Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (unfortunately). I do own all of my own characters.
Thank you to all my reviewers!!! You ppl r so nice :-)
"blah" speech
'blah' thoughts
Otokage - Patience... Otokage-sama, patience... :-)
DarkJackel - Yea... age difference was my biggest concern too. As for the your views on the rest of the fic: well I don't want to spoil it, plus its only a chapter away from the beginning of the end... And I have something planned for Konohamaru.
blaboy - the tattoo will be soon. The content Yondaime's scroll will not be seen for now. And ur off on the tallies b/c it was purposely calculated that two ppl wuld die from each side.
MC-88 - If the pairing doesn't go your way, then I will say that the ending is the same, pairing or no pairing.
joann - sorry but I really don't want to figure out how two Kages would go about being married.
y0028k - lol, yes I've wondered about that too, but decided that their 'fingers' are flexible enough...
kisama - why? Isn't it obvious? For the plot of course...
Magy - I generally don't have it typed, especially if I'm doing a vote.
Aiel - Good, in your sense? or in mine? -evil smile-
caro8 - No, not effortlessly. Structuring 5 simultaneous battles is quite a pain. As for making sense, well I just kinda see if it plays out in my head, if not then I have to change it. Yes, the Uchiha truth will be revealed before the end... (actually I got distracted while writing ch18 and instead wrote the Uchiha truth). Yes, the ending has been planned out since about while I was writing ch17. So you have 3 chapters to enjoy this fic until it ends at ch21.
momon101 - Kakashi is out on an S-class mission... No, I don't know where he is. He just didn't make the cut for the casting of ch17 and 18.
black - Yes, the uchiha truth will be revealed, but who ever said anything about a happy ending? "What's your rush now, everyone will have their day to die" - A Perfect Circle
Lady Of Genesis - as I've told others, patience... the sun for judgement day is set to rise... I guess yea, I do like to kill characters...
Pirazy and OpposingForce - Naruto, as a knight in shining armor? No. Just No. In black armor that reflects the light of the moon, maybe (Don't think about it too much). You have to be emotionless in war, Naruto doesn't care for the Leaf as he does for the Sound, why do you think he'll treat them equally? No, he was supposed to 'hint' at the Uchiha truth. I'm not gonna lie, I did screw up a bunch of things in 17, but re-writing it is 'way too troublesome'... ch19 is going to have a long time span as it is, fitting in a relationship shouldn't be too much of a problem, plus they've known each other for many years. And yes my ego definetely got a hold of me, but for a different reason...Damn, you do rant a lot... :-/ ... j/k... I prefer long reviews Oh and last note, no one's perfect... please don't assume that...
evilmustardman - you know, that still only counts as one.
Seether 0 - fawing over each other -shudders- gods no...
Kawaii Youkai - I found out about the hand seals after I wrote the chapter.
Bob - Your review made more sense than a bunch of others.
Monaki-cheung - Kisame's death was faked... It was in Itachi's letter to Naruto in chapter 13.
1) In truth, I didn't originally plan to kill Kisame, but upon a closer look I saw that there needed to be a death of someone close to Naruto... and I kinda wanted to leave the posibility of a relationship with Miya open, so Kisame was the only choice.
2) Why does everyone think it's a romance ending? God damn! I'll tell you straight up, it's not gonna end w/ a 'and they lived happily ever after'.
3) The vote was close... now then, there will be romance, but not too much. Plz tolerate it.
Chapter 19 – Change of Pace
Naruto along with his injured or dead subordinates, teleported right back into the Otokage's office. Naruto quickly called a few more people to take care of the dead and to take the injured to the hospital.
'I'll need to arrange the funeral,' thought Naruto sadly. He called in his secretary and told her to make arrangements for the funeral to take place three days from now. 'After all, I have wait for Miya to get back… can't go burying one of her friends without her.'
Naruto sat down at his desk, with his hands on forehead and sighed heavily. "God damn," he muttered. Naruto looked over at the paperwork on his desk, frowned and turned in his chair to gaze out the window. "I really don't want war to come to this place," he said softly.
He sat like that looking out the window for an unknown amount of time, until an ANBU disturbed him with some business. At this point, Naruto sighed and got back to his duties and the Otokage.
Three days later at the funeral, all of the shinobi that didn't have missions or guard duty came to Kisame and Hirotaro's funeral; even some civilians showed up. Though most people were there for Kisame because he was a prominent figure within the shinobi ranks.
Miya stood next to Naruto after they had both said Kisame's eulogy, and try as they might they were unable to hide their sadness. White roses were soon thrown on top of the coffin by all present and the coffin was then buried. (A/N: I hope I got that at least half right, since I've never been to a funeral.)
Naruto crotched down next to his friend's grave, "I'm sorry old friend… that you had to die," he lowered his head.
Miya then continue for Naruto, "but… you did always say that it would be a great honor for you to die on the battlefield, while fighting along side a good friend."
She looked over at Naruto who simply sighed and nodded in agreement, "I hope you've found peace," he said and stood up.
"I'm going back to the office," he addressed Miya and left without giving her a chance to reply.
Miya stood there in a slight confusion, then kneeled down next to Kisame's grave and whispered, "Don't worry, I'll take care of him." She tilted her head and looked in the direction of Naruto's house, "That is, after I get some answers from him," she clenched her fist. "Be at peace my friend…" she gently placed his slashed Mist forehead protector on the tombstone and vanished.
Naruto did go to his office, but could concentrate on anything and finally decided to go home, not wanting to be at the office after that entire ordeal. He was still pissed off about Kisame's death at the hands of someone that he was going to trust.
The Otokage's house was a grand two-story apartment that had a giant living room with a fireplace, a dining room for at least thirty people, a big kitchen, a bathroom, and even a small library on the first floor. On the second floor there was a master bedroom and three guest rooms, and three more bathrooms.
As soon as he came in, Naruto found Miya sitting on the couch in the living room, with a serious look on her face. Naruto wasn't too surprised to find her there, since she could get into just about any place, guarded or unguarded.
Miya stood up and walked over to him. She stopped right in front of him and looked him dead in the eyes, "What the hell happened out there?" she demanded.
"Look, when I heard about Kisame, I was pissed off too, but did you really expect anything better?" she asked.
"Maybe…" he said in a slightly calmer tone, "maybe I expected some impossible act of forgiveness… I sure as hell paid for it."
"I told you not to go back there, nothing good can come from visiting your home village… I would know," she added sadly.
Naruto suddenly turned to face her, "w-what do you mean, you know?"
"I went back, after the Akatsuki fell apart, maybe hoping to make-up with my old friends," explained Miya in a slightly bitter tone. "They blamed me for everything bad that had happen to the village since my departure… but most of all they only saw me as a loose end from the operation to bring down the Akatsuki."
"The cutting of all the threads…" mumbled Naruto and Miya nodded. "But why didn't you tell me this before I went," his voice was becoming frustrated again. "I would have given it more thought or at least not rushed in there like I did."
Before Naruto could react, Miya punched him in the stomach and pushed him back against the wall. She broke the skin just above his wrist with a kunai and slowly pulled upwards, "Do you really think I like talking about killing my friends?" she asked in a dead cold tone. "Do you believe my heart to be dead?"
Once she reached his shoulder she withdrew and her eyes almost instantly lost that coldness, "I care about Kisame's death… more than I would ever show," she said softly. "You know… you had about the same training… hiding and/or masking our emotions is basically instinctive."
"I know," sighed Naruto, "I'm sorry…" he added very softly. He looked down at his arm and quickly generated some chakra to heal it all up.
Miya was stunned, she had never heard him use that kind of tone with anyone. On a second take, she realized that the message was genuine, 'He's never apologized and really meant it… maybe only to Itachi-san. He's always been the best of us to conceal emotions… 'lifetime's practice' he said.' However, Miya could not figure out what he would be apologizing for; he wouldn't be sorry for interrogating her, 'Could it not be meant for me?' she wondered.
A long silence passed in the room.
"It was my fault…" he finally said.
"Huh?" Miya wondered. 'What could have been his fault? The fact that the Leaf village rejected him? Or could he be talking about Kisame?'
"I must have been too forceful…" he continued in a subdued voice, "I figured I couldn't go into the meeting in obvious regret, I thought it would make it look like I was begging."
'Good thinking, if you had done that then they would have surely walked all over you,' she thought, but stayed silent.
"I certainly didn't want that, if they were going to accept me then they were going to accept me for myself not for another mask that I would put up to gain their trust," he explained. "You of all people should realize that I didn't really go there for the scroll, it was a nifty excuse to tell myself and anyone that doubted my motives. I would have definitely offered them peace and some sort of comeuppance, but before all that I had to feel them out… and this is where I messed up."
He turned around so that his back was to her, so that she could not see the emotions running across his face. "Several things that should not have been said, were, and it went downhill from there," he tightened his fist. "I should have seen it, noticed the little, subtle things that went on in the meeting. I was so absolutely convinced that Tsunade would still like me, that it rendered me blind."
Miya could see that this was tearing him apart, 'He had honestly counted on at least neutrality between the villages,' she reached out an arm towards him, but hesitated. "Do they know? About you being the Otokage, that is?"
"Yes, I told the Hokage right before we left," he answered. "Shock and maybe even fear… intermixed with her previous coldness…"
'Serves her right, underestimating Naruto like that… that bitch,' thought Miya, though also wondered why she was suddenly being so forceful.
"Maybe I should still extend my hand, this time as the Otokage," wondered Naruto.
"What!? Don't tell me that you are actually considering doing that after everything they did to you," Miya replied vehemently.
"It was my fault so I should make amends," he said in a half-broken voice.
"It's not your fault, they made the decision by themselves," she countered. "They surely know that no one comes to the negotiations table, without at least some pride and maybe even a card up their sleeve."
"Still they deserved better…"
Miya cut him off, "Persistence is futile! Those people will never change!" she yelled.
"They are not all like that…"
"How many?" she asked compellingly, "How many do you still consider your friends and vice-versa? Five?"
"Less," Naruto answered. "One… perhaps."
'One!?' her mind screamed. 'I wasn't expecting anything that bad… my god…'
"I don't know if even he would forgive me for everything I've done."
"Do you really intend to do all this for just one person, that might not even like you anymore?" she asked him in a soft tone.
"But he was there for me…" Naruto trailed off.
"If he had been there for you, we wouldn't be talking right now, and you wouldn't have joined the Akatsuki after running away," she concluded.
"Well, I don't know… he's just… if Tsunade turned on me then surely he's not too far behind… after all the Kyuubi did kill his entire family…"
"Naruto," she said as she snaked her arm around his waist from behind and held him close to her. "There are people right here that care about you… maybe you should also cut all the threads?"
Naruto sighed deeply and relaxed a little in her in her embrace, "I know," he sighed again. He paused to think a little, "cut all the threads you say?"
"Well, you said it before me," she answered softly.
"Yes, I think I will do exactly that," replied Naruto. "If this person can forgive me then, he will also have to side with me… but I will not hold out my hand."
"Miya?"
"Hmm?"
"Thank you and I'm sorry again," he said.
Miya was confused once more, 'That 'sorry' was meant for me, but why?'
Naruto turned around to face her and put his hands on her shoulders, but couldn't make his eyes meet hers, "I know about your feelings…" he said after a slight pause.
Miya was startled, "W-what? My feelings, but…" she decided to feign ignorance. "What feelings are you talking about exactly?"
Naruto chuckled a little, "No games, Miya, Itachi told me… Me being in absolute ignorance about things like that, I never noticed," he calmly said, amused to find her so shocked.
"So you've known all this time, huh? But then that would mean that you don't reciprocate, right?" she looked away not wanting to see his face when he said it.
"Back then, things were different, we were both in the Akatsuki and any kind of relationship seemed just a bit impossible," he began to explain. "Then there was the whole Leaf Mission incident and Itachi's death and I just had to leave," she nodded. "After that, revenge was just about the only thing on my mind… I did go to the Grass Country right after I had found out that the Akatsuki was gone, I guess subconsciously hoping that I would find you. Then I helped out in the Sand, killed Orochimaru, took control of this village and sent some people to find you and Kisame and you know the story from there," he concluded.
Miya nodded at the last part, but was still unsure how that answered her question, "So…?" she asked not really sure what to ask.
Naruto smirked, "So much for your own training of being able to read emotions," he said in a joking tone.
"Hey! It's hard enough to make coherent sense out of what you say," she snapped.
"Exactly what do you mean by that?" he questioned. "I make prefect sense."
"Really now? Then how come even I can't understand?"
"You're doing it on purpose of course," he half-yelled, "to piss me off."
"Hey, you're not as clueless as I thought," he laughed.
"Very funny," said Naruto in an annoyed tone.
"Oh come on, you're too uptight… of course I know what you mean."
"So then, why?" he asked confused.
"Idiot… I wanted a straight answer," she answered.
"Oh… well in that case, I like you too, Miya," confessed Naruto with a slight blush on his face.
Miya mirrored Naruto's blush and quickly hugged him, part of the reason being so that he wouldn't see the emotions in her eyes.
"I'm actually saddened that you weren't able to resolve things with the Leaf," said Miya.
"Yea, so am I."
"After all that, did you at least get the scroll?" she asked kindly.
Naruto broke the hug and walked over the mantle piece and drew his finger over the surface. A secret compartment rose up from the mantle piece and Naruto took out the scroll from it.
"Have you read it yet?" she asked.
Naruto nodded, "But it wasn't what I was expecting."
"How so?" Miya asked with a little concern.
"Well, of course it had an apology and an explanation for why he sealed the Kyuubi within me," Naruto explained in a soft tone. "But there was also an alternate reason for the whole thing…" he paused.
"Well, it just gives me a new cause," Naruto concluded.
"So, what are you going to do now?"
"The rest of the day, I'm going to spend in remembrance of a fallen comrade and old friend," he stated sadly.
Miya nodded in agreement and they stayed at his house for the rest of the day and night, talking about the past times. Miya stayed the night at the Otokage's house, in a guest bedroom just as she had done several other times.
Naruto woke up late the next morning with a feeling that he was forgetting to do something. He got up and walked into the kitchen to find Miya had already prepared breakfast.
"Morning," she greeted.
"Morning," answered Naruto in a slightly worried tone.
"What is it?"
"I feel like I've forgotten something important."
Miya thought for a moment, "Does it relate to the meeting?"
"I think so…" he trailed off as he realized what it was, "Oh…"
Miya tilted her head to the side, "Oh? Judging by your tone, you don't really want to deal with it or you don't really know how to deal with it."
"It concerns the prisoners that I was going to give back to the Leaf," Naruto said.
"Well, I doubt that you're going to just let them loose now."
"Of course not, but at the meeting I told the Hokage that I would send her Konohamaru in a box," he explained.
"And you're thinking if that is really the best course of action, am I right?" she asked already knowing the answer; he nodded.
"If I remember correctly he's the previous Hokage's grandson, so you might get a handsome random for him," she offered.
"Yes, but…"
"But, he's a liability right?"
"Exactly," replied Naruto.
"Then, kill him along with the female and have them both delivered to the Leaf village," she simply replied. "Maybe even have one of our spies put his dead body in a highly visible place."
"You're quite sadistic when it comes to that kind of stuff, you know?"
"No worse than you," she replied with a sadistic grin.
Suddenly an idea hit Naruto and he showed a malicious grin, "I'll use one of them as the delivery girl…"
Miya raised an eyebrow and smirked, "You don't bluff on you're threats."
"Nope."
After breakfast Naruto made his way to the dungeon and asked the guards to prepare a box for the male prisoner's body, and to also release the girl and bring over to Konohamaru's cell. He then made his way over to Konohamaru.
Naruto looked into Konohamaru's cell and saw him sitting down in the corner with one of his hands chained to the wall.
"Hey," he called from the outside.
Konohamaru instantly recognized that voice and didn't even bother looking up, "What the hell do you want?" he asked with bitterness.
"Well, I thought I'd tell you that your village decided that you aren't worth anything, so they will not be paying your ransom," he said with a slight amusement.
"I don't care, I would die for my village!" he declared, looking up the Otokage with determined eyes.
Naruto laughed at this, until he noticed the anger in Konohamaru's eyes, "Oh don't worry I'm not laughing at you. In fact, I think that that's very honorable that you think like that," said Naruto in an amused tone. "Very few ninjas like you in the Leaf, and they throw them away just like that… stupid, if you ask me."
Naruto looked over to see Moegi being dragged over to Konohamaru's cell. Finally the guards managed to get her right over to Naruto and chained her to the door of the opposite cell.
"Why do you struggle so much? Don't you want to see your life-long friend?" asked Naruto emotionlessly.
Moegi spat in his face, "No! I don't want to see him get beaten up in front of me!" she yelled.
Naruto looked over at the guards in question, "Really now?"
"It's a form of interrogation, Otokage-sama, I'm sorry if…" one of the guards started to apologize, but Naruto cut him off.
"No, it is no big deal. Nothing to be sorry for," he turned back to Moegi and wiped the spit off his face. "Though, now I'll have to make this even more interesting," he said sadistically and flashed his blood-red eyes fro Moegi.
"Make sure she watches," he ordered the guards. Then in softer tone whispered to them, "Though you don't have to," the guards nodded in understanding.
Naruto opened the cell door and stepped in, "Now then Konohamaru-kun, lets start."
"Do your worst," he stated confidently.
"Oh you don't want my worst," said Naruto, "plus then it would be over too quickly."
Naruto opened up his robe to reveal dozens of needles, hooks, scalpels and what looked like dull, rusty knives. Naruto noticed Konohamaru's determination waver a little bit and smirked a little.
Naruto took one of the needles, grabbed Konohamaru's free hand, pushed the palm up against the wall, and stuck the needle straight through the nail of the thumb pinning Konohamaru to the wall. He then repeated the process with his other hand. Both times Konohamaru gritted his teeth to keep from crying out in pain.
Naruto smirked at his determination and decided to hit a few more pressure points all over his arms. Konohamaru was still able to resist the pain, which made him worthy in Naruto's eyes. Naruto then decided to switch over to the hooks. He made sure that there were other hooks in the walls slightly above the Leaf-nin and he slowly removed the needles that pinned Konohamaru to the wall.
Since Konohamaru wasn't fed well, most of his muscles had atrophied and so he wasn't really able to resist what Naruto was doing to him. The Otokage turned him around and put several hooks through his back and hung him up on the wall. Naruto then proceed to cut several muscles in Konohamaru's legs with a scalpel and then switched his attention to the Leaf-nin's torso.
Naruto took out his dull and rusty blades and cut a star shaped design into Konohamaru's chest, making sure to do it slow enough so that he would feel the maximum amount of pain. (A/N: I could write more, but then it would have to be rated R.)
The tortures continued like that for another hour or two. Somewhere in the middle Konohamaru finally cracked and at first started whimpering, then broke down fully crying out in pain. At the same time Moegi was also crying and begging for Naruto to stop. When Naruto finally did stop, Konohamaru was completely covered in blood from head-to-toe and he was barely breathing. For the finale, Naruto had activated his demonic eyes and used Hell on Konohamaru.
"Why… why do you have to be so cruel to him?" Moegi sobbed. She had long ago tried to look away, but the guards made sure that she watched everything. "He's going to die like that… please leave him alone," she desperately begged the Otokage. Then as she saw Naruto step away from Konohamaru and walk out of the cell, leaving her closest friend to bleed to death she yelled out, "Won't you at least get a doctor for him?"
Naruto turned back to her and brought his demonic eyes to look directly into hers, "You have too many requests, little girl." Moegi whimpered. "If you hadn't spit in my face I would have made his death quick, but no, you had to prolong it," he stated coldly.
"But don't worry you will get your true wish and go home," he told her. "You'll just have the small duty of delivering Konohamaru to the Leaf, do you except?" She quickly nodded, mostly out of fear, and continued crying.
"Good," said Naruto and threw a kunai straight into Konohamaru's heart, killing him instantly.
"NO!" yelled Moegi. "What the hell did you do that for!?"
"Since you so nicely accepted my offer, I ended his suffering," coldly answered Naruto.
"No, Konohamaru-kun… no…" Moegi cried even more.
"Put the body in the box and get the girl at some semi-decent clothes and escort her to the borders of the Sound Country," he ordered the guards. Then added, "And don't worry about cleaning the body up."
The Otokage left the dungeon and made his way to his office to get back to his work. By the end of the day, he received a report that Moegi has been escorted to the border and left to get back to the Leaf by any means she can. Naruto was sure that with the current tension, the border would be closely watched and that Moegi would be escorted to the Leaf by some ANBU.
Later that night, Naruto met up with Miya and they went to get a bite to eat. Even though, Naruto was with the girl he likes, his face only showed gloominess.
"What's wrong Naruto-kun?" asked Miya with concern.
Naruto stayed silent for a moment, "I lost control today…"
"With the Leaf-nin?"
"Remember how I told you that I was going to make it quick for him?" he asked.
Miya nodded, "For old times sake, you said."
"Well, when Moegi spit in my face, she reminded me so much of Tsunade… that I just lost it…" he said slowly.
"I just kept seeing Kisame's death face and that little mocking look that the Hokage gave me when she went back on the deal."
"I see," she said in serious voice. "I understand what happened."
The rest of the dinner passed in silence. Afterwards they walked to the Otokage's place and just as Naruto shut the door behind them he asked Miya a question.
"Do you think I'm just like Orochimaru?"
Miya quickly turned around to face him in confusion, "What? How could you even ask that?"
"It's just that, I betrayed my home village, murdered several shinobi from there and now I have my own village with which I'm going to wage war against my home village," he explained.
Miya frowned, 'No, there is no way I'm going to let him compare himself with that snake,' she decided. "Naruto, you are definitely not like that snake. He ran away for a much more selfish reason than you and you killed those shinobi out of survival reasons," she tried to reason with him. "Plus, you are waging war for a much better reason than that snake could have ever come up with."
"I guess," sighed Naruto. "But why do I always get seen as the evil one?"
"Only by your enemies, Naruto," she reassured. "Your enemies will always see you as an evil being."
Naruto sniffled a little, "I know what I have to do and I have a good reason why I should do it, but…" he paused for a few seconds, "But why did two of my closest friends have to die for me to get here… and how many more of my friends will have to die before this is finally over?"
Miya gently embraced him and for the first time in more than twelve years Naruto openly cried on Miya's shoulder. Miya held him tight and whispered comforting words into his ear.
After a few minutes he stopped and looked up into her eyes, "Thank you."
"You're welcome," she gently replied. "Do you feel better now that you've released all the pain and suffering you've been keeping inside?"
"Hmm… definitely," he smiled at her, and she smiled back.
"Thanks for being here, Miya," he said and gently kissed her. Miya was a little shocked, but kissed back.
Several days later in the Leaf Village:
"Hokage-sama, our scouts are coming back earlier than expected," reported a guard.
"Reason for their return?" asked Tsunade expecting it to be a confrontation with Sound-nin.
"They said that they are bringing someone back."
Tsunade's heart skipped a beat, "Bring them to me as soon as they get back," she ordered. She thought back to Naruto's parting words, 'Was I wrong to assume that to be an empty anger-induced threat?' she wondered.
Within the hour three people entered the Hokage's office, two of them carrying a box and the third carrying a girl in his arms. Tsunade instantly recognized the girl as Moegi.
"Where did you find her?" she half-yelled.
"Just on the border to the Sound Country," answered the ANBU. "We observed her and that coffin, getting dumped onto our side of the border and left there."
"And that would then be Konohamaru," said Tsunade sadly pointing to the coffin.
"Yes, Hokage-sama," answered the same ANBU. "We opened it up to make sure in wasn't a bomb."
The Hokage nodded and noticed that Moegi was stirring. "Take the coffin to the morgue and please inform his friends. Leave Moegi here, I'll need to talk to her," they bowed and disappeared out of the office with the coffin.
Tsunade walked over to Moegi to make sure she wasn't too badly hurt. Except for a couple of bruises and a couple of small cuts, the girl was absolutely fine.
"Moegi, are you all right?" asked Tsunade in a concerned tone.
The girl half-opened her eyes and smiled a little when she saw Tsunade, "Hokage-sama…" she then mumbled something about home and then started crying again.
"Yes, you're home. No need to worry anymore," reassured the Hokage.
"Konohamaru-kun… he's dead…" Moegi sobbed. "He tortured him to death."
Tsunade's face twisted in an angry frown at this, 'This 'he' must be Naruto… and he was obviously using this poor girl as the messenger, that twisted bastard.'
"Moegi, don't worry he can't hurt you anymore."
"No, he didn't do anything to me… I just watched as-as-as…" she couldn't finish her sentence. However she didn't need as Tsunade had already put the pieces together.
"Moegi, I'll have someone escort you to the hospital. Just rest now, we'll get that bastard," said Tsunade bitterly.
Just then Udon burst into the office and instantly made his way to Moegi and hugged her, happy that she was alive.
"Udon, please escort Moegi to the hospital, she's had a very long day," Udon nodded and scooped Moegi up in his arms and disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
The Hokage sat down hard in her chair, "I guess war is inevitable," she mumbled.
She knew all too well that the village was not ready for war at the moment, so she would have to start preparing her forces and strengthening alliances. She wondered whom the Sand would ally with in the event of a war. Through Jiraiya's espionage, Tsunade knew that Naruto had in fact helped Temari gain power and also that the Sand knew a long time ago who the Otokage was, and hence had made that trade agreement with the Sound because of Naruto.
'I see two options, either the Sand siding with the Sound, which would prove very bad for the Leaf or the Sand simply staying neutral, which would a bit more beneficial for the Leaf,' the Hokage mused.
"And we were just weakened with the dead of Jiraiya," she mumbled remembering the funeral several days back. 'The Hyuga head, Hinata, was also killed and Sasuke and Sakura are both in the hospital with medium to heavy injuries, respectively.'
"Well, if I learned one thing from that meeting it's that Sound shinobi cannot be taken lightly," said Tsunade. 'And then there's the Otokage, Naruto… being able to kill two sannin, is a feat that is quite incredible in itself… I wonder if I would be able to stand up to him if the Sound decided to attack first.'
After a bit of contemplating, Tsunade called in her special jounin and the best strategist, Shikamaru and briefed them on the situation. Shikamaru instantly suggested building up the Leaf's defenses, before focusing on the offensive. His reason being that if the Otokage felt superior to the Hokage then there was high chance that he would decide to strike first.
The next two years were spent just building up defenses, before at last focusing on the offensive. The Leaf had a pretty difficult time forming military alliances, since the Sound had made it known that there was increasing tension that could very easily lead to war. So other Hidden Villages knew that an alliance with the Leaf would ultimately lead to a war with the Sound. The smaller villages especially didn't want this, mostly because they had profitable trade agreements with the Sound. About halfway through the fourth year, Konoha did manage to sign an alliance with the Mist Village.
On the other hand, the Sound had no problem signing military alliances. The Hidden Cloud was especially happy to be in an alliance that may give them the chance to get even with Konoha. Naruto had thought that the Stone would accept an alliance, but just as he was making the offer, a war had broken out between the Stone and Snow. The Stone knew exactly what the Sound was making alliances for and politely declined the alliance saying that they didn't want to a fight a war on two fronts.
That's what happened officially, however unofficially the Otokage had set up a treaty with the Stone making it possible for Sound shinobi to participate in the war with the Snow disguised as Stone-nin. Main reason for this being practice, though Naruto didn't want to lose too many people in this endeavor, and because of that only high ranked shinobi were allowed to go.
By the time that Konoha had allied with the Mist, Oto had allied with the Cloud and Rain. Naruto had respected Temari's decision to stay out of the war, however he did get her to agree to create a distraction if need-be. That's what the plan was for the Rain shinobi, to create a distraction so that troops may be snuck into the Leaf Village's proximity.
The Otokage had increased the training of the younger generation, taking them out of the academy a year earlier and making sure that they were assigned to a jounin instructor specifically based on their affinities. The Sound was developing shinobi that were trained to the limit of their abilities in the area that they were best in, whether it be tai, gen or nin jutsu.
Konoha: Tsunade's Office"Shikamaru, what makes you think that an attack will come soon?" asked Tsunade.
Shikamaru groaned, "The Sound has had enough time to prepare and certainly they know that several of our special jounin are out on an S-class mission. It's the most opportune time," he explained.
"There was about the same situation two years ago, and nothing happened," said Sasuke.
"We should increase our defenses regardless," countered Shikamaru.
Suddenly an ANBU rushed in, "Hokage-sama, Rain shinobi are attacking in the north-west!"
"The attack is beginning," said Shikamaru.
Tsunade jumped out of her chair, "We need to send our shinobi out there."
Shikamaru interrupted her, "If the Rain are attacking from the north-west, then the Sound and Cloud will attack from their borders."
Tsunade quickly considered his point, "True, we need to send troops out towards the Sound border and the north-east border. Get it done!" she commanded the ANBU; he bowed and disappeared.
"Shikamaru, what are our defenses like here?" asked Tsunade.
"Tower and gate guards mostly," he replied. "Dozens of shinobi, of all ranks, wondering around in the village."
"We should sent out some of the best ANBU towards the borders to stop the initial attacks and show them they won't even be able to enter the Fire Country," offered Sasuke.
"No," declared Shikamaru.
"Why not?" the Uchiha raised his voice.
"Consider Naruto's personality, his style is to hit as close to heart as possible," explained Shikamaru somewhat sadly. "The Rain and Sound borders are too far away for a proper effect."
"Then, what the hell do you think he's going to do? A direct attack on the village?" asked Sasuke incredulously. Shikamaru shrugged.
"Alright, I want to split it," ordered the Hokage. "I want half of the best ANBU teams out there on the border and half to stay in defense of Konoha."
The decision was reasonable, even though Shikamaru couldn't shake the bad feeling that the decisions they were making now were life deciding, but he knew better than to oppose the Hokage's orders.
About half an hour later, Shikamaru and Sasuke both came back to inform the Hokage that the ANBU teams and several jounin were sent off to the Rain and Sound borders.
"I still say that we should have sent the more powerful and experienced shinobi," said Sasuke.
Shikamaru sighed in annoyance and mumbled troublesome, "I keep telling you that the main attack cannot come so far from his real objective," he explained for what seemed like the hundredth time today.
Suddenly the three Leaf-nin felt a chill run up their spine and their skin crawl.
"You feel that?" asked Sasuke.
"What the hell was that?" asked Shikamaru.
Tsunade on the other hand, had a horrified look on her face. Sasuke was just about to ask her if she knew what it was, when an explosion was heard and the ground shook. The group looked out the window and saw black smoke coming from the main gate.
Right after they heard a loud roar and saw something red swaying behind the smoke.
"Oh god…" said Tsunade with her hand over her mouth.
"Wha…?" Sasuke wasn't able to finish. A wind blew and cleared the smoke temporarily, making the thing behind the smoke completely visible.
A giant deep-red fox with eight tails was towering over the destroyed main gate, its very light-blue almost white eyes were fixed on the Hokage tower, as if saying 'come out and fight me'.
Well I don't really know wat to say about this whole chapter...
its definitely better than the shit that i talked about to several ppl on AIM.
Vacation is over, I'm back at the university, so I dunno when the next chapter will be out.