A/N: I do not own Naruto or Zoids

Part 1: Teeth of the Liger

Chapter 8: Enemies of the Leaf – Taka and the Red Vipers!

The next day found Tsunade, Gaara, and two others in a conference room in the Hokage tower. Gaara had requested this meeting when he had arrived in the village, but they had to wait until today to actually have the meeting. The one they waited for was the Raikage, leader of the Village Hidden in the Clouds, and older brother of Killer Bee, the Jinchūriki of the Eight-Tailed Beast. The Raikage was currently being escorted to the tower by several ANBU of both Konoha and Kumo. After about a ten minute wait, the Raikage was led into the conference room, leaving all but the ANBU leading him behind. As he took his seat, this ANBU left as well.

Having never met the Raikage before, Tsunade was impressed by the air of authority that surrounded him. He was a tall, dark-skinned, very muscular man. He had slicked-back white hair, a short, white goatee, and a white mustache that was parted in the middle. He wore the traditional cloak of the Raikage, as well as gold bangle bracelets on each of his wrists. Around his waist, he wore a large gold belt with a lion's face engraved in the center.

"Welcome to Konoha, Raikage-sama." Tsunade told him.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." the Raikage answered.

The third male in the room now took the opportunity to speak.

"I trust you are well, Lord Yotsuki." he said.

The Raikage turned to look at the man.

"Indeed I am Lord Ōnoki." he answered.

Although he was Tsuchikage, Ōnoki was somewhat hard to take seriously by his appearance. He was a short, old man with a large nose, white hair, a triangular beard, and a moustache with angular corners. The woman to his left was exactly the opposite. She was a slightly taller than average young woman with red hair and green eyes. She wore a blue garment over fishnet-like webbing. Her long hair was tied back in a ponytail by a blue ribbon. All in all, she was a very beautiful woman.

"Remember me, Lord Yotsuki?" she asked.

"How could I forget, Mizukage-sama?"

"You know better than to call me that." she told him.

"Of course, Lady Uzumaki."


Unbeknownst to the Five Kage, while they were talking, scores of shinobi were traveling through the trees towards Konoha. Each one wore all black clothing, and each one wore a headband. Engraved on each headband was a pair of red fangs. At the front of the group were four other ninja. The one closest to the rear was a large man with spiked orange hair. He wore a black shirt, tan pants, and a blue cloak. Directly in front of him was another young man. This one had white hair with a light-blue tinge to it, purple eyes, and he wore a matching purple sleeveless shirt with gray pants. He was wearing a belt around his waist with water bottles attached to it, and another belt around his waist that held a large sword. In front of him was the only female of the group. She had red eyes, a matching hair color, and an unusual hairstyle: her hair was short and unkempt on one side, while long and combed on the other. She wore brown glasses, a violet long-sleeeved shirt, black pants, and long black boots.

Unlike his three companions who were all in some state of exhaustion, the leader of the four-man group showed no signs of being tired. He had long black hair with a blue tint and onyx eyes. He wore a long-sleeved white jacket over a sleeveless black shirt. He also wore black pants and black combat boots. A katana hung in its scabbard at his side.

"Can we really trust these Red Vipers, Sasuke?" the white-haired one asked the leader.

"Whether we can or not does not matter, Suigetsu." Sasuke answered. "They fear the power of my Sharingan enough to follow my orders. As long as they do their job, I don't care what they think."

"What exactly is their job, Sasuke?" the orange-haired one asked.

"And ours for that matter." the female added.

"Well, Jugo, their job is to engage Konoha's forces. As for our job, Karin – we're going to eliminate the Hokage."


"I've called for this meeting to address a growing threat to the five nations." Gaara began. "Our intelligence has reported that the Akatsuki has grown exceptionally more powerful."

"How is that possible?" Tsunade asked. "Itachi Uchiha, Hidan, Kakuzu, Sasori, Deidara, and Pain are all dead. And Konan has defected from Akatsuki to become the new leader of Amekagure."

"It seems that Kisame Hoshigaki has taken the role of leader of the organization. He has recrutied Sasuke Uchiha and his team as full members of Akatsuki. In addition, Sasuke has gained control of an organization known as the Red Vipers." Gaara explained.

"Who are they and what kind of threat do they pose?" the Mizukage questioned.

"I can answer that one." the Raikage said. "That slime Orochimaru formed the organization after he defected from Akatsuki. It's an army of shinobi from Otogakure, Getsugakure, and Yugakure as well as low ranked missing-nins from several other villages. They followed Orochimaru's orders, until the Uchiha took control of them."

"Do they have a symbol or anything?" Ōnoki asked.

"Only their headbands." Gaara answered. "They wear headbans with two red fangs engraved on them."

This caused Tsunade to snap eyes open. In a moment, she was at the door to the room.

"What's wrong, Tsunade?" Gaara inquired.

Tsunade didn't answer as she opened the door and called for Shizune. The other Kage couldn't hear what was said between the two, but a few moments later, the door was closed and Tsunade was walking back to the table carrying something. She tossed it onto the table and the others saw that it was a headband. Two red fangs were visible on the metal plate.

"You mean like that?" Tsunade asked.

"Where did you get this?" the Raikage demanded.

"Three unknown shinobi attacked one of my teams. They were all killed by our new mercenary. Kakashi Hatake was the leader of the team and he brought the bodies back for examination. That was found in the cloak of one of the shinobi."

"Mercenary?" Ōnoki questioned. "Why would you need a mercenary?"

"I needed something for the new kid to do, and he couldn't become a ninja." Tsunade explained. "You can meet him later."

"I'm sure we would all like to." the Mizukage answered for all of them.

They moved on to discuss several possible courses of action, talking until about noon, when they decided to break for lunch. As they waited for the food to arrive, Tsunade addressed the Mizukage.

"Lord Yotsuki referred to you as Lady Uzumaki, correct?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes he did." the Mizukage answered. "My name is Keiko Uzumaki."

"Are you by chance related to a Kushina Uzumaki?" Tsunade continued.

"How do you know that name?" Keiko demanded.

"She is the mother of one of my best shinobi." Tsunade answered.

"I always wondered what happened to Kushina. She is my older sister. Who is this shinobi that you say is my nephew?"

"Naruto Uzumaki, the Jinchūriki of the Nine-Tailed Beast." Tsunade answered.

"Would I be able to see him and his mother?" Keiko asked.

"I can send for Naruto right now. However Kushina died during childbirth." Tsunade told her gravely.

"I see; and what of the boy's father?"

"He was Minato Namikaze, the Yondaime Hokage and Konoha's Yellow Flash."

"He was killed fighting the Nine-Tailed Demon Fox, if I heard correctly?"

"That is correct." Tsunade answered. She then stood and left the room. After a few minutes, she returned.

"Naruto and his team will arrive after lunch." Tsunade said. "That includes our new Mercenary." she added for the benefit of the other Kage.

Several minutes later, the food arrived and they ate. As soon as they finished, Tsunade had Shizune send Team 7 in and Keiko got to see her nephew for the first time. The five Kage stood and walked over to greet the four warriors.

"It is a pleasure to present Konoha's Team 7." Tsunade said. She then gestured to the adult of the team. "This is Kakashi Hatake, the legendary Copy Ninja, and Jonin leader of Team 7."

Kakashi bowed as he was introduced and then he took over the introductions.

"This is my team: Sakura Haruno, Konoha's Healing Blossom; Naruto Uzumaki, the Toad Sage; and Liger Zero, Konoha's new Mercenary."

Each of the three bowed to the Kages as they were introduced.

Ōnoki and the Raikage were each examining Liger as Keiko looked over her nephew.

"He definitely looks like the Yondaime Hokage, but I can see a little of Kushina in him too." she thought.

"Naruto," Tsunade said, interupting Keiko's thoughts, "I called you here because I think you would especially like to meet the Mizukage."

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"She means," Keiko answered. "that you would be interested to know my name, Keiko Uzumaki."

Naruto, Sakura, and Kakashi's eyes widened at this revelation.

"Who are you?" Naruto finally managed.

"I'm your aunt." Keiko told him. "Kushina was my older sister."

"How come I've never met you before?" Naruto asked.

"I'm sorry to say that before today, I didn't even know you existed." Keiko answered. "Kushina left the Land of Whirlpools about twenty-four years ago. I had no idea why she left or where she went. However, now I know that she ended up here with your father."

"This is awesome!" Naruto shouted, surprising evryone. "Now I've got two Kages in my family! I'll become Hokage for sure!"

Sakura, Tsunade, and Keiko all smiled when they heard this. The Raikage chuckled, then said, "You'll have to keep up your training if you want to become a strong Kage."

"Don't worry Lord Yotsuki," Tsunade told him, "he's a really strong shinobi already."

"Is that so?" Ōnoki asked.

"Naruto is the one who defeated Pain of the Akatsuki." Kakashi said.

"He's been after my job all his life." Tsunade added.

"Well, moving on from this family reunion," the Raikage said turning to Liger, "let's talk about you."

"What do you mean?" Liger asked confused.

"You don't seem like much of a mercenary." Ōnoki answered.

"We'd like to see what you're made of later." Keiko said.

Suddenly, a large boom interupted the conversation. The door flew open and Shizune ran in.

"Lady Tsunade! The village is under attack!"

"How's that for timing?" Tsunade said. "Looks like you can see Liger's abilites close-up."

They all rushed from the room to the roof of the tower. A large cloud of smoke was visible to the west of the village. They could see that part of the wall had collapsed and ninja were pouring in while Konoha ninja were rushing to meet them.

"Time to earn my stripes." Liger said. He turned and ran to the railing in the direction of his home. Without hesitation, he dove over the edge of the roof.

"Let's go guys." Kakashi told his team as he leapt from the roof, with Naruto and Sakura close behind.

"Any help you could give would be appreciated." Tsunade said to the other Kage. She turned to face them and realized that Gaara was already gone.

"We can't let you and Gaara show us up." the Raikage said as he and Ōnoki followed Team 7.

"I can't stand by while my family fights a battle." Keiko told Tsunade before she too left to join the fight.

"Shizune, prepare the hospital to receive any casualties." Tsunade barked. "It's time to defend the village once again."

Shizune ran off to follow her orders as Tsunade followed everyone else. When she arrived at the site of the battle, she saw that everyone else was already engaging the hundreds of enemies. She spotted a body on the ground and saw the Red Vipers headband on it.

"Gaara was right." she thought to herself.

She was interupted by a few Red Vipers who decided to make the mistake of attacking her. As she engaged the ninja, she heard the roar of Naruto's Rasengan as he ripped through a group of unlucky shinobi. She finished off the last ninja when she heard someone behind her. She turned and saw a ninja with a sword charging her. He was about to run her through when she heard a shout.

"STRIKE LASER CLAW!"

Liger suddenly appeared and slashed right through the ninja's sword before it reached Tsunade and he decapitated the man with a followup swing.

"You alright?" he asked. She nodded and he ran off again. As he left, she saw that Liger's bag was on his back again.


Naruto was fighting back to back with Neji while Sakura and Tenten were engaing opponents nearby. Suddenly, a jet of water alerted the four to the presence of another. Naruto killed the ninja he was fighting and looked to the source of the water. He growled as he saw Suigetsu standing nearby with a smug grin on his face. Naruto moved to attack and then stopped as he realized something.

"Wait, if Suigetsu's here, then that means…"

"Hello again, dobe." Sasuke said into Naruto's ear.

A/N: I know that I said that I wasn't going to do the Five Kage summit, but I decided that I would have a different version of it. What can I say? I think the Five Kage are awesome! And the reason I said that Keiko (don't know her real name or the Raikage's for that matter) was Naruto's aunt is that she reminds me of his mother, so I made them related. Let me know what you think!

p.s. The next chapter is the armor transformation that you've all been waiting for!