikaze Minato. It's going to happen that way. You know it, I know it, so don't argue."

"Hai…" His voice was faint and meek, but that didn't stop him from glaring when Jiraiya laughed.

"Seeing you meek from a glare is always- Meep!" He cowered as Kushina glared at him and fingered a kunai, making Minato smirk at the justice of it.

"Is…is that really going to happen?" Minato sighed then smiled gently at Itachi's words, reaching up and ruffling the boys black hair.

"Hai Itachi." His smile turned teasing. "Do you really want to go against Kushina?" The black eyes went wide, and he rapidly shook his head as Minato smirked. "Yea, me neither."

"Well! Now that it's settled, let's go get some ramen!"

Minato face palmed as his wife dragged a slightly panicked looking Itachi through the door, and followed after with Sasuke in his arms. Jiraiya fell in step next to him.

"Have you heard anything about the Nibi?" he asked quietly, adjusting the sleepy baby so he rested on his shoulder.

"Kumo is in an uproar right now. I have a feeling that the Nibi was theirs, and whoever did this, stole the Jinchuuriki and extracted the Bijuu."

Minato frowned, thoughts whirling as he tried to think of someone that had a big enough grudge against Konoha to go to such lengths. And who was strong enough to pull it off. "Do you think Iwa?"

"No. That was the first place I checked. Only their Kage would have the ability to pull something like that off."

"So most likely a missing-nin. But who…"

"I don't know, but I have a few theories about what happened. Either this person controlled the Bijuu and made it attack Konoha – which is the theory I'm going with, since it specifically went after the Uchiha – got really lucky when it was released and is now far gone, or the Nibi killed them before attacking."

Minato hummed quietly as Sasuke stirred restlessly, the baby calming under his touch. "So someone kidnapped the Jinchuuriki, released the Bijuu, took control of it, and set it loose on just the Uchiha. That's what you believe?"

Jiraiya nodded, and Minato frowned again, absently watching the way Kushina's hair gleamed like a ruby in the dying light. "Maybe…"

His sensei looked at him sharply. "Maybe what?"

But he shook his head. "Nothing. Let me do more research…"

They were at Ichiraku's anyway, and his stomach was roaring at him.

What he was thinking would be impossible anyway.

…right?

X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X-x-X

Madara shivered as he exited his space-time jutsu, looking critically around his rooms in Kiri. As far as he could tell, nothing had been moved or even touched since the last time he was here. With a grin he swiftly changed his clothing into what the people here were used to seeing him wear. The unfortunate part about being the power behind the throne was in this case, he was technically the advisor for the current Mizukage, Yagura. When the leader was only 13 years old, advisors were a necessary evil. Luckily, Madara had gotten into a perfect position to cast the boy under a strong Genjutsu, effectively beginning his plan to rip Kiri apart from the inside out. It also had the added benefit of creating ruthless pawns that he could add to his army.

It had already started.

He swept out the door, pulling the black cloak closer around him as he reset the security seals, and made his way to the Kage building. Stepping out from the apartment building, he sneered at the ever present mist, hating this country for that. Despite his feeling towards Konoha, he would always want warm sun and trees.

As he walked, he paid close attention to those around him. A shinobi who he knew had a Kekkei Genkai was watched fearfully and with hatred, which was perfect. The majority of the Uchiha clan was gone, and Kiri had a number of clans with Kekkei Genkai that could make a good fight against him. Madara had started a few skirmishes between clans elsewhere in Water, and made sure that they got a lot of public attention. It wouldn't be long now before it took on a life of its own and started a civil war.

It was perfect.

Being the true Mizukage also had its other perks. It meant that he had a front line view to see all the promising shinobi to he could later recruit. Such as Hoshigaki Kisame. He was very promising, if the things his squad leader said was to be believed.

His thoughts had lasted him until he reached the Kage building, and he smiled grimly under his plain black mask. He entered the building with a nod to the guards stationed at the door, and made his way swiftly to the audience chamber. As soon as he stepped through the door, he was hit with a flare of killing intent and piercing pink eyes. They lit up as soon as they saw him, and Yagura, the Jinchuuriki of the Sanbi and Yondaime Mizukage, ran to him with a childish smile.

"Tobi! You've been gone to long!"

Madara smirked and ruffled the boy's hair. Yes, his plans here were perfect.