DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO, FAIRY TAIL, OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

Glad to see so many long and thoughtful reviews! Makes me happy to see that you guys are all interested and invested! Newest chapter here, and it sets up some pretty monumental things if I'm being honest. Anyways, read, review, and as always, enjoy!

Chapter 21

Kakashi had expected a summons from the Hokage, especially after what Gray had told him. Master Jiraiya had left with Natsu and Gajeel in tow on what was clearly a classified mission. So Kakashi was not fazed at all when he was forced to take a break from Naruto's training and attend some sort of meeting.

What did surprise him, though, was the amount of people in the conference room. Every major clan head was assembled, occupying the chairs around the table. Behind them, the more prominent Jonin and Special Jonin were standing against the wall. Even the elders, Homura and Kotaru, were in attendance. Kakashi knew immediately that this was something of larger scale than hed' first assumed.

Evidently, Lady Tsunade had yet to arrive, which was fine, as it allowed Kakashi time to work his way through the assembled shinobi until he found Guy. The pair stood behind the seated Shikaku Nara, the Hokage's advisor.

"You know what this is all about?" Kakashi asked quietly, his mask hiding his lips.

Guy shook his head, oddly serious for once. It seemed that even he knew that this was something big. "Not a clue."

"I'm sure we'll find out soon enough," Shikaku said in his raspy, turning slightly in his chair to observe the pair of them. The diagonal scars on his face gave him a fearsome look that added to his reputation as one of the legendary members of the Ino-Shika-Cho formation.

A second later, Tsunade entered the room in a huff, quickly followed by Shizune. She walked around the table and took a seat at its head, Shikaku directly on her left, and Hiashi Hyuga on her right. She leaned forward, her hands clasped in front of her while Shizune took up a position behind her right shoulder.

"I'm sure you're all wondering why I've called this meeting with such short notice," Tsunade began, receiving a multitude of nods throughout the room. "Let me begin by saying that this deals with a sensitive topic in our village's history: the Uchiha Massacre."

No sooner had those words left her mouth than the whole room began to murmur amongst themselves. Tsunade pounded her fist on the table, ordering silence. "We'll never get through this meeting if that continues to happen. Do all of us a favor and save your comments for after I've explained."

Sighing to herself, Tsunade ran her hands over her face as she began to speak. "In a small, hidden space in the floor of the Hokage's office, I have discovered a vital piece of evidence. It is unfortunate that the three men mentioned in these scrolls are not among us. The writings are from my predecessor, Lord Third Hokage, and are written by his hand.

"There is no easy way to say this, but the Uchiha Massacre was not only the single work of Itachi Uchiha as we all believed until now. It was orchestrated by none other than Danzo Shimura. Were Danzo not already dead thanks to Kakashi, we would have more than enough evidence to incarcerate him for life. In addition to that, the Council already knows much of this," Tsunade said, glaring at Homura and Kotaru, "but they are not directly responsible, nor did they issue any orders."

All of the clan heads and Jonin exchanged wary looks, most of them confused, others surprised. Some suspicious glances were given to the two elders, who remained oddly silent after the accusations were thrown out.

"Go on," Shikaku urged to Lady Tsunade.

"Right. It is true that Itachi Uchiha slaughtered the Uchiha clan, that much is indisputable. What took place before then, however, is what is under scrutiny. It is stated that both Itachi and his cousin, Shisui Uchiha, were working as double agents among the alienated Uchiha clan at the time. They had informed Lord Third about talk of a proposed coup d'etat from the Uchiha clan, led by Fugaku Uchiha himself.

"Itachi and Shisui knew that this would only provoke further war between the villages, and they sought to prevent this from happening. The both of them turned double agent for Lord Third and the rest of the Council, spying on their own clan for the good of the village.

"However, before they could complete their mission, Shisui was attacked by Danzo, who attempted to steal his eyes. He obviously succeeded in procuring one, according to Kakashi, but the whereabouts of the other are unknown. Itachi was then given an ultimatum by Danzo: save his brother Sasuke, or allow him to die with the rest of the clan. Obviously, Itachi chose to save Sasuke, and entrusted him to Lord Third for protection.

"Then, Itachi was assigned to infiltrate the organization known as Akatsuki, and turn their attention away from the village. I now suspect that their incursion into the Leaf three years ago was undergone by Itachi simply to keep the Akatsuki from getting their hands on Naruto. Perhaps he also wished to check on his younger brother and let Danzo and the rest of the Council know that he was still out there," Tsunade explained, eyeing the two elders while leaning back in her chair.

The room was silent for a few seconds until Hiashi, next to Tsunade, spoke up. "What are we to do with this information, Lady Tsunade? Are you proposing that Itachi Uchiha should be cleared of all charges?"

Tsunade shook her head. "I'm not proposing anything of the sort. I did, however, already dispatch a team to capture Itachi and bring him here for questioning. The truth of all of this must be gleaned from his own mind before we can accept all of it."

"Itachi still must pay for his crimes!" a voice called from the far end of the table.

Choza scoffed. "And what good would executing him do? The man killed his own family and alienated his brother. Simply letting him live is probably more of a punishment than death."

"I agree," Shikaku nodded to his old friend. "I would like to point out, however, that Itachi is still clearly loyal to the Leaf village, as well as his brother. If we could pull him out of the Akatsuki, we would finally have the information needed to take them down for good. And afterwards, the Uchiha clan would once again be safe in the Leaf village."

"You want to use his knowledge and then let him rejoin our ranks? Are you insane?" Kurenai asked in bewilderment.

"I understand your point of view, Shikaku, but Itachi has still committed crimes against countless other villages in the name of the Akatsuki, as recently as hindering our progress during the Kazekage's retrieval mission. If we were to accept him back into the village, we would be inviting all four of the other Great Nations to declare war on us for not executing him as a criminal," Kakashi said with a hint of personal bias. He'd been subjected to torture inside of Itachi's Tsukuyomi that was unimaginable, and he still dreamed about it.

Tsunade, who had been silent up to this point, watching how the debate played out, finally spoke. "While I understand both sides, as the Hokage, it is my duty to do whatever is best for the village as a whole. Which of the options is the best, I cannot discern as of right now. What I can tell you, is that Itachi will be captured and interrogated. After that, our top priority is to destroy every last bit of the Akatsuki."

The Jonin and clan heads seemed to take that as her final statement, and began to file out one by one. Once outside, Guy and Kakashi exchanged looks. "What do you think about all of this, Guy?" the Hatake asked.

The green-clad shinobi had been lacking in his usual energy ever since the beginning of the meeting. "With someone like Itachi, the stakes are always high. He's dangerous, yet from what we heard in there, he means no ill will towards any of us."

"Yeah," Kakashi sighed. "I guess it's too much to ask for the whole world to be so black and white."

Tenten was in a pure state of bliss. Well, if you could call sweating from hard training bliss. Gray had approached her earlier that day and asked if she would train with him. Of course, she'd vehemently agreed, even if she had no idea what the training would be. Though, she couldn't say that she cared, as long as she got to spend time with the ice wizard.

When Gray had explained that he wanted her to attack him, she was skeptical. Launching countless deadly weapons out of scrolls at the guy she had a crush on wasn't exactly her idea of training. But when Gray explained what he was going to do, she agreed.

Tenten started small, throwing a few kunai and shuriken at a time, but slowly increased the amount once Gray deflected all of them with ease. Using his Ice Make: Lance, he was attempting to split it into more lances, as well as use them to deflect incoming projectiles, such as kunai and shuriken.

Up to this point, He had managed to deflect or dodge all of them, so Tenten decided to up the ante a little bit. Unsealing a scroll, several dozen kunai were scattered through the air on their way to Gray. The ice wizard managed to create around twenty lances to deflect the majority of them, but he was also forced to dodge some of them. One made it past his defenses and gashed the upper part of his arm, splitting the white coat that covered it and causing blood to drip down.

Tenten's face was a mask of worry as she ran up to Gray. "Oh no, I'm so sorry!"

Gray waved her off. "I'm fine. I'll get it patched up later," he said as he removed his white trench coat to prevent it from staining any further. His shirt followed, which he tore up to make a tourniquet to tie around the wound.

Tenten blushed at the shirtless wizard, which he didn't notice, as he was preoccupied. "I'm sorry," she said again.

"Like I said, it's fine," Gray responded. His hand wandered to gesture at the x-shaped scar by his right hip. "I've had worse."

Tenten winced at the look of it. "What's that from?"

"No big deal. Just stabbed myself so that an opponent couldn't evaporate my ice," Gray shrugged.

"What do you mean?"

"I was fighting the daughter of my master. Her magic allows her to control the time of an object. So if I used ice, she could just melt it by sending it forward in time. But it didn't work on living beings, so I made blood ice."

"Wow," Tenten marveled. Gray was tougher than she originally thought. The guy stabbed himself so that he could win a battle. "I've got plenty of scars from my training with Guy-sensei, but I could never imagine having to resort to that."

Gray chuckled. "Guess I'm just stubborn."

"Guess so," Tenten laughed along with him.

After a few seconds of silence, Tenten looked into Gray's eyes. She had to shake herself so she wouldn't get caught staring. "So, um...do you want to keep going?" she asked awkwardly as she averted her eyes.

Gray shook his head. "It's probably better if I don't. I should probably get this fixed up. I could go for some food after, though?" he offered.

Tenten wasn't about to say no to that. "Sure! I'll just go with you to the hospital then."

Gray rested his coat around his shoulders like Laxus did as they began to walk back towards the village from the training ground. It was awkward for Tenten as she really didn't know how to talk to boys that she was interested in, since she'd never really been interested in one. Especially not the socially awkward teammates she was forced to put up with.

Luckily, Gray never seemed to notice that. His personality matched his abilities quite well, both cool as ice. "So what's the best place to eat in the village?" he asked.

"Oh, well, that depends. Choji would say that it's Yakiniku Q, the barbecue place. Naruto would say that it's Ichiraku Ramen, which you probably already know."

"What about you?" Gray asked with an inquisitive expression.

Tenten blushed again. "Well, there's this small dumpling shop in the center of town that I really like. It's really good if you have a sweet tooth."

"Let's go there," Gray said.

Tenten beamed. "Okay, yeah! This way!" she said, turning down a side street that cut towards the center of town. When she realized that Gray wasn't following her, she turned back around to see the ice wizard still standing at the intersection.

With an amused smirk, he pointed to his wounded shoulder, making Tenten drop her head when she remembered. She walked back up to him with a sheepish smile. "Sorry about that."

Over a month had passed in this strange new world, and still no sign of their friends. The entire place felt different, and yet, ether nano could still be sensed, albeit in smaller amounts. Pantherlily sighed as he walked back into their small base camp, carrying several large fish over the broad shoulder of his battle form. Happy was busy humming to himself as he adjusted the wood on the fire, adding more as it was needed.

The little blue cat's eyes lit up with joy, a little drool coming out of his mouth when he spotted what Lily was carrying. The large, muscled black cat placed the fish on the flat stone that sat atop the fire before reverting to his smaller form. The black cat watched with anticipation as the fish cooked in front of him.

Happy had grabbed one of them while it was still raw and immediately began stuffing his face. "See anything new?" he asked between bites.

Lily shook his head, placing his small paws on his hips. "Nothing new. I just wish we had any idea of where we are."

Truth be told, the cats would have loved to search for their friends, but without knowledge of the terrain, or even a map, there would be no telling which way they would end up heading. The wrong direction could send them even farther away from their still lost friends.

"Don't worry, Natsu will find us!" Happy assured, but Lily was skeptical. If even Natsu's nose hadn't found them by now, he doubted anything could.

As they ate, the sounds of the forest continued on as usual. Birds chirped, water ran, and squirrels chittered. Though the birds suddenly stopped at one point, and the squirrels had disappeared altogether when strange noises could be heard.

Happy's eyes lit up as he faced the new sound. To them, it seemed like someone was humming, and they were getting closer and closer, until the bushes on the edge of camp parted to allow a strange-looking man through.

He had dark skin, and his blonde hair was slicked back behind his head. He wore a white headband with a forehead protector, a strange symbol carved into the metal. His torso was covered with a sort of leather armor, and he wore white pants and sandals. On his back, several handles protruded out of something, and he rounded out the look with a white scarf and dark sunglasses.

"Who are you?" Lily asked in suspicion.

"A cat that's got somethin' to say, you don't see that every day," the strange man rapped in surprise.

Lily raised an eyebrow at Happy before turning back to the man. "Who are you?" he repeated.

"Eight Tails, that be me! The rappin' Killer B! Wee!"

Lily and Happy both deadpanned as they stared at the strange man. "Uh, mister, where are we?" the blue cat asked.

"On an island you be, as you can probably see," Killer B replied, pointing to the ocean that was visible through the trees.

Lily nodded. "Yes, but we were wondering where exactly. We're looking for some friends of ours and we seem to have been separated for some time."

"You're in the ocean, on an island in motion," B said, much to Lily and Happy's confusion.

"Right," Lily said, looking to Happy, who shrugged.

B moved his arms rhythmically, as if he were shifting to the beat of a song. "You two must have lots of fame, so let me get your names!"

"Pantherlily," the black cat said slowly.

The blue cat raised his paw in the air with pride. "And I'm Happy!"

"Blue and black talking cats, if I wasn't here it wouldn't be a fact," Killer B rapped in response. "With me you can roll, until we find your lost souls!"

Happy looked to Lily with confusion. "What does that mean?"

"I think he informed us that we can accompany him until we find Natsu and Gajeel," Lily translated.

"Right you are, now come with me, my place ain't far," B said, leading the way off into the forest.

Lily and happy shrugged to one another. The black cat grabbed his shrunken sword and secured it around his shoulders while Happy tied his green bag around his neck. They activated their wings and caught up to the humming man, who looked at them with surprise yet again.

"You cats can fly, now that definitely caught my eye! You'll fit right in, so long as you grin, fool, ya fool!"

Lily and Happy both facepalmed. They had a feeling that this guy's weird manner of speaking was going to get very annoying very quickly.

The door to the Hokage's office opened to allow Kakashi into the room. Shuzine stood in the doorway, having let him in herself. Tsunade's head rose, her eyes taking in the unscheduled visitor. From the look in his one exposed eye and the limited facial features within view, she knew that it had to be something serious. She quickly looked him up and down before shifting her gaze past him.

"Shizune, I'll talk with Kakashi in private. Go find your boyfriend or something."

The kunoichi shook her had and waved her arms, an embarrassed look beginning to show. "No, you don't understand, he's not my-"

Shizune never got the chance to finish, the door having shut in her face. Kakashi turned and approached the Hokage's desk with his hands in his pockets. She sat back in her chair and studied the white-haired ninja with curiosity.

"How is Naruto's training coming along? Can he master the new jutsu?"

Kakashi shrugged lightly. "If I'm being honest, I don't know if it's possible. The new training regimen is working very well, but not even Lord Fourth could master adding the change in nature to the Rasengan. I have my doubts."

"I see," Tsunade said simply. After a moment of silence, she realized that Naruto's training wasn't the purpose of his visit. "Why are you here, Kakashi?"

The Copy Ninja skirted the edge of the desk and walked around to stare out the window. After a few seconds, he sighed deeply. "I'm wondering about this whole Itachi Uchiha situation. I've fought him twice now. Are you certain that Master Jiraiya will be alright with just those two backing him up?"

Tsunade's eyes glinted as she smirked. "If there's one thing I've learned, it's that you don't get far betting against Jiraiya and Naruto. They're almost exactly the same, aside from the pervertedness. He's not one of the Sannin for no reason."

"I suppose we do have at least one advantage going for us," Kakashi commented.

"Oh?"

"From my first encounter with Itachi, I know that the overuse of the Mangekyo Sharingan causes deterioration in ones eyesight. There's no telling how far gone Itachi's is, or even if he can still see properly at all," Kakashi said, his mind wandering to his own Mangekyo.

A bit of worry crept into Tsunade's features. "What about you? The Mankegyo is also in that eye of yours, isn't it?"

Kakashi nodded. "It is. But I don't use it very much. Rarely ever, in fact. The amount of chakra it drains takes its toll on my body. Had I known about the blinding effects it takes, I would have uses it even less, though I don't seem to have any deterioration just yet."

"That's good. It's a valuable asset you possess."

Except I would trade it in a heartbeat to have him back, Kakashi thought to himself.

Gajeel hadn't expected much from the old man Jiraiya at all. Upon their first meeting, the guy's carefree and humorous personality seemed like he would be the type of guy to get in the way during a fight. But when he'd assigned the two dragon slayers this mission, he was all business.

After a few days of travel, they were in a small town between the Land of Fire and the Land of Stone. Resting there, they continued onwards, with more caution once they crossed the border. The Hidden Stone village wasn't exactly on good terms with the Leaf village, especially after the last war.

During one of their short breaks, the three of them all leaned up against trees that surrounded a small fire. Natsu decided to find out more about this guy they were supposed to capture, Itachi. He figured that the guy had to be tough if the old man had brought Natsu, but he just had to make sure.

"Hey old man, who is this guy Itachi anyways?" Natsu pried.

Jiraiya shook his head. "I can't give you all the details just yet. Wait until we have him back in the Leaf village."

"At least tell us how he and that other guy fight," Gajeel said.

"Alright," Jiraiya relented with a short nod. "Itachi primarily uses genjutsu, which is why I brought the two of you. Don't let that fool you, though. He's still extremely deadly without it, and he possesses the Mangekyo Sharingan, a higher form than Kakashi's. And he's much better with it than Kakashi could ever hope to be."

"And the fish guy?" Natsu asked, referring to Kisame, whose features gave him a shark-like appearance.

"Kisame Hoshigaki," Jiraiya said, stroking his chin. "He's one of the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist. His blade is called Sharkskin, and it doesn't cut, it rips you to shreds, so never let it touch you. Other than that, he is very proficient in Water Style jutsu, though I have never seen him fight."

Gajeel grinned. "Good thing he can't rip my iron," he said, patting his bicep.

Jiraiya smirked. "Yes, thank the Sage for that."

"Whatever, I'll just pound both of them into the ground myself!" Natsu declared.

Jiraiya looked at the both of them with intensity. "These guys aren't like anyone you've ever faced. One of them is called the Tailless Tailed Beast, and the other slaughtered his entire clan in a single night."

"That strong?" Gajeel and Natsu both asked, remembering their fight with the Tailed Beast form of Naruto. Who knows how long the battle might have gone on, or who would have one, for that matter, had Yamato not suppressed the Nine Tails' chakra.

Jiraiya nodded. "We will undoubtedly be forced into a battle, and it will be like no other you have experienced. Your battle with Sasori is something similar, but you won't have Sakura and Chiyo of the Sand to aid you this time."

Gajeel's head dropped at the mention of the old woman. The crucible of battle forged bonds like no other, and he still felt connected to the Sand elder, even if she had passed on into the afterlife.

The night passed with little more conversation, for the tone had shifted to a resolved and cautious one. Natsu and Gajeel both understood the stakes, but Jiraiya had the feeling that these two wouldn't be ones for subtlety.

The next morning, the three of them rose and continued their journey. Stopping in the next town, they discreetly asked if anyone had seen Itachi and Kisame wandering around. They finally caught the trail from an older woman who looked as if she watched the entire town for fun. Clearly the town gossip never escaped her.

Regardless of the source, they now had a concrete lead. It took them into the forest that headed east, following the dirt road that had been carved into the ground from years of travel. After a while, Jiraiya directed them into the foliage on either side of the road, so they would be more able to sneak up on their quarry.

Jiraiya perked up after another few minutes of travel. He quickly signaled to the two dragon slayers on the other side of the road that there were people ahead. As they approached, the Toad Sage saw two long, black cloaks with red clouds on them from between the leaves. He stopped when he drew even with them, the trees still concealing him from their view.

Gajeel and Natsu crouched on a tree branch on the other side. The iron dragon slayer morphed his right hand into a rod of black steel as Natsu prepared himself to unleash flames. On a signal from Jiraiya, the three of them burst through the leaves and onto the road, facing their adversaries with determination.

Kisame rolled his neck around like he always did after a sealing job. He and Itachi had holed up in one of the many Akatsuki hideouts to seal both the Three and Four Tails. It had taken longer than usual, due to the presence of two jinchuriki, so both of them were especially stiff.

"It seems like it takes longer every time," the shark man complained.

Itachi simply stood and brushed himself off. "It is to be expected. The loss of a member decreases the amount of chakra put into the jutsu."

"Why did that walking freakshow have to go and get himself killed, anyway?" Kisame complained, referring to Sasori. "It was only a couple of Leaf shinobi, how hard could it have been?"

"You shouldn't underestimate the Leaf. They are more capable than you realize," Itachi said calmly.

The Uchiha certainly spoke the truth. Not only did they have two of the Legendary Sannin back in active duty for the village, but Kakashi had grown more powerful from their first encounter to the second. They were tenacious, no doubt having something to do with the Will of Fire.

Kisame chuckled as he rose to his feet and secured Samehada to his back. "Whatever, let's just get out of this darkness, I need to stretch my legs."

Itachi said nothing as he accompanied his partner out of the massive cavern. The air outside was fresh and clear, not at all like the rainy and muggy day that they'd began the sealing on. They made their way down the small dirt path that cut through the forest, passing through a small village on their way. An elderly woman in the town square gave them dirty looks as they passed, but no one presented any trouble.

Emerging on the other side and back into the forest, the two continued to walk. After some time, Itachi began to tingle. He activated his sharingan, glancing from side to side without moving his head. Kisame had seemed to notice as well.

"Itachi," he warned quietly.

"I know."

Seconds later, three figures leapt out of the surrounding vegetation, trapping the two Akatsuki between them. On Itachi's side, two young men, no more than a couple years younger than Itachi, faced him. One wore a sleeveless black shirt with black studded boots. A leaf headband was secured before the mane of black hair that ran down his back, and his face was studded with iron. Strangely, his right arm had been turned into some sort of blunt weapon.

The other wore a dark blue long-sleeved tunic, the right sleeve missing. The Leaf's silver forehead protector was stitched into the sleeve on his left arm, and he wore sandals with baggy, tan pants. His hair was spiky and pink, and a fierce look shone in his eyes as his right fist was coated with flames.

On Kisame's side, he was staring at who was clearly one of the Sannin, Jiraiya. Their backs pressed to one another, the two Akatsuki prepared for a fight that was sure to demolish much of the surrounding landscape.

Shoutout to Giblenator for predicting that one! Now obviously there will be a pretty big fight next chapter, so be on the lookout! Drop a review if you have any comments or suggestions!