Friend or foe
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto
Two years after Naruto and Hinata became Emperor and Empress
Naruto awoke when the first rays of the morning sun shone through the windows of the imperial palace. He took a few minutes to just stare at the beautiful woman lying next to him, sleeping peacefully. He knew that Hinata could use a bit more rest. Even though the fox helped her quite a bit, he was still far more energetic than her thanks to his Senju bloodline and the continuous use of shadow clones took quite a bit out of her. He stood up and silently made his way to their childrens bedroom to check up on them. He had only opened the door a crack wide when there was a shout from inside.
"Daddy!"
A small girl with blue-black hair sprang up from her bed and waddled towards him as fast as she could. She almost fell once, but managed to regain her balance. When she reached his legs Naruto picked her up and put the giggling girl over his shoulder. Naruto took one more look inside the room, where he saw the girl's brother still sleeping. Naruto gently closed the door behind him and went to prepare breakfast.
Hinata had given birth to fraternal twins. The boy had blond hair, was a relatively quiet child and had Byakugan eyes like his mother. They decided to name him Minato after Naruto's father. The girl on the other hand had cerulean blue eyes and blue-black hair. Her name was Hitomi after Hinata's late mother. She was very energetic and Naruto suspected and later confirmed that she, like himself, carried the Senju bloodline. Both of the children had whisker marks, probably because of the Kyuubi inside of Hinata. Naruto and Hinata had been a bit surprised that their bloodlines didn't mix, but that didn't matter.
They loved their children very much and did most of the parenting themselves. Thanks to shadow clones and Naruto's paths they managed to find the time to care for their children, train, relax and rule their nation.
Naruto prepared breakfast with the help of their cook. They could have employed an army of servants to do everything for them, but Naruto and Hinata felt more comfortable with doing some things themselves. And they had been worried that getting pampered all the time might have a bad influence on their children.
After breakfast was ready Naruto tried to feed his daughter, who seemingly had other plans. Mirth shone in the girl's eyes as she kept her mouth shut and tried to flick food from the spoon her father was holding. Naruto steered his hand away from a right swing from his daughter only to to get too close to her left leg. With for a toddler amazing speed the girl kicked the slimy content of the spoon directly into Naruto's face. Hitomi giggled, while Naruto sighed and wiped his face clean with a conveniently placed cloth. Then Hinata entered the room, carrying Minato. She gave Naruto a quick peck on the lips and sat down right next to him with her son on her lap. She began feeding him like this without any trouble. Naruto sent a scolding look towards his daughter, who grinned back.
Naruto's Human Path sighed. He was draped in Naruto's official emperor's garb and on his way to the throne room. He had drawn the short end of the stick and was to listen to the requests of anyone seeking an audience. Naruto liked to rule, listen to people's request and help them whenever appropriate. But the problem was that to be taken seriously as a ruler he had to act the part. He couldn't get excited over interesting matters, joke around and he had to pretend to be interested in a lot of boring stuff. The Path took a look out of a window only to see at least a hundred people lined up in a queue in front of the palace gates. The queue mainly consisted of merchants who wanted to discuss trade routes or complain about taxes, commoners who wanted a ruling and rich people who only seemed to complain all the time. Really important matters were brought directly in front of the council, where another Path and his advisors were handling things. The Path entered the throne room and prepared himself mentally, this was going to be a long day.
Naruto and Hinata had made two more attempts to eliminate Danzo and free the Leaf. However they were still keen on avoiding to spill the blood of their former friends and comrades, which made their task quite difficult. Even more so because Danzo was getting increasingly cautious to the point where he hardly ever left the safety of the Hokage tower.
On the first attempt Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru made it to the base of the tower. There they were stopped by Kakashi and Gai. The two veterans managed to stall them until the three intruders were almost overrun by Leaf shinobi. Naruto was able to evacuate them in the last second using quick Hiraishin teleportations. Shikamaru would have lost an arm to Kakashi's Raikiri during that engagement if Naruto's Healing Path hadn't been able to save it.
On the second attempt they didn't even make it into the village. They hid a Hiraishin kunai between the wares of a traveling merchant going to Konoha. However the kunai was found and the merchant arrested right at the village gates. Shikamaru later suspected that the Konoha shinobi had found a way to easily locate Hiraishin seals. The traveling merchant never left Konoha again and after half a year they were sure that he was dead. The fact that they had sent an innocent civilian to his death didn't sit well with Naruto, but the only thing they could do was help the merchant's family financially. Because of that failure they stopped doing any further attempts for the time being.
In every other way things were going badly for Konoha. The village and Fire Country itself were driven more and more into isolation. Due to the reclusive behavior of Tsunade and Danzo and their absence from important meetings the village lost one ally after another as their treaties expired and Naruto's empire gained many of them for itself. In addition to that Naruto had established good relations with all the other Kages.
The Akatsuki had not been idle during that time either and they managed to capture almost all of the tailed beasts. There was even another attempt to abduct Gaara. Even though the Akatsuki managed to capture him this time, the quick response time from the West, thanks to Naruto's teleportation seals, led to their failure. During the rescue the Akatsuki Hidan was 'killed' and after she discovered his immortality dismembered by Fu. His body parts were buried in different regions of the empire later. Hidan's partner Deidara was forced to retreat, leaving behind his captive. Apart from Hinata, Gaara and Fu only the eight tails and its host Killer B remained safe from the missing nins.
At noon Naruto, Hinata and Shikamaru made their way from the imperial palace into the city after they had left the twins in the care of one of Naruto's paths and a shadow clone from Hinata. When Naruto and his army first arrived in the city the streets had been empty and the citizens hiding in their homes. Now the streets were filled with life. In every street shops and small stands offered their wares, restaurants and small cafes offered food, drinks and a place to relax and children playing games were running through the and Hinata had put on a Henge to avoid getting everybody's attention since they were planning to get some free time and keep official business for this day to the bare minimum. Even though Naruto's clones and paths were a common sight and were mostly ignored by now, things were very different when somebody spotted the originals. And Naruto and Hinata walking together was a big tell for that being the case.
The trio stopped near a small square, where several of Naruto's clones were operating a teleportation seal. Naruto was of course unable to manage all transports through his Empire, but instantaneous teleportations were a profitable business for his treasury and it was especially sought after for valuable and perishable wares.
After a few minutes of waiting Ino and Choji arrived. The two were still active ninja even though the third position in their team was not firmly occupied, since Shikamaru was too busy with helping out run Naruto's and Hinata's nation most of the time. Shortly after Shino, Fu and Tenten arrived as well. Officially they were part of the regular ninja forces just like the others. Unofficially however they had become the elite of the Empire's newly founded ANBU under Hinata's personal command. While Hinata organized things from a distance, Tenten had established herself as her representative and mission leader for the most critical tasks. Shino and Fu had gained quite a reputation under their code names as well and even though it was odd and even discouraged to have a relationship while in this position, they had been together for a while now. The silent Aburame and the energetic young woman made an even stranger couple than Naruto and Hinata, but somehow it seemed to work out.
After everyone had greeted the others the transformed Naruto grinned at his friends.
"It's great that everybody could make it! Let's hope we can just have a good time for once and not get dragged into too much diplomatic stuff."
With that everyone made their way to the teleportation seal.
The chunin exams were being held in Iwa. It was the first time that one fresh genin team from the West would participate. The team members were children from the migrated Konoha clans though. It would be one more year until the first teams fully trained in the Empire were ready to take the exams.
Naruto had founded three ninja academies in the West. But the one located in the capital was by far the biggest and best staffed. The other two were mainly tasked with training basic level shinobi and finding talented children to be trained in the capital. In addition to ninja training each academy had classes for samurai as well.
Naruto and his friends made their way from the teleportation seal to the arena to watch the examination. In the front were Naruto, Shikamaru and Choji. Choji was consuming a bag of chips, while Shikamaru had brought up a certain Lord he suspected to plan to betray Naruto. Behind them walked Shino and Fu hand in hand, completely silent. And in the back Ino and Tenten were discussing Ino's latest relationship. Hinata was with them and she sometimes joined in on the conversation.
They rounded a corner and suddenly there was another group right in front of them. Opposite of Naruto stood Sasuke, with Kiba right next to him. Behind them were Sakura, Lee and Neji and in the back were Hanabi and the rest of her team, who were taking the Chunin exam this time. The two groups stared at each other.
Naruto rubbed the back of his head. "Well this is awkward. How have you been guys?"
"Traitors!" The shout came from Sasuke and Hanabi. Lee's face had lit up when he saw his old friends and probably wanted to start rambling about his still youthful friends. But the hateful shout from his allies shut him up.
Tenten positioned herself in front of Naruto's group and crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"And what should we have done in your opinion? Stay in Konoha and be forced to marry Sasuke and watch as the clans children get taken away?"
There was a brief silence before Sakura remembered something important. "Naruto you idiot how could you let Hinata get killed? "
Just then Hinata made her way from the back to the front and Sakura stared at her open mouthed.
"H-Hinata?! We thought you were dead!"
Naruto answered instead "Nah, she was probably declared dead by Danzo after they activated her cursed seal, but as you can see she is fine. What did they tell you happened to her?"
Neji answered, eyeing Naruto critically.
"According to the official version Lady Hinata was killed on a diplomatic mission in the western regions by a group of missing nins, who took her eyes."
Naruto chuckled. "Not bad. That story means the warlord whom she visited could be made responsible for her death if need be."
Naruto eyed his old friends carefully. Kiba and Lee showed confusion about what he could mean, they probably hadn't been told about his position in the West. Sasuke, Neji and Hanabi on the other hand didn't react at all and Naruto suspected that they were better informed. Sakura's very surprised look puzzled him. He had expected her to know very well that he was in a position of power after their last encounter. Maybe she had been fed false information? But that didn't make any sense, did it?
Shikamaru interrupted Naruto's musings. "Naruto, we should talk to them in the arena with the other delegates nearby. This is dangerous."
"Are you that afraid of us, Shikamaru? And why would you let Naruto decide something like that?"
"That is simple. Naruto is the Emperor of the Western Empire and by that my superior."
Technically Hinata of course had the exact same rank as Naruto, but he was far more experienced in and comfortable with leading people, which made him the obvious choice to be the current leader.
The fact that Naruto had such an important position left Sakura speechless for a moment and she looked questioningly towards her husband. Kiba on the other hand was awed. "Dude really? That is awesome!"
Naruto grinned, but meanwhile Sakura had recovered from hearing this news. "I can't believe you would follow him. He is the nine tailed fox, a monster!"
But she immediately saw the disapproval on her old friends faces. Shikamaru was the one who answered. "Sakura we have been around Naruto for over two years now. I can guarantee you that he is anything but a monster."
"How can you say that? Have you even seen what he did to Sasuke back then?"
She saw that everyone from Naruto's group continued to stare at her angrily and so she turned to find support from the Konoha shinobi, but they didn't seem to fully agree with her either.
Kiba tried to steer the conversation into another direction. "I just hope you didn't take advantage of Hinata during this time, Naruto."
Naruto smiled and showed him the ring on his finger. "Well we are married and have kids. So it kind of is too late to tell me that."
"Wait if you are the Emperor I hope she isn't only one of your girls, like a concubine."
"What? Hell no! Hinata is my only wife and Empress and I don't want anyone else."
Kiba nodded, his concerns for Hinata's well being put to rest for now. Neji had tensed up as well when the topic was brought up, but just like Kiba he relaxed after hearing Naruto's answer.
Even though there was no outright hostility between the two groups they didn't really mingle. Two people would talk while the others watched the other group carefully. The tensions between Konoha and the Empire showed quite a lot.
During all of the discussion Hinata had just stared at her sister. She had first attempted to run towards her sibling to hug her, but a death glare from Hanabi had stopped her in her tracks.
"Hello sister." Hanabi put a lot of malice into her words, but her face kept up her stoic Hyuuga look, not showing any emotions.
"Hello Hanabi-imouto. It is good to see you again. You have grown." Hinata gave her sister a warm smile.
"Are you happy now that you have betrayed our clan and the village? I heard you even got together with that idiot you adore so much."
Shikamaru commented this with a "Troublesome" and Naruto put a hand on Hinata's shoulder to show her his support. He knew she was strongly affected by hearing her sister talk like this. But this was how things were going to be and there was nothing they could do.
Hinata answered, her voice very quiet. "I am very happy now that I am together with Naruto-kun. We even have two children, Minato and Hitomi. Minato sometimes reminds me of you when you were younger."
When Hanabi didn't answer Sakura butted in. "Wait you knew your sister was alive, Hanabi? Why didn't anyone tell me?"
Sasuke shrugged. "It was declared an A-ranked secret and you have no clearance."
This caused Sakura to stare at her husband. After Naruto had helped the clans escape Konoha and bested Sasuke in combat again, Sasuke had needed reassurance and love to get him back to his feet, both of which Sakura was very happy to provide. Things went a lot better for a while to the point where they actually had a loving relationship. But it got worse again after their daughter was born. "Sasuke I mourned for Hinata. How could you not tell me?"
"She is an enemy of the Leaf. Besides we didn't know she had survived until months after she was declared dead."
While Sakura only continued to stare at Sasuke in disbelief Kiba's man sized dog trotted towards Hinata to get petted.
"Woah Kiba call that monster back, before it eats my wife!"
Hinata gave her husband an angry look, before she stroked the giant hounds back. "Naruto-kun stop being so mean towards Akamaru."
"THIS is Akamaru?"
Kiba was quite annoyed by the blond. "Of course he is you moron. Anyway Shino, Hinata why did you leave without even telling me. I thought we were a team?"
"I am sorry Kiba-kun, I got arrested after helping Naruto escape. I didn't even want to leave back then."
"Alright, I don't quite get how you managed to get to Naruto after being arrested, but fine. But what about you Shino?"
The Aburame adjusted his glasses. "After Kurenai-sensei sold out Hinata I could not take any chances. Besides you did believe the official story of Hinata being on an extended mission and not me and you took Danzo's side during the dispute within your clan."
"Danzo's side? What are you talking about? I only voted to support the Hokage."
Hinata replied in a soft voice. "Kiba-kun the Hokage is being controlled by Danzo."
"Woah that is a serious accusation. Do you have proof for that?"
Naruto's group glanced at each other. They didn't, not really.
Naruto tried to explain why they were so sure. "See Kiba on the day we brought Sasuke back..."
Sasuke butted in. "Dope he asked if you have proof, not about your life story."
This got Ino quite angry. "Listen Sasuke, I tried to enter Lady Tsunade's mind and there was a Sharingan eye staring at me. Because of that I was out for two fucking months. And yes, that asshole has stolen one of your clansmen's eyes and is hiding it behind those bandages of his."
Sasuke only smirked at that. "Are you sure that you didn't only hallucinate it because of the seal?"
Ino furrowed her brows. "What seal are you talking about Sasuke?"
Neji explained. "After you were gone, worried questions from Hyuuga clan members about a certain chakra signature on the Hokage made the higher ups release the information that for quite some time there has been a protective seal on the Hokage, which prevents any kind of mind control."
Sasuke put on a small triumphant smile. "You see that neither Ino nor Danzo could have gotten access to the Hokage's mind."
"This is stupid Sasuke! It is obvious that that is just a cover up story and a bad one at that. Why do you defend Danzo so much? Are you his little lap dog?"
Sasuke scoffed. "You are annoying Ino."
Ino actually wanted to storm forward to slap him, but Shikamaru put a hand on her shoulder to stop her. He didn't want this to turn into a diplomatic incident.
Sasuke smirked. "What is wrong Ino? Don't you love me anymore?"
"You chose Sakura. I respected that and let you go. But you tried to get me to marry you, too, through that stupid Clan Restoration Act." Ino would have continued her tirade, but she remembered something far more interesting. "Speaking of which, how is your daughter? I wonder if she is as cute as Naruto's and Hinata's twins."
There was an uneasy silence, which Ino interpreted wrong. "Oh, oh no. I'm so sorry, I didn't know something happened to her."
Kiba made an annoyed grunt. "Nothing happened to her, the only problem is Sasuke here being an ass."
Sasuke gave him an angry look, while Sakura lowered her head with a sad expression on her face.
"I mean I know you are proud about your clans legacy and stuff, but getting that worked up about her hair color is ridiculous."
"That is none of your business! And all members of my clan have had black hair. She can not be called a true Uchiha without that."
Naruto's group only stared in disbelief at the Konoha shinobi. The only one unconcerned with what had transpired was Sasuke.
"Naruto I want revenge for what you did to me two years ago. Fight me!"
The former Jinchuuriki shook himself out of his stupor. "Sasuke if you think luck or a dirty trick caused you to lose, you are sadly mistaken."
But Sasuke ignored him. "And why don't you fight your sister, Hanabi? As far as I know you still need to best her in a public fight to be able to become clan head one day."
Hanabi stared at Hinata, who first lowered her gaze to her feet, but then lifted her head up again and looked back determinedly.
"You are right Sasuke, it is time to show the world how superior true Konoha shinobi are."
Sasuke smirked. "What do you say Naruto, I show you why the Uchiha are feared by everyone and we see who the true Hyuuga heiress is."
"Fine! You'll get your fight."
It was announced that before the finals of the Chunin exams there would be two additional showmatches. Soon the two Hyuuga siblings faced each other in the arena, while everyone else watched from the tribunes. In addition to the aforementioned Konoha group Gai and Kakashi were present as well. The proctor started the match.
"Begin!"
Both sisters were equally matched in speed and a fierce close combat fight ensued. Palm strike after palm strike was either blocked or evaded and they were in a stalemate for a while.
Then Hinata jumped away from her sister and used range attacks. Hanabi managed to dodge several Kunai, but a blast of water from Hinata's mouth almost hit her.
"Rotation!" A blue shield of chakra protected the younger Hyuuga from the water.
Then both sisters prepared to attack again.
"Eight Trigrams 64 palms!"
"Protection of Eight Trigrams 64 palms!"
When they met their arms were only blurs of speed. For a while it seemed they were equally matched, but then Hinata was driven back. When they separated Hinata was breathing a lot harder than Hanabi, her left arm hung limply by her side and her sister had managed to close a few of her tenketsu.
Up on the tribunes Naruto watched the fight intently, but he was not concerned how the fight was turning out. To prepare for his match with Sasuke he quickly made a few hand signs and released his gravity seal.
Down in the arena Hinata was hard pressed to keep her distance from Hanabi. Due to her disabled arm she was at a stark disadvantage. But thanks to multiple water techniques she could use with one handed hand signs only, she managed to stall the precious minutes until her arm returned to life.
After that both sisters met three more times in close combat and each time Hinata got visibly more exhausted and each time the damage caused by Hanabi's hits became more extensive. And on their last engagement Hanabi demonstrated that she still hadn't shown everything.
"Eight Trigrams One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms!"
Hanabi's hits came even faster than before. Hinata only managed to deflect the first ten of them before Hanabi broke through her defense and Hinata became a punching bag for her sister's assault. After that it was over. Even though she somehow managed to get back on her feet Hinata was a mess. She was breathing heavily and sweat was running down her face. She looked completely exhausted and both of her arms hung limply by her sides. And even if she had been able to move them, Hanabi had closed all her tenketsu, preventing her from molding chakra.
Hanabi sent a triumphant look towards Naruto, before she stormed towards Hinata one more time. But before she reached her sister Naruto suddenly appeared in front of her using Hiraishin. There was a gasp from many of the present veteran shinobi, who knew that technique. Then the proctor called the match.
"Due to outside interference Hanabi Hyuuga is the winner!"
Naruto helped Hinata up to the tribunes by simply teleporting her there. After making sure she was ok he left her with their concerned friends and made his way back into the arena for his own match. He had his Rinnegan active all the time, but his Paths were busy with tasks back in the empire and he planned to best Sasuke without even using his eyes.
Soon Naruto and Sasuke stood facing each other in the arena. Sasuke had a giant smirk on his face and just after the proctor had started the match he asked loud enough for everyone in the arena to hear:
"So your bitch didn't use her demonic powers to hide the fact she is the new host of the nine tails?"
He had probably tried to taunt Naruto to get him angry, but for now he had only left him speechless. A murmur ran through the arena and Sakura and Kakashi stared wide eyed at Naruto.
"What the hell Sasuke! You have to know we tried to keep that a secret to throw off the Akatsuki."
"What is wrong Naruto? Are you afraid for her well being?"
"I am not afraid! I know Hinata will be fine even if all the missing nins in the world are after her."
Sasuke scoffed, seeing Hinata as quite an easy target after her recent performance. Naruto continued.
"I just don't get what is wrong with you, Sasuke. How can you be so bitter and cold?"
Sasuke didn't answer.
"Is this about your brother again? What has he done this time?"
"He has done nothing. He hides from me! Whenever I seem to get close to him he is gone."
Somehow that didn't match with what Naruto knew. Itachi was actually the one Akatsuki about whose location he got the most reports. They just hadn't tried to engage him, because of how dangerous he was. But Sasuke would have surely gotten similar intel. Maybe those were false leads?
"That is no reason to act this way. Damn Sasuke, what can I do to make you see reason?"
Sasuke snorted and got into a ready stance.
Naruto shook his head and stopped his attempts to talk to his old friend for now. He noticed how Ino sneakily made her way to Sakura up on the tribunes to talk to her old friend. Naruto immediately reverted his attention back to Sasuke to not alert the Uchiha of what was happening. He made a hand sign and immediately there appeared a hundred Narutos on his side of the arena.
Sasuke went through a few hand signs himself and blew a giant cone of fire at the army of Narutos. Only a dozen of them managed to escape from the inferno and immediately stormed towards the Uchiha after the fire died down. Sasuke engaged the Narutos in hand to hand combat only to find out that he was a lot slower than the blond and after receiving a few vicious kicks he was sent crashing into the arena walls. Naruto dispelled his clones and waited until Sasuke stepped out of the dust and debris, Sharingan now active.
"You know Sasuke maybe I should thank you for revealing that I am no longer the Kyuubi's jinchuuriki. I want to know what people in Konoha will say about Danzo trying to turn the son of the Fourth Hokage into a weapon with that out of the way."
Sasuke shrugged. "For that people would need to know about you being his son."
"Spreading that bit of information won't be that hard. And I can easily prove that fact with my birth certificate."
"You forget that that is still an SS-ranked secret in Konoha and Fire Country."
Naruto stared at him for a moment. Spreading an SS-ranked secret was high treason and punishable by death.
"This doesn't make sense, Sasuke. Do you want to kill anyone who tells the truth?"
"No, only those who spread it. Those who know about that little fact do well to remember why we have to act this way. We can't allow you, an enemy of Konoha, to turn the people against their Hokage."
Now Sasuke had done it, he had made Naruto angry.
"Sasuke!"
Naruto dashed towards Sasuke, but then the Uchiha made hand signs which caused Naruto to stop and quickly create a wall with an earth jutsu, just in time to stop the beam of lightning chakra directed at him. The former Jinchuuriki knew that he wouldn't be able to use this earth for more jutsu due to the residue lightning chakra. He created a few clones to distract Sasuke, then he prepared his next jutsu.
Sasuke used Shuriken to deal with most of the clones, the last three he dispatched with a few quick strikes with his sword, using his Sharingan to read their movements. Then he fired several fireballs. Only half of them were aimed at Naruto, which were all dodged, the other half was simply headed for the sky, to prepare a Kirin, a lightning attack using artificially created thunderclouds. Sasuke noticed that the arena floor was starting to get covered by a thick fog. He wondered why Naruto was doing this as he could easily see through something like this thanks to his special eyes.
They continued to throw jutsu after jutsu at each other. At one point Sasuke found out that his Sharingan genjutsu had barely any effect on Naruto, both because of his Rinnegan and because he had practised hard to overcome his weakness to those kinds of attacks. Finally Sasuke decided it was time to finish things. In the sky a storm cloud had formed just as he had planned and Sasuke prepared his Kirin. Somehow Naruto realized that he was in trouble and was quickly going through a lot of hand signs, but Sasuke was sure he was too late. The gigantic lightning strike went down just where Naruto stood. But when the bright flash was gone and Sasuke looked at the place where Naruto stood before there was something he hadn't expected.
The fog that had covered the arena floor was gone and in Naruto's position stood a solid pyramid of gleaming ice. Before Sasuke recovered from his surprise two icicles burst forth from the pyramid, pierced Sasuke's shoulders and pinned him against the arena wall. Naruto removed one side of the pyramid, stepped out of his cover and walked towards the pinned up Sasuke.
"Ice? How?"
Naruto shrugged. "It is only the combination of wind and water and I am a master of both. Anyway Sasuke this is over. You lost."
"Never! I will prove that the Uchiha are superior to the Senju in any way."
"Huh?"
"Don't you know about the century long struggle between our two clans? We will be the ones deciding the outcome of this war and the Uchihas will be the winners."
"What are you talking about? I am not even a Senju myself and you serve one."
"You are related to the Senju, and you are the real living heir of their legacy. Lady Tsunade is too old to hold that title and she would be nothing without Danzo. Your people were the ones who put my clan into a slum and made us outcasts. I will make sure that everyone sees that the Uchiha are the Leaf's most loyal clan and that we are stronger than the Senju."
"Sasuke I don't know what 'my people' did to the Uchiha, but even if I am the Senju heir: we are not our clans. We can forge our own destiny without hatred and bloodshed. So why do you want to be a slave of the past?"
"I want revenge!"
And with that Sasuke used his curse mark. He transformed directly into stage two, his skin turned grey and he grew leathery wings. The ice crumbled and Sasuke's wounds closed.
Sasuke created a Chidori and flew towards Naruto with incredible speed. Naruto on the other hand had had enough. He created a small Rasengan and then used his trump card: A Hiraishin seal he had put on Sasuke during their close combat encounter. Naruto teleported very close to Sasuke, evading the outstretched arm with the Chidori and rammed his Rasengan into the chest of his former friend.
Sasuke was flung back by the force of the technique only to be stopped by Naruto's elbow in his back, after the blond had teleported behind him. Naruto created a group of shadow clones and put some distance between him and Sasuke. The shadow clones punched and kicked Sasuke around and finally one kicked him hard after diving under the Uchiha, flinging him into the air. The real Naruto meanwhile had created another low powered Rasengan. He teleported himself right above Sasuke and pushed the blue ball into the ascending Uchiha. Sasuke was sent crashing into the ground.
After the cloud of dust created by the impact had settled Sasuke could be seen lying unconsciously in a small crater, his curse mark receded. Naruto wanted to make his way over to the fallen Uchiha, but Maito Gai appeared before him, blocking his way.
"Winner Emperor Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze!"
Naruto saw that Gai didn't plan on allowing him to speak to Sasuke again, so he gave a bow to the audience and revelled in the crowds applause for a while. Then made his way to his waiting friends. Only Ino was missing. He received a few pats on his back and got a quick kiss from Hinata, who had mostly recovered from her fight. Tenten was especially happy.
"That was great! You demolished that self-important idiot."
"Thanks! It's just dealing with Sasuke is so frustrating."
His friends remained silent, they knew Naruto still tried to return Sasuke to his old self.
Then Ino made her way over to the others. She had talked to Sakura for almost the whole match and left her only when the wounded Sasuke was approaching his wife, supported by Gai.
"I believe Sakura will need some time to think about everything, but I am certain she will be a lot nicer in the future."
That brought a bright smile to Naruto's face. "That is great Ino, you are awesome!"
"She even told me how her mother convinced her that you were the fox."
Flashback
Sakura sat at Sasuke's bedside and stared at his broken body, hoping he would make a full recovery. One day ago Kakashi had brought him and Naruto back from the Valley of the End, both close to death. Sakura had waited nervously until Tsunade finished patching up Sasuke and from then she stayed by his side. Even after Tsunade's treatment Sasuke remained an ugly sight. He was very pale, one of his arms had been broken and he had cuts, scrapes and burns everywhere.
After spending almost a whole day of staying by Sasuke's side and only going home to sleep for a few hours, Sakura had realized that so far she had only worried for one of her teammates. So she paid Naruto a small visit only to find him seemingly fine, sleeping peacefully with only minor injuries. Twenty minutes later she had been back in Sasuke's room.
The door opened and Sakura's mother entered the sickroom. Without saying a word she sat down next to Sakura and both watched the steady breathing of the injured boy for a while.
"You love him, don't you, Sakura?"
Sakura only nodded her head and continued to stare at Sasuke.
"I am sorry, Lady Tsunade should have known better than allowing that Uzumaki boy to go after him."
Sakura lowered her head. "Naruto probably didn't have another choice." Even though she said that, there was a lot of doubt in her. She knew Sasuke had wanted to abandon the Leaf, but she was sure that he would have never seriously hurt one of his old friends. So why did Naruto have to go this far?
"Do you really believe that?" Sakura's mother carefully removed a bandage from Sasuke's arm and revealed three deep gashes that looked like the claw marks of a large animal. Sakura gasped and her mother quickly put the bandage back in place.
"I am sorry Sakura, but a law from the Third Hokage prevented me from telling you the truth about your teammate Naruto. The old man probably believed that there was a chance the boy would turn out normal, but with what he did to Sasuke it is certain that the boy is lost and the council acted accordingly."
"What do you mean mother? What is wrong with Naruto?"
Sakura's mother lowered her head and put a hand on her daughter's shoulder.
"From birth Naruto was the container of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the nine tailed fox. The fourth Hokage couldn't kill the beast when it attacked the Leaf, only seal it away. However these seals are not perfect and we are certain that the fox has been in control for a while now."
Sakura stared at her mother with an open mouth. "Are you sure? I have been with Naruto for quite some time and I never noticed."
"Yes, the fox is known for being very clever. Without a doubt he imitated the boy almost perfectly. Luckily elder Danzo was able to discover this fact and he even made Lady Tsunade see reason."
Sakura thought about this. If Lady Tsunade had abandoned Naruto, her mother had to be right. She took one more look at the broken body of Sasuke, but now she didn't feel sorrow, she felt a burning anger.
End Flashback
Everyone was quite shocked that a parent would manipulate her daughter in such a way.
"Well at least she knows the truth now. I hope she gets her mother back for what she did."
Ino sighed. "There is one more thing. She is pregnant again."
With that Naruto's good mood was gone in an instant and everyone remained silent for a while.
Ino tried to steer the conversation into another direction. "So apart from Sasuke and, well, Hanabi, everyone else didn't seem so bad." Hinata actually glared at Ino at her mentioning her sister, but remained silent and the blonde continued. "You think they could help us against Danzo?"
Shikamaru shook his head.
"I doubt it. Kiba and Neji are too loyal to their clans. And Lee didn't say anything. I guess he was unsure whether to call us youthful or unyouthful. Besides, even if we manage to recruit one of them it would be extremely dangerous for that person with how things are in Konoha."
Naruto nodded.
"Yeah, we have to stop our assassination attempts with how tight their security is now. We can only hope that we get an opportunity where Danzo is away from the village or where we may capture Tsunade baa-chan."
"Wait you mean we completely abandon Konoha now?"
Naruto shook his head. "There is one more way. But it is going to be messy and still needs a lot of preparation. We shouldn't discuss this in public actually."
One week later
Hanabi entered the meeting room of the Hyuuga clan's elder council. On the left and right side of the room sat the elders and opposite of her was her father and clan head Hiashi. Everyone's eyes were on Hanabi. Her composure was perfect as always and she bowed shortly.
"You asked for me, father?"
"Yes Hanabi, we wanted to congratulate you for achieving Chunin rank. And we have heard how you defended the honor of our clan."
She lowered her head briefly. "I am sorry I failed to get the Byakugan out of our enemies hands."
"Nevertheless you managed to show how useless and weak your sister is compared to the true members of this clan. It is unfortunate that the failure of the Uchiha brat made this effort almost meaningless."
"I will do anything to rectify this failure and to make sure the Hyuuga are the only ones possessing the Byakugan, father."
Hiashi nodded shortly.
"I heard your whore of a sister already bred with that blond fool."
Hanabi didn't allow any emotions to show on her face. "Unfortunately yes, but I do not know if their children have the Byakugan."
"That doesn't even matter, we have to remove this stain on our family name."
Hanabi nodded. "Yes, father."
"Hanabi you have proven your worth and your desire to strengthen this clan. You are too young to join the council of elders, however I want you to attend it with me and act as my advisor. Use this opportunity to learn how to lead the Hyuuga, because one day you might be the one to take this position."
It was a cloudy morning and light rain was falling at the border between Earth Country and the Western Empire. Nine ninja in black cloaks with red clouds on them stopped right at the marker indicating the border. A tall orange haired man with many piercings addressed his comrades.
"We are doing this just as discussed: attack the city next to the border and wait for their reinforcements to arrive. I and the other paths will take care of the boy with the Rinnegan. Make sure you do not kill the hosts of the Seven- and Ninetails or the Kazekage if he turns up."
Everyone in his group agreed and they made their way into the Western Empire.
A/N: In retrospect I kind of regret my decision to have everyone meet. It caused me so many headaches and I am still not happy with how some things turned out or how little some of them said.
