4 Hokages, A Wife & ½ A 9-Tails

A New Mission!

For the Sake of Leadership

~ Forenote ~

Sorry for the Hiatus… Excuses below.

Previously

The invasion has been stopped, Naruto having heard Gaara's story has decided to keep the boy safe from his own village. In the meantime actual words are now flowing between the two fox-halves.

It didn't take long to learn of the Hokage's battle once they returned to the village. They were quickly intercepted on their way back into the village. Shino, and Shikamaru's dads were the ones to lead them to a temporary debriefing station erected near a mobile first aid station.

The news that the old man had been killed hit Naruto like a blow to his soul. The news that the kazekage had been Orochimaru all along caused the three suna genin to ask for any other news on their father. The jonin debriefing them could only shake his head.

After they checked in, the three suna genin were going to be taken away for "assessment." But Naruto, not trusting the way the chunin looked at them, while still shaken from the news of the old man dying, and slightly leaking the kyuubi's chakra, ordered the shinobi who tried to take them, to leave them alone.

Surprisingly, the order was followed, even though the ones he had ordered were chunin.

And that was how the eight of them ended up being summoned to the Hokage tower by the Sanin himself. Both Sakura and Shikamaru were almost revering of him. With Shino on point, Sakura was eagerly awaiting the chance to meet him and walked briskly on the short trek. Even Shikamaru had quickened his pace. While not as excited, the lazy genin clearly didn't want to make the Sanin have to wait.

Both however, would pause every now and then to glance at Naruto. The blonde was unaware of their attention as he pointed out places to the suna three as if this were a tour. Sasuke followed along behind them all. His face was dark and focused. As if he expected another attack.

When they arrived, Shikamaru reported in, announcing that they had arrived. Both he and Sakura stood at attention more than Naruto had seen either of them do. The fact that Sasuke and Shino had as well wasn't really as noticeable to the boy. Even the Suna three had to cower.

Shino though, was silently irritable with the guy. It looked almost as if the boy wanted to simply leave.

And none of them could have expected Naruto to have known him or the way he would greet the guy…

With the term Ero-Senin.

Surprisingly the legendary shinobi simply overlooked the title and offered his comfort to the boy. Naruto had been extremely close to the Hokage it seemed.

His greetings however, finally confirmed to Shikamaru, that what Naruto said was truth. Naruto was in fact the son of the Yondaime.

With Jiraiya asking, Naruto finally allowed his three captives to be taken into village custody. But it wasn't until the Sanin gave Naruto a solemn vow on his right to summon, that Naruto agreed.

0o0o0

For what felt like his first week or so of his stay in the belly of the death god, the Third Hokage was being beaten and pummeled worse than any of the six present had ever seen.

Even the fox had began to wince.

Minato sat there watching as his wife literally tore him apart and shoved various limbs into various parts of his anatomy.

It would heal, Minato knew it would from the one time he ventured into the cage that held the fox.

Kushina could go in there as she pleased, but that one time he did had, had ended with him cut in half. A returned favor according to the fox.

It seemed though, that even she had began to tire from her exertions. They had discussed everything that the dark fox could glean from it's living half at length once it finally began to share. What they had learned was bad enough. What they suspected was worse. And now that the living fox was actively telling the dark one of his host's many burdens and traumas, Kushina would take a break, hear more and return to her tormenting of the elder hokage.

They now knew, everything that had been done to Naruto. All the fox could tell his other half was shared. The only oddity was a two week period in which even the fox's memories had been ripped out by an advanced sharingan user. This was not Kakashi's work. The dog masked anbu had never even tried to influence the fox's mind when he cleared Naruto nightmares away.

Beating on the Sandaime only got the answer that Danzo was involved, and had been the one to discover Naruto captor's and erased all evidence. Including the entire clan of the woman who led his kidnappers. Though that had its own reasons.

Through the beatings, the old sandaime didn't speak a word in his defense. However, the other two new residents sometimes spoke up. Minato was nonplussed to meet the shodaime when he and his brother stepped out from the bars imprisoning the great fox. The once heralded "God of the Shinobi." Hashirama Senju, first hokage of the leaf village. His brother Tobirama, was less a commotion.

When they appeared within the bars that kept the fox at bay the massive dark furred biju attacked, it wasn't hard for them to realize they could slip through the bars. This seal had been designed with holding a giant tailed beast in mind. So slipping out, the two of them simply greeted their new roommates. Watching as one of them relentlessly bludgeoned the man who sealed them in this realm.

Soon however Kushina took her first break and greeted her old master's husband as if she already knew him well. Mito Uzumaki, the woman who had trained her and passed the burden of the Kyuubi over to her, had spent many nights telling her stories of her late husband before she died.

Once they began discussing Mito, the dark fox relayed it's own memories. It was in these reminisings that the living Fox finally joined their conversations. And that led inevitably to Kushina walking back over towards the broken and still recovering elder. Her beatings began anew. Whenever the fox told something serious or even amusing, the vengeful redhead would return to the massive gate and listen for a while.

While she was away and he was healing the third looked over the space they were now trapped in. It was like a void. Blackness as far as one could sea. Even the ground was jet black so it was possible that there were walls or borders that they simply couldn't see…

On the other hand, each person in the void shown clearly as if they were in full daylight. There were no shadows cast, however each of them seemed to be the source of their own light. Yet, the two that had been here the longest were less lit than the three now joining them. It seemed as if their light had bled off over time. They weren't any dimmer or less visible as far as he could see. They were just less bright in a way he almost couldn't recognize.

And before them all stood a massive gate. The door to the cage that contained the dark fox. Looking around the gate, the Nidaime confirmed his thoughts. The gate and everything within it, were insubstantial. When one walked around the gate, they could go behind it as if there was nothing there, stepping out of the sight of the others and finding only bars with nothing behind them on the other side.

It seemed the Gate was a single set of bars in a line. From one side they could see the fox and pass into the cage, from the other they saw the bars in front of an empty void. Finding the curiosity amusing, the dark fox whipped one of it's tails around the gate from his side of the bars, and the Nidaime was able to see it from the rear view of the gate.

"Those two spent weeks trying to figure out the mechanics of this cage. Even it's purpose eludes us." The fox spoke.

"I assume what you see is the same as what we have? A set of Massive golden bars in a line with no ceiling or floor, seeming to go into the darkness we stand on, and almost visible continuing downward?"

"Yes." The Kyuubi answered "However they stop going upwards, I have reached over them and I can pass over the bars the same as going around."

"We tried as much as well senpai." Minato offered. "Although we can't seem to go directly above them, we are able to pass over them." The tops of the bars appeared to simply vanish into the voided black. Leaping over them the Nidaime was certain they connected to some darkness that covered their tops.

As if they were capped in the darkness and continued forever up into said dark even without extending and higher from within.

0o0o0

For an entire week Naruto had nothing to do while he waited as Gaara and his siblings were being questioned. He created as many clones as he could, to have them go out and help with repairs and such, but was told that his original could remain with the trio, or in the hall at least.

But though he was determined to remain with his captive acquaintances, the hallway was boring! And so he sent a clone to collect a few leaves for him to train his fire conversion.

Ero-sanin had told him that the more of it he could burn, the hotter his fire jutsu would get. So while he had nothing else to do, he worked on it. He worked on it to the point of exclusion of everything else.

He had tried taking them to see the old man, and when they were brought to the debriefing station found out that the hokage had died fighting Orochimaru. The Sanin hearing them out worked just as much though. The ache in his chest as he thought of the old man had kept him from sleeping since the battle. So he just kept working on his chakra conversion.

It hurt.

The man who had protected him for becoming what Gaara had, who would visit him on his birthday, and always made sure he was eating right, and he was the one who got him the appartment and made sure he could attend the academy and...and... and...

So Naruto focused, blinking away tears as he fiercely combusted his chakra.

He vaguely heard Sakura talking to Sasuke somewhere, and also he thought he heard the fox talking to someone too, but his mind remained on the leaf, and the two straps of his chakra rubbing together, building heat and creating flame. Food was brought to him by his clones, and for some reason they looked worried about something… How long had his clones been around anyway? He hadn't made any more of them…

Oh well, they were bringing him food so it didn't matter. He continued to mold his flames.

By the time the three suna siblings were released into a single holding cells, Naruto was able to burn the whole leaf in about four minutes. Jiraiya had done it in seconds.

Shaking himself, Naruto realized he had no idea how long he had been there, And with that he realized he needed a bathroom badly!

Once he had relieved himself, he was escorted with the others to where the suna three would be staying. At that point, he was informed that he had sat there working on leaf after leaf for the better part of six days! His clones had swept up the burnt leaves and kept him fed but he hadn't moved from the spot!

Only a few of the couple hundred clones he had created even dispersed in that time, and they were eating for free as they had done nearly twice as much work as the same number of other people in the same amount of time. And more so since they didn't stop to sleep. It seemed his clones were augmenting their movements with chakra and simply refreshing themselves with chakra instead of sleeping. Some of them also seemed to have become driven the way Naruto had been.

The fact that they ate twice a day seemed to provide them more chakra so they could continue existing.

At the same time, in his state of focus, Sasuke and Sakura as well as some of the other rookies had come to see him and hadn't been able to get him to respond. The only person other than his clones that he had even acknowledged had been Ayame when she brought him some ramen.

They even had a medic check him over! The result was that they were all worried about him and none of them knew what he was doing. Ero-sannin however had simply told them that Naruto would move when he was ready, but if he pissed in the hall he would be moved. Fortunately he seemed to have held it in the entire time.

Asking the others how they had been during that time was a good way to change the subject. They had been treated fairly and would only remain in the holding cells until the new hokage was selected, then they would be granted a hotel room and held as negotiation leverage.

Kankuro had to explain how that worked to Naruto.

But once he understood, Naruto grinned. "Don't worry. It won't take long for them to pick a new Hokage!"

"Glad you have so much faith in the village kid." It was the pervert. "As it happens we already picked one. We just need to go get her. And by we, I mean you're coming with me."

He also handed him his chunin vest. "The Hokage announced he was going to recommend you publicly." He shrugged here. Spreading his arms as he explained. "That was all I needed to make the council agree."

Once Naruto calmed down from the information he had made chunin, the man continued.

"They wanted me to take your whole team but that would have been a hassle, and since they also decided to promote the Nara, I went ahead and asked if he wanted to come along instead the other two. He agreed when I told him it would get him out of the reconstruction and save me from having to babysit anyone else.."

He didn't mention that now that Naruto was a chunin, the selected Hokage would be able to tell him who his parents were. After a few details about where to meet him and Shika, Naruto ran to his apartment to get ready for the trip.

Turning to the three in the cell, the Sanin sighed... "I'm sorry to say, but you won't get to experience the hospitality of this fine holding cell. We will need the room, and besides, the new Hokage has been picked right? Wasn't that what you were told?"

Understanding what he meant, the three gathered their things they had only recently set down and headed out to be escorted to a secured hotel.

0o0o0

Sakura stood behind Sasuke listening to him demanding more training. It had been only two days since Naruto left on his mission and the results of the exam had finally been released.

Naruto-Baka and Shikamaru had both been promoted. Sakura had to admit Naruto's match against Neji was amazing enough. The moment the Third announced his nomination, the promotion was all but his.

Still, the battle with Gaara was what had to have cinched it. Shikamaru had pulled her aside and spoke with her about what they overheard. She had figured out who the last person to summon the great toad boss was, and when that specific summons was.

Inso she now knew exactly who his dad was.

But the Nara had been certain if she spoke of it, Ino's dad would wipe her mind. Regardless of the threat, the boy himself was convincing in reasons to keep her mouth shut. Namely Naruto didn't seem to know who his parents were. So either it was kept secret from him and he only knew about the toad's relationship to an unknown parent, which meant it was classified, or it was sooo secret that even the dobe would keep his mouth shut about it and hadn't slipped up even once that she knew of, which meant it was doubly classified. Either way, and given what it was, her just knowing of it could be considered a crime!

She didn't know if Sasuke had figured it out, but she watched him a lot anyway, just in case, you know, if he show any sign of it... so she would know if he knew... yeah.

She had been worried when Naruto went catatonic. But he came out of it okay. On the other hand, his fire manipulation was improving at a rate Kaka-sensei had been impressed with. Sasuke only needed a minute or two to completely burn a leaf with the manipulation Naruto was using. And sensei had told him he was a lightning type. Then hearing from the Jonin that fire wasn't Naruto's main type either, Sasuke was feeling threatened.

To be honest with herself, she had to admit Naruto needed to be a chunin. Not only for his massive chakra reserves and those exploding clones, but also because it meant he could officially learn of his heritage. But Sasuke only saw this as one thing.

Naruto had surpassed him.

He had long since passed her. But she had accepted it, because she was sure she would keep up. Now though, she realized she was the weakest of the three. So standing behind Sasuke as always, she supported his plea for more training.

No!

She was ready to stop following them! Naruto had made chunin. And she was nowhere near Sasuke. "Sensei, Sasuke is right! You haven't trained us at all! You taught us how to tree walk and that's it! I had that down in a minute! You didn't even stay to watch Sasuke-kun and Naruto finish. If you won't train us then at least point us in the direction of someone who will!"

Both the guys had stopped arguing...er, Sasuke had stopped arguing and sensei had stopped teasing him...and they were now looking at her as if they had forgotten she was even there.

"Fine..." the jonin drawled. "Look, Neji is beat up pretty badly from his match and his involvement in the defense after, and Lee… well Tenten might be able to help… I'll hire her to give you some pointers. It might help Gai to get out of the hospital for a little bit as well. I hear he's starting to creep out the staff there, hovering over Lee as much as he does."

And that was how the week of hell came to be.

Their Sensei had filled out a d-rank and hired Tenten to help train them... Tenten then invited them to meet her at the hospital where they met the Green-eyebrow-freak and his mini. Having heard of the mission Gai had decided to take over. He was going to train them full throttle.

So following him, Tenten, and a wheelchair bound Lee out of the hospital, they left Sasuke behind with the bedridden Neji.

They worked with Sakura on her taijutsu. Gai explained that even from his the chair, Lee could watch and correct her, not that she had much wrong, but she seemed to hold back at some points and over extend at others. Lee told her about each of these points as she repeated every stance and motion of her taijutsu that she knew. Then he coached her on physical training. Tenten didn't so much as say a word to her but offered herself as a sparing opponent on motions that required a second body to move or manipulate.

Meanwhile...

Neji, who not allowed out of bedrest due to chakra exhaustion and torn muscles from fighting a sound nin who attacked the medical station, worked with Sasuke on his chakra control. The two of them began with a staring contest with was broken when Sasuke realized Neji was doing more than staring. The boy was using his eyes to look at Sasuke's chakra!

Once he realized this Neji must of noticed and spoke. "Uchiha, I have been instructed to assist you in chakra manipulations. As I have very little chakra at the moment you will have to follow my directions without demonstration of the exercises. Are you willing to put forth the effort?"

A scoff was all the reply he received and the Hyuuga guided him through several minor exercises.

After an hour of this, Neji requested a nurse to help relocate him to the Hospital baths. Most rooms had a private bath, however the hospital also had a larger room for soaking entire bodies... these were usually used with ice cold water to help bring down fevers, however today the one the used had hot water.

While Neji soaked, he taught Sasuke to water walk.

0o0o0

The day after that Sakura was training with Neji and Sasuke was working on his wires and tool use with Tenten.

Neji was greatly impressed at her aptitude for chakra control and how she easily figure out and even improved on most of the minor exercises he taught her, the fact that she could water walk with only a minor refocusing of her chakra which took about two minutes with one foot to complete dropped his jaw.

And so he determined to see how far he could push her control. Explaining to her the exact process of augmenting ones movements with chakra and having her attempt to go over all of her taijutsu using the augmentation afterwards.

She easily got the concept and application of it down, however her diminished capacity left her dry before she had gone a third of the way through her kata.

Meanwhile...

Sasuke was retaught everything he thought he knew about taking care of his tools. Not much was different, However Tenten had insisted and her sensei had enforced the objective. As an added benefit, she had been right. He learned two new knots and a couple reasons not to use one of the wire knots he commonly used. He also learned how to alter the projectile's curve with the passage of another projectile without the two touching, the air current trailing the second causing the shift in the first.

With that Sasuke decided to accept that it was worth redoing everything he already knew. But she also got him started on using sealing scrolls and explosive notes in his tool use, including how to roll a note into a senbon. Explosive needles could be very useful. When the day ended Sasuke now sported two wristbands that held various tools sealed into them under his arm sleeves.

After that, Gai worked with Sasuke on his taijutsu while Sakura underwent Tenten's retraining. It took Sakura a little longer than Sasuke because she hadn't known everything about the angled projectiles and ricochet maneuvers he had. But she managed to learn it all by the end of the day, and decided to only place her sealed tools on one arm instead of both. Her wire usage wasn't anywhere as good as Sasuke's was but she knew how it was done now and could only improve more through daily training.

On the fourth day, She was expected to spar with Sasuke. Both Lee and Neji had been wheeled out to the courtyard to watch their spar.

At first she was against it, thinking that she wouldn't be able to keep up, and even then she didn't want to inflict damage, but when Sasuke told her that if she couldn't at least draw his blood he would be disappointed, she swallowed her reservations and stepped forward. Then Sasuke tied a cloth around his head, completely covering his eyes!

As it turned out he had been anticipating this since yesterday when he was told to try blind fighting.

Gai-Sensei briefly explained to her as well how the sharingan could predict movements and follow the flow of chakra, which allowed it to not only copy Nin and Tai-jutsu but also to see through genjutsu and better cast them as well. He had learned all of this through Kakashi-sensei.

Understanding that this fight was meant to keep him from relying too much on one sense, Sakura agreed. She started out slow and managed a few good combinations. But Sasuke was quick and was able to guess where she would strike even before she made the sounds of motion. That was when Neji interjected that she should try attacking as her other teammate did. The blonde who fought him in the exam and been hard to predict. His mix of flowing and balanced taijutsu with sloppy and almost stupid motions threw the boy off any predictable path.

With that in mind Sakura tried very hard to plan something Sasuke wouldn't expect.

By the end of the spar Sasuke's blindfold had been removed and both of them had began using their augmented speed. While physically Sakura couldn't keep up with Sasuke, he chakra control allowed her to move close to the same speed and also shift her momentum at a breaths notice. She had caught him off guard several times by stopping her inertia dead or even reversing it mid-attack or dodge. At the same time Sasuke over extended twice, and lost his balance to the chakra enhanced motion his body was trying to compensate for.

When the fight was over, Gai told them that would be that last day they trained. Neji would be discharged the next day and he wanted to take them all for some out of village R&R. With that said Sasuke told her he was going to find their sensei.

Before she could follow him Gai pulled her to the side and spoke quietly to her. "Neji told me of your talent for control. I would like to know how you feel about genjutsu or iryojutsu? Either skill would be highly useful on missions. And both avenues require a high degree of control. You could be a great medic, or you could find yourself able to manipulate the enemies minds as you wish."

After discussing the two career choices, Gai gave her the contact information for a couple shinobi. The first was team eight's sensei. The other was Kenko-san, the head nurse in the hospital. Both were easily found and known to the majority of shinobi. But with the contact information Gai had included a personal recommendation.

With that the green clad jonin departed. And Sakura realized her teammate was already long gone.

That was How Sakura found herself looking for the sensei of team eight the next day. Hoping to begin using Genjutsu as soon as she could find the woman. She had been told this morning that Sasuke would be leaving the village with Kaka-sensei for a few days in order to learn how to copy jutsu in battle. His new control had fully developed his sharingan. And since Gai told Kakashi of his recommendations the lazy Jonin told her where Asuma and Kurenai usually hung out when their team meetings were over.

So the pinkette walked the village alone in her search for the mistress of genjutsu. She had only just located the woman when the Jonin couple confronted two cloaked ninja.

One of them was tall and blue.. ieck.

The other… the other looked like Sasuke! But older…

~ Note ~

I Know this chapter is short. And sadly this is the best I can do for now. I think from now on, this story, along with both WoC. Will have condensed chapters as they are both on low priority.

Sorry for the Hiatus, And this publishing is not a full return. In short, over the last two years I have caught my ex cheating, gotten divorced, found out my ex opened nine cards in my name and maxed them out, lost my job, lost a family member, and I'm currently going bankrupt and losing my house.

I hope that when I have moved and found a new job I will be settled in enough to return in full. For now, I will work on anything that moves me at the time and if I manage to finish a chapter I'll post it when I can.

While T8: Retroversion will be my main Fic, Five others are on my list to work on at the moment: LATE Naruto: Life After the Ends; Uzumaki: A Lone Fox; The Thousand Ninja; Village Hidden in Plain Sight; and Wisdom of Chance. Descriptions on profile.