I don't know how to play Shogi (Japanese chess) so instead of that I will be using regular chess (you know the one I'm talking about) instead of Shogi. Or checkers, I might use that too. Anyone that's up for teaching me how to play Shogi I'll really appreciate it. Yes I could read it on Wikipedia but I'm a practical learner, reading instructions might kill me.

CHAPTER FOUR

Silence of the Night

O9:33PM

Nara clan heads house

Nara clan compound

Konoha

Naruto groaned, both tiredly and in pain, as he fell face down on his bed, rubbing his aching lower back with his right hand. Most of his friends didn't appreciate him disappearing for ten years and suddenly dropping in at their houses for a friendly visit; Kureanai, who was now living with Asuma, good for them, he added mentally, had almost cut off his hands with the knife she was using to cut vegetables. Gai slapped his back; it was meant to be a friendly gesture but he could see the suppressed fire in the youthful man's eyes. Kakashi had thrown his whole bookcase of porn at him and he just barely got away from the copy ninjas CD collection of porn, stashed in several cardboard boxes. Yugao kept calling him 'Crunchy the Ballsy Ninja' when he went to see her at the ANBU barracks, always asking him if he was up for a few rounds before cackling at his expense. He found Anko in the T&I and he just barely made it out alive, but she made sure to leave an imprint of her sandals on his lower back. The others at the T&I helped chase him down.

He didn't even want to think about Hime Kurama and Bumi Aburame, wife of the Aburame clan head. The things they did to him…

A shiver travelled down his spine.

At least they've forgiven him.

It didn't help that his mother giggled as he limped passed her.

The oldest son of the Nara clan head groaned loudly into his pillow when he heard a knock on the door. The person pushed the door open and Shikamaru's head peeked in before he opened the door completely. His eyebrows struggled not to lower at the state of his brother, but he clasped the Chess board under his arm and coughed. Naruto looked at him and hastily sat up from his bed, suddenly alert and ready to take another round of beatings.

"Yo, Shika. How's it going?" he said in an attempt to look calm and collected but the perspiration building on his forehead and the way his left hand inched behind him to rub at the soreness of his back was an instant give-away that it was an act. The younger brother's lips tightened and his lips wiggled downwards but he refused to frown. The genius of the Konoha nine and team Gai inhaled deeply through his nose and released it through his mouth, before he said.

"Can we have a round of Chess?" he patted the board under his left arm, still in its box.

Naruto blinked once, then he shot to his feet abruptly, enough to make Shikamaru flinch a little. "Sure! I mean…ok, if you're up for it."

"Great." The younger genius grunted and shuffled into the room, leaving the door open by Naruto non-verbal request; their mother never liked them closing their doors unless it was bedtime. Yoshino's word was law. Naruto stood up and his cape dissolved into his shadow. The older Nara brother threw open his wardrobe and pulled out a foldable green table that he, their father and even Shikamaru used to play Shogi, chess, checkers and even a few round of cards. He set the table in the middle of the room and tossed a foldable chair to his brother, who caught it and snapped it open in one fluid motion. Naruto then took his own seat from his wardrobe and smoothly walked to the table, where Shikamaru was setting up the chess board, and swiftly took his seat. The younger Nara pushed the black pieces to him and they both silently arranged the pieces in their place, the younger black haired male finished first.

Naruto coughed into his left hand and presented his right fist over the chessboard to his brother, who bumped it, a sign of mutual respect their father had taught them to show before a game, and as their fists disconnected Shikamaru's hand flattened and Naruto hand fisted tightly. The older son cursed under his breathe, eliciting a small smirk from the younger genius. "You win, go first." He raised his hand for his brother to stop and Shikamaru looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "But know this; I won't be going easy on you."

"It'll insult my honour if you do." The boy replied and Naruto scoffed, sitting back and motioning for the chunin to make his move.

Shikamaru perched his head on his hand and examined the board for four long minutes, Naruto waited patiently with a barely suppressed smile, before he made his move. Naruto chuckled deeply, an evil sound that put Shika on edge but he made sure to send a defiant look at the Night, a genius that was probably even smarter than their father, and moved as well, the younger genius cursed foully under his breathe, making their mothers ears twitch all the way from the living room downstairs. The younger Nara intended to use his first move as a decoy but apparently Naruto saw right through it. Shikamaru moved again and twenty seconds later he was on his hand and knees, blubbering with tears flowing down his eyes in dramatic torrents and snot dribbling down from his nose.

Naruto shook his head in exasperation at the familiar act, as well as the familiar words of his brother pleading for him for another game.

Ten minutes and thirty two games later and Shikamaru was catatonically lying on the ground, his eyes blankly staring at the starry ceiling, already regretting why he came to ask his brother for a game of chess. A match against their father was much easier; at least the man was merciful.

Worst part was that Naruto never used the same strategy once; if he did he would cover it up with about three or four dummy moves and take him out, always with a pawn. This was coming from a boy that was hailed by his team sensei as a genius, and who was fully capable of defeating anyone in his generation and a few chunin in a fair game of chess, and he was able to give his team sensei a run for his money too. Naruto never moved more than ten times and by the third move, mostly with his pawn, again, Shikamaru was already sweating bullets. It was like this when they were younger, except his older brother went easier on him; Naruto probably thought that since Shika was a chunin he would have better tactics and strategies.

He almost felt sorry for whipping the poor boy around.

Almost, the Night added in his mind with a low chuckle as he heard his younger brother groan loudly on the ground and rolled to his side in a sad, foetal position, wondering where it all went wrong; he was absolutely sure his plans were well hidden for globs sake!

The brothers were silent after that sound, until Shikamaru asked. "I missed you…big bro." Naruto could hardly keep the tears from falling from his eyes.

"Thank you, Shika." He said gratefully, happy that his brother had finally forgiven him. Their parents made sure to lecture him on why Naruto wasn't able to be around for ten years and added with the prodding of Suzu and Hinata, Shikamaru was finally able to come around to reconcile with his older brother. Naruto wiped away the river of tears with his wrists and said. "C'mon, sit up. Let me show you some moves."

The younger brother quickly got up and sat down in expectation, wide eyed and raptly listening to what his brother was saying, teaching him strategies that even he wasn't aware of.

Meanwhile Shikaku watched the brothers, a smile dancing on his lips.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ameagakure no Sato

Itachi wasn't the only spy Jiraiya had in the Akatsuki.

Konan knew Nagato and Yahiko since they were kids and before the last civil war that ended everything they even shuffled to each other's houses and fooled around. After they all lost their parents and they thought all was lost Jiraiya came around and took them in when no one else would. He gave them purpose, he gave them the tools to survive in the world no matter how harsh and how wicked it could get and he set them free to live their lives.

That was what a teacher was and Jiraiya, for all his flaws and for all the mistakes he made in his life, was a great teacher.

He was the greatest man the three children had ever met and they all made a vow to make him proud as he set them free.

Attacking their former sensei willingly and with intention to kill was not the line Nagato crossed that made the Angel of Ame furious. The line had been crossed and defiled on multiple occasions a very long time ago, specifically when her friend-former friend-went against their dream of peace. The three teammates, Rest in Peace Yahiko, finally brought peace to their war torn village after many years of tyrannical ruler ship by Hanzo the Salamander. All they wanted was peace, Yahiko had even willingly given his life for the cause; even if the peace was only for their village it would have been more than enough for them.

But Nagato, bitter that the war had killed his dog, not even his parents, his fucking dog pushed for a global war under the guise that he wanted the world to be peaceful from having a weapon slash beast of mass destruction pointed at it. It was a pitiful excuse to want to destroy Konoha and flatten the empty island of Uzushio. He fell under the honeyed words of the masked man called Madara and used his rinnegan to kill, not to protect and ensure peace.

Let it not be said that Konan was not angry that Nagato had raised his hand against the man that gave them the tools to punch life in the face; she is forever loyal to peace and the stoic Angel of Ame was not going to have any of his revenge nonsense.

After observing the Akatsuki for years, she started informing Jiraiya from the shadows but with the way Nagato always wanted her in his presence to consolidate his position as god and Kage of Ameagakure she could only do so only once-in a very long-while.

When they caught Jiraiya sneaking through their village she was nearly tempted to attack her red haired former friend but when Nagato had snarled about the Night aiding their sensei she stilled her hand; the Night was more than capable of keeping their former sensei alive. And he had shown it by dispatching all six paths with what she could only describe as deceptive and ingenious attacks and counters. Instead of conceding defeat her former friend had given her a headset, because she only had two receiver's as ear piercings, making four, but they were too weak to do anything more than teleport her to the fight with Jiraiya and the Night. The problem was that she couldn't just yell and convince him that she was on his side so she had to weaken him and force him in a position that he had to listen to her.

Accepting her proposal was up to him, and thankfully the Night accepted.

Konan proposed they kill Nagato now that he was weak from losing his paths. Before he could replace his paths he had to find strong ninjas, kill them somehow and plant receivers and a mirror copy of the rinnegan in them. That would take a month, two if he was going to take his time, which wasn't the case. He had proposed they kill Itachi, Kisame and Diedara for their bodies, maybe even add Orochimaru because they still had a bone to pick with him and Kabuto just to spite Orochimaru, which wound down his time to recover to two weeks.

Before he could begin his plans to refortify his personal defences in case the Night returned for his head she showed him Naruto's forehead protector and his black cloak, a copy the Night created from a portion of her shadow so it wouldn't dissolve when he was too far from it.

The Angel of Ame was positive that the Night was more than enough to take out the weakened rinnegan holder, because by herself she would most likely be killed, even if he was crippled. Night asked for a night to recuperate and also for her to take over Ame and fully ally with Konoha; he didn't expect to see her again so he left the conditions at there.

Nagato blankly looked out of the window of the Amekage's tower, at the smouldering holes in his village and at the civilians that were being dragged from under the wreckage of their homes. They had been pulling more and more people out from under destroyed houses, more than a few wound up already dead or died as soon as they were rescued. The shinobi were being run ragged to keep the peace and heal those that were fatally wounded in the fight that occurred the other day. Most were calling for his head, even his ninjas grumbled under the breathes; he was meant to protect them, keep the chaos of the world away from their village but the casualties of both the civilian and shinobi populace kept growing. His dark eyes kept track of a purple haired woman at the very bottom using small whirlwinds of paper to lift up debris and shift those under them out with a paper stretcher being pushed by medics.

They have been working for hours.

Konan knelt down beside a crying girl clutching the dismembered hand of her father, and gently hugged her closely with her face set in a neutral, unemotional expression. She slowly eased the hand out of the little girls vice grip and waved for a female ninja to take care of the child as she went back to recovering those that were trapped under broken buildings. Her eyes were hollow and empty as she beheld the throngs of devastated people around her, trying their best to dig out their loved ones. Those around her shuffled with their backs bowed out of respect for her but they still mustered enough courage to ask for her help looking for a friend or a member of the family. She felt eyes on her back and she looked up, through the heavy downpour of the chakra rain, to the eyes of her former friend. The rinnegan holder could feel the crippling disappointment in him by the purple haired Angel of Ame and he sharply looked away, his hands clenched on the armrest of his throne, to another group of people a little bit away from the tower, gathering in a collection of craters he caused when his elephant-rhino animal path summon bashed Gamabunta with a war hammer, which was blocked by the massive toads sword but the backlash was dreadful.

The god of Ame felt a quick pulse of chakra only his rinnegan allowed him to sense and his eyes widened in panic before a kunai slid across his throat and a hand clasped over his mouth to muffle his alarmed yells.

Naruto materialized beside the throne, left hand over Nagato's mouth and right hand still grasping the kunai to neck, dripping with blood. His eyes were blank of emotion, the shadows that ringed around them, falling down to his cheeks, and the flurry of shadows that billowed around the Nara assassin cast darkness around the section of room. The Night made sure he looked straight into the eyes of the dying god as he flicked his weapon to his side, splashing small drops of blood onto the glass window, spun the knife in his palm before he returned it to the abyss of darkness in his (intentionally) billowing cloak. The assassin had learnt from his battle with the paths the other day that even if he crept through the shadows to his target he would still be sensed very easily. So all he did was map out the shadows from the border of the village straight into the tower to his target and fly right through with as much speed his gliding cloak would allow him.

The genius among geniuses watched the man's eyes bulge with rebelliousness, even as the blood pumping out of the deep slash passing through his jugular stained his black with red cloud cloak down to his navel. Naruto blinked but made sure to still cover Nagato's mouth, watching as his targets eyes became lidded with wooziness. The doujutsu glowed, about to blast a jutsu at the assassin but sputtered off as the blood loss became too much; he couldn't breathe, his arms refused to move.

The god of Ame's felt his head slump to the left and darkness ringed around his vision, surrounding the torrents of rain that could be seen through the blood stained window. He gasped for air one last time, choking out more blood from his mouth and neck wound, and the sleepy shadows covering his eyes eased him down, putting him to a fitful sleep until he stopped moving, staring with dead, glazed eyes at nothing at all.

Naruto cocked his head to the side and used his free hand to check for a pulse as well as use his right pointer and middle finger to send a probe of chakra to see if the coils in Nagato's body was still pulsing with activity, a clear sign of life that no living creature could supress, even with the aid of drugs. He wasn't an unranked jounin assassin for nothing.

As he slowly eased his hand off the dead man's mouth his cloak settled down and solidified over his torso like it normally would. The Nara closed his eyes and inhaled deeply; he rolled his neck, eliciting a quiet crack, and began removing the rinnegan eyes from the corpse. He stored the eyes in his Night Dimension, where it would stay until he decided otherwise, and a Hiden art: Shadow Clone rose from the ground, nodded to him silently and moved to the bottom of the building to tell Konan that he had competed the job; she didn't want to be in the room to see the betrayal in Nagato's eyes, or watch as another one of her childhood friends died.

As the assassin removed the trace of blood on the walls by sending another clone he positioned the head of the former Kage properly and dusted down the dead man's shoulders, just to make him look like he died a dignified death as per the requirements the woman who contracted him to kill her former friend pleaded for him to go by, but also out of a morbid feeling of respect he felt for the man. Naruto stood back and looked at Nagato, his arms to his side and his cloak hiding his body from his neck to his calves.

He looked over his shoulder when a ripple of air spiralled to a stop four feet behind him. His dead blue eyes, still gleaming in the dark like he was an evil blue eyed phantom of the night, looked at the new comer. A man about his height in a one eyed spirally orange mask and in the regular garb of the S rank organisation that was apparently called the Akatsuki. The Night narrowed his eyes but returned them to the dead god on the throne before him.

"Who are you?" his voice echoed around the deathly silent throne room, ever so slowly clones rose up from the shadows on the walls, took a mechanical step forward and kept a close eye on the masked man. Naruto mentally commanded a small tendril from his cloak to touch the ground and his eyes narrowed to thin slits as the familiar chakra signature of the man came to him. "Ah…it's you…"

The man that killed the Yondaime and the former princess of Whirlpool.

Of course he remembered him; Naruto was one of the first responders to the Fourth Hokage's position when the Kyuubi attacked and the last person to catch a glimpse of the masked man before he disappeared in a kamui vortex.

Tobi-he mentally shook his head and dropped the idiot guise-Obito slowly walked to Naruto and stopped beside the assassin. "So you remember me, even after all these years." He said in a low voice as he too looked at the cooling body of the former rinnegan holder.

Naruto's face remained featureless and calm; if he was anything he was professional, as he replied. "Yes." The clones at the walls surrounding them mutely watched on. "…You killed my friends. I can't forget that."

"They were in my way."

"No, they weren't." Naruto sharply responded as he looked at Obito from the corner of his eyes.

Obito shrugged. "Be that as it may I still need the rinnegan. Where is it?"

"You won't care about it where you're going." Naruto said as multiple tendrils of darkness from his cloak shot to the man beside him but Obito disappeared in another invisible vortex, his last words echoing in the air.

"I will have those eyes, Night, no matter what…"

Naruto's eyes looked down and he glared at the ground, seething in silence. The clones returned to their original forms and the Nara assassin screwed his lips to the side, before he walked briskly to the door. He stopped briefly as Konan stepped in front of him. The paper angel bowed deeply and said. "Thank you, Lord Night."

"It's fine." Naruto grunted as he passed her. "Honour our deal, Angel of Ameagakure Konan."

"I swear on my life." She said after him and watching as the assassin took his time leaving the building. 'Now…I need to find a way to ally with Konoha.'

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

08:00PM

Flower Gail Restaurant

Restaurant street, market district

Konoha

In the end it was hard to stop thinking about the orange masked man.

Naruto had returned back home in a daze, only listlessly passing through the house to his room like a phantom, silent enough to worry his mother, who was watching TV in the main room. The man didn't know how long he stood by the window, just looking outside at everything and nothing at all, not even paying attention on his surroundings.

He finally found the man that was directly responsible for killing the Yondaime and his wife. Two of his close friends, and now he didn't know what to do. Whether or not to dedicate his every waking life to finding the murderer and executing justice or letting it flow off his shoulders. Minato and Kushina's death was the spot in Naruto's conscience that was yet to heal and being made to regularly see Suzu Uzumaki, the daughter of his late friends, was a constant reminder of his mistake, but he wouldn't avoid the girl like Kakashi. He faced his demons and he reconciled with them.

Suzu was merely a child that had been trusted in his care and care for her he will. His mental alarm rang and reminded him of his hot date with the Godaime Hokage, which would take place in about thirty minutes.

The oldest son of the Nara clan head decided to focus on his date than wallow in his dark thoughts; he would deal with his resurfaced demons later.

Naruto hummed and sat down at the table the waiter presented him to, looking around for a head of blonde hair coming towards him. He looked down at his attire once again, a black suit with a short sleeved white shirt underneath, because he was paranoid he would need to rip off his coat to fight and any long sleeve that wasn't skin tight slowed him down, black pants and formal black dress shoes. The Nara adjusted his black bow tie and straightened his coat, as he anxiously looked around again. Ten minutes of waiting and the man was gloomily drooping his head on his table, disdainfully eyeing the happy couples that were settled on tables around him, who in turn looked at him with pity.

A deep sigh escaped his lips as thirty boring minutes ran by. He checked his watch for the hundredth time and politely told the waiter that he was fine, but the sympathetic man poured him a glass of water and left a basket of bread on his table. On the house, he was told, but Naruto would make sure the man got a heft tip at the end of the night. His mood worsened as he munched on his bread, an hour ran by and with a deep disappointed sigh the assassin waved for the waiter that had been attending to his table over and placed five hundred ryu, in five individual hundred ryu pieces, and rose up from his seat, his self-worth and confidence reduced to nothing. The younger man bowed to him appreciatively and tentatively, as politely as possible, asked Naruto to come back whenever he wanted.

Naruto could barely muster up a reply to the man as he slinked to the door, concerned and partly understanding eyes followed the unranked jounin popularly known as the Night. His bright blue eyes dulled and looked at the ground as he walked out of the door, just as Shizune Kato was about to enter. The assistant to the Hokage watched as the Nara walked off with his shoulders slumped and she tried to raise her voice to call him back, but no words left her lips.

The twenty year old woman felt her shoulders sink as well, disappointed at her cowardice and the fact that her mistress had set up a date for her with her idol and she had messed it all up with her nerves. Her strapless short black dress and heels were now going to waste and worst of all she had let down Naruto most of all, even though he didn't know she was the one he was waiting for instead of the Godaime. She threw down her purse in frustration, drawing the attention of a man standing by the door of the restaurant, tasked with the job of opening doors for guests. He looked to be in his early forties and his eyes showed that he had seen his fair share of romance. He looked between Naruto's figure in the distance, only illuminated by the streetlights, and then to Shizune, who had collapsed onto her knees and her head tilted to the ground in regret.

He made sure that no one was entering anytime soon before he silently walked to Shizune. The medic looked at the pair of polished black shoes in her line of vision, then slowly looked up the equally black pair of pants to the white long sleeved button up shirt, then finally to the face of the doorman.

His face was set in a small smile as he pointed at Naruto, who was walking in the direction of the Hokage's monument. "Go."

"But-"

He shook his head and shushed her. "Go."

"I messed up-" she started and he again shook his head, the small smile ever present and comforting to the flustered and remorseful woman.

"It's now or never." He said in his deep voice. Shizune furrowed her eyebrows and looked at her hands, then she clenched them and sharply looked up to where Naruto had gone. She grabbed her purse from the ground in tight hands, took off her heels from her kneeling position and ran after Naruto.

"Naruto! Wait up!"

Naruto's ears twitched when he heard his name and he turned around just in time to catch the red faced woman before she could collide with his back. He patiently waited for her to get her breathe, his eyes still dull from how 'well' the night had gone. The woman took in a massive gulp of air and stood ramrod under his cool gaze, she could already feel the sweat build on her forehead as her mind forced her mouth to move, although no words came out, only gusts of air that might as well be called loud panting.

"Guh…who…ah, uh, ahm…" She said and placed her hands on her hips. "You….he…ah…who, me, ah…" Naruto raised an eyebrow, mildly intrigued that the quiet girl he knew from his younger days that had an awful stutter around him, and suspiciously only around him because he had seen her have a meaningful conversation with others, tried to force words out of her mouth. He crossed his arms and watched the amusing spectacle.

It got too painful to watch after two minutes and he placed a gentle hand on her shoulder. She sealed her lips shut and looked up at him with a beet red face, her knees shaking and her palms becoming sweaty. "Yes?"

"Where are you going!" she yelled just as he finished speaking, surprising him enough for him to take back his hand and take a step back. The woman cursed herself under her breathe.

Naruto felt his lips wobble upwards at her outburst and he jabbed a thumb over his shoulder at the Hokage's monument. "I was going over there to think." He eyed her general state of undress; her rumpled short black dress, the heels she had in her arm and her slightly dusty purse. "Where are you going? Got a hot date." He felt his spirits lower at his own 'hot date' and he immediately felt sorry for her, guessing that she was running away from a terrible night too. "I'm sorry, Shizune, you deserve better."

Her eyes bulged at the assumption that she was capable of going on a date with any other person than him. "I was…I was…" she exhaled at her clumsiness before she squared her shoulders and looked at him right in the eyes. 'It's now or never.' she repeated in her mind. "I was just going there too." She said as she wiped the sweat on her brow with the back of her right hand, which held her purse.

The Nara pursed his lips and hummed, searching her eyes for deception but letting it go finding the lie in favour of nodding to the monument. "Would it be fine if I accompany you? I promise you won't even notice me." He motioned for them to walk and she shakily followed suit.

Shizune shook her head and gave him her best, brightest smile. "No, its fine; I was hoping for some company."

They silently walked and Shizune vowed that that night she would beg for his forgiveness and ask for a second chance.

Authors note

The pairing isn't Naruto x Tsunade, you'll find out when the story ends ;)

Drop a review, would you so kindly, follow me on Tumblr at ghost-of-foy and I will see you when I see you.

Foy.