A better world - A retell of the Naruto World and his life

by Watsi

A small butterfly effect from previous decisions and actions changes slightly the course of history. See how the world's story, and of one blonde kid will be transformed thanks to the actions of the past, giving it a different and, hopefully, better outcome. OC adopted Naruto, Smart!Naruto, Fem!Sasuke.

9. The Third War and how it concluded

Halloooo!

I don't own Naruto nor his verse!

This is going to be a LONG, like, longer than the last one. Chapter, mostly because the 10th is right up the corner and this has to be the stepping stone for character relations and events that will affect the future.

I still don't know what the length of the others will be, mainly because I have the story planned, yet I still have to flesh out details, I don't want this to be a slideshow, at least not after Naruto is born.

And, if you are here, thank you so much for reading, I would kiss ya on the cheek.

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For the map I am basing myself on, search for Euraniel's map of the Naruto world!

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And before all, let's address things:

Ancient Sith Tulak Hord: Thank you for your words, mate, I will keep on writing and be sure that it all meshes so you can enjoy a good story! :D

Now, with the Naruto question, he will be similar to how we know him, but... More intelligent. He will not be an edgy person, but he will be less idealistic, as will have a father figure.

And the Tailed beasts have been constantly enslaved after the Uchiha reunited them, all on Jinchurikis ever since the start of the 1st war.

mastercheif1229: Alright mate, two votes then, it is official then, imma now being planning the events for 'em. And thanks for following the story!

Thank you again, mate! :D

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In the end there will be explanations for things marked with asterisks "(x*)"

And I'll put on parenthesis explanations or words that will be used interchangeably with some terms :D

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Remember, any comment, any opinion, any doubt you have, leave it on the reviews! I will personally answer them in the next chapter or Private messages!

And now with the story:

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On a certain place, higher than the skies:

A priestess was looking at what could only be described as a monster.

It was a perfect sphere under a valley.

It had no railings, for the people that inhabited the place knew how to control their chakra to not need it, they walked on the polished adamantine walls of the place.

All to trap that.

And why was she here?

She, Hutaba, felt the need to do so, to look at what happened, if something occurred at all.

She saw the ominous core of the satellite they lived on, the sphere where the major threat to all chakra-based life lived.

The ten guards around it, on the frozen core of their home, were calm, they were, after all, some of the first users of Ninshu, the users of the Tenseigan of the first generation; those who helped Hamura build the civilization here. They were in a long slumber, prepared to carry their duty one day.

Seemingly everything was in order.

Probably the words of the other priests were true, she had probably gone bored and her mind was playing tricks.

Yet something had struck her off, she swore there was a spike of energy from there, enough to make her visit this ancient machination of the most power-hungry demon that had set foot on the solar system.

Kaguya Otsotsuki, their antecessor.

This was her skeleton, her remains, a ball of spent chakra, with faint remains that it absorbed from the surroundings like a body absorbs radiation.

The Gedo Mazo, this was why they were here, doing warden job.

It was safe, immobile.

[What is happening?] - She asked herself.

Everyone on the order knew what was to be done, how to examine her, the hundreds if not thousands of adepts capable of doing that were so common that each family had one; yet apparently, only she felt something weird flowing from the earth to the statue.

Her byakugan examined it from the top where those disgusting promontories of natural chakra had formed after the crown of the Land of People Kaguya once wore; to the bottom, the feet eerily reminiscent of those on a normal human save for the claws it had.

The statue grumbled though, it was chained, forced to remain as a ball forever, contained by the gravity of the Moon and the will of the people there for as long as there is Otsotsuki in the moon, it couldn't break free.

Ten thousand years of progress they had made, it shouldn't change.

Yet suddenly, the statue smiled and pointed towards the priestess.

She was young for an Otsotsuki, barely 43, she wore the white cloak and khaki ornament over her bare body, like the rest of her people, along with a staff made from the wood of the Gedo Mazo itself.

She was ready for fighting any menace.

But she felt so terrorized.

For another spike of energy got out into the creature.

She had never heard of something similar happening, ever.

The guards suddenly moved, their full body armor screeched at their movement, and the light of their tenseigans, of the 100 pairs there was: flared over their helmets.

Their Naginatas pointed to the statue, yet it kept smiling at the priestess.

"Young one."

Those words had enough energy to make her cry, the emotion that came after the shock of chakra that even the guards felt was overwhelming.

It was the Gedo Mazo speaking to her.

How could she not be overwhelmed?

"Be prepared."

The sentence was enough to almost break the soul of the priestess who was hugged by one of the guards, injecting chakra into her to keep her conscious.

A burst of maniacal laughter came from the statue as it suddenly stood up, creaking its chains and almost destroying the spherical prison she was in.

The almost unrecognizable language the predecessors of the current generation spoke still carried profundity, they were surprised to see the statue moved.

They jumped, using their spears to pierce the skin of the beast that kept laughing.

When the Tenseigans moved rocks to impale it, and to drain its chakra, the statue disappeared, letting the attacks clash against each other.

The priestess fell to the ground, not knowing what to do.

The guard holding her preceded to get the helmet that covered her face-off, it was eerily similar to the Hyuugas on earth, but with a Tenseigan on one eye and a byakugan on another, she looked motherly and caressed her while speaking in a forgotten language.

Yet she was deep on the thought that they were devastated.

And it was true.

Word soon came to the sensors and then rallied to most people on the vastness of the Luna (moon).

The people on the moon suddenly fell into civil war over the matter that they knew what happened, someone on the earth had invoked the Statue.

Who could have been?

It didn't matter, the war was going to decide what they would do, if they were to invade the Earth to make sure it was under control again, or if they would destroy the planet in order to stop Kaguya.

People on the moon would kill each other over this, attempts at going to the earth to do something were stopped, and the countries formed on the moon devolved into incoherent blobs of fighting groups.

The old guards decided to keep to themselves, they remained next to the priestess, who along with a young one named Toneri, began scouting the planet below them, as they didn't want to fight their own, and they knew, even if their people destroyed themselves they would have to keep going on, their duty as protectors would drive them forward; so they waited.

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And what happened on the Earth?

They were recovering from a war, to go to another.

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The first thing to change after the Second Great Shinobi War were the trade routes.

Kumo and Konoha took the place of Kiri, but Kumo, whose merchant navy had been bolstered by the spoils of war; took on the role and became the bank of the world, with money enough to seclude themselves, creating a moderate yet powerful and modern army.

Kiri struggled, inner problems damaged what could have been the most powerful of the villages, yet they did not fall.

Iwa kept themselves repopulating, training their troops to again overcome with pure skill the overspecialized tree huggers.

And Suna... As the Odd-one out, remained a wild card.

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The next thing was the Chunnin exams, for the lack of alliances and Konoha having annexed or puppeted a good amount of their neighbors made it so no one wanted to trust each other with knowledge of their power.

And a young Minato knew he had to be strong to win the local competition even if it didn't include those in other places.

He was not a normal kid, his only goal was to create a better world so that his beloved ones did not suffer, and the village he loved remained strong.

His emotions, personality, all hidden from everyone save his loved ones, of which one was a certain red-haired girl from his class he fell immediately in love with.

Kushina Uzumaki corresponded to his feelings, inviting him to meet his parents soon, who thanks to the intervention of Konoha in Uzushio hadn't died and got to reunite with her child, who would take him almost as a kid.

He would learn sealing with them and would see how a second kid was born from them.

Their respective teams would grow and know each other.

And Minato would get to understand the secret of Kushina, for she had a fox on her, the nine tails, who, previously tamed by Mito Uzumaki, would even go as far as to give Kushina portions of his chakra in certain cases

This would make the blonde kid even more attached to what he saw as an important token of his beloved village aside from the greatest woman she'd met.

Eventually, Minato graduated from the academy, his years of ignoring social life in favor of training paid off, his grades becoming the best in the history of the village.

He would then go on to train under Lord Jiraiya fully after the Chunnin exams he would win against the Ino-Shika-Cho trio.

His friend, Teuchi, would go on to become a cook, ditching Ninja life after becoming a Chunin.

Mikoto would grow a crush on Minato, yet she would become betrothed to Fugaku Uchiha, the leader of her clan, thus she would leave Minato, who would promptly begin dating Kushina.

Hiashi would remain forever a friend of Minato, but he would have to close himself in his later years thanks to the need of him to take his role as clan head.

The redhead, thanks to her fuinjutsu prowess would rise to the rank of Tobetsku Jonin at the mere age of 14, just as Sakumo retired to be with his son, Kakashi; not before striking at Sunagakure, killing a pair of famous puppeteers, leaving a certain Sasori orphan.

At the same time, Minato would go on and become a Junior Jonin.

And he would take on a genin team. An orphan from a civilian mother and an Uchiha father who died on a mission after his first birthday, the son of Sakumo, and a daughter of some immigrants from the Land of grass.

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Orochimaru, with his wife, would have a normal life until she got pregnant with his child.

This would be an incredible notice from an orphan like himself, he could raise another human with the one he loved, yet she had a complication, a lethal one.

She wasn't going to survive childbirth.

The Snake tried hard to find a way to fix the issue; his wife would die the moment she delivered the baby.

He pleaded to Hiruzen for knowledge about sage mode to try and use esoterical chakra theories to save her.

He would try to contact Tsunade.

He went as far as to experiment with Hashirama's cells, the Sharingan, and Danzo to find a way to save her.

All the knowledge of how to cure, how to experiment on people was on him; he went as far as to kill leaf ninja in his attempts.

But she would deliver a healthy baby girl. Anko, whose last name, as Orochi lacked one, would be from her mother; Mitarashi.

And after hearing the first 'bah' of her child, she would close her eyes, giving her last heartbeat as the neonate grabbed her mother's breasts for comfort.

Orochi got overrun with grief, he cried for days. He finally accepted Jiraiya's shoulder to try and save himself from the sadness.

He for long tried to discover the secrets of reviving people, contacting old gods, all for nothing; the Edo Tensei was an alternative, but he could not yet crack it, and if he asked Hriuzen he would investigate, and discover his killing of members of the village.

Trying to find a will to live, to serve after losing everything, he left his kid with Nono Yakushi and wandered off Konoha to find a way to achieve immortality, for he would try to protect her for all of his life.

He would experiment on children at the orders of Danzo for this, but he stopped after trying on one kid, a certain one that would acoplate almost perfectly to the cells of the First Hokage. The kid would be named Kinoe by the elder.

Eventually, he found knowledge from the snakes of Ruichi cave, and learned, even if he couldn't understand how to get sage mode, he won over the heart of Manda and the Matriarch of the Snakes, Hiretsuna, letting him get to know the ability to shed oneself's skin and create copies of bodies with chakra to inhabit.

With this, he would never grow new powers, but he could forever protect his little Anko.

Though after many years would eventually return to the village, to find a small girl reminiscent of her mother.

The happiness of finding her would fill Orochimaru, devoting himself to protect her.

Anko would forever think that Lord Orochimaru was just his master, his sensei, as he would go on to become his Jonin sensei along a certain Tetsu Hyuuga and Baga Ise, seeing the man as the overprotective teacher who wanted to squish their energy to make them useful weapons for Konoha.

The cruelty of the man would still be there, forcing her to be the strongest, to keep herself alive even when he wasn't near her.

But the lord of Snakes would see every night his child would train until fainting, to return her to the arms of Nono Yakushi, the new head of the Konoha Orphanage; or her bed once she grew to be a full-fledged ninja.

And he again recovered the will to work for Konoha, for the safety of his kid.

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On other sides of the village, Fugaku and Mikoto would go on to have a kid, who would almost and go to be the reincarnation of Ashura, save for the detail that the previous one was still alive, roaming the world.

Jiraiya, still in love with Tsunade, would prefer to take care of the village, where he would be known as a great benefactor of the kids, as he would donate half of the money gained by his series of Erotic books... And also a pervert due to him being Jiraiya.

People like Shisui, Might guy, Asuma, an entire new 'pack' of people from the Inuzuka clan, newcomers from Uzushio that built a shrine (compound) outside Konoha and many more people would fill a village, the hegemony of which would be prevalent with their image of a big family.

After her sister, Tsuita, and brother, Futo, had become ninjas, the latter of which would go on to become a chunnin in Konoha, Kushina retired, preferring doing lighter jobs, as a guardian of the village, and auxiliary teacher of some of the kids.

Other countries perceived all of this as a weakness.

Family did not make good soldiers after all.

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With this going on with those in the innards of the village, outside things would become again dark.

Takigakure after 20 years of Konoha domination would begin showing signs of rebellion.

Danzo Shimura would go on personally to take control of the village, drinking the Hero's water to then kill any opposition.

This would create an internal war in the village, which would prompt many to flee to Konoha after Danzo razed the once-mighty village, leaving it as only an outpost of the Leaf, not even a vassal village.

Fearing he might suffer the same fate, the Village Head of Yugakure (Hidden village the Country of Hot water) would surrender to Konoha fully, much to the dismay of a certain Raikage, who would sign a treaty with Iwa against Konoha; and a certain Hidan, who would leave the village in favor of wandering the Elemental Continent.

Kakuzu the Immortal would go to thank Konoha for killing people from his old village before parting to the rest of the continent, finding on his ways the so-called Hidan, becoming his traveling partner.

On the Rain, Hanzo became senile after one night someone struck at his dormitory.

He was replaced by a certain Nagato, the celebrity of the village.

But internal strife from the supporters of the child of Hanzo would come, sending the entire country, the fourth most advanced one in the whole world just behind the Snow/Fire, Lightning, and Uzushio: to go into Civil war.

Ninja from the secondary villages began feeling disdain for the central government, with some abandoning them altogether, becoming a rogue ninja.

The Samurai began to appear on the higher echelons of land armies and even the sea forces, calling the Ninja useless on common war.

Clashes between the two groups flourished.

Old rivalries would come on again.

They needed a scapegoat, or the Land of Fire would end up in civil war.

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News like Konoha and the Land of fire building the first freeways and massive railroad networks would be outshined by again a notice of bad changes.

A month later, forces from Kirigakure sent from the Land of Rivers would occupy the south of the Land of Rain.

Both were familiar countries to the Fire even if the former was an ally of the Water.

Civil unrest grew as some saw how the materiel imported from the Rain began to be even more scarce.

Others were preoccupied with the Tea and Woods, who were at the mercy of the Water.

Konoha had to react, this was their opportunity to divert the hatred between ninja to enemy nations.

They sent their Jinchuriki of the Seven Tails, Katatsu Aburame, along with an entire Three thousand ninja and Fifty thousand-strong Corp of infantry to the land.

It was to be a quick, decisive victory against people not on their best element.

But they had snatched knowledge from the Uzumaki, using seals to trap entire sections of the enemy army and then use their puppets as force multipliers to kill groups separate from others; slowly killing them, and using their majestic ability to use wind-covered blades to cut through anything to destroy the army of Konoha.

Sasori of the Red Sand would thus ambush him along with the armies of Suna and Kiri by using the biggest encirclement of enemy forces the world had seen since the Senju-Uchiha war days.

His armies of puppets, winds severing the earth to create ravines to stop the retreating enemies, and the surprising help of some forces from Kirigakure made it a carnage for those from the Fire.

Then the Mariners from Kumo struck the rear end of their army, annihilating them before parting to invade the Land of Tea.

Konoha was soundly defeated.

Using this moment of weakness Kumogakure invaded the Land of Hot Water, and Iwa the Grass.

Every major country had invaded the Fire, and the neutral bloc this time wouldn't help them.

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Tactics:

Konoha got desperate. their main forces defeated, the Nanabi roaming free as her companion had died.

They risked rebellion within their own forces if they kept losing.

Their main rival was Kumo, the navy of Kirigakure was soundly defeated early on in the war; and Iwa was struggling to get past the armies of Kusa, reinforced by the famous pikemen of Uzushio, who had dedicated itself fully to their allies.

The soldiers of the sand would be unable to act outside their country and their foothold on the River.

Sasori, mad at his Kazekage for his inaction at the risk of getting his troops defeated if far from the comfort zone: decided to kill him and rush to the frontlines himself, but he would get soundly defeated by Sakumo Hatake himself, who after failing to advance his troops in order to make them repeal further invasions; would get shunned by his troops, to the point that he retired, and committed suicide.

Rasa was elected as fourth Kazekage, and he, despising the idea of attacking Konoha when the rival of theirs was Iwa, declared war on them too, leaving some breath for the Leaf.

Sasori thus decided to abandon the village altogether.

And those from the smaller villages would be struck from the others, the Fire too preoccupied from the invasion of the other great nations did not decide to help them, so they banded in smaller factions; war was more brutal thanks to this.

With that, the first year concluded.

On the onset of the second, the third Raikage would march with his armies but would go to strike at the heart of Konoha's infrastructure and supplies, the Land of Rice, who fed the armies on the north.

He smashed the lines of fire with their superbly equipped soldiers, meshes of armor with delicate plates enough to deflect both bullets, splinter, and even mitigate some of the damage caused by kunai.

Iwa would rush to link with them, Iwa sent its free Jinchuriki, Roshi, and most of their Anbu just to break the lines of Commander Danzo Shimura on the Northwest.

They would reunite on the south of the Land of Iron, ready to strike at the North Village (Kitagakure), the second strongest vassal village of the Leaf.

Fugaku Uchiha led a contingent of troops comprised of the reserves of Konoha including a lot of genin and struck at their weak right-wing to stop the enemy from linking and destroying both the last army of The Rice and Kitagakure.

The ocular jutsu of the Uchiha proved devastating to the Iwa troopers.

Massive asteroids from the Champion of the Kurama clan devastated enemy lines; entire ghost battalions formed by genjutsu disrupted tactics.

Assault companies, famous for being a mess or organization but the heaviest punch from Konoha slammed themselves against the enemy, making chaos that managed to pit some Iwa forces against those from Kumo so they could escape the madness.

When the main forces of Konoha sought to strike Kumo's brigade they got surprised by a force of Sunagakure troops aiming to kill the heads of the respective armies; Rasa wasn't going to risk the victor being too strong after the battle.

Fugaku wasn't able to summon the Susanoo, he lacked the genetic marker to do so, but he commanded hordes of soldiers from the Hagoromo clan to destroy the base of the enemy armies, their officers; sending them in a disorganized mess which the forces of the Fire exploited making them retreat until they reached the bridge that connected the Land of Fire with the Iron.

From the 150 Konoha shinobi and 5000 soldiers sent to trap that section no one survived, but neither would the armies of Iwa and Kumo, who routed to their homelands.

The battle of the Kikyō Pass would go onto history.

No one declared itself the winner, but this proved to be the stepping stone for the Fire as Fugaku repelled the invasion of the northern smaller countries and convinced the Samurai armies from the Land of Iron to aid them, so in some months, the three other great villages were expulsed out of their recently conquered domains on the Rice, Iron and most of the Waterfall.

For this, the Uchiha clan leader was hailed as a war hero, candidate for the position of Hokage, and gaining the Wicked-eye Fugaku moniker.

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In communications after the matter, the Third Raikage would get notice of Oonoki's baffling hate of those who had managed to defeat him, bashing against even his own troops and apologizing for not being strong enough, and even saying that he should lead the troops to victory. Pride.

After this, he demanded the Raikage to be better next time, and destroy the rice completely.

This lack of honor and respect in the Raikage's eyes, who valorized it as much as his own country, and getting notice of Iwa troops fighting Kumo troops on the battle, would make it so they ended their alliance with Iwa. "A small man with small values is not good for a great pact." - Was the justification of A.

Oonoki insulted and felt confident as they made progress on the Grass; declared war on the Lightning country who had the balls to challenge him and his country.

Unbeknownst to them, this whole affair was fabricated by Jiraiya and Orochimaru in an attempt to better the odds of the village by splitting their enemies.

And it paid off.

Soon they could rest, their casualties were patched by employing genin on support roles, and their superb medical corps, all ignoring their total superiority in manpower compared to their enemies.

Uzumaki that had run from Uzushio and trained on the Land of Fire was employed too, their fuinjutsu prowess and chakra reserves proving overwhelmingly positive for the defense and logistics of a country.

During the last months of the second year too, Might Dai, appointed to his son's genin team, was legendarily set on the history of Konoha as the Eternal Genin who personally killed four of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist on the Land of Rivers, an action for which he would be set on the epigraph of the Memorial stone of the Fallen Heroes of Konoha as he died on the fight.

This defeat made it so Kirigakure shifted its focus from the lands near the Great Nations to those on the peripheral zones, so they decided to strike at the neutral countries, to great effect, taking the Benizu island and establishing the Land of Waves as a puppet from which to raid the coasts of the people on the main continent.

But it all couldn't be played on the grand scale.

Grand battleplans often fail to see what happens below, so they needed...

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Direct action:

Minato Namikaze, despite having its role as a Jonin teacher of the late Silver Fang's son: Kakashi, along with Obito Uchiha and Rin Nohara; decided to let them in charge of Kushina for training as he personally asked the Hokage for control of a platoon (~50 shinobi) from whatever clans and specializations and Kushina's brother, as his attache for the traps he planned to use, and because it was close to a brother in arms after the time with Kushina.

This, unnatural for a country that had problems assembling armies due to the sheer variety of its forces and the small specialized teams they used; was seen as a show of craziness from the blonde.

But he was one of the strongest shinobi from the village, arguably as strong as Jiraiya, yet much, much faster even when ignoring that he had learned the Hiraishin, which he tried to teach to everyone on his unit.

So Hiruzen gave him his forces, and Shimura gifted him a kunai designed specifically for him; the other elders sent their select people to help him; namely the Inuzuka clan head, Gaku, to act as his second in command.

After that, he went to the land of Hot water to intercept not the army of Kumo, but their magnificent elite-chunnin forces that kept the cohesion in battle and coordination of even their semi-uniform teams alive.

Thus the force of Minato set traps for them, they hunted them, sent a few kunai, ran, surrounded the enemy segments, and then the Namikaze would use the close distance between targets to teleport on their inner lines among some close-quarter fighters and demolish the enemy forces.

The famous kenjutsu of Kumo was no match for a Fireball striking at their faces and the user disappearing shortly after.

Nor could they escape from barrier seals, sound muffler seals, hidden troops underground.

Overall, one of the best displays of the use of real ninja arts.

No one could stop Minato and his group of people, which every time they lost someone, they became seemingly stronger.

They would go on to be known as the Lighting Mirage Platoon, and Minato as the Yellow flash.

Jonin-only forces were eventually sent to hunt him, but once a Hyuuga, an Inuzuka, or whoever had sensing abilities got a hold of the enemy advancing, Minato would prepare his Sage mode, using its lack of chakra signature to then personally hunt his enemies, letting his team retreat while he fought the enemy.

He ran, struck, killed, and repeated.

In just two months he had personally killed a hundred enemy ninja and officers, ten times the amount of the second most lethal on his team.

The Raikage went as far as to command entire battalions (~800 people) to hunt them, just to end up on seal traps, explosive tags, teleporting people, and ultimately death.

So he eventually sent his son and the new Jinchuriki of the 8-tails after the death of the previous one in the 2nd war.

They proved a good match for Minato even if individually they were constantly bested by Konoha's youngest Commander.

Then, Jiraiya used his magic again, he and a team of Yamanaka gained control of a Jonin of Kumo, fabricated a letter speaking of an invasion of the North of the Land of Earth, this would be the justification for Onoki to send half of his forces on a preemptive strike at the heart of the Land of Lightning, the Capital, the home of trade of the Northern Sea.

The Raikage himself would repeal the invasion time and time again and their numbers suffered as the impenetrable chakra armor of the Kage blasted entire columns of heavily armored pikemen and hunters (Riflemen) of the Earth.

Yet every human has its limits. The Raikage would die after so much fighting, though not before establishing himself as a legend by killing five hundred enemy ninja and then dying to the massive damage he had taken in a well-coordinated artillery strike by Iwa's navy.

His child, both A and B, would retreat along most of their forces to finally push the invasion, making the Iwa armies retreat even if it meant leaving most of the terrain they gained on the Land of Hot Water and the northeast of the Fire.

With this, Minato celebrated and sat his eyes on the Land of Grass after his nemesis retreated as that is where a parallel push was going on with unprecedented strength; as the kekkei genkai-armies of the Stone, the puppet of the Earth, and the Explosion corps of Iwa (Earth) were rampaging through central Grass.

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Preparation:

Minato visited Konoha, to replenish his halved forces with a force a hundred times bigger, 2000 shinobi to fight those led by none other than Han, the Steam Tank.

And surprisingly, he went for his Gennin team for this.

Thus Kushina was seeing her surrogate students before they parted to war with her brother and Minato.

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"Damn you!" - A young voice screamed, a kid was pointing to another one with his index, he was indignant seemingly, his eyes behind goggles and frowning.

"Be respectful." - Reprimanded an older yet not so much deep voice coming from a woman in green and white clothing.

"Ah-!" - Grunted the kid who in turn looked at his elder and scratched his head. - "Sorry ma'am-sensei-Kushina!"

"And you, remember to be nice, Obito taught you the fireball jutsu, didn't he?"

The other kid nodded, seemingly disconnected from the situation, which made the redhead sigh.

"Though next time, try to be here earlier Obito, this is our voyage to the war, not just a mission!" - Added a young girl next to Kushina. - "What if we had left you here?"

The image of Obito now again doing all the D-rank missions himself invaded his mind, he felt a weird tickling on his back.

Soon he tried to dismiss it, preferring to think what would he do if he was pitted against an Iwa-nin.

The thought terrified him, he had trained with Kakashi, he had fought people of his level; but he was only a green Chunnin, lacking experience. And his only reason to be promoted in the first place was that, well, he was an Uchiha, even if a washout, he was under Minato, it would be weird if he was the only genin on his team.

The sad look on his face as this kind of thought got control of his mind was noticed by Rin Nohara, his best friend who planted her right hand on his friend's shoulder.

"Hey, cheer up." - She started. - "Minato sensei will teach us a lot of things on the way."

"And my brother will make sure you are prepared, or else." - Kushina added, cracking her knuckles at the thoughts of his rash brother not preparing the storage seals these beautiful kids needed.

The Sharingan-less Uchiha gave a weird smile, a bit of help wouldn't be bad.

"But you have to get better, or you will die."

Suddenly his mouth again turned to sadness, his rival was right, but his words were sent on a way that still struck him off.

"Now, remember, stay on the back or with Minato, you are going for a long time and will maybe stay a bit on Kusagakure" - The substitute Jonin sensei explained. - "If I know my husband well, in around a month you will be making moves. You are shinobi, but you are still kids."

"Don't worry, we will carry out our duty." - Confidently said Kakashi.

"That is right, miss!" - Finished Nohara.

"Well, but..." - The Uzumaki was about to continue until she sensed that something was happening.

None other than his husband appeared out of nowhere beside her.

"Sensei!" - Obito enthusiastically yelled, followed by Rin.

Kakashi was happier with just smiling under his mask.

Yet prompt introduction, and his smirk, gave something away; and Kushina already knew.

Her brother appeared soon after, with a frown.

He was dressed like Minato, save for the detail that his arms were covered in the kanji for whirlpool (渦) and his hair was red like Kushina's though it was short on the sides and back and a bit long on the front. His face was too like of the woman, save for that he was less round, had a slightly longer nose, and had brown eyes instead of Kushina's violet sclera.

The faces of both men had different emotions, so she knew who lost, and it wasn't her husband.

"You had a seal on her already!"

"I still had to track its signal."

"But I am no sensor, you are!"

"Good point but you eventually found her, and my method was still faster."

"I-... You win this time." - The redhead, whose collected yet zestful voice constructed with his present emotions. - "But with the trigrams debate I still have the upper hand."

Minato shrugged his arms, his surrogate little brother had a point, so he smiled again and did not speak as there was no point in discussing, the redhead would never accept the superiority of the four trigrams style.

And then he saw the anger in his wife's eyes.

"You... Were racing, instead of preparing!?"

He immediately began praying for Kami while lifting his hands.

"It was a friendly thing... To train!" - He explained himself with a hint of desperation.

His students looked with surprise, disappointment, and some fear from Kushina too. It was weird to see after all.

Futo, Kushina's brother, also gave a weird smile as the situation was unveiled and Minato looked at him, lifting his eyebrows as to ask him for support.

"Yeah! We are a swift unit, we need to train, habanero(*1)."

It was suicide to call her like that, they all knew it.

Minato smiled as he sacrificed himself for him.

And Futo felt that he should call her Nine (Badly translated wordplay with ク [Ku] of Kushina) instead, but the sin had already been committed.

Rin felt how the guy was struck on his head so badly that even Kushina opened her eyes and immediately caressed his brother while saying 'Sorry, sorry, please don't tell mom.'

Minato giggled, Obito gulped, and Kakashi stood still.

After that, she hugged him and dusted off his shoulders as a sign of extra carefulness so he didn't tell the two war veterans they had for parents and Minato for parents in law.

Oh, the duality of the ninja.

"Now, what was I doing?" - Asked with irony the woman before watching his Husband shriek in nervousness. - "Oh, yes." - Her hair apparently began moving as they were tentacles. - "Do not set a bad example for the kids, once they have proved they can come back fine I want no eccentricities, you know?"

After that, the image of the kids dressed like Might Dai or in a perverted frenzy like Lord Jiraiya struck her mind.

[No, that isn't gonna happen.] - She thought.

She then turned to see Obito who was rigid, she smiled at him.

"I want you to only get my brother's good things, alright?"

He nodded quickly, his head going fast to show an answer, Kushina closed her eyes and hummed before looking at Rin for a second before hugging her.

The teenager giggled, and so did the adult.

"Promise to learn every seal!"

"I will!"

"I will break your legs with a hug if you don't!"

"I know!"

After that, she kissed Rin on her forehead before setting her eyes on Kakashi, who was... Actually looking sad instead of longing for a bit of caress, maybe feeling somewhat jealous of the attention the others had.

Even the now recovered Futo got a hold of this.

But he just looked at her with a bored face and gave out a "Huh?"

Kushina got a tick on her right eye and just patted his hair before saying a simple: "And you do good..."

Weirdly enough, Kakashi smiled, earning a somewhat sad smile from the redhead.

"Oi nine, get it done quick, you still don't have grey hair to be so slow!" - Exclaimed Futo, earning a deathly glare from his sister who did not like to be interrupted by her male version.

Yet, they were siblings, she just gave him the stinky eye for now.

Minato restrained himself from laughing, he felt the other redhead as his smaller sibling too, but the dynamic still was alien enough to amuse him.

Kushina went to hug his husband next, giving him a small kiss on the lips before the Yellow flash grabbed her by the hips and kept the kiss going.

Rin smiled at this, getting her hands together.

Obito and Futo saw this with weird faces, while Kakashi eventually joined these two as the kiss prolonged for a while, enough so that even a pair of Chunnin from the unit of Minato saw it while they got out of the village.

Eventually, they separated, Kushina had a faint blush on her cheeks and nose, she quickly tried to cover herself as she noticed she was in public.

Minato was smiling, pleased.

"Take care, dear." - Minato told her, still looking directly at her eyes.

"A new record." - Commented Futo. - "Six seconds kissing."

Kakashi shifted his face to show a tad of morbid mirth at it.

Minato did not know how to react save for looking with some confused emotions to the other redhead.

Rin and Kushina on the other hand frowned.

Obito just stood there, as a fist was suddenly propelled towards Futo.

A sonic boom pushed everyone, save for Minato, a pair of steps backward.

He had answered with his own punch.

They were evenly matched.

"I will cut your balls off."

"I had to do it, I've only had a day to mock you and I don't know if I will come back, fat nine."

"Oh, you will be back, and I will break your arms when you do, Sudden shit." (Futo [ふと] roughly translates to Suddenly)

"And I will make you some ossobuco ramen if I come back."

At this Kushina smiled and opened her arms, embracing his young sibling.

"All is forgiven, thank you."

He replied with his own hug and closed his eyes.

Yet he was betrayed by a fist being slammed to his belly, getting air out of his body.

"But again, show respect in front of the kids." - Corrected the Jonin. - "Now, any wishes while you are out?"

Rin almost celebrated mentally at this, but then joined the other two teens in sharing the pain from a punch from Kushina while Futo got on his knees after receiving the hit

In an exaggerated demonstration, he lifted his right arm and spoke.

"Take care of Tsuita."

At this Kushina smiled, the youngest of the three was studying to be a medical-nin, and it was nice to see the middle one be preoccupied for her.

"Any other?"

"Name your kid after me."

Minato actually blushed at this and lifted his eyebrows, trying not to cringe at this.

Kushina hit him again on the head, much lighter than before, but not enough so the other redhead didn't suffer.

"Maybe a second name." - She answered.- "But only if the kids come in one piece."

Futo looked at the mentioned people. Obito scratched his head, Rin gave an 'I don't know' look and Kakashi gave him the thumbs up.

"Deal."

After that, she lifted his brother up like he was a toy and gave him a peck on the neck before leaving him standing up, still feeling an ache on his stomach after the hit.

"Now go, do well, and don't give up until the very end."

Team Minato and their adjunct seal master looked at her and waved, saying goodbye to her, their backpacks were ready, and most of the Regiment were already assembled, so they moved.

They slowly walked off from Konoha to the lands where the army was reuniting.

Once past the barrier that hid Konoha from most stragglers they saw the Caravans of supplies, trucks carrying the cannons, Ninja practicing with Kunais, and entire platoons exercising on the sides of the road.

At that moment, the kids marveled at the sight of a major logistics operation, got a series of questions.

"Sensei, why are we going to the frontlines?" - Asked Rin out of the blue.

"I need you to get experience, the real one, you are all chunnin now and Kakashi is a Junior Jonin, yet no one has gone for more than assisting roles or internal security missions, right?" - Answered the Yellow flash.

His pupils didn't answer, it was a confirmation on Minato's eyes, they were green, their mission was to be a rude awakening then.

"You are going to fight, we need more hands-on the battle, Iwa is going hard for the kill, aiming to break our lines and send our forces in a constant rout."

"Like Suna did?" - Asked Kakashi.

"Yes, but on a larger scale. They can attack five of our sister villages if they want."

"That is almost as many people as Sunagakure has." -Added Rin with a tad of surprise.

"And it would be a blow we won't recover from."

Kakashi then searched for the question he had on his soul and prompted it to his Sensei.

"But aren't we an infiltration team? And why is lady Kushina's brother here, Uzumaki don't usually fight on the frontline if not as shock troops?"

Minato smiled.

"Because you will infiltrate, it is a special mission parallel to the battle."

Futo smiled and lifted his left index finger.

The blonde assented, letting his surrogate brother explain.

Futo's normally happy face then turned a bit sourish, like he had remembered something bad.

He then moved his palm in front of his throat while looking at Minato, who understood; better if they did not tell them now, or it would affect their morale.

So the Uzumaki went for the side road he had a knack for.

"And because my sister makes me take care of his hubby and vice-versa."- Minato blushed slightly at this.- "And now of her adopted kids."

He then signaled to the bunch, a neat show of care.

Obito felt relieved.

But Kakashi got notice that something was happening, yet he did not speak his doubts.

"She also wants me to teach you about sealings, you will be honorary Uzumaki." - He pridefully said. - "When I am done with you, you will dominate the six areas of Uzumaki sealing."

"Uh... And those are?" - Asked a pretty dumbfounded Obito.

"Ambulatory health - Barrier - Storage - Draining - Chakra conducing - Body modification." - Minato answered, smiling at his students.

"Yup, I and my sis' both taught this guy how to do his dirty four trigram seals."

"They are not dirty. They are efficient and clean."

"And chakra wasting."

"They are safer to use."

"But more complicated to fabricate on the go."

"Well, I haven't had trouble with that."

"You say that like you didn't think about retreating with your jutsu to write for a while."

The blonde laughed, it was good to have someone to talk about these nitpicks.

But the kids didn't get a thing, looking confused for a second.

"And now, suit yourself, when we come back we can joke again." - Minato deadpanned with a neutral tone, making Futo nod, and then look forward.

This was going to be a short voyage.

.

---

.

Minato planned everything, for the travel to the frontlines that is. They would reach Kakaero village (North-western village) in ten days, stay for a week, wait for the armies of Iwa to advance and trap them.

A force from Takigakure commanded by Danzo Shimura would destroy the Kanabi bridge and attack while Minato's forces maintained them occupied until the trap was active and they could steamroll them with a special sequence of teleportation bursts, something for which Minato had to teach Hiraishin to many people, yet he didn't teach to his team for Futo taught them what he couldn't, Water Release.

It was weak against the earth release the Iwa soldiers had; but it would be damn effective with the main ability of Minato, Wind release, as they would create a faux-Ice release according to Orochimaru's notes, a weapon enough to break any Brick wall the enemy produced, and it could cool down steam.

They also learned some basic sealing, for they were to assist Futo on the mission ahead of them.

Thus the army marched.

Six hours of nonstop walking, then an hour of rest, another six hours of walk, and then sleep.

That was for Shinobi though, in the third war, the railroad was finally used for troops to move once they abandoned the secret area where Konoha laid.

So they reunited just sixty kilometers from the frontier with the Country of Grass (Land of Grass), they sparred, preparing for the combat as most troops were green.

Kakashi had a hard time getting it down as he was accustomed to only lightning and fire, yet it was replaced by Minato teaching him some wind release (Futon), Obito had not much problem getting it down thanks to the personal help of Futo, and Rin got it naturally, reaching a good level in no time.

After some days they got a notice from a ROOT ANBU about Danzo having already laid scouts on the back of the enemy lines.

Thus the army moved.

And they camped ten kilometers from the Kanabi bridge, creating a clear zone where they would trap the enemy.

Ninja were there first, to hide, and the footmen got to aid on other sectors, as to not make it seem like they were ready to support the containment of the enemy attack.

Thus Minato stayed behind, preparing the assault to finish the thousand-strong shock trooper battalion of Iwa and their accompanying mobile hunters.

Therefore it was time to move kids to the battlefield, or better; their zone of operation.

They were just a trio of kilometers inside of the enemy lines after being transported by the mighty Doton (Earth Release): Subterranean Voyage of Obito under the lines of both armies going to fight, oxygen seals from the Redhead to help them go even below the capacities of sensing of Iwa's monitors.

When they were two kilometers in, they appeared behind the forest sector where the enemy had their battalion camps.

After that, they began running, then, walking.

.

"So, your name?" - Asked the older voice as he had never paid attention to Minato to learn them, and teaching sealings didn't require that.

"Obito Uchiha!"

"Rin Nohara."

"Tell me yours first, please, sir."

The last one made the redhead close his eyes to contain the laughter.

"Futo Uzumaki."

"I thought you were Kushino." - Mocked Obito with a small smug smile.

"Ha-ha."

After that, some silence struck as the last kid, the grey-haired one, hummed.

"I am Kakashi Hatake, sir."

The Sir struck him off this time, yet after that, he noted that Kakashi was probably acting on the note that he was his superior.

[The son of Sakumo? Well, I might be in front of royalty then, I hope the kid lives up to his dad.]

Maybe, but after that Kakashi turned to look to nothingness.

The Uzumaki smiled, and then looked to their surroundings, the oak trees from Northern Kusa seemed strong, different from the mix that decorated the land of Fire, or the Secuoyas on the land of Woods.

It was eerily calm to be on the way to tending traps to kill a certain someone with a battle on their backs and nature at their sides.

But what were the others thinking?

Kakashi was holding a weird-three-bladed kunai since they departed and was probably mentally preparing.

The other two seemed relatively relaxed in comparison to the small lieutenant, they were making small-talk, like they were sister and brother.

"And sir, what is our objective?" - Asked the gray-haired Jonin after sealing the said kunai on his palm and getting bored of his teammates' chitchat.

It was a good question, they were going slowly through the woods behind the enemy formation, going near a path where supplies from their base on the Land of Earth gave them the initiative to push to the place from where they could invade the Fire. And for what? Weren't they supposed to attack head-on?

So Futo decided to answer them, in a way that would lead him to know a little more about these kids.

"Do you know about that tailed beasts?"

The girl of the bunch got a lightbulb turned on in her mind and spoke.

"Legendary creatures, demons as some call, and war beasts with astounding power ever since the Uchiha began capturing them some three thousand years ago; Konoha has... had, the control of the Seven-Tails and supposedly has the Nine-Tails after the battle of Hashirama and Madara." - She began her exposition with enthusiasm. - "And Iwa has two, the Three tails, which is in the power of Roshi of the Lava flow and the Five Tails in possession of Han the Steamer Tank."

Obito smiled at this, happy to see the brains of the group talk about something she was passionate about; this was noted by Futo.

"And Jinchuriki?" - He kept questioning.

"They are those with the beasts sealed onto them, capable of harnessing their power to use it in battle, the ones I mentioned... Were Jinchuriki." - She concluded

"Good! I am happy to have someone with knowledge of history, you would make a good scribe back there in Uzushio."

Rin blushed at this, happy to be acknowledged.

"But, how does that tie with our goal?" - Asked Obito, clearly the clueless one just like with the sealing teachings, he would maybe take him as a partner in the future to teach him some things. - "Minato told us that Han was commanding troops, not... Uh?"

Kakashi interceded after that, earning scorn from the Uchiha of the team. - "Well, I know this isn't to tell us about how your clan first sealed the two-tails, it is about how we are going to fight a Jinchuriki from Iwa, isn't it?"

Faces demonstrating fear decorated his teammates. The Uzumaki noted the ability for reasoning of the kid and then he gave a weirded smile, it was a harsh truth, but these small prodigies were the best bet according to Minato, and he wasn't going to disobey his Commander, nor was he going to let them down; so they were going to face the threat.

"Yes." - Simple answer that made Kakashi almost sweat.- "The one who has the Five-tails, Han. He is our target along with his security detail, the Tsuchikage's daughter."

[Well, we are an infiltration team, after all, we are meant for assassination.] - Thought Kakashi. - [But this is... Excessive. Minato sensei, you have a lot of faith on us.]

"But we are mere chunnin!" - Obito exclaimed with preoccupation - "And Kakashi doesn't even know how to do storage seals!" - He screamed with a hint of fear. - "How are we supposed to-!"

"I do know how to make them." - Interrupted Kakashi.

"Shut up!"

"Annoying."

"Calm down you two!"

"Please do not interrupt us, Rin."

"Yah! Don't defend this douchebag!"

[How do Minato and Kushina deal with this?]

While the bickering continued, a crack was heard, by Kakashi, who immediately got his left hand to shut Obito and then signaled.

Rin was the one to act, sending a Kunai to the source of the sound while the other two stopped arguing.

A faint eek! was heard.

They had all entered mission mode; apparently, Minato and nine had taught them well.

Futo lost no time and used the Submarine style seal-sensing (*2), getting the notion that someone was there, a chunnin or something with the chakra signature of one.

"Scout, ten meters, north, scramble and do not let him escape." - Ordered the Jonin.

Kakashi tagged with Obito and immediately shunshined to them, Rin meanwhile prepared chakra to use it in any case.

Uchiha on the trees, Hatake on the ground, but they both saw how someone began to run, it had the attire of an Iwa soldier and a faint sulphuric scent that gave away the main thing of this one, Explosion release; though it had also an odor that was reminiscent of honey.

While running he devised a small plan, so he ordered his teammate.

"Obito, concentrate fire chakra."

"Do not tell me what to do."- He nervously answered before making the Tiger hand seal to begin forming fire-natured chakra inside of him; transferring some to the seals he had learned to do on the travel.

Kakashi on the other hand began with nine seals while charging lightning chakra.

[Is that like an electric rasengan?] - Obito was surprised to see that, maybe he should try and use something similar in the future.

Then he saw how it acted.

It was basically a time-limited version of the chakra-armor of Kumo, as it made Kakashi impressively quick and powerful. The enemy rotated to face Kakashi, just as his palm charged with the Chidori: A thousand birds impacted her right shoulder, severing it and sending a current which was used by the enemy to fuel his reprisal.

The woman had used a simple pulse of earth with the components that once ignited by the lightning current exploded like a pair of papertags, directed to the young Jonin who was propelled backward, hard.

The explosion had to have called the attention of earth soldiers, but they had to engage for now, Futo would help them, right?

"You idiot!" - Screamed Obito after seeing his "friend" get hurt.

Kakashi's attack was able to hit the enemy, but he immediately was kicked too, marking distance before the Iwa chunnin screamed of pain while seeing the Konoha nin.

He did not know what to do, tears began to form behind his goggles.

[Goddammit!]

A flash of fire came from his mouth as he just freed the fire chakra out of his mouth, not quite like a flamethrower, not quite like a fireball, a continuous stream of fire whose flames liberated energy like a fireball.

It was like the archaic fire attacks the Senju used; and it was useful to mark distance, as the Iwa Shinobi got its shoulder cauterized and was badly burnt, to the point that she went blind on her right eye and her hair began to burn, yet she extinguished the fire quickly.

Obito wanted to puke.

The enemy used this as an opportunity, she sent a current of nitroglycerin to the Uchiha who stood there, motionless.

Fuush.

Blue water in form of a ball soon struck the current of the enemy, dissolving it into a basically unusable slime on the ground.

It was Rin who appeared next to Obito, patting his back.

"It is our duty." - She said before trying to get near Kakashi.

[She is right.] - Snapped the youngster before trying to rationalize what was happening.

Said person (Kakashi) was now rushing again for the attack, not being able to see that the Iwa nin made a simple shadow and moved to the right, so he was struck by a fist by her only arm.

He snapped out of the slight daze and gave a frontal kick to her, which was blocked by the arm of the enemy.

If it wasn't for her scorched skin he would say he was fighting a 30 or so-year-old woman with the battledress from Iwa, a good first kill for Kakashi.

Another kick propelled by chakra made him get a hit on her left temple, followed by a kunai cutting some skin on her forehead.

Then a mud wall appeared from the ground, hitting Kakashi's hips and avoiding more attacks as he was sent upwards.

"Sorry." - Nohara said before slamming a kunai to the left abdomen of the woman.

She was hit by the now desperate woman who tried to make a shunshin as she made the tiger seal.

Obito was far from them.

And she was going to alert the other Iwa and Ishi soldiers.

But no, instead of a shunshin she converted into a white figure and exploded into a grey cloud of smoke.

It was a clay clone, the sulfur scent was because of its composition, but who made it? And how did it endure so much?

Then he noticed, the blood was a mixture of reddish honey and wax; the clay reinforced, strong like a chakra-body.

[Oh... Our second target.]

Rin jumped to grab Kakashi but a soldier armored like a samurai with crimson armor appeared from the smoke of the explosion and slapped her away.

[What?] - The Hatake just looked astonished while he gained a breath again.

He pushed himself to charge chakra to attack at him, this man was dangerous, and whoever he was, it was definitively something they had to deal with quickly.

Kakashi used a Chidori to try to attack this new menace, but a hand took him and directed the lightning to itself as it threw him back where now Obito was, landing on the floor and cursing before seeing who had thrown him.

It was the same one who slapped Rin.

It was Han of the Five tails and Koishi Kamizuru, the Daugther of the Third Tsuchikage.

One dressed as a heavy warrior from the Daimyo's armies and with a massive backpack.

The other dressed like any Iwa shinobi, yet decorated as if she wore a crimson kimono over it and lacking the usual bandana they wore.

The former caught a kunai from Rin and first patted her head before throwing her violently to where a still nervous Obito stood.

The latter was identical to the clone; she had the same factions, yet it reeked of strength.

Probably it was a clone made to scout, as a real bodyguard unit would catch the attention of someone wanting to pull off a Minato.

A finger from that armored mass pointed to them.

"Kids, please answer me this. Are you a guerrilla?" - Asked the giant man who took of his hat's clothes off and let some steam decor the movement. - "You seem to not have a Jonin sensei with you."

The polite voice from that massive soldier threw the group off yet Kakashi immediately rushed to combat; as his mission was.

He grabbed the three-pronged kunai with strength, running directly to the enemy.

But the Iwa Jonin next to Han created a mud wall that blocked him.

Three handsigns followed that, and a fist made out of earth punched Kakashi.

"Wait you moron!" - Exclaimed the Uchiha, mad and with fear. - "We have to wait fo-"

"Our mission is clear, I will use my Chidori against him, you are to assist."

"Kakashi, I think we must wait." - Rin defended his teammate. - "They are clearly... stronger." - She said before gulping.

Then the wall crumbled to the ground just as Han was letting the elite chunnin who had been knocked out rest on the side of a tree.

"Well, they don't answer" - Koishi, the Senior Jonin, mocked. - "But I don't like killing kids. Should we go non-lethal?"

"Indeed. Try not to hurt them, for they are tools of the enemy, innocent."

"You say that like they are not child-soldiers."

Han left out a sight, it was true, but nevertheless, he did not like it.

"Now, please surrender, Konoha ninja, your crime of being from the enemy army will be omitted if you do." - He began leaking some killer intent as he spoke. - "If not, you shall be tried by a military tribunal on Iwagakure."

"Gentleman." - Mocked the Kamizuru as she herself began letting some bees out of her sleeves.

Han tipped his hat, in acknowledgment of this as a compliment.

On the other side, Kakashi was feeling a bit nervous.

[Where is Futo, or Minato?] - He asked himself, desperate.

The emotion was shared by the others.

"{I am going to attack.}" - Hatake whispered to his teammates, who frowned at his prompt

"Don't be stupid!"

"{You two try to get the other one out, we have to delay them until sensei or Futo arrives.}"

"Why so stubborn!" - Again screamed Obito, much to the delight of the two other people there.

"Because it is our objective; what else, run to save ourselves?"

Obito grabbed him.

"Don't."

"I am the Jonin here."

The Uchiha punched the chin of his teammate who blinked in astonishment.

And while this happened, things change.

Han noticed this while the bees of his companion felt disoriented as they were suddenly cut off from some waves.

A barrier.

.

---

Fuinjutsu was stupid, it was like coding on a computer, you could do great things, and it was frankly; overpowered if on the right hands.

He was no master sealer unlike the figures now on the frontlines creating walls and healing arrays, but he wasn't bad; and he was a battle sealer like Kushina, even if he didn't have chakra chains like her, yet.

But he knew how to act.

He sent Rin to aid while he prepared the number of hand seals and ink that had to be used for something he normally had some minutes to plan ahead.

Yet the Submarine sensing style picked up the signal of the Commander of Iwa's 3rd army without a doubt, so this was their opportunity.

Now, changing the scenery was something the people from Suna got from the Uzumaki migrants after the Great Voyage, but the Uzumaki still retained it as a strong point, and that included him; so he was going to utilize that.

He circled around a square mile of terrain and flared a simple barrier seal.

Then, the most overpowered kanji for sealing, the one of repetition (リ Re-Ri), the one of consuming (消 Erase), and the one of Air (空 Sky); with added with the mix for storage and Wave, formed the Recycling Seal.

Any leaked chakra would be consumed by the barrier to fuel it.

Unless overpowered, pierced, or after it had gone through simple degeneration it would stand.

The barrier was one of the great weapons of the Uzumaki, one of their main weapons on the defense of inner Uzushio.

The other thing was the Moist seal, which attracted humidity from the air and water from the ground to create seas, or ponds in this case, as the limited time and capacity of a single Uzumaki severely impacted this.

The last was the Mountain sea-array which made the earth around a marked area (In this case the perimeter of the Barrier) contract and create stalactites which then became small promontory which added to the barrier formed real earth walls; this was a secondary protection previously used somewhat differently to create some sections of the Islands the Uzumaki used as bases.

This operation got a quarter of his Chakra out.

Yet it served.

Thus successfully trapped Han of the Gobi (Five tails) and Koishi, the explosive Bee queen.

Thus he got on his reddish armor, proper of a pikeman of Uzushio save for the lack of helmet, and shunshined to battle, in front of Kakashi, who blinked in surprise, stopping his attempt of reprisal at the punch Obito had just given him, and Rin, who was about to intercede, sighed in relief.

"Thanks for waiting, and sorry I didn't tell you of the whole plan, but Minato and I thought you wouldn't have done it otherwise."

Shock in Hatake flared, they did have to wait; their enemy was letting them, and it was the intent from their superiors too.

"An Uzumaki." - Han stated. - "Trapping me as I came to the aid of a fellow Iwa ninja and letting the rest out I guess."

"You assume well, Sir Gobi."

"Please, my name is Han, though I think you already knew that."

"Now we fight to the death?" - Asked the Kamizuru whose bees were already prepared to sting and trap. - "They are a team, with a captain."

"Hmm, perph-"

Futo decided to interrupt, waving his left hand at them.

"Hey, it is a Jinchuriki and a Jonin against three kids and a Jonin, can you wait a second?"

Han opened his eyes in surprise, this was a risky move, the red-haired man was sweating, but he had a point, and he wasn't a monster, not like some liked to think, so he agreed; Iwa was destined to win the battle... Though this was a rather curious situation.

Koishi wanted to protest, but Han gave his right thumb up.

"Do not overextend yourselves though, I will give you a minute before I strike."

Futo sighed in relief and the others also felt if they got a bit of a chance extra on this.

The redhead turned to face them.

"Rin, heal Kakashi and then prepare water from nearby. Hatake, wind and seal it for later, Obito, fire; you suck with water, but if you think you have a good shot, use it when I ask you."

Obito looked at Kakashi with disdain, and so did the Gray-haired kid.

"Snap out of it, you are ninja, and I trust in you." - Reprimanded Futo.

Clear orders that they all understood. Rin immediately began treating the inner damage of Kakashi while Obito stood next to Futo.

"Your objective is the bee user, pierce her defenses, Obito burn the bees, do not risk it."

"And you?" - Asked the Uchiha. - "Are you crazy enough to fight that guy alone?"

"Maybe, but like you, I have to wait. And Kakashi, two other things."

He was a diversion too. This wasn't just a suicide mission.

Soon he faced the duo again and decided to speak.

"Han, a deal, the kids fight your companion and I brawl with you, what do you think?" - He asked in a confident tone, even if his face denoted preoccupation.

"Are you for fucking real?" - An insulted Kamizuru asked.

On the other hand, the big man looked directly at the Uzumaki and smiled under his mask.

"Konoha is destined to lose the battle against our elite forces; I am just a hammer to crack a pebble." - He let a bunch of steam come out from his back after that. - "I accept."

"What!? Just use your power and blow everything!"

"For what reason?"

"They are the enemy and they trapped us here!"

"They are also three prepuberts and a combat sealer, what adult goes full-on against children?"

A nervous smile decorated the Uzumaki's face.

"Thank you, Han. From your chivalry alone I think we would have got along if you weren't from Iwa."

"I agree and I am sorry that this is your last fight; I will make sure the kids remember you in a good light."

"Fuck it, let's get over this." - Said the other Iwa Jonin before jumping to attack the black-haired kid while Han prepared his body to rush to the Konoha-Jonin.

.

---

.

Sometimes you are a kid prodigy, sometimes your father dies so you are now on the military fighting against another totalitarian regime that is trying to expand itself and has invaded half of the continent.

Kakashi Hatake had been woken up violently by this encounter alone.

He wasn't as prepared as he thought he was.

Maybe Minato overestimated him.

The Bee lady was strong, she could move Bees and use explosion release, abilities proper of the heir of the Kamizuru clan.

In just a few seconds his bones had almost been cracked by swarms of bees tackling him and Rin before turning to

Obito was now engaging her, the bees stung Obito and used enzymes on the honey they carried on their fur to make it so the blood didn't coagulate.

The Uchiha was bleeding on his neck and hands, the biggest victims of the attrition-based combat of the woman who still didn't lack on the taijutsu department.

She relied on kicks, as she had the same height as Obito and the bees covered her upper body deficiencies.

Obito, being the one assaulted tried to back up constantly, trying to hide behind trees as he at the same time tried to slam his kunai onto the stomach of the woman, being interrupted by the cloud of insects that stopped him.

"Snap!" - Yelled Rin as she punched Kakashi's shoulder so he reacted and went to help his teammate after they both recovered from the initial assault.

Kakashi frowned at the action but then saw how Rin was dead serious, they wouldn't fight 1v1 to tire her as Hatake was mentalizing now.

"I-" - He tried to say something but her companion replied before he could continue.

"This isn't the time, we are a team, we engage, we protect each other."

With those words he felt a bit more compelled, it was his duty after all, wasn't it?

[And Minato would be mad if he died.] - That thought sententiated it, he was going to risk it for his teammate.

So he ran towards the enemy, or rather its direction, going by the tree branches where he charged not a Chidori, as it would be too chakra-costly, but a Rasengan.

In turn, Nohara sent a wave of shuriken that she multiplied using the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.

Obito was now exchanging blows, his fist managing to kill some bees who struck at its fist before having to evade a kick to his middle body by the woman.

He had to duck, and when he got up he managed to grab the leg of the woman.

"Little bastard!"

Pebble (Koishi) was clearly mad at this and almost blushed at the unwanted touch so she made the confrontation (Earth) seal and then spat out a stone, the Rock Gun Technique.

The rock at high velocities slammed Obito's goggles and almost broke his nose bridge.

"Goddamit!" - He screamed in pain and fear seeing that as he began bleeding from the attack.

He let go of her, just as her bees moved to intercept a barrage of piercing materiel.

She angrily spat out at this as she used her free leg to kick Obito's chin and turned to face the attack.

"STUPID KIDS!" - Then she made five handseals to prepare a clay clone from the ground. - "Those are chunnin tricks, you offend me!"

Then from above, as the bees were occupied; came Kakashi.

The Rasengan was leagues more maneuverable so while the Kamizuru could back up, he still got a hit on her bee-wall.

And it must've hurt because she almost cried as she saw how the entire wall disappeared, hundreds if not thousands of bees dead.

"Don't underestimate me!" - Shouted Obito while this happened, as he sent a Kunai to the scapula (shoulder blade) of his enemy, embedding it there.

The cry for sorrow at the sight of the dead bees was turned into pain.

At this moment the clay clone appeared and took a turn to use the momentum to launch a kick to the head of Obito, with so much force that he was sent flying to the trunk of a tree; almost unconscious and still bleeding because of the punctures of the bees.

After that, the clone frowned and looked at Rin who approached his injured companion.

Meanwhile, the original looked at the grey-haired kid with anger.

"RASCAL!" - Another swarm came from her sleeves, but these creatures looked more elongated than the previous bunch of insects; they were wasps, not bees. - "Fuck Han... I am going to kill you personally."

Koishi got the Kunai out of her flesh, throwing it to the ground and pushing some chakra to numb the damage.

"Rin, go heal Obito." - Ordered Kakashi.

A weird show of care for his teammate, but honorable.

"Go, kid, I will kill your friend while you do that." - Mocked the Senior Jonin.

Rin sweated before finally shaking her head and going to assist Obito.

Thus it was the gal, the wasps, and the clone against Kakashi who already felt his limit being reached thanks to the three jutsu he used in such a short time.

So he took his tanto out, just like his father had done a time ago.

He was unnerved, but scared, as this was one big fish to bite.

"Oh, little silver fang~"

"Shut up."

"Don't be so aggressive... Here, let me calm you."

The swarm of wasps moved as soon as she spoke.

The sound of the wings of those bugs began to be soothing.

He couldn't understand, he prepared himself to channel wind into Kunais to just bypass her wasp-armor.

But the sound was almost like they were caressing his ears.

Kakashi had a great hearing sense, so he immediately watched what was happening, but his strength was a weakness as the trap poured onto his brain and his muscles relaxed.

"Rest, and become flesh for my swarm."

That clay clone moved, hugging Kakashi as he was surrounded by the overwhelming feeling of coziness.

"Kamizuru Hidden Genjutsu: Nectar death song."

A blade from the now smiling and a frowning woman came, and the wasps began to land on him.

"You..."

"Shh~"

Even if his body felt numb, as he was relaxed enough to not even be able to move; Kakashi's brain rushed.

What could he do in this situation?

Then he realized that if he could think freely, the genjutsu wasn't affecting his chakra coils directly; but his muscles.

Thus he molded chakra and...

And the blade struck.

Only to reveal a poof that left the Tanto of Kakashi laying on the ground, with a dice attached to it.

[No... A clone?] - Asked the woman on her mind before making her own clone dispel and her wasps sense the area.

The pair of other kids were away, healing wounds. But where did the little fang go?

For this, she grabbed the small sword of the teen and swung it in the air, all the while the wasps began to tell her that the signal of the kid was near.

"Reveal yourself, small drone!"

Obito looked with dismay at this.

Rin wanted to cry.

Koishi Kamizuru, enraged, threw the sword to the tree where they were and then rushed to grab Rin's head.

She was quick enough to not prompt any response from Nohara.

After that with the small knife she had used to poof Kakashi she threatened the neck of the girl.

"Show up little fuck!"

Rin tried to move but wasps pinched her hands and bound her against the tree harder.

Obito prepared the Tiger handseal for an emergency Fireball but he was stopped by the clay clone who stabbed his left hand with a clay-kunai.}

Neither knew what to do, they weren't ready for this level of pressure, or at least the suddenness of it made it impossible.

Yet when Kakashi still did not appear, she again smashed Rin to the tree, causing her go gasp in pain.

"Leave her you midget!" - He screamed, getting a shocked, insulted face from the Kamizuru. - "You ugly short hot headed wax lov-!"

He was going to continue but the clone slammed his other hand and the original smashed Rin's head against the wood again, provoking some drops of blood to show.

"Shut up you hellish brat! No one insults me!"

The pain mixed with the angst made something flare.

He was powerless, he hadn't done much on this battle and they were obviously going to lose.

He could have been better, but in a few seconds he was defeated.

They were engaging one of the Jonin prowesses of Iwa, yet he was an Uchiha.

He should have been better.

Then he felt a sharp pain on his head while the woman turned from pure hatred to a degree of fear of someone who remembered something horrible.

"No! Get away from me!" - Screamed Koishi who dropped Rin and grabbed the embedded tanto before walking back a bit, something that even the clone and the wasps did too.

What?

What had happened?

Obito was just looking at her while crying because of his ineptitude at fighting.

Then he noticed, when he blinked, he could see something in front, yellow, like the Rasengan (Here we takin' the Manga's colors).

He could take note of outlines of trees he had seen around them.

He even got the faintest of notice of two distinct figures on the distance, and the Tanto having a high concentration of it.

Soon, Rin, who had a surprised face, with a semblance of hope.

"Your Sharingan!" - She said, between happiness and surprise.

The Kamizuru immediately began preparing a jutsu.

And Obito, while happy from what happened, knew he had to act even if he was hurt.

He got up, his body urging with the amount of chakra flooding through him like he had opened the first gate.

Nohara tried to heal herself a little, letting Obito face down the enemy while she tried to see how to help.

Koishi grabbed her clone and transformed it onto a ball of clay which he hen threw at Obito.

He effortlessly crouched to evade it.

Yet it exploded behind him, he forgot about the explosion release.

The scared face of the woman turned onto happiness as she saw this as an opportunity to send a wave of wasps to inject venom onto the kid.

But the Tanto she held had a surprise.

The dice on the bottom turned onto none other than Kakashi.

He twisted his body to grab the tanto from the hand of the woman and sliced through the middle of her right arm and her upper chest before falling to the ground and rolling to evade reprisal.

He had used Kawarimi (Replacement) to hide on the weapon with a henge (Transformation) as the dice, and used the time to rest for a bit and dispel the genjutsu.

Minato would be proud.

Obito got up from the ground just to see the swarm of wasps he used the Fireball he had partially conjured before to instead send a large Flamethrower Jutsu towards the insects.

Many still poured through, and picked Obito, eating part of his clothes and some of his skin.

Yet someone came, Rin, with a sealing scroll in which he contained the small creatures.

Team Minato was in action.

The daughter of the Tsuchikage sent a [Bakuton (Explosion release): Nitroglycerin sea] towards the kids, a flood of that sticky 'liquid' before running away.

Kakashi, covered in it, signaled his teammates to stick to the ground and then used the [Fuuton: Great breakthrough], mostly clearing them from the explosive trap.

Then he disappeared onto the ground before the nitroglycerin exploded, causing local tremors.

A large cloud of dust covered the area, along with toxic fumes.

A weird sound sat on the ears of the kids, and some of the shockwaves caused internal damage, and muscle tearing that they would definitively feel when the adrenaline ran out.

"Obito, can you see me?!" - Shouted Rin after surviving the explosion.

"Uh-Huh!" - Answered the battered Uchiha who walked towards her using the 'chakra-vision' the Sharingan gave him.

His two tomoe guided him to a dirt-covered Kakashi and Rin, who was taking care of their injuries.

He felt too a deep pain in his chest like he lacked air.

"Dumbass, fill your lungs with chakra." - Deadpanned the Hatake, hearing the lungs of the kid suffer.

Obito wanted to punch his teammate but he complied, and then received the healing palm of his teammate.

"She is without her bugs. Save for maybe a queen if they are anything like the Aburame." - Advised Rin.

Kakashi nodded. - "And she must be preparing something, I don't think she is stupid enough to interrupt Han, or attack the barrier."

He then looked at the half-dust-covered Obito. - "And congratulations on your sharingan, when are you going to give me my promotion gift?"

"Shut up. If I survive I'll buy you a book."

Surprisingly, this aggressive response actually provoked a sincere smile from Kakashi who stretched his hand.

"Then I will make sure you survive, and I'll make you buy me a certain one."

Inuendos aside, this was one of the few really cordial interactions between the two, a shame it happened in a moment where they had to quickly turn to their Kunai as the dust quelled, letting them see the wasteland they were surrounded by.

It was silent for a second if they ignored the sounds of metal clashing in the distance, letting them admire the dispersed earth that covered the place and the few trees that survived the explosion.

Other than that, they were looking at the treeline where it was suspected that the enemy used as camouflage.

The kids tried to come up with something.

"Any idea?" - Asked Obito.

"Probably raising traps." - Answered Rin.

"I can't sense anything, the smell of sulfur clouds everything, so no clue." - Added Kakashi.

"My Sharingan isn't strong enough to see past a few meters."

"And Futo didn't teach us the Submarine style."

"Well, prepare for anything, I'll go wind."

"Then I'll do fire."

"Fine, I go with water again."

It was decided.

But when looking at a target again they did not find a thing.

Yet there was the distinct sound of buzzing.

"Prepare for a wasp swarm, Obito, behind us, your fire is better against them than our styles."

"You have the Rasengan though." - Complained the Uchiha.

"I need to catch them in-masse for that, and for that matter, we all three know how to use it, this just isn't the case to do so."

Rin nodded and just in case prepared some chakra in a seal to be ready to send one of that jutsu away.

"You two remember, cover each other's backs, I can't be healing you all the time."

Both snickered.

A cute trio of small ninja, in no world this was not adorable.

All were observed by someone hidden underneath them.

Yet one fucker had killed her delicate swarms; she had forgotten they were soldiers from the Fire country, not the often useless against bees' samurai she fought.

The other had sliced her enough to prevent the use of quick hand seals.

And the girl was resilient, and a good healer.

So she again said "Fuck it", she was going to kill the kids, she could blame Han afterward.

"Pebble (Koishi) Hidden: Explosive-Bee dome!"

It was four segments of a sphere made of explosive clay, hardened by the wax of bees and pushed by the queens of the colonies whose members had been reduced to neigh.

Shattering earth and moving the ground before also closing the sunlight from them.

A masterpiece made by her to kill that pesky Two tails Jinchuriki back on the invasion of the Lightning country and used now to kill shitty kids.

She wasted enough chakra to make her remain on the rear for the battle once she won.

The trio got desperate.

And she laughed maniacally.

.

Inside, the lack of light made it so only Obito had a semblance of what was happening thanks to his new eyes.

Kakashi remained calm, yet he did not know what was this jutsu.

Rin on the other hand used basic Fire release to do the Torch (*3) jutsu and get some knowledge of the area.

They were constantly being pushed by the walls that moved earth to crush them, and the white walls were made of the same materiel the clay clone was.

"Fuck it, we blow it?" - Asked Obito, just to be slapped by Rin.

"It will explode if you do that!"

"Indeed, and unlike the nitrogliceryn, the explosion will push inwards, creating pressure that will kill us. Hell, I don't think a Susanoo of you Uchiha could survive this."

At this last comment, Obito raised an eyebrow and got rid of his goggles. - "Have you seen one of them though?" - He complained.

"My dad used to tell me about them." - A slightly irritated answer came.

Not content with this he kept. - "Yeah? And? Did he ever saw a Susanoo?"

Now frowning, Kakashi replied: "He literally fought on Uzushio with some Uchiha."

Bickering started.

And a girl was tired of this, they always fought, even if they respected each other they did not want to let that pride go away.

So she grabbed them by the ears and spoke, stopping the other two.

"Shut up."

"Rin?" - Asked a perplex Obito.

Kakashi was looking at her with a bored bace, all the while the ground kept coming to crush them.

"Minato and Futo trained us for something like this."

The gray haired kid understood immediately what she was referring to.

The other one didn't.

"Uh?"

"Obito, tell us what is behind the wall."

He nodded with some sweat now running through his head, pain beginning to show up after so much combat.

With his Sharingan he could barely see through the clay, but he noted four big chakra signatures and fainter ones away and then signaled to the main four.

"Perfect, now, Kakashi, next to me."

He approached her and immediately began moving wind chakra and making the bird seal.

Meanwhile, Rin inwardly celebrated her victory over the two boys as the temporary leader before getting the stored water on her mouth.

"'Bito, I want you to use water too now, be the first one to use the gunshot."

"When we come out... Kakashi, assassinate, Obito, blow this up and clean up; I will go and assist Futo."

And while the walls were moving to crush them, they acted.

.

Outside, the Kamizuru was happy to see how the sphere got reduced to less than the size of an average living room.

She celebrated just as a Ball of Ice penetrated the side and smashed one of the Bee queens.

After that she didn't even have the time to react before the cloud of dust formed by it; a figure appeared.

her immediate reaction was to draw a Kunai, and she was well surprised when it came to fruition as she pierced the shoulder of a grey-haired kid.

But she had a ball of lightning chakra passing through

She gasped for air just a girl ran away and another kid sent a Fireball to the dome, the explosion killing the other queens that had not retreated. They won.

And while she closed her eyes, the girl was quick to appear in front of her surrogate teacher.

Yet instead of a redhead defeating the steam tank, she saw him defeated on the ground.

.

---

.

Seven minutes before:

.

"Again, thank you for the opportunity, I hope to be a good rival." - A cheeky voice said.

A man nodded in acknowledgment. - "If you aren't leading me to a trap, and are fighting me honorably I will inscribe you on the wall of Iwa under my name."

Quickly a sincere laugh came. - "Do not worry, I did not have time to prepare more than the barrier." - He then infused his Naginata with chakra. - "But I write quickly so you might fall in a makeshift one."

Han took his hat off, letting his absolute dark trimmed hair, and lowered his mask to reveal his happy smile. - "Heh. Sorry but I will repeat what you said before, we would have been friends if not for this war. Thank you for your sincerity."

After saying that, Han let a cloud of smoke surround him before he went to the Uzumaki with such speed that Futo wasn't able to blink before being punched on the forehead by the soldier of the Earth.

He was sent on the ground, rolling until he hit a tree trunk, grunting as he felt his back almost shattered.

[He is as fast as Minato (*4) with that, good lord.]

"Come on!"

Han disappeared again and appeared in front of Futo.

"Get up, I am not even in my Tailed beast mode or my Perfect Jinchuriki state." - He demanded, expecting a battle to test himself.

While still grunting, Futo smiled and got up, preparing his Naginata again.

"Shi.. Alright, come again, Mister tank!"

And so Futo injected chakra onto his eyes just as Han prepared another punch.

It again impacted him, but it crashed against his chestplate instead of his face.

The reddish armor cracked, yet it managed to dissipate the energy.

Han smiled, this was going to be fun.

Futo moved his naginata to slash his enemy's face, yet he grabbed the blade of the weapon, much to the surprise of the Uzumaki.

"I am not unnacostumed to bla-" - Han was saying with a smug face, but he felt surprised.

The steel of the spear still cut his skin, he had to expulse some steam in order to keep his fingers from being severed.

He then jumped back to see what happened.

"Uzumaki spears are made to strike bones and cut flesh! We used to hunt demons ya'know!?" - Told a smiling Futo, somewhat confident after that skirmish.

Han didn't even groan in pain as his skin regenerated, but he did look with some degree of enthusiasm at his enemy.

"Ha! Good history trivia, but now I know I have to break it, you need to be a tad less communicative lad."

[Shit, he's right.] - Futo reasoned before scratching his head and regaining his Chudan-style stance.

"And decide, is that a sword or spear?" - Mockingly asked the Jinchuriki before letting some steam more and rushing to strike.

To answer to his enemy he pushed the spear forward, making Han need to evade by taking a step to the left and keep rushing, only to be struck by the pole of the chakra-reinforced weapon striking his nape, causing him to stumble and almost fall to another lunge of the weapon that impacted his armor's right shoulder plate.

In answer, Han jumped and tried to punch the Uzumaki from above.

At that moment he saw how Futo was smiling as he moved his Naginata upwards and jumped back.

He was going to impale himself.

"Do not take me for a fool." - Han sententiated as he pushed his body with steam to propel himself towards Futo.

They crashed and went to the ground.

The Uzumaki made a Ram, Snake, Tiger combination to make a clone which moved to impale Han with a Kunai.

He immediately punched the clone instead of the real one, noticing that it wasn't even solid, it was a mere illusion.

Futo used this to give a chakra-propelled headbutt to Han's nose, breaking it and making him flinch enough so that he shunshined out of his grasp and landed on a tree branch.

Han laughed while his nose dropped some blood.

He cleaned it and then looked at Futo

It was a weird sight.

"You!" - He again started while getting up. - "You are not as quick as me!"

"I thought it was obvious." - Mocked the Uzumaki.

"Heh, but you do have that reaction to still be able to put up a fight, you are an interesting fella."

"Thank you, it is thanks to the old family recipe for muscular-chakra injection."

The man again snickered before frowning and lifting his thumb up, signaling that he was going to attack again.

His immaculate speed was enough to cover half the distance in less than a blink, and when he opened his eyes again, Han was in front, releasing steam to propel a punch to Futo's throat.

[Fuck.]

He lowered his head in order to receive the hit on his cranium, which accustomed to Kushina's punches managed to endure, though not without breaking many blood vessels and sending him again against a tree, which this time he broke after his back-plate took most of the damage.

[Fuck fuck fuck, I need to stop him or he's going to kill me with another one.]

Sure enough, death was coming, he could hear the noise of the steam propelling the man towards him.

So he immediately threw a paper tag into the air and exploded it immediately.

The push made him headbutt the tree again, but it served too, as he had stopped Han dead on his tracks.

He used this opportunity to throw a Kunai at the man, but he effortlessly grabbed it.

[I am fucked] - Futo thought when he saw Han's disapproving look.

He quickly touched and gave some chakra to a small flower near the base of the tree he was pitted against.

So when Han inevitably sent a punch to his head again; he used the best ninja art: Substitution (Kawarimi)

A poof of smoke from the chakra from the henged (transformed) flower infuriated the Steam tank.

And the redhead used this to hit Han from the sides as he appeared with a Shadow Shuriken jutsu which impaled the steam armor and more importantly; part of Han's face and backpack, which promptly exploded along with the armor.

The Steamer screamed in pain and Futo was about to send another series of shuriken with paper bombs to keep the attack, but suddenly, a shockwave of steam launched him backward.

A cloud of vapor quickly clouded the vision of both Ninja, impeding Futo from recognizing what happened, but he had faint hope.

[Did I kill him?] - A surprised Konoha nin asked himself before igniting again the Submarine style sensing to catch anything.

He initially thought that it was stupid and he had failed at doing the jutsu because he sensed an immense amount of chakra.

But he wasn't wrong.

Once the steam dissipated, seemingly because Han absorbed it; he saw the man covered in a white aura that emanated heat and humidity.

It was a simple white dress with golden decorations. The short hair of Han now had horns growing from it, and his eyes had a hue like more reddish than the dark he wore before.

His face though was covered in a mask again, and he had a silver crown-looking ornament on his forehead.

The Uzumaki didn't know how to react.

"I am sorry but you are the first and last person to see this form."

"Wha-...! How!?" - Screamed a dumbfounded Futo.

"Mister Koku-... Five tails calls it 'Warrior of the Hot Waters mode', I prefer calling it like those from Kumogakure do, Perfect Jinchuriki, or affectionately, 'Five tails chakra mode', in honor of their Lightning chakra mode I suppose... But you, friend, may call it however you want." - Han Politely answered while preparing his hands.

"Lord... {Have mercy.}"

"Indeed, I intended to use this against your famed Yellow flash, for my friend Bee told me this form might be similar to his, pardon my expression, dammed Sage mode." - After that, five tails appeared from behind him. - "But I had to resort to this, otherwise I might have lost to a follow-up attack."

Futo was scared. He could barely move as the mere presence of Han terrified him. The power he emanated was comparable to the entire energy he had used in the small fight from before.

And you wanted to make him think that Minato, the shy guy that liked to play Shogi with him and go kissy-kiss with his sister, fought someone with Three tails more worth of power than this guy and the fourth Raikage all at the same time? No wonder he made the rest of the platoon retreat when those fights occurred.

But what could he do? Retreat and see if he and three kids could defeat him?

No, he had to risk everything, absorption seals, explosives, even his weak fire, and water release had to serve to fight this guy.

Most importantly, he had to retrieve his Naginata, and try to stall him until Minato got rid of Iwa's army and came to help, otherwise, he might be forced to use a Chakra exclamation (*5)

He quickly began feeding chakra onto the seals on his arms, armor, and clothes; he looked for a moment covered in relucent white before the kanjis and gibberish that formed the imprints were visible for Han.

Nevertheless, he didn't feel confident of even putting a scratch on him.

"So... Are you ready?"

Han laughed and approached Futo, who remained in the normal combat position of Konoha's Tiger taijutsu stance (Think of Karate's Kamae).

He arched an eyebrow and asked again.- "Please, answer me."

Grinning his teeth, Futo nodded, at this Han nodded too and proceeded to give a full 180 turn to use the inertia to give a kick to the left temple of Futo with force such that he was sent flying meters up, hitting a tree branch on the process.

[Oh god, fuck. Boil release up to an extreme and chakra to fuel everything.] - Futo thought while feeling his body almost going entirely numb after such damage.

He was going to land on the ground before being kicked again, this time he broke the branch with his body and was sent up farther up to the air.

[Shit, boil release... Water and something else.] - As he thought of that, the Water seal scroll pouch opened on his flak vest, and he grabbed it, but before he could open it, another kick was sent to him. [Goddammit!]

He crashed onto the ground, leaving a small deformation on the earth and cracking his nose and forehead, making the Uzumaki bleed.

His torso also felt the repercussions, yet his armor felt the most as it literally broke after the hit.

Next to him appeared Han, who grabbed the scroll he still had in his hand and he was powerless to stop him.

This was way out of his league, he had no way of denying it.

"Come on, you have more natural reserves than me, I do not wish to insult you, yet you are not living up to my expectations; though that might be an unfair judgment." - Clarified a Han who tried really hard to not come out as aggressive.

{For fucks sake, agh} - He answered before coughing. - {you sound like my sister.}

At this show of disrespect, he frowned and felt a bit betrayed. - "Hmm. Then I will have to end this." - Disappointed, Han caressed the back of the enemy soldier. - "Please tell me your name before I kill you, shinobi of the Leaf."

Futo, who was lying face to the ground, used this opportunity to conduct some chakra to one of the seals on his body; one not of containment or storage like the ones he had on his now broken armor, but one of Amplify that was on his throat.

{Uta... Osomai...} - He stuttered in response.

The eyebrows of Han tilted upwards, and he carefully asked again. - "Please, I did not get that, could you please say it again?"

While he kept flowing chakra, he answered, still on a low tone. - "Kuto Kutaki." - After that he turned, rolling to face up to the sky and look at Han to the eyes.

He replied by touching Futo's forehead, to measure his body temperature, maybe to see if he was getting some problems inside of him. The hand of the man was incredibly hot, yet somehow it didn't burn him even if the power irradiating from him and the steam that he gave of was now dampening his clothes.

It was a shame he was falling for his makeshift trap.

"Again, could you say it louder?"

After those words, Futo closed all chakra route to his ears, falling deaf for now.

Han didn't even notice the lack of preoccupation of Futo, his lack of fear, and that was maybe the reason he screwed up, because the battered soldier of Konoha who was bleeding, had gotten him.

The seal acted as he spoke, creating a shockwave that was like an explosion.

"Futo Uzumaki." - He said.

Yet the words had impacted Han's ears to the point that he began screaming in pain and kneeled to try and numb the pain.

Futo again let his hearing go live and got up.

He created five shadow clones to start attacking Han while he ran to his Naginata.

[Rush it Futo, do not look behind, this is your opportunity, infuse the spear with chakra and impale him.]

With that idea in mind he just kept going, he shunsined, and he saw his weapon on the ground next to a tree, where he had left it after being impacted by the Jinchuriki of the Five tails.

He smiled, feeling some blood getting onto his mouth.

Then he sprinted towards it, and he grabbed it.

He never was happier to see that old blade.

Then reality came down to him.

In front was Han, frowning, with a clone who had the water sealing scroll grabbed by the head.

The man didn't even speak.

Futo knew he was fucked.

But he had to give a fight.

Han moved his tails to grab him all in perfect motion, turning into hand as they went.

Though an Uzumaki wasn't known by its speed, he still could react, even if just barely.

He swooped the spear in a firm-footed strike to the chest of Han, who dropped the clone, dispelling it, and moved to the left, getting impaled just as his tails grabbed Futo and squished him, forcing him to drop the Naginata.

In turn, Han dislodged it from his flesh and dropped it to the floor.

He felt his body being burned alive, it was suffocating, but he could survive it, even if for some seconds, but it was necessary.

Futo knew his opportunity was on the scroll, the Naginata, and his screams now.

So while he was being crushed he again flared the seal for Amplify.

The Steamer rushed to shut his mouth by stabbing a kunai on his throat, yet in his movement he accidentally kicked the scroll to where the foot of Futo could touch.

And chakra manipulation was all you needed to move some things.

So when he opened it, suddenly, the arms of Han stopped heating him up alive.

And Han's arms turned yellow, like chakra, still crushing him, yet without the added attack of the steam-killing.

The man noticed this and looked down to see what had caused it, letting Futo the opportunity to scream again, not before again shutting his hearing off.

"Sorry." - He said this time, causing another great scream of pain from the Jinchuriki who weakened his grip on him enough so that the Uzumaki jumped.

His body was crushed, had he not been an Uzumaki he would've been dead, yet he could act still.

He sent waves of paper-bomb tags and then grabbed his naginata before walking towards safety as the bombs exploded.

Silence and dust covered the area for some seconds.

He ignited his hearing again to try and get any notice of Han or if he was alive.

Nothing.

But soon a great flame surrounded him and pushed him backwards while roasting his clothes.

He blinked, and when he opened his eyes again he saw Han walking towards him while the grass burned.

Fire covered him instead of steam.

[So fire and water make up steam... Huh.]

That funny thought was interrupted by him trying to reach the fire seal on one of his pouches, and catching a punch from Han's left hand with it, causing the blazes around that arm to go away.

Both looked at each other with a mixture of hatred, anger, and smugness.

"It was a fun fight, but you have been a trouble for me, I shouldn't have been so superb to think you'd force me to this."

"I love you too." - Mockingly answered the Uzumaki, earning a laugh from Han who visibly tried hard to understand it, his hearing was damaged by the screams as it seemed.

Han threw another punch, but this time Futo wasn't going to catch it, he didn't have enough energy.

So he tried to endure one after another.

Eventually, he lost the capacity of feeling the pain as the punches killed nerves, flesh, cut blood, and all to just make him suffer.

The Steamer was taking some pleasure in this, maybe retribution for trapping him there.

Until he decided to finish him, with a Kunai no less.

[Fuck. Hope the kids are alright. Kushina is going to haunt me on hell if they ain't.] - Thought a defeated Futo.

Cling.

Instead of death, he was faced with another kunai catching that of Han's.

It was the arm of a black-wearing girl.

Rin if he remembered right.

In surprise blinked the Iwa nin, just to receive a punch from her.

He buffed in anger at this and stuttered before deciding to reply with a hit to Nohara.

That was going to kill the girl.

[Hell no... Well, she did try to save me, time to pay.]

And Futo used some of his force to push Rin and get hit instead.

This was clearly a lighter one, but he still felt it, breaking his remaining rib, and sending him towards the arms of someone.

And when he saw the grey-haired hid going to assist rin in trying to stab Han with a Kunai, he knew Obito was behind him.

Saved by kids.

[Could be worse, he thought.]

Then, there was a problem. The kids were an annoyance that would quickly bore Han.

He was destroyed and basically couldn't do anything.

"Sir, what do we do?" - Asked Obito, clearly preoccupied at the sight of the Kinchuriki and his friends barely surviving the encounter up with Han trying to incapacitate them.

Futo, whose mind was now being overcome with soreness and paralyzing pain; closed his eyes and indicated to him.

"Try to resist, leave me here." - He began. - "Assist your friends, and... Make it so Kakashi, puts some chakra on the Kunai Minato gave him..." - After that, he blacked out.

The Uchiha almost cried seeing this, he thought he was dead, where was Minato?

Another tomoe appeared in Obito's eyes and he immediately jumped to do as instructed.

Even a gentle slap from Han was worse than the punches from the Bee queen.

Yet the guy did not want to kill them.

So they used it.

They stalled him.

.

.

---

On the other side of the battlefield, there was a platoon (~40) of Iwa nin attacking the barrier, feeding it as they tried to use chakra-based explosives.

And they were oblivious as the people inside of what was really going on on the skirmish just some kilometers away.

The armies of the Fire had struck the spearhead of Iwa and suffered horrendous casualties at the hand of the experienced troops.

The most Punished was the scouts of the Kurama clan who were almost annihilated as they planted the seals for the surprise of the operation; and the utter destruction of the last Hatake platoon of Konoha as they deterred the advance of the enemy.

Half of the Leaf's forces were destroyed, be it Shinobi or footmen.

Thus, Minato acted.

He jumped from seal to seal, bringing with him the explosion of cannonballs from the backlines.

He appeared in the middle of entire battalions and left death where they stood.

His enormous chakra reserves he had trained so hard got quickly dwindled as he transported tonnelades of volatile materiel to disrupt enormous formations before slamming his kunai on the necks of everybody who survived.

But everyone has a limit, he had to get accustomed, and with his lack of confidence on his sage mode to increase his odds he was sometimes ambushed by Ishi and Iwa shinobi who tried to gang-up on him, just to be quickly hiraishined directly to death.

In just ten minutes he had equalized the casualties, and killed in personal skirmishes some hundred enemy ninja, of which half were Jonin.

After that, those who had learned the Flying thunder god with him took care of the rest of the operation; letting the Yellow flash and his battleplan to drive the enemy push out of the lands of those he held dear.

Just after resting a little bit regaining some of his strength did he look north, remembering his other objective and most importantly: feeling a spike of chakra on one of his hiraishin seals there.

[The kids have engaged the enemy.] - He thought.

So from the main quarters of the Corps of infantry he commanded, the Yellow flash teletransported to the inside of a barrier.

And he didn't like what he found there.

.

---

.

.

When he arrived in the site he saw a man in majestic-looking fire-embedded attire speeding to attack him.

He blinked in surprise at the speed of the man who had a water seal attached to his left leg and chakra tails that had Obito and Rin grabbed by their torsos.

It was almost impossible for him to react.

So he threw a Kunai to him, and teleported.

The Yellow flash then slammed the same Kunai he had thrown to the left clavicle of the man, infusing the blade with wind chakra as he pierced the chakra cloak and punctured one of the lungs of the man.

At that moment he too saw how Kakashi was in front of a basically lifeless body of that little rascal he treated as his brother, with his tanto on and his body clearly burnt.

Then a second passed.

Han fell to the ground, screaming in pain and stopping the fires on his body while at the same time throwing the other two kids to the ground.

And a man, the Commander of Konoha there, did not show what he felt, remaining with his patented neutral face.

Except that he was pissed.

He walked towards his Kunai and Kakashi, who almost cried at his sight and tried to hug him.

Minato caressed his hair before signaling to retrieve his friends.

After that he took his blade and walked to his target, who was getting up.

Internally he was damming himself from being too slow, they had apparently killed the Kamizuru, but at what cost?

It was their duty to act and die for Konoha, yet it was for him, something not desirable.

Especially when he was supposed to have come earlier to assist them in killing the enemy commander if not outright do it himself.

But dilemmas aside, he had something clear to do now.

"I will kill you, Han of the Five Tails."

Those words alone were enough to make said person tremble before desperately grabbing the water seal to throw it far away.

"Please, I did not try to kill the kids, I-"

While he talked he saw Minato frowning.

Instinctively he turned the steam on again.

"I do not care." - The blonde said rashly.

"I thought you'd be more than just an assassin as your Bingo card says." - Han replied with scorn on his face.

"I am, you are just the one who attacked my students and my brother."

Yeah, Han couldn't resonate with him, roles were inverted and Minato used it to not give a shit about what Han thought.

Crash.

[WHAT?!] - Han felt something.

Behind him was Minato, his hand on the Kunai that was still piercing his flesh and causing damage that thankfully, the Bijuu inside him took care of.

[He is going to kill you if you do not act.] - A voice inside of Han spoke, prompting him to act quickly with use of the Tails the Chakra mode gave him.

They moved to grab Minato's legs, and succeeded.

Then he let out a massive amount of steam to burn some of Minato's skin if he could.

He swore he felt a groan before feeling like thousands of small punches hit his back, propelling him forward, carrying Minato with him.

Until he saw how the Yellow Flash was in front of him, holding a three-pointed Kunai

He had used Hiraishin to evade and escape.

And he impaled Han with the blade.

It was an impact equal to that headbutt the Uzumaki have him.

It hurt like hell, yet it was surprisingly manageable.

This must have shocked Minato too because he saw how his Kunai and the one on his back were dissolving, the Steam corroding them, and his body quickly recovered from the impact.

The blonde was a rival, yet it seemed like the shock of seeing him was more than what power he could use.

"I underestimated you." - He said, making Han smile as he then used this opportunity to punch Minato, sending him backward.

[Oh, this isn't going to be so different than with the Uzumaki.] - He internally said, celebrating it.

After, he rushed to again punch him.

His steam propelled him to almost instantly arrive to mark his knuckles against the forehead of Minato.

But it hurt him.

His hand hurted.

On the Konoha-nin there was a new detail.

Orange hues on his eyes.

And his pupils were now like those of a frog.

"But again." - He sententiated, still with the same neutral tone. - "I will kill you."

A jab from him smashed his left cheek, moved his head, broke three teeth and dropped the Steam Tank to the ground.

Next a kick smashed his ribcage.

Seals embedded him and he felt paralyzed.

And quickly a series of punches were felt.

An entire minute passed with him suffering the consequences of fighting against such a foe.

His delusions of being capable vanished.

Once he was free, he punched Minato, but while the force applied was equal to his' at best.

Yet his body then ached in pain, for the damage apparently seemed to be internal instead of external, like his Sage mode gave Minato the ability to impact things beyond his bare fists, who would have known the frog kata had this under the hood?

So he had to try and match him on taijutsu, debilitate him, make him run out of the mode; and hope to finish him with a Bijudama.

Thus they began.

Han could throw a punch to Minato just to be presented with another one with that weird force that made his bones tremble even if their attacks had canceled each other.

After, Han would try to gain the high ground, just to be presented by Minato teleporting beside him and slamming a Rasengan on his sides and then a continuation of the brawl on land.

For every punch he connected to Minato, he gave two lighter ones to him, crushing his insides.

Han was weakened, Minato lost time.

One tried to burn Hiraishin marks while the other planted another and smashed him with a Rasengan.

A sight to be remembered.

But it went on for five entire minutes.

Five minutes in which the place was leveled, their fight even smashing the barrier with the remains of the used power.

Five minutes in which the armies of Konoha and Iwa stopped fighting just to watch the carnage.

Five minutes in which the kids of his team and Futo got together to be in the first row.

And five minutes in which the stalling gave Han the upper hand, for Minato felt it, he had only one minute of time remaining on the mode before running out of natural energy, there was a reason he didn't feel he was good in senjutsu.

Thus, when the Uzumaki was woken up by the hands of Rin, he knew shots had been fired and someone didn't feel so sure.

His right eye marveled at what he thought the fights against the Raikage and the 8 tails looked like.

And the sorrow of three kids was felt.

"Futo sir!" - Called Kakashi.

"Mister Futo!" - Cried Rin.

"Kushino!" - Said Obito trying to get a reaction out of him.

He giggled and tried to open his left eye, finding its muscles were torn up so he couldn't see with it.

After damming his luck he tried caressing the head of the three.

"Heh..."

"Please, any word? Minato sensei hasn't been able to kill him!" - Pleaded Rin.

"Not even the army wants to intercede!" - Added Kakashi before pointing to the two sides cheering their corresponding commander.

"Any seal? Something?"

Well, he had trained these newbies with Minato.

So he smiled, and knowing he couldn't do anything or it would hurt like hell, he breathed and then spoke, trying to be as explanatory as he could.

In his merry voice, he said: "Prepare yourself... Get ink... And... Scrolls."

The boys quickly moved and rummaged through their equipment for something as Futo had most of his things destroyed during the battle before.

[Well... What to do...] - He thought while the kids searched. - [Minato needs one finishing punch, even he doesn't have as much chakra as a Bijuu and a Jinchuriki.]

Thus he tried to move his right hand, crying as he did due to the sharp feeling of his shredded body forcing itself.

Once he finally got a hold of his own hand, he made the Ram seal to use the Submarine sensing.

Han dropped humongous amounts of chakra as he went, and his reserves didn't feel wasted, at all.

Minato dropped weird chakra, that still was infused with his, letting him feel it.

The blonde was running out of it.

And Han was trembling, even if he won against Minato, making him retreat; he would die due to internal damage.

So?

Another interesting thing was that when Minato teleported his momentum was kept unless he used chakra to diminish it.

And Natural chakra got heated with his speed.

He maybe could use that and Han's residual energy to...

[A recycling seal to fuel something to kill the bastard... Well, it isn't the worst idea I've had.] - After that, he laughed, prompting another chest pain and Rin to try to focus some of her reserve chakra to cure him at least some bit.

"Sir, I have pencils and ink!" - Alerted Obito, followed by Kakashi showing a large scroll.

"What do we do?"

A simple gaze at what they had gave him the idea.

"Cut the scroll into five."

All three immediately began to do as told.

"Then, surround each section with the one trigram Nagari, save for the center and corners."

Rushed pencils began working, their small hands tirelessly doing how they had learned.

Obito, who previously had problems understanding; used his Sharingan to copy from his teammates in order to not fail.

Thus, in record time they were ready.

[They would make good combat sealers...] - Futo thought as he saw them, yet he immediately focused in continuing his work. - "Then, repetition, consuming, air, storage, and wave... And surround them with a..."

Time to choose which symbol.

The swiftness of the two trigrams?

Or the security of the four?

He looked at the battle.

Minato slammed a wind-infused Kunai on Han's pelvis, ouch.

Well, as long as these kids don't tell him about his decision...

"Make four lines - Ugh... - With the Kanji for care (ケ), attach (添), blood (チ), and life (生) on top, then... A spiral... All in the center of it!"

Kakashi giggled at the knowledge of what this meant.

The other just complied with nods before starting to work.

Brushed moved fast, Kakashi finished first.

Then Obito, who then helped Rin correct hers.

Such, it was ready, a repeating, absorbing seal... He would have to name it sometime after the battle.

The kids waited for another order.

Bito was about to get up, but Futo lifted his index and said:

"Someone... Link chakra strings to them... Then... To me." - After that, Futo used his malnourished reserves to push himself to stand up, and get his Naginata. He groaned in every step, with every muscle sending him an order to stop. But he dismissed it, opening the First gate to numb those thoughts. Once he had his blade on his hands, he again ordered the kids. - "Surround them with the seals... And tell Minato to collect kinetic energy."

A strange petition, yet they did not doubt their Jonin leader.

Kakashi rushed near the combat, near meters from the expulsion of heat and blood, to whistle in morse no less.

Minato wanted to scold him for his rashness, but he noticed. -. .- - ... . .-. - - - . -. . .-. -. -.-

That style, known only on the ANBU, was understood by both fighters.

But one knew what it meant, all thanks to his constant racing with a certain someone.

He had to do what he used to gather speed to leave his little brother on the dust.

So he hugged Han while the kids let the seals around them.

"Yellow flash, I do not swing that way." - Mocked the man who tried to use this opportunity to crush his opponents with his tails, to great effect, but not enough.

And thus, the blonde let a Kunai fall to the ground while smirking, and threw another to the sky.

Not understanding, Han looked with dismay at his opponent.

And then they both disappeared.

Just to fall to the ground at speeds that broke the sound barrier.

But they didn't crash, for they again disappeared, this time going higher than before.

And they fell, twice as fast than before.

Then they repeated the process.

The scroll sections with the seals began to flare, and Futo smiled.

With each time, his hair flowed a little bit more.

Both armies didn't know what was happening.

Han tried to retain his composture as he fell, but he felt nauseous, a voice on his insides telling him to escape propelling himself with steam; just to be grabbed mid-air by Minato and teleported to fall again.

"Look at this kids..."

It was the voice of Futo this time, not merry, not zetsful, but enthusiastic, like he was born a second time.

"For javelin throw, is another thing you have to learn."

Eventually both Minato and his victim appeared as mere blurs, that towered as a pillar that extended to the sky, product of the energy.

And the hair of Futo seemed to go directly upwards, likely due to the amount of energy it had borrowed.

Kakashi understood what was he going to do, Obito saw the amount of chakra and got amazed... And Rin? She smiled, expecting this to be a great learning experience.

The badly battered Uzumaki, whose clothes, burnt and bloody, with skin charcoaled and hair reduced to a half of its original size; and seals covering his body. lifted his left broken thumb.

Thus, Minato suddenly stopped, the amount of energy he had to use to stop himself making his Sage mode run out.

But it fueled the seals to the point where they exploded.

Just as a Naginata was thrown.

The Yellow flash hiraishined to evade the hit.

Han's eyes marveled at the sight of a weapon that was filled with chakra, all formed as a atomical knife that menaced to pierce him with such speed and strength that he had to use his tails, and all of his steam, just to try and cancel it.

Exhuberant amounts of water filled the area, the temperature rose, his chakra arms seemed to disappear, all to stop the lightning weapon which was slowed down, but not stopped.

"AHHHHGH!" - He screamed, as his body collapsed to contain it.

Until he finally failed. And the blade passed through his left side, leaving a hole on his abdomen before rushing to a mountain at the distant east mountain range, which promptly exploded.

A Kunai then appeared in Han's throat.

He tried to stop that, as he fell to the ground.

"I surrender.." - He said, with tears on his eyes.

The Jinchuriki soon lost its silver clothing, leaving him almost naked, filled of purple spots from the damage he had suffered, and blood that gaped through his injuries.

The Bijuu inside of him couldn't supply him with more chakra.

And the army of Iwa and Ishi, at this sight; surrendered.

Knowing he had the upper hand, and could use leverage out of this, for the war... Minato accepted it, not before knocking his enemy out.

After, he turned to look at his students, and his little brother.

He smiled at them, with a hint of sadness.

They rejoiced.

And Futo fell to the ground, unconscious again.

Konoha had won the battle of the Kannabi bridge.

---

.

.

The victory made Iwagakure lose its main shock trooper corp and demoralized Oonoki even further.

Her daughter died.

Both of his most trusted commanders, which had won so many victories against the Wind, Gold, and so many others; were marked as dirty Jinchuriki, shunned for life.

What fighting ensued saw the rise in popularity of Wicked eye Fugaku, who went as far as The land of Creeks to use a massive genjutsu to stop their caravans of supplies.

Konoha's forces pushed and menaced to envelop their main armies and even Ishigakure.

On other countries, people like the Hyuuga Special platoon struck deep at the economic basis of places like theland of Ivory.

So they began peace talks.

No one wanted to risk so much more.

Minato personally negotiated the peace with Iwa, making them surrender their claims to the Grass and Waterfall, losing sovereignty over the Steel, the new puppet state of the Fire.

Soon, the Wind made peace with the Fire, their lesser animosity towards each other making it so Rasa pacted an alliance with Konoha after the blessings from his Daimyo.

The Water, never contented did not made peace with anyone, preferring to go as a hermit state.

The lightning, on the other hand, made not a peace deal with Konoha, but a ceasefire, for the Suu-ifoturana clan vouched still for their ownership of the Land of Hot waters, part of the new Empire of the Land of Fire.

The rest of the world was obligated to gradually stop their fighting, the wars on the south stopping after the Wind and Lightning's allies finally settled after the intervention of Rasa himself.

.

After that, Minato was hailed as a hero.

Team seven would go on to be formed by Rin of the Surgical water, Obito the Firebat, and Kakashi the Swift Fang.

Its members going to be Jonins, or ANBU in case of Kakashi.

Futo would go to the hospital after being named the Surprise seal by Minato himself, remaining on a hospital bed for months.

Konoha would remain in control of their lands, the death of their ninja making it so many countries left their wing to be free political-wise.

But they managed to create a semblance of peace, for each country was too weak to continue fighting.

.

Minato eventually became the predilect choice to become Hokage.

But a contest came, a public match between each possible candidate.

Jiraiya, Orochimaru, Fugaku, Minato, Hiashi and Hizashi Hyuuga, Baku Inuzuka, Mudaito Fuma, Kushina Uzumaki and Omoshiroi Kurama, the champion of the clan.

Hisashi lost against Fugaku in a ninjutsu exchange.

Jiraiya overpowered Orochimaru in a single senjutsu-powered massive punch, yet he was disqualified, for he lost almost all chakra after that.

Mudaito Fuma lost against Kushina Uzumaki, as his diluted Sharingan was unable to put in her little friend on a genjutsu, letting her almost slice her throat

Omoshiroi won against Baku with an adamantine cell she created with his diluted version of the creation of all things.

And Minato teleported Hiashi to fall from a great height, forcing him to concede.

Thus the first round ended.

In the second, Kushina went up against Minato, but she couldn't force herself to land one of her trademark full force punches to Minato, and he couldn't hit his wife hard so... She surrendered, knowing she had earned her place as a commander of the Konoha garrison at least.

Fugaku won against Omoshiroi, as he used his Tsukuyomi to paralyze his enemy before she could unleash her devastating creations, this also revealed his Mangekyo Sharingan to the world.

With that, the second did too.

Thus came Minato's and Fugaku's fight.

In three minutes Fugaku had been punched enough to kill your average shinobi.

He earned praise for enduring hits from Sage Minato mode no less.

But he was forced to concede defeat in a brutish way, for Minato had learned he didn't have time to joke when Fugaku could enter his mind and fuck him for 72 hours straight, so he went with a mode almost invulnerable to those tricks, and hit him with swiftness.

So Minato won.

And the special round came.

Against Hiruzen.

Both proved initially equal, Minato was clearly the faster one, yet that a 60-year-old Hiruzen managed to even compare to the faster shinobi alive was a deal.

Then it was time for their ninjutsu clash.

Again, Minato surprised him with his Rasengan, which overpowered Hiruzen's version of the Chakra-cloak of the Raikages.

Hiruzen tried to use the strongest genjutsu he had: The Monkey tale, to make Minato laugh until blacking out.

But Minato replied with a deaf clone to slam a Rasengan against him.

When Hiruzen was about to be slammed again, this time with a big Rasengan, he used Hiraishin to evade it, just to end on the tail of a Drilling Airwave from a clone.

Thus, Minato proved with a final slash of his kunai to Hiruzen's shoulder, that he was now the strongest shinobi from Konoha, and stronger than how the God of Shinobi was on his first days as Hokage.

.

The next day, Minato Namikaze assumed his role as the Fourth Hokage of Konoha, the Village Hidden on the leaf of the Land of fire of her majesty the Emperor of Fire.

He brought not a time of Konoha primacy, but one of conciliation with other countries, as to make them interconnected, make shinobi agencies for each country, focusing on technology advance and refinement, so that population could recover, the land regrow and crops go to the mouths of families again.

He held dear his land and made sure that internally all stayed well, going as far as himself alone sealing the Seven Tails to then seal it on a young girl from Takigakure immigrants.

People like Danzo and Orochimaru recognized him.

And his village, and the others that were sisters of Konoha, obeyed him.

He had accomplished his dream.

He bought a house for her wife to live in, buying another for his parents-in-law and siblings-in-law, paying himself for the recovery of Futo, who finally acknowledged the supremacy of the four trigrams.

So he was happy.

And what better news for someone so happy than knowing that his wife...

Was pregnant.

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---

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---

"I think it is time."

A deep voice said on a wide cavern, producing an echo that made some white constructs smile, it came from a tall 'person', looking to a frail old man.

"Yet I don't have a successor." - Responded a more venerable voice.

"But it is kinda good! The Uchiha are not so on-edge this time!" - Said a more happy voice, coming from the other half of the tall man.

"It seems like I will have to leave blood clones... To make sure.." - The old man began, walking towards his attention focus.

The back of the man was connected by long tubes feeding weird substances to him.

"Or leave it to you... Zetsu."

"Do not worry, peace shall be achieved." - The black half responded.

At this, Madara Uchiha smiled, happy to see the conviction on his will.

"But as I said, it is time." - Insisted Zetsu.

"Heh, I thought I would never die."

Madara began making hand signs, preparing to use his last chakra reserves for some blood clones, the ability from the Chinoike clan; to have a safeguard even after he died.

"I will be saddened by your departure."

"I won't have anyone to tell me bad jokes about Hashirama!" - Replied the old Uchiha Patriarch, with a real hint of sadness.

A small giggle made the Zetsu smile before the other white constructs began moving, surrounding Madara.

"Yes... But I hope, the future will change, for good."

The Demonic Statue of the Outer Path, the Gedo Mazo, the statue connected to Madara by the said tubes... Smiled, and said: "Now."

A voice Madara did not recognize, yet carried so much power.

He immediately flared his Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, looking at the statue that moved its arms.

"Are you alive!?" - Demanded to know the reincarnation of Indra. - "How!?"

The statue, even if it had faint signs of conscience, did not answer, for it had spoken enough, and just roared.

A weird feeling took over his body, soon looking at how someone moved from the insides of him, just before going blind.

A kick came then, propelling him backward, disconnecting him from the statue, and making him crash against the wall.

It was black Zetsu, who then integrated itself with the other mindless clones, absorbing them like they were his own chakra.

All save for Guruguru and White who stayed as other voices in the conscience of Black, as he needed some eloquence for the future.

Then the Sharingan flared on his ocular cavities.

"Because, Madara, you were a mean, for a goal."

Desperate, he tried to use the Wood Release: Nativity of a sea of trees and began sending pulses of chakra to try to know where Zetsu was.

The wood, while an impediment at first, wasn't anything for a flood of fire that consumed them.

He felt how his will had turned into a real menace, not because of the massive chakra it carried, as before it was also a strong opponent, but because it was clearly opposing to him right now, and somehow he had lost his sharingans.

"I have orchestrated so many things. But seeing your stupid ways, I think it is time to take..." - Madara heard in front of him while he felt powerless as the power of the Gedo Mazo wasn't feeding him. - "Direct action."

Madara tried to call the statue to help him, but it didn't answer. He wanted to cry in anger, but he was soon impaled by a black chakra rod.

Silence covered the cavern then.

"Good job." - Said the statue before stopping its smile and becoming immobile, almost lifeless.

Zetsu began to laugh.

He had power now.

And he was free to act, in a world ready to be molded on such a great scale that he might as well not take his usual patient approach.

Soon Kaguya would be revived, the next century would see the Rabbit Goddess claim its throne again. The moon people shall see their new god, and the Otsotsuki will suffer for their treacherous actions.

Everyone will know peace, and chakra will be the weapon of the gods to take care of humanity.

Maybe those that helped him ages ago would survive as his adalids (Champions) in the future.

But for now, it was time to act.

And what better first action than freeing the strongest of the Bijuu to set things off directly, and maybe taking the next incarnation of Ashura.

"Be prepared. Leaf village." - He said before uniting with the ground, preparing to move, and beginning his course of action.

.

And in said village, a certain chakra looked at a kid named Itachi, but it was already taken by chakra that corresponded with a whole new soul, Madara's tampering with his natural life impeded the use of this body, so he turned to the backup plan, a simple girl, sister to him, who was born just a single second after the death of the Great Uchiha Antecesor.

And it infused with her soul just as her Mother cried of happiness at the sight of her daughter.

What a great time to be a part of the Uchiha clan, wasn't it?

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1*: Habanero, Kushina's surname, said often in a derogatory form.

2* Submarine style seal-sensing: One adds chakra to a seal that sends it as a pulse and the returning image is then translated by the seal as certain objects and figures. Basically a Radar.

3*: Fire release: Torch technique: Burn chakra and or calories to produce a light varying in size and luminosity to, well, light an area, or burn something with the touch.

4*: Minato's "base" speed is equal to Han's Boil release, and both are relative to the Raikages' chakra armors. Minato's Sage mode speed is marginally superior to Han's perfect Jinchuriki+Boil release speed.

For further reference, Bee's speed is similar yet not equal to Minato's, though in his Chakra mode he is as fast if not marginally faster than Sage Minato. And Armored 4th Raikage Ay is faster than Minato's Base.

Powerwise it is different, the Jinchurikis and Raikages are all stronger (with Bee being leagues above) than base Minato, but he has skill, speed and versatility vouching for him.

5*: I mentioned in like the 4th chapter but it is basically opening some of the inner chakra gates (the first and second) to then make your Ying and Yang chakra collide, the energy outputted serves to temporarily enhance your reactions, but will kill you, leagues, faster than even the 8th gate; and most importantly, will make you explode as your body degenerates and can't contain the energy it is producing.

Basically a chakra suicide attack, I am sure Deidara would like it.