The Truth shall set you free – What a crock.

Jiraiya's luck sucked, really really sucked. He had walked into the perfect deathstorm. A group of kids and 3 worn out ANBU, A frazzled Suspended ANBU, a Slightly Nuts Orochi wannabe, and last but not least a sobering Pissed off former teammate and her apprentice. The storm started with the Pair catching him as he was walking into town. So he stopped, sat down told them the pertinent facts of the here and now, Finding Tsunade. Walking into town the trio sat at a small café, ordering Dango and green tea to recharge the batteries. 15 minutes later a rag tag group was walking past, stopping and staring, Kakashi jumped up, Tenzo facing him, and in unison shouted "YOU!" and shook hands. The group pulled up another table, pulled out their orders and Jiraiya's eyebrows were twitching furiously. He thought to himself, the only thing that could make this worse would be his former teammates showing up here and now. Looking up, he saw a man flying by him, thinking , Oh Kami no, please no. At then after opening his eyes stood his former teammate, her frazzled apprentice and a pig?? Oh dear Kami, kill me now. Standing there tapping her foot, She looked at the group in confusion, what the hell is this?

"Jiraiya, did you open an ANBU daycare?" At that, the 7 genin and younger looked at her, if glares could kill, she'd be dead.

"Sit down Tsunade, I have information for you. Least of all, I believe Sensei is dead."

4 bottles of Sake, 1 Black eye later, The story was told.

"All right Pervert, how do you want to do this?"

"We Leave the kids somewhere safe, split into 2 teams, rotating training the brats, and searching for Naruto. It's best if we split you and I to keep 1 Sannin in the field, You know Kushina's habits better. I can start the kids off better and leave you a good start point for finer control. "

Ino, being the loudest of the kids, "SO let me get this straight, The Kyuubi is alive, The 4th's son is our age out here alone and is the jailer, Our parents sent us away to find him. And we may never go home? Who was the idiot that set this up?"

Pinching her nose, Tsunade growled, "If you had LISTENED little girl, all of the original players are dead, so don't piss me off. "

Looking at Jiraiya, "So Itachi trained him? How good is the Brat?"

"He's estimated at mid Chunnin in Normal skills, but he's had over a year and a ½ with Kushina's stuff, plus it's thought he cleaned out Minato's house, either he did or Kushina did, either way he has access to several S-class Jutsu. Kage level Chakra supply and the Kyuubi. Anything short of a full squad of ANBU will be in trouble against him; we have time to find him the right way. We'll find someplace to get them settled, and work out the plans better, In the meantime, I've already got toads working in concentric circles."

Paying the tab, the rag-tag group, the total legacy of generations of shinobi who fought for peace, made their way to find a large house, sort out the sure to come tears when the kids got their scrolls explaining their families wishes, and get back in shape. That alone would take several weeks of work.

Ame, Fire, Cloud Border.

Madara had called Pain to the border for a rushed meeting. Itachi was prompted to retell his information, Under intense scrutiny of both the Rinnengan and the Sharingan. Several Moments after the conclusion, Pain spoke disappointedly.

"The gods, the Elder gods have gotten involved, most disturbing. Do they not want peace? We need to know what the seal said and what it says know, My paths are researching and the only documentation on Elder god intervention is that only the one whom was intervened for knows everything. The 4th's son may not know now, but someday he will when he and the Kyuubi meet. If we can't get the Kyuubi, we must at least know why the gods intervened."

"I Concur, my student has an interesting theory. One that goes against conventional thought of our plans. Certainly, the actions of Konoha in the last weeks of Itachi's presence there justify his thoughts."

Looking sharply at Itachi, Pain waved his hand in a hurry up and tell me wave.

"How should I start, better yet, I should start at the beginning of Naruto's Life. Born of parents of royalty, One of whom valued family over all, His mother would go rogue in an instant to protect the family. What value does that represent? Love. The parent who valued his village, dies for it. The parent who dies for love, enables her child to grow and be safe with guidance. What do you want the Bijuu for? To eventually kill people who would also die for love, protecting their families. Thus the gods stopped the Kyuubi from ever being available. Certainly capturing the other Bijuu hosts is practical, just to make sure they cannot do the same. We all know the other hosts weren't created for love, nor trained because of it. Perhaps we can gain some favor in our goals if we can extract the Bijuu without killing them. We can't be for sure until the original seal is deciphered and I can talk to Naruto again. I felt what I believe was the presence of the Shinigami in the seal.

Naruto himself is a interesting boy, He learned at an unnatural rate even for kage bunshin training. He's deeply intuitive, has a great interest in moral inplications of Shinobi. He hates shinobi, but trains and learns to be stronger, faster, smarter than the best Kages. This yields another interesting question, Is he the changing point, His attitudes coincide with ours, the end of the age of shinobi. I didn't teach him that, he came up with that on his own."

Madara poked up at this point, "One way or another, we have to at least talk to him, and examine the seal. If we do it peacefully, he might co-operate more. We have a lot of work to do. We should find the other Bijuu for now. Continue to gather funds. Pain, we may need to consider changing how your troops are trained, Take a percentage of the Bounty funds and start making them more professional. Itachi, go with him, Team up with Kisame. If you find Naruto, approach him peacefully and continue training him. Relay all information back to adjust our plans, He may end up the 10th member of the Akatsuki replacing Orichimaru. Send Kakuza and Hidan out, we need every bounty we can get, Focus on current leaf shinobi, The rogues of the leaf embarrass them. I will research my old home of the Mist, then Iwa."

With that Madara pulled Itachi aside, "Go, Zetsu will relay my orders. Pain's are to be ignored."

With that the leaders of Akatsuki split. None of them would find Naruto until he found the pair of Itachi and Kisame many years later. They would start their collections by the time Naruto was 14, thus revealing their presence to the world. By that Time, Ame would have trained a force that was well-trained, well-rested and well-known. Participating in Several Chunnin and Jounin exams, while selective integrating Missing-nin whom adapted into their forces well. They would be the Top non-major five force in the elemental countries in 7 years, add the Akatsuki to that force, they could tackle a major power and expect to win.

3 months later:

Wave, the Konoha refugee group had negotiated a mutual defense agreement with the mayor of the only town left standing in Wave after the 2nd Shinobi war. The group would defend the Island, Jiraiya would take a couple of months to provide Security, Detection and Defense seals allowing them to build a bridge to the mainland, Several years earlier than planned. The islanders in turn, would pay a reasonable monthly fee, provide a private training area, and respect the privacy of their hired defenders.

With that set, the ANBU, Sannin and the others would divide into pairs on a rotational basis.

Tsunade, with Kurenai

Shizune with Cat, revealed to be Yugao Izuki

Kakashi with Chouji

Hana With Gecko Hayate , the now revealed partner of Cat

Anko with Ino

Tenzo with Shikamaru

And Jiraiya by himself.

Tsunade's pair would leave first, Shizune's 4th, that way a skilled medic was always in Wave.

The Inuzuka dogs would be split in groups of 3, With one with the away group at all times to track if needed.

As the letters and orders had requested, all Konoha Symbols were removed from clothing and weapons.

Author's Note:

A little bit shorter chapter, But I didn't think the average reader needed filler. This chapter Details the course the 2 renegade groups of the Shinobi world charted until the real action starts. Next Chapter answers what Naruto did during the Off Seasons. Mostly a filler chapter until Itachi, Kisame meets Naruto's little band of brothers and a poker game breaks out.