Chapter 44: … not as epic fighting as last chapter, but still pretty damn good… this is the end of it, I swear. Also, ¾ of this chapter was written as I was dancing.

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 OCs and new jutsu in the story.

o. o. o.

Fū whistled to herself in an amused tone as she watched the fire blaze intensely from the audience. She had been working with a pair of Konoha special jōnin on taking down the Oto shinobi inside of the arena. One of them chewed on a senbon and wore his bandanna on his head backwards, which in her opinion made him look like a complete girl. The other wore his bandanna normally and was pretty good at kenjutsu. "Damn. For an old fart, he's pretty damn good."

"Of course he is!" Hayate replied defiantly. "He's our Hokage. He's world renowned as the God of Shinobi! Being old won't make him any less dangerous."

"Oi Hayate, calm down a bit." Genma chuckled. "It's only natural for her to be a bit skeptical. I mean, even you have to admit that Hokage-sama is getting up there in years now." He turned to Fū. "Sorry about that. Hayate's been… more energetic and enthusiastic about things since he was healed of his lung disease a month ago. Before that, he couldn't finish a sentence without coughing…"

"I heard that, Genma." Hayate growled as he looked around. "The fighting is lessening a bit. I'm guessing the Oto shinobi lost their will to fight after what just happened."

Fū chuckled. "You're going to have to be more specific. Was it when that crazy ass clan started fighting those monsters, or was it when that dragon fell from the sky? Maybe it was when that mystery bastard showed up and destroyed the barrier with that ridiculous technique of his… or are you talking about right now, when that both giant snake… thing got skinned alive in front of everyone?"

Genma and Hayate looked at each other before facing Fū again and shrugging. "Eh. Odds are it's a bit of everything. You're bound to see a bunch of things during war battles… but this one is definitely among obscure I've ever heard of… though I do think that Jiraiya-sama has a few that could possibly top this." Genma sighed.

"Hey… look…" The cured swordsman said as he pointed to where the Hokage was fighting moments before. The other two turned to see the crystal blue barrier on top of the building shifting and melting on itself before shooting up in the air and seamlessly transforming into a massive torrent of water. The torrent spun rapidly in the sky before arcing downwards again and disappearing out of view right next to the still raging fire. Seconds later, someone stepped forward with a massive staff in hand. Shinobi could easily see it was the Third, but the staff made it perfectly clear.

"Shinobi of Oto! Lay down your arms!" The old man roared out with authority. "Orochimaru is dead! Your leader is slain, and your cause is lost! Surrender now or forfeit your lives!"

Cries of victory and defeat echoed everywhere as the fighting quickly turned in favor of the defending village. In less than an hour the Oto forces had gone from offensive to defensive. In the same time frame, more than 1/3 of the remaining forces had been killed or captured throughout the village due to being caught off guard by the overwhelming numbers or Suna's double back stabbing. Surprisingly enough, many of the Oto shinobi laid down their arms and started to weep for joy as well… though they were still in the minority compared to many of their allies.

Before they knew it, the Ōgakari's dragon was flying above the stands and giving off a victory roar with the rest of the shinobi there. The giant horned snake boss Manda moments later grumbled something with disdain before disappearing in a cloud of smoke. The gas cleared to see the arena empty and the red barrier surrounding it gone as well.

"You guys sure have one hell of a village…" Fū chuckled as she shifted the giant red Scroll on her back to a more comfortable position. "Too bad I belong to Taki. Maybe I can ask that old geezer of yours if I can be a diplomat or something…"

Genma shrugged. "Who knows? I've heard that relations between us and Taki have been a bit strained lately. Maybe with how things ended up today you can convince the Hokage to make an opening for you. You're pretty good at fighting and you get along with us pretty well. What do you think, Hayate?"

"Please stop." Fū mock blushed. "A girl can only take so much flattery…"

The swordsman snorted. "I already have a girlfriend, thank you very much, and she's an ANBU to boot. There's no way in hell you'll catch me cheating on her." He sighed as he looked at Fū. Despite being cured, he still had the deep bags underneath his eyes. "… but otherwise… I don't see much issue with you being a diplomat. I was originally going to be the proctor for the third exam, so I can put in a good word in for you if you need me to…"

"Whoah!" Fū yelped as she and the other two managed to dodge some flying kunai thrown by some very frantic Oto shinobi. "Looks like some of these guys don't know when to give up! We'll talk later! First, let's kill the rest of these dumbasses off…"

o. o. o.

With the Kage:

Hashirama sighed as he looked at Konoha for the first time in decades while the fire near him still burned brightly. "You know, the village looks pretty good despite it being under attack… though I never thought I would have laid eyes on it again after dying."

"Indeed." Tobirama agreed as he stepped next to his brother. "It's relieving to see the village doing so well so long after we have passed on…"

"You have no idea how much of a pain it was to do so at times…" Sarutobi growled with dry humor as he stepped to the First's other side. "I've been Hokage longer than both of you two combined. If things don't end up well, this could start the Fourth Great Shinobi War…"

Hashirama chuckled. "So, you've lived through three wars already, Saru? Not bad. I knew you would end up being a great shinobi one day…" His face evened out moments later. "Now onto more important matters. Is the grand master plan still in motion?"

The Third nodded in a zombie like motion. "Yes, my master. The Log's claim on the minds of our people is nearly absolute. Within several generations, we will be in position and ready to move onto stage three of our plan to claim the world in the name of the Log."

"All hail that who sacrifices itself on our behalf for all time. The selfless deity of the forest. All hail the Log." The three chanted in a brainwashed fashion.

"You three are very fortunate that I am well practiced in forgetting concerning moments like these." Waltz sweatdropped as he walked over to the three with an unconscious Kin in one arm and his walking staff in the other.

"What are you talking about, Waltz-san?" Sarutobi asked curiously, as if he had no idea what just happened.

"Very… very well practiced…" Waltz sighed as he dropped his head and cried anime tears.

"Waltz… correct? I want to thank you for breaking us out of the control of that deranged man and saving the lives of the children that we were possessing." Tobirama said gratefully.

"I am curious…" Hashirama asked inquisitively. "When you fought us, you managed to trap us with the plants that I created and took control away from me. How did you do that?"

Sarutobi's eyes widened. "You can control plants as well as water?"

The old man chuckled gently and raised his staff. "You truly didn't think that this staff here was only for helping me walk long distances and make me look older, did you, Hiruzen? Not after you spent so much time with my rather unique family." The Third stared at the man in shock as the leaves growing out of the stick momentarily glowed florescent green. "This staff is actually a piece of an extraordinarily powerful spirit tree; one that you could say governs the lives and growth patterns of several worlds' worth of plants. It was given to me by a council of other plant deities that believed that I was patient, wise, and stern enough, although my natural affinities to life and water also somewhat helped, to provide occasional valuable insight on human interactions… though I do wish they'd gave me a better title than Elder Pale Bark… anyways, long story short, this staff enables me to control plants much like your Wood Release does. Though I am unable to produce my own plants, I am able to influence their growth and their movements with absolute authority… though there are a few exceptions to that rule…"

"I see… so that explains why you told brother to generate many plants to separate our fights when you pinned us down before you freed us…" Tobirama mused, remembering at the beginning of the fight when the old man had pinned both men down by the necks and whispered in their ears. "… and you had yourself and me generate that large amount of water to make that barrier that trapped Orochimaru…"

The old man nodded. "Indeed. I did not know if you two would comply, but the moment we separated and you immediately made the seal for the Suiryūdan technique, I knew that I had gotten through. Otherwise, I would have had to draw out the fights until enough plants and water was generated to control them and not draw attention to myself."

The first stepped up. "Once again, I thank you very much for freeing us from the man's technique… but without a body to inhabit, I must wonder how long it will be until the jutsu ends…"

Waltz sighed. "That… I don't know. I know for a fact that you should last at least another half a day with the amount of life chakra I have given both of you, less if you decide to continue fighting the remaining forces… and constantly restoring your reserves is too much of a task for me to accomplish. You two are dead men. Giving or maintaining life to the departed is an extremely taxing art, even for those who are well practiced in it. However… I don't know the duration of the technique that brought you two here in the first place, so I cannot be certain…" He turned to Tobirama.

"At the most, this jutsu was made to last for a day." The Second said bluntly, ashamed of his forbidden creation. "Most shinobi battles don't last that long, and this jutsu was designed to be used as a last resort for obvious reasons…"

"Hokage-sama!" Yelled several ANBU as they landed near the four men. "Are you okay? Do you require medical assistance?"

The Third laughed as the men took notice of his current company. "No… no, I am quite fine. If I required any aid, I am sure that Ōgakari-dono here would have already started treating me by now, seeing as he is currently the village's top medical shinobi… regardless of my condition though, report on the current status on the village."

The men nodded as they bowed down. "Since the beginning of the invasion, we have managed to contain the damage and casualties to a minimum. Two large snake summons breached the eastern side of the village and caused reasonable damage to area, however they were recently defeated: one by Jiraiya-sama of the Sannin, and the other by a combined effort of Anko Mitarashi and Hana Inuzuka. Jiraiya-sama is still unaccounted for, but the kunoichi mentioned are still on the frontline fighting the enemy forces. As for here, the damages were also somehow contained successfully by our forces combined efforts. There were some civilian casualties, seeing as the arena was full, but many of the shinobi here were caught off guard by the fighting in the center of the arena and your battle…" The men were momentarily distracted as they noticed that Manda's body had disappeared. "… erm… regardless, the enemies' morale has taken a massive hit over the course of the invasion, and we have estimated that over a third of their forces are either captured or killed."

The Third Hokage nodded as Enma transformed back into his normal form and walked next to his master. "What of Orochimaru's elite guards? The young ones that were performing the barrier ninjutsu?"

The ANBU didn't look up. "As soon as their technique was destroyed, our men converged as instructed, a full squad per individual. They resisted and demonstrated several unique and obscure techniques, at one point each transforming into monsters. Two of them, a large young man with a mohawk and a young girl with red hair, were quickly apprehended with some… persuasion, however the third one, a young man with silver blue hair and effeminate features, was difficult to apprehend. We were informed of his bloodline limit's ability, and his brother indeed separated from his body soon after we tried to apprehend him, however the squad underestimated the two of them and led to the death of one of the team members. It was then determined that they were too dangerous to capture using nonlethal tactics and we took appropriate measures afterwards… they are still alive, but the damage they sustained is rather extensive…"

"Hmmm." Waltz grumbled in a less than approving manner. "I see. It is unfortunate you had to resort to such measures on ones as young as they… regardless, in detail, what is the damage to the village and our allied forces so far?"

The ANBU looked at the aged man momentarily before turning to his leader and getting a nod of approval. "… well… as far as casualties go… we have had numerous reports, but so far, the cumulative dead for all of our allied forces have yet to enter the triple digits due to Scabbard Ōgakari's and his assistant's navigation of our forces. There are also many injured being transported and healed at the hospital, but so far there has been no need to move any patients out of the building to accommodate more serious cases. In terms of collateral damage, much of the eastern area and some of the buildings surrounding the arena have been destroyed, but it is much lighter than what it could have been. Still, there is much activity here and in the eastern area. I presume that soon word of Orochimaru's death will reach the eastern front and the enemy will start to retreat…"

"Where the forces we have stationed setting up traps and picking off the enemy will weaken them even further." The Third finished knowingly. "Until then, I will do my duty as Hokage and continue to fight with my shinobi. Hashirama, Tobirama, will you two join me?"

The dead men nodded. "Anytime, Saru." Tobirama smirked.

Waltz stepped up with a hand glowing. "If that's the case, allow me to give you two some more chakra so you don't turn to dust on us prematurely." He pressed the hand against them one at a time, forcing a bright but gentle light to enter their bodies. "There. That should last you until around midnight as long as you're careful. If you need me, I'll be in the hospital tending to the wounded."

"Your assistance is much welcomed." The First thanked.

The ANBU stepped up and looked at Kin. "What of the girl, Ōgakari-sama? Should we take her to the other prisoners?"

The man shook his head. "This one has undergone an extremely unique trial and must be dealt with in a delicate manner. Keeping her with the other prisoners would be a poor decision. At least one of you will join me to the hospital and keep guard over this one's room while I take care of the other patients. No one is to enter or talk to her without my or Hokage-sama's permission. Understood?"

"Sir!" The ANBU at once.

Tobirama chuckled. "Well, it's good to see that my ANBU project turned out so nicely."

"It is an honor to meet the legendary First and Second Hokage in person…" Bowed the leading ANBU.

Sarutobi chuckled. "If you wish to join us, Tenzo, you have my permission. It would be insulting for me to forbid you from learning from the man whose powers you have obtained…" He turned to the first and whispered. "He was experimented on by Orochimaru as a child with your genes. He has obtained the Wood style, but he is not as proficient at it as you are…"

The first's eyes widened in surprise as the ANBU bowed deeper. "Th-thank you Hokage-sama!"

Hiruzen turned to the rest of the ANBU in front of him. "Spread the word that Orochimaru has fallen and aid your fellow shinobi! Let Oto know that its cause is lost! Let them know that our will of fire burns brighter than ever!"

"YES HOKAGE-SAMA!" The ANBU chanted as one before everyone on the roof jumped to their destinations…

o. o. o.

Hinata panted as she and the rest of her team met up in the middle of the north-eastern section of the village. "I see everyone is still here… report…"

"Geez, what happened to you two?" Temari asked curiously as she noted the scratches and bruises covering Hinata and her brother. She counted the clones that were with them. "You used up one of your clones…"

"One of the people inside the buildings was an Oto shinobi…" Grumbled Kankurō as he tried to move one of his arms. "The guy was good at traps and we barely managed to escape that building of death thanks to one of the clones blowing itself up and opening a hole on the building. We managed to take him out later with Crow disguised as girly here before she and the last clone ambushed him. Without his traps, he wasn't much of a fight. We got his stuff, but we had to retreat in case more enemies showed up. Other than that fiasco, we managed to rescue and guide about half a dozen people who were lost or injured in the area."

"Let me get that." Hinata said sternly to Kankurō as her hands began to glow green and placed them on his injured arm. "What about you two?"

Lee stood up straight and saluted, much to the irritation of Temari and their clone. "Thanks to our flames of youth and our clone friend here, we managed to navigate and guide many of the civilians in this area without any enemy encounters!"

Temari sighed as she began to elaborate more. "We managed to guide about half of the people in that area to the bunkers safely. They weren't too keen on moving by themselves, since they were scared they might encounter enemy shinobi if they made a wrong turn. Apparently, the blonde sent his clones off in so many directions that he knew what the safest route was and sent the info to this one here… though I am curious as to why so many of the people we came across seemed to not trust you…"

The clone shrugged nonchalantly. "I've pranked pretty much everyone in this village at least twice, so it's really no surprise at this point…"

Kankurō shook his head disbelievingly. "I'll never get this village. You'd think the people would put their personal safety as a higher priority when there's a war going on over their heads."

"By the way, was that you who made that loud ringing a while ago?" Temari asked one of the clones curiously. "Seriously, what was that? I swore I could have felt some of that chakra from all the way over here!"

The clone chuckled lightly as it hopped away. "Sorry! It's a secret! I'd get in trouble if people knew I was related to that technique… so can you guys please not talk about it to others?"

Kankurō smirked as he looked at his elder sibling. "Geez, sis, make up your mind. First you set your eyes on that Nara kid and then you start going for this crazy idiot. What's next, you go mad trying to pick between the two and decide to get a harem like that Ino girl?"

WHAM!

"Now that the clown is silent, we can get back to the matter at hand…" Temari said with a small blush on her face as she put her fan back, ignoring her crying brother and the massive welt she'd left on his head. "Since half of us are wounded, I assume that we will all go to the northeastern district and guide the rest of the civilians?"

Hinata nodded, though it should be noted that there was a small twitch in one of her eyes. "Yes. We should stick together now more than ever in case more enemies come this way. Kankurō and I managed to get most if not all of the people in our area, but there are still plenty left in yours. We will go around using the same strategy as before; the clones and I will search out the civilians and the rest of you will gather them up."

The clones looked up at the same time. "The original just finished what he was supposed to do. He's going to start to make more clones to help out the civilians. Should we tell him to send some to the area you were just in?"

Hinata nodded. "Yes. Because we encountered that jōnin, we had to retreat before we could make a thorough search. We could have missed someone the first time through."

"Got it." Said one of the clones before it dispersed itself.

"Man… how many clones can you actually make?" Kankurō groaned as he rubbed his head and got back on his feet. "I mean, if they just disperse when they get hit just once, how much of an impact on this fight do you think a couple dozen copies of you will make?" The clone, Lee and Hinata looked at each other for several moments before bursting out laughing. "What? What did I say?" The puppet user asked defiantly.

"Heheh. A couple dozen he says…" The clone chuckled with a tear in its eye.

"It's not polite to laugh at others, Naruto-kun…" Hinata berated the clone merrily while trying to hold back a set of giggles.

"Haha! You are most mistaken, my friend!" Lee laughed without hesitation. "Naruto-kun has exceptionally youthful chakra reserves! So much so that on more than one occasion he has produced over 1000 shadow clones at a time and still has had chakra and stamina to spar with my teammates or myself!"

Kankurō and Temari gaped at the clone disbelievingly. "You mean to tell me that this insane runt here is literally a one-man army?" Temari asked in an almost shrill voice.

The clone calmed down somewhat. "Heheh. Well, yes technically… but when almost all of the men involved are literally cannon fodder, the intimidation factor goes down by a bit." He sighed. "Ah, cannon fodder. The number of uses for you is almost as high as your death rate…"

Kankurō blinked. "You know you just called yourself cannon fodder… right?"

The clone shrugged. "Meh. I don't sweat the little things. Having multiple identity crises isn't that big of an issue when there's a war going on."

Temari sweatdropped. "That… makes so much sense… for all the wrong reasons…"

Hinata sighed. "Okay. I think we've fooled around long enough. We still have a job to do. Until we are ordered to otherwise, we will continue to do our mission. Let's go."

"Right." Nodded the rest of the group before they ran off to the undamaged district.

o. o. o.

Ghost chuckled humorlessly as he sat down on the floor of one of the many hallways of the arena. Despite his earlier protests, he was glad that Shadow had forced him to lighten his restraints a bit before fighting. He was honestly exhausted. He used a large portion of his energy to get his call to reach everyone in Konoha, and while he didn't use that much of his stamina during his first round against the 15 assassins Orochimaru sent against him, that mantis man had given him a run for his money… though if truth be told, he did fight against the 6-bladed man up front using only his basic sword skills for a good portion of the time, which was a bit stupid on his part... but then again, that was what his family was known for. He ended up finishing the fight using one of his bell tricks, which was something he embarrassingly enough didn't do in a while, even though it was one of his personal favorite tactics to use.

However, what truly drained the last reserves of the man was the 20 minute rodeo ride from hell on Manda's head. Now, Ghost did in fact enjoy that last stunt. He enjoyed it very, VERY much… what got to him was that he was already fairly exhausted before the stunt even began, his arms were dislocated and roughly reset several times during the ride, and the fact that he had received one of the worst cases of whiplash that he had ever experienced. He cursed himself for forgetting that riding on the heads of giant snake like monsters while they were in massive amounts of pain was one of the fastest ways for anyone to lose their lunch... or get killed… whichever came first.

Still, he had a goal to achieve, and he managed to not spew and keep his face straight long enough to… 'convince' the snake boss to accept his deal. As soon as Manda agreed to the deal, Ghost let him go and the family went their separate ways. Scabbard went to retake Shikamaru's role as village coordinator, Shadow and Crypt went to kill more things in incredibly violent fashions that would be talked about for years to come, and Zuzushi flew off to freak more people out.

As for Ghost… well, he was busy trying to get his stomach under control and catch a well-deserved breather… if it weren't for the small event that was developing in a nearby hallway junction that had caught his attention…

"Oh, you have got to be fucking kidding me…" The man groaned as he quickly processed the status, positions, and identities of the individuals there and figured out what was going on. Knowing that there would be hell to pay if he didn't do something about the situation, the man shakily managed to grab a kunai from the pouch on his waist despite the pain of having his arms dislocated and strained so many times, and placed the handle of the blade in his mouth so the blade was sticking out of the right side of his mouth. "Heheh. I definitely owe Crypt for teaching me the basics of this shit…"

o. o. o.

Down said hallway:

Tsume Inuzuka swore between breaths as she clutched a deep wound in her side and rested against the wall while glaring at the full team of Oto shinobi looking eagerly down at her. On the other side of the room, Kuromaru growled angrily as he attempted to get up despite having two of his legs broken, one of which had a bone jutting out of the skin. The two were moving to another position in the arena when they were ambushed by the enemy, who'd disguised themselves as corpses and covered themselves with their allies' blood to make it seem more believable.

"Well, well. Not bad catch if I do say so myself… the head bitch and her mutt…" Chuckled the leader, who was roughly a head taller than the rest of the men there. "You know, there's a reward for anyone that brings in the head of a clan leader… you think we'll get double if we take the mutt's head, too?"

The men laughed. "Wouldn't hurt to try." One of them answered.

"You know, despite being an old hag, she's still quite a looker…" Brought up another man. "How about we enjoy her a bit before we kill her…"

The last one laughed. "Yeah! And then when we kill her, we can have her dog fuck the corpse!"

"You sick disease-infested monkeys! I will enjoy tearing your throats apart!" Kuromaru raged as he tried to stand up, only to be savagely kicked by one of the other men. The sounds of several ribs breaking could clearly be heard.

"I think we hurt the puppy's feelings…" Mock pouted the man as he took out a kunai. "Here… let me take them away, then…"

"No!" Tsume cried. "Kuromaru!"

Tingle, tingle…

"What the...?" The man who was about to attack asked curiously as he turned to look down a hallway where the sound of a single innocent bell was heard… only to immediately forget the bell as a massive wave of pain registered and he looked down to see that the hand that was holding the kunai had been slashed off. "My arm! The fuck?"

"Shit!" Yelled the leader. "Someone's here! Defensive formation! Get the bitch!"

"Right!" Yelled one of the henchmen as he ran to Tsume.

Tingle, tingle…

The ninja that was reaching out for the woman collapsed next to her and gasped for air for a few seconds before he stopped moving. From where she was, the woman could see that the dead man had a long, clean, and deep gash that stretched diagonally from his left collar bone to the right side of his stomach. Several organs and bones were showing, and an unreal amount of blood was escaping from the wound. Tsume could only gape at what was going on. She had no idea who the hell was helping her or why she couldn't smell him out, but at the moment she couldn't really care less.

"Damn it!" The leader swore as he and the remaining two men stood in a triangle formation with their backs to each other. "Check for a genjutsu! The bastard is probably hiding using some kind of illusion. Flare your chakra and keep your senses open! Don't pay attention to the bell-!"

Tingle, tingle…

The bell rung from directly above the men, completely shattering the pattern it had normally followed before, ringing from afar, and caused all three of the men to panic and look up above them…

Tsume, however, could only widen her eyes in awe as her rescuer blinked in existence as the bell sounded, crouched in between all three men without a sound and his body already poised to attack, well within the striking distance of his victims, who were all looking up to try and find the source of the ringing and thus completely unaware of his presence. The woman swallowed as she noted the level of stealth and speed that Ghost was demonstrating… she doubted she would even know he was in the same area as her if she wasn't looking at him with her own two eyes.

Only the leader noticed that there was a man standing in the center of them in time and jumped away before Ghost spun with the kunai in his mouth. The wind enhanced chakra streaming from it cut through the other two men's necks laughably easily and felled them before they knew what was happening. The assailant's hair spun around his head as he twirled, dancing among the flying blood and dragging at its end a small metal bell.

"Fuck…" The leader growled as he saw the face of the man who took out his team from literally right under his nose, the heads and bodies of the victims making small thuds as they landed on the ground. Immediately his eyes went to the assailant's arms. Both were extremely red near the shoulders, borderline purple, and trembling. The man himself was holding a kunai in his mouth, but was panting deeply and there was a fair amount of sweat coming off of his head. The Oto shinobi paused before chuckling darkly. "Heheheh… I can't believe it… my entire team got taken out by an armless man armed with a single kunai in his mouth who was already halfway dead…" He glared at Ghost with a happy glint in his eye. "You're a piece of work, all right… but now that I can see you, you can't win. Not in that shape… I bet your genjutsu used up the last of your chakra right there, so you tried to take out the rest of us with that last move… so how about this… you leave me and the bitch here…" He twirled some kunai in his hands expertly. "…and maybe I won't gu… urgh!" The dark man froze as he looked down to see a chakra blade sticking out of his chest.

Tingle, tingle…

"It may be a little late, but just to warn you… I'm an assassination specialist, and from my experience, people tend to be less aware of their surroundings when they try to give their ultimatum in an intimidating way… so it would be best to avoid talking when against people such as myself… oh… and by the way… I don't use genjutsu… that was all stealth and speed back there…" Stated a second and unusually calm Ghost from behind the man's back, sticking his kunai deep into the man's spine.

The leader's eyes widened in pain. "Wh… what are you?"

"Your better." He growled before twisting and slicing it out of his heart. "God, I love shadow clones…" He muttered as the first Ghost disappeared in a cloud of smoke and the body of his latest kill fell to the floor.

Tsume's face was unreadable as her rescuer spat out the kunai in his mouth and sat down next to her with a heavy grunt, obviously in response to the shock he was experiencing through his arms. Looking at the appendages, she decided to make herself known again and snorted. Hana had told her before that the man would never answer direct questions easily if he didn't want to, so she would have to play his game to get any decent info out of him. "Huh… considering all the stories Hana has told me about you… you must have done something pretty stupid to do that to your arms. They look like they're about to fall off…"

The man chuckled dryly as he sunk against the wall. "Yeah… riding on top of a pissed off and tortured snake boss summons's head for almost half an hour can do that to a person…" He looked at the woman and then at Kuromaru, both were staring at him in a disbelieving manner. "You two don't look like you had a nice day either… have anything serious that needs to be treated?"

Kuromaru coughed up some blood. "I can't fight any more and my bones need to be reset very soon… but nothing life threatening just yet…"

Tsume grunted. "I have a lot of scratches… and this gash is letting out a lot of blood... it's not life threatening, but without Kuromaru… I'd be dead weight even if I received good aid…"

Ghost grunted in agreement before acting. He hissed in pain as he managed to somehow raise his hand up so that he could turn on the radio before letting it fall limply to the ground again. "Oi ground control, can you hear me? Shikamaru, answer the damn call, you lazy bastard…"

The group waited for several seconds before getting a response. "I hear you… what the hell are you and Tsume-sama doing? I thought you would try to be on the other side of the village from her after what happened earlier…"

The three people in the room sweatdropped. Ghost chuckled nervously as Tsume gave him a dangerous glare. "We… can talk about my personal life's issues later, Shika. You can read our status, right?"

"You mean the fact that if I didn't know you better, I would have sworn both of you tried to kill each other?" The lazy boy yawned, getting more sweat drops from the listeners.

The man paused for a moment, making nervous whines as the woman grinned at him savagely. "Well… yes… but the thing is that Tsume's wolf Kuromaru doesn't have a radio, so his status isn't in the system…"

There was a pause as the group waited for a response. "You're right. Inuzuka hounds don't have radios, so their status isn't recorded. Since you're actually calling me up, I can assume it's pretty bad down there. You want me to call in Hana and Anko, or do you think that a normal nearby medic-nin can patch you guys up well enough? I have to warn you, though, Hana's group is still in the eastern side of the village fighting off the main force, so it might take her a few minutes to get to you."

Ghost looked at Tsume and Kuromaru curiously. "Well… it's your call, guys. I'm not a vet, so I don't know how bad of shape you guys are in right now…"

Tsume made an irritated clicking noise as she turned to see how her partner was doing. The one eared wolf was panting shallowly and his drool with mixed with blood. There was a noticeable protrusion on his left hindleg and chest, and she knew for a fact that his right foreleg was in worse shape. The angered mother let out a deep sigh and rested her head against the wall. "Get Hana over here. My wounds aren't that bad and the idiot here would more than likely jump headfirst into the main battle in the shape he's in if you gave him a nickel, but Kuromaru needs immediate and exact attention or else we might run the risk of permanently crippling him… and Hana is the best shinobi vet in the village…"

"Oh sure, make fun of the guy who saved your ass when his arms are practically falling off…" Grumbled Ghost.

"Got it." Shikamaru replied before another moment of silence claimed the room. "You want me to send you some backup in case any more enemies come your way?"

"Don't worry." The man sighed. "Between our sensor skills, we'll be aware of any enemy's position long before they find us… and Tsume is well aware that I can take care of all of us until then, despite my current state…"

"Getting regrets about riding Manda's head now that you're bearing the scars?" The boy asked in an amused tone.

Ghost smirked. "Hell no."

A snorting sound was made through the radio. "I thought as much. Keep tight guys, I'll have Hana and Anko over there in about 15-20 minutes."

The following silence confirmed that Shikamaru had cut connections from them at the moment to talk to Hana.

"Well… now that we have some time on our hands…" Tsume sighed before turning to the panting man. "… what are your intentions with my daughter?"

Ghost froze momentarily before starting to sway. "Oh no. I seem to have used up too much of my chakra. I am blacking out now…" He stated in a far from believable tone before falling onto his side… causing his body to freeze rigidly as he did so.

Kuromaru sweatdropped. "You landed on your shoulder, didn't you?"

"…FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUU…"

o. o. o.

Konoha Hospital:

Sasuke sat in the waiting area solemnly as he replayed the disaster inside his head over and over again with an arm and a leg in a cast. He was told that he was in no shape mentally or physically to continue acting in the village at the moment and had to stay in the building… but to frank, he would have done so even if they told him the rest of the village was burning down for all he cared.

Looking up with blurry eyes, he could make out people running past him in either direction. Doctors and medical shinobi hurrying to take care of injured shinobi and civilians. Friends and family crying, yelling, and comforting their loved ones as they came in with cuts, bruises, and occasional missing body parts. On more than one occasion, he was snapped out of his brooding by the screams of some random man or woman being rushed to the medical room with their stomach torn open or burns over half of their body…

Sakura… Sakura was quiet when she got to the building, though, almost as if she was sleeping…

The boy quietly looked to his side where a lone ANBU stood guard over him, his head was covered by a black coat so that not a hair was seen, and his mask was an oddity even among the secret shinobi: a black mask with a fox's face drawn in red, with small white cracks coming from the right eye stretching outward across half of the piece of porcelain. He owed his life to this man… and he owed him and the Sanin Jiraiya for getting his teammate to the hospital still alive…

It had happened just after Sakura sped off under her illusion to assassinate the jōnin. Sasuke had canceled out the illusion hiding him and the family they were escorting and was leading them through some of the secondary streets of the village when things went from concerning to utter shitfest.

o. o. o.

Flashback:

Sasuke was guiding the family towards one of the safe points that he'd been told was part of a path that would allow civilians to get to the safe houses without running into any enemy shinobi. He was worried that Sakura may have been in a bit over her head with her plan, but she was in fact the most intelligent out of the team and could take care of herself. Besides, she had managed to cut all three of the men with the weapons that Ino had given them, so they would at least be out cold shortly. Despite the fact that Ino was among the people he feared the most, although she was nowhere near Itachi or Ghost-sensei, he grudgingly admitted that she was likely one of the most knowledgeable people in Konoha when it came to poisons... or at least of the people he knew.

Panting a bit from making so many shadow clones at once, the Uchiha looked around quickly with his Sharingan active. He was by himself now, and he didn't want to get caught off guard, or there was a good chance that none of them would make it. As the group continued down the way, the boy received the memories of the clones he had disguised as the family. He still wasn't used to this ability of shadow clones; sure, he had used them to gain experience faster, but receiving any actual information was still a rather new feeling for him. At that moment, Sasuke was distracted and stumbled over his feet… and things went wrong.

The second an opening was apparent, a cloaked man dashed out from the shadows with impressive speed and attempted to attack Sasuke. The boy's instincts took over and he managed to jump out of the way… but the man continued charging straight towards the family and took the wife hostage with a kunai, much to the shock of the other side. The father and son managed to run away from the assailant. "I must say… using the fire's heat to cover the genjutsu you were all hiding under and using shadow clones as a distraction was a very impressive maneuver, Sasuke-kun…" The man mused in a polite but deadly tone. "It's a shame that you had to sacrifice your teammate in order to make sure that they stayed away. She showed such promise during the exams, too…"

"Mom!" The boy yelled in shock. "Let her go!"

"Don't!" The father ordered as he managed to grab his son in time. "You'll only make things worse! That man's a ninja!"

"But he has mom!" The boy yelled as he struggled against his father.

Sasuke momentarily smirked as he attempted to figure a way out of this mess. He had found, thanks to several teacher's advice, that acting in a confident manner made thinking easier, even if the situation was horribly against you. Stabilize your mentality and weaken your opponents, and you've already won half the battle. "Shows what you know. I know for a fact that two of those jōnin are already dead, and Sakura doesn't even have a scratch on her. I guess Oto shinobi really are all talk…"

Unfortunately Sasuke's taunt didn't have the desired effect as the masked assailant laughed instead. "Hahahaha! Really? Two are already dead? I must admit, even I am surprised by this outcome. Maybe I underestimated your teammates a tad too much… but no matter. I did not come here to kill Konoha shinobi or civilians, as my dead compatriots have indicated." He drew some blood out of the crying woman's neck. "I came here for you, Sasuke-kun. I doubt I have to explain what will happen if you don't come peacefully…"

Sasuke swore to himself as he desperately tried to think of a way out of the situation. It was clear that the man in front of him was stronger than the three shinobi they encountered earlier, if his chakra levels and manner of speech was anything to go by. "You know… for someone so confident in their skills and powers, it seems pretty cowardly of you to take a hostage rather than fight me face to face…" The boy growled, attempting to stall for more time.

"Indeed…" The man sighed aridly. "Though I have little doubt I could best you in a fight even if you were fighting at full capacity, I fear that with your abilities, the fight would draw too much attention. There is a war going on, after all, and your allies are running all over the place. No doubt you were thinking of using one of your fire techniques or an exploding tag to draw attention to yourself and get aid, but that is what this lovely assistant is for. Now if you don't mind, I have a timetable to maintain…" The man said confidently before pausing and looking up. "… hmm… what is that peculiar sound?"

Sasuke strained his ears to pick up anything odd. It didn't take him long to hear the odd bell sound coming from the direction of the arena. Knowing that his opponent wouldn't do anything rash, the boy glanced with his active eyes to see the swirling mist twister on a building near the large purple box. With his eyes, he could tell that there were three individuals in it, and that two of them had the exact same chakra signature. A small grin crept on the boy's face as he realized who was in there. "Heh." He chuckled as he turned back to his confused foe. "I always knew that the dobe was hiding something good from us…" His smirk grew. "I wouldn't put much faith in that messed up jutsu of yours back there… from the amount of chakra I saw, odds are someone's gonna fall within a few seconds…"

The man chuckled. "Is that so? I must admit that the technique being used is indeed powerful, but I doubt that it will break the barrier of the Sound Four… by all means, let us wait and see the results. When it fails, I have little doubt that it will convince you to join us, Sasuke-kun…"

The man stopped talking as they watched the light fly towards the box. They couldn't see what was happening, but they could tell that two big things were hitting each other. Both were caught off guard when the ball expanded and exploded loudly, unleashing a massive wave of chakra that reached even where they were… but Sasuke was the one who recovered first since he knew that whatever technique Naruto had made wouldn't do just one thing. Moments later, the two watched as the purple barrier disappeared to reveal a second one underneath, which Sasuke recognized immediately. "Oh yeah, I'm really convinced that you guys are the right people to go to…" The boy chuckled sarcastically as he read the rigid and clearly displeased man's body posture. Sasuke then decided to rub salt in the man's wounds and reached for his shirt. "You came here because Orochimaru wants me for something, right? I highly doubt he gave me that Cursed Seal for shits and giggles…"

The man tried to relax and take control of the situation again. "… Indeed Sasuke-kun. Lord Orochimaru wishes to give you power in order to kill your brother. If you come with us, we can teach you how to properly use your mark to the fullest. Despite that… unusual technique shown, you will not be able to reach your full potential here… they keep you weak…"

The man was interrupted by Sasuke laughing. Despite the situation, despite how tired his body was, he couldn't help but laugh at how horribly mistaken this man was. "Hahahaha! You? Teach me how to use this seal when your retarded fool of a master couldn't even figure out how to design it and balance it out correctly? The same freak who nearly killed my team and tried to possess me by sticking some of that fucked up soul of his inside my body? That's a laugh!" The Uchiha reached to the neck of his shirt and pulled it down to show the modified version of the Cursed Seal. "You shouldn't talk about teaching others how to use a seal properly when you can't even make a decent one yourself."

The man stared at the seal in shock. "I-Impossible… the seal has been modified? Not even Jiraiya should have been able to figure its design and mechanics so quickly… unless… it wasn't him that did it…!" The man's ramblings were cut short as he noticed that Sasuke was making some seals. "What? He doesn't care about the hostage's life?"

"Fire Style! Grand Fireball Technique!" The boy roared as he blasted the technique at the pair who watched him with wide eyes.

"Mom!" The boy yelled hysterically while his father gazed in the scene in front of him with shock.

The man swore as he let go of the woman and jumped away a second before the fireball impacted. His cloak caught on fire as he escaped, prompting him to take it off. Moments later his mask cracked and fell off, revealing his identity just as he landed. "Hmm…" He mused as he saw the burning body of his hostage fall to the ground. "You are certainly a peculiar one, Sasuke. You claim to want to stay in this village, yet you go against the ideals here and sacrifice the innocent to kill your opponents…"

Poof. The body of the woman disappeared in a cloud of smoke to reveal a burning log. "You know, I'm beginning to see why everyone praises that damn thing so much…" Sasuke smirked as he jumped between the shocked remaining family members and Kabuto. 'So he's the spy I've been warned about… damn, this doesn't look good… I hope that my clone sent word to Sakura of what's happening before it dispelled… I can't tell because I'm not used to sorting out the memories of the clones yet…' "Keep running behind me 'til you reach the academy two blocks away from here. My clone has rescued her, but it ran out of chakra with that last replacement. Once you get there, get help as soon as possible…"

The father and son stared at Sasuke for a few seconds before nodding slowly and running in the opposite direction as fast as they could.

Kabuto glared at Sasuke as the two made their escape. "It seems I have underestimated you once again, Sasuke-kun… I assume that you made a shadow clone while I was momentarily distracted by the blast of that peculiar jutsu?"

Sasuke sighed. "If the dobe is good for anything, it's distracting people."

"I see…" Kabuto mused as he made some seals. "I will have to make a note of that later… for now, I still have to capture you… Orochimaru-sama will be most intrigued by this new form of the curse seal. I know I am…"

Sasuke chuckled as he wiped the sweat from his forehead and took out his sword. "Oh? You're actually going to fight for once? Aren't you going to chicken out like you normally do? I hear that's what you're good at…"

Kabuto sighed as his hands started to glow. "You know, I am getting quite tired of being labeled as a weakling when I have yet to show any of my power. I feel as if I am being underestimated… well, I guess that is a good thing given my profession. Still, I'm afraid you will have to realize that I am far from weak…" The man charged at Sasuke with the sun flashing off of his glasses and his hands still glowing.

"Tch…" 'I don't like the look of those hands…' The boy frowned as he channeled his fire chakra into his sword and attempted to counter his opponent's oncoming assault. He assumed that he would be able to stall for a little while with his fully developed Sharingan active, however his opponent proved otherwise as he threw down a smoke bomb to hide his movements. With his advanced skill in the medical arts and experience in combat, it didn't take long for Kabuto to shut down the exhausted Uchiha and render him unable to move via a broken left leg and right arm. Any damage that Sasuke had managed to deal his opponent had healed up by the end of the fight.

"My my…" Kabuto sighed casually. "I for one am a bit disappointed, Sasuke-kun. I expected more than this out of Itachi's little brother…" He smirked as he saw a twitch on Sasuke's face. "Although I guess that's to be expected. After all, it is highly doubtful that anyone, let alone you, would have the potential to beat him of all people. I guess he just let you live on a whim… killing you must have really been an insult to his skills, considering how pathetic you are…"

Sasuke's anger rose with every word Kabuto spoke. While he had in fact been getting better, Itachi was still a major sore point for him under any circumstances. He only allowed a handful of people to speak about the subject while in his presence, and even that was only when they had something productive to say about the topic. This… wasn't productive. "Shut up…you have no idea what you're talking about…" The boy growled, trying to keep his temper in check.

Kabuto raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Oh? Is that so? Actually, I like to think I'm quite well informed about these kinds of things, being a spy and all. I'm fairly certain that I even know who your brother is working for as we speak… although that is rather easy, since until recently, Orochimaru-sama was in the same group…"

Sasuke's eyes narrowed before letting a small smile escape his lips. He was still angry, but he could vent some of his rage out in the form of mocking his opponent. "Akatsuki… right? Is there anything interesting you're going to tell me, or are you just going to talk until I fall asleep?"

Kabuto's eyes widened considerably and he stopped in his tracks. "Well now… this is certainly an interesting turn of events…" He mused as he shifted his glasses to hide his eyes. "It seems as if there is now another reason to take you, Sasuke-kun. I am most intrigued as to how you know of that particular organization… not many people know of their existence, let alone the identities of some of their members…"

"I'm afraid I will have to end our conversation here, Sasuke-kun… you have given me much to think about…" The man's somewhat aloof demeanor hardened as he suddenly dashed towards the downed Uchiha, only to stop short just before several kunai and shuriken would have impaled him. Both men turned to see Sakura standing on top of a nearby building with more weapons already in hand. "Hmm… now isn't that peculiar…" The spy mused. "I would have sworn that just one of those men I sent would have been more than enough to overpower that girl…"

'Shit, she didn't get the message!' Sasuke mentally swore as he tried to put as much room between Kabuto and himself as his body would allow. "Sakura! Get help! He's too strong to take on by yourself!"

"The hell I'm going to leave you alone with a traitor and let you get kidnapped! You are not Naruto! You can't heal from broken bones in a few hours!" Sakura yelled as she let loose some more kunai before jumping off of the building and making some seals. "Demonic Illusion! False surroundings!"

Kabuto smirked as the environment changed around him. "While I must commend your efforts, I'm afraid I am running out of time, so forgive me if I make this quick…" The man canceled out the illusion without even making the needed seal… to see Sakura right in front of him with an arm raised for a punch. "Naive!" He growled as his still glowing hands reached out to deal internal damage to the girl's head… only to miss as she dodged underneath and punched him in the stomach with unexpected strength. The man flew back at immense speeds and crashed into a nearby building, much to the shock of both of the males there.

"S-Sakura? How… did you do that?" Sasuke asked in awe.

The girl turned around and smiled at her teammate. "Well… I had my reaction enhancing illusion up the entire time, which helped me dodge the attack… but as for that punch… let's just say that you and Naruto weren't the only ones holding back recently…!" The girl froze as blood started to dribble down her mouth before she collapsed on the ground, gasping for air.

"Sakura? Sakura!" Sasuke yelled as he crawled to his teammate, more scared than he'd been since Itachi killed his family in front of him. Here he was, watching another precious person in front of him, dying, and he was powerless to do anything about it. "No… not again… anything but this…" He whispered in a feeble voice.

"I must admit… I did not expect someone like you to have the strength of a taijutsu expert…" Coughed Kabuto as he pulled himself out of the rubble. "If I was not in possession of the advanced medical techniques I have… I most certainly would at least be in a comatose state, with several ruptured organs… Regardless, you overestimated yourself, Sakura-san, and left your back open when you attacked." He jumped from the wreckage, covered in healing scratches and one of his glasses' lenses broken, but otherwise in perfect health, and landed right in front of the pair. "It's a shame, really. You have shown such promise, only to fail and die here. It's such a waste… but such is the life we live in this world of ours…" His glowing hand raised to finish the girl off. "I don't expect you to forgive me… however, should you live through this, I hope you will come to understand that I am not entirely at fault given our situation…!" The spy's hand was stopped and restricted by a long pink tongue.

"Well, now. What do we have here? A bunch of kids duking it out and no parental supervision? What's this village coming to?" Chuckled a large man on top of a larger toad, whose tongue was wrapped around Kabuto's arm.

"Jiraiya-sama…" Kabuto mused without a waver in his voice. "I am surprised. I would have assumed that someone of your prowess would be with the main forces…"

The white haired man smirked. "Well, it seemed as if the boys had everything covered over there, when oddly enough I saw a Konoha ANBU traveling into the village alongside some Oto shinobi. It seems as if my curiosity bore some fruit. Here we are, looking at a spy, a downed Uchiha, and if I'm not mistaken, a girl that might as well be the second coming of my old teammate Tsunade…" Kabuto's glasses flashed at that moment, no doubt connecting the dots between what the man had just said and the punch the girl had given him. "Regardless, you're coming with me to have a nice long chat with Ibiki and Anko." His demeanor darkened. "No doubt those two will be… more than eager to test out the full extent of that healing skill of yours…"

'Jiraiya-sama? Of the Sannin? What's he doing here? Wait… that's not important now…' "Jiraiya!" The Uchiha shouted near franticly. "Sakura's hurt! Badly! She needs to get to the hospital now!"

Kabuto smirked, clearly ignoring the boy's shouts as his body relaxed and his hand stopped glowing. "I must say, I never expected to be captured by the Toad Sannin Jiraiya. I am quite surprised and honored… I hear that your books have been doing quite well recently…"

Jiraiya smirked as he eyed the situation carefully. "Don't underestimate the eyes of a super pervert, kid. They're good for more than accurately identifying a woman's three measurements at a glance, you know…"

"Sasuke…kun…" Sakura managed to whisper out as she looked at her crush with glazed eyes. "Was I… able to help you? I… wasn't a… burden… was I…?" The girl smiled feebly before her eyes closed, giving her a peaceful look.

"Sakura! Hold on! Stay with me! Don't you dare leave me like this! Sakura!" Sasuke yelled hysterically as he shook his teammate and tried to keep her conscious to no avail. While Jiraiya was distracted by the girl, Kabuto disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

"Damn…" The sage swore as the toad he was on jumped down to the girl and retracted its tongue. He could have gone after Kabuto and taken him in, but odds are that Sasuke and Sakura would have been captured or killed in the process, and he wouldn't let that happen no matter what. Crouching down, he inspected the two genin and attempted to determine what their damage was. He could tell from the swelling that Sasuke had an arm and a leg broken, but that was about it. Sakura on the other hand was much worse. Her heartbeat and breathing were both erratic, and there was a steady flow of blood coming from her mouth. "Shit… we need to get her some aid, pronto…"

"Allow me to assist you, Jiraiya-sama…" Announced an ANBU with a black mask as he jumped down from some nearby buildings. "I am trained in some medical techniques. Though I am nowhere near as qualified as a medic-nin, I should be able to stabilize her enough for you to get her to the hospital in time…" He paused as the Sanin stood in front of him threateningly.

"Step away from the kids, imposter. Your mask isn't the standard issue ANBU white, which means either two things, 1. The old man has been slipping and forgot to tell me of a new agent, or 2, someone has been extremely clumsy and forgot to tell you what an ANBU looks like…"

The man's demeanor stiffened. "Or three, I am a special agent that is assigned for a special task that neither you nor Hokage-sama were aware of for security reasons. Now please step aside, or else you will be failing two more children in addition to the one you abandoned, Jiraiya-sama."

The Sannin froze in shock as the man walked briskly past him making some seals for the Mystic Palm Technique. "H-How… do you know that…?"

The agent didn't reply as he examined and tended to the downed Haruno. "One of her lungs has been cut deeply, and many tendons in her back and along her spine have been cut. She is treatable, but this is something that is beyond my level of skill. The best I can do is reduce some of the internal bleeding so she won't die before you get her to the hospital. If you don't mind, I suggest summoning a faster toad to ensure she gets there in time…"

Jiraiya blinked for a few moments before snapping out of his delirium. "Huh? Oh… right…" He said in a less than enthusiastic tone as he made the needed seals. "Summoning!" He shouted before a cloud of smoke appeared and revealed a medium sized blue toad. "Gamaspeed-san, I need you to get this girl to the hospital as fast as you can!" The sage said as he jumped on the toad's head.

"All done." The ANBU said as he approached Sasuke and picked him up on his back, much to the boy's displeasure, as the toad's tongue stuck out and picked the girl up carefully. "I'll meet you guys there." He said as he ran in the direction of the building.

Moments later, Sasuke saw the large toad fly over his head at an impressive speed in order to save his teammate…

o. o. o.

That had been over an hour ago, and the Uchiha still did not know what had happened to his teammate. Due to the situation in the village, Sasuke was merely waiting in a side room with some other patients and staring into space. "I should have been stronger…" He whispered out to himself for what seemed like the hundredth time.

"Really? From what I saw, you were doing quite well for someone your age." The ANBU replied, surprising the boy, since it was the first time the man spoke since he'd gotten to the hospital.

The boy jumped before calming down. Thanks to the painkillers he'd had, the jolt didn't hurt him as much. "What would you know?" The boy glared. "It wasn't as if you were following me the entire time…"

"Actually…" Spoke up a new voice, distracting the two as they turned to see Waltz walk in with a girl in his arms. "… if that mask serves as any indication for me… he was…" The old man turned to the ANBU and looked at him carefully. "… am I correct in guessing you were assigned by my grandson to keep an eye on young Sasuke here?"

The ANBU nodded. "Yes, Ōgakari-sama. As of 0500 this morning, I was tasked by Ghost-san to maintain an eye over Uchiha-san during today's events in case of his potential abduction…"

"Wait…" Sasuke growled. "You mean to tell me that you could have jumped in at any time and saved me, but decided to stay back while I wasted my chakra all over the god damn village?"

The ANBU shook his head. "No. Unfortunately, I was supposed to maintain by secrecy unless absolutely necessary. My existence is something that would bring up issues if known, and my intervention was only required as a last resort and a precaution. We have had reason to believe that you would be a target of today's events, but we did not have most substantive proof than circumstantial evidence. For this reason, I was tasked with protecting you only, and for that I apologize." His posture relaxed a small amount. "On a side note, I must admit that you and your teammate performed quite admirably despite my lack of intervention. I will be sure to inform Hokage-sama of you and your partner's actions in my report and…" The man was cut short as a sword was positioned in front of his chest, held by a very irritated Uchiha.

"I don't give a damn about your fucking reports, you tool…" He growled with his Sharingan active. "I just had one of the few people I actually made a bond with nearly die for me, in front of me. If she does not make it, I swear I will gut you in front of the entire village, and burn you alive for everyone to see…"

Despite the tense situation, Waltz chuckled gently and pushed the blade down with his walking stick. "Now, now. There is no need for more blood in a hospital, Sasuke. I actually just came across the doctors that were in charge of young Sakura's surgery, and they said that she is out of danger. She will still need a considerable amount of time to recover…" His smile grew a small amount and winked. "But I think I still have a few tricks that might speed things up a bit…" Sasuke looked at Waltz with a relieved look on his face. The old man chuckled as he figured that was the closest to an actual thanks he was going to get from the exhausted boy.

"Well, until then, I have my work cut out for me…" He sighed as he shifted the girl in his arms a bit. "I have to get a room for this young one… and then I will probably spend the next few days listening to people screaming in pain and saving as many lives as possible… I should probably find out where the doctors keep their clothes here… the smell found in operating rooms tends to stick to clothes even after you wash them… and most of them aren't very pleasant…" The man sighed again before turning to the ANBU. "How much longer do you have… Fox?"

The ANBU slowly nodded in understanding. "Thanks to recent… changes, I can last until 5 tomorrow morning."

The old man grunted. "Good. We should have things under control by then. If that's all, I'll be leaving you now…" He paused halfway to the door.

"One last thing though… Sasuke…" The boy looked up at the old man's immense and hunched over back. For a moment he thought it looked like it was if he was holding something heavy upon them… "… Don't live solely for revenge. It will only make you weaker as you continue down that self-destructive path…" The hand holding the walking stick tightened a bit, causing a distinct cracking noise to be heard. "… Take it from a foolish old man who has walked all the way down that road, and has seen what truly lies at the end of it. You… no, no one wants to or should ever have to go down that way." Waltz sighed and slumped even further. "… Emotions are a powerful guide Sasuke… but that is all they are… a guide… and like people, they can be wrong at times. It is up to you to choose whether or not to listen to them when the time comes. When it does… be careful."

o. o. o.

Kuma, Zurich, and Rika swore as they managed to take cover behind a building just before another Oto shinobi's jutsu nearly killed all of them in a single blast. The fighting had been intense from beginning, but so far they had little to no problems dealing with the enemy. Most of their forces were trained in taijutsu and some battle tactics, so there were few shinobi that actually knew any battle changing ninjutsu or genjutsu.

Unfortunately, the Kusa shinobi there had the unfortunate luck to encounter an entire squad of said shinobi a few minutes prior and were taking heavy damage as a result. The entire enemy was outfitted with sound gauntlets and tubing in their arms, similar to the genin sent to the Chūnin Exams, but one man in particular had armor all over his body that acted as an extension of his sound gauntlet. The additional holes and the man's immense frame allowed him to deal incredible damage from quite a long distance away. With the aid of the men around him, the Kusa shinobi and some of the Konoha shinobi there were hard pressed to counter the group.

"Damn…" Zurich swore as he hid behind a building with his team and some other Kusa shinobi. "This doesn't look good. We can't get close to those bastards without getting our heads blown up…"

"Mmm…" Kuma grunted as he tied some cloth around a large gash on his leg. "If there weren't so many shinobi that could sense sound vibrations there, I would be able to sneak up underneath them with an earth jutsu… but right now, it would only give me a head start at filling my grave…"

Rika pouted. "Those wind bastards keep on blowing everything I throw at them back at me! It's like I'm fighting that blonde brat all over again, but there's even more of them this time!"

"Oh, I don't know about that…" Naruto sighed as he sat next to Rika. "I can make an awful lot of me at once."

"Holy!" Shouted the Kusa shinobi as they almost jumped out of their cover before they realized who the boy was.

"Yo." The blonde grinned. "Long time no see, guys!"

"It's YOU…" Rika glared as she took out a kunai, only for Kuma to stop her with a hand on her shoulder.

"Who the hell is this brat?" Asked one of the nearby random Kusa-nin. "We asked for backup and all we got was this genin?"

"You didn't see my fights in the exam, did you?" Naruto deadpanned, getting a confirmation nod from Zurich.

"All things considered, I actually feel more at ease than I should be…" Kuma chuckled while Rika stared daggers at the laughing boy. "Regardless, are you aware of the situation?"

The jinchūriki nodded. "About 6 teams worth of Oto shinobi are in the general eastern direction. All of them have either sound amplifying equipment or what we've now dubbed as wind tubes. All of them are experienced at mid- and short-ranged combat, with the exception of one long-ranged sound-based artillery specialist in the group, whose equipment resembles the gauntlet guys. Over here, there are 4 teams of Kusa shinobi and 1 team of Konoha's, and now me…"

"3 teams of Kusa…" Zurich grumbled. "The others got taken out by that walking siren bastard a few minutes ago when they tried to ambush him. Those Sound guys have damn good ears. We can't get anywhere near without them hearing us."

Naruto looked around and saw that the enemy was stationed on the far end of a main street in the village and was advancing slowly. They would have been faster, except the largest man, who looked like he was wearing armor made of metal Swiss cheese, was stopping every few seconds to blow up another building or store on the side of the road. They were still a fair distance away, but it wouldn't be like that for long. Forming a dragon seal, the boy started to focus and reach out with his senses in order to get a better picture of the battlefield. "… The wind guys are stationed on top of the buildings with some of the gauntlets in order to protect the flanks of the street… the rest of the gauntlets are with the armor guy in case anyone gets in too close…" The boy frowned. "… but there are some of those wind guys and gauntlets hiding in the buildings ahead to ambush anyone who tries to use the buildings as well… and you can't go around them, because it would weaken this position and possibly let them through AND because there is already a large amount of fighting to either side of this part of the village…" He mused out loud, getting looks of surprise from many of the Kusa shinobi and the Konoha shinobi that were with them.

Rika slapped herself on the forehead. "Damn… I forgot you're a sensor, too…" She sighed. "But that doesn't help us at all. They have us out gunned, out manned, and in a better position…"

The boy grinned. "Oh I wouldn't say that just yet… in fact… I think we have them beat in all three counts, now that I'm here…"

"Heh. The brat thinks he can change this fight by himself?" One of the Konoha shinobi laughed sarcastically. "As if…"

Naruto shrugged. "Well, at this point you don't have much of a choice, now do you? Everything else you tried didn't work, or else you wouldn't have called for backup… and I'm said backup… and I'm all you need, considering who you're up against."

Kuma raised an eyebrow. He was curious as to why the Konoha ninja would treat his own ally in such a shitty way, but he was even more intrigued as to how the brat would get them out of the mess. "So then, kid. What do you have in mind? You wouldn't have happened to have learned that War Scars technique Ghost used last time, would you? Something like that would definitely be useful in this kind of situation right now…"

The boy shuddered. "Oh, god no. The control needed for that technique is ridiculous. One wrong move and I'm likely to kill myself instead of the guy I'm fighting…"

"Figures…" Sighed Rika.

"Judging from your body posture, I'm guessing you have something else planned." Zurich mused. "You didn't seem that surprised by the description of the equipment the enemy is using. You face these things before?"

Naruto grinned in a fox like manner. "Yep. The genin team from Oto actually had someone with one of those gauntlets and another with those wind tubes." The grin widened. "In fact, I found out something very interesting by accident the day of the first exam, and I've been dying to try it out again…"

Several minutes later:

Naruto causally walked down the street, holding a dragon seal, straight towards the Oto shinobi without a care in the world. It didn't take long for the enemy to notice his bright blonde hair, which was tied into a loose ponytail in the back.

"Heheheh." Chuckled the man in the sound armor. "What do we have here? A genin? You're a long way from anywhere safe, brat. Or did you come here to try to make a name for yourself instead?"

Naruto yawned and looked up at the man with a disinterested look on his face. "I'm sorry, were you saying something? I was too busy looking for people that were actually worth my time."

The man laughed despite the angry look the men were giving him. "Hah! This kid is completely nuts! Walking in front of all of us like this!" His face darkened. "You have some real balls, brat. Give me one reason why I shouldn't blast you into oblivion…"

The boy looked bored as he gazed upon the men with gauntlets. "Hey… those look like the gauntlets that weakling from your village wore to the Chūnin Exams! Man… were his techniques a joke!" The men started to see red as the boy laughed. "Those jutsu and his skills were so weak… I beat him by complete accident!" He scratched the back of his head sheepishly. "Are your techniques any different? Because if they aren't, this will be really boring for me…"

The air around the leader went cold. "That was my cousin you were talking about, you stupid little gnome." He stepped forward and gathered his chakra. "I was going to let my men finish you off… but instead, I want to make sure that the only thing left of you is a bloody smear on the road…" The man took out a large hammer and raised it to his side. The men with him quickly jumped behind him, all grinning savagely.

Naruto guessed that the man used the hammer to strike his armor and create the required vibrations for the technique, and used his chakra to magnify it into a large destructive wave that destroyed anything in its path. Unlike wind techniques, the vibrations in the air would intensify as they passed through buildings, because solid objects conduct sound waves better than air does. Thus, sending sound techniques through buildings lengthened their range and increased their destructive capabilities at the cost of increased collateral damage, making such techniques perfect for urban warfare when you were on the invading side. He could see why the other shinobi were having so much trouble getting close to this guy.

"Say goodbye, brat!" The man roared as he struck his armor hard.

Naruto smirked as his eyes began to glow. "Later, dumbass."

The man looked at the boy in a confused manner before he realized something was wrong. Instead of his chakra exploding out of the holes and creating a massive wave of destruction, the stored energy was reverberating inside his armor and unable to escape the many holes that were in it. Soon enough, his cries of pain could easily be heard, as his body was being torn to shreds on the inside while the reverberations continued to build upon themselves. The man's companions stared at him, confused as to what the hell was happening, and completely unaware of how much danger they were in.

Suddenly, the man's body and armor exploded with a large bang, creating a shockwave littered with body parts and shrapnel that expanded in every direction. The two teams that were with the large man didn't have a chance at surviving the blast. Either their insides were scrambled from the intense blast or their bodies were shredded by the flying shards of armor. Naruto himself stood casually in the middle of the street as he manipulated the air around him with some effort to ensure that nothing flying in the air would impale or land on him (or his allies). Soon enough, he could hear the clashes of fighting shinobi all around him as his allies, each aided by a clone of his, took control of the rooftops to either side of him and then inside the buildings as well. A single clone was enough to plug up the wind tubes and gauntlets of all the shinobi they were tasked to deal with, and it didn't take long for the fighting to stop since the enemies were both ambushed and crippled at the same time. He could tell with his Seventh Sense that the gauntlet wearing men's weapons blew up in their faces, and the air tube shinobi had the unfortunate fate of either having their arms blow off rather spectacularly, or have holes rip open half their arms instead and leave them utterly defenseless.

10 minutes later, all four allied teams landed next to a yawning Naruto, who was meditating in the middle of the street. Rika stepped up with her hands on her hips. "Okay. I'll bite. How the HELL did you do that? That bastard was running us through a quarter of the village for the entire invasion, and without even lifting a finger, you fucking blew him up. Not only that, but your clones managed to completely shut down almost all of the enemy's techniques. So help me, if you say that it's a secret…" She started to take out a kunai.

The boy deadpanned. "You know… crazy doesn't work on me nearly as well as it does everyone else…"

"I wasn't going for crazy, I was going for PAIN!" The woman yelled as she attempted to stab him, causing the boy to jump out of the way quickly. "Since you have that convenient healing factor, I just assumed that it wouldn't matter if I got a bit of revenge from our last little encounter…" The woman stopped as Kuma put a hand on her shoulder.

"Rika, I thought you told me you weren't going to try and kill him the next time we saw him…" The man chided with a small grin on his face.

The woman turned around and made puppy dog eyes. "Kuma-kuuun. I wasn't going to actually kill him… I just wanted to hurt him a little…"

"How does that in any way make this situation any better!" Naruto roared with a tick mark and pointed at her accusingly. "You're the crazy bitch that tried to seduce a 13 year old, for crying out loud!"

The other Kusa shinobi looked at Rika with deadpan eyes. "Yep. That sounds like Rika…"

"You'd think she would have learned by now…"

"It's embarrassing, really…"

"I wonder what Kuma really sees in her…"

Rika stood with her hair covering her eyes and her hands balled up into fists. "Brat… I take back what I said…" She looked up in pure rage. "You're DEAD!"

Naruto stepped back clearly afraid and was going to act on the instinct that told him to run away when something nearby triggered his Seventh Sense. Moving instantly to the source of the danger, he noted that Kuma had also acted and grabbed a raging Rika and pulled her out of the way, just as a massive and lethal gale of wind tore through where she once was and sped on towards Naruto. The boy, without any hesitation, fully unleashed his Presence and canceled the attack without batting an eyelash and glared at the panting Oto shinobi that had both his arms pointed towards the group. Everyone stared at the boy as the feral and uncontrollable wind circled around them before it died down slightly. "Big mistake…" The boy muttered quietly as he launched himself forward. Augmented by his dashing skill, his chakra control, and surprisingly enough, the chakra hops technique, the boy accelerated from his starting position to breakneck speed in the blink of an eye, moving faster than most of the experienced jōnin there could react to or notice. Before the enemy could even begin to gather his chakra for a second attack, he had already been slashed across his stomach and chest by the boy's wind blades, said boy standing right behind him and dismissing his blades again.

"Fast…" Zurich mused as he instinctively gripped the handle of his broadsword. "… very fast… we're lucky the brat's on our side, that's for sure…"

Kuma, on the other hand, frowned a small amount. It wasn't that he wasn't glad that the kid took out the enemy so quickly before anyone could have gotten hurt, but because he had reacted and moved so quickly…

"Hey… you know, that kid looks sort of familiar… but I can't remember where I've seen him before…" Mused one of the Kusa shinobi.

"I was just thinking the exact same thing…" Said another man.

"It's possible he's just reminding us of someone else…" A third reasoned.

'Damn… this isn't good…' Kuma mentally swore as he realized that his friends were seeing the connection between the boy and his father.

"I've been told I look like the Fourth Hokage a lot…" Naruto sighed as he walked back to the group, causing Kuma to stare at the boy as if he had grown another head. "Tch… and I tried so hard not to get covered in blood today. You can never get the freaking stains out, plus Kakashi-sensei will be able to tell where I am from a mile away if I wear this after today…" The boy moaned and complained, but many of the adults could see a small shaking in the boy's hands that spoke of different emotions. They decided not to comment on that.

"Oh… yeah… now that you look at him, he does kind of look like the guy…" Mused another Kusa-nin, ignoring the looks of irritation the Konoha shinobi were giving him.

"You think they're related?" Asked another.

"Pft." Naruto snorted, trying to hold back a laugh. "As if. Me? Some sort of secret love child of the Fourth Hokage? Oh man, please. You guys must have been hit too many times with those sound technique if you actually believe that load of bull. If I was, there would be no way they would send me to a fight like this as your lone backup. I would be way too valuable to let run loose like that. Man, if I was the son of the Fourth… the things I would buy and do… cases of exploding tags… get my own personal training area… blow things up every other Tuesday and Friday…"

"Heh. You're right." Chuckled one of the visiting ninja. "Sorry for the mix up, kid. It's just that that last move you pulled was really something else…"

Naruto blinked for a moment before looking down and started to think. "Huh… you know… I actually did that by complete accident…" He mused. "I guess Ero-nii's crazy training actually had some purpose to it after all…" He paused. "… I'm still never going to use it to bounce on my balls though…" He looked up to see all the other shinobi staring at him skeptically. "Hey! You don't know what it was like, damn it! Every day I had to make sure I didn't die by dodging exploding cows or run away from giant wind techniques of pure death! One week, I was constantly thrown off a cliff just to see how well my wind manipulation training was going… and then he told me at the end that he'd had a decent idea how well I was doing after the first time I fell and all the other times he threw me off was because he thought it was funny! That man is INSANE, damn it!" He started to shiver with wide and traumatized eyes. "I need a hug…" Rika stepped forward. "…Preferably from someone who isn't more likely to stab me than hug me… or both…"

Everyone sweatdropped as they watched the boy try to calm himself down with deep breaths. Kuma himself let out a low, deep sigh of relief as well. The kid had done well to change the conversation so quickly and deny his relation with his father. The lad never actually flat out denied that he was his father's son. That being the case, he could tell his friends later that the kid wasn't lying, using his sensory skills as proof. His hysterical fit was also more than an adequate distraction from the main topic. The big man smiled to himself. He would have to bring up the idea of using insanity as a possible route for misdirection in the next jōnin tactics meeting. He wouldn't be able to use it, of course. His personality and demeanor wouldn't allow him to pull it off well, but Rika on the other hand…

"All right…" The man grumbled as he walked to the middle of the group and turned on his radio. "Thanks to the kid here, we managed to secure this area. Since this was a main road, we can use it to get our forces to more strategic points in the village… the question is, which point do we go to?"

"I see that Naruto managed to turn the tide around…" Mused an unemotional and bored voice from their headsets, indicating that Scabbard was once again in charge of navigating Konoha's forces. "He tends to do that…" There was a brief pause. "I assume that he is having another training relapse at the moment…"

Zurich blinked in a confused manner. "How…?"

"Because he has a healing factor, the odds of the boy going into some sort of shock are extremely low… unless he's reliving one of his more… stimulating training sessions…" Sighed the man. "Which one is it this time?"

"Exploding cows, deadly wind techniques, and getting constantly thrown off a cliff for a week…" Rika counted off her fingers.

"Ah… a personal favorite…" The man mused, getting shocked looks from everyone there. "Regardless, you have your next mission…" The man sighed. "The four teams present shall be guarding this position from the enemy and ensuring that the path is clear for allied troops. You have all sustained enough damage and losses that it would be pointless to send you to back up any other forces at the moment. Naruto…" There was a pause as the boy continued to shiver and mutter to himself. "Hold on a second… Dear lord! Someone has thrown a perfectly good bowl of Ichiraku's Ramen in the trash!"

The blonde boy stood straight up and whipped out his wind blades. "Bring me the heathen!"

The rest of the people stared at the boy disbelievingly.

"As I was saying…" Coughed Scabbard over the radio. "Naruto will come back to the hospital…"

"What?" The boy yelled. "Why?"

"Because according to the sensor I have hooked up to you, you only have a chūnin's worth of chakra left in you. Even if your stamina does recover rather quickly, it will be a while before you are in decent enough shape to go into the field again with your current fighting style. Your last mission drained you of a fair amount of your chakra, unless you have already forgotten already…"

"Wait… a chūnin's worth of chakra, and it's deemed too low to let him keep fighting?" Rika asked incredulously.

"To put it into perspective, the boy currently has over 1000 shadow clones running around the village aiding civilians and providing occasional assassination backup for some squads…" Scabbard sighed, causing all of the shinobi to look at Naruto disbelievingly. "I believe his personal best is estimated to be around 2784…"

"Um… actually, it's closer to 3200 now. That last training session with Waltz-sensei helped me a lot with my chakra control… even if he did nearly kill me in the process…" The boy laughed sheepishly, getting more astonished looks from the adults around him.

"Ah yes, I do remember that. That was a rather large crater we found your body in…" The man mused. "To be honest, I'm surprised you actually survived that beating…"

"You really weren't kidding when you said you were a stamina freak back then…" Rika gaped. "You must have one fucking happy girlfriend, brat…"

Naruto frowned. "What part of 'I'm only 13, you sick cradle robber,' don't you understand, lady?"

"The part where you are actually hitting puberty and don't want to have sex, dumbass." The woman growled back, glaring back down at the boy. The two clashed heads and began to make growling noises as they pushed against each other for supremacy.

"I'm not getting involved with this, you know…" Kuma said into the radio.

"I've got this…" Scabbard sighed. "Naruto, go to the hospital, now. Or else Ghost and I won't give you that 15 second head start from Shadow that you've been begging us for once we make those… additional changes that we've been talking about…"

The blonde boy instantly jumped away and put on puppy dog eyes. "I'll be good… please don't let her get me! I'm too young to die that way!" Moments later the boy disappeared into the village, screaming hysterically.

Kuma deadpanned, as did the rest of the shinobi near him. "Care to tell us what that was about?"

"No." The man replied simply. "The next few squads are coming your way, so I would start fortifying your position if I were you…" There was a brief pause. "Oh… and by the way, Orochimaru is dead, so don't be surprised if you see the old monkey himself running by you at some point today. Just thought I'd give you heads up…"

The group of 16 adults stood there blankly as they processed the information they were given for several minutes before the Konoha ninja there started cheering loudly, followed by the laughing and chuckles of the Kusa shinobi. "All right then…" Kuma chuckled. "Let's get to work, people! We don't want to botch this up now that we've already won, now do we?!"

o. o. o.

The rest of the invasion went like clockwork after Orochimaru's defeat. Word of the traitorous Sannin's death spread quickly and greatly affected the morale of both sides. The three Hokage immediately went to work on finishing up the fighting in the middle of the village, which unsurprisingly didn't last long due to the fact that almost all the shinobi there had a front row seat to their leader's death. With Kurenai, Kakashi, Gai, and Asuma taking charge of the area, the Hokage made their way to the eastern edge of the village, where once again their presence was almost unnecessary. Even though Hana and Anko had left the front lines of the battle half an hour earlier, Zabuza, Crypt, and Shadow had all been butchering the remaining forces that decided to fight. There were many Oto shinobi that had simply cracked after witnessing their comrades die in so many gruesome ways that they had lost any will to fight, or even live at all. The road that Naruto and Kuma's group had freed up just before had become a major route for the allied forces to take in order to get to the main fighting grounds.

With the arrival of Sarutobi, the remaining Oto forces knew their cause was lost and attempted to retreat. At this point, about a third of their forces were left… but it would not be for long. The shinobi that were escaping were mostly comprised of bandits and murderers. Men that would cause problems if let loose in the world. This was why they weren't being allowed to do so. As the men attempted to flee into the forest, they were completely unaware of the traps and hidden shinobi that were stationed and hidden throughout the forest before them. Within minutes, numerous explosions and cries of agony came from the trees as men triggered traps and were ambushed. The remaining 300 men were reduced to under 60. More than manageable for any village to handle.

Meanwhile, in the hospital, Naruto (after having a mild… okay, MAJOR panic attack when he saw the mask of the ANBU guarding Sasuke) was dealing with the news of Kabuto's attempted kidnapping while sitting next to Sasuke and attempting to cheer his teammate up. There wasn't much response to the boy's actions until he accidentally tripped and fell in a way that left him lying on the floor looking up the skirt of a nurse. More screaming (from both parties) and savage beatings later, the now maimed boy was tied next to Sasuke, who was now smirking a small bit, and the ANBU, who was failing to hide his laughter. When asked what he learned, the blonde boy blushed, looked to the side, and grumbled something about perverted medics before his eyes widened and he started to pray, repeating the words "Please not baa-chan too, please not baa-chan too…". For some peculiar reason, that only made the ANBU laugh even harder.

On the other side of town, Hana and Anko were chasing a bandaged Ghost around in bloody rage. Why? Well, after the two made it to where Ghost and Tsume were (Ghost having passed out from a combination of landing on his shoulder and lack of air from swearing too long), the group started arguing about their current… situation. The yelling was going down pretty much the same route everyone would expect, until Ghost mentioned how that since he had injured his arms in such a unique fashion, he wouldn't use them for 2 weeks, meaning he wouldn't be able to give his two girlfriends massages for 2 weeks. Several seconds of silence later, the tables had turned on the exhausted man, and he was now running for his life from two very angry women, the reason being that said women knew for a fact that Ghost could have fought or restrained Manda in a way that wouldn't have injured him so much if he wasn't such a childish idiot that thought it would be fun to ride on his head the entire fight. The group had ran away so quickly that Tsume didn't have a chance to assert her 'Alpha Female' authority on them before they were out of hearing range, not that it would have worked at that point.

As the village's populace roared in victory, none of its inhabitants took notice of two figures standing on top of the outer wall on the western edge of town.

"Well, now… isn't this interesting…" Chuckled the larger of the two figures, which had a large bandaged sword on its back. "Your old home still has a decent amount of fight in it, Itachi. Considering the place was just invaded, there isn't much damage." He chuckled lightly. "It isn't like Orochimaru to screw up like this, not with all that ranting he used to do about getting back at this place. You think he might have died?"

The man known as Itachi gazed upon his home village with uninterested red eyes. "… Unlikely. Orochimaru has a habit of surviving unpleasant situations… it could be noted as one of his most prominent abilities…"

The large, blue skinned man snorted. "Yeah… you're right again, as always, Itachi. You know, for a kid you aren't half bad."

The shorter partner didn't respond as he continued to look at the village in front of him.

He paused as he looked at his silent partner. "This isn't like you… even you of all people miss your home village, eh?"

"No, Kisame. I don't." Itachi replied with red eyes. "I don't feel any nostalgia at all…"

o. o. o.

Not far away from the two, on another part of the wall, a small hump slowly grew out of the structure and opened up like a Venus flytrap to show Zetsu. "Ah. This certainly was the most interesting Chūnin Exam I have ever heard of…" Mused the white half.

"Indeed…" Rasped the black half. "It was a good idea to check it out after that short old fart mentioned it."

"Mm." The white half agreed. "That blonde kid that had his attention was really something else, too. Remember that video they showed when he first came out? You think he's really the Fourth Hokage's kid?"

"It doesn't matter… Itachi and Kisame are to verify and check up on the Kyūbi's container within a few days… the lineage of the Fourth is irrelevant to our plans… that is, unless Kakuzu decides to take up a bounty on him…" The black half countered.

"Oh yeah… there was an Uchiha in that exam…" The other mused. "I thought Itachi killed his entire family. That boy looks a lot like him. He was pretty good, too…"

"We'll bring it up in the next meeting." The black half said. "No doubt Leader will want everyone to attend when we inform them of Orochimaru's death…"

"Should we tell Itachi and Kisame that Orochimaru got himself killed now?" The childish half asked curiously.

"No… they will find out soon enough. Itachi is not one for missing details, and no doubt half the village will be talking about the event for weeks to come…" The other answered. "We should go straight to Leader for now. No doubt he will need time to think about this new development… as well as the new potential obstacles…"

"Those Ōgakari guys? I thought they were pretty funny…" The white half chuckled.

"Stop joking. You saw them take out Orochimaru's summon…" The black half chided. "They didn't even look like they were trying that hard. More like they were enjoying themselves… plus, the last recorded sighting of an actual dragon was centuries before the establishment of the shinobi villages. Then, there is the potency and range of their techniques… something does not feel right about them…"

"Yeah, yeah…" The white half moaned as the plantlike appendage on their shoulders closed up again and began to sink into the wall again. "I just hope that that weird old Tsuchikage doesn't give us any more boring missions after this. I'm tired of scouting out random villages in other countries…"

"Shut up…" Growled the black half as the lump disappeared. "We do our missions and we don't get on the Leader's bad side, and in the end, we get what we want… that's the bottom line…"

The lump disappeared into the wall and things were silent… until a shadow rose from the joined cracks in the same wall to form the sole female of the Ōgakari clan, who sat cross-legged and sideways on the wall and sighed. "Well now, wasn't that an interesting conversation…" She mused as she picked at her ear with her pinky. "Listening in on conversations with people with multiple personalities always is an interesting experience…" She pouted. "It wasn't worth the effort, though… if I had known how much of a pain in the ass it was to find and keep track of this guy, I would have forced him onto Ghost and taken one of the others instead… like Deidara… or Kakuzu…" She stretched. "Oh well… I found out what I needed to find out. Back to ye old mad scientist lair, I guess, and read up on some more animal/shinobi partner biology so I can give Hana a hand with work… she was bitching about being one of the only ninja vets in the village, after all, and god knows how much shit she's in with the invasion… but first…" The woman sighed, paused, looked around herself skeptically… then farted loudly. "Ah… thank god. I've been holding that in since the fighting started. God damn stadium corndogs… mixing sticks, meat and gas all together… it's just wrong… but I can't help but eat them…" She grumbled as she turned into darkness again and disappeared into the wall.

o. o. o.

A/N:

Thank fucking god… the Chūnin Exams and the invasion are finally over.

Yeah, sorry about the wait, but my comp ate up about half of this chapter about a week ago and I lost motivation to write for a while.

So without further ado… WOOT! I HAVE OVER 1000 REVIEWS! HOLY CRAP! I GOT OVER 75 REVIEWS WITH THAT LAST CHAPTER. THAT IS REDICULOUS! OVER HALF THIS CHAPTER WAS WRITTEN WHILE I WAS DOING A SILLY DANCE THAT SCARED MY PARENTS AND NOW MY LEGS ARE TIRED! THANK YOU EVERYONE THAT MADE THIS ALL POSSIBLE! YOU ARE ALL GREAT, EVEN THE GUYS THAT DON'T LIKE MY STORY BUT REVIEWED ANYWAY BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW ANY BETTER!

Breathes in calmly.

And now for other announcements.

I did a few doodles of some weapons the Ōgakari use, and some of the members. The link is on my profile, so check it out I guess. It's all in pencil, so the quality isn't really all that great…

I've seen a few stories lately that have… for lack of a better term, ripped off of my story, hard. Very, very hard. Now, since then, both authors have changed their ways and chapters so that they don't resemble mine anymore, but I want to make something clear.

I do not own this genre. I support all forms of writing on this site, but I, and obviously everyone here, look down on people that shall we say, base their story off of mine a bit too much. If any of you decide to make a story inspired by mine, by all means, go ahead, but please be careful when writing it, or people might get the wrong impression of what you are doing. If you want any suggestions on what to do, all you have to do is ask and I'll be happy to give my 2 cents.

So, I have plenty of ideas to use later on, there will be plot changes from here on out, but the timeline isn't completely fucked… yet.

Latest Manga and Anime impressions: (Ch 497) Manga wise, it's getting interesting. Kishimoto FINALLY decided it was time to answer one of the female related plot holes in the story for once… no, not Hinata unfortunately… but Kushina finally appears, so we're expecting some good stuff there.

Anime… not so much. Naruto is finally facing Pain… and the animators are taking proverbial dumps on all the fans here. I am appalled at the quality of the fighting given to one of the largest, if not THE largest fight currently in the series. If you want proof, watch the Kakuzu Hidan Vs. Kakashi and Team 10 fight, watch the Sasuke Vs. Deidara, Itachi, and 8 Tails fights, and watch Jiraiya Vs. Pain fights. The quality of the animation is MILES ahead of what has been shown so far.

Breathes slowly again.

Sorry. I'm just rambling now. Like always people. Review. Worship the Log. Pray the animators get off their asses and do something soon, and laugh at something random. Later.