Sorry, I'm late, a lot of things happening all at once. I can't wait for life to slow down.

Chapter 69 Storm is coming.

Hiruzen sighed as he heard the report from Kakashi. He expected there to be trouble but he didn't expect 'She' would show up again.

"So she's gathering the scattered Uzumaki huh?" he muttered, turning his chair around to face the window.

"Orochimaru was also at the land of waves so it's safe to assume that the two are working together," Kakashi stated. "I'm not sure why he's found himself in her company, but it may be the same reason the other missing-nins are working for her."

"She has two out of the seven swordsmen if not more and now she has a Sanin," Hirruzen signed for what felt like the hundredth time. "Orochimaru what are you even doing?"

"One thing is for certain they are gathering forces, perhaps even building an army. And it's not only missing-nin and Uzumakis that they're after."

"Jinchurikis," Hizusen finished. "You believe they are also after the Jinchurikis."

"They wanted Naruto because he was a half Uzumaki but they said they needed him for something else. The thing that Sora and Naruto, who were their targets have in common, is the demon chakra. Or it was."

Hiruzen looked down at the picture team seven returned with. The monks of the fire temple gathered together along with team seven in front of the iron gates. Most of the monks had on bandages and looked battered. Hiruzen nearly had a heart attack when he heard Sakura had placed them in that state. Thankfully they didn't see the need to sue the village for damages, perhaps too scared of the kunoichi.

Sakura stood beside
Sora with a huge smile on her face. In the picture, a single moment in time, she seemed like a normal child. As normal as Sora who was now demon chakra free. The bandages around his arm were absent and revealed nothing but a normal arm. 'She took the chakra out of him and gave it to Naruto,' was what they said, as though such a feat was normal among them. The fourth Hokage died trying to seal the Nine tails, and yet this kunoichi was able to not only remove a foreign chakra from the boy but also seal it within another host. While the chakra wasn't on the same level as what the Fourth had to deal with, she was still young. If she was already like this he couldn't imagine what she would be like in the future.

"It's things like this that make the villagers fear her," Hiruzen muttered.

"I believe it's her killing intent that leaks out when she walks through the streets, that causes the most fear," Kakashi stated.

"The demon brat's guardian."

The villagers feared Sakura more than they did Naruto who looked like a normal boy next to her. While they still saw him as the demon fox himself, they are more afraid of the one walking around with the sword than the one that conceals it. The shinobis knew better than to fear the vision and ignore the concealed one, but he couldn't expect them to understand war.

He stood and walked towards the window.

So much has happened in these last few years.

He retired, his wife and replacement died, the Uchiha died, and now he has to worry about ghosts from the past coming to haunt them.

"What next?" Hiruzen groaned. "The Ghost army gonna rise again?" he pinched the bridge of his nose. "At this point, anything goes."

He looked back at Kakashi who stood alone in the office.

"The other Nations need to be warned at least," he said, stepping closer to his desk. "The Jinchurikis are the nation's greatest weapon, if someone is trying to gather them, they can only want war. Telling them via letter isn't going to be enough, we will have to meet face to face."

"A Kage summit, this close to the Chunin exams?" Kakashi asked.

"We might have to use the exams as an excuse to gather, rather than have an official summit. The last thing we want is to tip off the enemy.

"We're not on good terms with most of the other villages, I doubt they'll willingly come to our village."

"Hn, that's why we will not be having the exams in our village."

"He's heading your way Cat," the radio buzzed in my ear, Naruto's voice coming through.

"Roger that," I responded. We already had eyes on the target; it was only a matter of cornering him like the rat he was. I stood atop the light pole watching as the man ran frantically through the crowded streets of Konoha. He looked behind him periodically, no doubt looking for Naruto, the last to chase him.

The mission was simple, there were a few unwanted guests in the village, rounded them up discreetly without alerting their friends, or the villagers. Too easy.

"Dear customer~"

A sweet voice pierced his ears. Despite his situation, he turned to find the source.

Dressed in a long red qipao whose slit ended on went up to her hip, revealing her creamy long legs, she leaned against the nearby wall. Her candy hair was combed in a need bun and held with elegant hair sticks, her red-painted lips smiled at him.

"Won't you visit us?" her voice was mesmerizing and he found himself walking toward her, instead of running. She lifted his chin with her fan when she stared at her legs too long. Her red eyes smiled at him knowingly.

"Right this way there are more alluring things inside."

To him, she took him inside a building with numerous gorgeous women waving at him, but to everyone else, he calmly walked down an alleyway and collapsed. A Springfly fluttered over his body before his body disappeared, replaced by another spring fly that mingled with his friend.

"Target received," Yamato's voice came through the radio.

"Copy that," I replied mentally calling the Springflys to me. "Who's next?"

"We have a situation!" Naruto yelled through the coms.

Sector 8

I saw the image of Naruto running after a muscular man, from memory he was one of our targets.

"What happened?" I asked calmly, already heading to their location.

"He didn't get a response from his team and figured out something was wrong," he explained.

"They had communication devices?" Sasuke asked surprised. We were told they were moving independently. This is why you should never trust information sources.

The target ran from the forest and headed to the town. I wasn't sure why he was going to the town instead of running away but at least. The mission stated that the civilians must remain oblivious and so they would.

I summoned a swarm of Springflys and sent them ahead of the target, into the street filled with people. After covering a large area I activated the jutsu.

"Shatter Kyōka Suigetsu!"

Pink dust fell from the Spingflys falling like snow onto the people. The effect was immediate. After rubbing their eyes they saw a bull running toward them. They screamed and moved out of the way quickly, incidentally avoiding the target entirely.

They saw a bull and not a man running through the village, thus the mission was not compromised. Sasuke moved into the target's path and activated his Sharingan. The target fell with a thud. The civilians peeped from their hiding spots in time to see the bull getting pulled away. They cheered and complained but they remained oblivious and went about their day once the excitement cooled off.

Once my team was out of sight I lifted the genjutsu and called my Springflys back. The target was replaced by a Springfly and team seven was left alone.

"Targets received good work everyone." Yamato's congratulation was a welcomed one. Naruto collapsed as all his clones poofed, memories flooding back to him.

"I have a headache," he moaned. I placed my hand on his head and eased the pain with my chakra.

Sasuke's eyes faded to black and he wordlessly lay down next to Naruto; I placed a healing palm over his eyes.

"Thank you," he muttered.

"This is ridiculous, do they have to flood us with work just to "Keep us out of trouble," huh?" Naruto complained.

Lord Third, thought we were trouble magnets and so assigned us to missions inside the village to keep us busy. It was tedious and although it was C rank, it felt like D rank. With all this work I was surprised the boys had not collapsed yet.

"No more," Naruto whined.

"I'll hold off on reporting the mission's compilation," Yamato said from the earpiece. Having heard Naruto's plea he decided to have mercy on us. I signed in relief, thanking Sasuke who purposely activated his earpiece.

"At Least we're getting money for all this," I said lying alongside them. "With all these ryo we'll be able to pay out a weapons store. Provided Tenten doesn't get there before us."

"Where does she get the money to fill her scrolls with weapons?" Sasuke muttered.

"Even without this, we still have money we got from the land of waves mission and also from the bandits."

"Yeah we're filthy rich,'' I agreed, thinking about all the money I had sealed away after splitting the profit three ways.

"What should we do with the money?" Sasuke asked. "We could build a house there's so much."

"Why not build a house then?"

They looked at me as though I were crazy.

"Hear me out," I'm degrading my argument. "Naruto lives in a shity apartment and you and your brother live in a spacious but empty and no doubt expensive apartment. And I live with my parents. As shinobis, it's important to have your own space. let's build a house.``

"My apartment isn't that bad!" Naruto objected.

"...I like living with my brother," Sasuke muttered.

"Just picture it, a nice big house like the Hyuga's, with enough space to lounge around in the hot summer and a warm place to nap in the winter."

"Sounds like something a couple would like," Naruto muttered.

"Or a couple and their child," I said.

"Who'll be the child?"

Sasuke and I gave him a blank look.

"I don't want to be babied!"

"You can't cook," I reminded him.

"And from the state of your apartment, you can't clean either," Sasuke added.

"You're completely useless," we stated.

"So mean," he whined. I patted his head as he rested it on my chest.

"Such a child," Sasuke muttered.

"Where would we even build it?" Naruto asked.

"You have a plot of land, Naruto."

"Huh?"

"What made you think your parents were homeless?"

"But that's…," he paused.

"Then why didn't the Hokage send him there instead of the apartment?" Sasuke asked.

"It got destroyed in the Kyuubi's rampage," I answered. "But the land is still there. We can just build on it."

"Let's do all that after the exams," Sasuke said snuggling into my side.

"Yeah we need to focus on getting stronger," Naruto said, getting comfortable as well.

Before I could make sense of the situation they were both asleep. I sighed and closed my eyes.

"It's been quite hectic hasn't it?"

I opened my eyes to the sound of his voice. We were in a library now, not unlike the one from my past. It was a maze of a place but thankfully each self was labeled and arranged chronologically.

It changed after Madara got free rein, the guy completely overhauled the place. My interior designer was now shifting through scrolls and books while taking notes.

Those weren't my memories. Somewhere along the line, our memories become stories in the same place.

"All this can be considered training," I walked over to him and looked at his notes. It was a five-point seal with seal element, an elemental seal of sorts.

"The uzumakis secrets were scattered in my mind," I muttered looking through the scrolls. There were also notes on the Geto statue and the reaper death seal.

"We have everything except the seal to hold them," he said, adjusting the calculation.

"We have the technique and also the chakra, it's just the holding cell that's the problem."

Since I'm not an Uzumaki my body isn't built to hold such a large amount of chakra," I said dejectedly. Why didn't I also have plot armor?

"That's why we need this seal to be perfect," Madara pulled a scroll from thin air and began to write on it. "Anyone can hold a tail beast with the right seal."

"Even Lee?'

"..."

"Probably not huh?"

"I was just wondering what would happen if he got a tail beast."

"Really?"

"He can't use its chakra so it would like being in isolated confinement."

"That's cruel."

"Maybe not as cruel as being in the reaper's stomach."

"So it's better that they stay in the "pink demon's" stomach instead?"

"At least then, we can ensure they will fight alongside us instead of against us. Orochimaru isn't on our side so we can't be sure what their plan is."

"If they use it and the third dies they could that all four souls for themselves."

"The future already changing," he stopped in his scribbling. "It's best we seize all power for ourselves."

"In order to protect everyone."

"No sacrifice is too great."

Written on the scroll was a seal that would change everything.

"Five God Seal."

The only way to save everyone.

Next Chapter
October 25