a/n: This is the ninth installment of my fan fiction. This is the shortest one of the chappies. I hope you guys will still enjoy it. Only two more chapters to go! Thank you for patronizing it! This is chapter nine!

Chapter Nine: Patience

Defeat.

I lost the battle. Even if I destroyed the foundation of the village, somehow I felt my loss. Why was I defeated? I calculated everything perfectly. Was the margin of error I put into account not enough? Perhaps I was never meant to win in the first place. Or was I afraid to win? There is nothing I could do now. My objective had been discovered. My spy has been detected. Sunagakure and Konohagakure are already allies. They are aware of my possible whereabouts. Every step I take is now crucial. I must avoid any further contact with others outside the Sound Village.

Why did this happen to me? Is this the price of revenge? How come I did not know? But, after all this, what did I gain? Nothing; I gained nothing. Everything was in vain. Everything was useless.

I devoted my time looking for a way to reverse the damage given to me by sensei. I decided to look for Tsunade. She was not in Konoha when I 'visited'. You see, a long time ago during the Great War, she experience many deaths, two of which are her brother's and her beloved. She was gravely traumatized by such incidents and was not heard of since then. Rumor has it that she traveled from place to place. She owed a lot of money from many people from different villages and families. The thing about Tsunade is that she loves to gamble (though she is not good at it). And the money she owed was pretty much from betting.

As we grew up, you see, Tsunade mastered the arts of medicine and she became well known for being a gifted medical nin (not a gambler for the record). And I needed her professional help. And as expected she did not agree to help me out. She needed a little persuasion. So, I offered something, something she could not refuse. I would revive her loved ones in exchange for curing me. But to my dismay, it did not turn out as I expected.

Jiraiya, meddling as always, interfered with my plans. As a childhood playmates, we often play hide-and-seek. I made plans of us not being found. Somehow, we almost always end up being caught because of his interference my plans. It is pretty shallow, but back then we were kids. Everything meant the world to us. And even as we grew up, when we were taking the chounin exam, it was his entire fault for making our team almost not accepted for the final part. I do not hate him for that. If it was not for him, my childhood might have been boring.

The three of us met again in a village not far from Konohagakure. As it turned out, Jiraiya was also looking for Tsunade. He traveled to that village bringing the Kyuubi vessel with him. I discovered that he was training the boy. Jiraiya was already aware of Akatsuki's plans. He wanted to prepare Naruto if ever he made contact with the other 'class S criminals'. Also, he was tasked to find a Hokage replacement since I killed the previous one. He nominated Tsunade to be Hokage. At first, Tsunade did not agree.

I do not really like to remember things that bring me some sort of strange feeling. Like the death of Hakucho, my experience with Akatsuki (after overhearing they want to kill me), and the fate of my sensei, I do not like to give further detail to those moments. When I was gennin, it was far from my mind that the three of us would actually engage in a fight to the point that we would be willing to kill one another.

Our confrontation led us to showing of our skills. And since I was not able to perform hand seals, Kabuto assisted me. It was one of the best battles I ever had in my life. Three beasts were summoned and we gave our best. I summoned Manda; Jiraiya summoned Gama Bunta; and Tsunade summoned Katsuya. I almost lost. And definitely, I failed. I need other means of regain my hands.

That was the least of my problems. The body my soul is staying is about to disintegrate I need a new vessel. I wanted to have the body of the Uchiha. It was already time to make my move. I had to make contact with him somehow. I decided to send my men; the Sound Four. They would escort Sasuke to me and I will take over his body using Fushi Tensei.

Of course, around that time Sasuke was easy to persuade. He was intimidated by Naruto's newly learned technique, the Rasengan. During boy's journey with Jiraiya, the old pervert had been training him. The demon vessel became skilled at the technique that Jiraiya mastered. Add to that what an ex-Leaf nin said on their mission. The daunted Uchiha sought power that is why he was more than willing to come to me. Around that time, his cursed seal was giving a lot of pain.

The party I sent was successful in convincing Sasuke to come with them. I was worried because he might not agree because of the matters concerning his heart. I did not expect him to let go so easily. I thought he was strongly attached to the village, especially to the pink haired girl. It worked to my advantage that that he left without second thought. Despite that he left the village immediately, he was not able to make it in time. I was already in a critical state, the pain in my arms and the constant bleeding reaching the point when soon it did not matter whether Sasuke arrives or not. Desperate for a new body to transfer to, I held a tournament of fights to the death between my prisoners and I would take over the body of the last man who remained standing. And he turned out to be Gen'yūmaru.

This, while getting rid of my condition, drastically delays my plans for Sasuke. The soul transfer technique could not be used since I can only take over a new body once about roughly every three years.

Now I seat here in my chamber waiting for the success of my technique. My heart beated faster. My breaths became shallower. My body grew numb and everything went black. My whole life flashed before like some revery that seemed so real yet so far. I recollected every moment in my life; my luarels and my defeats. I call onto my subconsciousness all memories of my only love, Hakucho. I figured that if I were to die now I would at least have the last moments of my life thinking of her; her sweet smile, her caring voice, and her beautiful eyes.

I finally regained consciousness, but I did not open my eyes. I was afraid that if I opened them I would not find myself in a small room but instead the purgatory or hell. I do not expect myself to go to heaven, if there ever was. I am sinned. I killed many people more than I could count. I held my breath. Somehow, I found the strength inside me to lift my eyelids and scan my location. I cannot explain how much relieved I was when I put sense into myself and realize that I was still in my room.

I stood up and took a rim of parchment. I decided to write everything that has happened to me. And even if no body knew my story, the real story, at least this book will treasure it. I do not know how many centuries my life will last but I promise to take everything down. I do not know where the road may lead me. I do not know where it might take me. Only one thing is for sure. I will reach my destination.

I have decided to train the Uchiha boy for the time being. And ever since he has arrived, he has grown stronger. He told me a lot of things, some I did not write here. He wished to keep it a secret. He kept popping up opinions about a girl named Sakura; how talented she is mostly. Yet, somehow there was some sort of sadness in his tone whenever that topic is brought out. Maybe he had a feeling that he will never be with her.

I do not know what I am going to do with his feelings for the girl. I have no idea whether I should supress his feeling and turn him cold or I should tranform that love for her into hatred. I have not thought of it yet. But sooner or later, I will deal with that. Right now, I have to prepare his physical body as my future vessel. I gave him a lot of physical training and endurance. I also took care of his nutrition.

There were only few problems during that period of time. One of which is when Jiraiya and two gennins intruded my village. I was afraid during that time because Sasuke was not yet strengthened with my philosophies making him easier to be persuaded. I focused more on hiding the boy than protecting the inside of my village. That is maybe why it reached to the point that I had to face the intruders.

The girl was desperate to see Sasuke, if Sasuke only knew. Just when Kabuto was about to kill her, the Kyuubi vessel showed up. Though it may hurt in Sasuke's point of view, it seemed that the girl had developed feelings for the Uzumaki. I realized that this would be working in accordance of my plan of Sasuke turning his back completely on the Village of the Hidden Leaf. And time will go by, and Sasuke will see for himself the sad truth. He will soon be hated by the village and he will be seen as a traitor. My plan will work perfectly. He will help me willingly.

I have to be patient. It is the only thing I can do. And while wating, I also did some reminiscing. I visit my past looking at my mistakes and wrongdoings and what caused them. I might have been a lot of things that I am not right now. I could have been better. I know. I could have been someone all people admired. But now, I stand on a crossroad were I can only move forward but never look behind.

Where do I go from here? This is not were I intended to be. I almost had it all. I believed it myself. I now stand on a point where I cannot return; I cannot undo what I just did. Deep in my heart I hide things that I want to change. But I know I need to start walking and moving forward. The past is the past. All I can do right now is move until I reach my dream. The only problem is: Will I ever reach my dream?

a/n: That was short chapter nine. I hope you guys liked it. I am really sorry for the typographical errors, misspellings, and grammatical errors. The grammar and spelling checker of my Word was not working properly and I had to proofread manually. I hope you guys still like it! And…to you see that button at the bottom left! Click it! Thanks! Bye!