Author's Note: I thank you all for giving this story a read, and for those who've followed and favorited then all the better! Firstly I'd like to address a couple of things from the previous chapters. Sakura's axe is something you can find in early miscellaneous illustrations Kishimoto did, as I recall it appeared on some cover art of one of the manga volumes. Ayame suggested watching Monti Paison, which is according to a buddy of mine how people pronounce Monty Python in Japan. I hope the sharp pointy teeth gesture makes sense then because if it doesn't then I'm gonna feel unreasonably old.

For those who've continued to read my ramblings this far, I thank you. From this point, AU elements will become more pronounced. Not that they aren't already but that's beside the point. Regardless, I hope you all enjoy!

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Chapter 4: The Coming Storm

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Jiraiya and Kakashi were blurs to anyone that saw them. Interrogation of the ROOT ANBU they had captured revealed that Danzo had a training facility in the village's underground where new members were to be processed and raised before joining Danzo's personal army. All of them were orphaned children who over the course of training would become emotionless; they were more akin to tools than people in Danzo's eyes was the implication.

That the interrogation went through at all was a miracle considering the seal Jiraiya found at the back of their tongues. It was intended to silence information about Danzo, ROOT's, and Konoha activities. Tampering with the seal while active meant the ninja it was applied to would die instantly. The seal itself was tied to Danzo's life force, so when he died it became useless. Danzo again proved he wasn't quite as clever as he thought he was, for the seal was applied to everyone from the moment training began. The unintended consequence of this was that the ROOT ninja didn't have the slightest inkling of how to resist interrogation.

The bodies of several Shimura clansmen and their supporters surrounded Naruto's two senseis. Resistance climbed as the pair made their way to the Shimura clan compound. Their goal was a manhole cover that led to a localized sewer system that Danzo had been all too happy to abuse for his own benefit.

Jiraiya paused for a moment as he rounded a street corner. Kakashi who was covering their rear slowed as well once he reached the older man. They were next to the power plant. Black smoke rose in ten magnificent pillars while blue light contrasted with the storm clouds above.

"We need to leave now," Kakashi ordered.

Jiraiya agreed in spirit. His ninja instinct was screaming at him that they should go now or their lives would be forfeit. Yet there was a mission that needed finishing, children to save from the clutches of evil.

"We'll escape underground. Quickly now! We must find that sewer opening!"

Kakashi wanted to argue. His gut was telling him the same thing as Jiraiya, but logic took over as he took point.

Two blocks away they found it, and no motion was wasted as they plunged feet first into Danzo's hell.

Dark, damp, depressing, all of these and more could be used to describe the ROOT facility. As they continued into its bowels, it grew very apparent that this place was used for more than training. Rows upon rows of Sharingan eyes could be seen in clear glass jars. Papers on a desk near an operating table displayed the process by which they were grafted to an artificial arm. It was sickening, but it also solidified the idea that Danzo was arrogant beyond belief and that he thought nobody would ever discover these dark deeds.

"What has he done," Kakashi muttered murderously with fists clenched so tight they drew blood.

Jiraiya answered with no small amount of irony, "The real treason of the day."

The pair continued onward collecting any documents that they could find all the while consciously ignoring that the deeper they went, the more the entire complex began to reek of shit and rot.

A small squad of ROOT ANBU emerged from a series of trap doors behind the pair. The laboratory became a battleground. Jiraiya snapped off a quick fireball technique at point blank range. A woman screamed as her flesh began to melt and char. As she thrashed on the ground, Jiraiya kicked her into a swordsman while she expired. The ROOT swordsman didn't anticipate this and he crashed to the floor with a flaming corpse on top of him while it burned. Kakashi lazily threw a shuriken into the man's throat. His clothing caught fire and soon, so did the body. The stench of charred meat hung in the stagnant air of the tunnels like a sickness.

Kakashi impaled another ROOT ANBU on a spike probably intended for use in medical experimentation. The man's face oozed grey matter where the spike punctured through the forehead. Jiraiya finished off the last one with a large rasengan that ground the man's spine into powder. Silence once again took over in the darkness.

Eyes narrowed, Jiraiya watched Kakashi's back as the white haired jonin took point near a narrow stairwell. A small sign illuminated by a dim, flickering light labeled it as leading to the barracks.

"Feet first into hell," Kakashi muttered darkly.

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The Hokage Tower rocked as an explosion outside signaled continued resistance from Shimura forces. Tsunade and Shizune continued to organize the fight from the Hokage's office, but by now it was clear that Natasmi's troops were beaten. It was not a clean victory. Several thousand Konoha ninja and twice that number of civilians were dead. Electricity in the village was gone now that the power plant had been sabotaged, but the Godaime Hokage had little doubt that the village would survive this trial.

"Naruto, Sakura," Tsunade said getting the attention of the two genin.

The pair lined up waiting for orders.

"I need you to check on Sasuke in the hospital," she said as she handed Sakura a note, "That will get you past the ANBU I have guarding him if they're still there. If he tries to escape, you know what to do. If he isn't there, hand the note to Shikaku Nara. I have him stationed at the emergency bunker a block north of the hospital. Return here after, understood?"

Naruto answered with his classic shit eating grin, "You got it granny!"

Tsunade groaned but did nothing else other than dismiss the pair to their fate. As they left, a large old man entered the room. His skin was red like a tomato, blood seeped from a multitude of places on his body, and a horrific burn covered much of the right side of his body with his hand being the worst.

"Kongou? What the hell happened to you?" Tsunade asked the crazed looking Akimichi.

"Evacuate the village. We all of us need to leave immediately!" he more or less screamed in her face.

"Slow down. Deep breathes. Beginning, middle, end. Condense, plot, tell it," Tsunade ordered.

Kongou paused as he regained control of himself. Heavy breathes preceded the statement that put a wholly unnatural fear into Tsunade's heart.

"The reactors are melting down. If we stay here for even a few hours, everyone in the village is dead in a month. No exceptions."

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The hospital was not far from the Hokage Tower. At the speed Naruto and Sakura were making, it was fewer than five minutes. Smoke rose from a fire on the hospital roof. Sakura gave a nervous glance to Naruto. He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder before gesturing to the main entrance with his head. Sakura nodded and they hurried inside.

The moans of injured civilians and ninja immediately assaulted their ears. A pile of dead Shimura clan ninja and their supporters was in the corner of the lobby. Blood practically drenched the floor, but they ignored it as they ascended one level and rushed to the east wing.

This area of the hospital was entirely devoid of people, unnaturally so. Naruto slowed down as did Sakura but they continued going. Rounding a corner, they encountered several bodies. A pair of dead ANBU were surrounded by Shimura clansmen, one of whom was still alive. Naruto growled as he summoned a clone. The man begged for mercy, but received none as a rasengan was shoved down his throat. Sakura watched disinterested as she confirmed they were outside Sasuke's room.

"We're here," she said.

Naruto's clone opened the door and was immediately popped. Sakura and Naruto assumed battle positions and stormed into the room.

Sasuke was awake it seemed. The body of a Shimura ninja lay slumped next to the bed with several stab wounds to her neck and face. The bloody scalpel in Sasuke's left hand provided the answer to that mystery.

Naruto started speaking, "Sasuke! It's ok! It's just us!"

"You! Do you have any idea what you've done to me? Sakura! Naruto!" Sasuke ground out.

"Sasuke, you're home now, you're safe! Naruto brought you back, Orochimaru can't get you anymore," Sakura said attempting to defuse what could become a very tense situation.

"Safe? I've never been fucking safe, especially since that stupid forest."

"Please calm down! This isn't helping! You need to rest. You aren't thinking straight," Naruto retorted.

Sasuke laughed like they had never heard before, his Sharingan blazing in the dim light of the hospital room.

"I've not thought so clearly in months, years even!"

"Huh?"

"And I have you to thank for it Naruto," Sasuke interrupted now much more calm and collected, "In fact, because of you, I'm going to do something that should have been done a long time ago."

"And that is what exactly?" Naruto snarled.

Sasuke merely grinned. He wiped the bloody scalpel on his hospital gown before pointing it at the pair. Confused looks were all the response he got before he brought it back to his neck and sliced. Blood flowed freely as Sakura and Naruto screamed bloody murder.

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"You aren't Danzo. Or any of our instructors. Who are you?" The pale skinned boy asked.

Kakashi looked at Jiraiya for a moment rather pleased. The kids they'd found here were nowhere near the level of brainwashed that they had been dreading. In fact, it seemed most of them with a few exceptions were only recently abducted into the program.

"I'm Jiraiya. This is Kakashi. We are here to get you out of here."

The steel haired boy who was with the pale one narrowed his eyes, "Taking us where?"

Kakashi smirked under his mask. This was good, they didn't trust blindly, "Out of these sewers and to the Konoha hospital. Danzo and his ROOT ninja are dead, and the village is now responsible for your wellbeing."

The pale boy nodded, "Ok, I'm Sai," he smiled in a way that could be construed as creepy.

The other boy was still reserved, but he gave the men the benefit of the doubt, "I'm Shin."

The quartet exited the small dark room into the equally claustrophobic and dark hall where 30 younger children could be found. Truly, the electrical work in this place was shit.

"Ok everyone, follow me," Kakashi boomed so they could all hear him, "Jiraiya will be behind you."

Down the hall, up the stairs, through the lab, into the sewers, and up the ladder to the outside, the trek back was slower than the descent into Danzo's lair.

Kakashi felt a drop impact the side of his face. The rain had begun. The fear he felt as they made their way into the lair came back with a vengeance.

"Into the emergency bunker. Quickly now! Move!" Kakashi bellowed. The kids ran into the underground shelter followed by the ninja.

Jiraiya spoke up, "We follow these tunnels to the hospital, follow Kakashi."

The troop didn't know it, but Kakashi's instincts saved them all from a death as terrible as they come.

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Tsunade was fucking livid. How could Natsami be so unfathomably stupid? There was a reason that just over 20 percent of the village budget went to maintaining and defending the power plant. She wasn't the ninja turned nuclear physicist that Kongou Akimichi was, but anyone with the slightest concept of how the reactors worked should know just how deadly one meltdown is, let alone ten. Natsami was the Shimura clan heiress, she was provided that information, but now her pigheadedness had doomed the village Tsunade's grandfather had worked so hard to found, build, and make thrive.

Tsunade did not have the luxury of mourning the loss of her home just yet, she was the Hokage, and there were people to save. She gave orders to the dying man in front of her, then summoned for Shizune.

"You called Lady Tsunade?" the young woman asked.

Tsunade knew that there was no turning back now, but it didn't make the decision easier.

"Send word to all of the clans in Konoha. We are evacuating the village. Bring anything of value to be found within their homes, but ensure it is quick. We only have a few hours at best before the meltdown kills us all."

Shizune gasped as she clutched her kimono hoping against hope that this was a joke in exceptionally poor taste. The tears in the Hokage's eyes said otherwise.

"Shizune. Now."

"Yes, Lady Tsunade."

Kongou looked out the window and sighed. Tsunade spun around in her chair and took a good long look at the home she would never be able to return to.

"Lady Hokage," Kongou said, "I'll have a report for you in the hour."

The dead man walking left the room.

Tsunade was left to stew in her thoughts. Rage overcame her. She roared and threw a chair out of the window. Shattered glass fell to the dirt below.

There was now nothing to be done but gather as much as possible and leave.

The rain poured down as ten smoke pillars continued to feed into the clouds.

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Naruto experienced a number of emotions very quickly: Horror at Sasuke's apparent suicide attempt, confusion when Sasuke didn't die, curiosity at the hunk of flesh that was separated from Sasuke's neck, realization when he solved the mystery as to what Sasuke actually did to himself, and then horror once again when he realized Sasuke was now bleeding to death.

It appeared Sasuke realized this too because he collapsed suddenly being very weak thinking there were probably better ways to have done that.

Sakura was the most logical of the trio as she gathered a large wad of gauze to apply to Sasuke's neck. Once done, she gathered another wad and picked up the meat upon which the cursed seal was applied. The look of disgust she gave Orochimaru's "gift" could not be undersold. She couldn't dwell on it though; Sasuke was grievously injured and he needed to see someone, Tsunade preferably.

Sasuke slumped into unconsciousness, and Sakura took charge.

"Naruto, keep pressure on that wound, and help me get him downstairs."

"Idiot bastard, have a doctor do that why won't he," Naruto grumbled.

Sakura smiled morosely saying nothing.

The pair carried Sasuke down to the lobby only to find it even more hectic than when they had entered.

"What's going on?" Naruto asked an ANBU who appeared to be supervising whatever was happening.

The man looked at the genin carrying their teammate and said, "You need to get him into the emergency bunker now. The village is being evacuated, hurry! We only have a few hours to get out."

Naruto looked at him jaw agape and was about to engage further when Sakura elbowed him hard, "Not now, we help Sasuke, then you can do your thing!"

Naruto looked sour, but he grudgingly accepted the argument.

Sakura opened the door to a heavy downpour. Something was off. She couldn't explain it. It appeared Naruto felt the same. There was something in the air, a vaguely iron like taste. It frightened her, and it convinced her that they needed to get to the shelter immediately.

"Naruto, let's get a move on!"

"Damn right."

The pair sprinted down the road, water and mud splashing at every impact of their feet. Sasuke's eyes remained closed as his body bounced up and down. The skin where rain impacted began to turn ever so slightly red.

Naruto didn't notice or care. All he could think was why.

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Behind a set of titanic bars in a sewer, the kyuubi was deeply unsettled. Something was wrong; there was a foul poison in the air. A voice that waxed a poetic lay heavy in its mind. A creation of man that could render the tailed beasts irrelevant took the form of a yellow and black circle in which three cropped triangles surrounded a small dot at the center. Kurama rumbled in the deep cursing the name of Tobirama Senju.

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Author's Note: Had some major writer's block on this one which hasn't been present in part three. Once part three is posted, which still needs to be heavily edited, we return west and check in with our favorite northerners and see what shenanigans they're up to. In other news, I got my first flame! It is something of a rite of passage for any aspiring writer on this site. That said, I've loved all of the positivity from all my other reviewers. Anyway, I hope you people have a lovely day!