How is everyone? I hope you have not lost interest in this story. As I read over my story, I found everything in a total mess! Chapter orders are being mixed up, as well as the titles. I'm sure some of my older readers have noticed the absence of the Remembrance Day Interlude. I've... er... accidentally deleted it. Sorry!

I have most of the Blood-Leaf massacre plotted out, but I wondered about other stuff. I had to keep the whole future of the plot vague, or else I would lose interest in it. I had once upon a time planned an entire Harry Potter fanfiction series out, but then quickly lost interest as soon as the details got plotted.

P.S. I will alternate between the Ketsueki(Blood Leaf)Massacre and the Ryūketsu no Ha (Bloody Leaf). They are about the same thing, but there is a difference between them. The Ketsueki Massacre was the first time the massacre happened. The next chapter, or the chapters after that, will be the second time, the Ryūketsu no Ha.

P.P.S. This is quickly descending into AU, as a lot of the following events have no place in canon.


"W-Wha?" Madara muttered, as he came to a spinning stop inside his mind. He staggered around for a moment before steadying himself. "The room is spinning... Hey! What are you all looking at?"

The others stared at him, then they clapped slowly.

Madara just gaped.


✿Chapter 9: Fragments of a Shattered Soul✿

The chapter ends... with a shocking conclusion.


Khorale raced through the trees, her mind set upon reaching the Akatsuki base. She had to warn everyone about what she had just seen in the future.

Blood... So much of it, she shivered. No. She would not let that event come to pass.

Admit it, it's going to happen sooner or later, I told her.

Khorale's eyes narrowed. "Author..." she said slowly. "Stop what you're going to do. Now."

Sorry, no can-do. The last chapter I've made caused the biggest ripple yet. Now, the whole balance has gone. There are reality shifts everywhere, and I don't know what they will do... *Sigh*... If only Madara had chosen to go back. I wouldn't have to deal with all this right now.

"Hey! Don't just go blaming him!" Khorale said defensively. "Even though his choice made those changes, you are the AUTHOR, and you can CHANGE this."

Nah, as much as I wanted to spare some grief, sacrifices are to be made, I sighed again.

"Tell me! Innocent people are going to die! Are you still going to-" she was interrupted by the ground shaking slightly, with a rumble of thunder in the distance. "I-It has already caught up. So fast!" And she set off again.

In another dimension, I sat upon my chair in my studio. "His choice has thrown the universal balance off," I said disappointingly. "I can still make changes as much as I can, but I can't- No, I won't- let this fall apart. Just trust me, Khorale. I just have... a feeling that things will turn out good in the end."And with a click of a mouse, all was silent.

Khorale raced into the base, slamming the door shut and panting heavily. The others crowded around, some curious, and others worried.

"Ryūketsu no Ha," she repeated between heaving breaths. "Ryūketsu no Ha."


Kakashi paused for a moment as he leapt from tree to tree.

"Hm... The last time I had this dreaded feeling was just before the Kyuubi arrived upon Konoha." he murmured to himself.


Kabuto stopped in his experiments, feeling a shiver down his spine.


Deidara twitched, his danger senses tingling. Yet nothing was there.


Pein's eyes rolled backwards, slumping over the office chair he was sitting on as he suddenly lost control over his Paths for a moment, before sitting up again.

What the hell was that? he thought.


Madara had a bad feeling and a sense of foreboding.

And worse, he knew what was going to happen.


Danzo felt his sharingan eyes reacting to a strange feeling. His shinobi senses were tingling. (=D)


Anko halted as she descended upon the trees of the Forest of Death.

Ketsueki Massacre, eh? she thought grimly. She had only heard tales about it from elders who had survived it. And she knew, and she was sure of it, that this time was going to be so much worse than the last.


"It's getting closer," Khorale said as she peered out of the window. A pitch black portal was edging near, ripping up plants and demolishing trees along the way. It seemed to be drawn to chakra, the only possible explanation for why it was following them when it was not even alive.

"Hidan could be the sacrifice," said Kakuzu, pushing said Jashinist forward. The silver haired man swore violently, and gripped his tri-bladed scythe even tighter.

"ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR (BEEP)ING MIND? You (BEEP)ING (BEEP)er (BEEEEEEEEEP)!"

The others winced.

"Well," said Pein, rubbing his ears, "we can't send anyone outside, not even Hidan. A plot hole can have unpredictable results, and most of them bad. We need to do something unpredictable to throw everything back into balance."

The others just frowned.

"We need Tobi right now, un," Deidara commented. "Little brat is just as crazy as the Kyuubi kid."

Speaking of Tobi...

A huge screen suddenly appeared upon a blank wall, with images of the occupants of the Cage in front.

"Speak of the Devil, and he shall appear..." Kisame said in amazement.

"Hey, hey!' Madara snapped. "Watch who you're calling the Devil here!"

The others snickered.

"Oh, come on, Madara!" Itachi said, smirking. "It suits you!"

After everyone had calmed down, the Mizukage said "Khorale-san, we need to ask a question."

The other leaders nodded, while Madara seemed confused.

The girl shrugged. "Alright, if IU has actually let you communicate with us, it must be important. But first, we have a destructive portal heading our way, and-" she was interrupted as the entire base shook, and then started to vibrate. It didn't stop.

"Holy (BEEP)ing shit!" Hidan exclaimed as he peered through the window. The portal had reached the stone wall of the hideout and was drilling into it, making a big hole. Just imagine the damage a regular Rasengan can cause, and then enlarge the Rasengan to the size of this portal (10cm width x 1.7m height. Flat.), and imagine the destruction that would cause.

They all shuddered. While it was not as bad as a Rasenshuriken, which this Naruto hasn't invented yet, it was still very dangerous.

"We need to do something unpredictable so that it will stabilize everything again!" Kakuzu barked. "Tobi! We really need you right now!"

Madara shook his head sadly. "Tobi faded... There's only Him and me left."

"Well, how did you create Tobi in the first place?"

"I don't know! I only knew he had a mind of his own a day or two ago."

Pein's gaze hardened. "We need the next best choice. And that would be you, Madara. You have pretended to be Tobi for of all people should be able to pull this off. Go into your Tobi routine right now."

Madara gulped and nodded. While it was a beat-down to his pride to let Pein command him right now, now was not the time to argue back.

See what I mean? You are WEAK. With me, you could have won against the Kyuubi brat in your original time. You could have detected the explosion, and avoided all of this that has happened. You could-

'SHUT. UP!' Madara thought back. The wall on their right shattered, and Madara knew he had to think fast. He flipped his orange mask so that it was right-side up again (in the previous few chapters, it was spun down to block the light), while wincing at the sudden brightness. Nevertheless, he carried on. It was embarrassing to be an idiot in front of people who actually knew of his true nature, but he was used to it.

"Tobi has returned!" Madara pitched his voice until it reached his usual childishness.

"Wow, he's good," Tobi faintly heard Deidara mutter.

With a flying leap, Tobi dove for the screen, sending him tumbling outside. Of course, he was only in a hologram, so he was not actually out.

He then charged. Directly. Into. The. Portal.

To everyone's relief, it flickered for a moment and then faded away, leaving a triumphant hologram Tobi standing in the middle of the room.

Then, the holographic Tsunade stormed in and dragged Tobi back by his ear, scolding the poor 'boy' on their way back like a mother hen.

The others, upon seeing this, burst out laughing.

Tch... To let yourself be handled like this, the voice commented. I would have killed her by now.

'True... I may have done that once upon a time,' Madara frowned, 'but I have changed for the better. And my previous actions may have brought back Tobi.'

A malicious chuckle left Him. 'You don't know half of what you're dealing with, Madara...'

Madara jerked upright. Why had He suddenly called Madara by his name? That had never happened before...

Something was going on.

"Madara! Are you even listening?" Tsunade's voice.

"AACK! TOBI'S LISTENING!" Tobi waved his hand around.

The others sighed.

"Okay, the threat's passed now... You can, er, go back to being Madara now," the Raikage told Tobi, who nodded enthusiastically.

"…We're ready now, so what are you asking about?" Madara said, confused.

"We're getting to it."

Pein motioned everyone to sit down. Holographic or not, everyone did as told, and made themselves comfortable.

Orochimaru frowned for a moment, not sure how he would handle sitting side by side his former comrades - the ones he had betrayed previously.

Khorale smiled. "Focus on the present, Hebi-san." The others snickered at the name. "Right now, it doesn't matter. We're all on the same side now. So, ask your question, and I will answer as best as I can."

"Fine," Orochimaru said shortly, ignoring the fact that Khorale could somehow read his thoughts. "What do you know about the Ketsueki (Blood Leaf) Massacre?"

SLAM.

Madara's face had gone pale (not that anyone could see while he wore the mask). His expression then twisted into one of anger as he walked stiffly out, a door magically appearing inside the room for him to be alone in -Probably by Izuna, sympathetic, as he knew what his brother was probably thinking- and slammed the door with incredible force.


"I know you are here," Madara rasped. "Speak."

A small screen shone upon a blank wall as a visage of Izuna appeared. "Yes?"

"Why. Did. You. Tell. Them. About. Him?" Madara hissed out as he tossed his orange mask aside, mismatched eyes flashing red and silver.

"You can't do this a second time alone, Madara," Izuna said, looking serious. "Last time, it took..." he trailed off. "I suppose you get the point," he concluded.

Madara ground his teeth. "That's not it!" he exclaimed. "This is nothing like last time! I have no idea how He got out again, and-"

"Calm down. The sudden change in chakra is making you more agitated. The seal's at its most unbalanced state right now. I shall have Kogane look at it once this is over."

Madara snorted. "Like hell. You didn't trap the others and I here for no reason. You wouldn't have done ALL of this if you knew we were just going to break out in the end."

Izuna grinned slyly, his own blank red eyes flashing with amusement. He hadn't seen his brother this riled up in a while, but the situation was quite grim. "You are stronger than me, and we both know it," he said shortly. "It may take you a lifetime, it may take you a second - but you are going to break out."

Madara nodded slowly. "But why this hassle then, if we are going to break out?"

Izuna smirked. "The objective of the Itonami is for the members to exact revenge on those who wronged them in the past. Most of them were assumed dead. The leaders were removed, albeit temporarily, because they were a thorn in our sides. But as soon as the organization collapses, you should be able to escape. We are not going to kill you, unless you are on a hit list, but if we killed you then we would have to deal with a lot more chaos. And look at the size of those reality portals." He gestured at an image of a portal destroying an entire town, killing anything living or infused with chakra. "If the strongest shinobi -the ones keeping balance in their lands- are dead, those could get a LOT worse. Perhaps one of those things the size of the entire earth could appear, or something else equally as bad. The author refused to tell us, and we are not risking ourselves."

Madara suddenly stilled as his eyes started to flash black. Clenching his hand tightly, he opened it, and then clenched it again. He repeated the action until he got his breathing under control. "It's getting worse," he whispered, his eye finally flashed and stayed red, and the other eye turned midnight black, with a single white slit for pupil. "I-I don't think we have much time left." His voice got distorted, and there was an undertone to his sentence, like two people were speaking at once.

Madara closed his eyes, then opened them again. And to Izuna's relief, they were back to normal. The glowing white slit was gone, and Madara looked much more normal.

"…Don't get the others involved," Madara said, composing his face to one of indifference,the cold arrogance he had worn so proudly before everything happened. Before Konoha. Before Him. Before, when everything had been so less complex. Back when he was clan heir, and everything he said was to be law. "This is my issue alone, Izuna. You do remember what it took for him to be free last time?"

Seeing Izuna flinch, Madara nodded, expression still unchanging. "You are responsible for how I have become slightly... attached to them." He gestured towards the door, where the others were conversing. "The Moon Eye Plan will continue, with Kyuubi or not. You owe me." And with a single click, the screen went black, and the room was dark once again.

Madara frowned.


FutureRokudaime: Hey! Kakashi's back! Kabuto too!

CherryBlossom: I hate that medic... He's a traitor, not to mention how he's so smug all the time.

Scarecrow has logged onto the chat room.

Scarecrow: YO! How's my favorite little Genins doing? (AN: I don't kmow WHY they're still gennins, but... Oh well, it's for plot's sake.)

BigBoned: How did he get here? I thought it was Rookies only!

Scarecrow: I hacked. =D

ShyGirl: K-Kakashi S-Sensei, can we... um... h-have some p-privacy around here?

Scarecrow: *Sigh* Alright, alright... Let me tell you one thing though...

Troublesome: This is-

WeaponLover: Troublesome, right? Stop interrupting Kakashi-sensei then!

Scarecrow:*Sweatdrop*Are you going to let me finish or not?

FutureRokudaime: Hehehe... Sorry, Kakashi-sensei...

Scarecrow:*Sigh*…We've been in brief contact with the missing people. Apparently, they are not in this dimension, or else the guards at the Summit would have noticeda bunch of disembodied voices around, and the leaders would have been found already.

FutureRokudaime: THAT'S the news? I knew that already!

MindReader: Yeah! Our idiot here has been in contact with Uchiha Madara a few times!

Scarecrow: What? Tell me everything, Naruto. Start from the beginning.

FutureRokudaime: *Gulp* Y-Yes, Kakashi-sensei.


Madara stood in a make-shift arena, created by requesting a few plastic knives (as they wouldn't damage the place too much, thus avoiding chakra depletion) and a few targets.

With a quick flex of his wrists, Madara made a beanbag explode by embedding the sharp edges inside it, loaded with quickly-fading chakra to enhance its speed.

He knew that using chakra in here would accomplish nothing. After all, the absorption seals on the outside would dampen any usage of it.

Madara spun like a whirlwind through the small room, striking at every target he could see. It was a great stress relief.

All of the knives hit a bull's eye.

You know all of this is useless , He sneered. In the end, I'll beat you. Be gone, thief. I will break out sooner or later, and there will be nothing you can do to stop it.

"I make it my point to do anything you don't like," Madara deadpanned.

The voice snorted. Your death will be more painful than the last. I will take great pleasure in tearing you out from the inside. Thief.

Madara glared ahead coldly, not really looking at anything as he paused in his training. "You will find I'm not easy prey."

Of course not, the voice said smoothly. I trained you myself, little Uchiha.

"That was before the massacre," Madara snarled back. "I hardly knew what you were, and without you, my life would have been much brighter."

Oh, isn't this rich? the voice laughed. Who is it that got their ass handed to them by the Shodaime, the Yondaime, and the Rokudaime?

"Naruto is hardly a Hokage."

He snorted. No... The brat is so much more. He has surpassed all of his predecessors, and even killed you.

"No... I was not killed," Madara said. "I came back before the final attack touched me."

Believe what you want, fake. Your little battle was what woke me up from the eternal slumber I was supposed to be in. I activated the reversal in the time flow. It helped weaken this damn seal, and it has been deteriorating ever since.

Madara sprang into action again, ruthlessly slashing and stabbing and cutting, doing whatever he could to keep his mind off what He had said. If that was true, then...

"Tell me," Madara spoke slowly, a merciless gleam emerging in his eyes, "do you, by chance know anything about the Kyuubi attack upon Konoha in both timelines?" His face twisted into a snarl. "And do you, by chance, know WHY I was blamed for something that I did not do?"

He could not see it, but he felt His face smirking smugly. Oh, that incident. I simply removed one of your most devastating tools, and did a little payback against someone who has wronged both of us in the past... As for you being blamed... We are the same, after all. They would not even dare acknowledge any possibility of me being back. So, naturally, the only suspect was you. Unfortunately.

Madara's right eye -the one with the Eternal Mangekyou Sharingan- spun madly, glowing eerily in the darkness.

Sensing Madara's thoughts, He smirked. Come and get me, if you can.

Without further prompting, Madara delved inside his mind.


When he came upon his mindscape, it was not what he had imagined.

What used to be a clean palace with gold lining decor and expensive jewelry weaving in and out of the curtains had now undergone a 180 degree change.

The floor was muddy, and the surroundings were a jungle. Literally. Vines hung from tall trees that one could not even see the tops of, and a muddy swamp covered most of the landscape.

"I disliked the previous background, so I fitted it with my own preferences," the voice echoed, but nobody could be seen. "I will be waiting at the end of the hallway. You will come whether you like it or not, because you might find some very familiar people...

Madara's heart skipped a beat. Tobi..


The others shifted nervously as they watched an unmoving door for a looooong time.

Finally, Deidara spoke. "T- Uh, Madara, seemed pretty pissed off," he said nervously.

They all had felt Madara's dark aura lashing out in invisible waves.

"I know the better details will be answered by Madara, if he's willing," said Khorale, looking at the screen again, "but I will tell you what I can. You all know about the Moon Eye Plan, right?" Seeing the others nod, Khorale shook her head. "It's a lie. Madara needs the Bijuu to kill someone very personal to him. He is-"


Madara raced through the hallway, skidding to a stop as red Sharingan eyes met black ones with white-slit pupils.

"Juubi no Senshi," he said calmly. "The ten-tails shape-shifter, otherwise known as Uchiha Madara."


I know it sounds confusing and all, but just bear with me! I've got it all planned out and everything! So bombard me with questions all you want, but I'm 'aint gonna reveal nothin'.

Next chapter: Phrase one starts on all sides as hidden plans are coming to light, the explanations continue, and what the hell is Hashirama doing down here?

Itonami members:

Minato – Kogane (Gold)

Izuna - IU

Zabuza – Musei (Silent)

T****a – Meimu (Illusion)

Hinote – Okunote (Secret)

Utakata – Riku (Shore)

Karura – Areno (Desert)

Mysterious People Yet to be Revealed:

The mastermind of the Itonami - *******

Meimu - ****** (Next chapter is the second part of the chapter, as I like a good cliffhanger, so she wouldn't be revealed yet!)


Yay! Some spoilers! Even though chapter 10 is currently 3/4th complete! I'm putting up a quick little peek.

Izuna sighed and rubbed his nose. 'How am I going to explain this to him?' he thought. "Minato, check on the Juubi seal currently located in Uchiha Madara's mind."

There was a stunned silence.

...

"You want me to WHAT?"