Learning a bit

I would like to apologize for the lateness of this chapter as it's past my previously stated once a month update schedule and will apologize for the next as well. I currently work in a kitchen where the AC unit is about as reliable as the last two squares of toilet paper. Meaning that 5 days a week I return home half dead from heat and sweating out every liquid in my body, and my days off are mostly me recovering. So expect a delay for next chapter as well as its's likely going to be late August or early September before it gets posted. But who knows, maybe the people in charge of my workplace will grow a conscience and actually get a working AC unit and keep us from dying of heatstroke.

Enough delays, here's the chapter!

In his time observing the Uzumaki clan before and after their homeland was invaded and their numbers reduced to single digits, Feral had been able to make theories and confirmed facts that few could about the clan of red haired people that most couldn't. Several observations would be obvious to even the most novice ninja.

One example would be that no matter the age, or sex of an uzumaki, they were natural born powerhouses. He could easily recall how children of age 6 were able to perform a minor fireball jutsu that conjured a softball sized flame they could then throw, and would show their accuracy by using them on target posts in their fields.

Another observation that became blatantly obvious within minutes was that the entire clan didn't exactly have the same sense of normalcy others did. Or as he had eloquently put it after seeing the same 6 year old children lobbing fireballs at each other in a game of ninja tag; 'The entire clan is made of damn psychopaths!'

He'd later get the explanation that the reason the parents didn't even blink at this, was that it had become common practice to place flame resistance seals on children on their first birthday that would protect them any fire jutsu below what could be considered B-rank, which he then also learned was placed on every building or area that would easily catch fire. He would then try to drink himself to death that night after being explained all of this like it was the most normal thing.

But that wasn't on his mind now, for he now was recalling on observation that would only be made known to those who were close to any Uzumaki. The people from the land of Uzu were a people of passion, and wore their emotions on their sleeves. A happy Uzumaki would often spontaneously burst into laughter or do a silly dance. An angered Uzumaki was to be avoided as the first passerby would be subjected to an unyielding rage that would leave the poor soul in the hospital for weeks.

And an Uzumaki in love? Ugh! It was like those cheesy romance novels made real! While in Uzu he was able to avoid the sappiness that made the air thick enough to choke him that often surrounded the new couples. But when he had to become Kushina's guardian he unfortunately got an up close look at the spectacle as the tomato head had become smitten with the Namikaze brat after that attempted abduction when he had left the village briefly on a lead he'd gotten for a wayward Uzumaki that had been sighted near Kusa. When he returned to Konoha it took everything the new couple had to keep him from promptly marching to Kumo and destroying the Raikage tower in retaliation.

Feral recalled these observations as his last statement sunk into the young blondes mind and saw the boy's expression change as he began to understand what had just been revealed to him, flashing from confusion to understanding, then a came a tearful happiness as he saw there was someone who finally could show him some form of care outside his precious few people. That however was quickly removed as the tears of happiness became full of rage.

Feral was glad he shifted his pipe out of the way when he saw the anger flash in the blonde's eyes as the punch he received would have easily broken it. He had to admit to feeling somewhat impressed with the punch, any person shunin or below would have had a broken nose easily from it. Sighing Feral remained still as Naruto began to physically lash out at him, striking with numerous kicks and punches on every part that could be reached. He stayed unmoving as the Uzumaki scion was further enraged by Feral's lack of response and jumped onto the man's lap and began to rain punch after punch into the unseen face.

"WHERE. WERE. YOU?" Each word was accompanied by a punch from the crying boy. "SEVEN. YEARS! I've been alone for seven years! Who do you think you are to just walk back and say you were supposed to take care of me after being gone so long?!"

Feral stayed silent. He knew the best way to handle an Uzumaki's temper is to let them tire their rage before trying to use logic. Logic to an enraged Uzumaki was like tossing a barrel of oil into a bonfire, while standing in the barrel in question. He stayed silent holding the pipe that he'd dropped from his lips after the first punch in his hand as the small fists kept striking his face, shifting his head to keep the boy from hitting his eyes or his cheek bones. No sense the boys hand getting hurt or him getting blinded, and as tough as he was, he would be glad his face couldn't be seen as the bruises the boy was going to leave would be downright embarrassing despite having deserved it.

Minutes stretched as the blond chiulds fury began to dwindle, his strikes began losing strength first, then they began to slow as the tears came harder, a final swing missed Ferals face and clipped his hood before the boy collapsed against him sobbing his heart out. With a sigh Feral lifted an arm and pat Naruto's back letting him get it out.

"I'm so sorry kid… I never should have left. I trusted the wrong people to watch over you until I came back. I found out last week that you were left alone, and I came straight back."

Naruto snuffled and choked down a sob. "Y-you...won't leave right?"

Feral sighed. "No, I'm your guardian. The first time can be forgiven by the Kami because I had been foolish to place my trust in others, this time I'd be damned forever for forsaking my duty."

Naruto broke away and tried to rub the tears from his face, but the eyes he looked up at Feral with were still a bit watery. "L-like a parent?"

The hopeful tone that voice had nearly broke his bitter heart, but he was made of sterner stuff. "No." He hastily continued when he saw that face begin to turn heartbroken itself. "I'm not your parent kid, because I won't take that away from the two who loved you more than anything in the world. Kushina and your father poured their hearts and devotion into you from the first day Kushina found out she was carrying you to the day you were born and they tragically gave their lives for you. I'm sure Kushina and your father would be okay, hell they'd be perfectly happy for me to be your parent because they know I'd protect you like my own child."

Feral gave himself a mental pat on the back seeing he'd stopped any further waterworks and saw the boy was beginning to understand where he was coming from so he kept on. "Kid, I'm not your father and I will never be your father. To take that spot from the man who had to be dragged from the Hokage mountain because he was screaming to the world he was going to be a father would in my mind be a disservice to him. I can, however, be your cool uncle."

The look the child had made Feral have a mental fist pump as he could almost feel the child have a sense of awe and wonder. OR he was having mental issues again… best to ignore that for now.

Tears gone, though his eyes still were a bit puffy from the extended crying Naruto looked up to his 'uncle' with a question. "U-Uncle…" The word sounded so weird to him but he'd get used to it eventually. "You keep saying my mothers name, but not my father's...why?"

Well there was hope for the kids future if he was smart enough to notice that after the emotional rollercoaster.

Feral sighed putting the pipe back in his lips and lit again. "Kid, sit down. I'm going to tell you a fact of life and I want you to not interrupt me until I finish okay?"

Confused but nodding Naruto sat down in front of him/

Feral took a couple drags before exhaling out a plume of smoke. "Kid, information is power. There's no person in this world who can refute that, but they forget that that's a summarized version of it. The full saying is 'knowledge that is used is power.' What that means is that simply knowing something doesn't mean anything. You could know everything there is to know about say...a tree. From its various parts to how it grows and so on. And again, I ask you, what would that matter?"

Naruto had turned to look at a nearby tree as Feral talked and gave a slow nod. It did make sense, after all, what would knowing that a tree has leaves affect in his life?

Seeing the boy followed so far he kept going. "Now for you or me that's of course of no value, but let's say that instead of us, it's a person who is in charge of growing trees to use for lumber a that's used to make buildings. They could us that information to maybe further their career and help grow more and bigger trees. Still with me?"

Naruto nodded easily picturing everything but he was wondering what the point of this was. Feral sensed the growing confusion, he'd need to teach the kid how to maintain a poker face at some point.

"The reason I'm explaining this is that there's another fact of life that ties in to this. 'Nothing is free, it must be earned.' Now you might be wondering why this applies to you in this, well it's because your entire existence is wrapped in secrets. Secrets that if given to easily could hurt you, make you question everything you know." He held up a hand stopping the outburst from the blonde. "That's not to say you will never know, for that is wrong. You will know, but in the future and not right now."

This time the outburst came regardless, Naruto rushed to his feet with a snarl. " But you outright told me who my mother was! Why not my father?! Why can't I know who I came from?!"

A flick to the forehead knocked him back on his butt. "Because kid you earned it. Seven years without a parent or guardian? You more than earned that knowledge. Had I been able I'd have given you that knowledge three years ago. No child shouldn't know at least the name of the woman who carried them when they're four and can understand it."

That settled Naruto slightly but he still didn't like it. "But what about my dad? Didn't I earn that right as well?"

Feral sighed knowing this was a minefield with an emotional child Uzumaki. "Kid I'll put it to you like this, there are tiers for what information is, and for each tier you must meet requirements. Now currently you've reached tier three. Tier one is basic information, like your name, that you're a boy, and other general knowledge things like your age and so on. Tier two is where you learn your mother's name. Also on this you learn about me and my connection to her which will be covered later. Tier three I will talk about in a bit. Now tiers four and five require something simple enough, training."

At that the boy perked up and Feral gave a hidden smirk and cut off the questions again. "Yes training. As your guardian I will train you thoroughly to make sure you are strong. Now the information on these two tiers require a certain level of strength because the information given require you be able to be able to defend yourself adequately or else it would be useless, or given prematurely. But tier 6 is where your father's identity is and like the first two the method to gain this is simple; graduate the academy."

Naruto blinked. "R-really? It's that simple?"

Feral nodded. "Now see, knowing who your father is and if that information was to leak out would cause a lot of problems. Your father was important kid."

The blonde's eyes narrowed slightly. "How important?"

"Important enough. To put it in perspective kid, if who your father was leaked out, I'd have to stand watch for awhile because the immediate actions of at least two countries would be to either kill you or kidnap you."

Naruto gulped. "Y-yeah that's important…"

Nodding Feral took another puff. "Indeed, but between how strong I'll train you to be by then plus what I believe your mental maturity to be, I will happily inform you of everything then."

With a resigned sigh Naruto nodded looking away, clearly unhappy about it. The silence stretched a moment before he turned back to Feral. "What do I learn from tier 3?"

Feral's hidden smirk grew. "Let me tell you about the people I saw as my second family…"

Next Day

Naruto sat in the Academy, remarkably early for him much to the surprise of the other students after he'd seem to have made a regular habit of being late no less than ten minutes since the beginning of the year. Their surprise grew as the normally hyper blonde was sitting in the chair quietly though he seemed anxious about something. Most of the class wrote it off as unimportant but a handful of them, such as the pineapple-headed boy named Nara Shikamaru and a heavy coat and shade wearing boy named Aburame Shino had their interests peaked. They knew of their normally unruly classmates penchant for pranking, and both made a fairly logical judgement that the boy had set up a prank inside the classroom. Normally both boys would have no interest in either their peers activities, but the problem was that they couldn't tell who was the apparent target for the upcoming prank.

Hinata however knew the real reason Naruto was acting that way. After the meeting with her father and Feral, she'd been informed by her father that her classmate, one Uzumaki Naruto, was the son of Feral's previous ward, and they would be training together after Feral arrived the day the Academy returned back to work and would be there to pick her and Naruto up. She'd been surprised the blonde boy was who would be training with her but she was happy with it. Truthfully she kind of liked him, as unlike the other girls she never went for the broody and depressing aura of Sasuke, it simply wasn't appealing to her. The whiskered boy had a generally kind and cheerful disposition that seemed to simply draw her attention in like a moth to flame.

Glancing at the boy she fidgeted her fingers in thought Maybe I'll finally have a chance to touch his whiskers

Meanwhile the boy in question was internally reviewing the previous day as the academy was closed for a quick renovation. Feral had begun to weave the story of his almost extinct clan. Feral had not been overly callous but had made it clear to Naruto that his clan was reduced to single digits after the second ninja war had decimated them severely. He had gone on to say his clan had several specialties, but were most famous for the art of sealing, and were in fact so advanced with the art it inspired fear among other nations, fear that would lead to the clans numbers being crippled from the low four digits to now being a handful left, Naruto included. Feral had cut off NAruto's sadness and anger over the injustice his clan had faced when Feral chuckled as he told Naruto the figures of the fighters involved. His clan had numbered in the 2,000's while the civilian population of Uzu numbered around 10,000. According to Feral, the invading force had numbered around 48,000 strong and three Jinchuriki.

A quick explanation of what Jinchuriki was exactly, being containers of one of the various tailed beasts, and when trained properly could harness that power made it clear to Naruto that the three were equal to anywhere from 100 to 1,000 shinobi by themselves given their strengths and particular Bijuu.

During the beginning of the invasion Feral had been absent, having escorted his mother to Konoha as part of a secret program. When news came Feral had demanded the Hokage for 100 Jounin to follow him and either end the invasion, or show the invaders their mistakes.

The story had gone to show Feral had been late, as the invading force, now reduced to roughly 4,000 shinobi, and two wounded and exhausted Jinchuriki were arriving back from Uzu island via the special ships Kiri supplied to navigate the natural whirlpools Uzu had as defense, to now face a now enraged Feral and 100 Konoha Jounin who were now seeking vengeance for the blood their allies had shed. Feral had immediately engaged the Jinchuriki and killed both before turning on the rest of the enemy forces, his rage not sated.

His return to Konoha with 80 remaining Jounin had exhausted him more emotionally than anything and once reaching the village had disappeared. He would be found later by Kushina and Mito who had used her emotion sensing to find him drunk beyond coherence and apologizing for his absolute failure for having left his post. Mito, despite being an elderly lady, had proceeded to beat him into sobriety, much to his shame when Naruto laughed hard enough to fall back and roll on the ground. The elder Uzumaki had then stated that to atone for his supposed failure that he was to watch over his mother's life as her guardian.

Feral had stopped there saying the rest could wait for later. He then took Naruto back to the village and headed near the clan district, finding a singular house, easily the size of the building his apartment was in that Naruto knew had been abandoned years ago according to the villagers. Feral then sprung the surprise that this building was his parents! Feral then sent Naruto to scurry to his apartment and gather whatever items he treasured most to bring back.

Unknown at the time Feral had taken the time to properly hide any evidence of his father, but made sure there was a few photos of Kushina either alone or with a group that didn't involve his unknown father.

It said a lot when Naruto returned ten minutes later with only his backpack having the rest of his clothes and toiletries, reasoning that his food was almost gone anyway and he had been about to go shopping for more the next day.

Naruto had gone to sleep that night exhausted from sensory overload clutching a photo of his mother when she was pregnant with him, giving the camera a warm loving motherly smile. It had been enough for Feral to grab the camera from the office and snap a quick picture.

After a night with possibly the most peaceful sleep he'd ever had, Feral had awakened him the next morning for a quick breakfast of toast a slices of ham, and sent him to the academy, saying he had to go by the Hokage's office and get a few things settled before picking him up.

So lost in his own thoughts Naruto promptly ignored his nemesis, the eternal sourpuss Sasuke Uchiha when he entered last. Said Uchiha merely raised an eyebrow seeing the odd sight of the blond boy actually having arrived before him but shrugged it off before taking his usual window seat and stared outside, beginning the arduous task of not only plotting ways to kill his older brother, but ignoring the gaggle of fangirls that immediately began vying for his attention, or failing that, the seat beside him that somehow always remained empty until he arrived.

It wasn't long before their teacher, a Chunin named Iruka Imuno came in shuffling a few papers followed by his assistant Toji Mizuki. After the normal routine of settling the noise down and barking at the fangirls to return to their seats with a quick application of the demon head jutsu ( Ino Yamanaka having won the seat by the Uchiha to the dismay of the rest ) and beginning role. After a brief glance of surprise seeing Naruto early and giving a half smile, happy that his student seemed to have decided at least for the day to be serious he addressed the class. "Listen up!"

Now sure he had the collection of brats attention he continued. "Today will be starting a bit different. I want everyone to head outside and line up against the wall beside the sparring area, we have a special guest for the day, and will be waiting for us outside."

The room filled with the noise of excited murmurs and moving chairs as the children filed out, Naruto at the front with a wide grin, knowing who it was.

After a minute everyone got outside and lined up, having to wait another minute when Iruka stomped back in and dragged Shikamaru out as the boy had been dragging his feet finding the whole thing troublesome.

Doing a quick headcount so he could be sure there were no stragglers he nodded seeing everyone there. "Now before our guest arrives, I'm going to run over a bit of his history that's available to us that isn't personal or classified. Now not a lot is known about him, in fact he is possibly one of the few ninja in history that despite being renowned, is still a mystery even to his own allies."

That rose a few eyebrows and started a few murmurs of curiosity as Iruka pulled out a small booklet and cleared his throat quieting them again. "This is something that all ninja must be familiar with. This is a bingo book, which holds information about various ninja throughout the nations. For the most part, every version of the book from each nation is the same, as they all list various criminals and their bounties. This one is a bingo book from our ally Suna for example." Opening the book he flipped a few pages before turning it to show them. "As example, this one is a traitor for our village, Aoi Rokusho. After stealing a priceless artifact that belonged to our Niidame Hokage, he fled the village, and after a few other actions best left for later, he disappeared. He is a former Jounin of our village and since he betrayed us we have a bounty for his return, dead or alive."

Turning the book back to himself he flipped a few more pages finding the one he wanted a set a bookmark in it before looking to the class again. "Do not get it confused, but if you get strong enough, you will appear in one of these books someday. That is not a good thing, all it means is that you are a target, and these books make sure you can't even show your face in public lest you be attacked for the money placed over your head. The fate of all traitors is to be hunted down like rabid animals and put down like such. Kiba, for example, says he will be part of the hunter corps as their leader. Well one of their main jobs is to hunt traitors when intelligence of their location is found."

Internally smirking seeing he had the classes attention, though also crying internally as they'd never been so attentive to his lectures he tossed the book to Shikamaru who had been placed at the end of the line-up. "That's not the point though, the point is that once you reach a certain level of notoriety, you get placed in the book. Konoha's own book will list particularly strong shinobi of other nations as a warning so that you would know to avoid conflict, after all if you're a chunin like me and you suddenly find yourself facing a random opponent, you'd probably like to know if the person is a fellow chunin, or a jounin who you need to evade. Now to the point. That particular edition is the most recent version released from Suna and has the most up to date information on our guest available to other nations. Shikamaru if you'd please take a look and pass it along?"

With a sigh and quiet muttering of 'troublesome' Shikamaru opened the book to the marked page and scanned it quickly, frowning at it before passing it to Choji who had moved beside him before closing his eyes to go over the pages information.

The page had a square that from seeing the other page indicated it was supposed to be a photo, but was just blank, and a single word for the name; Feral

Below that was a list of titles, from what the Nara could guess. Most were the sort of thing that was common in history like 'Konoha's white fang' or 'Yellow flash' but for this Feral character, he simply couldn't understand the title 'mountain king', or 'Bloody wolf', though he admitted the second sounded kind of cool.

Below were a list of stats for various Shinobi skills like jutsu or taijutsu, but that was of little help as most were simply marked 'Assumed Kage-level' save for Genjutsu which was marked 'Uknown'.

The last piece of information available was his rank. Being son of the Jounin commander Shikamaru was familiar with the ranking system, and knew that it went from D, usually reserved for genin and lower tier chunin, up to SSS, of which only two Ninja had ever been bestowed that dubious honor, Hashirama Senju, and Madara Uchiha. He also knew that various kage, including the second, third, and fourth Hokage had been marked as SS and a few from other villages also shared that ranking. But thinking back to the page he had a slight cold sweat when he saw that beside the ranking, it read; SS?

But that was it. No age, no defining characteristics that could be given outside a photo, hell his cursory glance at the other page showed that there wasn't even a place of birth, but when it reached the part marked 'Affiliation' all that was placed was a question mark.

Down the line most were confused at the - information wise - blank page, a small handful had thought that perhaps the guest was the other full page, but dismissed that as it had an Iwa nukenin that shared a minor similarity with their Yamanaka classmate, said blonde scowling at the man for having 'her hairstyle' before passing it along with a huff.

Naruto who had been next to her took one look at the page and smirked at it before passing it along.

Iruka had been watching their reactions to the page and had withheld a snort of amusement seeing the confusion he knew was on his one face when the Hokage had informed him earlier much the same way he was now with his students.

Ignoring the last student who received it, the Uchiha boy, he gave a cough to gather their attentions again.

"Now you've seen the page in question, you might be wondering, why there's little to nothing on it, yes?" Getting a few nods he continued. "The reason is simple. No records actually exist of him. He essentially, doesn't exist."

Now that that got a handful of widened eyes, and not a few confused face. Though Shino Aburame gave his clans signature raised eyebrow, their version of a loud gasp.

Nodding he went on. "All there is that exists of him is verbal testimony from eyewitnesses. Which for some others in that book is about the same, but they usually have previous documents that are later added in to fill in gaps. I was much in the same boat as you when the Hokage called me to his office this morning, and was willing to give me a few facts that you won't find in that book. Though they may be unbelievable in nature, Hokage-sama has assured me he spoke nothing but the truth."

Stealing himself he took a breath recalling the conversation and sallied forth. "Feral-sama, is, as Hokage-sama put it, a 'true shinobi'."

That even brought Shikamaru's attention fully onto him.

"Our first Hokage, when he and Madara Uchiha worked together to make this village, and created the Shinobi system we know today, provided us his views as to what a shinobi is. A shinobi by his own words is 'He who endures, He who grows, and He who conquers.' Sandaime-sama has told me that all four Hokage have declared that Feral-sama embodies that definition."

That sent a few murmurs up and down the line before Iruka clapped to silence them. Giving a knowing smirk he spoke up. "But a few fancy definitions and lack of information I'm sure isn't enough to convince you all of his importance, so Sandaime-sama provided me a short list of our guests various accomplishments, at least those not under orders to be kept secret."

Pulling out the paper he cleared his throat before starting. "While not the first, but the start of when Feral-sama began to work more closely to Konoha, his first mission, was to lead a contingent of 100 Jounin's to face a force of around 4,000 enemy forces after they had invaded an allied land. His mission was a success and saw no enemy target to escape, with a minimal loss of life on our end."

Murmurs started a bit louder this time in shock that such a meager force had been lead against an enemy whose numbers dwarfed theirs 40 to 1, they silenced themselves as Iruka moved on.

"Feral was recognised as a master teacher, and taught various important figures throughout the village, Hokage-sama even admitted that he fell under Feral-sama's teachings for a brief time. But others you may recognize are the various clan heads several of you belong to, including the Inuzuka, Hyuuga, Akamichi, Nara, and Uchiha clans."

Said heirs of those clans gave small noises of shock, though Sasuke simply gave a dismissive huff though Kiba Inuzuka with wide eyes nearly shouted. "No way!"

Iruka snorted in amusement at the reaction of the boy. "According to Hokage-sama, yes way. Included in that list of impressive students, was in fact our Yondaime! He had a brief few months teaching him with his master, Jiraiya of the Sannin. Their tutelage of the Yondaime saw a rapid growth of the man's fighting prowess by several leaps!"

Powering through the outburst of shock Iruka kept going. "But one instance is what made it clear to me what would have all four Hokage claim Feral is a true shinobi. Towards the end of the second war, Feral-sama had been sent to aid in the removal of several teams of deep cover agents who had been discovered and had been forced to retreat. Feral-sama ordered them to continue on as he defended a stretch of plains, as a battalion of Iwa shinobi who had been in pursuit of our spies. The Tsuchikage had sent a battalion because he had discovered our shinobi had gathered highly sensitive secrets and future plans for the war and deemed that no amount of shinobi would be too much as the damage the lost intel would cause would effectively be their downfall. Sending the battalion ahead the Tsuchikage followed after as extra insurance to ensure the intel was recovered. Getting a message back from one of our few remaining spies, our Sandaime Hokage readied himself and headed out to engage the Tsuchikage and repel him if needed. Rushing out he passed the recovered teams, pausing to assess their condition before sending them along to deliver the intel safely behind Konoha walls. Reaching the plain he was met with the sight of Feral, standing with the beaten and bloodied Tsuchikage by his throat in one hand aloft in the air. Approaching the Sandaime caught the end of what Feral was saying to his beaten opponent. As he recalls it goes; 'I have laid low your warriors. I have reaped them like a scythe before grass, I have climbed the mountains made from their corpses, swam entire oceans of their blood, drank the tears of their loved ones, and fed upon their despair as I watched the life drain from their eyes. Yet…"

"Yet you spirit stays strong, despite all this, so I will not continue to break your spirit, I will break your body!"

The sudden voice from above gained several shrieks or shocked outcries as the students leapt away, turning to look from behind Iruka who had been shocked silent from the sudden appearance of someone. Once the class had fled to behind their two teachers who had tensed they looked up at the Academy towards a window. Sitting there with legs crossed and hands clasped on the top knee, Feral stared down at them all with an amused glint in his eyes.

Chuckling his eyes crinkled as he spoke. "With my declaration made, I lifted that midget Kage, and brought him down into my knee, and so became 'He who broke the Tsuchikage's back'. But that's enough of history. Hello children, I am Feral, and it's a pleasure to meet you."

There you have it. Now a few people may be wondering about certain points in this chapter, but I'll quell that now. Writer's privilege. Several facts or details become lost in the story and are often not revisited, such as how the Tsuchikage gained his back problems. I honestly can't recall it and for a moment I had thought it was Madara. Honestly I didn't bother since the real version of that has no impact on this story so I slipped in my own version.

I reiterate, that Feral is roughly the same level as Tobirama, who back in the height of his power, was only second to his brother and Madara. In the few instances we see him in the series, short as they are, he is overshadowed and his brother and Madara, limited in ability during his first resurection, and in the fourth ninja war he's again overshadowed by his brother and Madara as well as Naruto and Sasuke. When we see the scene where he hands the hat to Hiruzen, it can be inferred that he's tired, old, and low on chakra, leaving him vulnerable to the enemy at that time. I firmly believe that Tobirama in his prime could easily handle two battalions worth of Shinobi ON HIS OWN.

It's that belief that sets the bar I have for Feral. Between personal power and experience, Feral is firmly in the top 1% in power rankings of the elemental nations.

I will probably add an Omake in the next chapter for shits and giggles.

Please leave a review, no flaming.