Sasuke awoke and appeared to be flying above the Uchiha district, he could feel his body moving without his guidance and je was unable to assert control over his movement. He was falling from an immense height, when he was just fifty feet from the ground he heard an explosion. Taking this as some sort of subconscious cue he focused chakra to his eyes to activate his Sharingan, and to his legs to try and stick himself to the wall of the building below him before he hit the ground. His chakra flared and the whole world seemed to be cast into slow motion. Now just forty feet from the ground he felt as if he was falling at a feather's pace. WIth his enhanced senses and lack of feeling of urgency he scanned the horizon, he saw hundreds of blue human shaped blobs throughout the district and dozens of large chakra clouds that he somehow intuitively identified as from explosive tags. The Uchiha Military Police were apparently out in full force rushing towards each and every explosion site. When he finally thought to look back down he was already attaching himself to the building's wall with his feet, with a practiced ease. When his chakra settled and his footing was sure he quickly performed a basic camouflage technique. He then closed his eyes and slowed his breathing. He waited nearly five minutes before he heard the village alarm that signifies the village's being under attack. At this sound he opened his eyes and released his chakra, allowing himself to fall to the ground. He shifted into a run and headed for the main family's compound, his home. Standing at the entrance was his father. Fugaku gave a condescending glare to his son. When he landed the Uchiha heir bowed to his elder and was promptly slapped in the face.

"Your lateness shames us all. As my son I expect much better of you." At that moment Fugaku went into motion, throwing a pair of shuriken and killing two hidden assailers. Turning towards the house proper he said. "Come, we must ensure that the others are safe."

They made their way inside. Fugaku swiftly led him to the sealed antechamber where he had hidden away his wife. As they made their way to the end of the hall Fugau reached to open the door. The clan head found he could not move to finish his motion. When he looked at his hand he noticed a long katana blade protruding from his chest. He fell to the ground without even the thud a falling body is expected to make.

Sasuke could not help but think, What have I done? Even while fighting with his entire being to try and save his dying father he felt his hands flowing through hand seals. After a short moment he heard a puff, likely from the small cloud of smoke that appeared in front of him indicating a summoning.

"Well done Sigma. Our lord will be pleased." Sasuke watched as some Hyuuga sealed the body of the head of the Uchiha clan away. Seeing the task completed Sasuke spoke.

"Otori, Seizan, and that child are the only ones remaining to be acquired." Sasuke could feel his lips moving and his vocal cords vibrating out this message, yet the sound of the voice was not his own. Even so the sound was unbelievably familiar to his ears.

"Byakugan!" The Hyuuga's veins bulged for a moment then receded. "Otori and Seizan are both fighting by the daycare." The Hyuuga moved to open the door that ended the small hallway.
"Leave him." once again Sasuke found himself speaking in another's voice.

"Getting sentimental now of all times?" The Hyuuga's normally stoic face had a look of incredulity.

"He will not be going anywhere, and if those fools get themselves killed before we get there we may lose our chance to preserve their bodies." At this the Hyuuga's expression became stoic once more as he replied with a nod in assent to the other man's point. Sasuke felt himself turn to leave when his wrist was grabbed roughly by the Hyuuga.

"Hold on." The Uchiha's head turned to look at the white eyed man who just spoke. As he turned he noticed the flow of chakra in the white eyed man's hands. "Kage bunshin, this way we can get them both at the same time." The Uchiha nodded while flying through the hand seals for the clone technique. With a soft pop there was an exact clone of the male Uchiha. Turning to look at his creation he saw something that turned his blood cold. The clone was that of Itachi Uchiha.

Sasuke continued to live out the day of the attack on Konoha, he felt every muscle in the body of Itachi as the elder brother slew his clan members left and right. He felt his adrenaline boil in his blood as he fought a losing battle against the God of Ninja, the third Hokage. He knew the exact chakra manipulations of techniques he had never seen. He murdered more civilians than he had ever actually met in person. Finally after a two hour game of cat and mouse with the leader of the hidden leaf village he was finally captured.

It was the sound of Sasuke's own voice that woke him from the detachment to his own five senses. He listened to his own voice speaking to him. For the first time since he fell from the sky he felt his body do as he wanted it to. His chakra flared, his eyes burned, thick viscous tears streamed down his face, and then only blackness.

Sasuke awoke from the blackness to the feeling of falling from the sky...


The aged Hokage puffed his pipe to calm himself, then looked at Tsunade with a wry smile. "I suppose when I win I'll have that young boy there be your first patient." The wizened ninja pointed to the unconscious boy. Tsunade glared at her teacher, he was well aware that she had long desired to get to work on the Sharingan in order to see how it worked. She smiled and then retorted.

"When I win I suppose I'll look at the kid in exchange for a nice sum to gamble with after I leave here."

Without discarding and cards to draw again Tsunade flipped over her hand of cards that she hadn't even looked at. Face up on the table in front of her were the six of clubs, six of spades, nine of hearts, three of diamonds and nine of diamonds. Tsunade stared at her cards flabbergasted. The Hokage flipped his own hand face up on the table, ten, jack, queen, king, and ace all of spades. The female Sannin glared daggers at her teacher.

"You cheated!" The ex-medic's hands slammed the table with an audible groan from the wood. The Hokage calmly took another puff of his pipe and responded.

"You are the one who stacked the deck for me, though I may have helped you do it. For a student of mine you really show know better than to close your eyes to focus on your chakra, it makes it much easier for you to get snared in an illusion." Tsunade's eyes widened at the revelation as to how she lost, she promptly smashed the already injured table with her fist, then went over to the fallen Uchiha. A blue glow surrounded her hands as she waved them over the unconscious boy. At this the young demon container finally piped up.

"I don't mean to question my leader old man, but who is this lady?" Sarutobi smiled at the young boy as he responded.

"That lady you are referring to is one of my old students. The Slug Sannin Tsunade. Naruto's eyes dulled as he accessed the information that had been drilled into his head by the old leader of the Uchiha.

"Tsunade Senju, granddaughter of the Shodai Hokage. Former teammate of Jiraiya and Orochimaru. Known as the greatest medical ninja to have ever lived. Purported to have left the village after the death of her brother and fiance." Naruto wasn't even actively thinking as he rattled off the information. After stating the last part, however, he regained lucidity. "If she left the village then why is she here?"

"An old man ordered her to come back and help a hurting patient." Sarutobi then looked at Naruto soberly. The blonde looked at the strange expression on his elder's face. It took the boy a moment before he connected the dots.

"The patient is the village, and you are obviously an old man, but that doesn't explain why you were here plating poker just now rather than having her at the hospital."
The hokage was just about to reply when the subject of the conversation interrupted them. "I foolishly agreed to come back on a more permanent basis if he managed to beat me at a hand of poker... I guess they don't call me the legendary sucker for nothing." If the statement was intended to make the situation even less clear to the younger blonde then Naruto believed she had certainly succeeded. While he was still trying to figure out what she meant, she abruptly stood up and announced in a professional tone. "Kid here." at this the slug summoner pointed at Sasuke. "Must be under some sort of genjutsu. His is physically fine, but his chakra pathways are completely messed with, and saturated with some foreign chakra. Never met an illusionist who could continue an illusion on an unconscious person before." At this she looked at Naruto. "You do this to him?" Naruto's face went sour.

"No. We were..." He cut himself off with a pause, then turned to face the Hokage. "Old man, sorry about this. As a representative of the Uchiha, who is privy to clan secrets I must reject this line of questioning as a matter of clan security." For the first time, to Naruto's memory, the Hokage's face went from a lackadaisical old man, to the stony expression of the leader of a great nation.

"With the rest of the clan dead..." The Hokage's face was solemn at this statement. His expression immediately went back to that of a leader as he nodded to Sasuke's prone form "... or incapacitated, who has the authority to decide who is allowed to hear such information?" The Hokage finished with his piece Naruto pondered for a minute before responding.

"Uchiha Sasuke, or his surrogate... I see what you're getting at, I suppose that as his confidant I would count... Nonetheless it would be a breach of clan law to give you that information Hokage-sama." It pained Sarutobi to hear the bubbly young boy to refer to him in such a formal manner.

"Who in your opinion would be suitable to talk to?" The Hokage finally asked.

"Anyone who is not under your direct authority... and who is of sufficient standing in the clan..." The Hokage brought his hand to his face in exasperation. Sometimes he really hated the fact that the young blonde was as good of a sponge for details as the boy's father was. The Hokage sat back in his chair behind the pile of rubble that was once a desk. "Hokage-sama, with the clan in the shape it is in, and with my being the only one able to make the decision, I hate to have to do this... But the only people I can think of with such standing are all active ninja. I believe the only way to go any further would be to convince one of the ninja who is qualified to step down from their ninja duties in order to serve as a retainer for the clan..."

Sarutobi sighed at this. While whoever was selected would technically be able to serve and to carry out missions as a shinobi, Sarutobi would need to get permission from the Uchiha clan before he could send the retainer on any mission. Due to the weak state of the village he couldn't afford to allow any of his higher ranked shinobi to be put under such scrutiny. He also knew that Naruto would not settle for anything he thought Fugaku himself wouldn't have. The old ninja just knew that this boy's admirable qualities, such as respect for the opinions and commands of the now deceased Uchiha leader, and for the traditions of the clan who took him in, would cause him even more trouble down the line. Sarutobi took a few more puffs on his pipe before continuing.

"I think all I can do is have you name people you consider qualified until we find one we can both agree on." At this the blonde sat down and stared at Sasuke's unconscious form. He knew that whoever he chose would be responsible for guarding clan secrets, in respect to Fugaku, a man he viewed as a surrogate father, he couldn't afford to waste this opportunity either. It was very rare that circumstances allowed for a clan to essentially hand pick an elite ninja to have as their surrogate. Usually there are at least a handful of obvious candidates outside of the ninja population, but seeing as how there was just a massive attack, and any personal connections with now deceased clan members would be impossible to verify it meant he could get a much better person under the clan than would normally be available. Fugaku would likely never forgive the young boy in the afterlife if he squandered such an opportunity. Naruto immediately went through the greatest of the greats in his head, the lead ninja of great renown.

"Hatake Kakashi, he already has a Sharingan, and his teammate was an Uchiha."

"Rejected, he is too valuable, and I know for a fact he would never agree anyway." Naruto was startled at the fact the old man had responded so quickly and easily. Despite the dire circumstances from Sasuke's condition Naruto smiled. It was rare that he found someone this decisive and thoughtful. He knew his only chance of getting someone who even the dead clan head would approve of. His best bet would be to go with even more unreasonable requests to throw the Hokage off, then request someone who while also unreasonable would appear to be much less so.

"Hyuuga Hiashi, as a clan leader he would obviously be suitable." The Hokage was just as fast at responding as he was at the suggestion for Kakashi.

"Rejected, even if he might accept, which I can assure you he would not, it would be an unprecedented violation of clan sovereignty to even ask him."

"Anko Mitarashi." Naruto let it hang on its own and he could practically see the gears turning in the Hokage's head. After half a minute the response finally came.

"Explain." This response caused Naruto to smile in an almost malicious manner.

"While she was only recently re-assimilated as a leaf ninja she was the prodigal apprentice of Orochimaru, who was known for his desire to acquire the SHaringan, as well as conducting all manner of experiments. It is likely that she already knows much that could be used to help us defend the Sharingan from falling into enemy hands." After his answer Naruto noticed the visibly relax, as if he was worried about the reason why Anko was selected.

"Rejected, she is my only non-anbu willing to do assassinations at the moment." Naruto was about to retort with his next candidate when Tsunade put her hand on the boy's shoulder. Grinning like a devil she looked at the younger blonde and stared into his eyes. She saw a determination in him she had only seen a handful of times. She spun to face the Hokage who after seeing her reaction was now grinning back at her.

"Sensei, I'll do it." Naruto was taken aback by this interjection.

"Well Naruto? She is of Senju blood, was my student, and is a legend through and through." Naruto was still beside himself. He named two jonin and a special jonin and had them all rejected outright, but he somehow managed to get Tsunade Senju, on of the Sannin? Something was going on here.

"What is the catch?" The Hokage's grin went wider.

"Oh no, no catch. But if she isn't going to be serving as a leaf ninja anymore, in order to become a surrogate for the Uchiha, then I am going to need to ask that the Uchiha clan retire my student's gambling debts." Naruto's face twisted in consternation, it seemed too easy.

"That's it?" He turned to Tsunade "Tsunade, if this lets you get this guy." At this he pointed to Sasuke. "Back on his feet, we can give you a budget for gambling in addition to clearing the debt. Having a Sannin as the official Uchiha medic has quite a nice ring to it. I think even Fugaku couldn't disagree." Naruto's smile waned when he saw the grins on the older ninja's faces.

"Tsunade why don't you take Sasuke to the hospital while Naruto and I get this in writing." Without saying a word the slug princess unceremoniously picked up the sleeping Uchiha with one hand and leaped out the window.

Nearly half an hour later nearly the whole village awoke to the sound of the wail let out by the village's jinchuuriki. He spent the night at the hospital staring at Sasuke, hoping that the boy's father would forgive him for the large chunk of the clan's fortune that was now gone.