Blood dripped on the floor, the constant tapping noise as the latest drop of blood hit the reservoir could drive someone insane, luckily, there was more to think about the drip, drip, drip of blood. The blade that Ran had lunged at The Fifth had hit, but not the target that was intended.

The shocked and confused Fifth Hokage fell to her knees as the raw fear jutsu ended and the blood ninja Ran stood also confused by unforeseen turn of events. As Ran's view wondered upwards she realized that her attack had been stopped, Conall, the black haired blood ninja stood, he had taken the hit in the place of the Fifth Hokage.

After seeing Conall standing there in the place of her prey, Ran jumped back a few meters to re-assess what had just taken place.

"Conall what the hell are you doing?" Ran's furious question only emphasized her disappointment in her failed attack, "that bitch was all mine until you butted in." Her blood red eyes spat out her rage at Conall.

Conall sighed then replied to his overly-eager comrade, "I only did what I was ordered too, and if you weren't so busy enjoying that fight you would have heard it too." Conall pointed over at the gateway, where a shadowy figure stood, with short, soft black hair, slowly closing in on the blood-filled area.

"C…Co…Conrí." Ran's pale white face and shocked expression told everyone just what they wanted to know about this shadowy figure, from previous conversations between the blood ninja about this character all that can be said is this: whoever or whatever this shadowy figure is it's got some kind of hold on these ninja. Ran managed to chuck together some words to defend her actions, "the bitch kicked me Conrí, and I couldn't let her get away with that, I…"

Before Ran could finish she realized what the other blood Chunin had and dropped what they were doing to fall in line, in the blink of an eye the four ninja were back in their ordered line with the two swordsmen at either end. This released Naruto and left The Fifth away from them trying to regain her strength, Naruto, after realizing he was free, leapt over to help and regroup.

With their clothes fixed and their heads hidden in the shadow of their cloaks and headbands they waited for their next order. They stood as if nothing had happened, almost like the crushed houses, unconscious Chunin and blood-soaked floor around them wasn't their fault. The shadowy figure had been waiting for this, and on them doing so stepped out of the shadows to reveal his identity.

The shadowy figure was a young boy, no younger than Naruto. The boy had fair black hair, much like Conall, however his was all the same length, the strangest thing about the boy was his childish grin that almost drew all attention away from his blood red eyes and almost stopped The Fifth from noticing his long black cloak, armoured boots and ninja headband. He was also a ninja from the village hidden in the blood; however he was a lot younger than the four who came before him.

The boy held up his hand to greet his comrades, "hi Blink, I see you've been getting carried away with the assessment again" the boy's face changed as he looked around at the extensive damages and blood, he was almost casual about the destruction laid out before him, the boy sighed and continued talking to Ran, "well looks like I've got to go fix what you lot have botched up."

"Conrí I…" Ran tried once again to justify her actions to this new face, almost as if her life depended on it.

Meanwhile, Naruto was still trying to help The Fifth as the after affects of the raw fear jutsu had left her short of breath and immobilized, "Grandma Tsunade, are your OK? What was that? Can you stand?"

"Naruto, shut up, just help me get up so I can take another crack at the bitch that did this to me!" The Fifth responded violently and tried to get back on her feet but was struggling as the affects of the raw fear jutsu were still in effect.

"Right now let's get this mess sorted out" the boy spoke again, he spoke with a well-spoken posh accent, much like Ran's, "Conall go help the Fifth Hokage get back on her feet, Blink, go apologize."

"But she started it!" Ran spoke back defensively, "she kicked me I couldn't let her tarnish the good name of the blood ninja or my own for that matter, the bitch deserved to get some sense knocked into her!"

Only a few seconds later Conall began his complaints, they almost seemed like school children, "but she was the one that kicked the shit out the Hokage, it's not my fault she couldn't control herself!"

"Conall it's hard enough for me to get her to apologize, I thought at least you'd be mature about this, c'mon we've got to make a good first impression" The blood ninja Conrí explained things to his comrades and tried to re-assure them, "oh and Blink you started it by beating up their Chunin, destroying their village, and calling her a bitch."

Conall, upon hearing the reasoning behind it went off to help The Fifth as he was ordered. Ran came too, with her head facing to the side and a childish look of disapproval on her face she apologized, "I'm sorry, you old bitch".

Conrí forced a smile and tried to see the silver lining, "well at least she apologized" the blood ninja then turned to The Fifth to try and explain the situation. By this time Conall had attempted to help The Fifth to her feet, grabbing her by the shoulders and lifting her, at arms length, to his height. Normally, this would have been helpful, however, Conall was 6 ft 05 and Tsunade wasn't even 6ft.

"Conall that isn't helpful put her down" Conrí, with his hand slapped on his face, tried to make the best of a bad job, "Ran could you line back up please it may help if none of us are in any position to attack, otherwise when their ninja get back…"

"Hello people" before he Conrí could finish, a familiar voice glided in as a strange figure landed on top of the hut near the gate, "sorry I'm late, I got lost on the path of life again".

Kakashi had just returned form his last mission, he looked at Conrí, who was waving to him with the large childish grin he had arrived with, and waved back, returning the childish grin.

After a few minutes of them both standing there stupidly and waving, Kakashi finally decided to take a look around the leaf village, after seeing the destruction, the battle craters, the four ninja that were coincidentally dressed like the boy he had just been waving to for 3 minutes and that one of them was holding the battle-worn Hokage, with a puddle of blood underneath her, decided to fight back.

He flicked up his headband from across his eye to reveal his sharingan, and with that he attacked. After drawing a kunai, Kakashi had taken, surprisingly slow to react, Conrí prisoner, attempting to use him as a ransom for The Fifth, he watched his opponent with his sharingan.

"My first mission to the mainland, I thought it'd be boring" Conrí giggled to himself as he shrugged and shook is head to the situation, "why couldn't I have been a teacher, I'm good with kids, well they have the mentality of kids anyway." Reacting to Kakashi's move, Conall grabbed The Fifth around the neck with his arm and held a Kunai to her in an attempt to make a stalemate; Ran drew her short katana and took her stance, watching Kakashi's sharingan with unblinking eyes. Naruto drew his Kunai and jumped back to try and figure out some way of helping The Fifth.

The stalemate stayed for some time, no one spoke, they stood in the same position for some time, waiting for their tactic's conditions to be met, and it all rode on whose conditions were met first.

One set of conditions were met, and the tables turned considerably, the blood ninja were now all on the same side, near the gate, facing inwards at Naruto, standing alone against the five. Kakashi had realized what happened rather quickly, however this didn't help him figure out how it had happened, he was now standing in the exact position he was before, holding his kunai in the exact same place, yet, there was no sign of Conrí and even more surprising Ran was stood behind him, with her short katana against his throat.

"I can't believe it" the blood ninja Conrí stood leant up against the leaf village gate, free of Kakashi's grasp, and he appeared to be rather disappointed at Kakashi, "I heard you were at least one, if not the best Jonin here, and you didn't even realize your biggest weakness" Conrí stood up right again and carried on, "your sharingan sees and immediately understands any Genjutsu, Ninjutsu or Taijutsu, in the case of Gen and Ninjutsu it can even copy them, however, it is still just an eye, therefore you have to blink."

"Didn't you ever wonder why Conrí kept calling me Blink?" Ran completed the sentence for him, explaining the rest of what transpired, "I can move so fast that you blink, and it's all over". That's the true weakness of the Sharingan. If you blink you can't see for a couple of hundred milliseconds, which is all I need.

Naruto had been trying to figure out a way to free the Hokage and Kakashi. The wind blew the tree leaves gently to the floor, allowing them to sway from side to side first. Naruto found his plan. Quickly he acted, releasing hundreds of shadow clones with his multi shadow clone jutsu, the clones spread into the air, a vast dome was created that blocked off the sunlight and spread thick with Naruto and kunai. The Blood ninja swordsmen brought out their swords for the first time, and with a simple slash of the air, destroyed the Naruto clones. As the smoke cleared even more leaves fell from the trees and gave the area a feeling of tranquillity, even in the midst of such a battle.

The stand-off was long winded, more leaves slowly para-sailed to the ground and even more than that flew freely. Suddenly Kakashi realized Naruto's plan and not a second too soon, as the leaves had now surrounded them, Naruto's plan was about to begin. The Blood Chunin sighed as a sign of release, "maybe now we can simply talk". As he began to move forward Naruto's plan revealed itself. Suddenly the leaves around the Blood ninja transformed into Naruto clones, "didn't you realize, there's no wind", Naruto's clones all explained as they appeared, rushing the blood ninja before they could do anything. In the confusion Kakashi and The Fifth managed to escape and make it back to Naruto.

Naruto's cloned had easily been dispatched by now, the blood ninja Conall, who hadn't moved even though he was the target of Naruto's attack stood, shivering on the spot with his head held down, covered in the shadow of his gear.

Conall's head lifted slowly then leaned slightly to the left, the expression visible on his face was just like that on Ran's when she was kicked by The Fifth, his grin spread across his face and his eye's opened wide. His sights turned on Naruto and he stuttered in pure excitement, "T…that was awesome," his voice bled out of his mouth as he began to shiver once again, "are you sure y…your not a Chunin?".

With that remark Conall began to cackle madly, he stopped suddenly then made his last remark, "I'll kill you with everything that I am, in a hope that you'll fight me with all you are, Nine-tailed fox!" Conall thrust himself forward with all of his might, leaving a huge sandstorm in his wake.

"Shit, Conall's gone off the deep end, again" Ran spoke, not even seeming to be surprised by her comrade's lack of self-control, "it's Atlantis all over again, we do tend to have a problem when it comes to self-control."

"Atlantis? Again? Please tell me this isn't a common occurrence, I've only just started working with you off the island and now I discover your all psycho," Conrí stepped forward and place his hand firmly on his face, "this sucks!"

"Like you're not psychotic" Ran replied defensively, and then spoke, as if quoting an old proverb, "Black Rose Conrí, he who killed entire civilizations without even touching them" Ran looked around at the village with a sense of victory, then elaborated, "Shouldn't we tell what the real reason for the outbreak of the Great War between the ninja villages was? Or should I say who?"

"You shut up!" Conrí reached his arm out fully, grabbing Ran's head in his hand and beginning to squeeze, "that was a long time ago! I'm different now, better!" Conrí's face showed pure hatred as he began to squeeze the life out of his comrade. Suddenly he lifted his head and the hatred left his eyes, he dropped Ran and quickly darted in front of Conall's charge. "Unfortunately we are in no position to control our actions my friend, we must leave" Conrí's reason made no sense to the blood ninja Conall, who carried on charging.

"Only after I kill him, the boy's got to die, it'll be fun I promise!" Conall was clearly not in his the calm frame of mind he had displayed at first.

Conrí darted forward, striking his ally in the stomach and leaving a spray of blood from his mouth all over the floor, "I'm sorry but we cannot go on like this, I don't want us to destroy this place, we will have to leave."

The Hokage, Kakashi and Naruto had no idea what was going on, they had not heard much of the conversation. They had prepared themselves for Conall's attack, only to see it be stopped by Conrí, and him mutter something about "destroying the place". However what they had noticed was Conrí's arms, although his cloak hid the main part of his body, shoulders and legs he had flashed his arms, twice now, they were covered in chains, that were rapped around and around until they disappeared into the shadow of his cloak. At the end of these chains, near his wrists, were two clasps that appeared to hold them onto his arms so firmly that they had cut him repeatedly.

"You won't destroy us that easily," The Hokage spoke, asserting her authority and preparing for her next attack, "we won't go down without a fight!"

"Huh?" Conrí looked at them once again with the same warm, welcoming smile, his unconscious comrade in his hands, and a rather confused look in his eyes, "why would we want to destroy the leaf village? That would be evil. I don't look evil do I? Be honest."

The Leaf ninja took this as a mocking response and upped their guard, looking for any signs of movement.

The blood ninja Ran sighed at Conrí stupid question "let me handle this" Ran slid into place in front of Conrí, with her short Katana drawn and her feet placed precisely in place, "We're leaving now, and we'll carry on this little extermination in three weeks time."

"But it's a mission of peace, a misunderstanding, we were meant to…" Before Conrí could finish his sentence Ran grabbed his arm and dragged hi into the shadow of the leaf village forest.

Before she went Ran looked back with her original excitable look and shouted, "THREE WEEKS TIME! BE READY".

Conall also ran off into the darkness. The two swordsmen, who seemed strangely peaceful, bowed to the leaf shinobi then followed their comrades off into the darkness.

"Three weeks until they come back again" The Fifth stood in utter confusion of what just happened.

"We should help the Chunin Madam Hokage" Kakashi's voice came from beside her, he had put away his sharingan and bent down to tend to the injured Chunin below him, "they are the one's who need us now".

The Hokage sighed in agreement and ran to the nearest Chunin, checking for injuries. Surprisingly, each Chunin had only one injury, where they were struck and knocked unconscious, they woke up on touch and each began to move after five minutes of being awoken, the damage done was minimal considering, only seven buildings were destroyed, six by the lightening storm and only one by the Blood ninja themselves.

Naruto looked up at the sky in deep thought, "only three weeks until they return, and then what?"