Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: this chapter brings inour forgotten characters; Uchiha Mikoto and Uchiha Sayuri. It will be a filler to introduce how they got into his life. It also gives short details of the aftermath of the attack of Konoha. Well, enjoy the next chapter!

Chapter: 10

He opened his eyes and looked around. He was in a cavern of some kind. He found Nina sleeping peacefully by his side. He could see a silhouette of a shape a few feet away from him. The cavern was barely lit with small makeshift candles.

"Good, you are awake. I thought it would take another few days at least." He heard. He looked closely at the silhouette as it neared. It was revealed to be his final clone. It had some meat in its hand and Naruto could tell that it was cooked well as it smelled good too. Naruto activated his eyes to confirm the identity of his clone. He felt the spiritual connection that he had with it and stopped putting chakra to his eyes. They reverted back to normal. He had felt a sting of pain in his eyes. He decided to look it up afterwards. He had yet to completely take in his current situation.

"How long have I been out?" he asked his clone.

"5 days. I thought you wouldn't wake up. You dropped unconscious as soon as we were out of land of fire. I am already on last drags of my chakra." He saw the eyes of the clone change. It nodded and deactivated the Dojutsu.

"You have recovered around 30 percent of your chakra. I guess we have something good going for us." The clone said.

"Why? What happened?" Naruto asked.

"Well.. To begin with, Konoha is under lock down. A radius of around 40-45 miles is full of shinobi, guarded. No one is allowed to pass, neither inside nor outside. Most of the shinobi on mission were called back. I saw a few groups of Anbu and genin teams going back towards the village. Even then, a Hayuga was always present with the group that let the ninja back in. They are not taking any chances. We are on the same island that you stopped before your mission in Kumo. I had sent some clones to keep an eye on what was going on. They found some of the root operatives looking through the forest, probably on our trail to finish us off in our weakened state. I took care to not leave any leads to our location. Since we are still safe, I guess I did good job even in haste." It replied.

Naruto nodded at everything that he was being told. They still couldn't go to Kumo, it would be an invitation for Kumo to try and take him under control. Or simply destroy him as a big threat without losing their manpower. It would take him at least another few days, perhaps a week or so to get back to at least his 90 percent. Using a soldier pill had caused his chakra coils to slow down producing chakra as they had been under strain by forced chakra generation. He would usually have fully recovered in a week, but now the time required would be almost double as his coils would also be repairing.

He heaved a sigh and started to meditate. He looked inside his mind. It had so many fractures in it that it would take a lot of time to completely repair it. He slowly started to recollect all the memories of his clones and himself and started organizing them. By the time he was done, he felt really relieved. There was a satisfaction in him that he never had. A content smile played on his lips. He was woken up by Nina taping on his forehead with her knuckles. His eyes twitched at the action but he smiled at her as he opened his eyes.

He raised his eyebrow at her questioningly.

"You okay, brother?" she asked, a concerned look on her face.

"Yes, I am fine. Are you okay? You weren't hurt, right?" he asked her as he gestured her to sit down.

She sat in front of him and smiled.

He really hadn't wanted to bring her with him. But it was a chance to test her potential and his first and foremost goal was Konoha's destruction. Thus he had allowed her to join. He was brought out of his thoughts by Nina's response to his earlier question.

"Nope! It was great, though I lost my head a few times." She replied sheepishly.

He looked at her as he turned into his teaching mode and lectured her.

"How many times have I told you to not lose your head, Nina. You should be more careful. You remember me telling about how even your kind can be killed right?" he asked.

She looked down and nodded meekly. He felt a bit guilty for admonishing her; after all, she was barely past chunin level and she must have been in a scuffle with at least a few jonin level nin. While most of them were obviously handled by the clone, some would have still slipped. The only reason she was here and alive, was the fact that they had been in the civilian sector. Most of the leaf shinobi couldn't go full out as they had to look after the civilians while Nina and the clone could always attack the civilians to get a breathing room.

He smiled and ruffled her hair as he said "But, I must say, you did really well. I am proud of you."

She looked up at him as tears threatened to spill out her eyes and asked "really? Did Nina do well?"

It was one of her quirks that he had noticed. She always spoke in third person when she was nervous or feeling down.

"Yes, you did really well. But, remember to keep your head, all right?" he asked with mock seriousness. She vigorously nodded her head. He again laughed lightly and messed with her hair. He really felt relieved after the whole ordeal with Konoha. He was waiting to see what kind of rank he was given in the bingo book by Konoha.

6 month after the attack….

Sarutobi watched out of the window of the rebuilt Hokage tower. Most of the Konoha was rebuilt once more. But the spirit, it was broken. A single man, no not even a man, just a boy, a boy that was hated by the village, despised and beaten even; a boy that was forced to turn into a demon; a demon this very village created had done this.

It had been 6 months since the incident. Konoha lost a good amount of its forces, worse than even the Kyuubi attack. Luckily most of the civilians and clan children were spared. The clan that took most losses was Hayuga and to some extent, the Nara. Since the Nara were closer to the Hayuga compound, some had intervened and tried to help them, but ultimately lost. Most of the Nara, Inuzuka and Aburame were evacuating civilians. He had later found that a lot of them were killed fighting another of Naruto which obviously was a clone and some girl that didn't die even after separating her head off of her shoulders. One thing he didn't understand though; how the hell did Naruto manage to learn without them knowing. This was the question that bothered the all the veteran that had survived.

Jiriya was back to full health but lacked his right hand. He still wasn't a pushover though. Kakashi was back to full health as well. But, his mental state was another matter. He had fought off and lost his Sharingan eye, the only thing he had of his deceased team mate. Kakashi had never gotten out of his mourning over his team then his teacher, and now he had fought off against his sensei's son.

He shook his head and looked at the bright side of things. Tsunade had started the classes for medical care. Shizune, her apprentice had started to take fighting lessons from Tsunade. Before now she was only a medic, but now she wanted to be a fighter as well; to better protect Konoha in future.

Sarutobi still mourned over the loss of his only rival and friend, Danzo. Danzo had been the only constant in his life. After the battle was over, and Naruto had fled, He had gathered the remaining people and sent summons to all those on missions. Slowly all his shinobi had returned back home. Everyone had been forced to go through identity check. A Hyuga had been present at the entry points at all the times. A wall of shinobi forces had been erected around 40-45 miles of radius around the village. They had to collect all the dead bodies and the parts lying around. He had to rush the cementing of their fallen warriors. Time was of essence for them. They couldn't be seen as weak. It was better to let others think that Konoha was preparing something than letting others know of their condition.

Of-course, he knew, a lot depended on Naruto – or Shinron as he was known now a days. Shinron could have let the info slip. He could have gone to Iwa, or worst, Kumo. If Kumo attacked now, Konoha would surely fall.

With a tired sigh, he once more sat down in his chair. He opened up one of the cabinets and brought out a file. This file had all the details of Naruto's attack. Naruto and the seemingly immortal girl had killed at least around 137 civilians, 43 retired shinobi that had tried to help. But over all that, the worst losses were in shinobi ranks. Over a 100 Anbu killed, each of them was a specialist of some or the other element. There were many newly appointed trainees as well. Then there was Hayuga clan. Sarutobi didn't understand why they were specifically targeted. Hiashi hadn't been that much of a part in Naruto's training and he sure as hell wasn't about to discriminate Naruto unless he felt it justified; that man had turned his heart into stone after the loss of his wife and brother. So there had to be another reason. 127 Hayuga were killed. Thankfully the clone had spared children and those who didn't come to actively participate in the fight. Nara had taken the second biggest hit to their numbers. 43 were killed in the assault; but it still was less than even half of what Hayuga lost. Then there was the Inuzuka clan who lost 23 of their shinobi. Yamanaka had lost 16 and Akimichi had lost 11. Aburame lost the least number of Shinobi, only 3; most were either badly injured while facing Naruto's clone, thus going out of commission or taking the civilians away.

He thought back at the speech he had given to all the survivors. He had made them realize the mistake they had made. All the civilians had stared at him in horror as he put the blame where it belonged. He had made sure that they realized that they were a part of the village just as much as Naruto had been. He made sure to make them understand that it had been their neglect of Naruto that had caused this. He made them realize the choices that they had put in front of him. And then he had left them to their own devices.

With Naruto….

After staying away for 2 month and completely recovering, Naruto had started on his way to Kumo. During this two month stay, he had etched the nullifying seal on Nina. And it had been a pain in the ass to do so. Not because of pain of carving the seal itself, on the contrary, it was because Nina felt it too ticklish. He had to do it all slowly. It was also prolonged due to the chakra requirements. Since he needed Nina's own chakra, he had to teach her how to properly make the blood clone. For her, it had been more difficult to stay in one position to collect the blood than the actual blood collection had been.

Once the clone was created; he had applied the seal with Nina' clone constantly pushed her chakra in the seal. After that they had waited for another two weeks to let her completely recover.

Once he himself had recovered enough, he had made his clone dispel. He had to sit and meditate for around two hours to properly manage all the memories that the clone had given him and also see the fights it witnessed in further details. Kyuubi had given him small pointers to improve in his abilities.

He understood that even though he had mastered his elements, he still had ways to go before matching the likes of Raikage in terms of mastery. The Raikage could literally change into a lightning bolt and, like him, absorb the lightning in this form. Luckily he didn't need to be a lightning bolt to be able to absorb the lightning. Kyuubi's yokai in his system took care of that.

He was proud of the enemies that he had killed; Saiken, Tenzou or 'tree', and best yet; Danzo. He had wanted to kill Danzo for longer than he could think. It felt so good to finally have done it. As an added bonus, he had also crippled Jiriya of the Sanin. 'Let's not forget those killed by my clones; at least hundred Hayuga, some Nara and the Anbu that he didn't know.' He thought with a dark chuckle.

Of course there had been a number of shinobi from several clans that he had killed among the Anbu. He was kind of happy to not have killed any Aburame to his knowledge. He sympathized with those poor souls. Hated and ridiculed for what they held in their bodies; just like him. It hadn't mattered then, neither did it matter now; it just gave him a kind of relief that he didn't kill someone who understood him on some level. He had specifically targeted the Hayuga and Nara. Unfortunately he didn't get much time to kill the Naras off. Shikaku and Hiashi had been the two who had given their consent first to turn him into a weapon while Danzo was the one who had proposed this. He had gotten these details from one of Root bases. He had done some espionage to gather information. It had been considerably easy for him as he knew the place rather well. These two names had gotten on his kill or at least cripple list. Even though he had failed to kill of Hiashi, he had definitely crippled the man and the others hundred killed from the Hayuga clan sated his thirst. The only disappointment was the Naras. They hadn't received the great losses and Shikaku was still alive. But, it didn't bother him as much anymore. He considered himself past his hatred, as all he felt was indifference now. Though, he would kill any Konoha shinobi that he ever came across, unless it was her and of-course her daughter.

Flashback 1...

Naruto was three years old. He was beaten with a pan by some of the villagers. They knew that he healed very quickly and thus enjoyed beating him. He was going to the Hokage monument as very few people ever went there. Past the monument, there were lush green trees where he could rest and let himself heal. All he was ever told for such treatment was that he was a demon and deserved it. Since he couldn't remember ever doing something to them, he considered them to be the monsters.

Within net 40 or so minutes, he had reached his destination. He slowly sat down and hissed as his butt touched ground. He had been slapped with a pan on his butt repeatedly. He let his hand rest on the nearby rocks. He slowly started to drift into dreamland. He felt a small breeze of warm air across his cheek. He was immediately on alert. He didn't open his eyes, as he wasn't sure if he should. He felt his hand being gently picked and a tingling sensation go through his arm as he felt it mend. He unconsciously let out a whimper and scooted off a bit away; he still kept his façade though.

He heard a giggle.

"Rest well." A voice whispered in his left ear.

Another giggle and felt her simply vanish.

He opened his eyes wide and looked around himself frantically. He couldn't find anyone.

Flashback 1 ends….

Flash back 2….

Some months after the incident on Hokage monument…

He was running, again. He looked behind as he ran from his angry pursuers. He suddenly felt himself be engulfed in a one armed hug, and vanish. He appeared somewhere, but couldn't see. His eyes were covered by someone's hand. He could tell it was a female. The softness of the hand reminded him of the incident on the Hokage monument.

"You should stay out of the village as much as you can, little one." He heard. The next moment the hand and the person vanished. He was not sure what to think of it. He sighed. Deciding that it was a better option to heed the advice, he started to stay out of the way of the villagers. He started to look through people's dustbins and look for food. It wasn't a good living, but he survived. He was starting to hate the place though; really really hate it.

Flashback 2 ends….

Flashback 3….

It was his 4th birthday today. He knew from past experiences not to be in the village on this day. He got back to his place on the Hokage monument to see a woman placing a plate of food there and vanish. He got a glimpse of her face, though.

Flashback 3 ends….

Once he had been entered in Root, he had met with most of the clan heads. With them, he had once seen the same woman, the only angel in this accursed village. He had seen her look of pity and the vacant gaze that she looked at everyone else with. There had been coldness in her voice that he had never heard before. He had been introduced to all of his visitors.

He was introduced to her.

Her name was Uchiha Mikoto….