Yet again, with a little extra help

by Third Fang

Things didn't go so well this time after Danzo betrayed konoha and joined Akatsuki. As the Kyubi was being removed from Naruto however, an unexpected stranger arrived to change all for the better... maybe. NaruHina timetravel some oc please review

34. Chapter 34

Chapter 34: Wrapped around my little imaginary 6th finger

I don't own Naruto, any of its characters, or any references in this story. If I did, horrible things would happen. I do own all OC's and new Jutsu in the story.

Completely random phase of the day from one of my friends that I thought was hilarious: I have a 1 terabyte external sex drive.

o. o. o.

Inside the main council chambers:

Silence permeated throughout the room as the two sides stared each other down. On one end was the esteemed and highly respected members of the Konoha council. Every member chosen to represent the villagers and shinobi populace in the major affairs of the village. All their eyes were scrutinizing their guests, judging, contemplating, and planning.

On the other side, were Crypt, Waltz, Shadow, and Scabbard Ōgakari, with Zuzushi resting on Waltz's head. Mercenaries with almost no background at all, yet each possessing skills and talents that even most Kage would be wary of. Their eyes were closed and they all had snot bubbles coming out of their noses, as they were all asleep and apparently not giving a rat's ass that they were in front of the village council.

"I like them already…" Chuckled Shikaku Nara, getting a smirk from his old teammates in response.

"Hokage-sama." Growled a member from the civilian council. "Are you sure that this… clan, is truly worth our time? They do not show us the proper respect, yet they wish to reside here in Konoha…"

Tsume snorted. "Proper respect? From the Ōgakari? That'll be the day. I thought you would have expected this from dealing with Ghost already…"

Hiashi raised an eyebrow. "Yes… that reminds me, where is our current top assassination specialist? You would think he would be here to… add… to his family's presentation…" He worded carefully, knowing full well that the room was going to delve into pure chaos at some point relatively soon.

"Ngh…" Scabbard yawned as he apparently woke up. "Ghost is currently preoccupied at the moment due to an… unforeseen incident that came up several days ago…"

Shadow chuckled evilly as she woke up. "Ah yes. It was about time I re-acquainted him again with the porcelain gods, heheheh…"

No sooner had the girl started to express her glee then the door to the meeting room crash open from a savage kick via a pissed Ghost holding a black rope in one hand and a storage scroll in the other, getting odd looks from everyone as he whipped the rope around his head like a lasso and caught Shadow before she could react. The girl's eyes widened with fear as she attempted to drag and bite herself away from her brother, but was foiled when Ghost whipped the rope with surprising strength and slammed the woman hard against the nearby wall several times, putting her into a concussion based delirium. Ghost wasted no time in rushing up to Shadow, tying her up so she couldn't move her arms or legs, gagging with a cloth stuck in her mouth, then immediately throwing her over his shoulder like a sack of flour. "Come, Crypt. I have a scroll full of peanut butter and I know where the fiercest squirrels that you will ever see live." Ghost ordered darkly, ignoring the looks that he was getting from the council.

Almost immediately, Shadow returned to the world of the conscious and started to thrash about hysterically, making as much noise as she could possibly make… before Ghost grabbed her by the feet and swung her into the wall again, leaving a hole where her head had impacted it and knocking the girl out again. Crypt on the other hand, cackled maniacally and walked forward without saying anything coherent aside from "Bye- bye, Ice cream man!" and passing by the ninja section of the council in particular. The three made their way out of the room, although it would be noted that Ghost was waddling something fierce while screaming about revenge.

While the attempted kidnapping was taking place, Waltz and Scabbard groaned out loud and turned to each other before playing a few quick games of Janken which Waltz won, much to Scabbard's displeasure. Scabbard then stretched for a few seconds before following the clearly more unstable part of his family out of the room. "Odds are they're going to the Forest of Death. I'm following them so that nothing… unfortunate occurs. Just to let you know ahead of time, you will receive reports of a woman screaming bloody murder and several explosions. For all our sakes, please ignore them." And with that, Waltz was left alone to face the annoyance that was known as the Konoha council.

The council members sweat dropped as they processed what the hell just happened.

Zuzushi simply yawned and curled up onto Waltz' head again.

"Don't worry." Waltz groaned. "We're only that rough with our family members. We can take a fair amount of damage before anything actually gets serious."

"So…" Sarutobi stalled, unsure how to react to what he just saw. "I guess we will simply interview Waltz-san today…"

Waltz sighed. "If I didn't know them better, I would have assumed that they planned to ditch me here alone…" Zuzushi growled. "You don't count, Zuzushi. I'm not going to translate for you, not after that time you made me embarrass myself on live television… they never let me on daytime talk shows again after that, even if I did cure five deadly diseases in a week single handedly…"

"Ōgakari-sama…" Spoke up one of the civilian councilors. "Is your clan always so… energetic? I seem to recall that there was a large commotion in one of our parks a few days ago involving several members of your clan… including yourself, and a pair of pants."

"To be perfectly honest, yes, we are that energetic, as you put it. However, all of us make sure that no one innocent gets involved with our more radical… activities… physically, at least… this time… hopefully… if we're all lucky… please?" Waltz's demeanor hunched over more and more as he continued to dig his own grave as the listeners produced an increasing amount of sweat drops with every word.

Hiashi raised an eyebrow. "Are you insinuating that the general public is in danger should they come in contact with your clan members?"

Waltz paused. "If you mean are they in danger of being harmed, broken bones, death, or otherwise, no. We all have more control than that. If you mean in danger of being caught up in elaborate pranks that may or may not scar a person for life depending on whether or not we like said persons… well, let's just say that even Tsunade wouldn't bet against something happening eventually…" Waltz laughed nervously. "Luckily though, I hear that you already have a resident prankster in the village that pulls off similar stunts, so we tend to just team up with said prankster and go with his style." Waltz chuckled, seemingly ignoring several people in the room starting twitch rampantly.

"I hope…" Danzō spoke up in an irritable tone. "… that you don't assume that we will simply accept that kind of behavior from your clan without receiving anything in compensation… and to my knowledge, we do not know what you and your grandchildren Shadow and Crypt will contribute… if they can at all…"

Waltz sighed. "Of course we will lend you our services. It's what we've done so far, and it is what we shall do here. Obviously, we will not divulge everything we can do. That would be silly. However, I can inform you of what each of us can do for the benefit of your village…for the most part." He noted the hungry eyes of several of the council members.

"Well, let's start off with me, then." He breathed out as he sat down on a nearby chair that had been provided for him. "I am, as you can see, a very old man. I have seen many odd things in my travels in far distant lands, and as such have much experience in many fields. My main field of profession, if it hasn't been disclosed yet, is the medical field, followed shortly by hydraulics and botany." He turned to Inoichi Yamanaka. "Haku-chan has had much to say about your flower shop Yamanaka-san. I am personally eager to talk to you later about the various plants and herbs in your collection."

Inoichi smiled. "I look forward to it, Ōgakari-san."

Waltz chuckled. "Just call me Waltz, or old man, or gramps. I was never one for formalities."

Danzō coughed. "Back to your medical abilities… Ōgakari-san. I have a report here that said that you healed most of the more dangerous injuries caused in the preliminaries with an odd technique that resembled the Mystic Palm Technique, and displayed an even more peculiar one involving covering your hands in water when you were handling one Naruto Uzumaki. Both of these techniques were proven to be far more advanced and efficient than what any of our own medical shinobi can perform… can you elaborate on these techniques?"

Waltz smirked briefly as he looked at Danzō. "My techniques are impossible to perform for anyone else, and due to the fact that they are clan secrets, I will not reveal how I can heal so efficiently." He took out a pouch of water from his coat and unscrewed it. Almost instantly a steady stream of water rushed out into the air and stayed there, much to the shock of the council. "… I cannot disclose how I came to possess this skill, either." Waltz made the large quantity of water circle around the room several times at a lazy pace before sending it back to the pouch again and screwing the top on. "However, I believe it would be enough to at least show you that I am capable of doing such feats…" Waltz smiled.

"Impressive." Sarutobi mused out loud. "I have not seen someone so proficient in manipulating water since my old sensei, Tobirama Senju, or when I encountered one of the elders of the Hyōton bloodline in the second war…" He paused for a moment before continuing. "… so in terms of work, should I assume you are going to be spending your time in the hospital, or are you going to put on an apron and help Inoichi's wife with the shop?"

Waltz chuckled. "I think I'll be at the hospital most of the time, Hokage-sama. I prefer to mend wounds, not make them…"

"You have talked about your abilities, but why have you not spoken about your sword skills?" Asked Shikaku curiously. "I highly doubt you would carry such an impressive blade on you just for appearance's sake."

Waltz' demeanor darkened a bit before answering. "… Indeed, I am quite proficient with this blade… however, I prefer to use it as an absolute last resort. If it is acceptable, I would prefer if no more questions were asked about my sword or my kenjutsu… all that I will say is that I will never separate myself from this blade."

"That is well and good, Ōgakari-san…" Started one of the more confident members of the council. "… but what of the other two members of your clan? Forgive me for saying this, but I find it difficult to believe that a man who is in a straightjacket can assist the village significantly in any way…"

"You wouldn't be the first to say that, either…" Sighed Waltz. "Since you mentioned him first, let us start off with Crypt. Crypt, for most intents and purposes, is an idiot." Waltz paused for a moment as he enjoyed the reaction from the people listening to him. "A good majority of what he says is complete gibberish, he frequently takes off his pants any time he wants, and he has an unhealthy rivalry with the floor. It should also be noted, though, that he can unnerve almost any competent and reasonably sane adult with a 5 word sentence." Waltz took in a deep breath before continuing, ignoring the looks that everyone was giving him. "However, this does not mean he does not have skills that are not useful. Crypt will be with me during my rounds in the hospital for two main reasons. The first is that I'm the only one that can control him efficiently and makes sure he doesn't do anything too stupid. The second, and more important reason is because he has an affinity for blood."

"You don't have to tell me that twice…" Shivered Tsume Inuzuka, gaining everyone's attention. "The second that guy walked by me, I thought I had come in contact with someone that had just rolled around in a warzone's worth of bodies. I've smelled guys that smelled like blood before, but this is the first time that I've smelled a guy that makes blood smell like HIM."

Waltz nodded. "While his behavior is childish at best, Crypt is the best hematologist there is, even if his methods are a bit… different. With his powers, he is able to diagnose and treat most injuries, poisons, and diseases as fast as I can, sometimes even faster depending on the type of injury and how it was applied. This, of course, means that he can apply the same techniques to himself as well." He ignored the disbelieving look that he received from the people in the room. "He is also an earth element specialist, but he does not use those abilities frequently. Other than those and his high fighting skills, he has several other interesting qualities, but we cannot divulge that information just yet."

The council members nodded in agreement, knowing full well that they may have just hit the proverbial jackpot with this clan in many different ways. "… And the girl?" Spoke up one council member.

Waltz sighed. "Shadow is… unique compared the rest of us. She can wield shadows to perform various attacks and actions, much like the Nara clan, only she is can do much more with her shadows than you would expect. Unfortunately, many of these additional powers of hers are clan secrets, so I cannot speak of them all. She is, however, exceptionally bright despite her childish personality, and can probably perform most jobs you give her fairly well… given that her boss isn't a complete ass or tries to hit on her, of course. Then it's really just a matter of time until another body is found…" He stalled for a moment. "Also, it should be noted that we have mathematically proven that her temper is inversely proportional to the size of her sweet tooth. Just to give you a decent idea of what I am talking about, she cleared out that fancy candy store on the main street several days ago after she bought several samples of everything in the building and jumped headfirst into a vat of chocolate cake icing while it was still being mixed." Several council members sweat dropped.

"What about this demon that is supposedly sealed inside of her?" Asked Shibi Aburame, deciding to steer the conversation another way. "I seem to recall Ghost-san mentioning it occasionally during our meetings…"

Waltz shrugged as the people in the room glared expectantly at him. Slowly, he raised his hand until he was pointing to Zuzushi, who was still sleeping on top of his head. "You're looking at her." He stated simply, causing many jaws to drop.

"You're kidding me…" Gaped one of the councilors. "That little… pet is…" He didn't get to finish, as Zuzushi had instinctively and almost instantly crossed the distance between Waltz' head and the speaker's head, wrapped her tail tightly around the man's neck, clawed onto his face and was glaring directly into the man's eyes with smoke coming from her mouth and nostrils.

"Yeah… we don't call her the 'p' word." Waltz stated in a clearly bored tone. "She really doesn't like that." He paused for a moment. "Well, don't just stare at her, apologize already." He lectured as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"S-sorry?" The poor man squeaked out. Zuzushi glared at him for another half a second before blowing a cloud of smoke into his face and flew back lazily to Waltz' head, where she immediately fell asleep again.

"So, are we to assume that that… creature… is the demon sealed inside your granddaughter?" Danzō asked curiously.

Waltz shrugged. "Yes and no. This is more of a… temporary body she can make if she wants to go outside of Shadow and explore a bit. Her real body… is well… a bit… bigger…" Waltz was obviously downplaying how large Zuzushi's real size was judging from how nervously he was laughing.

"Are we to assume that Shadow-san has sufficient control over her tenant?" Asked Chōza apprehensively.

Waltz sighed. "She has as much control as an older sister does her rebellious younger one. They get along and have surprisingly similar personalities, but that doesn't mean they won't go after each other's throats every now and then." He reached up and started to pet Zuzushi. "But in all reality, she's very quite logical and intelligent. Egotistical, yes, but that comes with the obscene amount of power she's achieved over the years… although if you want to freak her out, she's scared shitless of squirrels when she's this small." Waltz took his hand away from Zuzushi as the small dragon immediately tried to bite one of his fingers off, causing the old man to laugh. "Though I wouldn't recommend it, she has a bit of a temper problem, and she rarely leaves any revenge scheme unfinished."

"How do we know that your… demon, won't go berserk or break out and kill us all?" The Haruno council member asked.

Waltz chuckled darkly as Zuzushi glared at the woman angrily. "Zuzushi is not some sort of lower being that lets her emotions get the better of her over petty reasons, nor is she some sort of wild animal. " He smiled confidently as several people in the room shifted uncomfortably in their seats. "If she wanted to destroy this village, then the village itself must have given her a good reason to do so. It is as simple as that. But…" He sighed as he shrugged his shoulders. "If you really must know, each member of the family is capable of calming down Zuzushi when she is enraged… to some extent at least. The easiest way to prevent something like that from happening is simply not to antagonize her. I trust that the people of this village are not stupid enough to piss off a dragon demon... are they?" He quirked up an eyebrow, and several council members either frowned at the man or swallowed heavily.

"Duly noted." Sarutobi sighed. "Now that we have your clan's skills and abilities out of the way, perhaps we can discuss other subjects…"

"Agreed." Smirked one of the more pompous councilors. "I suggest that we conduct experiments on the Ōgakari demon so that we can learn how to kill the…" He stopped due to the immense pressure that radiated in the room coming from Zuzushi as she growled deeply.

"Did I forget to mention that she can understand every word we are saying and that she has an IQ of roughly 180? The only reason why she isn't also a part of this conversation is that her vocal chords aren't developed enough when she's this small." Waltz said in a bored tone. "But if you really want to push your luck, by all means, keep talking. Hell has no fury compared to that of a female demon dragon's wrath." The idiot wisely sat down without saying anything else. "Are there any intelligent questions to be asked?"

"Yeah, I have a couple." Shikaku asked in a bored tone. "If one of you guys causes trouble in the village, which one of you guys do we report to?"

Waltz nodded in understanding. "In most circumstances, you would send the message to either me or Scabbard. If neither one of us is available, then Ghost is the next in line, then Shadow. Crypt… well, unless he is actually making sense at the time or if you feel like killing a few brain cells, it would be best not to talk to him. If all else fails, you can always tell Zuzushi to give us a message or ask her to do something. Even at this size she is probably more than enough to take down a few chūnin or a weak jōnin. What is your other question?"

Shikaku glared at the man. "If we ever need to send you out separately into the field, but still in teams, how would we classify each of you?"

Waltz smiled as his demeanor relaxed. "If we should be sent to the battlefield, in the best case scenario, I would be a front line soldier. I am, as you can tell, built like a tank, and can take and deal sufficient amounts of damage, plus with my healing abilities I could last longer than most shinobi in that position despite my age. Ghost is a sensory specialist that is also quite exceptional at assassination and picking off the remaining forces from a battle incredibly quickly. He is also adept at spying and information gathering, but not so much as Scabbard. Crypt is an incredible intimidating force in battle, and as such can be positioned in the front line as well, or in the supporting wave to offset morale. Shadow is pretty much a user of all, master of none. She is exceptionally skilled in various arts, making her a viable piece in any area, but aside from her abilities manipulating Zuzushi's power and spying, she is not exactly the best in any one category. Scabbard is a supporting combat specialist, as he prefers to attack via mid and long ranged combat. He is also quite capable at finding information, as you all have already heard about his spy network, and is intelligent enough to determine hidden facts from the smallest details, making him an ideal strategist." The man relaxed in his chair. "Of course, that isn't to say that we don't have experience in other fields as well, I'm just listing off where we would be best located. If you were asking about our overall strength in general though… I guess you could consider us all elite jōnin level... or kage, if you're feeling generous."

The shinobi in the council slowly nodded in understanding as Waltz explained the various traits of his clan, while Danzō made mental notes on them so he could use them later. They were interrupted, however, when one of the most disliked civilian council members stood up in anger. "I cannot take this anymore. I apologize Hokage-sama, but I refuse to believe that you are willing to let this… demon loving clan into our village! We have enough trouble with the Kyūbi brat as it is, and ever since these…PEOPLE arrived, it's only gotten stronger! I say we kill the demons and simply kick the lovers out of the village!" He roared. The council chambers broke out into chaos as the civilian council for the most part supported the man while the shinobi council and the civilians that weren't idiots tried to point out that their opponents were being complete morons at the moment.

"QUIET!" Roared Sarutobi, silencing everyone in the room. "I cannot believe that members of our own council would be foolish enough to threaten a new and powerful clan just as they arriving!" The Hokage lectured angrily before getting interrupted by a snoring sound.

"zzzzz… snort… wha?" Waltz asked dumbly as he woke up from the nap he was taking while the shouting was taking place. "Is the meeting over yet? It's not like I have anything planned, but I do have better things in mind that I could be doing than ignoring threats with no backing." Waltz yawned, obviously getting a rise out of a good portion of the civilian council and a good laugh out of the shinobi council.

"What!" Roared the original offender. "No backing?! You wrinkled old man, I'll have you know that I am from a proud noble family that has managed to support Konoha's economy with our brilliance for generations and…"

"It all equates to nothing when you are stuck in a room full of accomplished assassins." Waltz yawned. "You're nothing but talk, and you rely on your family name whenever you can't do something by yourself. I'm going to play the same game as you, but I'm doing it just for kicks, because you wouldn't win, be it how amazing my clan is or how much we have already done for the village." He smirked as he stood up and straightened his back with a series of pops from his spine, showing everyone in the room how monstrous the old man really was, almost reaching 2.5 meters in height and making someone like Ibiki look like a dwarf.

"If I remember correctly, this is a shinobi village, not a normal village, so logically, shinobi based achievements would be far more appreciated than others. In the past year and a half, my clan has established several trading agreements with many of the shinobi clans here that have increased the quality of not only their products, but the performance of some of their specialties as well. In addition to this, we also have established a spy network that is already receiving accurate information from roughly 2/3 of the elemental nations, including but not limited to Kumo, Suna, and Kiri. We have aided in training some of the strongest genin that have ever been seen since the Sannin, as well as also increasing the quality of several of the jōnin in the village, and we have helped obtain a new bloodline limit AND one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. And that was with only two of our clan members." Waltz smirked. "So if you want to compare what our respective clans have done for this SHINOBI village… be my guest." Waltz finished off the speech with a confident grin and a gentle twinkle in his eyes.

Silence permeated the room for several moments before Tsume started to clap slowly in a drawn-out manner. "… brilliant." She chuckled. "I honestly couldn't have said it better myself. You, my friend, have definitely earned a place here in Konoha."

Waltz shrugged his massive shoulders before hunching over again so that he was only pretty damn tall instead of freakishly huge. "To be honest, I wasn't trying to impress anyone. I just wanted that annoying brat over there to shut up." The old man nodded his head to the speechless civilian councilor who was still too stunned to even glare daggers at the old man.

"Yes… well… please try to at least avoid getting into these kinds of situations in the first place please, Waltz-san." Sarutobi coughed. "That being said, do you want to inform us of anything before we close this meeting, seeing as your clan appears to be for the most part accepted into the village?"

Waltz shrugged. "Well, aside from asking the clan heads to see if it was all right if we could train their kids in our private training grounds for the entire month before the third round, not really."

Hiashi raised an eyebrow. "Private training grounds? Wouldn't it be counterproductive to have so many students train in the same area when some of them are facing each other in the finals?"

Waltz smirked. "I don't think that will be a problem. In fact, I was going to ask the clan heads with family members in the finals and the Inuzuka, to come to our clan compound to see our grounds for themselves. We were actually looking forward to training some of the genin for the exams anyways after we saw how well Naruto had performed under Ghost's tor… I mean tutelage, and we were curious as to how far they could excel under the right teacher."

"Are you implying that we aren't the right teachers for our children?" Shibi asked in a calm tone while adjusting his glasses.

Waltz shook his head. "Far from it… in most cases, at least. What I'm saying is that while your clan techniques are indeed powerful and useful, they lack that extra creativity that my clan and I have used and faced in our travels. I am already assuming that you are aware of how well your children have progressed under Ghost's tutelage, even though he has occasionally steered them in directions that they normally would not have gone before, such as Shino Aburame's gauntlets and his new taijutsu skills, or Hinata Hyūga's medical training. These changes to their training have benefitted these genin so much that many of them are already being considered for promotions to special jōnin as soon as they have some experience being chūnin, yet many of them have yet to learn from people who specialize and are extremely experienced in their own field of practice." Waltz stated. "What my clan is simply doing is addressing these potential paths that members of your clans have not or will not take note of and opening their minds so that they can have their own style later on."

"And you are telling us that the five of you will be training all twelve of the genin there?" Chōza asked curiously.

"Oh, god no." Waltz deadpanned. "We will be getting help from their jōnin-sensei, as well as Zabuza, Haku-chan, Anko-san, and Hana-san as well to make things more manageable." He paused as he looked around. "…don't worry. Crypt won't be doing any teaching." A breath of relief echoed throughout the room.

"So when do you think we should visit your clan compound?" Shikaku asked curiously.

Waltz shrugged. "Anytime really, but the earlier the better. Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Tenten, and Lee are already in our private training grounds getting ready for the exams with Kakashi, Asuma, Gai, Zabuza and Haku there training them. The only ones I would recommend waiting for a while are the Hyūga." He looked a Hiashi. "It would be best if Hinata and Neji arrived after our little business meeting later this week. Does that sound reasonable?" Hiashi nodded slowly, ignoring the looks that he and Waltz were receiving from everyone else in the room.

"Wait, you've been down there already Shikaku?" Inoichi asked curiously.

Said Nara shrugged lazily. "Yeah, Scabbard showed me a few days ago when I brought Shikamaru over for his training. It's… impressive, to say the least. I'll leave out the troublesome bits for you to see when you visit the place for yourself."

"Am I to assume that people other than clan members are allowed to visit your clan training area?" Danzō asked curiously.

Waltz shook his head. "Unfortunately, no. Our training area is only accessible through the main building, and the path to get there requires us to pass by several of our private rooms. Only a limited number of people are given permission to train there. The clan leaders are allowed to visit the grounds because they are currently engaged in business transactions with our clan, and the Hokage is allowed because we like him…" Several people sweat dropped. "As for our students and fellow teachers, we let them in because 1. Ghost has trained with them long enough to gain all of their trust, and 2. They know that if they betray that trust, they will have to deal with the exceptionally morally depraved punishments that they will receive. Said punishments will even be worse than they expect since they have not yet spent time with Crypt and Shadow, so they don't know how disturbing they can be."

"We'll take your word for it." Shikaku yawned.

"Hokage-sama!" Yelled an ANBU as it appeared into the room. "There have been multiple reports of a woman screaming and large explosions coming from the Forest of Death! While this normally wouldn't be a cause for concern, it should be noted that the forest should not be in use today!"

Sarutobi looked at Waltz. The fellow old man simply shrugged before going to the door. "I know Scab said not to do anything, but to be honest, leaving him alone against Ghost, Shadow, and Crypt in the middle of their merry making is a bit unfair, even for us. Besides, this meeting was just a formality. We'll have a real meeting some other time…"

"Stop right there!" Growled Koharu. "Are you truly so rude and careless as to simply walk out in the meeting with the village council?"

Waltz sighed. "No, but unless you don't want to risk losing a fair portion of the Forest of Death, you'll let me go so I can tame the rest of my family. Shadow hates squirrels as much as Zuzushi does, and she might go overboard when trying to escape."

Said dragon squeaked in agreement.

"Just let him go." Sarutobi sighed as Waltz walked out the door. "This introductory meeting really is more of a formality than anything, and Kami knows how badly formalities mix with that clan."

o. o. o.

Elsewhere, in the training area underneath the Ōgakari clan compound (if any of you have forgotten what it looks like, just think of the training grounds that Urahara keeps on making in Bleach, just with some more trees and small streams.):

"I said I'm sorry, Sakura!" Naruto screamed hysterically as he barely managed to dodge another chakra enhanced punch that shattered the ground.

"Sorry doesn't cut it this time, Naruto!" Growled Sakura. "You had over a year to bring back my memories and you wait until NOW to give them back to me?! Even Shikamaru had his memories back before I did!" WHAM!

"That was because we couldn't raise any more suspicion!" Naruto cried, still running for his life. "It was weird enough that all of us were progressing at the rate we were! Imagine what would happen if an academy student of all people started running around using Baa-Chan's strength techniques! Oh crap!" Crunch!

"And you are any better?!" Sakura roared. "You were using the Kyūbi's chakra like no tomorrow this past week! You even drew up enough attention to give Orochimaru reason to kill you instead of kidnapping Sasuke-kun!" Boom!

"And what would have happened if I gave you your memories by then?!" Naruto countered. "You would have tried to kill the snake bastard in the forest and gotten yourself killed or gain enough interest for him to kidnap or mark you instead! Unless you can heal yourself in your sleep, I don't think you would last that long!"

Sakura froze as Naruto's words registered with her. Sure, she had helped out before she got back her memories against Orochimaru, but now that she remembered all the shit she had to deal with concerning Sasuke because of the rogue Sannin… she probably would charge in head first and try to rip his head off with her bare hands… keyword try. "… damn." She spat out in irritation as she dropped her fists.

"Is it safe to come out yet?" Shikamaru asked as his head popped up from behind an upturned rock.

"Holy crap!" Zabuza whistled to himself as he himself emerged from hiding. "I thought you were kidding when you told me she stopped being useless after I died and became Tsunade's apprentice."

"She inherited her master's temper as well." Chuckled Jiraiya.

"You do realize she can hear you, right?" Haku asked with a deadpan expression on her face.

"You know, my chakra control still isn't up to where it was three years from now, so I think you would survive if I punch you with all my strength now…" Sakura growled as she cracked her knuckles and approached the unnerved swordsman.

"Thankfully, that is one test we will never conduct." The threatened Zabuza said sagely before jumping out of the way of a thrown rock.

"Careful, she's a good medic as well, so if she catches you she can make you suffer longer than most women." Chuckled Kakashi as he and Asuma walked towards the group. "So, now that Sakura has joined the group, we can start the meeting. First off, training."

Naruto nodded. He had been ecstatic when he had finally met Jiraiya again after so many years. It was a very touching moment between the master and student when the sage showed up soon after Naruto started training to learn how to use earth style techniques… followed by Naruto beating the shit out of the white-haired pervert due to the fact that Minato had told him about all the times that Jiraiya had peeked on his mother when she was alive, even going so far as to base the first Icha-Icha book after his parent's honeymoon. It disturbed the boy to no end that several thousand lonely perverts had whacked themselves off to most likely the night and moment he was conceived.

Needless to say, Naruto NEVER let that information out. Ghost would never have let him live it down.

"According to Ero-nii, I can't use any summoning, the Kyūbi's chakra, Sage Mode, or any Rasengan variants in the finals because there are rumors going around in Iwa that 'a brat that looks like the Fourth' is in them. I can't give away anything yet that would connect me to my dad, so I am training to use the earth element with Kakashi-sensei and Ero-Sennin (Zabuza snorted at this point), along with several earth element techniques, not including an earth element Rasengan. Right now I have a little over 1000 clones on the other side of the training grounds trying to grind a bunch of leaves to dust, but since this isn't my natural affinity, it may take a while for me to get a hang of it. If I can get the techniques down, I'm supposed to go to Waltz-san for some extra control training so I can use my Seventh Sense better, though why I'm going to him for that training I don't know. I've already signed the toad summoning contract, though, and passed Gamabunta's test while no one else was in here, so there shouldn't be any worries about seeing any boss sized summons here during the training period. I am going to be re-acquainting myself with most of the smaller sized summons in my spare time just in case though."

Jiraiya snorted. "You forgot to tell them how you nearly gave Ma, Pa and me a heart attack when you showed us you could go into Sage Mode while moving. I swear I've never seen that old bat Shima actually speechless before that day in my life."

Naruto smirked at his teacher before turning to Sakura. "Ero-nii told me that since you got your memories back and already have a decent arsenal of techniques, your training is going to be focused around physical conditioning. It's going to be mostly stamina building, chakra control exercises and evasion practice for you, but apparently Waltz-san is also going to give you some taijutsu lessons in your spare time in order to make your moves more fluid."

Shikamaru stepped up. "I'm supposed to do speed and stamina exercises until Shadow comes… then I am supposed to kiss my ass goodbye, according to Ghost… troublesome. I also heard that Shino is going to be split between Gai and Shadow when he's not reading up on his clan's scrolls. Other than that, I think I'm supposed to learn a bit more water elemental training from Haku and Zabuza."

Kakashi sighed. "I'm in the middle of teaching Sasuke the Shadow Clone Technique so he can train faster. He has large enough reserves that training like that won't pose much of a threat to him as long as he only uses a few clones at a time. He'll learn Chidori again, as well as some lightning element composition. Afterwards, he's split between Zabuza and me, learning how to control his Sharingan better and be more fluent in kenjutsu. Ghost told me that he wants me to teach him something else later on as well, but to keep it a secret. Why? I have no idea."

Zabuza grunted as he stretched himself. "Yeah, I'm pretty much spread out between lazy boy, red eyes, and unfortunately the girl that's most likely going to stab her future husband to death with a ninja store's worth of weaponry for a shiny new knife. Luckily, Scabbard told me that he's also going to teach her some more about seals in order to save me the misery." He chuckled as he took his sword out, showing everyone the new design. The general shape of the blade was the same, but it was clearly narrower, despite the fact that the hole in the middle and the curve near the base of the blade were roughly the same sizes as before, if not only a little bit smaller. It also looked like it was reinforced with a darker new alloy that apparently was an extremely strong and light material that could channel chakra fairly easily. On the pommel, though unnoticed in most cases, was a storage seal that could hold a quite sizeable amount of water in it. All in all, it looked, and made Zabuza a happy little killing psycho ninja… person. "I gotta say though, the man knows how to juice up a sword."

Asuma nodded, as his blades also got a minor upgrade, being also made out of the same material that Zabuza's sword was made of. "I'm in charge of Chōji's training, and am also going to help out Tenten with her sparring skills against people with odd chakra enhanced weapons. Ghost gave me instructions on what Chōji should learn in order to defeat his opponent. I've only read the beginning, but it looks like he's going to need to learn more earth element composition before he can pull off whatever Ghost wants him to learn. From what I've heard, Ino is going to study under Anko with a little help from Haku on the side, and Hana is taking Kiba for herself for the entire month. Kurenai-chan is going to also help Chōji a bit with his genjutsu detecting and dispelling skills, as well as helping out Ino with her training, although I'm guessing she just really wants to hang out with Anko some more."

"What about Neji and Hinata?" Sakura asked curiously.

"Hinata is going to be spending most of her time with Lee and Gai so she can improve on her taijutsu and speed while Lee still gains experience against a strong Jūken user." Jiraiya stated with a shrug. "In the meantime, Neji is going to study under Ghost and Scabbard so he can also increase his speed and muscle reading skills. They told me that they're going to put him up against you in some practice matches so you can get used to fighting a Jūken user as well, brat, so don't be surprised if Neji comes by during the month to fight you." Jiraiya said to Naruto.

"Ugh, great. A whole month of sparring against prodigy Jūken users. I can't wait." Naruto groaned sarcastically.

"Jiraiya-sama, how are Tsunade-sama and Shizune-sempai?" Sakura asked curiously.

Jiraiya smiled. "Don't worry about those two. They are alive and well, and remember everything, I have the bruises from Tsunade's bone crushing hugs to prove it. They're still wandering about for now, just in case Orochimaru escapes our traps during the invasion and he needs to go to her again to heal his wounds. They're remembering everything can be a good or bad thing at the moment considering it means that both of them desperately want to vivisect Danzō as soon as they see him."

"Tell me about it." Groaned Zabuza. "I can't tell you how many times I've been stalked by that guy's masked cronies over town."

Shikamaru sweat dropped. "Um… you know those could be simply ANBU following you. You ARE still on parole."

Zabuza shook his head. "I made mental notes on the ANBU that the old man sent to keep an eye on me from time to time. These guys aren't on the list, and they gave me a bad feeling whenever they were nearby, like I got a few times while I was still on the run from Kiri. It's a quirk you pick up when you're a missing-nin on the road. Either you have it, or you're dead."

Naruto nodded. "I'll be sure to tell Ero-nii that the next time he comes here."

Sakura looked around for a moment before turning to Naruto. "Hey Naruto, are there any people that know that we know the future… or a future in this case?"

Naruto shook his head. "The less that people know, the better. As long as we can guide them and say we got some intel from Scabbard's spy network, there should be no reason to tell anyone anything." He looked at Sakura's skeptical look. "It's for the best, Sakura. If people knew that we knew what was going to happen in the next few years, or at least had a good idea of what would happen, they would get overly dependent on the information. Remember what happened at Wave?"

"Yeah, you nearly gelded me, brat." Growled Zabuza irritably, ignoring the odd looks he was getting from everyone else in the area.

"I'm talking about the Kusa-nin that joined the fight, smart one." Deadpanned Naruto.

"So?" Zabuza replied.

"… Ignoring Captain No-Brows for the moment, the point I was trying to make is that too much information can be as dangerous as too little. It's really easy to get too comfortable with knowing how most major events are going to play out, or knowing what our strongest opponent's abilities are. The more people know we know these things, the bigger chance something like this could happen."

Jiraiya nodded. "He's right, Sakura. In worst case scenarios, the information we were relying on is completely wrong and kills someone who was overly dependent on our info. This results in people not trusting us anymore, or believing that we work for the enemy. Similar situations have happened during wartime, and let me tell you that the end results are not pretty. I would say that it would also be bad that people think we have seen the future, but considering who started this whole mess in the first place, I doubt anyone will actually take that rumor seriously."

Sakura turned to Jiraiya. "But things are already bad! Sasuke-kun already has the curse mark and…"

"And it will last a grand total of 10 seconds max against any member of Ero-nii's family if they truly wanted to get rid of the thing now." Naruto answered immediately. "The only reason why they haven't gotten rid of it already is because they want to see if they can modify the seal so that it doesn't screw with Sasuke's head, but still gives him the extra chakra boost in case he's in a pinch. Kimimaro's alive again, and if the snake bastard escapes alive this time he will send him for the kidnapping, and let me tell you that guy is NOT someone I am looking forward to fighting again, Sage Mode or not."

"Kimimaro?" Asuma asked curiously.

"I think I remember him." Shikamaru said. "He was that troublesome guy that appeared at the last second just as we were about to take Sasuke back to Konoha during the mission, right? Even those Sound Four guys were scared of him."

"He is apparently the last living member of the Kaguya clan." Jiraiya replied. "The rest of them died out in a huge fight when they tried to revolt against Kiri during the bloodline purging… although some say it was because of them that the initial purging started."

"A Kaguya?" Zabuza asked incredulously. "I heard of them. They can manipulate their bones to do all sorts of weird things. They were supposed to be ridiculously hard to kill because of their hard skeletons, and had a hell of a mean temper to match."

Naruto shivered. "This one was even worse, even if he was completely calm most of the time. He was REALLY strong, strong enough that even Ero-nii warned me to treat him as if I was fighting a member of Akatsuki if things go bad. Bushy brows told me when he came back from the retrieval mission that he could make his bones shoot out of his fingers really fast or stick other bones out like spikes to hurt you if you got too close. Apparently, he's supposed to be suffering from some kind of lethal disease, which was the only reason why Lee and Gaara won their fight against him."

"Gaara? You mean that kid that you said was the next Kazekage?" Zabuza asked curiously. "Isn't he supposed to be in town for the Exams and remember everything by now? Why isn't he down here with us?"

"He's still playing the role of a spy for us." Shikamaru replied. "Gaara is a large part of the invasion plan, and if he is seen coming in and out of the clan compound here it will raise suspicions and result in troublesome questions being asked. Ghost and Kakashi will occasionally meet up with him since they have the best stealth and knowledge of the village combined. That being said, only the sensei are allowed to go back into the village during this training period since they naturally stand a better chance of surviving the invasion… and because it would look odd if only you were allowed out all the time, Naruto." He added in after getting a look from the annoyed blonde.

"Nice cover up." Zabuza chuckled.

"Well then, it's time to continue our training." Kakashi stated as he took out another book to read.

Haku sighed. "Yeah, training…"

Sakura raised an eyebrow. "Something wrong Haku?"

Haku shrugged. "It's nothing really. I'm just kind of annoyed that I have to make up a majority of my hyōton techniques from scratch since I'm the last of my bloodline…"

Sakura blinked. "Wait, hyōton techniques?" She turned to Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei, didn't you copy a few of them during that mission to snow with princess Koyuki? I'm pretty sure that you used that giant whale technique on that iceberg…"

"And it was the size of a small island, Sakura." Kakashi replied. "I need a large and preferably cold body of water near me if I even want to hope of using that technique again… although now that you mention it, I do remember some smaller ice techniques that you could use in more various areas… I'll go through my list of ninjutsu later and see what I can get for you. Although personally, I don't know why you are so upset about your range of ninjutsu, Haku. The new techniques you made are pretty powerful already, and your list of wind and water techniques are nothing to scoff at either…"

"Kakashi, my eternal rival! Why did you not tell me that there was a youthful meeting?" Yelled the loud and unmistakable voice of Gai as he and Lee approached the group. Luckily, Jiraiya had managed to get out of sight in time, as Gai was not one to be able to keep a secret, special jōnin or not.

"Oh god, not this guy again." Groaned Zabuza.

"Sorry, Gai." Kakashi chuckled. "You were on the far side of the training area and I guess I just forgot about you."

Gai pouted. "That is most unyouthful of you, my rival. However…" Gai looked around himself, taking in his surroundings and the majesty of the training grounds they were in. "… it is somewhat understandable considering where we are. This training ground is very youthful indeed. I am somewhat curious as to how the clan managed to create such a place underneath their compound so quickly…"

"I wouldn't ask them if I were you." Naruto said warily. "They would most likely just tell another story about their travels and boast how they saved a kingdom armed only with a spork and a set of toenail clippers."

"Ah… a classic." Kakashi chuckled as he walked away with what remained of his face hidden behind a book. "Anyways, I'll see you guys later, I gotta check up on Sasuke and make sure he didn't kill himself training yet."

Naruto stretched himself out. "Yeah. Now that I think about it, a good number of my clones have canceled themselves out by now. I gotta fill in their ranks again. I gotta talk to Sakura about some… important things anyways…" He gave Sakura a serious look to prevent her from asking anything else.

Zabuza sighed. "I guess Haku and I will go back to that Tenten girl then." He shivers. "I swear, that is the only female on the planet that can scare me that much that isn't one of my ex's…"

Haku pouted as she walked by her father figure. "That is mean Zabuza-sama… I've been keeping you in line for years and yet that girl sets you off in less than 6 months. I guess I have to try harder then…"

"Oh you're up there Haku. I'm just waiting for puberty to hit you full force before I categorize how bad you really are." Zabuza stated in a serious tone, getting everyone to sweat drop a bit.

"Come on Shikamaru." Asuma sighed. "We'll play some shoji while we're waiting for everyone else for a while before we actually train. It will be one of the few peaceful moments you'll have left before Shadow gets to you."

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru sighed as he followed his sensei.

As everyone left, Gai stood in place smiling as he thought of Lee and the flames of youth, completely clueless that he was left alone.

o. o. o.

In Iwagakure:

"Oh goodie…" Groaned Ōnoki as he looked at the latest report and pictures from Konoha. More specifically, he was looking at the profile of Naruto Uzumaki. "So this is the brat that Kurotsuchi was having her second period in the month over, huh? He looks like that brat Minato sure, but those marks, eyes, last name, plus he's an orphan." He shuffled through some papers that described the boy's life. "Chronic prankster, not liked throughout the town, loud and obnoxious… honestly. The only thing this brat has in common with the Fourth is his looks! Even his birthday is on the same day as the day the Kyūbi… attacked… Konoha… oh, you have got to be kidding me…" The old man sighed as he had a good look at Naruto's picture again. Whiskers and slit eyes that made him look just like a fox. "God fucking damn it..."

Ōnoki was many things. He was an old and cranky man. He was short. He had a secret collection of Icha-Icha stored in his office, much like the Third Hokage; his advisors could say what they want, but Jiraiya was the god of perverted literature as far as he was concerned. But most importantly, he was a highly experienced shinobi and leader of an entire village of other shinobi. He knew how to read people, regardless of their personalities. He had never met Minato Namikaze before, but his reputation as a calm and collected shinobi that was incredibly loyal to his comrades was not exactly a secret among his enemies, much like his Flying Thunder God Technique. He was a hero type, the kind that would sacrifice himself to save others… the kind that would, in order to save as many lives as possible, give up his own arms… or his family…

"A jinchūriki… huh?" Ōnoki said quietly as he looked at the boy's picture and read his background again. He was well aware of how containers of Bijū were treated, his village being the home of the four and five tails' containers. The profiles matched up almost to the letter… which was a bit concerning, since the boy was clearly related to Minato in some way. Whether the boy was actually his son and not some distant nephew or something was yet to be determined.

Ōnoki was not a pompous idiot… okay, that may be a bit of a stretch at times, but the point was that he did not go out of his way to kill people just because their fathers pissed him off... although there had been exceptions, when time was of the essence and things needed to be done. Ōnoki knew that even if Naruto was Minato's kid, it didn't mean that the kid was responsible for what happened during the Third Great War. Heck, if it weren't for the fact that Minato had completely wasted his forces, the old man would have gone out on a limb to say that the Namikaze was a fairly respectable person, unlike that prick Danzō.

Unfortunately, the same logic didn't spread to a good number of his forces, who still held bad blood against the man known as the Yellow Flash. It was one thing to be nearly unstoppable on the battlefield in small skirmishes, but to take out over 200 Iwa-nin in a single fight was the equivalent of unloading one's bowls on the defeated for many people in Iwa, even if they were not related to those who were taken down by the man.

… Then again, if the boy ever mastered Hiraishin and grew up to be an unruly character, it would be best to take a more… active course of action, just in case. Looking through the reports, he saw that the Konoha genin entering the finals were apparently the greatest batch ever produced, more than half of them being genin for roughly half a year at the most. This new clan that recently joined Konoha have been all over the place, training genin and taking high level missions. Apparently the one that did the assassination missions has taken the blonde as his own personal apprentice… but other than that, there were scattered bits of information about the clan as a whole. Ōnoki glanced at the tournament lineup to see who the blonde was fighting. First was the heiress of the Hyūga clan, Hinata Hyūga, then there was the last Uchiha in Konoha and apparently the boy's best friend, Sasuke Uchiha. Ōnoki shivered at the thought of one particular Uchiha that he had managed to catch a glimpse of during his younger days. Madara Uchiha. If there was ever a monster in shinobi's skin, it would have been that man.

Shifting his gaze over to the next block, Ōnoki saw it was occupied by two of the current Kazekage's children and a Nara. Personally, the Tsuchikage liked the current Kazekage, if only for the fact that the man could play the role in a presentable and respectable manner. He was a bit ambitious at times from what he could tell with his few meetings with the man, but technically, that should have been one of the qualifications of being a Kage that was never really put on paper… along with having an indescribably large amount patience, and the willing to develop and deal with an early case of carpal tunnel syndrome.

Ōnoki chuckled as he remembered the subject being brought up while smoking a pipe with Hiruzen Sarutobi. It had been during one of the few meetings that they had managed to get together for reasons other than avoiding war at all cost. The old men liked each other fairly well despite the fact that many of their citizens would like nothing better than to unleash all 9 bijū on the other's village. Hiruzen was a bit softer than he would have preferred, but then again, he had also seen the old monkey at his worst, and he would not make that mistake again. Still, it was pleasant to talk about the 'good old days' - what with being the only Kage over the age of 60 around - , and complain about how reckless and stupid these latest generations of shinobi were, as well as jokingly argue who was going to cop out of their respective positions first. Minato had died so soon after taking office that Ōnoki decided that at best Sarutobi's break could be considered an extended vacation. Oddly enough, neither one knew if the one who dropped out first was the winner or the loser at this point.

It also didn't hurt their relationship in that they were the self-proclaimed strongest old perverts on the planet… not that they actually admitted it in public, of course.

Continuing to look at the rosters, Ōnoki was a bit surprised to see heirs from a good number of Konoha's clans all participating, as well as some genin from Rain and one from that new Sound village he was hearing rumors about. Most of those rumors … well, they weren't good. Still, these Chūnin Exams were proving to look quite interesting, with or without the potential child of Minato Namikaze fighting in them. It wasn't every year that almost a dozen clan heirs beat the living daylights out of each other in front of an arena's worth of people. Something in his hips was telling him that the Exams were going to be particularly interesting this time around… or that he needed to see his chiropractor again.

After making some popping noises in areas that were uncommonly heard popping, Ōnoki got to work writing a pair of letters to a couple of old drinking compatriots. One was easy to find, the other was wandering around the lands of Iwa… somewhere… hopefully…

After he finished writing the letters, Ōnoki pondered how he was going to break it to Kurotsuchi that she wasn't going alone on this recon mission… without getting his head blown off.

o. o. o.

Konoha:

Gaara was quiet as he looked up at the full moon. Even though Jiraiya had managed to fix his seal several days beforehand so he could actually sleep without Shukaku taking over or eating away at his mind, he still had insomnia and the conversion was more difficult than first anticipated. Plus he somewhat enjoyed nights when the moon was full, even if Shukaku was a bit more active during then.

As soon as he found some time to himself, Gaara had started training so he could do some of the tricks he had developed after this point in time. Some were a bit taxing despite the fact that he held a demon of raw power in his body, but it was better to know the techniques and perform them now then put them off and get killed again. After his encounter with Deidara, the (ex?) jinchūriki spent an enormous amount of time developing his defense and evasion techniques so that he would not have to rely on being stuck in a complete shell of sand in order to avoid getting hurt. He found out too late that his special stash of sand was too valuable to waste all of it on one task at a time.

Still, he couldn't help but think he was forgetting something tonight. As if something was supposed to happen… oh well. It couldn't be that important if he couldn't remember it off the top of his head.

"You sure got me… don't you sleep?" Growled Dosu from the roof below him.

Oh that's right, HE was the reason why Dosu never showed up for the finals in the previous timeline. Silly Gaara. Hahahahehooooo fuck.

"… What do you want?" Gaara asked in a bored tone, hiding the fact that his mind was running on overdrive in order to find a way out of the current situation.

Dosu smirked beneath his wraps as he shifted his sleeves above his gauntlet. "I was planning on getting you when you were asleep, but it seems that's not an option at this point. You see, I want to fight Uzumaki or the Uchiha, and you pose a potential threat to that desire since everyone seems to be wary of you. That being the case, I'll just take you down now so I have a better chance of facing them in the finals… I doubt any of your attacks are faster than sound…"

Gaara's eyes narrowed. He was well aware of the fact that Kabuto and Baki were watching him from a good distance away from here, and were expecting him to do something due to the state of his previous unstable persona, but he wasn't a mindless killer anymore. "… I would prefer if you left me alone… I won't guarantee you will live if you fight me…" He droned emotionlessly.

Dosu smirked as he charged forward. "Heh, if you are this weak, then taking out that blonde on your team will be just as easy!"

And thus Gaara had an excuse to kill someone. Later on, he would consider how odd it was that he had successfully killed the same person twice in the exact same way both times, but then he would just shrug it off before threatening to kill Kankurō to make him shut up for the third time that day.

"Wow… he sure went down fast…" Kabuto mused as he watched Gaara capture and crush Dosu almost instantly with his sand.

"Are you sure that's alright?" Baki asked curiously. "He was from Sound… I thought he was supposed to test Sasuke's strength."

Kabuto chuckled sheepishly. "No, it's all right. We have other plans for Sasuke. Actually, I was given orders to kill Uzumaki-san in order to ensure that Sasuke joins us later…"

"What?!" Baki frowned.

"Yeah. Unfortunately, I got stopped at the last moment and they discovered that I'm a spy, too. They probably already connected the dots that I work for Orochimaru as well."

Baki glared at Kabuto. "Then… if they find out that you're meeting with me here, our plans to crush the Leaf will be ruined. I had heard you were Orochimaru's right-hand man… but you being uncovered by Konoha and then meeting with me like this isn't what I was expecting…"

Kabuto let out a small smirk. "Well… to be honest, I wasn't exactly trying that hard at the time. I admit, the Hyūga heiress was stronger than I had guessed… but I believe it was worth it in the end when I got more information on Crypt Ōgakari… that weapon of his is quite a trinket, if I do say so myself… Anyways, this gives me a good opportunity to see how Konoha would react with that information. Taking Sasuke-kun won't be a problem after that."

"If it appears you are failing, then we will withdraw. You came to us with this plan in the first place." Baki warned. "The Sand will stay in the background until the very end. This is Kazekage-sama's will."

Kabuto sighed as he took out a scroll. "These meetings would be so much more enjoyable if you Suna-nin were better at having conversations. Here are our plans. Also… It's about time they know about this plan, so please inform them."

"Yeah, no problem." Baki nodded.

"I'll excuse myself, then." Kabuto stated as he turned away. "Oh… by the way, if possible, I would suggest taking out any of the Ōgakari during the invasion. They are proving to be more… problematic then we first anticipated…"

Baki frowned as he put the scroll away. "I'll keep that in mind…"

The pair disappeared into the darkness, completely undiscovered.

o. o. o.

In a nearby bar:

The first generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio were busy getting hammered with the latest addition to their weekly drinking group… Shibi Aburame. The addition of the bug user was the result of a long process stemming from the trading and business with the Ōgakari clan. After conducting much research, Scabbard had found that the Aburame's insects could produce secretions with various properties depending on how much chakra they absorbed and what flowers they came in contact with over their short life spans. These secretions possessed various intriguing chemical and occasionally medical properties, ones that the Nara and Akimichi clans have been looking for quite some time in order to complete some of their projects. What few people knew was that the Yamanaka clan originally started to associate themselves with the Akimichi and the Nara clans was out of clan business. In the same way, the Aburame were inducted in the group due to their insect's ability to produce unique chemicals, the Yamanaka's were added in for their knowledge and possession of various and rare types of flowers that the other clans needed for their studies.

So, after several months of negotiations, a large trade circle was formed between the five clans, where the Yamanaka and the Aburame would produce materials, and the Ōgakari, Nara, and Akimichi would use said materials to create new medicine and soldier pills. It also allowed Shibi to become more comfortable with the other clans and the end result was the four men drinking themselves into a stupor as a way to say, "All right! We finally have all that fucking paperwork done!" Of course, due to his insects, the best Shibi could get was a little… ahem… buzzed.

"Man… I can't believe how big that place wuz…" Slurred Inoichi.

"No kidding…" Chuckled Chōza. "I could use my clan's biggest techniques and still stand up straight in that place."

"It makes you wonder what kind of techniques they practice down there…" Grumble Shikaku, who was trying to ignore the massive headache he was experiencing already.

"I'm more concerned with my child's wellbeing…" Sighed Shibi. "I was not comfortable with the look that Shadow Ōgakari was giving young Shino…"

"Oh yeah! I remember that. Your kid is screwed, man." Laughed Inoichi, clearly not aware of what he just said.

"I don't want to hear that coming from the man who allows his daughter to spend a majority of her training time with Anko Mitarashi." Shibi said stiffly while adjusting his glasses, causing Inoichi to falter and Chōza and Shikaku to chuckle at the man's misfortune.

"Having a troublesome wife is one thing… but having a smaller Anko as a daughter… you have my sympathy, my friend…" Shikaku tried to say with a straight face as he patted a crying Inoichi on the back.

"She just keeps on moving away from me…" Wept the clearly drunk man.

"Well played Shibi, well played indeed." Chōza laughed as he lightly punched the Aburame in the shoulder.

"… I am surprised that you are in such high spirits, Chōza… I thought you would be a bit less mirthful knowing that young Chōji is only able to compete in one fight in the exam." Shibi stated inquisitively.

Chōza shrugged. "I'm not that worried. Chōji's impressed a lot of people back in the preliminaries from what I've heard, and for good reason too. Pulling off three high level techniques like that isn't an easy thing to do, let alone making them work so well together. I didn't even know that he'd learned Hari Jizō. Even if he doesn't make chūnin this time around, which I highly doubt, he'll definitely earn a name for himself and get a load of experience for the next time he takes the exam. I would worry about Tsume more than anyone else if I were you. After all, Kiba was the only kid in his age group that didn't make it to the finals, and your clan is in charge of making sure that their hounds are free of most parasites."

Shibi shook his head. "While Tsume is rather… irked that Kiba did not make it to the finals, she is proud that he did not hesitate to surrender in order to protect his partner. I think it is safe to say that it would be more than concerning to everyone in Konoha if he had decided to forgo the young pup's safety in order to win the match." The three other men at the table all nodded in agreement. "That being said, how do you feel about the oncoming tournament matches?"

"I don't know about you guys, but I for one feel sorry for Shikamaru." Chōza stated with a dark chuckle. "I mean, he's stuck facing two of the Kazekage's kids right off the bat, then he has to go up against either Hinata Hyūga, the Uchiha, or Uzumaki. Knowing the poor kid, he's probably going to give up before going that far, regardless of how bad Yoshino will lecture him afterwards."

Shikaku snorted as he drank another beer. "I wouldn't blame him if he did. Your kids told you about Naruto's, Hinata's and Sasuke's fights, right?" He got a nod from his friends. "Honestly, I would prefer if he gave up before he got that far. Better that than him winning and coming home beaten half to death. Shikamaru's smart, and he's nailed down more of the clan's techniques than I would like, but against Naruto when he's… well, using that? No contest."

"Yeah, well, Ino's got it pretty tough too." Inoichi pouted, letting the booze gain a better influence on him. "She's gotta fight either some kid from Ame, or Sakura. Sakura managed to beat that kid's teammate, and since all the Ame kids use the same techniques, I'm guessing those two are going to be at each other's throats in her first round." He drank another gulp of sake. "From what I've heard, the girl is quite the up and coming medic as well as an accomplished genjutsu specialist. Aside from Uzumaki with his new healing powers, she's the worst matchup against my girl…"

"You forget that Anko-san is aware of this as well." Shibi stated plainly. "I highly doubt that our resident snake summoner would allow for such a glaring weakness to be exploited in the third exam."

"If she isn't busy screwing around with Ghost that is…" The depressed father grumbled, getting depressed, but understanding looks from his friends. It was far from secret that Anko and Hana were dating the eccentric Ghost Ōgakari… or that they liked to be kinky more often than not.

"Speaking of the Ōgakari, I have heard that they have an important meeting at the Hyūga compound tonight." Shibi said in an interested tone. He waited a few moments before continuing. "As in ALL of them are going to be there…"

Chōza and Inoichi spat out the sake they were drinking and started to cough hard. Shikaku simply opened his eyes as far as they could go as he pondered what kind of unfortunate horrors were going to occur at the noble clan's abode. "… that… is beyond troublesome."

o. o. o.

At ground zero… I mean the Hyūga compound:

"So Hayate's operation worked out all right?" Ghost asked Waltz as they approached the Hyūga compound entrance.

Waltz nodded. "Yes. He had a rather advanced and mutated case of bronchitis that appeared to be inoperable by this region's means. He's still resting at the hospital at the moment, but he should be more than able to work again in a month or so."

Ghost smiled. "Good. That guy is one of the few normal sword masters around that is willing give me a decent spar around here. He's a good guy… although he is a bit whipped by Yugao…"

Shadow snorted. "And you aren't whipped by us… or by Anko and Hana, for that matter…"

"From what I understand, Anko does most of the whipping. Hana prefers to be on the other end…" Scabbard corrected with a small grin on his face as he looked at Ghost.

"What can I say? It never gets boring with those two…" Ghost chuckled with a perverted grin on his face. "Although to be honest, I've been turning the tables on Anko more often than not these days… muahahahahahaaa."

"Honestly, one of these days that massaging technique of yours is going to get you killed… again." Waltz grumbled.

Zuzushi squeaked in agreement.

"Still… it is rather… comforting that you are actually maintaining a steady relationship again…" The old man whispered quietly, staring at Ghost's back with calm eyes.

"Hey guys! What's up? Stuck on gate duty again?" Ghost called out to the two familiar guards at the front of the Hyūga compound, apparently ignoring what Waltz had just said. Both guards looked at Ghost and quickly cracked a small grin before donning the standard Hyūga mask.

"Yes, Ōgakari-sama." Replied one of guards as he observed the four people behind him. "I assume that the people behind you are the other members of your clan?"

"Oh my god, we're going to the home of the ice cream people!" Whispered an excited Crypt in a childlike manner to Waltz.

"Yep!" Ghost replied, completely ignoring his disturbed brother. "Go send word to Hiashi and everyone there that we're here. Oh, and make sure that there are some sweets in the meeting room for Midget here…" He pointed to Shadow, who was smiling sweetly and waving to the guards as Zuzushi slept on her head. "… trust me, it will make things go a lot smoother."

"Of course, Ōgakari-sama." The first guard replied before walking inside the house. Unfortunately for guard number 2, Crypt decided in the following few seconds that he wanted to taste another ice cream person. Like Neji, guard number 2 was completely shocked, having presumably never encountered a person that gnawed on other people's heads willingly, and as such had no clue what to do.

"Mangooooo." Crypt rasped out aridly with his mouth full of Hyūga scalp.

"No! Bad Crypt!" Waltz yelled as if he was punishing a dog before grabbing Crypt's head and smashing it into the ground with surprising ease while simultaneously freeing the man from Crypt's large teeth. "We do not eat or taste random people unless we know for a fact that they are indeed delicious!"

Shadow walked up to the still shocked guard and looked at him closely from various angles before sniffing him. "Nope. Not delicious. Just standard people flavor." She stated firmly with closed eyes and a final nod of the head."

"… I'll just ignore what I just saw and skip to welcoming you into my home…" Hiashi said in an uneasy tone as he walked to the main entrance with the guard, Hinata, and Neji right behind him. "… Please don't destroy my clan."

Ghost crossed his arms and put on a face that was clearly mocking deep thought. "Hmm. I don't know, Hiashi. That's a pretty steep request you're asking of us…"

"Gasp! It's the strawberry ice cream boy again!" Crypt whispered out in a shocked tone again as he took notice of Neji, causing Hinata to try not to giggle and Neji to twitch uncontrollably.

As Ghost and Hiashi were slipping each other small jokes in order to lighten the mood, Scabbard slipped a small note into the hand of the returning guard just as he made his way back to his post.

"So… mango, huh?" The second guard smirked, much to the first's displeasure.

"We will never speak of this again." The first replied, looking like a traumatized child.

As the main group disappeared loudly into the compound, the second guard frowned as he took out the letter. "What's that?" The first asked, desperately trying to purge what just happened from his mind.

"Dunno." The second replied. "Scabbard slipped it into my hand as he walked past me. It says for me to read the entire thing before doing anything and not to show anyone what's inside…" He opened the letter slowly, knowing that odds were likely that it was another prank from the clan. After making sure that nothing was going to blow up in his face, the guard read the letter. It wasn't long before his face betrayed his emotions at what the contents of the letter held. Moments later, he was staring at his clearly concerned partner and activated his Byakugan before widening his eyes in shock.

"Well?" The first guard asked, trying to get a look at the letter. "What did it say?"

The second guard hunched over so that his friend couldn't see the paper before quickly memorizing the contents and ripping the letter to shreds and throwing them into the nearby gutter. "… our shift is over in 15 minutes, right?" He asked.

The first frowned. "Yeah. What of it? We're not going to be part of some stupid prank again, are we?"

The second one put on a serious face before leaning close to his childhood friend. "Trust me, it's not some stupid prank this time…"

Inside the clan compound, things were going rather smoothly, other than Crypt trying to treat every Hyūga that passed by him like a giant jawbreaker. Luckily, Waltz remembered to bring the modified dog leash with him this time.

"But! But! ICE CREAM People…" Moaned Crypt as another very disturbed Hyūga woman quickly walked past the deranged man.

Crypt's moaning was silenced by a quick but hard chop to the back of the neck by Waltz. Waltz looked around and saw that many of the clan members were looking at him oddly. "What? It was either that or listen to him moan for another hour and a half."

"Old man! What are you doing here?!" A young voice called out, startling the Hyūga clan head. Hanabi rushed out into the hallway and ran straight to Waltz.

"Hanabi… you know Waltz-san?" Hiashi asked in a daze, knowing that his youngest daughter's sudden change in personality would not go unnoticed. "You call the elder of the Ōgakari clan… old man?"

"Waltz has a soft spot for children, so it's no surprise that he has met Hanabi at some point." Ghost whispered to Hiashi. "As for calling him old man… well, technically we all do it. He doesn't mind at all unless he really wants to be treated with respect at the time, which isn't that often."

"Ah! Hanabi! How are you little one?" Waltz chuckled gently as he crouched down to look at the happy girl at eye level. "I apologize for not seeing you at the park lately, but I was busy with some important clan duties. Are you improving in your training?"

Hanabi nodded her head and smiled. "Yes! The meditation techniques you taught me are helping me greatly! Thank you very much!"

Waltz raised an eyebrow. "… and how about your conversing with other children at the park? How is that going?" Ghost made no motion to show that he was listening in on the conversation as he was looking at a detailed painting in the hallway.

Hanabi fidgeted in her spot as Waltz looked at her. "I'm trying… but I can't seem to find anything they want to talk about. Every time I try to say something, it comes out wrong, or I use words that they can't understand and they get annoyed with me…"

"Hmm. That is a problem…" Waltz pondered while stroking his beard in a comical manner. "… I think I have a solution, however. Meet me at the park again next weekend. I think I know someone that can help bridge the gap for you."

Hanabi smiled as she bowed to Waltz. "Thank you so much!" She looked at Crypt draped over Waltz' shoulder and then at Shadow. "Are these your family members? The ones that you say make you question your sanity and set you on fire?"

"Ooookaaaay. That's enough talking for one day…" Scabbard interrupted as he walked between the pair and started to nudge Hanabi down a hallway. "Hanabi-san, our clans have a very important meeting tonight, so unfortunately, we can't waste much time talking over things we would prefer to talk about. We'll let you be with gramps later this week, but not right now, all right?"

Hanabi pouted as much as her Hyūga demeanor allowed her to as she looked apprehensively at Waltz, who smiled sadly and nodded in agreement with Scabbard. "Fine. I guess I will see you later tonight, then."

"… I was wondering why she was becoming more cheerful lately…" Hiashi mused to himself as his youngest daughter walked away.

"I'm wondering what flavor she is." Crypt mused, apparently conscious again. "I'm guessing she tastes like coconut…"

BAM! Waltz sucker punched Crypt in the face so quickly that people watching could only assume that it was an instinctual reflex for the man.

It was.

With Crypt incapacitated, again, the family proceeded to the private dining hall, where the Hyūga elders and several Branch guards waited for their arrival. Though they were all motionless, it didn't take Scabbard long to tell that the guards were nervous as hell for some 'odd' reason and that various elders were showing different signs of anticipation. "Neji, Hinata." Hiashi started, gaining the two's attention. "I am afraid this is an important clan meeting, so you will have to dine elsewhere tonight."

"I understand, father." Hinata replied respectfully while bowing, giving the Ōgakari clan a quick glance before leaving.

"Understood, Hiashi-sama." Neji replied, mimicking his cousin. The pair walked out of the room silently before the doors closed.

"Ghost-san… I hope that your clan has proven to be fruitful with your research…" Asked one of the Elders that had gone behind Hiashi's back and asked Ghost for the second seal design. Hiashi made a mental check on the elder's name as to whether he was a traitor or not.

Ghost smiled. "Of course, Hyūga-sama. We take pride in our work and are more than happy to show you the fruits of our labor…" He reached for his coat, making sure that all eyes were on him before taking his coat off and sitting at the table. "… after dinner, of course. I'm starving, and doing business deals on an empty stomach absolutely sucks."

"Here, here." Shadow chanted as she sat herself next to Ghost.

"Agreed." Scabbard mused as he sat on the other side of Ghost.

"I've made that mistake before, unfortunately." Grumbled Waltz as he placed himself on the other side of Scabbard and Crypt on his other side within arm's reach.

Hiashi's eyebrows twitched as he attempted to remain in character. "So does that mean you are done with the prototype of the seal, or are you done with the entire thing?"

"We're done with the entire thing, now can someone PLEASE bring in some food?" Ghost answered irritably. "I've been sparring against the midget the entire day and I am STARVING!"

"Well, that's what happens when your fighting style requires you to run around like a supersonic chicken with its head cut off…" Shadow grumbled.

"Chicken?" Crypt moaned in a dazed tone, only for Waltz to almost instantly smash his head through the tatami mats on the ground with eyes wide open in fear. Crypt didn't move after that.

Waltz looked up to see the Hyūga elders looking at him in shock. "What? We'll fix the floor right before we leave."

"Trust us, he just took the safest course of action available to us at the time." Scabbard said with a wavering voice. "You do not want to know what the possible outcome would have been if we left him alone…."

"Waltz just saved your LIVES…" Whispered Shadow in a scared tone.

Hiashi rubbed his forehead as he tried to push back the impending migraine. "Ghost-san, I thought I asked you to try and keep the… instability of your clan to a minimum when we agreed for your entire clan to be here for the transaction…"

"You did. We weren't joking when we said that Waltz took the best course of action with Crypt just now. Unfortunately, you most likely wouldn't believe us if we told you what could have happened, and you probably would never want to talk to us again if we let it happen." Ghost shrugged, getting a multitude of looks from the Hyūga in the room and nods from his family. "Besides, with Crypt knocked out now, the odds of us having a decent and civilized conversation have increased exponentially…"

"7654.38%, to be exact." Stated Scabbard.

"That too." Added in Ghost.

The entire dinner proceeded pretty much in the same manner. The food was served and aside from a few snide remarks from both parties, both amusing and insulting, the conversation was actually quite informative with both sides talking about business, trading, materials, weapons, various lands, the latest rumors, and how much they all disapproved of Jiraiya. The new clan definitely earned some points on that last subject. The only main oddity that occurred during the meal was that even though Crypt seemingly never removed his head from the floor, his food disappeared at some point without anyone noticing. When asked, the Ōgakari clan simply responded that it was best just to leave those questions alone when talking about Crypt, for everyone's sake.

After the dishes were cleaned however, many people in the room started to grow nervous as the time for the seal's unveiling drew near.

"Pardon me, but I require use of the restroom." Scabbard said politely as he stood up and made his way to the door.

"Same here." Groaned Shadow as she mimicked her brother. "I think I drank too much before coming."

Hiashi nodded. "Of course. Please, let one of the guards guide you to the nearest bathroom." Hiashi nodded to one of his guards, who nodded in response and walked with the pair outside of the room. If anyone had paid any attention, they would have noticed that said guard was the same one that Crypt was chewing on earlier that night.

After a few minutes of waiting, Ghost groaned out in irritation as he reached for his coat and stuck his hands in one of the pockets. "Damn it. I'm bored as hell and my ass is falling asleep. Those two could be shifting their bowels all night for all we know. Let's just start the damn deal now and get this over with. It's not like we don't know what the price for this thing is, anyways…"

Hiashi nodded. "Before you give us the seal, can you please tell us what it does specifically?"

Waltz shrugged. "It erases your bloodline if you die, like the Caged Bird Seal. It also will erase the bloodline if the seal is tampered with in any way, if the bearer of the bloodline has their eyes removed, or if they are placed into a coma and don't wake up for a period longer than 6 months. If another seal is added to the bearer that causes him or her extreme pain, or if it also tampers with the person's bloodline, said bloodline goes away. Also, if a child is produced from the bearer's genetic material against his or her consent, the child will not have the bloodline. This means, of course, that blood taken from the bearer against his or her consent will contain no trace of your abilities, but this also means that donated blood, or blood stored in a hospital will contain the information, so you might want to keep an eye on that. Other than that, the only thing it does is slowly change your DNA so that your bloodline naturally disappears when you die."

The Hyūga elders were gaping at Waltz. They had been expecting an amazing seal, but this was more than they could ever hope for!

Well, almost all of them could hope for.

"Oh… sorry guys." Ghost chuckled as he turned to certain elders. "I completely forgot to turn in your other seal request. I guess that means we won't be getting paid double, then."

The faces on the Hyūga elders split into two categories at that point. One half was completely enraged/ shocked, and the other was confused.

"Other seal request?" Hiashi asked in a fake curious tone.

Ghost nodded. "Yeah, they asked me to make a seal that did all ours could do, but could incorporate the Caged Bird Seal as well." He pointed out to several elders, all known for their support of keeping the two houses separate. "It was those guys… but I'm pretty sure that there were more of them… anyways…" He took out a scroll, completely ignoring his audience. "Here's the seal. Thank you for paying for it several (a dozen) months ago, Hiashi-san…" He mentally smirked as he took note of the further range of expressions the once stoic Hyūga council was showing. "… and I hope we can do business again sometime soon."

It happened in a moment. Just as Ghost was about to get up to give Hiashi the scroll, one of the elders had made a gesture with his hands, instantly being responded to by most of the guards in the room. Said guards knocked out the unaware ones and instantly took a good majority of the innocent elders hostage with their hands pressed against their bodies. For the elders that were left, they were taken hostage by the corrupted elders next to them, much to their surprise. Ghost and Waltz, however, looked like they could care less. "What is the meaning of this?!" Roared Hiashi as he was held down by one of the leading corrupt elders.

"Did you really think we would not prepare for something like this?" Announced the elder holding Hiashi down. "We knew that you Ōgakari were wild to begin with, but to be dumb enough to actually try to insult us in our own home while more than half of your family is gone or incapacitated is astounding. Did you really think you would get away with such an insult unscathed?!"

"I'm going to go on a limb here and say yes." Ghost replied in a bored tone, causing the opposing party to twitch irritably.

"Regardless…" Spat out the leader. "… we are in control of the situation now. I have already signaled to my men outside the room to take down your remaining family members, take the Branch house hostage, and spread word that there's a new clan head in control now!"

"You don't say…" Waltz sighed as he picked his ears with his pinkie before turning to the Branch house members holding the elders hostage. "Let me guess, he's threatening to use the seal on your kids and spouses if you refuse to help him." He sighed as more than half of them looked down in regret as their answer. "Typical."

"You dishonorable fool!" Shouted Hiashi's mother to the traitor. "We have a chance to make our clan even more powerful and eliminate the strife that has slowly killed our clan for years, and you want to make it even worse?!"

"It was their fate to serve us!" He spat out to the elderly woman. "Do not fool yourself from thinking otherwise, you senile old bat! You have grown soft with age, both in mind and body! Only those born in the Main house can rise to be leaders!"

"Are you done yet? I'm starting to want to go to the bathroom now too." Ghost moaned childishly.

One of the betraying elders that wasn't taking anyone hostage at the moment frowned as he stepped forward and activated his dōjutsu. "We were going to let you go freely after you gave us the scroll…" He growled before he crouched in Jūken stance that signified that he was going to use a large technique. "… but you have disgraced us ever since you arrived into this village! I doubt many would actually miss you… you are in the range of my divination…" Ghost paid no attention to the man as he reached for his glass and started to drink from it. "You will learn respect before you go to the afterlife! 8 Trigrams!" The man dashed straight to Ghost, his allies all smirking confidently as his hands struck forward. "64 pal…!"

The man froze just inches away from Ghost, much to the surprise and confusion of almost everyone watching. Ghost sighed as he picked himself up and walked around the frozen man in a bored and slow pace. "You know… for people who pride themselves on seeing 'everything'… you guys are pretty blind." He put his hands on his hips. "Let me guess, because Waltz explained what the seal does, you assumed that HE was the one that made it, right?" Ghost smirked as the more intelligent Hyūga in the room quickly understood what Ghost was implying and glanced at Crypt's body, with his head still stuck in the floor.

"I… Impossible…" Whispered out one of the grounded elders. "HE's the seal master?"

As more and more elders activated their dōjutsu, they gaped in surprise at what they saw. The entire ground beneath the floor of the room was completely covered by a massive and powerful looking seal made from Crypt's blood, which was constantly leaking from the man's head. Even the elders that were considered seal masters had to admit that what Crypt was doing was WAY beyond their skill level. Not only that, but if they knew where to look, mostly on a person's butt or on the soles of their feet, there were seals on every Hyūga in the room. It didn't take long for the people in there to realize that the traitors could not move their bodies at all, let alone barely breathe or move their eyes.

"Crypt, can you please get rid of the Caged Bird Seals on the Branch house member's heads now?" Ghost asked as he took out a sharpie and started to doodle on the elder that nearly attacked him. "I don't think I have enough ink to draw on all their faces."

"You… you knew this would happen?" Hiashi's mother asked incredulously as she moved away from her frozen captor while eyeing the blood that was traveling up through the mats on the ground and up the bodies of the Branch house members.

"Pissed off elders, secret deals, inner family conflicts, huge egos, major proverbial slaps to the face..." Ghost checked off with his fingers as he moved to the next frozen elder. "Yeah, it was bound to happen. Oh, and you Branch guys don't need to worry about your families. Crypt set up a mute barrier around the room, so none of those signals got through."

"But… your siblings…" Replied one of the branch house members as Crypt's blood traveled up his body.

Waltz waved his hands aridly. "They're busy taking off the seals of the Branch house members and giving them the new seals as we speak."

One of the freed elders frowned. "That could pose a problem. Should the other Main house members find out about it before the seals are removed, there would be blood spilled everywhere…"

"… This is why we have had Hinata and Neji doing our bidding for a while. Neji's been organizing the Branch house members so that they aren't all over the place when the clock hit zero so Scab and Shadow don't have to run everywhere to make sure that everyone is re-sealed. Hinata is in another meeting room holding the Main house guys in under the tale that Hiashi wants a mandatory full Main house clan meeting right after it's done, so the entire Main house has been waiting in that room for a good, what, 2 hours now waiting for Hiashi and the elders to come?" Waltz asked.

"Eh. That sounds about right. Besides, the freed Branch house members are being put to work as stalling material in case the Main house members get suspicious." Ghost replied as he picked up the frozen elders and started to put them in suggestive positions on one side of the room while they had graffiti drawn on their faces. "So Hiashi, what do you think? We lump them all together and tie them up so they can get judged? I bet the Branch house has loads of complaints they can now file against the bastards. This really was a good way to clean out your clan…"

"Indeed." Hiashi sighed as he picked himself up. "I just wish you stopped them before they shifted half of my muscles out of place."

"You're no fun." Grumbled Ghost as he started to write profanities on another elder's face. "Oi Crypt, get your head out of the ground and take a bow for your audience."

"Aww." Crypt moaned from the floor as he kicked his legs in protest. "Do I have to? There's so much dust down here! It's sooo cool! I think I even saw a goat a few minutes ago!"

Ghost sighed. "If you want to thank him, just get him a secret book of seals or a board game." He clapped his hands together as he finished setting up the remaining frozen elders like the Village People, complete with costumes and poses. "Well, now that we're done here, you guys wanna see how the Branch house guys are doing? Also, can someone show me where the nearest bathroom is? I wasn't kidding when I said I have to go."

o. o. o.

A/N:

Longest. Chapter. Evar!

Ugh. I was expecting to get this done earlier, but more stuff kept on coming up.

… quick question. Is there some sort of rule that says that if your story gets over 500 reviews, your intake drastically increases? Because that is what is happening so far… and I love it.

My friend wrote a program that lets you spy on conversations in Omegle. It's basically a website that allows you to talk to strangers… mostly it's just another way for internet stalkers to find their next victim and for people to try and have internet sex. That being said, some of these conversations were fucking hilarious, and some of the people on it were so stupid that even Crypt would pity them at times. Ah. Good times.

As for the next few chapters, yeah, don't be surprised if I start doing one every two weeks instead. Freaking teachers speaking English as a fifth language…

Anyways, sorry for the wait, I'll have more training up soon. Worship the Log. Review. And for god sakes, please put some pants on already!