It has been two days since the invasion and everyone has been doing their part to rebuild what has been destroyed which hadn't been much due to the heads up that they had and the help they got from the other kages and their shinobi, any sound and sand ninja that had been captured we're locked up in the highest level cells and we're awaiting interrogation, execution, or even both.

After the battle Naruto had noticed that he had blood stains that originated from his eyes and that he couldn't see as well as before. So far even Kurama's healing factor couldn't fix his impaired vision.

Today was the day of the mass funeral and while a few people were standing at the graves of fallen loved ones the majority of the leaf village citizens were at Hiruzen's grave. Naruto being who he was wanted to stay in the back and wait until everyone else had left before he said his peace to his grandfather figure but he caught sight of Konohamaru at the front crying and Asuma wasn't able to calm him alone so he started walking forward.

When the other people saw him in his black suit and tie walking towards where the casket was they split like the red sea but instead of going straight to the casket like most believed he would he stood right in front of the 12 year old boy and crouched to his level to look him in the eyes.

As the blonde looked to Konohamaru he spoke as gently as he could. "Konohamaru listen to me."

The boy started wiping his eyes and looked to his surrogate older brother. "The old man was strong and no one could ever deny that fact but not all of his strength came from his jutsu or his physical prowess, as a matter of fact the majority of his strength came from within, his courage to stand tall and fight against any who would harm his people, his knowledge of different things, and his wisdom to understand when to fight and when to retreat and learn from the mistakes he has made but most important of all his love for this village and those within. He died because he faced off against the rogue sennin Orochimaru to protect those that he loves and he'd never want you to cry over this but to learn from it and to grow stronger."

Konohamaru whimpered a little. "But it hurts Naruto-nii, it hurts to lose grandpa and so many others."

Naruto nodded solemnly at this. "Yes, I know it does, I know the feeling all to well and I'm not saying that you should ignore it, never ignore this pain but don't let it consume you. You're pain becomes your motivation to grow stronger so that you can protect others so no one else has to feel this ever again. No more untimely deaths, no more destroyed buildings, no more war orphans. This is the goal we all work towards and it's what keeps us going when all we see is darkness and despair ahead of us."

Konohamaru sniffles and wipes his eyes one more time before nodding with a determined smile. "Ok Naruto-nii, I'll grow stronger and help reach this goal!"

Naruto smiled back as he stands back up to his full height and ruffles Konohamaru's hair playfully. "Of course you will kid, you're strong willed like gramps was so you'll be kicking ass before you know it. Now, how about we go lay our flowers on the old man's casket before they lower it into the ground."

Both boys did just that at the same moment right as they were lowering it. As they got back in place Asuma laid his hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Thank you, you've always been better with him than anyone else and he's always taken your advice to heart."

The blonde smiled slightly. "He's more like you and the old man than you realize, he's not the little brat who was always on about taking the seat from jiji anymore and sooner or later you will have to acknowledge that or he may be the next one being buried. Take the time to train him every now and then. I'd say the weekends are your best bet seeing as that's when you give your team their break."

Asuma was about to protest the idea but Naruto spoke quickly. "I'm not saying to go all out or anything right now but show him how to better control his chakra, teach him how to hit the targets quicker with better accuracy, give him a basic obstacle course to run every other day, something that will further build on his basic foundation so he can be better prepared for his higher tier training later when he graduates. The most important part is that he sees that you're actually trying to take steps to actually acknowledge him as a shinobi in training rather than a kid made of glass."

The chainsmoker of a jounin nodded reluctantly. "Fine, he'll have to grow up sooner or later and I would rather him be prepared for the worst."

The blonde slinked off to the back again so that the two could be alone for now before they get swarmed by a crowd of people trying to say that they were 'so sorry for their loss' and all of that other bullshit. As soon as he was leaned up against a tree an ANBU member appeared at his side. "The council wishes to speak to you."

Naruto nodded and allowed the masked shinobi to shunshin them both to the destination. Appearing before the entire council Naruto neither bowed nor did he insult them, but instead chose to stay silent.

The first to break the silence was Danzo Shimura. "Naruto-san, do you know why we have called you here?"

The blonde shook his head in the negative. "No sir I have not been informed of why I was summoned, my only knowledge of this is that I have been summoned."

Danzo nodded. "I see, well it has come to our attention that you were the only one who chased after the children of the Kazekage who we have been informed by lord third before his passing was actually dead and that the rogue sennin Orochimaru had used his body to disguise himself as Rasa-san. Seeing as they had been tricked we will be releasing the sand ninja and allowing them to go back to their village but we want you to escort them to their village and give their council this."

Danzo gave him a scroll and he put it away in one of his weapons storage seals. "That scroll is a message to their council, you are to stay there until they give you a scroll just like it. This mission will be classified as an A-rank due to the importance of the scroll and it will start tomorrow at 6:00 sharp so don't be late."

Naruto bowed respectfully to all of the council members before leaving for a bit of training.

(Scene change)

Naruto was on his way to an abandoned training ground when he found Jiraiyameditating. Deciding that he should speak to him about a plan for his new mission he stepped towards him. "Jiraiya-sensei, I must speak with you."

The sennin spoke without opening his eyes to look at him. "I already know about your mission and have already guessed at what you want from me, I will take a look at the boys seal and fix it."

Naruto nodded and bowed respectfully to the toad sage. The blonde was about to leave when Jiraiya spoke. "Even with the cursed mark under your control your heart is still full of rage and darkness, take care to not let this taint cloud your judgement."

The young avenger nodded silently before leaving.

(Scene change)

Temari sat in her cell wearing dark grey rags given to her as a prisoner uniform and her jailors had placed a chakra sealer on the nape of her neck. She was alone in a single bed cell with a toilet and a small sink with a single book given to her as her only form of entertainment and she was not allowed to know where her siblings were being kept. For all intents and purposes this was the best outcome she could have hoped for after being captured.

For the last two days she's been fed and watered with only one hour in a guarded courtyard to keep herself in perfect health both mentally and physically but she never once got to see her siblings or any other sand ninja.

Right now she's In her cell reading when a guard opens up her cell. "Prisoner #7942 report to the visitation area, you have a visitor."

Temari scoffed. "More like an interrogator waiting to use some kind of sick torture to get some kind of information out of me."

Even with her attitude she followed without giving any real trouble and she was lead into a room with a single table and two chairs, one on each side. When she was sat down the guard locked her arms to the top of the table. After a few minutes the door opened behind her and she stiffened up in fear of the voice that she heard. "Unlock her cuffs."

All she could think of was the voice as she was released from her restraints. 'That voice! It couldn't be, but why?!'

Her worst fears were realized when a boy with spiky blonde hair and whisker marks sat in the chair ahead of her. Leaning forwards Naruto interlocked his fingers together on the table. "Temari of the sand, do you know why I'm here?"

The girl looked down at the table as she spoke, trying and failing to hide her fear. "You're going to kill me. This is the day of my execution."

The blonde avenger could feel a part of himself yearning to do just that, to kill her where she sat as justifiable vengeance for the deaths of so many innocent people but he squashed it down. 'Jiji wouldn't want me to hold a grudge, they were tricked by the snake anyway so I shouldn't hold it against them.'

Taking in a deep breath and slowly releasing it to calm his rage Naruto shook his head. "No, you and your fellow sand ninja are to be released from your cells and escorted back to your village first thing tomorrow morning with all of your possessions returned to you. Your dead have already been sent back in body scrolls for proper burials or whatever your village does with their fallen shinobi."

Temari's eyes widened at this, she'd be able to return home soon and be with her people, she wasn't about to be killed. Naruto saw this and nodded. "Yes, you will return to Suna and I have been chosen to escort you and all of your fellow sand ninja back to your village where I will be giving your council a new alliance deal to look over. I will also be staying in your village until I have been presented with a scroll that has your council's answer to the deal."

The young wind user looked up in n curiosity. "What kind of deal?"

The male blonde shrugged. "I do not know nor do I need to know, my only concern is to finish my mission with optimum efficiency to ensure that I am successful. I would suggest that your people agree to whatever the council has asked for seeing as we are your only allies."

Temari sighed, her people's future was in the hands of the very people they had attempted to destroy.

Naruto's eyes softened at the sight of Temari's utter defeat. "As a sign of good faith I have called in some help from our resident seal master to fix your brothers horrendous seal. I noticed how he has obvious signs of sleep deprivation which combined with everything else I've seen he must not be able to sleep due to Shukaku trying to escape when he sleeps so I'm having my sensei give him an upgrade in seals. When everything is said and done he will be able to sleep without worry of losing control."

A small smile crossed the girls face at the thought and she spoke two words. "Thank you."

(Scene change)

Anko Mitarashi stood beside Jirobo of the sound four who was tied down to a medical bed with chakra sealers all over him while he's unconscious.

The purple haired woman smacks him to wake him up to which he snaps his eyes open and looks around. Anko smiles sadistically. "Welcome Jirobo of the sound four, welcome to my home away from home also known as the TI department. Today I have you and your teammates all to myself to get all of the information I can squeeze out of you."

Jirobo chuckled. "Like a Konoha whore like you could do anything even remotely close to what Orochimaru-sama does just for training! You're wasting your time bitch!"

The purple haired woman sighed in exasperation as she unsealed a syringe full of a dark orange liquid. "That's a real shame, I was hoping that I could get the information from you without this type of thing happening but I guess I have to show you why Orochimaru had chosen me to sign the snake summoning contract out of any other students he took on during his time as a Konoha shinobi."

Sticking the syringe in a vein leading directly to the brain she put the smallest amount in and watched as he slowly started to close his eyes. "I have always been fascinated by the Yamanaka clan's mind ninjutsu but seeing as I'm not from their clan or planning to marry into it I'm unable to gain access to their library so at the age of twelve I made this serum to act as a replacement for their techniques. Unfortunately even with all of the improvements I've done to the formula I could never replicate the subtle and refined way they breach the mind."

Jirobo watched Anko move around the room with heavy lidded eyes. "This particular serum is called the fear toxin, as soon as you fall asleep you'll either relive your worst memories or you'll be put through a scenario that absolutely terrifies you. I'll continue to put you through this kind of torture until I get the answers I need, do you understand?"

The orange haired boy growled before spitting on her and hitting her on the face. "I'll never betray lord Orochimaru to his failure of a student."

All she did was smile in a sickeningly sweet way that sent shivers down the boys spine as she wiped the spit away before he succumbed to his own sleepiness.

(Time skip)

It took a couple hours but when he finally broke he told her everything he knew from lab locations to experimental notes, when he'd finished she summoned a black mamba on his lap. "Good kid, you did real good. Unfortunately for you I've been ordered to kill you the moment I had all of the information you had and now that I've tapped out your knowledge on the subject… well you get the idea."

The mamba snapped and bit directly into the boy's throat. Anko watched as the boy bled out and turned to the door. 'We will finally kill you for everything you have done sensei, you will pay.'

(Time skip)

Naruto stood at the northern gates in his usual mission clothes when all of the sand ninja came into the area escorted by ANBU guards.

Looking to the former prisoners he saw that they were still in rags and he looked to the ANBU. "Why are they still in rags? They were supposed to be given their belongings and allowed to change."

The apparent captain tossed a bag on the ground and a few storage scrolls fell out. "It is your mission to escort them which makes this your responsibility." And with that the masked ninjas left via shunshin.

Sighing Naruto picked up the scrolls and the bag before bowing apologetically to the sand ninja. "I apologise for my allies rude behavior, many of us have lost loved ones to the invasion and many will hold a grudge for a while. If you all would please make a single file line I will hand you your scrolls and show each of you to a place where you can change."

The line was formed quickly and without an issue and the blonde Uzumaki was able to hand out the scrolls to each of them until he got to the sand siblings.

Reaching into the bag he grabbed three dirt brown scrolls with the last threes names on them. Handing them over he spoke. "Gaara-san, I don't know what all Jiraiya-sensei told you about your new seal but it will allow you to sleep without fear of Shukaku taking over, you'll have control over when you hear and don't hear the raccoon, and you'll have the ability to use the bijuus chakra whenever you need it but I'd suggest taking the time to reach out to him and learn how to cooperate better so it's not you just taking his power and it's not just him taking your body. This will allow for better techniques to be utilized, easier flow and control of chakra, and even a full body transformation without any of the drawbacks that you get now after changing back."

Gaara looked to the blonde with a raised eyebrow. "Why would you give such advice to someone who almost destroyed your home?"

The blonde smiled. "Well for one thing my surrogate grandfather always taught me to forgive but never forget and another is that while many of my people are either dead or injured now I know for a fact that your people have suffered worse casualties all because of one man tricking you all into joining him in this endeavor only to ditch y'all to save his own skin once things turned around on him. You and your village are victims of this battle just like us so I will do my absolute best to see you in that light instead of as the betrayers I first believed you to be."

The preteen turned away and started leading the way to the Uchiha clan compound when he stopped and looked back to Gaara. "Oh and by the way, you can be much more than just a weapon or a bloodthirsty monster, all you have to do is prove that to not only yourself but to your people. While I know it sounds like a lot to do it is possible."

(With the Akatsuki)

Itachi was standing in the darkest corner of the Akatsuki base that he could when a plant-like creature rose from the ground. This thing was half albino white and half abyss black and it wore the robes of the group. "Itachi, I have some news for you."

The Uchiha didn't speak but instead nodded his head once. The plant guy just continued. "On his first ever C-rank your brother died and gave his eyes away to one of his teammates."

This got to Itachi and he snapped his eyes wide open as he looked to the thing with his sharingan spinning wildly. "Who was it?! Who did my little brother entrust his eyes too?"

At this the plant giggled. "That's the thing Itachi, they were entrusted to the kyuubi jinchuuriki along with two other things."

The Uchiha was curious. "And what were those things?"

It grinned. "Your clan compound and… your death. The fox child is actively preparing to hunt you down."

XXXAN: hello boys and girls of fanfiction and welcome to the newest chapter of one difference changes all. I'm truly excited to get to the next chapter, I'm slowly getting closer and closer to Shippuden where things will really kick off.In the next chapter we'll see a 'dream scene' with Naruto then the fight we've all been waiting for, Naruto vs Itachi!As you can see I'm trying to slowly make Naruto have better control over himself and not be clouded by negative emotions, am i doing all that well with it?For those of you who don't watch/read anything to do with DC look up scarecrow and you'll see where I got Ankos serum.And now it's the Roguemage signing out.