A Brother

by The Right Stop

Many have heard the story of Hagoromo Ōtsutsuki, the Sage of Six Paths, but barely any have heard the story of his brother Naruto Ōtsutsuki, the Elemental Sage. God-like Naruto.

12. Chapter 12

Title: The Brother

By: The Right Stop

"Humans Speaking"

'Human Thinking'

"Human Telepathy"

Jutsu in Use

"Bijū/Non-Human Talking"

'Bijū/Non-Human Thinking'

"Bijū/Non-Human Telepathy"

AN: Chapter Twelve, here we are.

I'm sorry this is late, but I had a little difficulty writing this chapter and rushed to get it out to you, my readers, quickly. As such don't be surprised if there are a few more spelling errors than normal.

A few people have been commenting about Naruto being useless or not contributing to the war, to those people I say listen up because I'll be addressing your problem here. Naruto has no reason to truly fight in this war, or any future wars, remember the only reason he is fighting in this war is because of his deal to free Kurama, if not for that, he would have let the Konoha fight without his assistance. I do plan on getting Naruto to become more active in the war, this chapter will contain his first real battle in the war, though he will not change a lot of the time line, it will be the Second Shinobi War where things that to change.

I am sorry to those who don't think that Naruto's reason for getting involved is real enough, or they feel it is rushed, but frankly, I want to get to Cannon so that I can have Naruto reveal himself, it will be so much fun to write people's reactions.

XxXxXxXxXxX

Chapter Twelve

The funeral for Hashirama Senju, the Shodai Hokage of Konoha, was something that brought the entire village to a standstill. Shops closed, the Shinobi Training Facility let its students out, clans that would never have shared the same street with one another, stood next to each other as the body of their once great leader was given its final rights before it was moved off to a secret burial site.

Many people came forward to say a few words about the legendary figure, mostly family members but a few people who worked closely with the man stepped up and spoke for a few minutes before passing on the spotlight. Haru said a several words before passing it on to the person behind him, his father and himself hadn't had the best of relationships, even before the war. The war only made it harder to reconcile with each other, the stress of losing comrades on the field of battle meant that neither really had time to talk, to busy wallowing around in guilt, or if they did, they simply lost the nerve to talk to one another. One of Haru's biggest regrets was that he hadn't told his father that he loved him for about a year before his death, he wished he had.

Many people cried, some for the loss of a great leader, others for a powerful shinobi and some cried for the loss of such a great friend. The sky was bleak, a fog of grey clouds prevented the sun from being seen, as if Kami herself was mourning the passing of the great leader of Konoha. The atmosphere of the village itself reflected that of the heavens, no one smiled as the funeral was carried out, neither shinobi nor civilians made any move to, they had no reason too.

For the shinobi, they knew that they were weakened considerably with the death of their greatest shinobi, weakened in both military might and in morale. The death of Hashirama was a blow to every shinobi, from genin to jōnin, all knew of his skill and found it hard to imagine the power required to take him down. All of them knew that Hashirama Senju held considerable power, his prowess in Mokuton was something that every ninja knew, and the thought that he could be killed, even if it was with the combined might of three Hidden Villages, was something that scared a few ninja. All of them knew that the only one alive in Konoha that could rival the power of Hashirama Senju was his brother, Tobirama, but even then, the younger brother freely admitted that Hashirama was far stronger than him. The thought of facing the power that took down Hashirama Senju scared many of them.

For the civilians, it simply the loss of a powerful man and a good person, Hashirama's positive attitude made him popular with the civilian sector of the village. He was always ready to help those who needed it, and that made him a good man in their book. His sacrifice to protect their lives only made that positive opinion enforce itself.

As the funeral wound to a close, Tobirama stepped forward, his words being last, himself being closest to Hashirama with the exception of Mito, refused to speak at her husband's funeral. She sat in the front row, her gaze focused on the ground, those next to her could make out the tears that would occasionally roll down her face, anyone who looked at her could tell that she was trying her hardest not to break down in tears.

Tobirama walked up to the front of his brother's body that was lying down on a stone bed for those attending the funeral see, he would have preferred to have a private funeral with family and close friends only but he knew in his heart that Hashirama would have liked a public funeral more. His brother almost looked like he was sleeping, that wish was destroyed when one noticed the stillness of his chest. Tobirama shed no tears as he turned around to face the large gathering of people attending the funeral, he had to remain strong, standing as a beacon of light for those in Konoha to follow in this dark time. Shinobi and civilians standing side by side to honour his brother, it was something that made him happy in a way, Hashirama had always wanted to see the village as united as it was now. But another part of him was angry, angry that it took the death of his brother for these people to come together like they were now.

As he began to talk, Tobirama began to search the crowd for a certain person, he had said that he would be in attendance and Tobirama wanted to see if he was speaking truthfully. Eventually, he spotted his target, near the very back of the large crowd gathering to attend the funeral, he could just make out the top of the plain brown cloak before, almost as if he knew that Tobirama was looking at him, he turned to leave.

Tobirama quickly went through the speech that he had prepared, public speaking wasn't one of his greatest talents and wanted his own part of the funeral to be over as quickly as possible. With the public part of the funeral over, the populace of Konoha, both ninja and civilian, began to go back to their daily lives, running their shops, practicing their trade, learning at their school, either ninja or civilian, yet the depressing atmosphere still lingered.

Tobirama then quickly began to transport the body of his brother, alone, to its burial place, a large tomb buried underneath the Hokage Monument, inscribed with seals to increase the durability of the entire structure and make sure that it last through time. Tobirama quickly made his way there with his brother's body, entering the structure through the hidden entrance which required the blood of the current Hokage to be placed on a section of rock at the base of the mountain. Walking down a flight of stairs, lined by torches to illuminate the way, Tobirama eventually came to a large room made of grey stone, lined with torches much like the staircase, containing a single stone altar in the centre of the room. This place would serve as the resting place for his brother's body, a place to protect his body from all who wished to desecrate his memory. Tobirama knew that Hashirama would like to be buried out in the open where he could be visited by the common folk in the village, but he also knew that Hashirama would eventually relent that the chance of an enemy-nin breaking into the village and making off with his body was too high.

Laying his brother's body on the altar, Tobirama then took a step back and simply stared for a moment, he wondered what Hashirama would say if he could see him? To 'Not mope around like someone who got their cat killed'? To 'Keep moving forward using the Will of Fire as his guide'?

None of that really mattered, because his brother couldn't talk to him, because he was dead. Tobirama lowered his head, he refused to allow himself to cry but that didn't mean that he had to maintain the almost stoic demeanour he had on at the funeral when he was in private.

The sound of sandals hitting the stone floor of his brother's tomb echoed into his ears, the person who entered made no move to hide their presence and didn't need to, Tobirama knew that only one other person besides himself knew about this place.

He didn't turn around to greet the person as they entered the crypt, landing at the bottom of the flight of stairs, but he did raise his head so that he wasn't looking at the ground. He heard the sound get closer and closer to his position, but he still made no movement to turn around. Eventually, he felt the person stand right beside him, and as they came to a stop to his right, he turned his head to greet them.

"Hello Mito." The Nidaime said before turning back to look at the body of his brother. Mito made no motion to suggest that she heard his words, to busy staring at the unmoving body of her husband, but he knew that his words registered in her ears.

From his single glance, he could tell that Mito was more of a mess than he was, blood shot eyes and tear marks down her cheeks told him that she had been crying. The bags under her eyes told him that she has had trouble sleeping, either plagued by nightmares or insomnia. Her usually immaculate kimono was wrinkled in several places. Even days after receiving the news she still looked like a mess, and if he had to guess, she would be for days to come.

"Hello Tobirama." She replied as she continued staring. "Did he suffer?" She asked after a moment of silence. There was no need to clarify who she was asking about.

"No," Tobirama said. "From what I know, it was an instant death." Naruto had told him the same thing when he enquired about his brother with the same question once Naruto had returned with his brother's body. He wasn't sure if Naruto was telling the truth or not, but he knew that Mito didn't need truth at this moment, what she needed was comfort, and if lying did that then so be it.

"Do we know which country did it?" She questioned again. This time, Tobirama hesitated slightly in his answer, when he had asked this same question, to which Naruto had answered him that he didn't know. He had then become angry with the answer, saying that with all the power he had at his disposal that he should know. Naruto had then told him that this was the exact reason why even if he did know that he wouldn't tell him, because it would cause him to do something rash and it could get him killed or cause severe repercussions for his village and Hashirama's legacy.

Tobirama didn't know if Mito would have the same reaction as him should he say that he didn't know, but he did know that she would most likely do something that could get her killed, which was something that he couldn't and wouldn't let happen. Haru had already lost his father, he wouldn't let him lose his mother so quickly.

"I don't know," Tobirama eventually answered. "And I don't want to." He added, trying to help deter Mito from prying deeper. His plan succeed when Mito didn't pry, choosing to accept that she wouldn't know. Hopefully it would stay that way.

Minutes began to tick by as the two continued to stare at Hashirama's body, Tobirama didn't know exactly how long passed before he snapped out of the daze he was in. Looking at Mito, he decided to give her some time alone.

"I will leave you now Mito, take care." Tobirama departed with those words and began heading towards the stairs, he was about to begin ascending when Mito's voice called out to him.

"Tobirama," She called. "Power the seals on your way out would you." She requested without moving her head from its position. Tobirama gave a small nod, even though she couldn't see it, and turned to a part of the wall near the bottom of the stairs. Placing a hand on a certain part, Tobirama began to push chakra through and out his hand, and began to power the seals that lined the room. Almost immediately, seals that were inscribed into the walls of the tomb began to light up a bright white, showing those watching just how numerous they were as they stretched from the place where Tobirama had placed his hand to the walls, ceiling, floor and even the stone altar that Hashirama's body rested on. Eventually, the glow of seals changed from white to blue, signalling that they were fully charged, and Tobirama took his hand off of the wall.

No words were exchanged as Tobirama then began to make his way back up the stairs and out into the village.

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Naruto hadn't exited his home in the centre of the Forest of Death after he returned from Hashirama's funeral, that was three weeks ago. He needed this time to think about his position in this war, how he would act.

Hashirama's death had rattled him more than he would like to admit, it made him face several feelings that he thought weren't there, or weren't as powerful as he thought they were. Chief among these was his feelings about Hashirama and the man's family, the death of Hashirama made him realise that he cared for Hashirama much more than he originally thought, not as family or anything like that, his sealing of the bijū ruined any chance of that happening, but as a close friend, one of the first that he'd had in centuries.

The three days he'd spend in solitude had been spent sorting out repressed emotions and how he would affect this war. Either way he would be defending Konoha, that was certain, either through his deal to free Kurama or because decided that he had something worth fighting for here, what was up for debate was just how much he helped. He could wait until the armies of Iwa, Kumo and Suna were touching the walls of the village before he acted, or he could attack while they were in the Land of Fire, which if he did so would still be technically defending Konoha seeing as they were in Konoha territory. He knew about that loophole in the wording of the agreement, it was something that he had found only afterwards when he had thought over the wording of the agreement hours later in case he had accidentally let a hole that Konoha could use to make another grab for Kurama, he was so for about the wording for Kurama's safety that he had forgotten about the part of the agreement that had involved him. Whether Tobirama knew this remained to be seen, but he had a feeling that the Hokage did, and would use that to his advantage, would Naruto accept the hole in the agreement and go through with it peacefully or went through it kicking and screaming remained to be seen. He wouldn't back out of the deal though, he gave his word, he would see it through to the end.

There were then the Uzumaki, and therefore Uzushio, to consider, they were allies of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, should Konoha fall, Naruto knew that they would be next, and he knew that his descendants would never ally themselves with the I.K.S Alliance, even if it meant their death.

Another point was that he was Tsunade's godfather, a responsibility that Hashirama had surprised everyone with but had eventually become the official godparent for the young Senju clan heir. He knew that he had come to care for the little blonde child in the years since he had first laid eyes on her, she reminded him of a time when he had children of his own, a happier time. Frankly, she was a joy to be around for him, he had forgotten how a child's smile seemed to make all of his troubles disappear, especially when he was the one who gave that smile to her. It reminded him of Kazama and Mushina, though they had far different personalities to her, Kazama was hyper almost all of the time while Mushina preferred to think things through more, though he still had his hyper moments even if he tried to repress them as he got older, thinking that he was too mature to have them.

That then lead on to Hashirama's family, could he really sit by and do nothing as Haru was sent out on to the battlefield, while he wasn't as close to Hashirama's son as he was to the other members of Hashirama's close family, it didn't mean that he wouldn't feel sad should the man die.

All of this conflicted with Naruto's original view on this war, about how he shouldn't interfere unless the Uzumaki were truly threatened and should he feel like it, the Senju, Hyūga and Uchiha. The confliction in his head made him want to tear his hair out, why couldn't he have just kept out of this? Why couldn't he have just stopped Mito from sealing Kurama into herself and begin this entire thing? It may have led to war sooner, he may have even killed her, and possibly Hashirama, but this entire situation wouldn't have happened.

Naruto's original desire to not be a part of a war started for power began to crumble as he listed the points off on why he should fight and why he shouldn't. When he had originally thought about how his deal with Hashirama and Tobirama would go, he had entertained the idea that he might feel a desire to fight simply to keep people from suffering, but ultimately, he had passed it off, family came first, that was something he had lived by, family came first. But when he originally thought about how the deal would affect him, he hadn't taken into account what would happen if he began to see others as family.

As he began to wish that sake, or any alcohol for that matter, did more to him than give him a slight burn at the back of his throat, his innate healing ability recognised alcohol as a type of poison and quickly purged it from his system, he felt several seals that he had placed around the tower go off, indicating that someone had entered the tower. Naruto then checked the back of his left hand from the lotus position that he was occupying on the floor, on the back of his hand was a seal that was connected to around fifty other seals that were placed around the tower, each one acted as a sensor, picking up anything above a certain size that went passed it and relayed it to the master seal on the back of Naruto's hand, as the object or person got closer to master seal, the seal would began to flash faster, alerting Naruto to the intruder.

While he could have his senses extended constantly, the constant large amounts of information would begin to fry Naruto's brain. He could hold a large area of around three kilometres for about two hours, four if he pushed it, which was quite an accomplishment considering that when he began he could only do a single kilometre for about half an hour. Anyone else who tried to copy Naruto's sensing ability would die, even if they had the time that he had, they would still die, the human brain was simply not capable to process so much information without training, but even if they did train, they had no way to heal their mind after each session, the brain didn't heal like muscles, if the brain was broken or strained, it would take a while for it to heal. Thankfully, Naruto had his innate healing ability to heal the damage before it would affect him in any way.

Naruto tracked the person that had entered 'his' tower as they made their way up the stairs, coming closer and closer to his position. Naruto had narrowed down the amount of people who would visit him, or were willing to traverse this far into the Forest of Death down to two people, Mito or Tobirama. Miki was a civilian, and while he knew that she would most likely visit him if she could, Naruto knew that she had no chance of making it through the deadly jungle that made up training ground forty-four. Haru was also out, while Hashirama's son had the skills required to make it through the forest to his location, he had no reason to, Naruto wasn't as close to Haru as he was to his wife, mostly due to Haru fighting a war for the past few years, the man hadn't had much time with his family, let alone trying to get to know Naruto.

That only really left Mito and Tobirama, they were the only other people who knew where Naruto lived. Out of those two, Naruto knew that only Tobirama would visit him, Mito would either be still mourning the death of her husband or be on her way to Uzushiogakure, to help her fellow Uzumaki fend off Kiri.

The presence was now standing outside of the door to Naruto's room, simply standing there, gathering their courage to enter his room and say what they needed to say. Naruto heard a small sigh from the other side of the door before whoever it was knocked.

Standing up from his lotus position, Naruto made his way towards door and swung it open to reveal Tobirama as the one who entered the tower, not surprising to Naruto. After a few moments of awkward silence, in which the Hokage didn't state why he was visiting him and Naruto waiting for him to do so, Naruto eventually stepped to the side and gestured for the Second Hokage to come in. Tobirama gave a slight nod as he stepped into the room.

He was quite shocked as to the state of it, the room was incredibly bare, a futon in one corner of the room, a desk pressed up against the wall, a few windows and the outlines of several seals inscribed into the wall were all that Tobirama could see in the room. Considering that Naruto had lived here for over a year, Tobirama would have thought that the man would have placed some kind of decorations, perhaps some pictures, or some furniture to make the room seem more homely.

The sound of someone clearing their throat behind Tobirama caused him to spin around, finding Naruto simply looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

"If you're done scrutinising my room, perhaps you could tell me why you're here?" Naruto questioned, though Tobirama could detect slight amusement in his voice. Over the years that the two had interacted, Tobirama had come to realise that Naruto had a personality that was similar to his brother in a lot of ways, though they weren't exactly the same, Naruto having become more serious and controlled than his brother, he supposed that over three millennia can do that to a man.

"Very well." Tobirama said with a sigh, he wasn't looking forward to this conversation. He wished that the council hadn't put him in this position but he was desperate and Naruto was frankly his only option. "May we sit down, this conversation may take a while to discuss." He told Naruto as the man gave a nod to his query and both men sat of the floor, Naruto in the lotus position while Tobirama simply folded his legs underneath himself.

Sitting down on the ground, Tobirama thought about how to phrase his words as to avoid Naruto's anger. While the man had become harder to anger over the years, he still had a temper that could erupt if one knew which buttons to press, Tobirama hoped to avoid all of them.

"Naruto," The Nidaime began. "The council has put me under a lot of pressure lately and frankly...I need your help." He admitted, Tobirama decided to come out and say it, trying to hide is intentions would only increase Naruto's ire.

"Explain to me the situation Tobirama and I'll see how I can help, but I fail to see how I could help you and less you wanted to strong arm the council into something, which I doubt." Naruto said truthfully. "For that matter, I don't truly know what the council is." Tobirama rubbed his hand against his forehead protector before launching into an explanation.

"A quick explanation on what the council is would be a selection of people to advise the Hokage on different matters, they were originally created by my brother in order to assist with the running of the village. The council is divided into two different sub councils, the shinobi council, which is made up of the clan heads from several major clans, whose job it is to assist the Hokage in shinobi matters, they also handle basic shinobi matters, how much kunai we have in stock, when we need to restock on certain supplies, things like that. The other sub council is the civilian council which, as you can guess, handle civilian matters and advise the Hokage on any civilian matters that may require their attention, each person on the civilian council is elected by the civilian sector of the village. Are you following me so far?" Tobirama asked as he finished up his explanation.

"I follow you fine Tobirama but I am having trouble on figuring out just what the problem is, if the council is putting any pressure on you, you can simply overrule it as Hokage. This village is a military dictatorship." Naruto remarked, he failed to see any problems that Tobirama might have.

Tobirama gave a sigh and began to explain just why he was under pressure. "In times of war, the council is given more power in case the Hokage is injured or killed in battle, it will allow them to take control and keep the peace before they elect a new Hokage. A part of this extra power allows them to overrule to Hokage in some military matters as a precaution in case the Hokage at the time does something rash or stupid, however, it must be at least ninety percent majority of the council for the Hokage to be overruled. Before you ask, the civilian council is allowed to participate in the war council because of Hashirama, he thought that even though they may not know what is going on, the civilians do deserve a voice when strategising for war. One of the more stupid decisions he made, and one that I had hoped to overturn after this war was over, using this war as an example as to how useless the civilians are in the war council." It wasn't something that Tobirama originally agreed on when his brother first made the law but he eventually relented when Hashirama pointed out several points, the major one being the chance that the Hokage dies during a war without a successor pre-selected, the council would then take over military action while the next Hokage gained experience. Shaking his head to stop himself from continuing on his mini rant, Tobirama once again go back on track. "Ignoring that last part, do you understand everything I've said so far?" Once Naruto gave Tobirama a nod, showing that he was still following him, he continued. "Now, do you remember my original strategy for the war?"

Naruto gave a nod, showing he did. "You wanted the other villages to wear themselves out against your defence before attacking when they were weak."

"Yes," Tobirama said. "That was my strategy, but unfortunately, the council no longer agrees that it is an option, and I am inclined to agree with them. The alliance between Kumo, Iwa and Suna has completely changed everything, Konoha is now under serious threat of extermination now."

"I'm still not seeing what the problem is Tobirama." Naruto remarked. "If both you and the council agree that the former strategy won't work then you simply have to plan a new one in order to combat Kumo, Iwa and Suna."

Tobirama gave another sigh, this one seemed to age him a few years. "Naruto...the council wants to begin to force all available children into becoming shinobi as quickly as possible, the youngest being only four years old. They are also considering taking children from several towns under our command in order to help bolster Konoha's ranks." Naruto seemed to freeze as his brain began to process what Tobirama was saying. "I have tried to stop them, telling them that this would cause riots and revolts but they refuse to listen, overturning any demands that I make."

"You mean to tell me," Naruto started with narrowed eyes. "That this council wants to take children, any able bodied child, and, regardless of if they want to or not, make them to become shinobi, all to fight a possibly inevitable outcome." While he spoke in a quiet voice, Tobirama could make out the rage Naruto kept hidden in the tone, being on the receiving end of it a few times made Tobirama cautious of angering the white haired man.

"They are scared Naruto." Tobirama tried to placate the powerful man and stop him from murdering his council. "The shinobi council knows who bleak the situation looks and that isn't helped by the civilian council who have no idea what's going on. My brother was a major military power by himself, all of shinobi are afraid, they believe that if anything can take down Hashirama, that they are doomed. All the council are doing is struggling in the hands of death, like any living being does, they don't want to die, so they are doing anything to prevent that from happening. A desperate ploy that they have all thrown their hope onto on the belief that it will save them, I may know that it won't work but they don't."

Naruto stared at Tobirama. "You aren't helping them Tobirama. All your saying to me is that they are willing to sacrifice their children, and the children of others, in order to live another day."

Tobirama gave another sigh. "I know, and if it was up to me, I would kill them too, their plan is despicable, but I also know that they doing this out fear. That is what you must focus on Naruto, they are doing this because they have lost hope and are afraid. Give them that hope back and they will see that what they are doing is wrong."

This time, Naruto gave a sigh. "You're asking me to fight...aren't you Tobirama." There was no question in Naruto's words, only a kind of knowing tone that only comes with age. Tobirama said nothing to deny the accusation, because it was true. He came here in the hope that he could get Naruto to fight, not the entire war because he knew that it would only have negative repercussions for Konoha, but enough to instil the spark of hope into the civilians and shinobi that had been lost when Hashirama died.

"Not the entire war," Tobirama said, after a silence. "Simply enough to bring hope back into the village and the shinobi populace." Looking into Tobirama's eyes, Naruto could see true vulnerability in the man's eyes. "Please Naruto, I don't wish for my brother's dream to end, I don't wish to see my family die, please fight."

Closing his eyes, Naruto let all of his thoughts about whether he should fight drift back. On one hand, there were the bonds that he had unintentionally created here, his goddaughter, could he look at her knowing that he had possibly killed her father and uncle through his inaction, that he had made her mother a widow? Could he let Hashirama's dream get so close to Death's door?

On the other hand, this wasn't his war, he had no real reason to fight anything more than what was agreed on in the deal. He wasn't a part of this village. Besides, why was it his problem that this village seemed to give up hope so easily? If Tobirama wanted to bring back hope, he should do it himself, fighting besides his men, giving a speech to rally everyone, he didn't have to get him to fight.

This deliberation went on for several minutes inside his head, bringing together three weeks of thought into one debate. He was mid way through this discussion when Tobirama add something that sealed the deal on what he should do.

"If you choose to fight, you will be facing high level opponents, those being jinchūriki and the three kages and any of their supposed successors. After the war, I will pass on all the information I have on the jinchūriki of the other villages."

That ended the debate for Naruto, the chance to free his family was too much for him to pass on, even the part of him that didn't want to fight would do so for the chance to free his nieces and nephews. It might be hypocritical of him, but family always came first in his eyes.

"Tobirama...you have a deal."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

"Hokage-sama, have you come up with another idea that is better than our own? If not then we will have to go through with our idea involving the children of Konoha."

The words of Suchigo Uchiha reached Tobirama's ears as soon as he walked into the council chambers, having called a meeting only hours after his meeting with Naruto had drawn to a close. Tobirama had to suppress a scowl that wanted to surface after he heard the voice of the Uchiha clan head. After Madara, Tobirama had become suspicious of all but a few of the Uchiha clan, believing that, if given sufficient power, they would go rogue and turn out like his brother's rival. It was something that not many agreed with him on, but Tobirama merely waved their opinions off, they didn't matter.

Giving a quick glance to rest of the council, Tobirama could see that all of the members were there, from both sides. Not surprising, when the Hokage calls for a council meeting, one doesn't come late. One gets there ten minutes early in order to wait patiently for their Hokage to grace their presence, it may seem a bit arrogant to place the position of Hokage so high but this was military dictatorship, not a democracy.

"Yes Suchigo, for your information I do have a better idea than the one that the council has proposed." Tobirama said to the Uchiha clan head to the man's right. The council was arranged so that the ninja council and civilian council were separate from each other. The civilian council began from the Hokage's left, while the ninja council began from the Hokage's right. The table that all of them occupied was in the shape of a 'C', so that those giving their reports to the Hokage that also require the presence of the ninja council can do so without needing everyone to become cramped into the Hokage's office.

"Are you sure Hokage-sama? I mean you no offence but you said the same thing two weeks ago, saying that you would be able to create a jutsu that would help us win the war but you then abandoned it in favour of this idea." Shikamato, the head of the Nara clan, told the Hokage. Like all those of his clan, Shikamato had a lazy expression on his face that would only disappear with the direst of situations. The man had his head resting on one hand as he gaze at the Hokage which normally would get the person doing the offending motion a firm reprimand about not showing the proper etiquette in an important council meeting. But after getting to know the Nara and learn a bit more about them, one would realise that such a gesture from a Nara wasn't rude, but actually a sign of respect, the respect being shown in the fact that the Nara wasn't sleeping while you were talking.

"Yes Shikamato, though this isn't so much as an idea as much as some assistance that will be crucial in winning this war." The Nidaime told his council. A few of them began muttering, theorising about what this help could possibly be. Before the muttering could get out of control, Tobirama raised a single hand to call for silence, which immediately quietened the council. "The assistance that I have procured has come at a cost that doesn't affect us in any true way, so before I am asked about the price of such help, know that all we must do is give him strong opponents to fight against." 'Though I doubt any one person in the Elemental Nations could be consider 'strong' by Naruto's standards.' Tobirama get his thoughts to himself. A yell from one of the civilian council members brought Tobirama's attention to him.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN 'HIM!?" The civilian, some rich merchant that owned a business or two, exclaimed. "YOU ONLY HAVE THE ASSISTANCE OF ONE PERSON AGAINST AN ARMY THAT TOOK DOWN HASHIRAMA-SAMA!?"

Immediately, the civilian realised what he said was not the right thing to say to the face of the Hokage and began to try and make himself smaller in his chair. His attempt at escape didn't help him escape the Killer Intent that Tobirama began to release at him. Instantly, the man began to feel light headed as a chill ran up and down his spine, visions started to flash before his eyes, himself dying via a kunai to the skull, a shuriken piercing his throat, a water jutsu drowning him, hundreds of those images passed across his vision in a second. When he regained himself, he found himself lying on the floor, huddled into the foetal position, whimpering like a child would for its mother after a nightmare. Painfully aware of the eyes on him, the merchant made his way back up to the chair that he had previously occupied.

Once he settled into the chair, he immediately apologised to his Hokage, though he couldn't meet his eyes, the previous images briefly passed across his vision, preventing him. "I-I'm sorry H-Hokage-sama, I spoke out of turn." He eventually managed to stutter out the words under the eyes of the rest of the council.

"Ma, Ruji-san," Shikamato Nara said, focusing the councils attention on him. Many people began to rub their eyes when they finally did focus on Shikamato, the man, instead of the lazy, slouched position he was in before, was sitting up straight, a calculating glint in his eye for the first time that many could remember. A reminder to all those in the room that even though the Nara were a lazy bunch, they were also some of the smartest people in Konoha and possibly the Elemental Nations. "Hokage-sama knows that in order to take down the shinobi that the opposing villages have put against us that we would need an extraordinarily powerful ninja or group of ninja. In this case, Hokage-sama has found a single person. But what I would like to know is how you could find this person so quickly yet not bring them in when the war first started, along with why they wouldn't charge us for money?" Shikamato ended his list of questions with a raised eyebrow, non-verbally asking the exact same questions. The Nara's questions got the rest of the room thinking, about the questions that the Nara asked, as well as the unasked one.

Just how powerful was this person that Hokage-sama is willing to place their fate in his hands?

Tobirama didn't answer immediately answer, his face didn't show how much he wished that the Nara could have kept his questions to himself or asked him in private. He knew that he would now have to answer the questions that Shikamato proposed in order to win the support of at least a quarter of the council that was required for his idea to pass and become Konoha's main battle plan for the war.

"The answers to your questions Shikamato-san a quite simple." Tobirama began, inwardly praying that the Nara bought his lies. Tobirama knew he was a good liar, being a shinobi called for it, but Nara's were notoriously difficult to lie, their intelligence meant that they could quickly discern lies if the logic didn't match up. "I didn't bring him in earlier because I felt that we wouldn't need his assistance in this war, that is now obviously not the case. As to why wouldn't accept money as a fee, they have no need for it, money means nothing to one that doesn't need it, and this person doesn't. To answer your unasked question of how powerful he is..." Here, Tobirama couldn't withhold a small smirk that made its way to his face, he would enjoy their looks of shocks when the first reports of battles involving Naruto made it back. It was an unlikely that he would see a more amusing sight. "...He is powerful enough."

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Hiruzen Sarutobi held back a curse as he leapt out of the way to avoid a wind jutsu that shredded his former position on a tree branch. Landing on another tree branch, Hiruzen returned fire against the Suna shinobi with a Katon jutsu of his own, Katon: Karyū Endan (Fire Release: Fire Dragon Flame Bullet) to be precise.

The flame dragon barrelled into the position of the Suna shinobi on the forest floor with surprising speed, incinerating the shinobi with its heat. But even as he saw his jutsu impact the shinobi, Hiruzen kept his guard, weary of a possible Kawarimi Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique). It was only when the smoke from the impact of the technique cleared, and the body of a charred ninja remained, did the Sarutobi released a breath.

His moment of reprieve ended, however, when his instincts began screaming at him to move, he followed them immediately. It was a good thing he did because not a moment later, a Raiton jutsu pierced the tree branch he was resting on. Leaping down to the forest floor, Hiruzen was then faced with two Iwa shinobi.

After the kages involved in the attack of Hashirama Senju returned to their respective villages, the unofficial ceasefire was revoked. Iwa, Kumo and Suna began to spread their troops around the many fronts that they all had with the Land of Fire in order to try and catch Konoha off guard, sending Suna shinobi equipped with wind jutsu against shinobi that were ready for almost purely Doton users from Iwa destroyed any strategy that Konoha had brought to the table.

Hiruzen only now realised this as he evaded a dozen earthen spikes that were launched at him from the Iwa shinobi, landing on the branches of a nearby tree, hoping to put some space in order to formulise some sort of a plan.

In other parts of the battlefield, Hiruzen knew that other Konoha shinobi were facing a mixture of Iwa and Suna nin, outnumbered and out played. The fate of the battle was almost certainly going to go to the I.K.S Alliance. The forest in which the fighting was occupying was littered with fallen trees and the bodies of those who had died for their village. Even when he was focused on the battle, Hiruzen could still smell the smoke, the burning bodies and the blood permeated the air like a thick fog.

Hiruzen knew that it wasn't the surprise of Suna shinobi in the mix that made this battle turn to the favour of their enemies. While it had surprised them, it wasn't what made them break ranks and begin to fight their own battles.

Dodging a several spheres of mud launched from one of the Iwa shinobi, Hiruzen leapt behind the trunk of the tree he was on and secretly created a Kage Bunshin (Shadow Clone), the technique taught to him by his sensei, the current Hokage, was classified as a secret technique of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but he didn't think that his sensei would care if he used it during battle.

The clone immediately jumped off after being created, it knew the job it was to carry out. Hiruzen then leapt to another tree as the one he was hiding behind was taken out by earth and stone dragon, Hiruzen recognised it as a Doton: Dosekiryū (Earth Release: Earth and Stone Dragon).

Landing back on the forest floor, Hiruzen showed the Iwa shinobi his skill as a ninja, quickly flipping through hand seals that neither of them could see, ending on the dragon seal.

"Raiton: Jibashi (Lightning Release: Electromagnetic Murder)." Hiruzen could see the Doton users shock on their faces as heard the name of the jutsu coming from a Konoha shinobi. While a Konoha shinobi knowing a lightning jutsu wasn't all that rare, one knowing a jutsu with as much potential power as Jibashi was. While not incredibly powerful, it had the power to power through almost any single Iwagakure shinobi's defence with ease unless the defending shinobi was exceedingly powerful.

As the lightning began to build up between Hiruzen's hands, the two Iwa shinobi shinobi went through their own hand seals in order to defend. They were surprised, however, when a spray of water hit them in the back with enough force to make them both stumble forward, breaking their concentration, the water soaking the ground and creating a puddle underneath the two. Both turned around in time to see another Hiruzen giving them both a smile before pointing behind them where the first Hiruzen had charged up his technique between his hands.

Launching the technique towards the puddle of water that both shinobi were standing in, the lightning immediately coursed its way through the water and into the bodies of the two Iwa shinobi, instantly cooking the ninja from the inside out. Hiruzen forced himself not to gag at the smell of the two burned shinobi, he hoped he never did.

Hiruzen released his hold on the two shinobi, letting their bodies fall into the puddle, occasionally twitching as the lighting finished making its way through their entire bodies. Hiruzen then leaped back up into the trees and began to make his way to main battlefield, where all of the fighting originated.

Jumping through the trees, the Sarutobi born ninja used the time to check how much chakra he had left to spare, before focusing on returning to the main battle and helping out what ninja remained.

Hiruzen landed at the edge of a man made clearing, nearly a hundred fallen trees made up the battle ground on which Konoha and Iwa and Suna shinobi were fighting it out, jutsu, kunai and shuriken and flying everywhere with the occasional intense taijutsu battle. A flash of red chakra made the Sarutobi focus on the reason why this battle was really going badly. The Nibi jinchūriki wasn't meant to be in this area at all, it was meant to be more towards the east, fighting closer to the eastern coast of the Land of Fire.

None of the shinobi in that made up the battalion that were fighting this battle had any experience or seals needed to take down a jinchūriki, let alone one that had the ability to bring out the full power of its tenant. The bijū host was tearing its way through many Leaf shinobi and there was no one experienced enough to even delay it, let alone stop it.

Hiruzen was about to move to help those attacking the jinchūriki when a hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him in his tracks. With his shinobi instincts going at full speed, Hiruzen turned around with a kunai in his hand, ready to skewer the person who had laid a hand on him. The path of the hand with his kunai was stopped by another hand that gripped his wrist. Looking at the person who was now restraining him, Hiruzen came face to face with the last person he expected. It was Naruto, the person who had curbed his arrogance almost four years ago, and perhaps the only reason that he was still alive today. Dressed in a regal white kimono, adorned with magatama along the fringe of the garb, along with dark pants, he looked like the spitting image of royalty yet also looked ready for quick movements with his loose clothes. As he looked at his face, Hiruzen easily noticed that what were once pale, white eyes, much like the Hyūga were now a violet colour, much like Mito-sama's were, only they had a pupil in the eye. Hiruzen quickly put the thought out of his head, he could ask it later, when he wasn't in the middle of battlefield.

The now violet eyed man spared a glance at Hiruzen before looking at something that appeared to behind him.

"Do not worry Hiruzen, I will end this." The man didn't look at Hiruzen when he spoke, he simply continued to stare at whatever was behind him. Hiruzen could only guess that it was the jinchūriki, it was the only object of interest on the battlefield.

"Naruto...What are you doing here, you need to leave now." Hiruzen then tried to push Naruto out of the way as his brain began to process what was happening, but Naruto held his arms in strong grip and wasn't budging. Naruto simply spared a glance at Hiruzen before turning back to focus on the Nibi host.

"A word of advice Hiruzen; don't blink, it'll be over before you know it." That was all the warning the student of Tobirama Senju had before he suddenly fell forward, the person he was pushing against was suddenly gone. The Sarutobi managed to catch himself before he lost his balance, and immediately spun around as Naruto's words were comprehended by his mind.

As he did, he was immediately assaulted by some kind of pressure, it was like someone using an incredible amount of KI but without the visions of his own death. He felt like he was an ant beneath someone's sandal, a fly that flew around the face of a human. As a shinobi, Hiruzen felt like all his hard work to become strong was for nothing, it felt like even with all his training that he had put into becoming stronger for his village, there was still something out there that could squat him like a bug. It made him feel like a failure.

When the source of the feeling finally relented, Hiruzen realised that he had been force down to his knees by the pressure that it had emitted. Raising his head, Hiruzen could see that he wasn't the only one to feel that pressure either, no one in the manmade clearing had been spared, not even the jinchūriki.

It was thrashing about, the cloak of chakra that it had been using to carve through Konoha shinobi was flicking on and off like a dying candle. The host itself was withering on the ground in pain, clutching his head. If Hiruzen had to guess, he would say that something was wrong with the Nibi for the host to be reacting like that.

Looking toward the rest of the shinobi on the battlefield, Hiruzen managed to see them all one last time before some sort of blur moved through them all, so fast that Hiruzen couldn't make out where it was travelling to. All he saw was some sort of blur out of the corner of his eye before it was gone

It zipped in and out of all the shinobi on the battlefield, none of the ninja reacted to the sudden blur that passed them, though Hiruzen doubted that any of them could even see what was going on. Most were still disoriented by the sudden pressure from before.

Hiruzen, for a second, tried to fruitlessly to track down whatever it was that was moving so fast, but couldn't, until finally, the blur stopped moving, coming to a standstill a few feet from the jinchūriki, standing with both arms at their side. Hiruzen couldn't believe who it was at first, having to shake his head in order to clear his mind, as well as producing a small burst of chakra with a muttered 'kai', in order to dispel the possible genjutsu that he must have been seeing. But none of it worked, the man down there, the one that had just effortlessly blurred through all the shinobi on the battlefield, was Naruto, a supposedly blind man that he had only met once by chance.

A glint of metal then made Hiruzen notice the metal blades that seemed to be emerging from on top of the man's forearm and under kimono's sleeves. The blades were large, around as long as Naruto's forearm in Hiruzen had to guess, made for use against those with swords or those with taijutsu skills above one's own.

With a movement from Naruto's wrist, the blades retracted back into the sleeve of Naruto's kimono, disappearing out of sight as if they were never there in the first place.

That was when the bodies began to fall. It began with a scream followed by a gurgle, a man choking on his own blood from a throat wound. Another, simply fell to the ground, the head becoming disconnected from the neck as the body hit the ground. Two more began bleeding from several holes all over their body before they collapsed, the holes all being around vital points.

It went on like this, shinobi all over the battlefield began to die from injuries that seemed to appear out of nowhere, like a ghost had gone on a rampage. Shinobi seeming to fall to wounds from vital points on their bodies. Decapitation, slit throats, stabs to the heart, wounds that dealt instant death appeared over their bodies.

Many ninja began to panic as the appearance of such severe wounds, many of them dying instantly as several of their own debilitating blows were made known. But eventually, the Konoha shinobi began to realise that none of their own were falling victim to the horrific wounds that were appearing, only their invaders, the Iwa and Suna shinobi seemed to be affected. Many began to calm down, but continued to watch on as their enemies were seemingly massacred by an unknown foe.

All throughout this, Naruto stood still in front of the jinchūriki, who was still withering on the ground in some form of unknown pain. Hiruzen could only guess that somehow, Naruto was the cause of all this, it seemed preposterous. But it was the only answer that he had, short of someone else being responsible that he hadn't seen.

He then watched as Naruto slowly moved forward towards the bijū host, and picked them up by the top of their skull until he was holding him up in the air, the jinchūriki's feet dangling off the ground, the vessel beginning to struggle as he did so, as if realising the danger they were in.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

As Naruto looked into the eyes of squirming jinchūriki of Matatabi, a quite ordinary man from Kumo, tanned skin, blond hair but with green eyes, the only real noticeable feature about him. The man was wearing the standard grey armour of all shinobi in the war.

Naruto began to force his chakra to form a mental link between himself and the sealed bijū. He would have preferred to create a visual link but he didn't know what would happen to his body in the mean time, and couldn't transport the jinchūriki anywhere without it being suspicious. So he had to settle with this, but it was better than nothing.

Naruto paid no attention to the demonic chakra shroud that encased the bijū host, his advanced healing, regeneration if one wished to be technical about it, would protect him from the corrosive properties, if any, of Matatabi's chakra that could affect him.

As the link formed, Naruto began to speak first. "Matatabi-"

That was all Naruto managed to get out through the link before the two-tailed cat began to yell and scream. "Leave me alone! Leave me alone! I don't want you to here! Just leave and go! Leave me in my prison, you betrayer!" The words stung Naruto more than he would like to admit, especially the last one. On the outside he was as still as a statue, but on the inside, Naruto felt like he had been punched by someone that far outstripped him in strength.

"Matatabi..." Naruto began after he managed to compose himself and the hell-cat had stopped yelling and screaming. "What do you mean?...What did I do?" Naruto had no clue why Matatabi was acting like she was, no idea why she was yelling at him, but he knew that Matatabi would never act like this without good reason. She was usually quite forgiving to those she was fond of. From last he knew, Matatabi held no anger against him for Hagoromo's death, so being addressed like this was quite a shock.

"What did you do, what did you do?" She asked herself rhetorically. "You left us to be used as weapons, that's what you did, Ōtsutsuki."The Two-Tails accused, Naruto had to withhold a flinch at how she addressed him.

"What do you mean, Matatabi? I had no idea that you would be used as weapons, I never knew where any of you were when you were being captured with the exception of Shukaku, and I was mourning during the time that he was taken. I never wanted any of you to be sealed away." Naruto told her in confusion and sadness, Naruto felt that Shukaku being captured was one of his personal failures, he should have been there for the one-tailed tanuki and he wasn't. "Ever since I first heard that you were all sealed, I've been working to find all of you and get you all free again."

"But you weren't there when it mattered, Naruto." Matatabi's voice was much softer now, not as angry. It allowed Naruto to hear the pain and sadness in her voice. "You weren't there when we really needed you." Her voice was almost a whisper now.

"Matatabi...What happened?" Naruto knew there was a story behind this, a reason why Matatabi was blaming him other than simply being angry at him because she was sealed, and Naruto knew that it was probably a good reason why as well, the Bakeneko usually had a good reason for everything.

"I heard Isobu's screams," She admitted softly after a few seconds of silence. "I listened as he was attacked by that bastard that could control wood. I heard him scream for you Naruto, he called your name, he called out for his uncle to save him. Over and over and over he cried out for your help... but you never came. He was attacked in the middle of the ocean and I was stranded on the shore, not able to do a thing about his screams. He was sealed calling your name Naruto... I was sealed calling your name...but you never came...not for either of us. You never when we needed you." Naruto said nothing as he tried to process Matatabi's words, while also trying to keep a lid on his anger and sadness.

All of the bijū developed different personalities when they were originally conceived, all of them were young children because of how recently they were 'born', each of them having a mental age of ten or eleven, but both Shukaku and Isobu didn't. Naruto doesn't really know why but both developed the mental state of children of the age of seven or eight, but they both did, As time went on, the other eight bijū began to slowly mature, gaining an older mental maturity as the centuries passed, Isobu however did not. The Three-Tails seemed to retain the mind of a child throughout time. Thankfully, Isobu preferred seclusion to anything else unlike most children, having a shy personality. Only interacting with those he is introduced to by those he knows beforehand.

Matatabi began to care of Isobu, the two growing a closer bond than either of them had with any of the other tailed beasts. Matatabi acted as a kind of older sister to the Three-Tails, trying to guide him were she could and preventing him from bringing harm to himself or others. Naruto was now sure that Matatabi blamed him for Isobu's capture, she always had cared for Isobu and couldn't stand to see him hurt.

It was only a few seconds after this revelation that Naruto realised something. "You weren't only talking about Isobu's capture were you? There's another reason why you're so angry with me, isn't there."

Matatabi said nothing for several moments before finally, she broke. "The humans used me as a measuring stick." That knocked Naruto, he understood what Matatabi meant but he still had to ask for clarification. The Bakeneko then elaborated with deep sadness in her tone. "The humans would attack me, deliberately provoke me until I attacked them back, we would then fight. Sometimes the humans would call for aid, other times I would kill them. That wasn't so bad but they just kept coming. Never allowing me to rest. Whenever I felt that I had found a safe spot to rest, they would attack me in order to measure their skills against one of the nine bijū." Naruto could feel the sadness and pain in Matatabi's voice, each word she spoke was like a lance of ice through his heart. Every word she spoke was another one of his failures to protect his family. "They would sometimes track me for days, following me, trying to tire me out. Every time I went to look for them, they would hide, and begin to track me when I wasn't looking and attack me when I went to rest. I began to run from anything with a large enough chakra signature, I felt like a hunted animal." It was unbearable to Naruto, he could hear that Matatabi had deep emotional trauma and she was telling him it was his fault. The worst part was that she was right, he had failed his family, failed more than he had thought possible.

"I...I..." He tried to say he was sorry, but it wouldn't come out. How could you say you were sorry to someone when they had been hurt as much as Matatabi had, her trust in him had been shattered, much like it had been with Kurama. In the end, he simply couldn't say it, because he knew that sorry wouldn't cut it. He doubted anything but the right actions would. Thankfully, he knew how he could fix this. It most likely wouldn't regain Matatabi's trust in him, but this wasn't about regaining trust, this was about doing what he was meant to do. "Matatabi," He managed to get out. "If I kill your host, then your essence shall be scattered and will slowly reform, hopefully by that time then most of the world would have given up looking for you, is this okay for me to do?"

"Do it,"Was the instant reply. "I want out of this prison."

"Very well Matatabi." Naruto said as he prepared to break the mental link. "I...I would hope that one day that I could regain your trust Matatabi."

"Perhaps one day Naruto, perhaps one day."Matatabi replied before the link was cut. Much like when he freed Kurama, Naruto knew that it would be a long time before he would be able to regain the trust of the two-tailed hell-cat.

As Naruto focused back on what was going on in the real world, he was aware of Matatabi's host still thrashing in his grip. He was vaguely aware that the surviving ninja on the battlefield, Konoha shinobi, were beginning to take notice of him, he was beyond caring at this point. He was going to make it up to Matatabi, by freeing her from her prison.

Looking directly into the struggling jinchūriki's eyes, Naruto raised his empty hand, and with a surge of chakra to the bracer on the forearm, revealed a large metal blade that emerged from the top of his forearm.

"I will make this quick," He told the 'Human Sacrifice'. "You will not feel a thing." The vessel's eyes widened as they began to struggle more, knowing that their end was near. As all living beings do, the ninja began to struggle, squirm and claw for life as it felt the jaws of death begin to close around it.

With a quick slash from his metal blade, the jinchūriki's head was detached from its body, rolling to the ground where it came to a stop. Naruto watched as Matatabi's chakra exploded outward in a localised explosion, he began to feel the now deceased jinchūriki's body begin to heat up as the demonic chakra started to escape the body in all directions, frying the internal organs as it did so. Naruto saw the corpse's stomach begin to bulge, quickly expanding so that it looked like there was a watermelon lodged inside the corpse's stomach, his eyes widened as he realised what was happening. Acting quickly, Naruto threw the body into the air as fast as he could, the shinobi around him observed the flying body.

They did so for about a second before the body exploded from the stomach outward, splitting the body in two as red chakra was released explosively from the body. While the two halves of the former jinchūriki's body fell to the ground, the red chakra lingered, hanging in the air like a red cloud before it dispersed like dust to the wind.

It appeared that Naruto had forgotten to take into account the bijū when he theorised about what would happen should the jinchūriki be killed. Matatabi's desperation for freedom and how she pushed against the seal holding her back caused her chakra to surge out in an explosion larger than what would happen if she had done nothing inside the seal.

Looking around the now quiet battlefield, Naruto saw that all of the Konoha shinobi's eyes were now on him, the explosion from Matatabi's host had drawn attention to him. Naruto took in a deep breath before he vanished. To the viewers eyes it would seem like the man was there one second and gone the next.

As Naruto travelled back to Konoha in order to tell Tobirama that Matatabi's host was taken care of, he already knew what he was going to do next. Naruto knew that word would soon spread about his ability to take down the jinchūriki with ease, this would cause the other Hidden Villages to call back their jinchūriki into their villages in an effort to prevent their deaths or captures.

This would make it a whole lot harder to find them when they weren't being deployed on the battlefield, he would have to hope that they wouldn't do that for a while, giving him more time to free the bijū.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

Tobirama sat in his office, looking over a map of the Elemental Nations, the battleground for the current war. But his focus wasn't on the map, it was on several pieces of paper to the side said map, laying inconspicuously, belaying its true worth. The pages were his plans for a secret shinobi force that he wanted to set up inside of Konoha, answering only to the commander to the group or the Hokage. Currently his ideas were only that, ideas, in the middle of a war there was no point to try to set anything up, it would take time that could be better spent planning their next move in the war. The organisation was simply an idea currently, but one that he hoped could eventually be put into practice either by himself after the war, or by his successor, hopefully Hiruzen.

Knocking on the door to his office brought Tobirama out of his day dreaming of what could be. Moving towards the door, Tobirama opened it to be greeted with the sight of Naruto standing on the other side, his clothes unruffled. Looking at the now violet eyed man, Tobirama was thankful that Naruto had to foresight to change his eye colour, because that was something that he had forgotten about. It wouldn't be very good if the Hyūga clan head turned up asking why he received word that there was an unbranded Hyūga member running around.

Stepping to the side allowing Naruto into the room, Tobirama then closed the door before moving around to his desk before sitting in his chair facing Naruto. Naruto then sat in the chair opposite him on the other side of the desk.

"I'm guessing that the Nibi jinchūriki has been taken care of." It wasn't a question, Tobirama knew that Naruto shouldn't have had any difficulty killing the jinchūriki, it wasn't that hard to do for a man of his calibre.

"Yes," Naruto responded. "The host has been taken care of and the Nibi will take a while before it reforms."

"So you killed the host." Tobirama presumed. Naruto nodded, confirming what he had thought.

"There was no reason to save them, from what I have heard, most of the jinchūriki were chosen simply because they were loyal to the village the Bijū was given to. They had no other desire than to kill for their country, it would be pointless to let them live when I'm meant to be on your side." Naruto told the Hokage. Naruto was tempted to ask if Tobirama had any information about the Sanbi but figured that he would either get it when this war was over or not.

"I'll give you your next target as soon as I get it but don't expect anything for a few days or so." Tobirama said.

"Why a few days, wouldn't it be better to attack straight away while the I.K.S Alliance wouldn't know that there was someone capable of killing jinchūriki?" Naruto questioned the Nidaime but Tobirama shook his head.

"You forget Naruto, shinobi can't run as fast as you, we can't cross entire countries in a day. It takes us time to get information about the battlefield, and it doesn't help that the Alliance uses their jinchūriki in different battles, we can't predict which battles they will appear in, only guess. The battle that you were just in to the North-West was simply a large gamble by my part to draw out the Nibi jinchūriki by sending out a squad that wasn't equipped to fight a jinchūriki. The jinchūriki had recently attacked an outpost near that position, it was simply a gamble that I used to see if the Nibi would appear for you to take them out. But I highly doubt that it would work again now that we have already used it, the Alliance will be weary now of possible traps. Currently, my information says that the Yonbi is near the Land of Lightning but that information is three days old, they would have most likely moved it somewhere else. It would be pointless for you to check it." Tobirama explained to Naruto.

"So what do I do then, wait around for Iwa, Kumo or Suna to decided to send out some 'high value target'," Naruto used quotation marks with his fingers in air. "And you get some information that isn't out of date by the time that you get it." Naruto asked with a bit of disbelief in his voice. He was meant to act as some sort of flying monkey for Konoha? To go out and do their bidding when they needed it but to fly back into his cage when they didn't? That was definitely not going to happen.

Tobirama gave a sigh, he could already tell what Naruto was thinking by his tone. "You're not some sort of slave Naruto, so you can stop thinking about that right now. There is nothing I can do about this, unless you wish to attack Iwa, Kumo, Kiri and Suna directly and end the war?" Tobirama asked semi-rhetorically, a part of him was really hoping that Naruto would say yes, the other knew that Naruto wouldn't do something like that, Konoha hadn't done anything to deserve such help from him.

Naruto gave a sigh, he wished that he could, but he knew there were people who did not deserve to die in each of those villages. He didn't need innocent deaths on his conscience. "Very well Tobirama. If that is all for now then I would like to retire to my tower, you know where to find me should you need me." With that, Naruto walked out of the room and towards his residence.

Tobirama said nothing as Naruto left but turned to look at the map on his desk once the door to his office closed.

XxXxXxXxXxXxXxX

After Naruto's battle to the North-West of the Land of Fire had brought hope back to the ninja of Konoha, the death of the bijū host had shown that the jinchūriki weren't as powerful as they had believed. All around Fire country, Konoha ninja spread the story of how a man had single-handedly destroyed the Nibi jinchūriki, saving the lives of many other Konoha ninja. Many thought that this new ninja was simply a phantom, or some divine-being who had come to reap vengeance upon the enemies of Konoha. Some thought that they were some secret student of Hashirama Senju and his brother, testing his strength on the battlefield for the first time.

Tobirama had enjoyed informing the council of the outcome of the battle a day after Naruto had gotten back before the report had arrived, he had enjoyed it even more when a chunin burst into the room not ten minutes after he had told them, handing in a report that said exactly the same thing. It was something that he would give him happy dreams for a while.

The death of the Nibi jinchūriki and loss of the Two-Tails, along with the battalion of ninja that had accompanied it had startled the Alliance. For over four months the Yonbi jinchūriki wasn't seen after Naruto took out its Two-Tails counterpart, the three hidden villages not willing to risk another one of their jinchūriki in case this person decided to attack again.

It was only four months after the death of the jinchūriki that the three kage decided to send the Four-Tails host back out, believing that because there were no other instances of entire battalions disappearing, or other shows of extreme strength from Konoha, that whoever did kill the jinchūriki had died or that the death of the entire battalion and Nibi host was simply a stroke of bad luck. The fact that the Nibi host wasn't all that strong compared to the other tailed beasts and that it could be taken down by someone powerful enough also helped fuelled their thoughts in this direction.

The surprise return of the Yonbi had resulted in a decisive victory for the three kages, the Konoha shinobi hadn't expected the sudden return of a jinchūriki and were taken off guard. The jinchūriki had quickly charged through their ranks while the shinobi accompanying the bijū host had taken out anyone that had managed to survive.

The Alliance's celebration over a quick victory didn't last long, for a month after the Yonbi host was sent back out, the jinchūriki was killed along with the ninja that were accompanying it. Naruto didn't play around when he found out were Son Goku's vessel was, as soon as he found out that they had sent out the Four-Tails, he was visiting each location as quick as the information reached his ears. When he finally did find the jinchūriki, Naruto simply killed the host, he didn't want to hear from Son Goku how he had failed the bijū, Matatabi's words did that job fine.

After that, the Alliance began to send out mostly soldiers, the occasional high ranking soldier in order to provide support, but the kages themselves never made any appearances on the battlefield, neither did any other jinchūriki that they may of had in their possession. They eventually began to move Konoha's forces back slowly, their numbers overwhelming almost any strategy that Tobirama or the Nara could come up with.

The council soon turned to Tobirama to send Naruto back out to stop the advance of the Alliance, seeing the Nidaime Hokage's mysterious and incredibly powerful source as something that they would need to win. The civilian council turned to him first, the civilians panicking over the slow march of the three other hidden villages, then so did the shinobi council. Though the shinobi council knew that the mysterious source of Tobirama was the only option they had, the civilian council simply panicked and began constantly insist that the Hokage send out Naruto.

Tobirama himself knew that Naruto was the only hope that they had of winning this war, he had known that they would need Naruto's help to win this war far more than simply taking out the jinchūriki. He had hoped that when he had sent out Naruto to take down the Nibi jinchūriki that he might inspire fear into the hearts of the other three kages, forcing them to pull out of the Alliance or maybe even the war all together. When that didn't happen after Naruto killed the Yonbi host, he knew that Naruto would have to fight for them to win. It simply impossible for Konoha to win otherwise, three enemy villages against Konoha, all roughly the same size as Konoha, meant defeat without an incredibly powerful shinobi in their ranks, Tobirama knew that Konoha stood no chance.

And so, when Tobirama received word of a massive army moving down from the north in the fourth year of the war, he quickly came up with a plan to use in situation. It would take a lot daring, skill and luck, but Tobirama was confident it would work, after all, even if it didn't work, they would lose anyway.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

The sky was dark and cloudy, the occasional lightning bolt would pierce the darkness, lighting up the heavens for a second before the darkness swallowed up what light was visible. There were no birds chirping, there was no sign of animals running around in the area of forest three kilometres north from Konoha like there should be, instead, there was a heavy layer of anticipation, of fear and of determination that hung in the forest.

Animals had fled from the area already, an instinct telling them that if they stayed there that they would die, and it was right. The forest was something that enveloped most of the Land of Fire, reaching almost every corner. What was once inviting and bright had turned as dark as the clouds, were once people would look up at the trees with awe over their size, they would now look up with fear at the darkness that seemed to inhabit the tree tops.

Inside that same forest was clearing, incredibly large, spanning a size larger than most could run. It played host to the source of the anticipation, fear and determination that seemed to cover the forest like a blanket. On opposite sides of the clearing stood two armies, one quite large, yet the other seemed to dwarf the first, being two, perhaps three, times larger than the other.

On the side closest to Konoha, stood the smaller of the two sides, consisting of Konoha ninja, hundreds of ninja all wearing a headband with a metal plaque with a leaf insignia carved onto the metal signifying their allegiance to the Village Hidden in the Leaves, Konohagakure. These ninja were posing a final stand against the combined might of three other villages, many were scared, but all of them loved their village and the families that lived in it more than their fear of death. Standing at the forefront of Leaf ninja was Tobirama Senju, their Nidaime Hokage.

Opposite to Konoha ninja was the combined might of the villages Sunagakure, Iwagakure and Kumogakure, the Villages Hidden in the Sand, Stone and Clouds respectively. The combined might of the three villages easily outstripped their opponent, it was plainly seen by anyone. Thousands of ninja wearing headbands depicting the symbol of their own village were assembled against the hundreds of their opponents, one might call it overkill but the leaders of these three villages wanted to be certain that Konoha would be crushed in this battle, that they wouldn't pull out some last card to play that would take the off guard. Three ninja stood at the head of this massive army of shinobi, the Shodai Kazekage, Fujinma Nomatu, the Shodai Tsuchikage, Katurama Kamizuru, and the Nidaime Raikage, Lotombi Suabu.

All three knew that Tobirama would have some sort of plan, with the Nara clan residing in that Konoha it was almost impossible for Tobirama not to have some kind of plan. That was why they needed to strike first and to neutralise any sort of plan that he may have in store for them.

Tobirama knew that his plan all hinged on Naruto sensing an attack coming and how quickly he could react, it was an incredibly large gamble on his part for this plan to work but he had faith in Naruto's abilities, he couldn't afford not to.

"Tobirama-sensei," The Nidaime turned around to face his student, Hiruzen Sarutobi. His preferred successor had a serious face on as he gazed at his teacher, dressed in his grey metal armour. "Are you sure that this is the best course of action? You know that they have at least several powerful shinobi, was well as a jinchūriki, why a head on assault?" Tobirama's student questioned. It had come as quite a surprise to almost everyone when the news reached Konoha, apparently Iwa had discovered that Takigakure possessed the Nanabi, the seven-tailed rhinoceros beetle and then taken the jinchūriki by force and were now using the jinchūriki as a substitute for the ones they had lost. None of the three hidden villages were willing to risk their own jinchūriki in this battle, even if they were confident, they would rather keep them safely in their own hidden village. He was only happy that Taki managed to get the message to them otherwise he might not have known in time.

"Because," The Hokage answered. "I have a plan." Tobirama then turned around to look back across at his enemy. Tobirama knew that if he told anyone this plan that if the council heard it that they would probably relieve him of his post, he knew that they most likely would if he survived, it was one of the reasons that he had already named Hiruzen as his successor before they left, leaving the official notice on his desk, as well as another note for Hiruzen himself in his desk.

Tobirama began to slowly walk forward, the three kage on the opposite sides of the battlefield did the same, the four having one last meeting before everything dissolved into hell. Stopping a few metres away from the other three, Tobirama kept his muscles coiled in case of a surprise attack, this was by no means a ceasefire, simply a meeting so the victorious side could say, 'I tried to get them to surrender', when they stand on a field of broken bodies.

"Will you surrender, Hokage-dono?" The Kazekage, Fujinma asked as soon as Tobirama was within hearing range.

"Will you, Kazekage-dono?" Tobirama responded with a slight smirk. "Because if you don't, I can guarantee that your successor would have wished you did." A plea for surrender and a threat along with a small smirk to indicate that the speaker knew something you didn't, this was the kind of verbal sparring caused a kage to brush up on the language of politics, if not, you get eaten alive.

"I'd watch my words if I were you Hokage, your village isn't as strong as you think it is. Your brother thought he was stronger than he actually was and look where that got him." At the Raikage's words, Tobirama felt a burst of anger before it was ruthlessly crushed, now wasn't the time for him to get angry. The Raikage was either a muscle bound idiot who could only respect those from Kumo, or he didn't know proper strength when he saw it, either way, Tobirama had no reason to rise to his jabs.

"You may say that now Raikage, but I guarantee that by the end of this battle you will wish that you had never crossed the Village Hidden in the Leaves." Tobirama told the Lightning Shadow with confidence and a small smirk still adoring his face. While the Raikage simply gave a small scoff, Tobirama saw the Kazekage shift slightly and the Tsuchikage frown slightly, it was subtle, but it was enough for Tobirama to notice. This was good, always attempts to sow the seeds of doubt into an opponent.

"Unfortunately for you Tobirama, you made one small mistake when you chose the venue for our final battle." The Tsuchikage said, speaking up for the first time, also wanting to skip the theatrics that came with these conversations.

"Oh really," Tobirama said sceptically, "And what mistake did I commit when I chose this place as our battlefield?" Tobirama raised a slight eyebrow with the question. There was no mistake in choosing this clearing as the final stand of Konoha in this war.

"Yes," The Tsuchikage said with a small smile which was accompanied by a larger one on the face of the Raikage, the face of the Kazekage remained blank. "It was too close to Konoha." Katurama revealed to the Senju before raising his left arm till it formed an 'L' shape with an open palm. The first Kage of Iwa then scrunched his hand up into a fist.

Almost immediately, from the side housing the alliance between three villages, two figure rose into the air, racing through hand-seals as they did. Tobirama immediately recognised one of the rising people as Mū, his bandaged form easily recognisable, the other was much younger, roughly the age of Hiruzen if Tobirama had to guess, wearing some kind of black body suit with armour attached and a headband worn like a bandanna.

As the ascended to a position in the air, Tobirama saw the sign of a Jinton (Dust Release) technique being formed, a transparent shape with bright light inside. Behind him, Tobirama could hear the yells coming from the many Konoha shinobi over what the two Jinton users and why he was just standing there doing nothing. Mū was the first one form the infamous transparent cylinder, his companion was next, slower by a larger margin, his cylinder was also smaller than the person floating next to him, a sign that they were a novice at using Jinton.

Finally, once Mū's companion had charged up the technique, both swivelled so that they were aiming at the village visible in the distance, Konohagakure. Tobirama could hear that his ninja had realised the same thing, there were yells of realisation, but most seemed too shocked to do anything but watch.

"How does it feel to watch as your village is destroyed, Hokage-dono?" The Tsuchikage asked as the two Jinton users got ready to fire their attacks. Tobirama could feel the smirk that Katurama had on his face.

"Did you really think that I wouldn't have accounted for this possibility Tsuchikage-dono?" Tobirama questioned with a smile, shocking the three kage. None of the kages had time to ask what he meant at twin voices rung through the air.

"Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu (Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique)!" Both Mū and his companion yelled out the name of their technique as beam of energy erupted from the clear cylinders, racing on a crash course with the village of Konoha. All of those in the clearing seemed to quieten down the twin beams raced through the air towards the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

As it looked like it was about to impact the wall of Konoha, a great deep blue barrier sprung up in front of the village blocking the Jinton attack. Those watching could only watch, open-mouthed, as one of the most devastating jutsu known to the ninja world was blocked by a shield. Tobirama heard the gasp from the three kages and couldn't stop the small smirk that wormed its way to his face, he would show how strong Konoha was.

Eventually, Mū and his companion discontinued their attack, not being able to hold up against the constant chakra drain and remain in the air. The shield remained for several seconds after the attack relented before it disappeared, leaving Konoha looking like nothing happened.

Thunder suddenly decided that it didn't like being forgotten, and gave mighty boom as lightning arched across the sky. The wind picked up suddenly as a strong breeze blew through before it suddenly went dead, and new person was in the clearing, floating at the same height as the two Jinton users yet safely on the side of Konoha, indicating that the person was on their side of the conflict. The person floating was a man, a man with long white hair and violet eyes, wearing a kimono with magatama along the fringe, and black pants. There were no shoes on his feet as well as no forehead protector.

The new comer excluded an aura of power and confidence so strong that even the shinobi on either side of the battlefield could feel it. Almost immediately, Fujinma and his fellow kage knew that this was the person who had killed the jinchūriki for the Yonbi and Nibi.

The man seemed to survey the area, assessing it with a level of scrutiny before his blank eyes were turned to the three kage beneath him. None of the three could tell what the man was thinking when he gazed at them, his eyes not betraying any emotion.

"Now then," Tobirama said as the three kages turned to his voice. "Would you like to surrender?" He asked again. The Kazekage shifted his gaze between the Tobirama and the floating figure, while the Tsuchikage simply gave Tobirama a hardened stare and the Raikage did the same. "I'll take that as a 'no'. I will let you all retreat back to your ninja, but after that I will attack." Tobirama raised a hand and gesture behind the three kages but none of them moved, there was a tense standoff between the four kages before the Kazekage began to slowly step backwards before turning around a walking away, the Tsuchikage doing the same a few seconds later, the Raikage however remained where he was, not moving, and looking Tobirama right in the eye.

While ordinarily the Raikage, while incredibly disrespectful and passing himself off as someone with mostly brawn and little brains, had enough common sense to know when someone was powerful enough that he had to back off, however, Tobirama allowing them to walk back to their side struck the man's pride. The Hokage didn't think that they were strong enough to take him so he was allowing them to walk back to their side, did he think that they were so weak?

Whatever Lotombi's mind inferred from Tobirama's words, it enraged the Second Lightning Shadow, striking the man's pride dead, on the battlefield, in front of his men, it was something that Lotombi couldn't and wouldn't let stand.

"Raiton: Kaminari No Kami No Kooru (Lightning Release: Call of the Thunder God)!" He called as he raised his bunched fist into the air before bringing it down with all the power could amass. His fist impacted the ground with strength that outstripped many, cracking the earth beneath it, the sky began to rumble violently as the man's jutsu ran its course.

As all the thunder seemed to converge on one point over Tobirama, a deadly white bolt ripped through the air, crackling with energy and seeking to strike the ground that the Senju walked on. But before it could, something jumped in its path, taking the bolt of lightning head on in an explosion of light as the natural electricity made contact with human flesh, blinding all from getting a proper view of what was happening. Lotombi was angry that he missed the Senju but his companion was just as good.

However, almost immediately Lotombi noticed something wrong, there were no screams, there were no groans of pain nor did the body hit the ground. Just like with Hashirama, Lotombi fed more chakra into the technique, hoping to suck out all the natural lightning that the heavens had to offer, paying no mind to his two fellow kage behind him.

As Lotombi was forced to stop powering the technique, the bright light that was given off by the lightning slowly dimmed enough for those watching the spectacle to be able to see the condition of the Hokage's mysterious companion. When the light finally became dim enough for one to see, Lotombi immediately wished that he hadn't looked while he took a step back from shock and, though he would never admit it, slight fear, he felt his fellow kage do the same, and was certain that a many of his forces had as well.

Still floating in the air, his face still as blank as he had arrived, was the newcomer, unsinged or hurt in any way, but that's not what made those who looked at him take a step back in fear. It was the lightning bolt, held in his hand above his head and still connected to the sky that awed those around him.

The man spoke to Tobirama without fully turning to the Hokage. "Tobirama, begin with the plan." The Hokage gave a nod.

"Alright Naruto, just be careful to not hit any Konoha-nin." Tobirama responded before he turned and ran back to his men, who then followed their kage's orders and split up to attack the left and right sides. The violet eyed man, now named Naruto, turned to look at the three kage before him with an impassive stare. He only spoke three words before he unleashed a massacre that would be told about for generations to come.

"Feel my wrath." The words were not yelled or shouted, they were spoken as if they were every day words, and yet, they weren't.

There was a mighty boom from above and all those around looked up, expecting some kind of attack, instead, they were greeted to a sight that was almost just as bad. The lightning bolt, which had been still connected to the sky it was summoned from, broke off with an explosive boom, and like a giant cable, the lightning began to fall, shrinking as it did so. It was movement from Naruto that made them turn away, coming to the sight of the hovering man rearing his arm back, before he launched it forward, like one would do to flail a whip.

Instantly, hundreds of shinobi realised what was going to happen, being able to easily infer what Naruto was planning to do. From the side of the three invading villages, hundreds of shinobi began to run to the left or right, trying to outrun the incoming lightning whip.

As Naruto threw his arm forward, the lightning followed, the whip shot forwards towards the hostile shinobi. As it came in contact with the earth, there was a mighty boom as the whip landed, gouging out a great trench into the ground, scarring the earth. All three kage, and a majority of their gathered shinobi managed to dodge the massive whip, but even so, hundreds were killed by the gigantic elemental weapon.

Naruto let go of the whip when it hit the ground, allowing the electricity to be absorbed back into the earth. Facing the large mass of shinobi before him on the opposite side of the clearing, Naruto launched himself forward with tremendous speed, crossing the space within seconds.

Appearing before the stunned shinobi of Iwa, Suna and Kumo, before he appeared to take a deep breath through his nose, rearing back slightly as he did so, before he opened his mouth and exhaled, unleashing a torrent of flames from his mouth. Shinobi were incinerated on the spot, many were killed by the heat, others were crippled by burns and some fainted from the intense heat that the flames gave off. The fire roared forward, consuming everything in its path, leaving no survivors.

Naruto then closed his mouth and stood up straight, holding out his hand as he did so. The plume of fire that he had released on to the world still kept roaring forward even without his help. He then scrunched his fist up, as if grabbing something that no one could see, before he pulled his hand back. The result was visible immediately.

The fire that had been continuing seemed to stop and reverse its course, retracing its path and now aimed at Naruto. Just as it looked like it was about to incinerate the flames split into two before they swerved around him, and met again behind him. As the two flames did so, they rose as a pillar of fire that quickly gained an immense height. The pillar then began to slowly twist and shape itself, before the features became definable and revealed its self as a great fire dragon.

The fiery apparition let out a roar before it then launched its self forward, swerving slightly to the left as it did. It impacted the ground with a great explosion and shockwave, leaving nothing but a large smoking crater as a remainder.

From his position, Naruto turned around with his arm and hand splayed out, and a wall of water materialised in time to catch several balls of immense heat that impacted against it. The balls were quickly dispersed by the wall, the water evaporating against the balls of heat but taking the balls of heat with it.

Naruto turned to face the Shodai Kazekage, multiple balls of his Shakuton (Scorch Release) technique hovering around him, the Tsuchikage hovering in the air and the Raikage hovering next to him.

Naruto wasted no words on these people, there was no reason to, they had all chosen their paths and there was no turning them off it. Turning his gaze to the Kazekage, the only one of the three on the ground, Naruto moulded his chakra without a single movement. Two patches of earth on either side of the Wind Shadow rumbled and moved before a pair of jaws rose from the earth on either side of the kage, sharp teeth occupied them.

The man's eyes widened as he realised what was happening, the spheres of heat proceeded to race towards the earthen jaws as the kage moved to get out from in between them, but found his feet had been sucked into the ground preventing him from moving from his position. His Shakuton spheres impacted the earthen construct and quickly evaporated the moisture from them, causing them to crumble into dust. The kage never felt Naruto until just before he removed his head from his shoulders.

Naruto quickly retracted the blade from his forearm bracers and leapt back to avoid a swarm of bees that bombarded his former position before exploding. The body of the now deceased Kazekage was immediately destroyed by the self destructing bees.

As Naruto's feet hit the ground, with his back to the two remaining kage, he twisted around an fired off a torrent of wind that sent a charging Raikage flying while the Tsuchikage managed to fight against the wild wind thanks to his flight technique, while simultaneously littering the both of them with a numerous amount of cuts, the Tsuchikage more so than the Raikage.

Feeling a pulse of chakra behind him, Naruto turned around in order to see Chomei's host, clad in a shroud of her chakra with six tails coming out the back, charging at him. Naruto's face displays no emotion as he moves to kill the host, ready to run it through with one of the blades on his bracer, but his forced to move again as he senses and hears that Tsuchikage fire a jutsu at his back.

"Jinton: Genkai Hakuri no Jutsu (Dust Release: Detachment of the Primitive World Technique)!" Leaping to the right, Naruto feels the Jinton technique impact the spot he was just standing in, creating a crater and small shock wave as it hit the ground, causing the jinchūriki to get launched back. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto could notice what was left of the army of shinobi begin to circle him. They thought that they would be able to overpower him, or swarm him with so many techniques that he wouldn't be able to defend against them. How cute.

"You all seem to like Kekkei Tōta," Naruto remarked as the all began to surround him. "Well then, let's see yours against mine." With that said, Naruto bent at the knees, before he pushed off, flying into the sky. Naruto soared into the air until he reached the height he required for his technique where he stopped.

Placing his arms out, Naruto turned to look down on those below him. "I believe if I was one of you ninja, I would call this, Kūton: Chikyuu no Kouhai (Sky Release: Desolation of Earth)!"With that, he began to spin, faster and faster until he was a blur. That was when the wind began to pick up, swirling around the form that was Naruto, all those on the earth began to feel the intensity of the wind as dirt and small rocks began to slowly lift off the ground. The shinobi that were around Naruto's position immediately began to move out of range of the winds that he was conjuring up. Above Naruto, a hole in the dark storm clouds began to appear, small at first but slowly grew until it was plainly visible, thunder then began to arch across the sky once more. The wind began to increase in ferocity again, and slowly, a funnel of wind slowly descended from the sky, dropping slowly, enveloping Naruto's rapidly spinning form, and continued to the ground where it met the earth with a crash.

Immediately, the wind began to pick up again as earth and sky met, the now fully formed tornado began to twist and move as it then began to gain direction, travelling straight towards Tsuchikage and what remained of his ninja forces. Lightning then began to strike at the ground, bolts of electricity hit trees, setting them alight. A larger than normal, pure white, streak of thunder struck the tornado, roughly the area where Naruto would be if he hadn't moved from his position. The Tsuchikage first thought that perhaps Naruto had lost control of the jutsu or whatever it was he was doing, but was quickly proved wrong when, instead of the lightning bolt dissipating or the tornado slowing down, the force of nature then began to crackle with lightning as it arched all over the tornado's form.

Lightning surged around the gigantic wind funnel, sometimes striking outside of the most destructive form of wind, but it was mostly kept contained, striking any object unlucky enough to be sucked into the wind's grasp.

As the Tsuchikage looked at the massive technique, he knew, in his heart, that he had angered some sort of god today. One with the power to level all of the Hidden Villages if the so chose. Turning around to look at whatever men were left, Katurama Kamizuru gave his men one last order.

"Retreat!" He tried to shout over the wind. "Retreat all of you! Get out of here!" The men seemed to register what their kage was saying as they began to turn and run away as fast as they could manage. The Tsuchikage also made a movement to fly away but as he did so, the immense force of the winds the tornado was giving off washed over him, along with his men, pulling all of them off the ground and dragging them into the heart of the electrified cylinder of wind. Hundreds died as the lightning stuck without mercy, the winds tore and cut as each shinobi died, a victim of the insurmountable destructive power the technique held.

Katurama fought against the winds that were keeping him within their grasp, trying to pull free using his flight technique but to no avail. The Tsuchikage pushed against the gale force winds, trying to desperately find some way out, until one strong gust sucked him into the heart of the storm.

For those out of its range, none could take their eyes of the monolithic tornado. They could only watch was it utterly decimated to the forces around it without mercy, sucking them into its grip before it struck them with the lightning that inhabited it. The earth wasn't spared either, rocks and trees were ripped from the ground as absorbed into the tornado, a victim of its wild winds.

Once the Tsuchikage was sucked up however, the tornado began to slow, its winds dimmed in strength and the lightning was finally dispersed. The wall of wind finally slowed to a crawl before stopping all together, leaving Naruto, floating high up in the sky.

Turning his gaze to the battlefield, Naruto began to search for any other pockets of hostile shinobi in the area. He finally found one in the form of Chomei's host, the jinchūriki was trying to hide in the tree line, along with other enemy shinobi, several hundred if he had to guess, what remained of the once massive army of thousands.

Cutting the supply of wind chakra that was keeping him afloat in the air, Naruto began to fall. Fast. Many watching thought that he might have exhausted himself, but this was proven incorrect when they watched him angle himself so that he was falling feet first. A few shinobi, stuck watching the descent of Naruto, tracked where he was going to land. Directly over where Chomei's host was hiding along with their hidden shinobi, the jinchūriki seemed to realise this and immediately ordered people to move so none were caught in the crater that would form when Naruto's body hit the earth at such speed.

As he neared the ground, Naruto reared his fist back, charging a single tenketsu (, Chakra point,) with as much chakra as he dared. Just as he was ten metres from the ground, Naruto thrust his fist forward, with a yell as he did so. "Earth Shatter Impact!" As his fist impacted with the ground, Naruto released all of the contained chakra in one enhanced punch.

The earth split and cracked, the ground buckled, trees became uprooted, chunks of earth shifted as the chakra enhanced strength shattered the ground, sending almost all those around flying and rearranging the surrounding land. A shockwave was expelled, knocking down whatever trees managed to resist being uprooted from the shifting ground. At the heart of the impact, a crater was formed, a large one several metres deep at the centre and littered with the bodies of several shinobi that hadn't been launched from the impact.

At the centre, kneeling on the ground, was Naruto, still not showing any sign of damage or wear. The violet eyed man stood up after a few seconds and looked around, searching for something, before finding it. Exiting the crater, Naruto walked over the cracked ground, split earth and torn up trees, avoiding the gruesome remains the shinobi that littered the ground, until he came upon what he wanted to find.

Chomei's jinchūriki was lying against the remains of a tree, blood dribbled from his lip and from a wound in his side along with a large gash on his leg, numerous other cuts and bruises littered his body, but those closed up quickly. His left arm was obviously broken from the unnatural position it was in, the same with his right leg. Naruto was also quite certain that his spine was broken and that there was most likely massive internal bleeding, it was miracle that this man was alive at all, and he had the bijū sealed inside his gut to thank for that. But even with all that, it was still unlikely that the man would survive, his wounds were too numerous to heal in time.

"What?" The man spat out, more blood dribbling over his lips and down his chin as he did so. His brown hair was caked with blood from a wound on the side of his head, his grey eyes were half open, the man was probably suffering from blood loss. "Come to finish the j-job?" He began to wheeze and cough, most likely from a punctured lung. Naruto didn't pay any attention to this as he looked down at the fallen man.

"Why did you stay and fight?" Naruto questioned the injured person. "Why did you stay and fight when you could have left and returned to your village?" When Tobirama had told him of his plan, along with the new information that the Nanabi jinchūriki would be there after being forcibly taken from their village, he would have expected the bijū vessel would try to run at the first opportunity.

The host gave a weak chuckle. "When I was in Taki," He began, "I was treated as a monster for what I hold by everyone in my village. I was called a demon in human flesh by all my friends and what little family that was alive after it was sealed in me. When Iwa and Kumo stormed Taki, I initially fought back simply because Taki was the only place I'd ever called home, but the Tsuchikage told me that if I joined them, that I wouldn't be treated as a monster, or some third class citizen. T-Tha-" The man was forced to stop to hack up some blood that tried to accumulate in his lungs. He spat out a bit of blood before continuing. "They said that I would be treated like a hero for holding back a bijū. That's why I fought for them, they promised that I wouldn't be hated."

Naruto looked at the man and for the first time in a long time, felt pity for someone. This man had been damned because one of his family was sealed inside his gut. All he wanted was acceptance, to be treated right instead of like an outcast. This man didn't deserve to suffer for that. But even so, Naruto wanted to find out a little more information before he made any decisions about what to do with this man.

"Your bijū, do you blame them for what happened?" When the man looked confused, Naruto elaborated. "Do you blame the Nanabi for what happened in your life? Do you blame it for you being a social outcast?"

"No," The man said. "I don't blame the Nanabi for anything, it didn't get asked to be sealed inside of me." This man was only looking for a place he could call home Naruto realised, he didn't want to fight, but wanted a place to call his own. Naruto was just about to open his mouth to ask the man something when he was beaten to the punch. "Would you please do me a favour, sir?" The man asked. Naruto nodded his head in acceptance. "Please kill me." At the slight widening of Naruto's eyes, the man went on. "I know that I will not survive these injuries, and the Nanabi can't heal everything. All I ask is that you ease my pain, and let me see the family in the heavens that I have been denied on earth."

Looking into the man's eyes, Naruto felt his offer to heal the man die in his throat, the eyes were of someone who wanted rest, someone who felt they had nothing to live for. Naruto had seen these eyes many times in his life, on the faces of those who lost all that they knew and loved, on the faces of those who had simply taken too much hate and couldn't bare it anymore.

"What about going to Iwa or Kumo? You said that they would treat you like a hero, would you still go there if you could?" Naruto questioned the man, he wasn't going to do anything to the man unless he was certain of his fate.

"No," The man said after a silence. "With the Tsuchikage dead, I don't know what kind of reception I'd get. The man seemed genuine, but I don't know what kind of greeting I'd get in Iwa if I turned up when their leader didn't." Naruto looked at the bijū host, he could see that the man didn't have very long left, an hour or two at the most before he bleed out, Chomei's chakra healing him or not.

"Very well," Naruto said solemnly. "If you wish to die, than I will grant you death." The man smiled slightly, showing of his bloody teeth, before he closed his eyes. Naruto extended the largest blade on his bracer and with a quick swing, disconnected the jinchūriki's head from his shoulders. As the demonic chakra bubbled up to the surface, burning and incinerating the insides of the once living man, Naruto leapt back out of range as the chakra exploded outwards.

Out of range of the explosion, Naruto watched as Chomei became free from her confinement. With his 'niece' free, Naruto turned to search for Tobirama and his ninja who had attacked the eastern and western flank of the enemy.

Locating the man's chakra signature, Naruto took off in that direction, sprinting over broken trees and destroyed bodies with speed that would put highly skilled ninja to shame. Within seconds, Naruto had gotten out of the zone that had been hit by his enhanced punch, and was weaving in and out of trees. Finally getting within visual range of where he tracked Tobirama's chakra signature to, Naruto immediately noticed ten or twenty ninja all standing in a circle around something, each of them injured but nothing serious enough to warrant immediate medical attention. He also noticed several people lying on the ground to the side of the circle, all of them had a limb wrapped and were unconscious.

Stepping forward to the circle, people immediately began to notice him and step to the side, whether out of fear or respect of his skill on the battlefield, Naruto didn't care to try and find out which it was at the moment. When the last person stepped aside, Naruto finally got to see what people were crowding around.

It was Hiruzen leaning over the body of his mentor, Tobirama , who sported a bloody hole in his chest.

XxXxXxXxXxXxX

Chapter End

To start of this author's note, I would like to say to those who a wondering why Naruto's eyes didn't glow like they usually did when he used the elements, it was because they were under the genjutsu.

Before any of you tell me that Naruto's reason for entering the war was a bit weak or it happened to quick, I know. I felt that it was incredibly weak, that part, but I didn't really see any other way to do it other than that. Unless I went over several chapters when Naruto slowly and painstakingly creates numerous bonds within Konoha, but I know that you guys don't want that.

I'm sorry for those that wanted me to write about Naruto releasing the Son Goku but it would have been the exact same thing as what happened with Matatabi so I didn't really see any point in writing that.

I hope everyone liked the new Kekkei Tōta, Kūton (Sky Release), I know that it is the exact same in romaji as Flesh Release but so is Dust Release and Swift Release.

Also, I don't know if I did, but I may have copied Earth Shatter Impact of someone, if I did, then I'm sorry for using it without your permission. If you wish for me to change it then I will.

Thank you for those who have reviewed and made this story their favourite or followed the story, keep it up!

The Right Stop