Silent Night

by Foy the Snooze Button

Not a sound. Not a flicker in the blackness of the void. Ame lost its Ghost and Darkness gained a Leader, a shinobi that the Leaf dares not cross. The People of the Dark, suffering under tyranny and ravaged by a civil war, look up to the Ghost for redemption. The Silent Night will be the one to show the enemies of the Dark the way to the quiet insanity of the void. Leader!Naruto

32. Chapter 32

Howdy ya'll

What's good?

GINORMOUS shout out to TheBrokenTool, Ragna, anthonym3, Yamajiji, TheKing91, Primarx, darkwolfz, firetemplar415, paulagustin101, CrookedKing1996, LeviDragon, Arraia, Tohka123, shinobinoyami16, 777torn777, Apocalyptica-sama, zerkses, Crimson Black Death, Saiyan prince1, TigrezzTail, Bakeneko, BigY1308, Darkwave20, Lokitazz0, David Ezequiel and skfff. You're all incredible :)

Take two!

Happy New Month!

Thank you all, my dear readers, for being so awesome.

Just a few side notes before we begin; it took Naruto a few hours to make it to Ame from Fire country. I think I said that close to the end of the last chapter (Chapter 31). I'm going to say it took Naruto two hours and some minutes to leg it to Ame with Yahiko's corpse on his shoulder.

Cool?

Ok!

The last side note is that, seeing as Naruto grew up with Nagato (and the other orphans, you know their names), he knows all there needs to be known about the rinnegan. As in, jutsus and basic abilities. Remember, in the last chapter I clued in on how Nagato and Naruto had many sparring matches when they were younger.

Enjoy…

CHAPTER 32

The gentle tap of rain on the roof and on the windows was the only sound that echoed through Nagato's room.

The bespectacled blonde nudged the door open and flagged for the two Ame ninjas carrying Yahiko's corpse to stay back. He entered the room and closed the door behind him with a mute click.

There was a king sized bed dead centre in the middle of the room.

The room had a lavish purple carpet and light red wallpaper.

There really wasn't much in the room aside from the bed.

Nagato was never one for designing.

Naruto padded into the room and stood by the bed.

Lying on the bed, in the centre and turned onto his left side, away from Naruto, was a rail thin, pale white body. The person had his lower half covered in a heavy green and blue blanket and his upper half was shirtless, exposing the black receivers wedged in his ribcages, arms and the hollows of his neck. His hair was greyish red and shaggy, more so than Naruto's, almost as if a comb hadn't gone through it since Naruto last saw him.

Naruto sighed tiredly and sat down onto he edge of the bed, exhaling with relief as his tired bones were finally allowed a moment of rest. The bed was soft and comfortable; Naruto could easily imagine himself spending the rest of this life sleeping on it.

He shook his head.

This wasn't the time for daydreaming.

That man lying on the bed breathed in and out, doing so not so loudly as to be heard over the rain outside, and Naruto could see the small heave of air from the persons spiny side.

Naruto furrowed his eyebrow and made to place his left Nagato's shoulder, but he stopped short, curling his fingers back hesitantly before he ultimately pulled his hand back and kept it by his sides on the bed. He sat further into the bed and fully turned around, keeping his back to the man lying on his side on the bed and facing the dreary, featureless dark wall.

He perched his forearms on his thighs and bridged his fingers.

Naruto finally spoke, breaking the silence.

"…Remember the time Konan stole sake from Jiraiya and dared you to drink the whole jug?" a smile tickled onto he corner of his eyes as he heard a short falter in the persons heavy breathing, almost like a faint chuckle. "You remember don't you, Naga?"

"Yeah, I think so…We were eleven, right?" the man replied in a raspy voice. "You guys never let me forget."

Naruto bobbed his head with a fond smile. "Two sips and you were already shitfaced." The blonde laughed lightly and briefly looked over his shoulder, at the red-grey haired man lying on his side away from him. "You were chewing on your underwear and flirting with your sandals, as if they were twins!"

"Pah, not true."

The masked shinobi chortled and shook his head at the memory. "You were always a lightweight, Naga."

"Jiraiya's sake was just too strong, that's all."

Naruto scoffed. "That old pervert always bought cheap, watered down sake. If you're looking for the strong stuff, you should have tried Tsunade's-"

The sickly Kage laughed, his shoulders trembling with humour. "Not unless you want me in a coma, Naru."

"I…" the muttered, unsure of himself. He cleared his throat and tried again. "I'm…angry with Konan, Naga."

Nagato raised an eyebrow, his back still turned to Naruto and Naruto's the same as well. "What did she do?"

"She admitted that she was playing with me-"

The Kage cut him off. "We were kids, Naruto."

"You know what I mean."

"Well…do you want to be angry with her?"

"Konan is my friend. My best friend. Her, you and Sueki and my best friends…I don't want to be mad at any of you." Naruto's eyes dimmed and a hard frown crossed over his face. "To be honest, I don't trust you or Konan. Right now…I'm seriously contemplating whether or not to kill you."

Nagato breathed in particularly heavily, saying. "I know you've heard this alot from her but…Naru, I'm sorry." He shook his head regrettably and tucked his hands under his head. "My whole life is one big screwed up disappointment."

"This whole self-pity routine isn't working." The Dark Leader snapped, then he tapped his chin thoughtfully. "I've already heard it all from Konan." He motioned over his shoulder, to the bedridden man. "But go on, maybe you've got some new material."

"…I mess up everything I touch and now…I messed up Yahiko's dream. Our dream."

"Why did you let that guy use you?"

"Zetsu or Madara Uchiha?"

Guessing that those were the names of the 'Plant man' and the 'Masked man' respectively, Naruto shrugged. "Both of them."

"…Truth is…I was tired of wars…of fighting…of watching good people die…" his bed sheets and blanket rustled as he turned onto his back, lacing his fingers on his abdomen and still having his blanket cover his crippled lower body. A wild bang covered the right side of his face and his thin, unhealthily pale face almost glowed in the dim lighting of his bedroom. Naruto didn't turn to look at his friend. "I…I only wanted peace. For once, I only wanted peace."

"It doesn't make what you've done any better." Naruto spared a glance over his shoulder and pointedly said. "You listened to those strangers over us, your own friends. Me, Konan and Sueki kept telling you it was a bad idea."

"And I regret not listening."

"Damn it, Nagato." Naruto spat. He pushed his glasses back up his nose and turned to look at his friend, snapping. "Look what happened to you. When was the last time you ate? When was the last time you were in the sun? When was the last time you looked in the mirror and asked yourself what the fucking hell you're turning into?"

Nagato could only sigh; the superiority complex was a face he put on before the Akatsuki he had reformed, and now that they were no more he didn't bother with it anymore.

The blonde released a tight breath, composing himself once more. "No sensible person wants war and no sane person wants to fight forever, Nagato. When we formed Akatsuki," Naruto said in a strong voice, firmly jabbing his pointer finger down onto the bedsheet. "The only purpose was to keep the peace in Ame. We didn't give a goat's queef if everyone around us warred with themselves, as long as Ame is safe and the people are happy."

Naruto had used that same mentality with Darkness.

During the Third Great Shinobi war, Naruto had made sure that Dark country was totally and completely uninvolved with the war.

That non-involvement with the war extended outwards to Darkness's allies; Kiri, Suna, Uzushio and River, and those other four places had become safe spots away from the carnage of war.

In the process of ensuring the protection of his country, Naruto had broadened his reach to his allies and spread Dark country's influence to make it a the continents Second Wealthiest Nation.

That selfish mentality of looking after only his people and his allies was what had risen Dark country to the top and increased Naruto's notoriety.

"Akatsuki is no more, Naruto." Nagato stated with honest finality. "Konan has defected, you have your own thing going on, Sueki is living her life and Yahiko is dead. I am not even fit to be the Amekage; these people deserve better."

"No, you're not fit to be Kage." The glasses wearing Leader said harshly, before he scoffed. "But unfortunately for you, you are Kage." he pointed away from the bed, to the window and at the millions of people of Amegakure no Sato. "Those people love you, for reasons best known to them. You still have time to redeem yourself."

"…You're not here to kill me?"

"Not after I saw how much those people depend on you. I had a…how do I put it…moment of realization."

There was a slight pause, until Nagato promised Naruto. "I won't let you down, Naru. Not again."

"Don't think about me, Nagato. Think about your people. Let me think about mine."

The red head then cleared his throat and asked. "What…what of Konan?"

"She might still be with Tsume." The blonde shrugged carelessly and leaned back against the headboard. "If she decides to come to my country, then I won't turn her away. It's all up to her."

"Would she ever forgive me?"

"…Again, it's up to her."

"Ah…ok."

"I'll see if I can convince my people and my allies to set up shops in Ame." Naruto said with a half-smile to the Amekage. "We can talk about passports, tourist accommodations and joint shinobi training later. I'll just have to see how trustworthy Ame is before I can decide to sign an alliance. It might take years for that to happen though."

"Naruto." Nagato said, breaking the more experienced Leader from his mini-rant.

"Hm?"

"Madara Uchiha took my right eye." He brushed his bang away to show a hollow, black hole that wept with blood.

Naruto whirled around to him with his eyes wide. "What?!"

"I was too weak to fend him off. I mean," he motioned with his one eye to his pale, frail and thin, bedridden form. "Look at me."

Naruto perched his chin on his fingers, sitting in a thinking pose. "That could only mean that Kisame didn't succeed." Not didn't venture into how Naruto had a spy inside his ranks. Naruto then looked at his friend incredulously. "How could you be so calm about this? You just lost an eye!" He flapped his arms wildly, tugging at his spikey yellow hair. "A rinnegan eye!" Naruto became frantic. "To some bat shit crazy guy that calls himself Madara Uchiha!"

"It could be worse." Nagato answered coolly.

Naruto had calmed down somewhat, rubbing circles onto the sides of his temple. "And how, dear friend, can it get worse than that?"

A gradual grin cracked onto the crippled Kage's face and he pointedly said, as if to make the situation any better. "He could have gotten both of my eyes."

Naruto groaned and Nagato savoured his best friend's frustration. "Will you ever grow up?"

"Dude, I'm forty." The Amekage said, huffing as he forced himself to sit up onto the headboard. "If I haven't grown up now, I probably never will."

Naruto sighed. "Alright…of course…yes…I see…" his left fist shot forward and his knuckles smashed clean against Nagato's face. The blonde rubbed his sore knuckles and shook the hand to regain circulation of blood, as Nagato held his now broken nose to hold back the fountain of blood pouring out, and laughed. Naruto shook his head, hiding his own smile. "Dumb ass." Naruto spat. He got off the bed and stretched his back, performing a few squats. "Why do I feel so old?"

"You look old too." the other man said, his voice buzzing slightly as he still held his nose together with his right hand. Nagato's only rinnegan eye flicked up and down Naruto's form, taking him in for the first time in twenty three years.

There was a light dusting of wrinkles on the corners of Naruto's cerulean eyes and a few flecks of grey hairs on his bright yellow head. His jounin flak jacket and his clothes weren't torn too badly, only a few scratches and tears here and there but nothing unfixable.

"I…don't know how I can help find that guy. All my paths…" he trailed off, before his one purple ringed eyes lit up. "I still have my Naraka and Animal paths."

"'Madara Uchiha' has your other eye, so we have to assume that he has them too." Naruto ran a hand through his hair and sighed, doing so more times than day than he had in months. "Just…sit tight, I'll find that guy and get your eye back." the corner of his eyes quirked down and he looked about the room, his arms akimbo. "Do you have a phone I can use?"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"This is it, boss." An Ame ninja said, showing Naruto a phone booth outside of the Amekage's Tower.

It had a clear, see through walls with bright yellow outlines. Naruto smiled to the shinobi that had directed him and said. "Thank you." He ducked into the phone booth and saw the kind of phone being used in Ame; it was an old school kind of phone, the one with a circular, rotating dial. There was a slot to pay with coins, which seemed to be the only sophisticated thing about that phone.

Most of the continent, Darkness included, had moved on from this kind of telephone and evolved into telephones that were smaller, less clunky and had dial pads. The rotating dial telephone before him was among the first three ever created and the dial pad telephone was the tenth generation. Dark country, of course, had phone booths and telephone towers spotted around the country, for those that needed a phone wherever they were.

There was a newer, smaller, portable phone being made. Equinox Communications, the network provider for Dark country, were in the process of creating what was going to be called a mobile phone.

It was scheduled to come out next year.

Naruto stared at the shinobi outside the phone booth, standing in the heavy downpour with rapt, wide eyes. He then realized himself and bowed hastily, fleeing and giving the man his space.

Sure, the phone booth was soundproof, but there was such a thing as reading lips.

Well…that was negated by Naruto's mask and his lack of having any lips to read, but still.

He didn't want to use any of the phones in the Amekage Tower because he simply didn't trust that his conversation would be private.

Naruto patted his pocket and retrieved his wallet, searching inside and groaning at himself when he couldn't find any coins but rather all notes, Dark ryu notes.

His eyes brightened.

Collect calls.

He tucked his wallet into his back pocket and dipped his fingers into his jounin flak jacket, pulled out a palm sized notepad and a pen, tucking the pen on his left ear and flipping through the notepad. A few page flips in and he found the numbers he was looking for, written in his hurried chicken scrawl of a handwriting on top of the other.

He took out the phone and perched it on his shoulder, leaning his right ear to hold it in place as he lifted his other hand to the rotating dial before him. He faltered and did a short prayer.

He didn't want to dial the wrong number, for if he did, then he would have to pay the phone bill.

His fingers went through the motions of rotating the dial and murmuring the number he was dialling under his breath, before he paused and waited.

Registering that no money had been paid into the phone booth, Ame's network operator assumed that it was a collect call. An expensive one, seeing as it was an international call.

Brrrr-brrrr…brrrr-brrrr…brrrr-brrrr…brrrr-br-

"Naruto." The masked man murmured when the network provider requested his name. He waited again as the other line clicked.

"Sensei?" Sueki answered slowly, speaking from the landline in their home. She then perched a fist on her hip and said, her pale face as stoic as ever. "Collect call? Really?" she scolded him airily. "I know you have the money, Naruto-sensei."

"I don't have any coins, Su." He replied, before he asked her. "Any injuries?"

"Nothing that won't heal." She said, gently running her fingers onto he stitched up wound on her left chest, from where Orochimaru had stabbed her. Her regeneration couldn't close the wound because it had been inflicted when she was having an allergic reaction, so she had to call a medic to tend to her once she got into the country. It was why she had fully unzipped her jounin vest, showing her long sleeved, black shirt under, which had the cut on the chest. "Oh, and I killed Orochimaru. I hope you don't mind."

She said it so casually, Naruto felt a sweat drop slid down the side of his face. "Is that so…"

"Yup, I pushed Kusanagi up his-"

"Ah, no." the blonde chuckled, amused that she wanted to give him the dirty details of Orochimaru's last moments on the phone. "Save it till I get home."

"Where are you anyway?"

"I'm in Ame."

Her eyebrows shot up into her hairline. "Ame?" she leaned on the wall. "So…you killed Nagato?"

"Sadly, no…I…couldn't bring myself to do it." he looked outside of the phone booth, to the torrential rain pelting down from the sky, to the steam powered vehicles ambling up and down the road and the people that unknowingly passed him. "Another problem's come up though. That masked man stole one of Nagato's rinnegan."

Sueki's eyes bugged out and he stood up straight, she tried not to yell, forcing a tight exclamation under her breath. "That nutjob has a rinnegan?"

"Yup, and Nagato doesn't know where his is."

"…Are you sure he isn't lying?"

"Bah, you should know how much Nagato loves that rinnegan. I'm pretty sure he's trying to use the one he has to find the other one."

"Ok, if you say so." The white haired vampire swept her hair over her other shoulder and posed a new question to her husband. "What do you want me to do?"

"Orochimaru has a lab here and I'm hoping to find a blood sample for that Masked man-he calls himself, Madara Uchiha, by the way-"

"Of course."

"I'll call a Kitsune scout to take it to you. Do what you can to track him but don't engage. At most, tag him but don't engage. Report back to me if you find him."

"Hai, sensei."

"If I can't get a blood sample from the lab, I'll get some trace DNA samples from Nagato's eye and you partner up with Komodo Dragon to find the rinnegan."

"Roger. What if he disappears again?"

"Let me worry about that. All you have to do is find his last known location; I'll take it from there." he tapped his chin, asking. "Where's Kushina?"

"She's with Kisame, in the hospital." At the unasked question, the BLAK Commander answered. "Kisame has fourth degree burns and Samehada took the worst of it. They're thinking of putting Samehada down-"

"That's Kisame's decision."

"Sensei," the woman whispered hesitantly. "The poor thing is suffering and Kisame is in a coma. He's stable but the doctors don't know when he's going to wake up."

"It's for Kisame to decide. Not any of us. Tell the doctors to do what they can for Samehada until Kisame wakes up, and if nothing has changed then give Kisame the option." The man made this order clearly and without room for argument. "Understood?"

"…Hai, Naruto-sensei…anything for you."

Naruto rubbed his creased forehead and sighed. "Su, I'm sorry-"

"No, its fine." she smiled a little. "The sword is Kisame's first companion. It's not our place to put it down."

"Thanks for understanding."

"Until you send the samples, is there anything you want me to do?"

"Send some of your people to check on Konan and Tsume in the Fire capital. Make sure they're ok."

The Dark Leader's student bobbed her head and made that note in her mind. "Done. Anything else?"

"Have you heard anything from Minato?"

"Nothing." Sueki responded with a slight frown and a lightly creased forehead. "The shinobi following Fugaku and his men have sent word back that the Uchiha have reached Clover Mountain, Minato's home, but nothing since then. I told the spies they could return."

Naruto scratched his chin reflectively. "That's…odd."

"It is." The vampire agreed. "Do you want me to send someone to Hidden Mountain to check on Minato?"

"What do you think we should do, Sueki?" Naruto threw the question back to his wife and his BLAK Commander.

"For Tsume's sake, I think we should get some people to check on Minato."

Being a former member of Akatsuki, Ketsueki Sakenomi was well-aware of the line that shouldn't be crossed; mothers, pregnant women and children are not to be used or tampered with in any way.

Tsume was about to be a mother and Minato, from what they could gather, was a responsible man and was fully committed to looking after his pregnant girlfriend, not in the least bit having the intention of fleeing.

Sueki could respect that.

Naruto could respect that.

Konan respected that about Minato most of all.

"You're right." Naruto conceded. "If there's anything we can do to help, we will."

Sueki felt a ghost of a smile float over her face. "I'll give the order."

"Talk to you later, Su~" he sand and was about to cut the call.

"Sensei, wait a minute."

"Hm?"

"After you send the samples, what are you going to be up to?"

"I'm tired of 'Madara Uchiha' somehow always having the upper with that doujutsu of his. Quite frankly, it's getting out of hand and I regret not doing something final about it long ago." The bespectacled blonde paused for a short moment, looking out at the vehicles tramping up and down the streets of Amegakure. "I'll be heading to Konoha to find out as much sharingan secrets as I can."

"From the Uchiha clan." his wife finished and Naruto nodded.

"From the Uchiha clan."

"I doubt they'll just hand over their secrets."

"I'll find a way to weasel what I want from out of them."

"If you need my help busting heads open, you know how to get me." Meaning, the Supreme Commander of BLAK seal on Naruto's right upper arm.

Naruto then closed his eyes and chirped. "Kiss for good luck…?"

The woman on the other end giggled, not even trying to hide her affectionately wide smile. She playfully tapped her chin and hummed. "I…don't feel like it. Kiss yourself, wise guy."

"Aww."

"Better yet, come and get it."

"You're tempting me Su~" the man grumbled darkly.

Goosebumps rippled over her body at her husband's feral tone. She readied her body, just in case the front door was kicked open and her man came running in to claim her. "If you come now…I'm pretty sure I can get Kushina to come home." She swallowed thickly and her fangs slowly descended down from her upper lip and her blood red eyes shrank into small dots. She licked her lips at the subtle growl she heard on the other end of the line.

"How about this," Naruto began, pushing his glasses up with the hand he held his notepad and tucking the phone's receiver closer to his ear, proposing. "When all of this is behind us…me, you and Kushina go on a holiday. Anywhere you want. No holds barred."

The vampire's answer was shrill and immediate. "Deal!"

"See you later, Su~" and he cut the call before his white haired wife could seduce him anymore than she already had.

It took him a moment to calm himself down.

Next, he dialled another set of numbers and the line buzzed again. There was a click and Naruto said his name for Ame's operator.

Half a minute later, there was another click on the other end of the line as his male Office Assistant accepted to take the charges for the collect call on behalf of his Leader.

"I hope you don't mind, Shinsuke. I don't have any coins on me; just notes."

"Not at all, my lord Naruto." The Office Assistant bowed respectfully as he dropped his pen onto the document he was reading and sat up behind his desk; his Leader was speaking to him, his attention should be entirely on what his Leader was saying. The female Office Assistant across from him perked up as she heard her fellow office worker refer to the person on the other line with that revered title. She also dropped what she was doing and listened in.

"Put me on speaker." Naruto said and Shinsuke, Naruto's loyal male Office Assistant pressed a button on his desks landline and put the receiver down onto the table. "Asuka, can you hear me?"

The woman named Asuka, Naruto's other Office Assistant, nearly jumped in her seat as her boss called her by name. "Yes sir, Lord Naruto. Loud and clear."

Naruto scratched the top of his head, saying. "I need you both to do a few things for me, while I'm out of the country."

Asuka was the first to speak. "Anything you want, Lord Naruto."

"I'm not sure when I'll be back, so listen carefully. First, Shinsuke," talking to the male assistant. "Have a Kitsune scout come to Ame to retrieve something from me. Write that down." the man dutifully did so. "Asuka, you go and tell Dr Yuma Nakamura to help look after Kisame. Also tell him to do what he can to help Samehada. Yuma can invite any specialist he thinks can make a difference." It was the woman's turn to scribble down her Leader's order into a hardback notebook.

Suna was the likely place a medical specialist for such degree of burns could come from. Dark country doctors could only handle up to third degree, where there was still a few salvageable flesh and salvageable bones. They, as in Dark doctors, could sustain the victims life if fourth degree burns ever happened but not to the extent of being able to heal the damage.

Fortunately, Darkness and Suna already had an agreement in place for the exchange of medical knowledge and providing medical assistance if or when needed. It also helped how much on good terms the two nations were and how the roads between them made travelling faster.

The specialist would be in Darkness within the next few hours.

"Sueki is going to send out some ninjas to Fire country. Shinsuke, I want you to buy a new landline and give it to that team; they are to hand it over to Konan when they get to the Fire capital, so we can communicate better with her and Tsume. Understand me so far?"

The two assistants bowed. "Yes, sir!"

"Asuka, put Makoto Gado and Nanako Hogo," clan heads and the Northern and Southern Defence Corp Directors. "On notice that there may be attack from the Masked man any moment from now. Tell them it's a Class D threat. They'll know what to do."

The two DC Directors were going to mobilize their forces, pulling a great chunk of their Defence Corp Officers out of the reserves list and placing them around and inside the country, encompassing all the lands under Dark country control, which included the Refugee camp and their water space. They would inform the Dark-Sand Joint Task Force, the ones that protected The Suna Farm, of the threat and they too would prepare themselves accordingly.

Class D level threats were threats directed to home soil that were on the same level as an attack from a tailed beast.

Or, in simpler terms, it was an attack from a person bearing the rinnegan or a tailed beast, not a jinchuriki.

The country would be put on red alert, though this wouldn't reach the citizens awareness. Not when the barrier seals were buffed up or when the seal covering the whole country became a little bit more visible as it became tougher. There were going to be more patrols from the Defence Corp and with the blizzard constantly looming over the thoughts of every shinobi of the country, they were going to employ higher ranked 'normal' ninjas-meaning chunin, special jounin and jounin-to be more vigilant.

People coming into and leaving the country won't necessarily be stopped and searched more than they normally were.

"Shinsuke," Naruto called the attention of the male assistant. "Ginko Suzumebachi," clan head and the Director of the Shinobi Academy. "Should also know about the Class D alert."

This was inform the man that more than the usual number of DC Officers were going to come with carriages and coaches at the end of the school day to accompany the students back to their homes, as close as they can get them to their parents and guardians. The Suzumebachi man would also tell his Civilian Academy counterpart of this declaration by their country's Leader.

The Shinobi and Civilian Academy in the capital were the only learning institutions in the country, not forgetting kindergartens and nurseries. The students came from all over the country, whether they were from the western, eastern, southern or northern region, or even from the capital. Commuting from their homes so far away was a small challenge; they had to wake up early and hit the road at exactly the right time to beat the bell. Carriages and coaches drawn by horses were faster than walking.

"That'll be all."

"Consider it done, my lord Naruto." Shinsuke muttered as he put the finishing touches to his notes. "We'll get to it immediately."

"Thank you for your hardwork, you guys."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Some minutes later

A random back alley

"Heyyy there lil guy, heyyyy there lil guy…" Naruto chirped as he rubbed the back of the small Kitsune's ear, relishing in the hyperactive yipping from the animal and the way its five fluffy tails wagged, despite being a bit damp from the rain. The man cooed, on his right knee and both of his hands fluffing the fox's head. "Are you here for the message?"

Yip-yip!

"You're here for the message huh."

It barked, hopping on its feet and nuzzling its head into Naruto's attentive hands.

The Kitsune scout that Naruto was so distractedly petting was a snow white creature, and the tips of its five tails were pitch black. Its eyes were a luminous shade of orange and its small claws, its ears and its nose were black, like the ends of its tails. The fox wore a black and white vest with a large Dark country symbol stamped on the back and on the right chest.

Kitsune were direct descendants of the Kyuubi no Kitsune, though they were less powered than the great beast and more friendly with humans. They were small, energetic and playful. Though with that gaily character, they were smarter than they looked and they were capable of communicating among themselves in low, near silent calls.

Naruto had met with the head of the Kitsune den in the Dark forest and established an understanding with the creature, doing so through hand gestures and understandable body language, seeing as there was no real translator for Kitsune sounds. The fox's weren't going to be used as pets or servants, and they were given free-though still limited-reign to go about the country, not blocked by the fence in front of the Night Forest and yet wouldn't be let into classified areas. The fox cubs and a few older foxes were getting too hyperactive for the oldest fox to manage, so Naruto proposed the country's shinobi utilize them as messengers.

The Dark Leader brought out a medium sized scroll from inside his own vest and sealed it into the Dark country symbol on the back of the fox's vest, petting the fox and laughing pleasantly as the animal pawed at his hand, nibbling his pointer finger.

Kitsune quite enjoyed this kind of treatment, even though it made them look like pets. The tall, blonde man before him was friendly to him and so he was friendly right back to the blonde man, who, from what he could understand, was a very important person in Darkness.

The fox balanced on its hind legs again, wagging its five tails.

Yip-yip!

"Hurry now." Naruto ushered the fox and the white Kitsune hesitantly ran back to Darkness, though not before licking the palm of Naruto's hand.

Oddly enough, it reminded Naruto of Tsuki Kurama, the Holder of Mania and possibly the weirdest person Naruto has ever met. That title went back and forth between Tsuki and Sueki.

Naruto closed his eyes and chuckled at that thought.

Sueki and Kushina had their oddities, personality-wise, and Naruto was the kind of man that capitalized on these oddities every single day of his life. Sure, he had a few quirks-he wasn't perfect, after all-but Naruto was nothing to them, if not a tease.

Reorienting his thoughts, Naruto placed a foot on the wall before him and he proceeded to walk up the wall, supported by his chakra.

He had been unable to find any blood belonging to 'Madara Uchiha' in Orochimaru's lab and so he had resorted to swabbing Nagato's eye for trace prints or samples, whether it was an infinitesimally small cloth fibre or tiny flaks of skin. When he was done doing that, Nagato surprised him.

Naruto wondered how he didn't notice that Nagato's other rinnegan eye was missing.

The Amekage blindly touched the bedside table and shakily retrieved a cylinder filled with a thick, yellowish brown liquid.

Floating inside the liquid was his other rinnegan.

The masked shinobi sighed and sealed the gathered samples into a scroll, tucking it into his pocket and crossing his arms.

"What are you up to?"

The eyeless redhead bowed his head and turned to the sound of Naruto's voice, raising the cylinder and saying. "Take it."

Naruto's answer was a curt, "No."

"I don't deserve to hold it-"

"No."

"This is my punishment!" Nagato finally exclaimed, angry. "You might have forgiven me but I cannot forgive myself."

The blonde remained silent, his arms crossed and the corners of his eyes curved down in a deep frown.

"These eyes…I don't know why I have them…but I have wasted their abilities for the better part of my life. I desecrated Yahiko's body, I divided us and I brought an end to the Akatsuki, the one thing the five of us built up from scratch. The allure of power overcame me and…and I thought I was a god…unbeatable and infallible."

"Are you aware of your position?"

The blind man scoffed and placed the cylinder down, close to Naruto. "I am a cripple. I know."

"You will no longer have power. The Amekage would be defenceless."

"I trust my people."

"Why are you giving it to me? Wait a little longer and I'll try to convince Konan to come back to get it."

"Because, Naru, you have had the power and the authority before any of us, and you never once used it to impose your will on others. Our people followed you before they followed us. You are the Leader of Dark country, arguably the most influential and the strongest country in the world, yet you haven't annexed or invaded. People tell Ghost stories. Stories of how you yourself are death incarnate." Nagato shook his head and pursed his lips, clenching the blanket covering his mangled legs. "You…you are proof that absolute power doesn't corrupt absolutely."

"…I'm not so innocent, Nagato."

"No one is innocent, Naruto." He sightlessly patted the top of the cylinder and smiled briefly. "Yet, I trust you most of all to not let this eye stain you." He sat back on the headboard of his bed and placed his hands on his laps. Now referring not to only one eye but to both of them, he said. "Do whatever you want with them."

Naruto had sealed the rinnegan eye into the storage seal at the butt of his ninjato, one he hadn't ever used until today.

The Nagato he knew treasured his eyes, to the extent that their circle of friends stopped joking about the redhead lending them his eyes.

For the Amekage to hand over his eyes to Naruto, as penance for breaking their little family up and tearing down the house they had all built, it meant that Nagato was truly apologetic for what he had done and wished to make amends, probably by ruling his people the way he should have.

Getting to the top of the building, Naruto was given a fairly good vantage point to look at the place he had spent his earlier parts of his life.

Ame had grown, more than what he remembered.

Though Naruto and his parents had moved to a small town in the outskirts of the country, close to the peak of the war in Amegakure, they could still clearly see the industrialized nature of the Village Hidden in the Rain.

The steam engines were a new addition and the metal and glass skyscrapers were more now than when Naruto was a child. The people dressed sophisticatedly and carried umbrellas to ward off the rain from their clothes.

Ame, similar to Darkness, was a secretive nation that hadn't allowed foreigners inside since the end of the Second war. Naruto wasn't very sure how the people had gone by and made money. He didn't know their economic strength and he didn't know the level of strength of their shinobi. But clearly from what he was seeing, they were doing well for themselves.

Nagato had not abandoned his village while he was Leader of Akatsuki, only that he had given most of the power to his council to do what they see fit.

The results would have been catastrophic-catastrophic like Konoha-if not for how much they feared their Kage like they feared kami.

Jumping from roof to roof, Naruto made his way out of Rain and towards Leaf.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ducking behind a bush close to the Uchiha compound, the Ghost hastily covered his mouth as he sneezed.

"Ach-" Silencing himself as soon as it rose up his throat.

His crystal blue eyes looked over his cover, his hands still over his mouth, and he exhaled in relief when the two Uchiha chunin in front of the clan compounds gate continued their murmuring conversation.

"This isn't the time." He warned himself under his breath, removing his hands and pressing them onto the ground, purposely digging his fingers into the soil and humming quietly.

The gatekeepers had their sharingan activated and even if they didn't, there was a whole clan of sharingan users that would see any blip of chakra approaching or leaping into their clan compound, and when that happened the alarms would go off without delay. There weren't that many sensors among the Uchiha, but their eyes compensated for this gap.

The reason his chakra presence hadn't been seen was that he had squeezed his chakra into the size of a ping pong ball, compacted not leaking even a shred of chakra out of his body. The excess chakra in his body was pulled back into his coils, leaving him with the bare minimum to move with the ignorable presence of an insect from the forest. Only people that had intimate knowledge of their chakra coil and chakra network could do this successful and still be in control of their bodies. For someone like Naruto that had a reservoir of chakra that equalled Kushina's in size-not disregarding additional chakra from being the Kyuubi jinchuriki-it had taken him years to master the skill of erasing his presence from the planet.

His chakra footprints were essentially non-existent.

Naruto's eyes spotted subtle seals on the walls of the compound, and correctly recognized them as detection seals.

Chakra or no chakra, once he touched them or managed to clear the fifteen foot walls in one good leap; the seal would detect him and make the clan aware of his presence.

Now Naruto was a sensor, so he wouldn't know if anyone was on the other side of the wall. What Naruto did have were natural sensory organs heightened by training, not exactly to the extent that he would equate himself with an Inuzuka clan member and not nearly close to Komodo Dragon's Taste sensor ability, but he could find a way around being blind with his ears and his nose.

He was also a level six seal master, one that could neutralize the detection seals on the walls of the clan compound once he was able to get his hands on them, though what he could see on the walls was that once his brush and ink made contact with the wall, the alarm would go off, meaning he had to apply the Negation seal quickly.

That was something Naruto could do.

It still didn't answer how he could confidently make sure he cleared the wall and not land on top of any Uchiha on the other side, for the nearest building to the wall was approximately ten metres away, a distance he could make in his chakra-less state but would be spotted soaring through the sky by almost anyone with a good pair of eyes, not to talk of sharingan eyes.

He looked to the sky.

It was a few minutes after one in the afternoon.

"Can't wait for nightfall." He mumbled; the longer 'Madara Uchiha' remained alive, the longer he couldn't let his guard down. he didn't have the luxury of waiting.

He crept around the wall, away from the front and only entrance into the compound and moved to the right. He looked up and his eyes widened as he saw a falcon circling above his patch of the forest. The man lowered himself close to the ground and pressed himself close to a tree, keeping his chakra coil insect-small and ignorable.

The beady eyed bird summons stared down at where he had seen large movement.

He waited.

Kawww!

The falcon flapped its wings and flew away.

Naruto hummed and lifted himself up a little, maintaining his crouch. He shot forward, skimming around the walls while still in the surrounding forest.

He stopped when he saw a thin smoke stack coming from a house inside the compound. Naturally, the house wasn't close to the wall but a fair distance into the walled off area.

Now, being the holder of the rare lightning-water formed Smoke release, Naruto could turn his body into smoke and make his way into closed off areas, unlike fire-water formed Smoke release holders from his clan, the Kemuri clan, who could only turn parts of their bodies at a time.

Shifting into his Smoke form took concentration but was well worth the effort, as he could seep himself through cracks in the wall, closed doors and non-air-tight windows. Basically anything that air could get through, Naruto could also get through. Things like stone walls weren't impossible as long as he found a fissure or hole somewhere in the structure that went all the way inside. Soil and trees though were things Naruto couldn't pass through.

The smoke stack showed an opportunity for Naruto to sneak into the compound undetected.

He mentally measured how high the smoke was above him, took into account the wind change and wisely not forgetting that the detection seal would notify the clan once his Smoke form had entered the compound through the smoke stack.

Naruto lilted from side to side, thinking of how to go about it.

The smoke was dozens of feet above him and was dispersing.

Naruto's eyes sparkled behind his glasses and he picked up a freshly fallen leaf on the ground, he looked around for a brief moment before he unsealed a brush and a small pot of ink from the back of his left hand.

No Uchiha had seen him and no alarms were going off.

Good.

He drew a timed Negation seal on the leaf that would shut down the detection seals on the side of the wall Naruto was facing for five seconds before it would turn to dust.

Leaves touching the walls were common, so the seals were able to differentiate between leaves, small branches, soil particles and rocks without lighting up with alarm, hence his decision to use a leaf instead of sealing paper. The ink of the leaf would be ignored, though if Naruto charged the seal on the leaf with chakra it would take the wall a short moment to find out. Naruto had accounted for this in his plan, as once the leaf touched the wall, the seal would activate, turning off the detection seals for five seconds and giving him a window of entry through the smoke stack.

Naruto snuck close to the wall, a foot away and he held up his right hand eye level, palm facing up and the leaf on top.

He held his breath.

He was silent.

He was still.

He waited.

The wind rustled through the woods and the leaf left his hand.

Naruto was already in his Smoke form as soon as the leaf lifted off his hand and flew to the wall; thinning his cells out to match the dispersing smoke from the smoke stack. The leaf slapped on the wall and the detection seals went down.

Rushing through the smoke stack was not unlike to swimming through thick syrup head first and propelling himself with his legs, though he had no legs at that moment.

Naruto stopped short of the chimney and flowed down to the ground, spreading his whole body out into a thin, almost invisible stream of smoke that gathered on the ground in a reptilian coil, swirling and rising up as more and more of Naruto seeped down the side of the building, until Naruto was complete again.

He promptly squeezed his chakra coils again and reduced his presence once again.

Naruto stayed in the shadows, flicking his eyes about and making his way into the Uchiha clan compound.

Clan heads houses could usually be found in the centre of the compound or at the far end, and in the case of the Uchiha clan, the clan heads residence was in the middle.

The house was wedged between two other houses on a row of houses, and it was only differentiated from the others by the golden plaque that read CLAN HEADS RESIDENCE and the noticeable fact that it was four stories tall, three times as wide as the normal houses around it.

The house had air vents at the back end and a chimney at the top that was working overtime to warm up the large house.

Naruto took the air vents and ended up in the basement, surrounded by big boilers and what Naruto could identify as a petrol powered generator.

It took him a while of searching and evading before he found the clan heads private library.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

There wasn't anything in the library that Naruto didn't already know when it came to the sharingan.

Able to copy jutsu, as long as they weren't kekkai genkai jutsu, capable of creating sturdy, detailed illusions on victims once eye contact had been made and highly proficient in accurately predicting the probability of an attack, counter or defence by watching muscle movement and the way the target cycled their chakra in the body. Though for the last one, he didn't know that the more tomoe the user had the more skilled the user and more specialized the sharingan. The limit to tomoe was three and to get activate the sharingan for the first time needed a monumental amount of emotion, usually anger.

Naruto didn't care for that.

What he cared for was the subtle whisper of the two elevated levels of the sharingan that the texts he was reading about.

They didn't say the names, but the more they ghosted over the topic of the evolution of the sharingan after the three tomoe stage, the more Naruto's interest was piqued.

The man's eyes flickered through another ancient tome. He wore a pair of plastic gloves on his hands, so as to leave behind no prints, and he was purposefully keeping in the shadows in case of surveillance cameras he couldn't see.

He pushed the tome back into where he had gotten it and pulled out another one, rolling it open and running his hands down the neatly written script. He paused on one particular sentence.

Indra found a way to use his highly evolved eyes to create fire that scorched as hot as the sun and that burned as black as midnight, lasting for seven days and seven nights without dimming or dying.

Naruto's frowned at the single word continuing under the sentence.

Amaterasu.

Indra, from all Naruto had gathered before, was the very first recognized person with the sharingan, and thus he was the Uchiha clans forefather.

Amaterasu sounded like something that could cause fourth degree burns, answering what had charred Kisame into a coma, though the tome didn't clue on how to cure a person that had been burned by Amaterasu. It simply said that it was an instant kill sharingan jutsu.

The black fire appeared where the sharingan person was looking, as long as it was within a thirty metre radius.

Another line got Naruto curious.

Paying homage to the goddess of the moon, Indra crafted an illusion that tortured Mana the Conqueror for twenty four hours, while in reality it was less than a second. The pain did not show on Mana's body but his mind was so broken by the imaginary torment he was unable to speak and unable to move.

Tsukoyomi.

That one gave Naruto chills.

Tsukoyomi was the ultimate sharingan genjutsu.

While there was a slim chance of breaking free with normal sharingan illusions, releasing oneself from Tsukoyomi was impossible, not unless the sharingan holder felt pity.

Also, in place of torture, the person using the jutsu can interrogate the victim, like when 'Madara Uchiha' had interrogated Chizuri Nagateko.

The name of the author of the tome Naruto was reading had been rubbed off by age but the person was undoubtedly an ancient Uchiha that had been ordered to record Uchiha's history.

There were clues of another jutsu for the unnamed evolutions of the sharingan but nothing definite, only a broken sentence.

-ultimate defence…skeletal projection…cannot be shattered-

The important parts had either been rubbed off or were blanked out by hand.

Naruto cursed and shook his head.

The author had written based on what he had seen from Indra Uchiha, so every sharingan jutsu was powerful and unbreakable. There was no comparison with other Uchiha, only comparing it with ninjutsu against those evolved sharingan jutsus.

"I've gotten what I need."

Information.

The Uchiha Naruto had met on the battlefield all didn't display any of the named jutsus but they were similar to what some of Naruto's people had encountered; Kisame with Amaterasu and Chizuri Nagateko with Tsukoyomi.

The last, mysterious ultimate defence was truly new to him.

There was also nothing written about any undetectable teleportation.

A tiny breath gasped at the doorway.

Naruto froze.

He slowly turned around and faced the three year old boy standing there, ten feet away and holding a large teddy bear.

The boy's large, reflective black eyes were wide and he was trembling with fear.

"How'd you get there, kid?" the blonde man asked, subtly pushing the tome back in its place on the book shelf and taking a hesitant step back. The only explainable reason for the little boy getting the door open before Naruto could hear him was that Naruto was too immersed in his mind.

He wasn't so on guard, then.

Naruto darted away as soon as the boy opened his mouth to scream.

"Mommy!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

At that same moment

Obito knew his limits.

Naruto was a person he couldn't hope to overcome, not on his own. Not even with his left rinnegan eye and his right sharingan eye.

He didn't want to do this.

He despised himself for doing this.

The dual doujutsu bearing teen shot a glance to the other teen next to him, a silver haired boy that had barely escaped Ame as Naruto was entering the rainy village and was swept up by the orange mask wearing male.

"Summon him."

Kabuto meshed his fingers together and flipped through roughly a hundred sets of hand seals. He was facing a coffin with the corpse of a faceless Ame shinobi locked inside.

"Impure World Resurrection."

The coffin banged open by itself, against Kabuto's mental command.

A pair of evil red sharingan glowed from the dark recesses of the standing casket.

The sparse light of the cave hidden in the Valley of End refused to touch his face, almost as if it was afraid of the resurrected corpse.

The person was in a red shinobi-altered samurai uniform, complete with shoulder plates, forearm guards, shin guards and a segmented red chest plate with a black long sleeved shirt underneath and deep red combat pants with black sandals.

Kabuto ground his teeth as Madara's fingers twitched.

Obito took a single step back.

Madara had his arms crossed and his powerful eyes stared deep into the dual doujutsu in Obito's eyes.

The atmosphere in the cave was turgid, too thick to be breathed in. Kabuto choked on what could enter his lungs and he clenched his fist tightly as the noise from his throat echoed through the densely silent cave.

Madara's eyes flicked to him.

Kabuto tried not to audibly sigh in relief as the corpse looked back at Obito.

The first question the undead legend asked was one Obito had been dreading since he made the decision to have Kabuto resurrect his former benefactor.

"Where is Zetsu?"

Obito swallowed thickly and his heart rankled in his chest. "…Dead."

"Akatsuki."

"Dead."

The Shodaime's face that rose up from Madara's chest, covered by the metal plates of his armour, opened its ghostly maw and soundlessly moaned.

The bearer of the most powerful sharingan eyes in the world only frowned, holding down his snarl and pushing the anger into his hands, closing them with a heart stopping crack.

"Who…" the man paused, his lips twitched and he clenched his teeth, evolving his eyes to the sharingan's highest stage. "Who is at fault?"

Somewhere in Obito's mind, he was shrank back again at the killer intent pulsating from the coffin, filling the area with Madara's potent, paralyzing hate.

The rectangular box containing the undead shinobi shattered and blew apart outwards when Madara flared his putrid rage again. The two younger ninjas had to lean forward and attach themselves to the ground as chakra washed over them, forming cracks along the walls and destabilizing the god tree behind him.

Obito had never faced Naruto one-on-one, neither had Kabuto, but they both assumed this was the same effect the killer intent of the Ghost had on their victims before they met their demise.

It was the killer intent that had given Orochimaru an incurable lung disease.

The one that rooted people into the ground, forcing their bodies to betray their brains, which screams and wailed at them to move, even only a little, before they fell back into the hollow oblivion of death at Naruto's hands.

The one that physically gripped the hearts of his targets and squeezed it of their life and vitality, reducing it to a pitifully thumping organ that turned into a ticking time bomb that counted down, to the very millisecond, the exact moment the person would embrace the darkness.

Darkness.

Ghost stories these days, especially the ones that involved the Ghost fighting against an opponent or on the battlefield, always seemed to be exaggerated.

They weren't.

Deep down in Obito's soul, he knew that no story teller could ever replicate Naruto's battle prowess.

That was why he resurrected the only known person that could nullify Naruto's raw power and his unfiltered speed.

Madara Uchiha, a Legend class shinobi that was rumoured to be on the same plain of existence as Naruto, the Ghost. A shinobi that had lost his humanity long ago, sacrificing his mind and body to his Ninja arts and perfecting his skills to a fine, sharp point.

Madara didn't appreciate the delay.

Obito grunted as his knees hit the ground.

Kabuto flopped onto his face and Orochimaru's former assistant's arms roared at him to push up against the intangible weight on his back.

"Speak, boy."

The younger Uchiha gulped in air and said, his voice was small but the chakra storm brewing inside the cave subsided as Madara comprehended the person's name.

"Naruto." He repeated under his breath and his expression hardened. "…Naruto…"

There were many 'Naruto's' on the planet, and yet only one face came to Madara Uchiha's mind. A wicked grin grew on his face and a deep rumbling chuckle thrummed through his chest.

"Where is he?"

For that, Obito genuinely didn't know.

Just about three hours ago, the connection to the other rinnegan was cut and basically disappeared off the face of the earth.

The only logical explanation was that it had been destroyed.

He wasn't aware that it was sealed in the butt of Naruto's chakra draining-and rumoured soul sucking-ninjato, Night terror.

The mechanics of the sword were known only to Naruto, but at that stage it essentially had its own chakra network. It had a small field around it where it constantly siphoned chakra into and around itself, thereby masking it and its holder's presence by lapping the chakra around it over themselves.

It sounded complicated, and it was.

At the end of the day, the sword had some semblance of awareness for its environment, though not enough to be the slightest bit semi-sentient but more than enough for it to be an extension of its holder, Naruto.

So once the rinnegan was introduced into the seal on the end of the semi-sentient sword, Night terror threw several layers of nature chakra from the soil, trees and animals over itself to mask the rinnegan in its storage seal. While at the same time spreading the power of the gods eye through its fledgling chakra network to thin out its existence by weaving it through the chakra already sealed inside it, which were mostly Naruto's and any unfortunate soul that was cut by the blade.

When asked if his sword could steal souls as well as drain chakra, Naruto's only answer was a darkly hearty laugh.

No one knew the truth.

And did it really matter?

Night terror was an S rank weapon, raised to that status by its very first holder.

Future holders of Naruto's fabled ninjato would find out that they could only scratch at the surface of the mind bending things the sword could accomplish, not unless the blade gave them authority to bear it.

For now, at that moment, Obito didn't know.

No one knew.

But the younger Uchiha proposed an idea.

"I know how to lure him out."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Five minutes later

Marvellous Mister Monsoon's Magic Emporium

Western region

A dark skinned woman in her mid-twenties with a gleaming pair of eyes and bright yellow hair that freely fell down her shoulders to her shoulders, waved a magicians wand over a black top hat and tapped the rim twice.

"And the rabbit comes out like this."

Tsuki's ohhh'd, enraptured as the Kemuri woman pulled out a snow white bunny from the hat but Kushina Uzumaki only rolled her eyes alongside Shimara Kuma, not impressed.

"I still say there's a storage seal in there." the Uzumaki scoffed and ran her hands down a small section of robes, multi-coloured pieces of cloth that were expected to draw the attention of the crowds away from the magician's hands.

The woman that was known in BLAK as Phoenix huffed, affronted. "I just showed you that there wasn't a storage seal in the hat." She pushed the rabbit back inside and shoved the hat in Kushina's face. "See? See?"

The holder of Mania clapped, pleased. "Who taught you that trick?"

"Koru." Also known as Komodo Dragon. The blonde Kemuri black operative smirked proudly. "He gave me a few pointers."

Kushina slapped the hat away from her face. "Invisible ink."

"Gah! Can't you just be amazed like a normal person?!" the dark skinned woman exclaimed, throwing her hands up in frustration. Tsuki turned to Kushina and cocked her head to the side, her innocent brown orbs wide with the same question as her newly friended magician friend.

Kushina shrugged. "I'm a sceptic, Nina. That's how I was raised."

"What's your excused?" unmasked operative Phoenix, now called Nina, asked their boxer friend.

"I grew up around seal masters and magicians. You can't blame me if I'm not impressed."

"I think," Tsuki opened her mouth and said. "That neither of you know how to have fun."

Kushina gasped and placed a hand on her chest. "I'll have you know I do know how to have fun."

"I don't believe you." The Kurama crossed her arms. "Lord Naruto is a fun guy, I'm pretty sure you didn't take your boringness from him."

The two other women, Nina the Phoenix and Shimara the Boxer, rolled their eyes. Kushina's best friend directed Kushina's attention to an assortment or magical wands, one of which had a bouquet of flowers that could pop out at the end.

Nina took Tsuki's hand and looked at the obliviously innocent girl. "Tsuki, honey, that was rude."

"What? I'm just being honest."

Listening to Naruto, especially when he joked that she was a loser that had no friends, Tsuki managed to contact Shimara and asked her if they could hang out and do 'girls stuff'. She didn't know that the aforementioned 'girls stuff' involved perusing products in a popular magic shop with Naruto's wife and a powerful Kemuri woman, who just so happened to be deep into magic. The three ninjas just so happened to be temporarily enlisted by the Defence Corp and posted to the street the magic shop was on. Shimara and Nina still had their commitments with BLAK, and that came before being unofficial DC Officers, but when it came to protecting their country, there really wasn't a difference in the two Dark country military organizations.

It wasn't that Tsuki didn't like the few magic tricks Nina showed her, a few simple card tricks and crafty slights of hand. Quite honestly she was enthralled by it all.

It was that she was envious of Kushina's position as Naruto's wife.

Second wife of two, but who cared.

The little human contact she had had not taught her how to properly hide her envy.

Nina's eyes lit up and she grabbed Kushina's hand as well, dragging her and Tsuki, and by association Shimara, down more aisles and to the end of the shop, where there were numerous large contraptions. Nina almost fell on her face roughly four times on the way there, tripping on her feet and having to be supported by the civilian Kurama or the ninja Uzumaki.

The clumsy Kemuri didn't relent and even someone as carefree as Tsuki or as emotional as Kushina could see how hard Nina was working to prevent the two of them from butting heads.

"How about I show you guys something I've been working on-"

BWAAAAAAAA...BWAAAAAAAAA…BWAAAAAAAAAA…BWAAAAAAAAA

Not wasting a single second, Kushina lifted Tsuki onto her shoulder and bolted out of the store, Shimara and Nina followed behind her with their heads lowered and their eyes narrowed, dark.

Alarms didn't normally blare in Darkness, not ones that the civilians would be aware of, as that would create panic and might end up causing hysteria.

Silent alarms.

That was what was used for threats that the country could handle, against public knowledge.

Loud, public alarms went off only when the attack was in full view.

Leaving the shop, the sky above the capital, east of the western region, was bathed in blackness.

Kushina spat out a foul curse, one so terrible that Tsuki, on the Uzumaki's shoulder, closed her eyes and plugged her ears in embarrassment.

Black flames.

The black flames covered the sky of all of the Dark capital, melting the seal barrier and falling down.

The three Kunoichi all had their orders given to them beforehand.

When they reached an intersection, Nina flew left and Shimara flew right, sliding their masks onto their face in sync and joining their comrades in calming the people down and directing them to safe, heavily protected bunkers on their streets.

Kushina pelted hard on the gravel road, blazing at an angry pace to the capital. Tsuki squealed as Kushina took off from the ground.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" a plume of smoke shrouded the purple eyes Uzumaki and Tsuki gasped as she was dropped, falling into the arms of the summoned shadow clone, which landed on the ground and took a hard right, the closest regional bunker that wouldn't have that many Kurama, wisely recalling how a simple touch on the Mania holder would release the beast.

The seal masters saw the red head take off from the ground in one, good jump and they spread themselves out in the Dark capital.

Kushina held up her palm to the sky, where the black flames began a shower of devastation aimed at turning the whole capital into ash. She was dangerously close to the fire, close enough to feel blisters pop up on her leading arm and on her forehead, internally warring with jinchuriki healing ability.

The Kyuubi jailer roared, as a chakra chain drew a seal on her leading palm and the seal shone with life.

"Fire Sealing Method!"

The screaming civilians watched as half of the flames pouring down on them was violently sucked into Kushina's palm.

Reaching the peak of her jump, Kushina lifted up her forearms to cover her face but a solid punch connected with her cheek before she could guard her face and she shot down to the ground in an explosion of light.

Kushina crash landed in Mito's Grassland, smashing down on her upper back. The Uzumaki, jarred from having her jaw nearly torn off her face, used the angle and momentum of the fall to use her hands to push off the ground, narrowly dodging a descending axe kick, that subsequently formed a crater in the ground.

The redhead panted as she righted herself, keeping her right eye closed and exhaling air through clenched teeth. The woman yanked out her katana from over her shoulder and lowered herself into a kenjutsu stance, hacking out a glob of bloody spit from her mouth.

Kokuo, the Five Tailed Horse, galloped to the woman holding his older sibling, miles away and yet able to clearly see the events that had occurred.

Madara swept his hands to the side, blowing away the dust around him and Obito appeared in an invisible vortex of air.

"Do it." the undead Uchiha barked, eying the defiant Uzumaki with his sluggishly spinning Eternal Mangekyo orbs.

Obito held out his right hand, closed in a fist, and slowly opened it.

The rinnegan jutsu left his lips and he threw what was in his hand high into the sky, the strength of his arm made the throw boom like a canon.

"Planetary Devastation."

For when Nagato had both of his rinnegan eyes and his Senju blood intact, he could create his very own planet that was about the same size as the earth and more than a few heavenly satellites.

Bearing only one rinnegan eye and part of Hashirama's chakra, the rinnegan jutsu was not as large as Nagato's.

That didn't mean it wasn't monstrous to behold.

Clumps of rock and earth cracked out of the ground, damaging the grassland dedicated to Naruto's late sister, and thudded over the black sphere that pulled everything towards it, utilizing strong attractive forces to rip the ground apart and drag it in.

The ground beneath Kokuo lifted up and flew to the growing satellite.

The tailed horse cracked open its maw and a ball of chakra gathered there. it began firing sporadic shots of tailed beast chakra at the sphere in the sky, destabilizing it with each blast, until the miniature Tailed Beast Balls broke through to the centre of the mass in the sky and interrupted the pulling energy of the core.

Kokuo slammed up into the rock in the sky, just as it lost power and the rocks and earth forming it fell apart and began raining down.

The horse dug its tails into the rocks and released another ball of Bijuu chakra, giving him a path to leap out of and bound from falling rock to falling rock, continuing its mad gallop for the two Uchiha that intended to set Darkness on fire.

Not on his watch.

Obito, seeing his jutsu nullified by the fifth most powerful tailed beast, crafted ten more and threw them in random directions.

Defence Corp Officers were rounding up the people and taking them to safety, to safe zones reinforced to stay in the ground despite the attractive forces yanking their world apart.

Tall buildings tore out of the ground, homes and offices, playgrounds and libraries, flew up with the ground and slammed into the black core in the sky, enlarging at an alarming pace.

Madara, not seeing what his protégé had done and the destruction being wrought, engaged the flame haired woman in a deadly dance of fists and steel.

Kushina crossed her katana over her chest, blocking a straight fist, and her knee burned upwards to Madara's gut, though the Uchiha slapped the knee down and back handed the other knee away, throwing Kushina off balance and making to jam a fist into the back of her head, but the woman twisted around with the momentum of the back fist to her knee and batted the blow to her head upwards with the flat side of her katana.

Kyuubi chakra coated her right fist and it tunnelled mercilessly to Madara's unprotected gut.

The undead Uchiha tucked his stomach in and moved aside, snapping a low kick that connected with Kushina's ankle and lifting that leg, snapping it into the side of the woman's head. The redhead followed through with a one handed cartwheel, gripping her blade with her other hand, and then golden chakra chains exploded out of the ground and honed for Madara.

The Kyuubi jinchuriki ran her left forearm guard under her nose and her blood smeared on the guard.

A bruise was forming on her cheek.

Madara slipped away from chain after chain, before he grabbed Obito by the back of his neck and said. "Return to the cave, before that vampire and the lizard kill that snake. Eliminate them."

The dual doujutsu bearing teen dutifully left in a kamui, to where Kabuto was fleeing from Sueki and Koru-also known as Komodo Dragon-through the network of caves beneath the Valley of End.

Kokuo became frantic.

He had been able to take apart two more Planetary Devastations, but the remaining eight were doing real damage really fast.

The shinobi of the country were coordinating themselves and protecting the civilians, the more powerful among them were stampeding towards Mito's Grassland, to where Kushina was squaring off against Madara Uchiha. The half of the chunin that stayed back-Defence Corp, BLAK and 'normal' ninjas-rushed to specified buildings around the country and mounted complex looking contraptions.

Chakra Canons.

Inventions created for the purpose of bringing down aerial threats, flying floating, levitating or otherwise.

The ninjas manning those terrifying weapons made of metal and capable of bringing down monsters the same size as Bijuu, aimed upwards into the sky, at the growing satellites eating away that their precious country, and they fired.

Thooooooom!

The beast didn't know whether or not to continue taking apart the satellites, which became harder and thicker as they accumulated more and more debris, or to aid Kushina in the almost one-sided battle. If reinforcements arrived in time, it didn't mean they would stand a chance against the undead legend.

Kokuo snorted out thick steam from his nose, frustrated.

Falling down from the sky, after ripping apart his third satellite, the Five Tailed Beast realized one way he could equal the score.

A Legend class shinobi by the name of Naruto.

The Ghost.

The seal on his chest glowed black and his front hooves landed softly on the ground.

Summoning jutsu!

For two seconds, the Dark country knew silence.

There was a palpable pressure in the air, a chilling shift in the wind.

…Then Naruto returned to Dark country, a mass of blackness around him and a hard look in his cerulean eyes.

He didn't look happy.

Side Info

Chakra Canon; Not wanting to leave anything to chance, Naruto commissioned the Inventors Department of his Civilian-Shinobi Division to make a weapon capable to targeting and dropping or destroying assailants that could fly or attacks that had managed to get through the country's barrier seals. (They look like rail guns). The 'canon balls' are three seven foot long cylindrical casings with conical tips that were loaded with devastating exploding tags. The first version of the Chakra Canon was made and the Leader of Dark country funnelled more funds into his Inventors Department to do further research and build more, making them better and more durable, thus reducing reloading time and improving accuracy. The person charged with shooting down the threat would aim and the Chakra Canon would impute the details of the target into the 'canon ball', which would allow the 'canon ball' to doggedly hone in on the target.

The Leader of Darkness then charged his Fuinjutsu masters-who had an official 'membership-based club of sorts' within the Shinobi Division-to make the explosions more refined and to see if they could reduce collateral damage, centring most, if not all, the damage on the target. The group of seal masters returned with a seal they called Inverted Exploding seal. It was basically that when the 'canon ball' hit the target, a quick barrier would be formed around the target to contain the blast and reduce damage. The shockwave inside the barrier was capable of dislocating limbs and the heat of the fire could turn flesh to ash.

This invention reduced the need for Dark shinobi to waste chakra throwing jutsu into the air, which had less of a chance at hitting their target. Shinobi needed special clearance to be able to even sit in one of Dark country's thirteen Chakra Canons, not to talk of fire them. Class D threats (Bijuu and the rinnegan) were the only class of threats Chakra Canons were permitted to be used against.

The country was making headway in improving the designs of the Chakra Canon and the 'canon ball' itself.

Authors note

I felt like putting that last part in.

So…what do you think of this chapter?

Drop a review, would you so kindly. Please stay safe, wherever you are in the world, and I will see you when I see you.

Foy.