Disclaimer:The anime Naruto and Twelve Kingdoms are not my properties. If I owned them, why would I be writing fan fiction based on them. No money is being made from this, it is just for the entertainment of any that wishes to read it.

Warnings: AU, OOCs, OCs, Crack, Sues (you have been warned)

Note: none at the moment.

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Their World

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chapter two

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Apparently, their coming from such an out of the way world, had made them a bit immune to the mandate of heaven as well as kept them from affecting the relationship between a ruler, the people, the kirin, and such things. The missions that Madara had started his people doing in exchange for payment of sorts hadn't been seen as a bad thing by heaven, proof of which was that the kirin of Sou did not begin to show signs of shitsudou, which was the sickness that the kirin contracted when the ruler that he or she had chosen was not doing well in ruling the country and keeping it prosperous and peaceful.

Madara and the way he did things was so far from the radar of heaven for some reason that he didn't fear any reprisal from heaven, just the regular human ones. His organization, and the ones like his or Naruto's own, were like cheats for those that didn't want to affect the present balance in the world, the light side of the world at least.

His people had so far not gone and done any of the extreme things that he had done in his first life, they hadn't had to go sabotage entire countries, assassinate anyone, destroy towns and or villages, and the like. They were stuck doing regular mercenary work, and a few odd jobs like helping out with construction, hunting, search and rescue, delivery, and weeding gardens.

Thankfully there weren't any missions so far like Catch Tora, Madara might have returned to wanting to rule the world, his path paved in blood and filled with the corpses of his enemies if he had to go on another mission like that hellish one.

The most elemental nation like mission that he had any of his people perform was a kidnapping, or at least an attempted kidnapping one. Once he was informed just who the target was, he had canceled the mission and had involved the true authorities. No one threatened his princess in any way. He made sure that the clients were submitted to the soldiers without any memory of attempting to hire Madara's organization for the actual kidnapping.

His organization didn't have to deal with anymore of those kinds of missions for a while, but other organizations took up the slack, though they knew that targeting the royal family was a big no-no since many of their number had been taken into custody thanks to Madara's operatives. It was like that until the message was conveyed that the ruling family was untouchable, and any that dared go against the rulers would be in heaps of trouble.

It was kind of like how the hidden villages of the elemental nations indirectly served their Daimyo.

"What happened now?" Bunki asked him as she saw him in the cafeteria sporting a bandaged hand, it had become a normal sight, him with some sort of injury. It was from some of the fights that he had gotten himself into in her protection from indirect threats, like fights breaking out close to her position. He of course had to step in, and injure himself, thanks to the nature of the fights.

"Punched a wall," he replied, which was what did happen, he hadn't reinforced his hand with chakra for some reason, he was a bit distracted, "No biggie."

"You are really starting to worry me," she told him, "I'm not going to force you to take it easy, I'm no longer your personal physician you know."

"Yeah," he said, a bit dejectedly, "But you care more than my physician does."

"Because you keep avoiding him," she said, "What do you have against Junbei anyway?"

"Nothing," he said a bit defensively, "I just prefer your sweet caress."

"Now don't go talking like that again," she said, she had long dismissed his advances, but that didn't stop him from trying, "So tell me, what else have you been up to?"

"Nothing much," he said, he couldn't just come out and tell her about his organization after all, "You know, this and that."

"Really now," she said, "Fine, don't tell me then. If you don't tell me what you've been keeping all hush-hush, I won't share any more of my gossip with you."

He couldn't have that, so he decided to let her know something small.

"Well...fine," he said, "I have a part-time job that I do after my doctor work."

"Why? You clearly don't need the extra income," she said, a bit surprised and concerned at the same time.

"I needed a hobby," he said, "I consider work as a hobby, so yeah."

"You really are still a strange one," she told him, "Even after all these years, you're still a weird one."

"I know," he said, not puffing up, "Please continue stroking my ego."

"Oh, why do I even bother," she said, harrumphing a bit, "Aren't you going to ask what I've been up to?"

"Err...should I?" he asked, wrong thing to say really cause she just stood up and left him there.

It seemed that he had gained something from Naruto just as the now man gained somethings from him. He was back to being clueless, it was probably from all the time he had spent planning global domination back in the Elemental continent.

"Nice going Lord Kage," one of his operatives that worked at the hospital as another doctor whispered mockingly as he passed him by. It was a joke really, and Madara knew it, but he couldn't help himself when he tripped his operative with a jutsu, so no one could blame him for the accident.

Once he left the hospital for the day, he sensed his princess following him, kind of like stalking him. She was accompanied by her older brother, Ritatsu. Since he knew that they were there, he decided to show them just how good he was at hiding in plain sight. They knew what his life had been like before he found himself in Sou.

He acted as if he didn't know that they were there, before suddenly vanishing from all of their senses and walking to the main headquarters of his organization. He had named his organization Akatsuki in honor of that failed organization of his, possibly it wouldn't fail this time around with whatever his plans were.

Bunki and her older brother didn't know what to think about what they had witnessed. He had simply vanished, and they knew not where he had gone. While Bunki knew that he was frequently seen visiting the red light district, a district that she barely tolerated as it was simply needed, she doubted that he was there at the moment since he claimed to have an after hours part-time job.

She was really and increasingly curious about him and didn't know why and for what reason. Her brother was just curious about the company she kept, especially Madara of all people, he was a puzzle whose pieces were scattered around the kingdom.

He was a mystery that the siblings didn't believe they'd find an explanation for anytime soon. He was an efficient oddity. Neither one of them wanted him to disappear completely, he was a kind of spice that added flavor to their lives, more of Bunki's life really, but who really cared about the effect of his influence.

For the time being they just wanted to know where he slinked off to. Bunki wanted to sate her appetite for knowing what he did with his time. It was a bit stalkerish, but he liked knowing everything about him or more than most anyway.

"What are you two doing here at this time?" one of Madara's patrolling operatives asked the two royals that were still peering from just around the corner.

"Huh?" they whirled around to find themselves face to face with one of the mercenary class operatives.

"What business is it of yours?" Ritatsu stated.

"You look a bit suspicious is all," the operative said.

"Well we were just wondering where a friend was going," Bunki defensively said.

"If you say so," the operative said, "But since there's no one where you were looking, I don't think you'll be finding your friend anytime soon."

"Oh, yes, that's true," Bunki said, "We'll just be on our way then."

"That would probably be a good idea," the operative said, "Word on the streets is that someone's put a hit on the head of the princess, so yeah. Come to think of it, you kinda look like Princess Bunki."

"R-really?" Bunki said, she was a bit surprised that someone didn't think she was herself, but a mere look-a-like, it was a new experience for her.

"What do you mean by put a hit on her?" Ritatsu asked the man.

"Politics, hell if I know why anyway," the man said, "Someone's hired an assassin, hasn't happened in a while, but there's a price on the princess' head nowadays."

"Why not report this information to the authorities?" Ritatsu asked the man.

"Its just gossip," the man said, "Why would anyone believe me, especially in this time of long lasting peace and prosperity?"

"I see your point," Ritatsu said, "But still, giving the authorities a kind of heads up would be better than doing nothing at all."

"There's also the fact that the princess shouldn't have to worry," the man said, "There have been many attempts on her life and the lives of the royals over the years. None of them obviously succeeding what with there being those in the shadows that have sworn to protect the royals."

"How do you know that?" Ritatsu asked as his sister began to hyperventilate, her brother was oblivious to this of course.

" Its in the gossip," the man said, "Well I best get back to work.." he then walked away leaving the two royals to their thoughts, and it was also only then that Ritatsu noticed that his sister was almost catatonic.

"Bunki!" he exclaimed and just couldn't figure out what to do with his sister.

"Give her here, Ritatsu," a familiar voice broke the prince from his panicking.

"Madara!" the prince exclaimed, relieved, "What are you doing here?"

"My job," Madara stated as he knocked Bunki out by hitting a pressure point.

"What did you do to her?" the prince demanded.

"Knocked her out," he said, "She was having a panic attack, nothing to normally worry about. She'll be fine once she wakes. C'mon let's bring her back up to the palace."

"How'd you know where to find us?" the prince asked as they rode two kijyuu, which were like tamed youma that could fly.

"Like I said, I was doing my job, my other one," Madara said as he kept a firm grip on the princess.

"And what job is that?" the prince said, his voice having an accusatory tone.

"Protecting your sister and the rest of your family, including yourself," he replied, "You were supposed to continue living oblivious to the dangers of the current climate."

"B-but...you mean the gossip's real?" the prince asked, "That someone wants my sister dead?"

"And most of the rest of your family, yes," Madara said, he sounded so calm, "All of you except for the King, no one wants the king dead, no one for the moment that is."

"So your part-time job is protecting us?" the prince asked.

"More or less," Madara said, "There are forces at work in the world today that undermines Tentei in a way, who knows what it is, but Heaven does not seem all that concerned with the land of shadows."

"What land of shadows?" the prince asked, he had never in his life heard of such a term.

"I am talking about the world that has avoided and continues to avoid the gaze of heaven and the kings," Madara said, "That's the best way that I can describe the land of shadows."

"Why are you telling me these things?" the prince asked.

"I need you to trust me for me to be able to continue protecting you," Madara said, "After all, I still owe your sister my life."

"Is that why you've been protecting us?" the prince asked.

"But of course," Madara said, "That and you guys are really the only friends I have in this world."

"Well, I guess you still have my trust," the prince said, "Though I don't really know about my sister, since you did knock her out."

"Let her think what she wants to think," Madara said, "I'll explain it all to her once this crisis has passed."

"You mean someone really is after her life?" the prince asked, worry plainly on his face.

"Yes, someone out in the kingdom wants to end your sister's life," Madara said, "For what purpose, I don't know, but I do know that I will do everything in my power to make sure that she does not die. And please don't inform your father about all this, he doesn't have what it takes to take on this problem, please leave it to the professionals."

"I...fine," the prince conceded, "We'll leave it in your capable hands."

"Thank you," Madara said as they neared the palace.

Madara left Bunki in the care of her brother while telling the prince to tell his sister that he, Madara, would not be around for awhile as he had business to tend to.

He left the kijyuu at the palace and simply dived over a railing and into the sea of the sky. It was a bit insane, but he was immortal, so he had that added protection from dying, he also had a kind of immortality that all shinobi had once they were at his level. He vanished in a distortion of space and time, reappearing in his apartment from which he took out his work tools, the hospital gig being his hobby.

He was off to work, or war as the situation looked.

Someone had decided to go against Akatsuki's version of Mandate of Heaven, and whoever they were, they were going to be paying dearly for crossing Uchiha Madara.

#

Ren didn't have that many people that could be recruited into Neo Konohagakure no Sato's ranks, the few that Naruto had managed to find had told of hearing opportunities overseas and would be going over there. In short, Naruto and company found no one in the kingdom of Ren that wanted to join his hidden village.

But during this time of recruitment, journeying from city to city, town to town, village to village, province to province, he heard tales of another country, one that was suffering and gradually and increasingly declining. It was Kou, and it was the nearest one to suffer such a fate. It was there that Naruto decided to venture off into.

While Madara had mostly encountered only people as his foes, Naruto encountered youma.

At a port town, Naruto, and company, managed to make enough money by trading goods, like furs, tools, and the like, to the local merchants, to purchase a good sized ship for their use. It wasn't anything fancy, just a regular merchant vessel, and with the right seals was fit for their use.

The people of the port town had called Naruto's group a bunch of wild men, but were corrected. They were to be known as Konoha (collectively) and Konoha-nin (individually). Who ever doubted Naruto's rise to Hokage was proven wrong when he dubbed himself Hokage, he continued to live by the Will of Fire.

Naruto decided that it was a good idea that he continued to wear clothes made from the skins and pelt and furs and feathers of youma, since when in the future he would send out spies, they would not be easily found out since Konoha-nins would be associated with such clothes and not common clothes.

They had enough supplies already for a journey across the sea to the kingdom of Kou, they knew where it was thanks to a map that they had acquired. So when they all met up at the wharf, they left immediately. There was no real need or worry for a passport, since one of the tricks of the ninja trade was falsifying documents, and that was what Naruto had a clone do for the teams.

It was while they were out at sea that the teens were allowed to continue their training, the flashy moves that they knew couldn't be practiced out in the open and in places where just about anyone could stumble upon them. So out in the ocean was where they practiced. They, along with Naruto and his clones, practiced their Suiton jutsu, with all the water around it was an easy task.

Once they reached the deeper waters, and they used their stronger jutsu, they managed to once again attract the attention of youma. The water and sky dwelling ones, specifically the worst thing that they could have attracted.

Naruto's knowledge of the world was based on all the information he could steal from the minds of all those that he, and by extension his clones, had ever encountered. He knew what the serpent that rose out of the depths was. It was a jyouyou, the closest thing to Manda in this world that he would ever find. Just several times bigger.

"You have got to be kidding me," Naruto said as he looked up at the thing, his Chibaku Tensei would not be enough for something so large. It was attracted to them since it sensed the skins of other youma, and thus thought that prey had arrived.

"That would be the infamous jyouyou," Kenta noted, part of his studies was being able to tell all the different youma apart, "And it looks hungry."

"Which would make us dinner," Michio helpfully supplied.

"Its skin should make for better protection," Naruto noted, as he rubbed his chin thoughtfully, "We could use some armor, and its other parts could prove to be of use to us..hmm.."

"It can use electricity to its advantage, like raiton jutsu," Kenta added some input.

"Alright," Naruto said, gathering the attention of his subordinates, "I've made my decision, we're taking that thing down! Whoever deals the killing blow gets the first set of armor from its scales, and gets to wear the first jyouyou mask!"

He was still the most unpredictable ninja of Konoha, or that the original Konoha had ever produced, since he made such a decision.

"I'm game!" Ran was the first to shout and dragged her teammates over to one side of the ship, it wasn't a military vessel, but it had seals that more than made up for it.

"We're in!" the two boys chorused.

"That settles it then!" Orochi, Sho, and Ichi, chorused themselves and went about unsealing the the ballista they had sealed away.

It might have been a siege weapon, but in this case it was the biggest archery set they had available to them. Naruto wondered why his clones had decided to bring that thing with them in the first place, they even had the huge arrows that it used as ammo.

"So what's the plan?" one of the nameless clones asked.

"Wing it!" Naruto shouted, he came up with the best plans on the fly after all, and in this case planning was not an option.

The three teens formed hybrid dragons made out of water, wind, and lightning, and had their creations rise up to meet with the jyouyou, its head was too high up for them to reach, and they believed that it was too quick and strong for cutting winds to decapitate it.

"Time to put its ability to fly to the test!" Naruto shouted as he jumped overboard and showed the teens that it was indeed possible to walk on waves, just difficult to do so.

Naruto held out both hands, and allowed his bloodline to activate, the teens felt the shift in power, their leader's power skyrocketed. They knew he was planning on doing something that they knew they would never be able to do. It was the closest to godly that they knew someone could get.

"SHINRA TENSEI!" Naruto screamed out as he poured as much chakra as he safely could into the technique which he used to pull the jyouyou down. He fought against the beast's own power to stay afloat.

"KILL IT!" Naruto shouted as he briefly deviated from fully concentrating on his task.

"Hai!" the clones and teens shouted.

"Team Ichi, run across the waves and prepare to catch our anchors!" Ichi ordered, his team of six clones rushed overboard and made their way across the turbulent sea to a distance that was far enough from the ship.

"What are you planning on doing?" Ran asked.

"Just keep the beastie busy, while we do our thing," Ichi replied, "We'll make sure it can't escape even if it wants to."

At those words the teens redoubled their efforts at bringing the beast down or keeping it interested in them.

The three commander clones loaded the ballista, took aim, and fired, then repeated the process until they ran out of ammo. The clones on the water caught the massive arrows and held onto them for dear life as anchors for the thick ropes that had been attached and were thrown over the beast. The attempt was to tie it down, and help the Boss in bringing the thing down to a manageable level.

The ropes were kept secure on the ship's end by the three commanders.

"Team Sho! Climb!" Sho barked out, his own team of six clones rushed up the ropes, actually running up the unsteady things while the winds above them roared and raged thanks to the jyouyou. Brief spurts of electricity ran through the ropes, but the clones paid them no mind, they were only minor attacks and could still be brushed aside as compared to the attacks that the thing was dishing out against the three elemental dragons.

One of the dragons was unable to keep its form after a nasty attack courtesy of the jyouyou. It was Ran's, and as her dragon blew up she, herself, was blown back against the main mast of the ship.

"Owie," she said, her body was tougher than a regular girl's body and thus she didn't really hurt herself that much with the hit.

"Don't just lay there!" Orochi barked at her, "Get back up! A jyouyou is perfect for us! Go for the gold girl!"

"H-Hai!" Ran shouted and got back to her feet.

Like her fellow teens, her teacher had given her weapons of her own, she may be a medic but that didn't mean that she couldn't wield something bigger than a mere scalpel.

Kenta had received a short sword, and an archery set, along with a spear which he left at the village. Michio had received a battle hammer and a pair of sai. Ran had received two thin swords, they were like needles, but like any blade, when coated in wind natured chakra, could cut through almost anything. Her blades had been given the names Kurokaze and Shirokaze, which mirrored how they looked while out of their sheathes.

She readied them, holding them in the correct grip, and not in the difficult to use reverse grip, and ran up one of the ropes. She earned the envy of her peers at her ability to go up and have her chance at the beast.

She ran up like an expert at chakra control would be able to. She was an expert after all, having perfect control thanks to the small pool of the stuff that she had started out with, along with her specialized training in the healing arts that required perfect control.

That was why Orochi was the chief medical officer, he was the clone with perfect control.

She made her way to the top, to the beast, and without wasting any time sprinted along its back, quickly making her way to the beast's head. She then took a leaf out of her leader's book and jumped into the roaring maw of the beast.

"NO!" Kenta and Michio shouted as they saw what happened to Ran, their loss of concentration cost them their dragons and flung them to the deck, which they hit harder than Ran.

The next thing everyone knew was that the whole head of the beast exploded in gore, and falling from the center of the explosion was Ran, her blades extended, making it impossible for anyone to doubt that she was the one to cause the explosion.

While the jyouyou's hide was tough on the outside, the inside, just like most any other living thing was soft. So she didn't really have much problems sending cutting whirlwinds and spinning her blades all over the place in the thing's mouth. It was gory as hell, but it did the job.

"That settles it," Naruto said, "Ran wins, now...SEAL IT!"

"Hai!" the clones that were still on the length and breadth of the massive serpent shouted as they unrolled a particularly large storage scroll as Naruto held the body in the air while using a combination of the three gravitational techniques that he could use with ease.

"FUUIN!" the clones shouted as they channeled their chakra into the large seal that peppered the storage scroll. A slight puff of smoke that covered the whole body of the serpent later and the thing was gone, leaving the clones hastily rolling up the scroll and sealing it into a much smaller storage scroll, before righting themselves and diving into the depths of the sea.

All that happening within the time it took them to go from standing to diving into the water, which was quite fast.

"Get back on board people!" Naruto shouted as he himself walked back to the ship, his clones swam, and Michio carried Ran whom he had caught as she fell, Kenta was helping the commanders bring towels for the drenched.

"Looks like we'll have to find another one," Orochi said as he somehow inspected the corpse they had sealed up, "With the head missing completely, we don't have the right tools for a mask."

"You medics can keep the guise of the serpent," Naruto decided, "But it looks like we'll have to go find us another one for the mask and added raw materials," he turned to one of the sealing clones, "How many more of those big ones do we got?"

"Enough for four more big ones, sir!" the clone replied after checking the supplies.

"Good enough," Naruto said, "Set sail, we're hunting snake!"

"Revenge against the Hebi-teme!" the clones crowed or howled as they prepared to go jyouyou hunting, if it were any other group of people, they'd be considered insane by this point, but Naruto...well...he was Naruto.

"Who's the Hebi-teme?" Kenta asked his sensei.

"Orochimaru," Ichi replied, "He was this bastard from before we met you, Boss' best friend killed him though, so its not really a big deal, but he had this snake that was a number of meters shorter than a jyouyou and a number of like sized snakes. One of them had the audacity to try and digest Boss."

"Oh," Kenta said.

"Yeah," Ichi said, "Well, looks like once we make land, we'll have to commission someone to upgrade our boat into a real ship."

"Guess so," Kenta said, "So where should I go from here?"

"Crow's nest," Ichi said, "Or at least atop the main mast."

It took them a few more weeks to get the remaining scrolls filled, this time with heads remaining intact. Naruto decided that to tell the future medical division apart from the rest of the village, they were designated the jyouyou as the mask of the leaders, and would wear mostly jyouyou or serpent and lizard uniforms.

After filling the large scrolls they didn't encounter any more of the serpents, Naruto hoped that the things were now wary of them or learned some new tricks if they weren't, seeing as the things were easy to catch once they figured out how to.

They had the proper passports to weigh anchor at the port located at the Southern tip of the Kingdom of Sou, no one suspected them for what they truly were, although people did wonder why in the world they walked around wearing such clothing. It was a mystery to many why someone would chose to wear such clothes instead of the normal outerwear.

Naruto paid the stares and questioning gazes no mind, while his clones continued their tasks. He ducked into an alley and created some new clones, ones that were like the commanders of his clones. He rarely ever made the regular kage bushin anymore. These improved versions were more useful than their predecessor in make.

He had them wear normal clothes and instructed them to learn whatever they could from the country, as much as possible before returning to the village by their own means. They were also to avoid suspicion to their true intentions.

It was an intelligence gathering mission, and the clones would succeed. They would succeed so well that Madara would not know about them and the truth about them. He wouldn't even be made aware of Naruto and his intentions as no one would think about informing him about the group in animal skins that arrived in his princess' country.

"I don't think we'll find anyone here," Ran said after going around the market district as was her assigned hunting ground, "I also found that they had amazing medical facilities."

"I've seen to that already," Naruto said, "We'll get what they know of medicine through some of our operatives who shall be remaining here."

"Oh," Ran said, a bit disappointed that she wasn't asked to join that operation since she really liked her specialization, "That's good to know."

"Yeah, well," Naruto said, "Knowledge is power, and we need more of it. Since I doubt anyone else found anyone to bring with us, we'll move on to our original destination of Kou."

"Great idea Boss," Ran said, "But how do we get whoever we manage to recruit into our ranks back to the village?"

"I'll think of something," Naruto said.

His clones were also assigned other places to search, but Madara had also started something in this country and thus finding any potentials was very hard as it were. There were very few that wished to join up with an organization they knew nothing about, and Naruto's forces tried to be as subtle as possible, keeping the entire truth out of the picture so that no one would find out about them, or find them for that matter.

They left the port town by way of purchasing horses, they were cheaper than kijyuu and easier to control due to their numbers. It was one Konoha-nin to one horse, and they bought some additional supplies for the people that they hoped to recruit into their ranks.

Getting to the Eastern border of the country was easy, just as was getting past the border and into the suffering land of Kou. Once inside the country, they were wished luck on their purpose by the border guards since there was a high chance that Naruto's group would not be returning to Sou.

They split up, going by teams, leaving Naruto on his own, while it wasn't the way he liked it, he didn't really need to be with an existing team since he could just create one for himself should the need arise.

Team Orochi went for the heart of the country, Team Sho was assigned the borders and would search the country in a spiraling pattern that would end with the capital so that they could meet up with the other teams. Team Ichi was to just walk in a random direction and hope for the best.

Naruto...well...Naruto just winged it. He used Kamui to randomly send him somewhere in the country. The three other teams didn't know where he did land in, but he didn't expect to land just in front of the kirin of the land. It was his first ever encounter with a kirin of course, one that was very much surprised to be face to face with him. Kouki was the name of the kirin, the ki in the name denoting that the kirin was male. He was so surprised by the sudden arrival that he almost bowed before Naruto, something which Naruto didn't want to happen even though he didn't really know the significance of such an act. Yet.

"You don't really want to be doing that," Naruto abruptly said to the kirin which did stop the young one from bowing.

"Huh? Why not?" Kouki asked.

"I'm not the one you think I am," Naruto replied, "Say, would you know of anywhere I can go that I might find some people in need?"

"Huh? Why?" Kouki asked.

"I'll looking for people that would willingly come with me," Naruto said, "Work for me actually."

"I don't know," the young kirin said, they were atop the sacred mountains, specifically the one that the kirin called home before finding a suitable ruler for the kingdom, "I think anywhere you go, you'll find such people."

"Well, thanks for the help then," Naruto said, "I'll be taking my leave now."

"Ok," the kid said, then changed his mind, "Wait!"

Naruto was just about to use Kamui again when the kirin shouted.

"Yes?" Naruto said.

"Play with me?" the kirin asked.

"Sure," Naruto said, "What do you want to play?"

"Tag!" the kid said, happily.

"Ok," Naruto said, "You're It," he tapped the kirin on the shoulder and bounded away, slowly.

Then ran around the courtyard that they were in until day began to turn to dusk, and one of the kirin caretakers approached them. The one that arrived called the little kirin over, and just looked at Naruto while wondering how he had gotten there. It was odd and strange, and not a natural occurrence that someone could just go into the place unannounced.

"How'd you get in here?" she asked him after the little kirin left them, but not before waving goodbye to Naruto.

"Accident," Naruto stated, "Well, I'd best be going now," he formed a single handseal and vanished from her senses, completely, he also left the mountaintop completely only to appear atop another mountaintop.

This one was a desolate one, not a single shred of life could be found there, unless one counted the kochou that were already swooping down for him. He really disliked those birds, they were a pain.

He whipped out some metal wires and laced them with wind chakra, the birds didn't stand a chance once he swung the things around and cut off their wings, among other things. There was a literal murder of the things, quite a lot of one single youma species in one place. He wondered where they had come from.

He hadn't sensed a shred of life in the place just before they appeared, and suddenly there were so many of them.

With his treasure trove of information, via memories, he decided that he wanted to try kugustu jutsu, or puppetry. He didn't really have anything else to do at the moment, and he did have a lot of raw materials to work with. He also knew how to fly in the sky thanks to dust element, his gravitational ones. He knew how to perform Deidara's clay techniques and Sai's ink ones.

He had birds in front of him, and it gave him the idea on how to get back home with all the people he was sure to collect.

With the materials at his disposal, he multitasked by creating a boatload of clones and had them each do something different, ranging from making clothes, adding seals to those clothes, creating the kochou puppet, and so on and so forth. It was a complete harvesting process, he wouldn't be wasting anything, if possible.

It took him half a month to finish what he was doing, that included mastering to the best of his ability how to control a puppet or more. He knew what Akasuna no Sasori had been capable of, and thus strived and succeeded in attaining that level of mastery. He had a kochou puppet that was three times larger than a regular one, he also had a carriage or basket like thing that could be used to carry people or things in it. He also had a number of smaller kochou puppets created, about three times the size of a regular crow. The reset of the things that he had done were sealed into storage scrolls that he created there using some of the skin and feathers of the kochou. There was a lot of spare everything.

He flew from that mountaintop and surveyed the land beneath him, he had a clone man the puppets that he rode on and flew all around him. He had his bloodline activated and stayed in meditation to better survey the life of the area he passed over. It was something he thought about when he took off from the mountain.

The signs of life that he found seemed to be managing to eke out a living of the declining land, so he didn't bother with them, and he perceived that they wouldn't have taken him up on his offer to go with him. So instead of looking for potentials from all ages, he looked for those that were teens and below. The ones that could get in trouble in the future if they weren't careful or mindful of the world.

Those that could use some guidance.

He failed in finding anyone that fit the criteria he had decided on by the time he reached the capital. Seeing him up in the sky with his murder of kochou really made it easy to hide his presence in the city since as soon as anyone saw him people rushed into their homes, to hide from the perceived youma threat. There weren't even any soldiers about to see about dealing with the youma threat.

The only ones that didn't run and hide were the Konoha-nins, they all rushed out of the city, followed by the new recruits that they had managed to scrounge up. The total count of newbies was 30 individuals total, quite a haul if Naruto said so himself.

The carriage or carrier was lowered to the ground first, the kochou puppet, Karasu, let go of the handles that it grasped onto to carry the thing. It was only once that was down did the puppet land along with all the smaller ones.

Most of the recruits were children whose ages ranged from three to ten, there were only ten teens, five girls and five boys. It was rather peculiar that they had managed to make it seem a bit like Noah's Ark when it came to the teens.

It was a wonder how all of them could fit in the carrier, but they fit. It was mostly thanks to all the seals that covered the whole thing.

The plan from there was for Naruto to head back the village via the sky while his original companions would take their boat, they needed it returned to the village as well. It wouldn't do for such things to be left laying around with no explanation.

That was the plan, and that was how things went. According to plan. No problems whatsoever, and they were grateful.

Had they remained in the capital of Kou, they would have had their first encounter with Akatsuki, but since they didn't, the two formerly opposing forces didn't get to have their first meeting there.

Once they all were back in the village, the children and teens were divided into groups for specialization purposes. He distributed his knowledge as evenly as he possibly could.

Years would pass before Naruto went out with a few teams to search for more recruits, but between then and now, his forces would grow stronger, just like the great tree that the administration tree house continued to grow into, thanks in part to chakra. The new recruits found it easy to fit in with the orignals, eventually forming the bonds that the old Konoha was famous for.

It was sometime during that in between time that the village began taking missions, though unlike Madara's way of doing things, Konoha took payments and not donations.

#

It took a while for Madara to return to the light, he had spent a few years in the shadows protecting the royals of Sou. It was rather troublesome, to quote certain clan, as he couldn't visit his friends as he wished. After one set of assassins had been taken out, another one would crop up.

Things had gone as he expected while at the same time didn't go as planned. Trouble just kept finding him, and it kept him from returning to the light for years.

When he finally did, he found out that Ritatsu was the only one that still trusted him, Bunki was distrustful of him due to the way they had last parted ways. He wasn't even allowed into the palace through normal means, it was a good thing that he had been such a good ninja, else he'd be stuck on the outside and his inside people wouldn't be able to receive new orders and such.

By this time he had realized that keeping all of his knowledge to himself was rather selfish and didn't really help his people. So he shared some of what he knew with his people, teaching them about chakra and its basic uses. This gave them trump cards against most foes they did face.

It was a turbulent time that he returned to after stopping the countless assassination attempts. It was turbulent due to someone deciding to link up the land of shadows with the light. With such a connection in play, the corruption in the land was made known and the kingdom as a whole began to suffer.

Madara had to coordinate with all of his forces, all of whom were scattered throughout the country to keep such negative things from having too much of an impact on the country as a whole. He couldn't stop everything from happening, but he tried to keep things to a minimum.

It was a good thing that he had such a good head on his shoulders since he managed to keep the country from losing its king at such a time. Business suffered, sure, as he made plenty of enemies. It went from there being much support for Akatsuki, to them becoming almost the enemy of the state. There was much distrust.

There were many shifts in power, and Madara didn't like it. The calm that Sou had about itself was beginning to wane, and chaos was beginning to set in. He had some second thoughts and doubts about his actions, but in the end had to quash those thoughts since to doubt oneself would bring oneself ruin.

He couldn't afford to lose, and thus fought even harder for the country that he had grown to love, along with the family that he had sworn himself to protect.

With the amount of distrust and dissatisfaction in the air, Madara knew that the clock was ticking, something big would be brewing, something that had the potential to shatter his perfect world. He wished that he had some allies, but he didn't. All he really had was his organization, a few clients, and Ritatsu, had he still had the trust of his princess he would have been able to gain more support and favor with the people, but as things stood, he was really on his own.

While he wasn't used to being in such a situation, he knew how to cope, how to adapt, for that was what a good shinobi did, they adapted. They evolved to suit the situation. So that was what Madara did, he transformed himself into the kage that he had become, and immersed himself in the shadows. He retreated from the light once he knew for certain that there was no longer anything for him there.

He became like Danzo, but with morals and the lack of unnecessary sacrifices.

It was during this immersion in the shadows that he saw the bigger picture, and he didn't like what he saw. While he wasn't about to change the whole world order, he knew that he had to be more steadfast in his protection of Sou and the stability of his world. He had to keep the peace by any means necessary, or almost any means anyway. There were still lines that he dared not cross again.

The king could only do so much, which was where he came in, he and his Akatsuki.

The underworld was gearing for war within itself. For a long time Madara had been at the top, but no longer would the other organizations and families stand for it. He wasn't chosen by heaven after all to rule in the shadow of the king, and he no longer had the favor of the royal family as they knew him to have had in the past. To the majority of them, his time was over, and theirs had just begun.

He should have been more thorough and ruthless against his enemies, not lenient like he had been. The world had changed him, while he had made it his world, the world had made him it's own too.

Philosophical banter aside, he had a position to hold onto, and a country to help keep stable. He had people to protect, and he would do his damned best to do it without involving the light any further.

He learned a few months before the underworld war began that he had lost his place on the registry where all the names of the immortals could be found. While he didn't like the fact that he could now die like anyone else, and that he would start aging once again, he knew that he still retained that bit of immortality that he had in his previous life. He still had those eyes after all. He would manage without some heaven granted form of immortality.

Due to the loss of his immortality, Madara was viewed as being more human and thus was more prone to attack and dying. But what his enemies found when they tried to take him out, they found that without any visible link to the royals, he could transform into a real monster, one that was just short of being called a youma.

He had three subordinates that he trusted enough to train even more than the others. Their training made them equal to if not better than the people they had unknowingly copied. The Kiri no Shinobigatan Nananin Shu or the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist, while they didn't look anything like the first batch of such a group, they had special swords, ones that had been made by them for them, ones that thanks to Madara's extensive knowledge of seals were granted special abilities.

In Akatsuki, they were the seven strongest a distant second away from Madara himself. They loved him as he was their teacher, a teacher who took them in and treated them as not only his pupils, but also his children. They swore to do anything to pay back the debt they had with him, the debt of life they owed him for giving them the life they had when others wouldn't have bothered with them at all, human nature was that others would have simply turned a blind eye instead of reached out to them.

War, he knew it well, but with the new climate, he had to balance how the war was waged, there was just too much potential for civilian casualties as his opponents were growing bolder and more confident that their actions would not call forth the wrath of heaven.

#

In a sense, both Madara and Naruto got what each wanted. For the time being, that is.