Naruto vs Sasuke: The Aftermath

by Kingkakashi

At the Valley of the End, Sasuke nearly kills Naruto and it affects everyone in many ways. See a vastly different direction after this battle to the Naruto story, than what the Canon did. There will be action, surprises, & romance NarxHin KakxKur JirxTsu & many more. Warning be prepared for the most Evil Sadistic Sasuke ever, and Sakura takes a beating in the early chapters. Enjoy!

63. Homecoming Part 4

Summary: Naruto, Kakashi, and Jiraiya have returned to the Leaf village after nearly four years away training. Many reunions and surprises awaited them upon their return. How will they react to the various changes to their home and the people they care about? As the Konoha they left years ago is no longer the same home they have returned to.

Naruto vs. Sasuke: The Aftermath

Chapter 63: "Homecoming Pt.4"

---

"Blood!"

"Bl-blood, I don't understand Master-Jiraiya?"

"You're not the only one Hinata. What do you mean by blood Jiraiya-kun?" Tsunade questioned.

"My love, have you never thought about the complexity of the Hiraishin no jutsu your uncle created or how it works?"

"No, not really, Uncle Tobirama was a genius when it came to inventing new and powerful jutsu's."

"Yes he was, and the Hiraishin no jutsu he created and that Minato later improved is his greatest jutsu in my opinion."

"Why is that Master-Jiraiya?" Kurenai asked in curiosity.

"Because it's a space-time jutsu." Kakashi replied, answering his fiancé's question.

"Exactly!" Jiraiya bellowed in agreement.

"Ok, we all agree Uncle Tobirama's Hiraishin no jutsu is amazing, but you still haven't answered our original question yet. What does blood have to do with that jutsu?"

"I'm getting to it my love, now what is the function of that jutsu?" Jiraiya openly asked.

"It's a teleportation jutsu."

"Correct Hinata and what exactly is teleportation?"

"Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them."

"Once again that's correct, I can see that you're as smart as you are beautiful Hinata, Naruto is one lucky man to have landed you." Jiraiya replied in compliment, causing the Hyuga girl to blush, before the Toad-Sage continued on.

"The actual power of the Hiraishin no jutsu comes from the user's ability to harness Spatial Manipulation."

"What is Spatial Manipulation?"

"Spatial Manipulation is the power to alter and manipulate the space and area of one's choosing. In other words it allows changing and controlling distance and space dimensions by reducing, increasing, or twisting and bending them."

"What does that mean?" Tsunade asked in frustration.

"It means users can warp, bend, crush, essentially control and otherwise manipulate all physical aspects of space within an area of one's choosing. It allows the ability to influence an area and whatever is inside of that area. Take Kakashi's Mangekyou Sharingan for example."

"What does he mean Kashi-kun?"

"My Mangekyou is also a space-time technique Kure-chan. However, while it doesn't allow me to teleport, it does allow me to trap subjects or objects in another spatial dimension and push that space, throwing a subject or object into it."

"Alright, so Kakashi's space-time technique and use of Spatial Manipulation is different from the Hiraishin, we understand that, but for the third time you still haven't told us yet what blood has to do with the Flying Thunder-God technique?" Tsunade groused in irritation.

"Blood provides the marker or anchor for the jutsu."

Everyone in the room save for Kakashi stared at Jiraiya with confusion, before he continued on.

"Most people believe that to activate the Hiraishin no jutsu, the user places a special seal or as Minato sometimes used a specially designed kunai to mark an intended destination. After this is done, the user can enter a dimensional void at will that instantaneously transports them to the location of the seal."

"That's correct, Uncle Tobirama used a special seal and Minato used both a seal and or the kunai you just described, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"Because the use of the special seal or kunai was a ruse by Tobirama and Minato, it never had anything to do with the actual function of the technique. At least not in the sense most people believed."

"I don't understand?"

"It was never a seal or the kunai that enabled the Hiraishin to work, but what each contained."

"You, you mean!"

"Yes my love that is the dark secret of the jutsu...blood."

"I still don't understand Master Jiraiya?"

"Hinata, the human body is made up of trillions upon trillions of atoms. I believe what Jiraiya-kun is saying that my uncle, Minato, and Naruto discovered that to make the Hiraishin work; it needs to have some type of marker, which utilizes the same DNA on a molecular level of the user." Tsunade offered in theory.

"So you mean when the Yondaime applied his Hiraishin seal, he wasn't using chakra ink, but rather his own blood." Kurenai exclaimed in surprise.

"That's correct and his special tri-prong kunai's he had made held a small chamber of his blood within the handle."

"But why would the Second and Fourth Hokage's along with Naruto want to keep that a secret?" Anko questioned in curiosity.

"I would guess it's because of all the negative connotations associated with blood."

"You're right Iruka, so I know Naruto would appreciate all of you not discussing this with anyone outside of this room. The reason I told all of you is because you are some of Naruto's most precious people and I felt you would understand the nature of the jutsu and not judge the people who used it."

Everyone in the room nodded in agreement, before Tsunade then asked.

"I think I understand how the Flying Thunder God technique works now, but how is Naruto able to use it? I didn't see him use a seal or special kunai when he flashed out of here?"

"Naruto doesn't need to use a seal or kunai to mark where he wants to teleport to in the Leaf village, because of his life growing up." Jiraiya sadly remarked.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean all of you know about the horrific treatment Naruto sometimes suffered at the hands of the villagers growing up. Well, during the more violent transgressions they committed against him, where Naruto suffered significant injury and loss of blood. And while the blood he shed is no longer visible to the human eye, there is still a DNA marker at the molecular level at those locations, which he is able to sense."

"So what you're saying Master-Jiraiya is anywhere Naruto bled in the village, he can sense it and think of the destination and can appear there at will. If what you say is accurate, that means Naruto's molecules may travel at light-speed and are realigned mentally by him at the target destination."

"To an extent Iruka, it all depends on the strength of the DNA marker. If Naruto say pricked his finger in the past and a drop of blood hit the ground, its signal strength let's call it would be extremely weak if noticeable at all by him. However, when he lost a significant amount of blood in the past at a location, its signal strength is much stronger and more noticeable by him. As for what you say about the Hiraishin breaking down the users molecules and transporting them at the speed of light and realigned mentally by him at the target destination. That is a very plausible hypothesis and would explain the flash of light that occurs when Naruto disappears and reappears using the jutsu. That was the one thing we could never figure out Iruka."

"That's my hubby, sharp as a tack and great in the sack all rolled into one." Anko openly commented, as she kissed his cheek.

"Awnty Anko, how can Unca Iruka be great in the sack, it's just a sack?" Minato innocently asked in curiosity, as it was the first thing he had remotely understood within the past few minutes.

"Uggh, I swear Anko, I think you need a muzzle sometimes." Kurenai exclaimed in frustration, as she shot a quick glare at her friend, while Anko blushed furiously.

However, before the young boy's question could be answered, Hinata remarked in a pain-filled voice.

"So all the blood Naru-kun shed over and over again at the hands of the villagers growing up, now allows him to move instantaneously from one location to another within the village without physically occupying the space in between. It's almost comical that because of what they did to him has given Naru-kun the use of such an incredible jutsu within the village, if we all didn't know the tragic price he had to pay to obtain it."

A pall of saddened silence enveloped the room like a shroud, as everyone thought about Naruto's childhood growing up. After a couple of minutes, Tsunade finally broke the silence and said.

"Kakashi, Anko, you have your orders, head out now and coordinate with Ibiki and take charge of the Anbu forces in defense of the main gate."

"Hai Hokage-sama!" Both Jounin said in unison, before they shushined away.

"Hinata, I need you to head over to the hospital and help prepare it for possible incoming casualties."

"Hai Lady-Tsunade."

"Iruka, you need to head over to the academy and make sure the students are secured in the safety shelter. Kurenai, why don't you take Minato-kun with you and help him out."

"Hai, baa-chan-Hokage!" Minato answered for both adults, as he snapped to attention and saluted Tsunade.

The blonde Hokage smiled at this, before Kurenai picked up her son and exited the office with Iruka, leaving Tsunade alone with Jiraiya. The Toad-Sage walked over and gave his fiancé a comforting hug, as he said.

"We'd better head out to the main gate; we don't want to miss the show our grandson is going put on for the village to see and they might need our help as well."

"You're not worried at all about Naruto-kun getting hurt. You know shinobi who can call upon powerful dark summons were usually strong and skilled warriors to be able to do so."

"Unless it's Orochi-teme or Sasuke-teme out there, then no I'm not worried about Naruto at all. My love, I promise you are going to be amazed at how strong and skilled he has become. After all he was trained by the fabulous and most legendary Sannin…..The Sensei of the 4th Hokage himself… Jiraiya the Toad Sage Master Extraordinaire."

"Alright, I trust you Toad Sage Master Extraordinaire, but if you're wrong!"

"I'm not wrong and soon you're going to see why."

The two Sannin then nodded at one another, before they shushined away in a swirl of leaves.

---

A large contingent of villagers were being escorted away from the main gate when Naruto suddenly appeared in a flash of light. Everyone stopped to stop to stare in disbelief, as many of the people held their mouths open in shock. There had been rumors running rampant in the village the past 24 hours about someone who looked like their beloved Fourth Hokage in the village. Now standing before them wearing Minato's trademark Hokage coat was a man who was the virtual spitting image of the Yondaime. One inebriated villager took one look and ran away screaming.

"It's the Yondaime! He's risen from the dead to punish us all for what we did to his son!"

Naruto stared at the fleeing man in bewilderment, before a stuttering voice called out and got his attention.

"Na-Naruto, is that you?"

Turning around Naruto saw Shikamaru standing before him with the same look of disbelief many of the villagers bore on his face.

"Hey Shikamaru, of course it's me! Why are you looking at me so funny, in fact why is everybody looking at me that way?" Naruto questioned, as he looked around at the villagers being escorted away.

"Sorry, it's just you wearing that coat makes you look like your old man."

"Yeah well, pervy-sage said I needed to wear it. Anyway, it's good to see you again; I don't think I've seen you since the wedding back in Suna. How's Temari doing?"

"Troublesome as ever and only getting worse."

"C'mon Shikamaru, marriage can't be that bad."

"Says the man who isn't married."

"Well that's going to change, I proposed to Hinata-hime last night and she accepted."

"Out of the frying pan and into the fire." Shikamaru mumbled to himself.

"Did you say something?"

"It's nothing, congratulations Naruto; I wish you and Hinata the best."

"Thanks, so why are you here?"

"I was nearby when I heard the alarm, Izumo filled me in on what's going on, so I organized and positioned the arriving Leaf shinobi into defensive positions."

"And did a fine job of it from what we see." Ibiki offered in compliment, as he arrived at the front gate with Kakashi, Anko, and large contingent of Anbu."

"I have to concur with Ibiki's assessment, you're every bit the military strategist that your father is." Kakashi openly commented, impressed with the defensive stratagems the Nara heir had come up with.

Ibiki ordered the Anbu forces with him to take up positions on the frontlines, when a shout was heard from a lookout on the main wall.

"The Oto forces are a half-mile away; we can see them in the distance! The Otogakure snake summons is at the front with the curse-sealed warriors flanking it on both sides!"

"I guess I'd better get to work now!" Naruto said with confidence, as he cracked his knuckles.

"Naruto, keep the snake summons out of the village, we'll handle the curse-sealed soldiers, who will most likely attack the moment you engage the snake summoner and serpent." Kakashi stated to his student.

"Any ideas on how you're going to handle that slithering monstrosity?" Shikamaru questioned his friend in curiosity.

"I'll just call the boss toad to help out; Bunta has been itching for a fight for a while now. You all might want to step away, while I call him."

A minute later after everyone had gotten a safe distance away. Naruto bit on his thumb and slammed his palm to the ground while releasing a massive amount of chakra and shouted.

"Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" (Summoning Technique)

A brilliant flash of light and a massive amount of smoke appeared on the ground where Naruto struck. After a moment, the smoke began to dissipate to show the blonde shinobi standing upon the head of a gigantic crimson colored toad with a battle scar over its left eye and smoking a pipe, as it towered over everyone. Gamabunta, the Boss King of Toads had arrived. Gamabunta looked about in confusion, before his eyes then traveled upward to spy the figure standing upon his head. The boss of toad's eyes grew wide in astonishment and in a deep resonating voice asked in bewilderment.

"Minato, is that you?"

"No Bunta it's me Naruto!"

"Sorry kid, the coat threw me for a moment. So, why have you summoned me forth?"

"We got a snake summons problem heading towards the village."

"Is it Manda?"

"No, but it's still a big sucker and I know you haven't had a good fight lately."

"It's a bit beneath me to fight one of Manda's underling's, but you're right, I haven't had a good fight lately, so I'll help you out. Besides, the wrapping around my scabbard is getting worn down and a new snakeskin to replace it will do nicely."

"Awesome Bunta, I appreciate it. Take one good leap in that direction and we'll see if we can't get a snakeskin for you!" Naruto exclaimed in gratitude, while pointing his finger towards the main gate of the Leaf village.

A moment later, with Naruto riding high on Gamabunta's head, the mighty amphibian summons leapt high and far out of the village directly towards the oncoming Otogakure menace.

---

Jiraiya and Tsunade arrived just as Gamabunta was leaping away and landed near Ibiki, Kakashi, and Anko. The blonde Hokage looked around and was very impressed with the defensive positions of her shinobi and the fortifications she saw and commented.

"Very good work you three, I'm impressed with the speed in which you set up our defenses."

"I wish we could take credit for that Hokage-sama, but the truth of the matter is the Nara heir already had our defenses positioned and nearly up and running before we arrived." Ibiki contritely answered.

Tsunade looked over to see Shikamaru up on the main wall helping reposition some Chunin shinobi, as she thought to herself.

'It's good to know that when Naruto becomes Hokage, he'll have a readymade Chief Commander and Strategist of Konoha's Shinobi forces waiting in the wings for him every bit as smart and good as Shikaku has been for the village.'

"He's good; you're probably going to have to promote that kid again Lady Tsunade." Anko openly remarked.

"I know… hell… I should promote all of the Konoha 10 up in rank again, but I've got to wait a few more months, so it doesn't look like I showing favoritism to them with the other shinobi within our ranks."

"I wouldn't worry about that, most of the other Leaf shinobi already know that the members of the infamous Konoha 10 are all under-ranked. So I don't think they would begrudge you promoting them as you see fit."

"Hokage-sama, it looks like Naruto is about to engage the snake summonor and his serpent!" Shikamaru shouted the wall.

"Come on my love; let's go see the show I promised you." Jiraiya stated with a smile, as he offered his hand to his fiancé.

Tsunade smiled and took Jiraiya's hand into her own, as the two Sannin along with Kakashi, Anko, and Ibiki shushined away to the main wall.

---

The Oto Jounin riding atop his snake summons was supremely confident, as they slithered towards the main gate of the Leaf village. His name was Skragg and he had received training from Orochimaru's first protégé Yakushi Kabuto and had become one of the Snake Sannin's strongest shinobi. Skragg also knew that this was a hit and run mission, as Orochimaru wanted to test the strength and power of his cursed-seal shinobi against the Leaf. Skragg knew he could score big points with the Snake Sannin, by inflicting as much damage and casualties as he could, before making his retreat back to Otogakure. However, the smug look on Skragg's quickly disappeared, when suddenly a giant toad landed in front of him and he spied a blonde haired Leaf shinobi sitting atop its head.

"This is as far as you go Oto-teme!" Naruto shouted out defiantly.

Skragg glared at Naruto with disbelief, as he couldn't believe that the Leaf village would send a mere boy out to meet him in battle. The Sound village shinobi felt insulted that Konoha would regard him with such dismissive contempt. As if he was of so little concern to them they sent out this whelp to fight him. Skragg's anger began to boil at this thought, before he spat out with sneer on his face and a voice filled with malevolence.

"Otogakure shinobi attack the Leaf village, kill and maim as many as you want, while I deal with this nuisance of a child and his pet frog!"

A roar of approval erupted from the curse-sealed shinobi surrounding Skragg and his snake summons, before they surged forth in a maniacal frenzy and rushed towards the main gate of Konoha.

"Henchman, did that human refer to me as a mere frog?" Gamabunta growled in irritation, as his webbed hand glided lazily upon the hilt of the Wakizashi strapped to his side.

"I believe he did Bunta." Naruto quickly answered.

"Let's do this!" The boss of toad summons snarled.

Gamabunta then leapt into the air and began firing off a high-speed water ball attack onto Skragg and his snake summons causing the serpent to quickly slither back in retreat, while dodging the massive water projectiles.

Suddenly, the serpent reared back and struck forward towards Gamabunta, its gaping jaw wide open and one could see the poison dripping off its massive elongated fangs. Naruto saw the massive reptile lunging towards them and shouted out.

"Watch out Bunta!"

With speed that impressed Naruto, Gamabunta had unsheathed his Wakizashi blade and successfully block the fangs from striking him. Then whirling around, he nearly took the serpents head off with a horizontal slash of his sword, as the snake dove underground to avoid the strike and disappeared.

As they landed on the ground, both Naruto and Gamabunta scanned the surrounding area intently looking for any sign where the snake summons might emerge. Suddenly the ground behind them began to violently shake and they turned around to see the snake erupt from the ground in a vertical leap and quickly wrap its coils around Gamabunta's body. Naruto looked up to see the serpent's mouth wide open and descending downward, its fangs glistening in the sunlight. Naruto quickly went through a series of hand signs before thrusting his arms forward towards the plunging jaws of the snake. A powerful gust of wind erupted from his hands and impacted the opened mouth of the serpent with tremendous force and the pressure it held caused the behemoths decent to stop in midair. While the snake tried to push through Naruto's Reppushou technique holding it in place, Gamabunta suddenly inhaled a massive amount of air and expanded his throat with such strength, it caused the snake to uncoil and be thrown aside.

Skragg immediately ordered his serpent to dive underground once again. However, neither Naruto nor Gamabunta were in the mood for another game of hide-n-seek. The mighty amphibian leapt high into the air, while Naruto shouted out.

"Teikiatsu Kujo Tsuppari" (Cyclone Destruction Thrust)

Instantly two spinning vortex's of wind erupted from Naruto's hands and began tearing apart the earth below them. The churning debris and soil helped to illuminate that the two separate cyclones of wind were being launched and maintained by chakra from Naruto's hands. Gamabunta decided to add to the destructive power Naruto was generating with his Fuuton (Wind) jutsu, by firing off several water release gunshots further tearing into the ground below them. A moment later, Skragg and his serpent were forced back to the surface because of the combined attack and attempted slither away from the destruction.

Skragg cursed to himself as he realized he had severely underestimated his opponent. The Oto shinobi couldn't believe the power he was witnessing of the Fuuton jutsu's Naruto was utilizing. Skragg was powerful, but he was no fool and knew he was overmatched in this fight. He needed to find some way to escape and let Orochimaru know about this strange blonde shinobi. Turning around to try and find where his foe was. Skragg was suddenly struck in the face by a powerful kick from Naruto, as Gamabunta landed direct onto the back of the serpent. The massive snake reared up in pain and caused Skragg to be thrown off of its head. Naruto saw this and shouted out.

"Bunta, take care of the snake, while I go deal with his owner!"

"Fine, but be quick about it, this battle is beginning to bore me!" The great toad replied with annoyance.

"You got it!" Naruto answered as he jumped away.

As Naruto was flying towards Skragg with a Rasengan in his hand, Gamabunta launched a number of successive kicks into his serpentine opponent, while drawing out his blade once more. Skragg saw Naruto flying towards him and looked in the distance to see if he could recall any of the curse-sealed warriors and what he saw shocked him. The mutated soldiers had not even breached the main gate yet and Skragg could see they were slowly but surely being cut down by the Leaf village shinobi. Suddenly Naruto appeared in front of him and was about to thrust his Rasengan into Skragg's chest, the Oto warrior shouted.

"Stop, unless you want your fellow shinobi to die!"

Naruto paused, which was the opening Skragg needed, as he yelled to his serpent.

"Serpentina, unleash the Hisan Mandara no Jin Jutsu!" (Flying Myriad Snake Net Formation Technique)

The large serpent Gamabunta was battling suddenly swelled up to massive proportions, before Naruto cried out.

"Bunta take that thing out now!"

Gamabunta jumped forward with his sword drawn intent on finishing off his reptilian foe, but alas he was too late. As before the King of Toads was able to lop off the head of his opponent. The gigantic snake opened its mouth and spit out with tremendous force thousands upon thousands of smaller poisonous snake and sent them flying towards where the Leaf shinobi were battling the curse-sealed shinobi. Skragg grinned and with a smirk plastered on his face stated.

"You can either take me down or try and save your comrades your choice, but you can't do both!"

"That's what you think teme!" Naruto replied, as he flashed through a series of hand-signs and announced.

"Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" (Multiple Shadow Clone Technique)

An instant later Skragg suddenly found himself surrounded by a dozen shadow clones, before Naruto ordered with authority.

"You guy's take care of this asshole, but don't kill him! After you're done, bring him back to the village."

"Hai!" All the clones answered in unison.

Naruto then disappeared in a flash of brilliant yellow light.

---

As Tsunade punched through the chest cavity of one of Orochimaru's curse-sealed shinobi and ripped its heart out, she took a quick glance to where Naruto had been fighting. The blonde Hokage had been suitably impressed so far from what she had seen of Naruto and Gamabunta's fight against the Otogakure shinobi and his snake summons. Tsunade looked around to see both Jiraiya and Kakashi in the process of eliminating their own curse-sealed Oto shinobi. The blonde Hokage was also impressed with the strength and skill Kakashi was demonstrating and had to agree with Jiraiya's assertion that the one-eyed Jounin had indeed reached Kage levels in power. This was proven if for no other reason than only she, Jiraiya, and Kakashi were able to physically engage these mutated monsters in single hand-to-hand combat.

Tsunade then turned her attention to her other shinobi and saw that the final remnants of Orochimaru's curse-sealed shinobi were being dealt with by her Leaf shinobi. The curse-sealed warriors were indeed both monstrous and powerful. However, they were also slow and stupid and the defenses Shikamaru had set-up utilized the numbers advantage the Leaf shinobi had over them in combination with long-range attacks to ensure their victory with minimal if any casualties. Tsunade then turned back to glance back where Naruto was fighting and she noticed that a dark large mass of….something was heading through the air towards them. An ominous feeling spread through Tsunade's body about this and she called out.

"Neji Hyuga, what is that strange dark mass heading towards us?"

Neji directed his Byakugan towards the object of Tsunade's interest and a moment later cried out in an alarmed voice.

"Hokage-sama, it's a mass of thousands of poisonous snakes heading towards us!"

Tsunade's grew wide in fear, as she had faced this jutsu when she fought Orochimaru during the Sound invasion a few years ago. However, there wasn't enough time for Tsunade to defeat that jutsu the way she had in that fight and she quickly ordered.

"All long-range jutsu user's, try to take down as many of those snakes as possible!"

"Cancel that order baa-chan; I'll take care of the snakes!" Naruto loudly declared, as he appeared in front of the main gate in a flash of light.

Everyone seemed to pause a moment, as they saw Naruto suddenly thrust his arms towards the onrushing mass of poisonous fangs, as he shouted out.

"Kadou Shouheki Tsuppari!" (Vortex Barrier Thrust)

Instantly, two powerful cyclones of air exploded from Naruto's hands, which he quickly brought together, combining the two twisters of air into one powerful spinning vortex of wind. Everyone watched in awe, as Naruto maneuvered the churning serpents into a swirling singular mass high in the air above him. Suddenly, Gamabunta landed near him in a thunderous impact with his snake carcass in tow and Naruto called out.

"Gamabunta hit those snakes with some oil!"

A moment later, the great toad spewed forth some oil from his mouth drenching whirling mass of serpents. Naruto astonished everyone by showing his complete control of his jutsu, as he reached down and pulled a kunai with an exploding note attached out of his hip holster, while still maintaining control of the snakes above him with one hand. The blonde shinobi then threw the kunai into the throng of snakes and upon its explosion it ignited the slithering torrent of destruction. The heat of the fireball of snakes grew in intensity, as it was fueled even further by the wind jutsu Naruto was using to contain the serpents. A minute later, Naruto released his jutsu and the charred burnt remains of thousands of snakes fell upon the battlefield in front of the main gate of the Leaf village.

Turning around, Naruto flashed his trademark grin to everyone and Tsunade smiled back at him, while taking a step forward towards her grandson. The blonde Hokage began navigating her way through the dead remains of the curse-sealed Oto shinobi. Suddenly, one of them jumped up and brandishing vicious claws instead of hands was about to strike Tsunade from behind. Naruto saw this and cried out.

"Baa-chan lookout behind you!"

Tsunade whirled around, but it was too late as the creature's claw was already coming down in a murderous arc towards her. However, in the blink of an eye and a flash of light, Naruto was suddenly in front of her and shouted.

"Kaze no Yaiba!" (Sword of Wind)

Naruto then swung his arm upwards and eviscerated the mutated man-beast from his crotch through the top of his head. Tsunade along with everyone around watched in shock, as the two halves of the Oto shinobi fell away from one another and fall to the ground in bloody and gory heap. Naruto quickly turned around and asked with concern.

"Are you alright baa-chan?"

"I'm, I'm fine Naruto, thank you for saving me, but how did you do it? I see no weapon in your hand."

"It's no big deal; I just used a jutsu I picked up Suna that's all."

"I know that jutsu Naruto; you learned that from my former sensei Baki didn't you?" Temari asked as she, Shikamaru, and Kiba walked towards Naruto.

"You got me Temari, yeah he taught it to me while I was there."

"But it took Baki-sensei years to develop that technique! Are you telling me you learned it in only a few months while you were in Suna?" Temari exclaimed in disbelief.

"Actually, it only took me a few weeks." Naruto sheepishly answered with a grin.

"That's amazing, but your version seemed different somehow from Baki-sensei's."

"Not really, I just sort of put my own touch on the jutsu. As you already know this technique is a pinpoint slashing strike, where the user emits chakra from their fingertips and materializes it into a near invisible weapon that assaults the enemy by enveloping them in a cutting whirlwind that cuts them to pieces. Well, that gets messy mutilating your enemy like that; their blood gets all over your clothes. So what I did was focus the chakra coming from my fingertips to compact the swirling wind into tighter formation and make the jutsu more like a sword than a blender, which is what Baki's version is. If you notice the edges along the body where I cut that monster in half, it's not a clean, smooth slice like a normal blade would leave, but ragged and tattered and that's because I'm still using the cutting whirlwind of the technique. I've just compressed it into the shape of blade much tighter than Baki ever did."

"That's incredible, Baki-sensei has been trying to do that for years, but the chakra control needed to do it is intense to say the least."

"Yeah, if I hadn't already gone through my Sage training, which helped me to gain that intense chakra control, I probably wouldn't be able to use that jutsu the way I just did."

Everyone standing around Naruto was awestruck at the power and skills he had been displaying, before Jiraiya walked up and remarked.

"I told you Tsunade that the kid has probably become the most proficient and deadly Fuuton jutsu user in all of the Elemental nations."

"Naruto, Jiraiya, if you no longer have a battle for me to fight in, I will be on my way, as I've got a snake to skin!" Gamabunta growled out in declaration.

"No problem Gamabunta, thanks for the help, you're the best!" Naruto offered up in sincere gratitude and compliment, causing the Boss of Toads to smile momentarily, before he and the snake carcass he carried disappeared in a huge plume of smoke.

"Naruto, I have to say I'm very impressed with strength and skills you've displayed here today."

"Yeah baa-chan, I am pretty kick-ass!" Naruto boasted with a grin.

"Modest to I see." Tsunade commented with a smirk.

Naruto was about respond when Kiba inadvertently stoked Naruto's ego even further, as he paid a lofty compliment to his friend.

"Damn Naruto, I figured you had gotten stronger while you were gone, but I never imagined to the point of what I saw you do out here today, that was awesome!"

"Thanks Kiba, I'm sure you've gotten a lot stronger as well."

"I'll get a chance to show you later when we get together with everyone else at Training field #11."

"I'm afraid you're going to have to cancel that Mr. Inuzuka. I want your keen senses on one of the Anbu reconnaissance teams I'm sending out to scout the land and make sure there aren't any more Oto forces lurking around the village or the Fire country."

"Oh man, I really wanted to spar against Naruto."

"Tough break Kiba." Shikamaru said sympathetically.

"For you too Mr. Nara, as I need you to stay here and get this area cleaned up and reorganized."

"What a drag." Shikamaru mumbled under his breath, as pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket to open, before Temari snatched it out of his hand and crushed it before throwing it away, while leveling a stern glare at her husband.

It was at that moment when a dozen shadow clones came marching up dragging a very bruised, battered, and bloody Otogakure shinobi named Skragg and placed him in front of Naruto. Naruto complimented his clones on a good job, before he dispelled them and turned to Ibiki and said.

"I've got a gift for you Ibiki-san."

"Thank you Naruto, it's just what I wanted." Ibiki replied, with a grin, before he signaled two of his Anbu and ordered.

"Take our guest here to a cell in the Konoha Torture and Interrogation unit. Anko and I will be visiting him shortly."

The barely conscious Skragg visibly shook upon hearing that, as the infamous reputation of Ibiki Morino and Anko Mitarashi were well known by shinobi in the other Elemental nations. In fact it was said that if an enemy shinobi of the Leaf had a choice between death or be subjected to an interrogation session with those two shinobi, the wise choice would be to accept death.

As everyone watched Skragg be taken away to a very unsavory fate, Tsunade said with a weary voice.

"Naruto, I know you were looking forward to seeing all of your friends later on this morning. But after this attack I'm afraid many of them or going to be busy today and we still need to resume our meeting back in the office along with Jiraiya and Kakashi. I've still got a lot questions that need to be answered and you need to be debriefed as well."

Naruto bore a look of disappointment, but he nodded his head in understanding, before he turned back to Shikamaru, Temari, and Kiba and said.

"It looks like we're going to have to reschedule our training and sparring session guy's"

"It's troublesome, but we've got no choice."

"I'll let you know when we get it set up again Naruto."

"Thanks Kiba!" Naruto replied with a smile, before he walked off with Tsunade and Jiraiya to join Kakashi who was waiting for them by the main gate.

Just as Kiba and Shikamaru were about to walk off to assume their duties per Tsunade's orders, they heard Naruo shout to them.

"Hey, guy's when we're able to get the whole gang together again. I'll treat everyone to lunch afterwards. Chouji and me can have one of our famous eating contests again, ha, ha,ha."

"Hearing Chouji's name spoken caused Kiba to stumble and Shikamaru's face to turn ashen white in color, as he stammered in a pained voice upon realizing.

"He, he doesn't know about Chouji yet."

Temari grasped her husband's hand to comfort him, before Kiba softly declared.

"Oh man, he's going to be crushed when he finds out."

All three shinobi could only look at Naruto's retreating form and shake their heads sadly.

As Naruto, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kakashi walked through the main gate back into the village, everyone but especially Naruto was suddenly greeted with the sight of a couple of hundred villagers staring silently at them. The group of shinobi paused and gazed back at the crowd of people with curiosity, as they wondered what was going on. A moment later, the multitude of villagers suddenly dropped to their knees and bowed reverently towards them or more specifically towards Naruto. It was then that one of the villagers spoke up and asked in a trembling voice.

"Oh great Yondaime, is that truly you? Have you returned to us from the dead to punish us for the sins we committed against your living legacy?"

Naruto looked at the crowd of people bowing before him with confusion, before he asked.

"What's going on baa-chan?"

Tsunade exhaled a heavy sigh, as she answered Naruto's query.

"While you were away training Naruto, on the 16th anniversary of the Yondaime's defeat of the Kyuubi no Youko, it was revealed to the entire village that you are Minato Namikaze's only son."

"B-but how?"

"When Minato sacrificed his life to save our village and its people, before he made his noble sacrifice, he recorded a final message in a seal that he wanted conveyed to the villagers on the 16th anniversary of his death. These people along with all of the villagers saw that message."

"Do, do you still have my father's message?"

"Yes, you'll be able to see it once we are back at Hokage Tower."

"That's good, but why are these people bowing to me?"

"They're bowing because they think you are the ghost of your father back from the dead here to take your vengeance on them for how they treated his only son…you." Tsunade replied, before the blonde Hokage stepped forward and angrily commanded.

"Get off of your knees you fools! It would serve all of you right, if this was the spirit of the Yondaime here to seek his justified retribution upon you, but it's not! No, who stands before you here is the only living legacy of the Yondaime, Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze! Naruto has finally returned from his training with the legendary Sannin Jiraiya, the Toad-Sage of Mt. Myoboku. So rise and give the proper respect to your future Hokage!"

Upon hearing that the living legacy of the Yondaime Hokage Minato Namikaze had returned sent a shockwave through the villagers. Before Naruto knew what was happening, the entire crowd suddenly flocked around him surrounding the bewildered young man. Naruto grew uneasy at this, as unpleasant memories of when villagers surrounded him in his youth flooded his mind.

This is why it was a complete surprise to him when everyone clamored around him to give compliments, beg for his forgiveness, or just to touch him. Even some of the girls who use to look upon him with disgust were now calling out to him with date and even marriage proposals. It confused Naruto that the very same people in the village who use to shun him in the past, were now going out of their way to heap praise and kindness upon him. This sudden positive outpouring from the villagers alarmed Naruto a bit and he wanted to be anywhere, but where he was at that moment. And in the blink of an eye, he suddenly disappeared in flash of golden light.

---

An hour later after having retrieved Hinata from the hospital, Naruto was back in the Hokage's office with his fiancé, Tsunade, Jiraiya, and Kakashi. Naruto was both anxious and nervous at the prospect of seeing his father's final message. However, Hinata held his hand to lend her strength and support to him and Naruto felt comforted by this. Tsunade cleared her throat and was about to speak when Kurenai walked into the office carrying Minato. She placed a chaste kiss on Kakashi's lips, before he asked.

"What brings you back here?"

"Well I had to rescue our son from Aniko and Anika's clutches at the academy, while Iruka and I watched over all of the students during the battle.

"They kept trying to hug and kiss me during the battle, saying they were scared." Minato openly complained with a pout, clearly agitated by the whole ordeal.

"Anyway, after the 'All-Safe' alarm signaled that the fight was over, he wanted to make sure his father and uncle were ok."

"Thank you for your concern son, but as you can see both I and your uncle are ok."

"That's good; did you beat up all the bad guys?" Minato asked in curiosity.

"We sure did, in fact it was your uncle who beat up the leader of the bad guys."

"Really, that's so cool Unca Nawuto!"

"Thanks Minato-kun."

"Kurenai, I was about to take Naruto, Hinata, Kakashi, and Jiraiya to the seal-projection room and show them the message the Yondaime left for the village. It's your decision, but I'm not sure you want little Minato to view that message given the nature of it." Tsunade stated with sincere concern.

"No Lady Tsunade, I don't believe he should either. The five of you go; I'll stay here with Minato-kun until you're finished."

"Awww mommy, can't I go watch the movie too?" Minato pleaded to his mother.

"I'm sorry, but that's a grown-up movie. Besides, we'll have fun here playing and if you behave I'll show you your favorite genjutsu."

"Really, my favorite one, ok I'll be good."

A few minutes later, after leaving Kurenai and Minato in the office, Tsunade unlocked and opened the door to the seal-projection room and entered followed by Naruto, Hinata, Kakashi, and Jiraiya. They each took a seat and Naruto gripped Hinata's hand a little tighter, as he watched Tsunade pull a vial out of her coat pocket and dip a paintbrush into it. The blonde Hokage then smeared the red liquid over the seal she excavated from Hokage Mountain and watched as it began to glow, before quickly returning to take a seat with the others. The glowing seal grew brighter and brighter with each passing second before a beam of light shot onto a large screen and became a gigantic 3D projection of Minato Namikaze.

Hinata lowered her head a bit, as she had already seen the heartbreaking message and images the seal contained, while Naruto, Kakashi, and Jiraiya watched in enraptured awe. A few minutes later, as the light of the 3D projection faded away ending the message from Minato Namikaze, there wasn't a dry eye in the room. Everyone present save for Naruto and Hinata had known and had loved Minato during his life in some fashion. He was Kakashi's revered and admired teacher, while Tsunade and Jiraiya held an even deeper bond with Minato. Hinata hugged and held Naruto close, as he wept into her shoulder, overcome by the lifelike images he had seen for the first time of his life of not only his father, but of his mother as well.

As Naruto pulled his head up and wiped his tears with his sleeve, he openly commented in a choked voice.

"That, that's the first time I've ever seen my mother, she was really beautiful wasn't she."

"Hai Naru-kun, she was very beautiful." Hinata softly replied.

"Your mom was one of the prettiest and most skilled kunoichi's in the Leaf village." Kakashi declared to his young student.

"And your father loved her very much." Jiraiya added in sincerity.

"I know, from the sound of my dad's voice when he spoke to her, I can sympathize with his pain at seeing her dead, because it's the same pain I'm feeling right now."

Hinata hugged Naruto once again, before Tsunade wiped some tears from her own eyes and said.

"Let's return to the office, I have something that might cheer you up Naruto."

When they returned to Tsunade's office, they found Kurenai sitting in a chair holding Minato who was asleep in her arms. The blonde Hokage motioned her and then led the Genjutsu Mistress to an adjacent room, which had a bed in it. Laying the small child onto the bed, the two women then returned to the office and Tsunade sat down behind her desk and said.

"Naruto, upon the villager's learning the truth about your heritage and realizing the sins they had committed against you growing up. A tidal wave of shame and guilt flooded the village. That's why you were greeted to the sight you saw earlier at the front gate. Also, Konoha's reputation had taken such a severe blow with the rest of the Elemental Nations because of their sins. That the Fire Daimyo himself had come to the Leaf village to personally vilify the villager's for embarrassing him by their actions committed towards you."

"After that he addressed the Konoha Council and became even more incensed when he learned that it was the Civilian Council that had made your life growing up so….difficult. The Fire Daimyo ordered that any member who served on the Civilian Council during your life before you left was to make a sizable monetary restitution into an account to be set-up by me and given to you upon your return. Now I know that no amount of money can make up for the pain you had to endure growing up Naruto. However, I was able to secure for you in that restitution fund over $23 million ryo's. It would have been closer to $25 million, but I had to spend some of it to rebuild and purchase part ownership in a certain restaurant I know you like."

"I know, I've already talked to old man Teuchi about that. Thank you for doing that for him and Ayame-chan." Naruto replied gratefully.

"I didn't do anything other than spend your money, but here is the account book to the bank where the money is being held for you." Tsunade answered, as she pulled open her desk drawer and pulled out the bank booklet.

Tsunade, Kurenai, and Hinata waited for and expected for Naruto to suddenly explode in delight upon realizing he had become a millionaire. However, the blonde shinobi surprised all three women, as all he did was casually glance inside the booklet, before stuffing it into his pocket a moment later. This action puzzled Tsunade, Kurenai, and Hinata. It was Tsunade who finally voiced the question all three kunoichi's had in their minds.

"I would think that learning you're a millionaire would at least make you a little bit happy Naruto?"

"Huh, oh sorry, but it's just money. It's nice and all baa-chan, but truthfully I really don't need it."

"Oh really, I hadn't realized you were already a millionaire before you left." Tsunade declared in sarcastic amusement.

"I wasn't a millionaire when I left, but I did become one while I was gone."

"Do you mean from the restitution fund?" Hinata questioned.

"No I mean I became one even before I knew about that. Here take a look Hinata-chan."

Naruto then pulled another bank account booklet and opened it up for Hinata to gaze at. A moment later, Hinata's eyes grew wide as saucers, which did not go unnoticed by Kurenai and Tsunade. Hinata looked up to Naruto with both confusion and surprise etched on her face, as she stammered.

"Nar-Naru-kun, that says you have over $350 million ryo's in a bank account!"

"Yeah, that's just what I have in cash, I'm actually worth about double that, but it's all tied into various businesses I own." Naruto nonchalantly replied.

"You're, you're rich!" Hinata exclaimed.

"Not just me, Kakashi-sensei and pervy-sage are rich as well."

Both Tsunade and Kurenai turned to their respective fiancés who pulled out similar books to show them. Tsunade flopped down into her chair when she saw a similar dollar figure in Jiraiya's book and Kurenai felt light-headed when she saw the same figure in Kakashi's book. All three kunoichi's then said in unison."

"How?"

"You already know about that Tyrannus fellow I told you about Tsunade, well you can thank him or I guess to be more accurate thank the new leaders of Tyrannia for the financial windfall myself, Kakashi, and Naruto gained." Jiraiya stated in amusement.

"Who is this Tyrannus Lady Tsunade?" Kurenai asked in curiosity.

"That question would be better posed to your fiancé."

Kurenai turned to look at Kakashi who sighed and said.

"While we were out training Naruto, we traveled to the far west and came across a kingdom name Tyrannia ruled a man named Lord Tyrannus."

"Who was a total asshole!" Naruto interjected with disgust.

"Yes he was, but besides being that he was also a cruel despot who ruled and oppressed his people with an iron boot. The land Tyrannus ruled he had turned into a wasteland and the people suffered horribly under his dictatorship. So, while we were there, we decided to aid the small rebel forces fighting against Tyrannus and with our help we were able to liberate the kingdom from him."

"That was very noble and brave of all of you to do, but what does it have to do with the three of you becoming so wealthy?"

"My queen, it's because of the new leadership that took over after Tyrannus that we became so rich." Jiraiya answered, before taking and exhaling a deep breath, as he continued on.

"The person who took over the leadership of the kingdom of Tyrannia, now renamed the Land of Mikomi (Hope) is a man by the name of Akio. He along with the rest of the elected elders decided that they wanted the reconstruction of the economy and infrastructure of the Land of Hope to return to what it had once been, an agricultural and trade community. They wanted nothing to do with any of Tyrannus outside businesses and offered them to the three of us in gratitude for helping to free their land and its people."

"And you accepted?"

"We didn't want my hime and refused several times, but they were insistent and refused to take no for an answer." Naruto replied to his fiancé.

"Anyway, I sat down and went through all of Tyrannus financial portfolio. It took a few days, but when I was finished I discovered that while Tyrannus was a despicable human being, he was also a very shrewd businessman and quite wealthy." Jiraiya stated in appreciation.

"How wealthy Jiraiya-kun?"

"About $four billion ryo wealthy my love."

"$Four, $four billion ryo's, you three are worth $four billion ryo's!" Tsunade exclaimed in disbelief.

"No, not quite that much."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that while overall Tyrannus business ventures amounted to that, he first made his fortune off what the country had originally been an agricultural and trade community. So it was the foundation from which he gained or to be more accurate stole his wealth to branch out into other profitable ventures."

"What were these other profitable ventures?"

"Tyrannus set up his business interests ranging from soft commodities like sugar, salt, tea, coffee soybeans, rice, and wheat to hard commodities like iron ore, crude oil, coal, gas, gold and silver. He also ventured into real estate, transportation, and construction. All in all it was an impressive business empire he had acquired."

"So what did you do next?"

"Well, I decided along with Naruto and Kakashi that since soft commodities are goods that are grown, while hard commodities are the ones that are extracted through mining. We turned over the soft commodities to Akio and the Land of Hope, which amounted to around two billion ryo and used it to help in the reconstruction of the economy and infrastructure of the Land of Hope."

"And the three of you kept the hard commodities and other business ventures Tyrannus had."

"Exactly Kurenai, that's quite astute of you. I'd watch myself Kakashi if I were you, as just like Hinata your future wife is as smart as she is beautiful." Jiraiya commented in praise.

"Thank you for the compliment Master-Jiraiya."

"If you're done flattering my kunoichi's, then please tell us what you did next?" Tsunade groused in frustration.

"We formed a corporation my dear."

"A corporation, what corporation did you form?"

"Ladies, you are now engaged to the President, CEO, and COO of the Namikashi Corporation."

"The Namikashi Corporation!" Hinata exclaimed in shock.

"Have you heard of it Hinata."

"My, my sister Hanabi heard my father talk about that company with some clan elders few months ago Kurenai-Sensei. They were a multi-billion ryo company and he was proposing that the clan should seek out opportunities to engage in some business deals with them. They apparently have many business enterprises in several of the Elemental nations and my father thought it would be a good way to increase the power and wealth of the clan."

"A multi-billion ryo company, just how rich are you three?"

"Well my love, that sort of fluctuates depending upon the various Commodities markets. However, on average the Namikashi Corporation is worth two to two and a half billion ryo on a bad or good day."

"So that means the three of you are billionaires!"

"Maybe pervy-sage is Hina-hime, since he was pretty rich already before we left, but Kakashi-Sensei and I aren't quite there….. yet."

"That's unbelievable!" Tsunade openly said, as she slumped in her chair, completely stunned by this news.

"It's not that big a deal baa-chan, it just means I don't have to worry now about being able to take care my Hina-hime in the future." Naruto declared, as he smiled at Hinata who looked lovingly into his eyes.

"Nor I for my beautiful crimson-eyed goddess and handsome son." Kakashi followed as, he brought Kurenai's hand to his lips and kissed it.

Everyone then turned to look at Jiraiya who stood silently and said nothing. After a minute, an impatient blonde Hokage finally said with irritation.

"Well?"

"Well what?" Jiraiya replied.

"Don't you have anything to say like Naruto and Kakashi just did?"

"Not really, I'm keeping my money, if I don't I won't be a billionaire very long, knowing your spending habits for sake and penchant for gambling." Jiraiya answered in sarcastic amusement, causing everyone save for Tsunade to snicker or giggle at his comment.

"Ha, ha, ha, very funny, tell me how funny your little joke is as you're sleeping on the couch tonight!"

"Awww, don't be that way my queen, you know I was only kidding."

"Hmph!" Tsunade huffed, as she straightened up in her chair. She would forgive Jiraiya, but decided he should twist for a bit longer before she did. Turning her attention to the two couples standing before her she remarked to Kakashi and Naruto.

"Well I guess you won't have any problems purchasing new home for your soon to be wife and son to live in. Because I highly doubt you'll want to live in Kurenai's three-bedroom apartment. And Naruto since you're true heritage is now public knowledge. You and Hinata can move into the Namikaze estate your father was having built. However, it will take a little bit of time and some money to complete the construction, but that obviously won't be an issue."

"Naw it won't be an issue. How about it Hinata, you feel like living in a mansion again like you used to?" Naruto happily asked his fiancé.

It was then Naruto noticed that Hinata bore a downtrodden look to her face and she seemed sad. Kakashi turned to look at Kurenai and she too had a similar visage on her face. Both men grew concerned, as they could tell that something was wrong, as Kakashi asked.

"Kure-chan, what's wrong, why are you sad?"

"Yeah Hina-hime, how come you're sad to?"

"I, I guess I just never thought of where I would be living when you returned Naru-kun. It's been so wonderful living with Kurenai-sensei and little Minato-kun. It, it felt like for the first time in my life being part of a family. I never felt that way growing up in the Hyuga clan." Hinata answered in a sorrowful choked voice.

"What Hinata says is true, I never thought about it either Kashi-kun. It was so easy and comforting having her around, especially after I had Minato-kun. I don't think I could have raised him so well without her help. I never gave a thought to the possibility of her moving away." Kurenai stated in an equally sad tone of voice.

"Nooooooooo….!"

Minato cried out in a wail from the doorway, before he rushed forward and hugged his father's leg tightly, while looking up at him with tear-filled eyes and in a panic voice pleaded.

"Please otousan; please don't make Awnty Hinata and Unca Nawuto move away. They, they can have my room, I'll just sleep in the closet, I don't need much room. Please, I don't want them to move away!"

Kakashi kneeled and attempted to comfort his son.

"Minato-kun, I know you don't want them to move away, but your aunt and uncle are going to want to start a family of their own and your mother's apartment is too small for all of us."

"Then can't we all just move to a bigger place? That way I wouldn't miss them so much." Minato countered, as tears rolled down his cheek.

"Son, adults like to have some privacy, there isn't a place large enough for both of our families to live in."

"Actually, that's incorrect Kakashi." Jiraiya announced to everyone.

"What do you mean Master-Jiraiya?" Kakashi questioned in curiosity.

"When you were younger, you never saw the Namikaze estate while it was being built did you?"

"No, I never did."

"I thought so, well it has an interesting feature to it as to how it was being built that Minato wanted."

"I don't understand."

"Minato was having the estate built into a duplex, a rather large duplex, but a duplex no less."

"That can't be Jiraiya-kun, I've seen the mansion and it has only one entrance into it." Tsunade interjected.

"That's true, but when you enter the household you will see that it has two identical floor plans within it. Basically Minato wanted it built so that each side of the estate was identical to the other. Everything from the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms, and closets, you will find an exact duplicate on the other side of the home. The only thing about the two sides that is different is that in the center of the house is a single large common or living room area."

"But why was Minato-sensei having it built like that?"

"He was building it like that because he wanted the home to be able to function by having two separate clans living within it. Those two clans being the Namikaze clan and your clan Kakashi."

"My, my clan!" The silver-haired Jounin stammered in surprise.

"Yes, both Minato and Kushina had decided that they wanted you as a neighbor and to help you in starting your own clan. So if you wanted to, you could still honor their wish and live at the Namikaze estate. You and your family on one side, with Naruto and his family on the other and because the estate is so large, you'll both still have that privacy from each other when you want."

Kakashi contemplated this for a moment before he picked up Minato and held him, while turning to Kurenai and asked.

"What do you think?"

"Kurenai smiled brightly and eagerly answered.

"I think it would be perfect Kashi-kun!"

Naruto turned to Hinata and before he could even ask his question she quickly blurted out.

"Yes, yes, I think that would be wonderful Naru-kun!"

Naruto and Kakashi then looked at one another and shrugged their shoulders in agreement, before Kakashi said to Minato.

"Well son, it looks like you get your wish, we'll all be living together…..so to speak in our new home once it's done being built."

"Yay…...!" Minato erupted in delight, before he hugged his father fiercely around his neck, before doing the same to his mother.

Minato then jumped down and ran up to hug both Hinata and Naruto as well. As the little boy was doing this, Kakashi openly commented in mocking amusement.

"Well, I certainly hope the Namikaze estate has thicker walls than your apartment Kure-chan. As we got very little sleep from all that noise going on last night."

"What noise are you talking about Kakshi-sen…" Hinata began to ask, before her eyes grew wide and her face turned beet red in embarrassment, as she realized what the one-eyed Jounin was referring to.

Hinata then buried her face into Naruto's chest and attempted to pull his white haori coat around her head, as she uttered into Naruto's chest in a mortified voice.

"Oh Naru-kun!"

Naruto pulled Hinata into a comforting embrace and rested his chin on the top of her head, while stroking her hair and rubbing her back, before he shot a glare at Kakashi and loudly commented.

"It's alright Hina-hime; beside I was awakened by similar noise last night as well!"

Now it was Kurenai's turn to blush furiously, before she harshly elbowed Kakashi in his ribs. Kurenai began to blush even more when Minato innocently asked.

"What noise is Unca Nawuto talking about mommy?"

"Nothing you need to concern yourself with son." Kakashi quickly answered, as he knelt down and picked Minato up.

"Oh okay, mommy I'm hungry."

"It is around the dinner hour. Why don't the seven of us go out and get something eat." Tsunade suggested to the other occupants in her office.

That sounds like a wonderful idea Lady Tsunade. Minato-kun what would you like to eat?" Kurenai asked her son.

"RAMEN!" Minato shouted out in glee.

"Good call Minato-kun!" Naruto yelled in compliment.

"I should have known." Kurenai declared shaking her head before adding.

"Alright, we can get some ramen tonight."

"Well, at least with Naruto being a part owner of Ichiraku's, we won't have to wait in line for a table." Tsunade absently commented, as she along with the others exited the Hokage's office to journey over to the restaurant.

---

Naruto spent the next couple of days literally hiding out in Hinata's apartment. News of his return had spread quickly throughout the village and now that the villagers knew of his true heritage, as the only son of their beloved Yondaime. Many of them were going out of their way heap praise and kindness upon him or beg his forgiveness merely for the fact of who his father was. It was bit unsettling, but also insulting to Naruto that the very same people in the village, who use to shun him or do worse to him in the past now sought him out simply because of his heritage.

"Damn hypocrites!"

Naruto exclaimed, slamming the door behind him, as he returned from running down to the local market to get some eggs for Hinata who was currently making breakfast for everyone. Kakashi and Kurenai were sitting on the couch in the living room watching Minato color a coloring book. Both Jounin looked up and could see Naruto was clearly agitated and Kakashi asked.

"What's bothering you Naruto?"

"It's the villagers, these same people who used to treat me like garbage growing up or worse are now showering me with kindness and praise or even worse expecting me to forgive them for the hell they made my life growing up. And all of it because now they know I'm the son of the Fourth. You think they would be so nice and accommodating to me if I had returned as just plain old Naruto Uzumaki?"

"No, they probably would not." Kakashi solemnly answered.

"Exactly, they just would have gone back to hating me and making my life as miserable as possible. They're all a bunch of damn hypocrites as far as I'm concerned and I don't see why I need to forgive any of them!" Naruto angrily declared, as he flopped into a chair in the living room.

Niether Kakashi nor Kurenai could refute what he had just said and they both struggled to come up with something to say that would soothe Naruto's feelings. Hinata as well who was standing in the doorway of the kitchen had heard what Naruto said and she too wished she could find the words to make him feel better. In the end it took the innocence of a child to accomplish this, as Minato got up from coloring his book and hopped up into Naruto's lap and hugged him as he said with love and sincerity.

"I don't care if you're the son of the Fourth Hokage or not Unca Nawuto. You're my Unca Nawuto and I love you just for who you are."

Any troubled and stressed feelings Naruto had been experiencing seemingly disappeared upon hearing this little boy's kind words. Naruto returned the hug and in a choked voice replied.

"Thank you Minato-kun, you have no idea how much that means to me."

Both Kakashi and Kurenai smiled and felt very proud of their son at that moment, as Hinata walked into the room and placed a loving kiss on Naruto's cheek, before reaching down to retrieve the eggs and said.

"Minato-kun, why don't you show your uncle what you've been coloring, while I finish up making breakfast. It should be ready in about five minutes everyone."

After eating the hearty and scrumptious breakfast Hinata had prepared, everyone retired to the living room to digest the delicious meal in leisure. Minato seemed to be the only one with an abundance of energy and wanted to play. So Naruto created a shadow clone and they engaged in a game of hide-n-seek throughout the apartment. However, Kurenai looked up to the clock and called out to Minato.

"Minato-kun, did you forget that it's Saturday? You'd better get changed because your uncles' will be here soon to pick you up for your training."

"Oh I forgot, thanks mommy, I'll get ready right now!" Minato exclaimed in surprise, before he ran excitedly to his room.

Both Kakashi and Naruto looked quizzically at Kurenai, before Kakashi finally asked.

"What type of training and who are these uncles' coming over."

"Minato-kun has been getting some taijutsu training from some mutual friends of ours."

"Who are these mutual friends?" Kakashi questioned, while cocking his lone visible eyebrow suspiciously.

Just as Kurenai was about to answer, there was a knock on the front door and she stated.

"That must be them now."

Kurenai then called out to her son.

"Minato-kun, they're here!"

The crimson-eyed kunoichi then rose from the couch and walked over to the front door, before opening it to reveal Rock Lee and Might Gai standing on the other side. As Kurenai bid them welcome and they entered the apartment. Minato came running out from the hallway and jumped up to hug Rock Lee and Gai as well. Both Kakashi and Naruto were stunned at this sight not because of what the little boy had just done, but by the clothing he was now dressed in. Minato was now wearing a green jumpsuit, orange striped leg warmers and the same homemade flak jacket his Aunt Hinata had made for him. In short, his attire was nearly an identical match to what Gai always wore. Kakashi lone eye grew wide in horror, as he watched his son participate in the infamous 'Nice Guy Stance' his comrade had created years ago.

"I can see your flames of youth are burning bright young Minato, are you ready?"

"I'm ready Unca Gai!" Minato answered enthusiastically.

Then Gai, Lee, and Minato began to countdown in unison, while extending their right arms in front of them, as if playing a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors."

"Three…..Two….One!"

Suddenly, all three green-clad struck a fierce pose with their arms extended giving a thumbs up with huge bright smiles adorning their faces to everyone in the room. Kakashi and Naruto gazed at them in utter bewilderment and shock at what they had just witnessed. They were only broken out of their stupor when Gai's voice boomed out.

"Yosh, an excellent nice guy pose young Minato!"

"Thank you Unca Gai." Minato replied with glee.

It was then that Gai and Lee turned to Kakashi and Naruto and greeted their comrades.

"Naruto, it is good to see you again my friend."

"Uhhh yeah, it's good to see you to Lee." Naruto hesitantly replied, as his brain was still trying to comprehend what he had just seen.

"Kakashi, my old friend and eternal rival, it is good to see that your flames of youth are still burning bright and that you've returned to the village!"

Kakashi could only numbly nod his head towards his longtime friend and rival.

"I must say the flames of youth burn brightly in your son Kakashi! You should feel proud of him; he's shown great promise in the exquisite art of taijutsu for one so young!"

"Yosh, that is very true Gai-sensei! I would say Minato is already at a level of taijutsu for someone twice his age!" Lee announced in agreement.

"Thank you Unca-Gai and Unca-Lee. I'm only so good because I've got the two of you training me!" Minato said in sincere appreciation.

"Are you ready to go Minato?" Lee asked, as he hefted the boy up onto his shoulders.

"Yeah!" Minato cried out with glee.

Before they left, Lee called out to Naruto and said with excitement.

"Naruto my friend, Kiba asked me to let you and Hinata know that all of our comrades are free from any current missions. So we're all meeting later on this morning for that training a sparring session we were supposed to have a few days ago. It's at Training Field #11 again and I can't wait to test my flames of youth against your own in a spar!"

"That will be so cool to see, Unca Nawuto against Unca Lee!" Minato exclaimed in eager anticipation.

"Sure thing Lee, I'm looking forward to it." Naruto happily replied.

It was only when the front door clicked shut behind them that Kakashi's brain finally rebooted and he was awakened from his zombie like stupefaction. Looking around the room quickly, the silver-haired Jounin suddenly leapt up and declared in a panic-stricken voice.

"My son, I have to save my son!"

Kakashi then made a mad dash towards the door, before Kurenai shouted.

"Naruto stop him!"

A second later, two powerful arms encircled Kakashi's chest from behind, holding the Leaf Jounin in place, who yelled in protest.

"Let me go Naruto, I have to save Minato-kun from Gai!"

"Oh stop being silly Kashi-kun, Minato loves learning taijutsu from his Uncle Gai and Lee. It's one of his favorite things to do every week." Kurenai scolded at her fiancé.

Naruto tentatively released his bear hug of Kakashi who quickly turned around and said to Kurenai in a still panicked voice.

"I don't want our son to grow up wearing green spandex and spouting off about the flames of youth 24 hours a day!"

"He's been training with his uncles' for the past six months and Minato has shown no inclination or desire for green clothing or talking about flames of youth."

"How come Minato calls Lee and Gai-sensei his uncles, I thought I was his uncle?" Naruto questioned in curiosity.

"Minato-kun has lots of surrogate uncles' Naru-kun."

"Oh, I see." Naruto softly replied in a dejected voice.

Hinata heard Naruto's glum response to what she had said and saw the crestfallen look fall across his face and she asked in concern.

"What's wrong Naru-kun?"

"It's nothing Hinata, when Minato called me his uncle; it made feel kind of special. Now that I know I'm just one of many, I feel… I don't know… kind of sad about that."

Hinata wrapped Naruto in a comforting hug, before she said.

"You shouldn't feel sad about that, you're still a very special uncle to Minato-kun. It wasn't Lee or any of his other uncles' that he asked to hear bedtime stories about, he wanted to hear stories about you Naru-kun."

"Nor was it his Uncle Gai that he wanted to hear stories about either, but you Kashi-kun." Kurenai added.

Kakashi finally flopped down onto a chair and heaved a weary sigh, before he openly commented.

"Uncle Gai?"

"Yes Uncle Gai, you should be more thankful of your friend, he helped to take care of me and Minato-kun while you were gone." Kurenai stated, as she sat on Kakashi's lap and wrapped her arms lovingly around his neck.

"What do you mean took care of you while I was gone?" Kakashi questioned suspiciously with a little more emphasis on four words in his question, as he cocked his lone visible eyebrow at her.

"Kakashi, I can't believe you would think such a thing about Gai or myself for that matter. You know as well as I do that Gai is if nothing else a perfect gentleman!" Kurenai exclaimed, as she playfully slapped Kakashi's shoulder.

"Ok, ok, but that still doesn't answer my question."

Now it was Kurenai's turn to heave a weary sigh, before she spoke.

"While you were gone, Otogakure has been making raids into the Fire Country. Many of those raids were led by Sasuke Uchiha."

Both Kakashi and Naruto bodies stiffened upon hearing that name, as they listened intently for Kurenai to continue.

"Sasuke's raids were a vicious rampage of robbery, rape, and murder that he wantonly committed outside the safety of the Leaf village. Because of this, Lady Tsunade restricted missions around or outside the Fire Country borders for her kunoichi's. Especially kunoichi's such as myself, Tenten, Ino, Sakura, Anko, and especially Hinata, since we know that Sasuke has targeted all of us for capture."

"I can't say I disagree with Lady Tsunade doing that."

"I agree and I'm glad baa-chan kept you guys safe from the teme." Naruto declared in agreement with Kakashi.

"Whether it was the right decision or not the result of being unable to work any missions left me and Hinata in some financial difficulty. At one point it got so serious that we were on the verge of getting thrown out of our apartment because of the back rent we owed. We were able to survive because someone began to surreptitiously leave an unmarked envelope filled with money in our mailbox every month. I didn't like taking the money, but I had to put my pride aside, as I had Minato-kun to take care of. After a couple of years, we finally achieved some financial stability and Hinata and I decided we wanted to find out who our unknown benefactor was. So we set up a genjutsu to catch him in the act and we did."

"Who was it?" Naruto questioned in curiosity.

"It was Gai wasn't it." Kakashi stated in a somber tone of voice.

"Yes it was Gai."

Kakashi let loose an audible groan, as he now owed a serious debt, not in money, but in honor to his friend and comrade in looking out for his family while he was gone.

"That was nice of Gai-sensei to do, but why didn't you guys just go to baa-chan and use the money she had collected for me in that restitution fund?" Naruto inquired in curiosity.

Both Kurenai and Hinata looked to one another in surprise, before Hinata answered.

"We didn't think of the restitution fund Naru-kun because we never told Lady Tsunade about our financial situation."

"Oh well, it's no big deal now, Kakashi-sensei and I have more than enough money to pay Gai-sensei back for taking care of you."

"I wish it were that simple." The silver-haired Jounin muttered to himself, as he knew his green-clad comrade would never accept any recompense from them.

Naruto's chuckle brought Kakashi out of his musings and he looked over to his blonde student and asked.

"What's so funny?"

"I was just remembering the look on your face when you thought Kurenai-sensei might have been…involved with Gai-sensei while you were gone."

"Ha, ha, very funny Naruto." Kakashi grumbled in response, before he asked.

"How long until Minato-kun returns?"

"Well it will be a couple of hours before Gai and Lee bring him back, why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering what we could do to pass the time, any ideas?" Kakashi answered, with a lascivious tone of voice to Kurenai.

"Yeah Hina-hime, any thoughts?" Naruto asked in a similar tone.

"Both Hinata and Kurenai looked to one another a smiled deviously, before Kurenai said in a sultry tone of voice.

"We have an idea, wait here a moment and we'll be right back.

Both Naruto and Kakashi grinned wickedly, before a broom and mop were shoved into their hands, as Kurenai said.

"You two can clean the apartment like we usually do on Saturday, while Hinata and I go do some shopping. Oh, and we need some money too."

"Huh, you want us to work?" Naruto questioned in confusion.

"And while we're working you two get to go shopping and we both get the privilege of paying for it. Please explain why we are going to do this?" Kakashi groused in query.

"Because you love us." Hinata replied, before Kurenai added in a sweet tone of voice.

"And also because one of the stores we will be shopping at happens to be the lingerie shop."

Both Naruto and Kakashi stared at one another for a moment, before their shoulders slumped in defeat and they reached into their pockets and pulled their wallets out. Both shinobi received a quick kiss of gratitude from their respective fiancés and watched them glide happily out the front door, as they put their now empty wallets back in their pockets. Staring at the closed door, it was Naruto who broke the silence and asked.

"I can't believe we caved so easily to them. Is that how it's going to be when we get married?"

"As long as we want to keep seeing them in lingerie and participate in what usually transpires afterwards…yes that's exactly how it's going to be for us." Kakashi answered the resignation self-evident in his voice.

"So what do we do now?"

"We clean the apartment Naruto, that's what we do."

"Damn, I was afraid you were going to say that."

---

A couple hours later as promised, Rock Lee and Gai returned with Minato who happily greeted his father and uncle just as they were finishing up their chores. Lee reminded Naruto about the training and sparring session with all their friends and comrades was in an hour. Naruto promised that he and Hinata would be there and also promised to have a spar with his bushy eye-browed friend, causing the young man to whoop with joy. A half-hour later, both Kurenai and Hinata returned to the apartment, their arms laden with several shopping bags, including one's marked Victoria's Secret.

Taking their shopping haul to their personal bedrooms, Hinata and Kurenai returned and kissed their soon to be husbands once again in appreciation. Then with Minato perched on his shoulders, all of them made their way out of the apartment, when Naruto openly declared.

"I can't wait to see everyone together once again. We haven't been able to do that since Ino's party, remember Hina-hime."

"I remember Naru-kun."

"I'll tell you what, after this sparring session, I think I'll treat everyone to lunch. Chouji and I can have one of our famous barbeque eating contests just like we had at Ino's party!"

Hearing this caused both Hinata and Kurenai to abruptly stop, as a look of dread spread across both their faces. Kakashi noticed this and was about to say something, when Kurenai quickly said.

"Hinata, go with Naruto and Minato-kun, we'll catch up after I talk to Kakashi."

"Hai." Hinata replied, before quickly exiting the apartment.

"What's going on Kure-chan?"

"There, there's something I need to tell you it, it's about Chouji." Kurenai stammered in a distressed tone of voice.

"What about Chouji?"

"Cho-Chouji is, is…"

"Chouji is what?"

"Chouji is dead Kashi-kun, he's dead."

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Author Note: Oh brother, I really wrote myself into a corner last chapter when I realized what I had to write for this chapter. A plausible and believable explanation for the Hiraishin no jutsu, a fight scene with Naruto against an Oto Snake Summoner, as well as how rich the trio became while they were gone, which is what I planned from the start. Not to mention all of the other scenes in the chapter. All in all, this proved to be a most challenging and difficult at times chapter for me to write. Also, I can already hear angry shouts from some of you that I still haven't had Naruto learn about Chouji's demise yet. So let me quickly address a couple of things.

Now before I get reviews or pm's from any Sheldon Cooper or Leonard Hofstadter or for my older readers Seth Brundle's of the world tearing apart my hypothesis of how the Flying Thunder God Technique could work. I just want to point out a few things. One, I've seen no author including Kishimoto who has made any attempt to try and explain in-depth how it could work as I tried to do here. And second, in doing my research on teleportation, I came across one undeniable truth that everyone seemed to agree with. It's going to be a really freaking difficult scientific breakthrough to transport living physical matter for mankind to achieve, if it ever happens.

Why haven't I revealed to Naruto about Chouji's death yet? It may seem like I'm purposely avoiding it and in part that might be true. I just know it's going to be an emotional, powerful, and challenging scene for me to write. I'm thinking that it's probably going to encompass a very large portion of a chapter when it's revealed to Naruto and the ramifications afterwards. So please just be patient a little longer, as it is coming very soon. If I had to estimate, I'd say chapter 65 will probably be the chapter in which it happens.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and I'm anxious to see what your reviews will be for it. I do wish to thank everyone both old and new readers who took the time to review my last chapter. For those of you who did review, you all had a lot to say about it and I'm pleased that this story has such a strong fan base with readers who actually write out well thought-out reviews. Because of that, I enjoy reading many of your reviews, so please leave lots of them, as they do help a writer get a sense of the thoughts and opinions of the fans of a story. They also can help lift the spirits of an author as well. Also, to any readers who are staff members to any C2 communities, please feel free to add my story to your community if you feel it is worthy of it. I won't mind, I swear. I'll even pinkie swear if I need to?

Finally, it's not set-up on my profile page, but I would like to take an informal poll. My question to all of you is as follows.

"Which of the five Leaf village Hokage's is the coolest?"

My choice, which I have a feeling I won't get much agreement with from other people is for the Second Hokage Tobirama Senju. My reasoning for my choice is as follows.

IQ: You have to admit he was the smartest of all the Hokage's.

Power: Tobirama is only surpassed probably by his brother Hashirama.

Skills: The Second Hokage created a lot of cool and powerful jutsu's (Edo-Tensei, Hiraishin, Shadow-clone, etc.)

Honor: Tobirama did keep with the virtue and honor of being a Hokage by sacrificing himself to save Sarutobi and many other future leaders of the Leaf village.

So, I'm curious to see what my readers choices would be and why? So please leave your choice with your review. All I ask is please don't just leave a review with your choice, but do say something about the actual chapter itself as well.

Thanks for your participation.

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News:

In 2010, my fellow author brown phantom initiated a poll asking the following question.

Who is the best Naruto fan fiction writer on this site?

Upon completion of that first poll I finished a very respectable 8th to which I thank all of you who voted for me on that poll very much for making that happen. Now brown phantom has decided to run a second poll asking that same question. So I humbly ask if you feel I'm worthy of being one of your 10 author picks to please place a vote for me on brown phantoms second poll. I thank you in advance for your support and normally I would provide you the links to the profile pages for brown phantom for you to use. However, one of the "oh so wonderful" changes FFNET has recently made is making it more difficult to list a link anywhere even if it's a link on their own freaking site. So just do a quick search for the author, brown phantom. As I said I finished 8th on his first poll and I would be ecstatic if I could improve on that showing, but I will need all of your help to achieve that.

End of News:

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Now, onto everyone's favorite section Kingkakashi's rants on the manga yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!

I have some positive, but also some negative things to say about the following issues of the Naruto manga.

*Warning I do give away some spoilers in my rants, so read at your own risk.

#645 – This chapter begins with Kishimoto failing once again at humor and only succeeding in making Naruto look like a moron. In fact he doesn't even bother trying to imply it, but has the Kyuubi no Youko actually call Naruto a moron. The rest of the chapter is Kurama (aka Kyuubi) devising a plan to add Naruto's Sage powers with Kurama's chakra making their attacks much more powerful. They then start launching some attacks and the chapter essentially ends. This would have been a good chapter, except for Kishi going out of his way to make Naruto look stupid yet again.

#646 – Obito begins to enact the Infinite-Tsukyomi Plan and the Juubi begins to morph into its final form that of a gigantic tree called a Shinju. The trees roots/branches extend out and begin sucking dry all of the chakra from the Alliance soldiers it can catch. Hashirama is still engaged in his fight with Madara and doesn't understand what is going on. Madara for whatever reason decided to explain and tells Hashirama how Shinobi first came into existence was because of the Shinju tree. Naruto gets caught by some of the roots and branches of the Shinju tree and no one can get to Naruto to save him. At the last minute the Third Hokage reappears apparently after having regrown a new head and he saves Naruto. All hope seems loss for the good guys and the chapter ends with Obito basically telling everyone to just give up. Overall, a good chapter, as the history lesson of how ninja's came to exist was interesting.

#647 – This chapter starts off with the fully healed living Hokage's seeing the Shinju tree off in the distance as they race towards it. You then cut back to Shikamaru who apparently had been caught by the Shinju tree and had his chakra sucked out of him and now he lays dying. Obito continues to tell everyone to give up and the Shinobi Alliance soldiers are beginning to crack, as their morale plunges. A Hashirama clone attempts to rally them, but he isn't having much success. Then Orochimaru, Suigetsu, and Karin arrive on the scene. The original Hashirama is still battling Madara, but learns from him that the Shinju will bloom in about 15 minutes and the Infinite-Tsukyomi of the world will begin.

The Hashirama clone attempts once more to rally everyone, but the Shinobi Alliance army has seemingly given up even perhaps Naruto. So what does Kishimoto do, that's right it's time for some Sasuke Uchiha love and he has the emo launch an attack on the Shinji tree using his Susanoo and rallies Naruto to his side. The Uchiha Lone Ranger and his faithful sidekick Tonto Naruto, nope no favoritism there from Kishi at all. Anyway, Naruto sends his chakra out to the Shinobi Alliance soldiers again and here it gets strange? Somehow everyone starts seeing Naruto's memories growing up through Ino's mental link she has established with everyone. Naruto decides to press forward with Sasuke and continue to fight ending the chapter. A decent chapter, which could have been good if the reader wasn't subjugated to Kishi's attempt to make Sasuke into a hero over Naruto.

#648 – Well since we got a heaping dose of Sasuke Uchiha love from Kishimoto last chapter. Now it's time for that's right, you guessed it, ANOTHER Sasuke power-up to start this chapter. Since Senjutsu is the only thing that can damage Obito and Naruto is the only one who possesses it. Of course Kishi can't allow that to happen so we get this BS explanation that Juugo's curse seal is powered by Senjutsu. And then Sasuke is magically able to absorb Juugo's curse seal and add Senjutsu into his Susanoo thus creating as Orochimaru put it, "The Senjutsu version of Susanoo." Isn't it just so cool of Kishimoto to take the one power Naruto has that Sasuke doesn't and just give it to the emo-Uchiha in the blink of an eye.

Anyway, you then get a couple of Hallmark moments of Orochimaru complimenting and comparing Sasuke with Madara, while the Second Hokage Tobirama does the same with Naruto and Hashirama. Naruto and Sasuke launch a frontal attack against Obito and the remaining Shinobi Alliance soldiers stay back and wonder what they should do. Then all of them start receiving the memories of the First Hokage Hashirama of the first Kage meeting of the Five Great Elemental nations. Their fragile alliance the five leaders had formed nearly dissolved during that meeting, but Hashirama was able to save it by humbling himself and talking about his dream of the future. The Shinobi Alliance soldiers gain renewed hope watching this and they rally once again to fight just as the five living Kage's arrive to the battlefield. A decent chapter as the history lesson flashback of the first Kage meeting was interesting, but once again another Sasuke power-up put a damper on the chapter for me yet again.

#649 – This chapter is pretty much what I'll call the "Rally" chapter. The Five living Hokage's set off to lead each of their respective countries forces. Meanwhile, Naruto and Sasuke are still fighting against Obito. However, even while fighting Naruto is still sending out his chakra to heal his friends and allies. Doing this he brings Shikamaru back from the brink of death and he vows that since Naruto doesn't have a smart brother to advise him like Hashirama had when he was Hokage. He will have to fill that role for Naruto when he becomes Hokage. Kiba and Shino also pipe in and say they want to be his advisors as well. Basically all of Naruto's friends are rallying around him. After this you cut to scenes of each living Hokage rallying their troops to unite with the others and take down the Shinji tree. You then cut to a scene of Kakashi still in the Mangekyou Sharingan dimension stitching himself up, so it looks like he'll be returning to the battle soon. The chapter ends with a dramatic charge of all five Elemental nations' armies attacking the Shinji tree. Overall, this was a pretty good chapter.

#650 – Ok, so all five armies are attacking and even Orochimaru joins in the fight, as if the Infinite-Tsukyomi is allowed to take effect, he won't be allowed to continue his precious experiments. Tobirama and Minato using the Hiraishin and Body Flicker techniques randomly save Alliance soldiers who are in peril. Meanwhile, Tsunade and Sakura team up to resummons as much of Katsuya as they can and use what remains of the slug to help protect and heal the Alliance soldiers fighting. Naruto and Sasuke continue to fight Obito and, but he is still able to overpower them. As Naruto struggles to get up and fight some more, Obito asks why he does and attempts to verbally destroy Naruto's resolve. The chapter ends with Naruto refusing to give up and he will continue to fight no matter what. Another good chapter from Kishimoto, wow two in a row, but it was pretty much action-based for the most part. And as I've said before Kishimoto can write good action scenes.

#651 – This chapter starts off with Naruto and Sasuke combining the Kyuubi cloak with the Susanoo to form one powerful creature. Obito produces the Sage of the Six Paths sword called Nunoboku to battle against this creature. Kakashi is still in the other dimension, but he is able to see everything Obito does because of their link of Sharingan's. Naruto calls forth everyone from the Konoha 12 except Sakura and gives each of them a powerful Rasengan to use. He needs them to destroy Obito's protective shield to give him and Sasuke an opening to attack with their own Kyuubi/Susanoo blade. They destroy the shield and both swords are about to impact. Then Obito starts having images of what his life could have been like had he returned to the village and not stayed with Madara when he was younger. This causes him to hesitate and it looks like Naruto and Sasuke's blade was able to strike him, ending the chapter. Well surprisingly, Kishi has managed three good chapters in a row, but that probably happened because once again it was an action-based chapter.

#652 – Ok, Obito was indeed wounded and it allowed the chakra of the bijuu he had captured to start leaking out of him, much to Kurama's joy. He instructs Naruto to use their chakra and pull the bijuu chakra out of Obito. Because of this, the Shinji tree stops blooming, so the Infinite Tsukyomi is unable to take effect, as Naruto is beginning to win this tug-of-war. However, Obito fights back and Naruto starts to falter, as their two chakra's are linked and Naruto begins to see the Uchiha's memories. However, Shikamaru using Ino's mind link to the Shinobi Alliance army rallies them to help Naruto. It appears to have worked and Obito is suddenly facing Naruto inside his mind. And thus begins probably the next several chapters of a philosophical debate between the two ending the chapter. Another good chapter, that's four in a row, but I have serious doubts the streak will continue. As I foresee a lot of philosophical dialogue coming down the road.

#653 – Well this will be short, as I was correct. The entire chapter is a philosophical discussion between Naruto and Obito in his mind with a few flashback memories of him and Rin thrown in. So this chapter was neither good nor bad, but was just sort of there.

Yes, I'm still thoroughly disgusted that Kishimoto hasn't done anything yet with Hinata's confession to Naruto now reaching 216 freaking issues!

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Now I'd like to give a shout out to a couple of stories of quality work that I recommend. I urge all of you to check-out these fine works when you have the time.

Recommendations:

"What Makes a Good Father?" by HATEmach1ne: This is a creative and interesting one-shot that involves a Naruto/Kurenai pairing. Essentially, Kurenai is a single mother of a four year old son due to Asuma's death and she begins to ask herself What Makes a Good Father? Naruto enters her life and she slowly begins to fall in love with him. Naruto also begins to fall in love with Kurenai and her son. All of this culminates in a romantic and steamy lemon scene and then the story ends later on with an engagement of the two. So if you're looking for quick and different one-shot considering the pairing, this is one you should check out.

"The Habit" by BlueGreenApples: This is a very emotionally charged one-shot involving Jiraiya and Tsunade. If you can get past the briefly implied Naruto/Sakura relationship, Tsunade and Jiraiya explore their own angst filled relationship and their lives together. So if you're looking for something that is not only well written, but also a very emotion filled story, then this is one you should check out.

Now please be kind and leave precious valuable reviews on these stories.

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As always, if anyone wants to discuss my story in greater detail, just shoot me a PM. I enjoy talking about the story with any readers who really have an interest in it. I'll try to respond back to you as quickly as I can.

Take it easy and be good!

Kingkakashi

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School Time:

Surreptitiously

Definition: Something obtained, done, made, etc; in a stealth, secret, or unauthorized manner.

Etymology: Latin to Middle English 1400-1450a.d.

Part of Speech: Adjective