Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: I know many things were not exactly clear in the last chapter, but don't worry; it'll all come up with no exaggerated or fancy explanations.

Chapter 9: Deception part 2: The Ambush.

Minato Namikaze couldn't just believe that some people could see the way of the Ninja as nothing else than a constant bloodbath and a never-ending fight for power. They couldn't believe that Danzou actually wanted them to fight against the civilians. Fight against the civilians, for the Gods' sake. What the hell is going on through that old bastard's mind? This was just a wicked way to throw us out of the village, and to make a terrible image of us! Put simply, civilian war propaganda!

The young kids knew that this all was totally wrong, and they were raised within families who valued the life and who shared strong principles. They knew that their parents and families, even when they were powerful ninjas, they couldn't harm civilians, even less if their duty was to protect them. Then, none of them could understand how someone would want to use the civilians to attack their protectors. Somehow, they all thought that they would ask their parents later.

The fleeing group, after a long discussion with Ibiki Morino, ended up waiting in the mountain over the Hokage Monument, as the Hyuuga elders watched the whole situation in the town from above. Apparently, Ibiki's guess was right, and after all, the whole group of the Civilian Council wanted ninja blood to run on the streets frantically.

Of course, the Clans knew better than leaving their own people behind, so after a few minutes of discussion, the Clans' heads decided to keep the people happy with bread and circus to be able to leave in peace.

A group of at least forty ninjas from all Clans were working, coordinated by Ibiki Morino, in the massive Genjutsu that made the people believe that they were actually getting the Clans distracted and being able to slay them down, of course, with some resistance, but quite sloppily.

They had to see how their manors and compounds were surrounded by the angry mob that was controlled easily by the Civilian Council, who was controlled also by Danzou and his ANBU Root.

They could do their best to avoid the spotlight by keeping the villagers happy and making them believe the story of the Clans' deaths with no problems, but they knew that Danzou knew better than that, and surely he'd be expecting something like this from them all.

Now they had to leave, and they had to keep their eyes wide open. Soon the people will leave the under-siege compounds to go to their homes, and Danzou will start sending their ninjas to check if any kind of ninja techniques were left down, if he didn't do so already, and they needed to be as far away as possible before he realized that.

After almost half an hour, the people started to leave, and both Minato and Kushina started guiding the fleeing mass, with Naruto right beside them. The Namikaze Clan walked with the Sarutobi Clan and the civilian Jounin and Chuunin ninjas called by the Third Hokage himself to flee with them. The other Clans were all separated, but close enough to assist each other in case of anything happened.

Meanwhile, in the Hokage's office, Danzou was quite content. The Clans were cautious enough to make the village fall in a Genjutsu to avoid being hunted by an angry mob as they fled away. Of course, he expected the exodus, but now he had to look everywhere to find those treacherous Clans who left him with only the indispensable thing. But something came up to his mind, and that was quite interesting.

He had at least one or two members of each Clan, kidnapped when children, and thanks to them he knew about many of the different bloodlines and special techniques of the Clans, but he wanted to make sure that even more of his agents could have those bloodline traits, and he could possess their techniques on his ranks.

Of course, this didn't limit itself to the Hidden Leaf's Clans, as he already had several of his agents "rescuing" orphans around the continent (most likely turned into orphans thanks to these same agents) to gather children with the bloodline traits he desired so much.

He sent his people to double-check the Clans' compounds in search for any hidden scrolls in the places, ready to do whatever to gather as many techniques as possible. As his agents left the office, he received an unexpected guest, but he wasn't startled at all:

- I see you sent for me, Danzou…

Danzou checked on the pale-white-skinned man in front of him and smirked after seeing his snake eyes:

- Sure I did, Orochimaru.

Orochimaru didn't trust the old man at all, but over everything he envied him. Danzou had accomplished the only goal Orochimaru had in his life, and that was the possession of a Sharingan. The Snake Sannin said:

- Tell me one reason to not take your body right now.

Danzou, mocking the Snake Lord, said:

- What? Your three years in that body had passed already? You know better than killing me, you Sannin.

The title was used ironically, and Orochimaru could feel that poison in his voice. He replied:

- I don't really care about you at all, so, unless you have a hell of a deal for me, I won't hesitate to slay you down and leave back.

Danzou said:

- How about the possession of the different bloodlines in the Hidden Leaf?

Orochimaru's eyes opened wide:

- What do you talk about?

Danzou noticed Orochimaru's curiosity and replied:

- I want you to collaborate with me with some project I've thought about lately. It involves genetic research, so it might work for you.

Orochimaru's eyes opened wide. That bastard knows a lot about my researches. I must be careful. He said:

- Well, what's in it for me?

Danzou simply stated, taking a deep breath:

- I want you to gather DNA samples from the different Clans in the Hidden Leaf.

Orochimaru startled. He couldn't believe what he was being asked for. He said:

- That's not particularly easy. I'm not exactly welcome in the Clans' compounds.

Danzou replied:

- They're not in the compounds. They're leaving the village as we speak. Of course, they covered their tracks with a massive Genjutsu, and even I don't know which direction they took. I'll arm a search party, and I want you to go with them, sneak up on the Clans and gather DNA samples. If you want so, feel free to take an Uchiha for yourself as payment.

Orochimaru's eyes almost popped out of the surprise. He said then:

- That's not exactly an easy thing either, but if they're on the move, I should have more chances of doing this. But, what if I don't find a suitable Uchiha? Will you hand me any successful experiment I can do for you?

Danzou had to think about Orochimaru's proposal. Sure it was a lot better if Orochimaru could kidnap an Uchiha ninja and use it, but it should be quite impossible. On the other side, he'd be losing a valuable asset if he handed Orochimaru the first positive results in these experiments with the Uchiha blood. He said, after a few minutes:

- Do what you can over there; if you cannot take an Uchiha on your own, then we'll have a talk about this.

Orochimaru wasn't too happy with this deal, as he wanted to make sure he had a Sharingan after this was over. On the other side, even when he's a Sannin, facing the Hidden Leaf's Clans wasn't exactly an easy feat, but perhaps it could be worthy. He said:

- You say when the search party is ready and we shall go.

Suddenly, the office's door was knocked. Danzou commanded the one outside to enter, and he saw one of his agents entering the office. This dark-masked and dark-dressed ninja said:

- Sir, the Clans left nothing behind. Even the Namikaze left nothing.

Danzou turned upset. This is going to be necessary, after all. He replied:

- Very well, Mikazuki. I want you to organize a search party, an ambush party, and meet me here; at least fifteen agents. We'll have to do some work in the night.

Mikazuki left, and Orochimaru sat down, waiting for Danzou's agents to arrive.

After hours of walking in the night time, the groups decided to camp for the night. The huge camp took a rather short area of the forest, as there were several large tents, in which a bunch of families could sleep together. Minato and Kushina met the Clans' heads, and they were talking about important issues. Inoichi Yamanaka said:

- We've got a quiet trip up to now. I don't like this one bit.

Shikaku Nara replied:

- I'm pretty sure Danzou is planning something hideous, and it'll surely be something about ambushing us.

Tsume Inuzuka talked then:

- We shouldn't let our guard down, and make sure that we can mobilize quickly in case of ambushes.

Kushina replied:

- Believe me, we're rather a large group of persons, and it'll be easier to attack us while we sleep. We're just too many, so we have to organize several contingency measures to avoid as many losses as we can during an ambush.

The old Sarutobi said:

- Yes, that's right. I've got some things in mind. As a Hokage, I myself had to learn several mobilizing tactics to take the civilians out of the village in case of a massive attack. Listen here.

Hiruzen Sarutobi started guiding the Clans' heads into the different tactics, and they tried to make sure that each one of them passed the information to the Clans as fast as possible. The ambushes could start tonight, if they weren't lucky.

Not too far, a group of at least fifteen ninjas, all camouflaged in the forest, were leading Orochimaru through the trail that led him to the Clans. As one of them moved forward and found that they had camped for the night, the Snake Lord decided to wait until they slept to attack. Surely they'd have a guard, but, no matter how many of the Clans' ninjas there were, they could do nothing against the Great Snake Sannin.

An hour later, the camp's lights were turned off, and the first night shift placed itself, ready to warn the whole camp if anything happened. An hour later, neither of the watchmen expected to see what they were just watching, and as the horns were sounded, the people inside the camp woke up to see a huge, white Eight-Headed Snake. The chaos ran through the camp, as other three huge snakes showed up, surrounding the camp. Orochimaru was watching the massacre from a hidden post, and also saw a desperate summoning of a huge toad he recognized immediately:

- Gamabunta is here… Well, it'll be taken out too.

The fight was tough, and the losses were huge. Gamabunta was having a hard deal, as the Eight-Headed Snake was fighting him. The old Sarutobi called for Enka, and he was engaging in combat against one of the snakes. The rather few living ninjas were taking on the other snakes, who had already bitten and swallowed some ninjas for good.

Orochimaru, realizing that he had captured enough ninjas of some of the Clans to consider his job done, armed hand seals, teleporting himself and the snakes elsewhere.

The people were trying to gather themselves. The Inuzuka ninjas were not exactly a lot, and they had to account for some losses, not only between the ninjas, but also between the dogs. The Aburame ninjas were beaten hard, as almost half their family members were gone for good. The Yamanaka ninjas were reunited with the Akimichi and the Nara, accounting their own losses and attending the wounded people that could still be rescued.

The Hyuuga and the Uchiha ninjas were checking everything, as they both were hit the hardest. More than half of their ninjas were gone, and both Hiashi and Fugaku were checking that their families were okay. Fugaku found his two sons and his wife, and Hiashi could find her wife and her two daughters. As they were all safe, they decided to check on the rest of the people.

Hiashi found that his brother Hizashi was being attended by medic ninjas due to a serious wound in his chest, but he saw that he was just getting better slowly, so he decided to leave him. As he found Neji was still alive also, he decided to calm down. The actual losses in the Clan were quite unbearable, but he was glad that his closest ones were still alive.

The Sarutobi were a bit harmed, but there was something very terrible: the old Third Hokage passed away during the battle, and the mourning was general. Minato, Kushina and Naruto were all right; a bit bruised, perhaps, but they were protected by Gamabunta. The large toad said:

- I didn't like this. Orochimaru was behind this, I know it.

Mianto replied the bruised giant toad:

- You've done a great job, lord Gamabunta. Thank you. I guess you can go home now.

Gamabunta vanished in a large smoke cloud, and Minato, realizing that there was no chance to even bury the dead properly, gathered the Clans' heads. He said, quite worn out and shocked:

- Damn it, this wasn't what I expected when I thought of an ambush…

Fugaku Uchiha replied, also shocked and impotent:

- Neither any of us did, I'm sure of that.

Hiashi Hyuuga said, quite sad:

- Those bastard snakes had done a hell of a job to reduce our numbers… and our families…

The other Clans leaders couldn't even speak, and Minato was sharing their pain, as many of the deceased ninjas were known to him, and some were even his friends and partners. He said, looking down:

- We've lost so many people and so important people tonight… but you know well that we can't bury them properly, so we'll have to burn the bodies to keep us safe in our trip.

Two of the Hokage's sons, Kon'en and Asuma Sarutobi, were seeing the meeting by Minato's request. They were clearly disagreeing with just burning the body of the Third Hokage, their father, but they knew that, if they wanted to make it to their destiny alive, they had to. Kon'en Sarutobi said:

- Well, then, we should collect the dead and make a ritual fire with them. When we get to the Whirlpool Village, we should make a memorial for them all.

Asuma replied:

- That's right, brother. Let's do this.

The two Sarutobi and the Clans' heads started dragging the dead bodies, grouping them in a place and stacking them. Then Minato called for everyone to gather and start the funeral. As the closest to a Hokage in the whole group, Minato had to carry the responsibility of the rite, and he said:

- Tonight we've been victim of a hideous attack, and we've lost countless lives. But we still need to move on, and we cannot take those we lost today with us but in our hearts.

The survivors were crying, and Minato himself couldn't suppress a tear. He turned to see Kushina, and he saw her crying waterfalls of tears. Beneath the dead there were men, women, elders and children, and even some dogs from the Inuzuka. Minato turned to Kon'en and Asuma, and as they nodded at him, said:

- We've gathered the names of those murdered tonight, and for tomorrow night we should make it to the Whirlpool Village in the Land of Eddies. Once we get there and set ourselves, we shall build our own memorial, in honor for the Third Hokage and the First Uzukage, Hiruzen Sarutobi, and the brave ninjas who fought today.

Then the whole group started prayers, guided by Minato, and as the prayers ended, the corpse stack was turned in fire as the Uchiha survivors and every one who could control Fire chakra spit fire to the corpses, making sure to not leave any trace of the dead ones. After the troubling scene, the group went back to try and rest, even when none of them would actually be able to rest at all.

The next morning, Danzou was very happy with the result of the raid executed by Orochimaru. Even when the Great Clans of the Hidden Leaf were fearsome and powerful, their lack of desire for war made them easy to toy with for him. Every single attempt for them to attain the peace he knew a ninja could never obtain was fruitfully twisted, and now their desire to leave and reach for that impossible peace took its toll on them. Danzou was willing to show them a bit of what he had prepared for the whole world, and he'd make them, so as the rest of the continent, bow before him.

He was hearing the mission debriefing from Orochimaru:

- We've already taken the kidnapped ninjas to the facilities you've prepared in the Root complex. Of course, I've got my payment for this mission, and he's being held safely.

Danzou, seeing Orochimaru, said:

- You'd want to become my advisor, old snake? I shall need someone powerful and wise to keep this village straight as it deserves to be kept. Also, I need you to perform the genetic research I'll need, and who knows, you could outlive me and take my position.

Orochimaru's eyes opened wide in surprise. The old fox is offering me become Hokage as a long-term pay for my services… The Snake Lord replied:

- Very well… I guess I have no other choice than accepting. I can't have you as my enemy, and you sure as hell don't want me as an enemy.

Danzou grinned, confident, and extended a hand to Orochimaru. The Snake Sannin shook his hand firmly, and then said:

- Well, then, when should I start with the research?

- Whenever you want, chief advisor.

Orochimaru bowed towards the Fifth Hokage and left. Danzou knew that things couldn't have come out better: he had at least one ninja of each Clan in the Leaf, plus some shinobi rescued from the recent bloodline massacre in the Hidden Mist and some particular bloodlines he stole from the Hidden Cloud village.

On the other hand, he had reduced the amount of traitors who left the Hidden Leaf, hoping that he could take off any of the leaders of the Clans. The bad news was that Orochimaru couldn't capture Naruto Namikaze, but he could surely dismiss it as nothing. He already had a sample from the Namikaze DNA to experiment with, and there were other eight Tailed Beasts to capture.

In the forest to the east of the Fire Country, Minato and Kushina were leading the survivors of the attack. The air was rather gloomy within the group, but now they could move faster, and they would reach the Land of Eddies in less time than thought.

After a few hours, the group finally entered the Land of Eddies. Kushina took the lead of the group and led them through the small country. A group of guards stopped them as they entered the first town in the country, and one of them said:

- Identify yourselves.

The words said by Kushina surprised the guards entirely:

- I am Kushina Uzumaki, leader and survivor of the Uzumaki Clan, and a ninja of the Whirlpool Village. These people around me are Whirlpool Ninjas.

The one who seemed to be the captain of the group said:

- Very well, lady Uzumaki. We've heard that you survived the Kyuubi's attack in the Hidden Leaf. What brings you back here?

Kushina said, pointing at the group behind her:

- I guess we should talk about our situation with the Feudal Lord directly. We want to rebuild the Whirlpool Village.

The captain of the guard replied then:

- We shall prepare a convoy for you to see the Feudal Lord. You might to want to come with us.

The guards walked the group of immigrants to the building of the town's governor. Finally it seemed that they had reached their destiny.

End of Chapter 9.

A/N 1: I know this turn of events was quite messy, but I think I can repay you for your loyalty with my future ideas for this story. I hope I didn't mess it up that much (I particularly liked how it ended up coming out). Please enjoy and review! =)

A/N 2: Names: Kon'en Sarutobi. I thought of Kon'en (紺猿) as something like "deep blue monkey". As far as I know, Asuma's brother's name was never told, so I took the liberty to make a name for him.