Author's note~~~~~~

Yeah, I'm back. Sorry for the late update, the lack of reviews put me into a depression of sorts T_T. I also realize that people may think I'm skipping out of some parts of the manga but it all serves for a special purpose or I just didn't feel like adding something everyone should know. Please review, PRETTY PLEASE AND ASK ANY QUESTIONS YOU HAVE! The

Chapter three: Confrontations~~~~

All was quiet, even the normally loud and lively forest was silent. Naruto and the traveling pack had stopped when they were near the exit at the Land of Fire's border. Naruto had signaled them to stop without any sense of rhyme or reason other then a "feeling he had".

Four operatives of the ANBU unit had suddenly jumped in front of them, the apparent captain stepped in front. The unemotional porcelain mask of the ram was humorously creepy.

"Lord Hokage, we have found twenty or so ninjas from the land of demons, they should be wiped out though. Please follow me." The ANBU said, her voice filled with confidence and quiet urgency.

Naruto signaled her to move and they departed west and made it to a clearing a few ninja-seconds away. When they departed from the trees, they could see a bunch of tied up ninja with oddly intricate masks that slightly resemble those of Konoha's ANBU.

"WE WILL KILL DANZO AND ANYONE WHO TRIES TO STOP US! YOUR RETCHED HOKAGE WILL PERISH AND SO WILL ALL HIS ROOTS!" one of them said, looking fiercely into the eyes of Naruto, daring Naruto to challenge him.

"Untie them and get them to Konoha!" Naruto said, his voice turned serious and seemed to be scheming something. Within a blink of an eye, the demon ninja were untied, all of them confused.

"You have been wronged by Danzo, but a lot of other people have too. You have probably come to the assumption that all of Konoha is evil but that is far from the truth. I will give you asylum in the village, only if you wish for it though. Do not worry about Danzo, he will be getting his fair share of trouble." Naruto said, his voice filled with certainty and disdain.

The group of renegade ninjas were confused, this little kid was the temporary Hokage? He was actually not killing them? The group was quiet, they were all discussing the options. One person stepped up and asked "How do we know this isn't some sort of scheme?"

"If it was, you'd be dead." Shizune responded, her voice was neutral, totally unlike her usual hasty, cheery voice. The renegade group went into a silent discussion once more. The Kumo group and Lee were just watching, they weren't well versed in discussions like these. One ninja from the group came up and nodded, signaling their agreement to the deal made by Naruto.

"Alright, move out!" the ANBU and the Demon Group left for their journey towards the leaf village. Once the groups were out of his sight, Naruto jumped up into the trees. The others followed him quietly, Lee finally succumbed to his curiosity and asked the question he'd meant to ask through out their journey.

"Lord Hokage! What exactly is this summit about?" Lee questioned.

"It's about Akatsuki, where the five great shinobi legions stand and about Jinchuuriki. The five Kages of their respective villages meet to discuss about them, at least that's what sis said it was about."" Naruto explained, he was slightly embarrassed because he had not known what the summit was until Shizune explained it. Naruto then took out a special edition BINGO book made for Kages. This book had explained only high a-ranked ninjas and above. He quickly found the first Kage he was searching for.

He started reading aloud the current Tsuchikage's bio.

"Onoki of Both Scales. Third Tsuchikage, over 80 years old. Onoki uses his own bloodline known as "dust release". Rank : s-class. He was said to have fought Madara Uchiha. Onoki has been Kage the longest. Onoki is said to be of short stature now-a-days but was easily identifiable for his tall frame during the second ninja war. He is highly skilled and still able bodied enough to crush most s-ranked ninjas. Next, lets see….. Gaara's profile.

Gaara of the Sand Waterfall. Fifth Kazekage, age 16, previous Jinchuuriki. Rank : s-class. Gaara is the second youngest shinobi to ever reach Kage rank, beaten by the third Hokage by one year. He is said to have ultimate control of sand and the ability to make sand. It is unknown as to whether it was his previous Bijuu or if it is a bloodline limit. If you see him in the desert, please run. Yup, that just about sums up Gaara. Next is… oh look , Kakashi sensei!" the silent companions of Naruto's started glancing around, they were curious as to why Kakashi was there.

Naruto noticed and said. "I meant in the book, sorry." The others felt a little foolish for looking around. Lee was thinking about extreme exercises to make up for his un-youthful foolishness.

"So… Kakashi of the Sharingan, son of Sakumo Hatake, the white fang. Affiliation : Konoha. Known for copying over 1000 jutsu, age 28, if over ANBU level, engage target with squad. Has gray hair and a leaf-protector over his left eye…." Naruto then began reading silently. Well, he seemed like he was reading silently, he was actually thinking deeply about the secret confrontation he had with Hinata since he had already read about the rest of the Kages a while ago, other than the Mizukage(which he couldn't find)…

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Flashback~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the Hokage monument~~

"Hinata…. During the pain arc, you said that you… loved.. me." Naruto said, trying to still comprehend the words that she herself spoke.

Hinata was fiddling with her to pointer fingers, an old nervous tick that chose to reappear now. She quickly gathered her wits and straightened her posture.

"Yes, I did and I m-meant it-t." she said, her stutter was impossible to stop. Naruto moved closer, quickly closing the gap between each other. He stared into her eyes and sighed.

"I'm not sure what to say. I still have feelings for Sakura and I don't really know how a relationship between us would work, your father wouldn't approve. Give me some time to think about it. I'll be back in a few days, when I get back we will discuss more about this. Sorry, I got to go now with the summit and all." Naruto said, quickly dashing away and not letting Hinata reply.

"We're leaving to meet the Raikage now." Samui said. Naruto nodded and the other group left leaving just Naruto, Shizune and Lee.

"Lord Hokage! I see that we have reached iron country! MAY WE SPEED UP WITH THE POWER OF YOUTH!" Lee ask/shouted. His statement was correct as the group dashed past heavy snow and looked towards a mountain with the form of three wolves heads' spreading out.

"Yeah, lets go at…. Jounin speed now, we'll make it to the meeting place in… 20 minutes." Naruto responded, he left some shadow clones at the library to research general things he needed help in, one of them being the map of the whole world.

As he had said, in 20 minutes, the whole group saw the entrance to the meeting room. At the entrance was someone Naruto was hoping he wouldn't meet till the neutral-ground entrance room, it was….. Onoki of both scales.

He quietly signaled to his two guards to become quiet and follow him. They all started walking stoically towards the doors. Onoki quickly took notice to them, he then turned around in his oversized Kage robes and nodded at Naruto, he responded by nodding underneath his hat, trying to look inconspicuous and unrecognizable. Naruto then entered through and immediately saw an oddly u-shaped table, with 5 seats, and a separate table with it's own seat. He went to the Kage seats while Lee and Shizune moved towards the seats behind the big curtain with the kanji for leaf(don't know).

He himself sat at the seat in front of the leaf insignia which was at the curved tip of the table. He himself sat beside Gaara, who had not recognized him yet, and, would you have guessed, Onoki. He looked around even more and recognized E, the buff Raikage, and stopped on… the Mizukage he had not seen in the BINGO book. She must be pretty powerful to have won the Civil War of bloodlines against non-bloodlines. The mediator started speaking, he was the samurai leader, these iron country samurai are extremely powerful as well. Their high commissioners are as powerful as his Jounin and the Commander is as powerful as an s-rank ninja.

"Now place your hats on the table. You are here today because the Raikage has called this meeting." The mediator said. Naruto took off his hat, everyone else in the room stared at him other than Lee and his sister. While everyone was staring at him, he was staring at the Mizukage, a lovely young women who was eyeing him up. He heard Gaara mutter in his scratchy voice "hmm, guess we both made it ehh?" Naruto smiled in response while the mediator continued.

"My name is Mifune and I will be your moderator. This meeting will now begin." Mifune said.

"I will go first so please be quiet," Gaara said, the Old Tsuchikage interrupted him before he could continue.

"The Kages' makeup sure has changed, both you and the Hokage must be very special to be able to make Kage at your young ages. Your father must have taught you right, but apparently he forgot to instill manner." Onoki said, he said "Hokage" in such a venomous way.

"Guess that's why we're here then." Gaara replied, Naruto whispered "ooh snap!" at that, every one seemed to ignore that.

"Tsuchikage, please stop interrupting. Kazekage, please continue." The Mizukage said, Naruto then felt the need to say "ooh snap" once again but restrained himself.

"I'm a former host and Akatsuki captured me and nearly killed me. That's why I believe Akatsuki is so dangerous. I requested help multiple times but only the former Hokage responded. Yet it's too late now." Gaara continued, he just had to mention Granny, now he started feeling sad but he kept a stony face.

"If a country loses their host like that, it has no business giving others orders! It's an embarrassment! You should have tried recovering it in secret, once it's stolen, you can't expect other countries to help you!" Onoki said, Naruto was starting to get pissed off by the way they talk about his fellow Jinchuuriki!

"Appearance…. Honor, I don't have time for that ridiculous old-timer thinking." Gaara said, now he just couldn't restrain himself from shouting!

"Ooh snap!" , oops, Naruto was in trouble now. Never mind, everyone just seemed to be ignoring him, humph!

"It doesn't mean we have to be afraid of them just because the beasts were stolen, it takes time and skill to control the bijuu." The Mizukage said, she was pretty smart.

"The hosts must grow with the beasts in order to adapt to them. Even then, the control is hard to measure," Onoki said, the old man has good points too.

"The only ones who have been able to control the beasts were the first Hokage, Madara Uchiha, maybe the 4th Mizukage, and Killer-bee, the Raikage's brother." Onoki said, wow, who knew Konoha had ancestors that could control the beast?

"But" the Raikage started, SHIT! The Raikage was going to lose his cool, Naruto laid relaxed though since he knew that the Raikage wouldn't be able to do anything too dangerous. Raikage destroyed the desk and all the guards came out in protection mode while the Raikage's guards stood in front of him.

"Please refrain from such signs of rudeness." Mifune said, his voice now held a cold, commanding tone to it.

"Sis, Lee, stand down guys. Thanks though." Naruto said, that quickly signaled for the other Kages to make their guards go back. Once all the guards were back to their seats behind the curtains that were behind their leaders, the Raikage started speaking.

"KONOHA! IWA! SUNA! KIRI! AKATSUKI IS MADE UP OF ROUGUES FROM YOUR VILLAGES! And that's not all, I know there are those among you, including former Kages that have used Akatsuki for their own purposes!" The Raikage stated loudly.

"Used Akatsuki!" Naruto said, his voice filled with shock and outrage.

"I don't trust you! I had no intentions of speaking with any of you! I called you all here to find out where your loyalties lay!" Raikage shouted.

"USED AKATSUKI! How dare you state such a thing, maybe some traitorous council members might have but that's it! All Akatsuki is, is a danger to the whole world, they have only brought bad things to my village!" Naruto said, his voice filled with outrage and his stature became rigid, as if the mere thought sickened him.

"with the relative peace of the ninja world, the great five villages are going into disbarment. Since tensions are easing. The threat of war gets smaller and there is less of a drain on a country's resources. But that is risky because if war breaks out, the country wouldn't be ready and they would only have untested ninjas in the heat of battle." Onoki contributed.

"So one way of dealing with that is by using mercenary forces…. like Akatsuki?" Gaara said, his voice held a tone of curiosity and dread.

Onoki then started talking about the reasons for using Akatsuki but the Raikage silenced him and started speaking about the Suna-Oto invasion during the chunin exams. How grandpa and Gaara's evil dad died during that and how it might have been someone's plot.

He then started talking about how Kiri was the most suspicious since they have no big diplomacy and about how Akatsuki was said to be created there. Then Onoki started arguing back about how Kumo was the reason the other countries used Akatsuki in the first place, it was all a blame game.

"SHUT-UP! There, we can't keep pointing fingers like little children! Every major village has at least once used Akatsuki and that means it's partially ALL our faults. Humph! I also have major news about Akatsuki, I am fully certain that the leader of the group is secretly…. Madara Uchiha!" that got shocked reactions from every body, guess they've all heard of him, other than Onoki who's actually met him.

"Yes, my source is extremely legitimate so there is no doubt in my mind." Naruto finished. Mifune spoke up quickly after I finished speaking, he started speaking about creating a five-village alliance, a plan that could be either very successful or very disastrous.

"…So the question is who will have authority over the new army?" Onoki asked. Everyone grew quiet after that, but Mifune said that he'd decide since he's the only neutral group in the meeting.

"The only host left is Konoha's nine-tailed beast… That is the Hokage himself. I think it will be the key to all of this… What do you say, will you allow the Hokage to lead the alliance?" Naruto was both shocked and honored, he also understood that it was not a very good idea. He knew that the Raikage, Mizukage, and Gaara would agree but he also knew that it was too much of a burden.

"I would like to come up with a better situation, what I want is a world of peace and I am smart enough to understand that my little experience at leading such a huge number of shinobi would hinder my dream for the future, not help it." Naruto said, his voice filled with such dedication but no other Kage would have done the same, everyone was staring at him incredulously.

Mifune didn't like that very much and started logically picking away as to how that was both illogical and a bad idea

"How about this, Mifune. There will be a council of Kages, where we all come to decide but I will be the one who has the final say. We all don't necessarily have to be there, because of the hologram jutsu. There will also be some major rules that will make sure that while the alliance unifies all shinobi, the villages themselves will be able to keep their own secrets of their past, but nothing that will harm the alliance obviously. There will be more rules and regulations set up but that will be finalized if the other Kages agree. " Naruto explained, Mifune then nodded and asked for everyone's consent. The only one who didn't really seem to agree was Onoki, who felt that the young Namikaze was just too suspicious in his decision. He soon buckled after the Raikage asked him kindly for his experience and help, even the stone cold Tsuchikage wanted a good future for his precious grandchildren.

The Kages were soon to resume more of the important business when a human with sickly white skin appeared from the ground in a form of a grotesque flower, it's face was twisted at the left, missing his right side, like a quarter of his body was.

"Sasuke Uchiha is in this room…. The question is where?" It asked, the demented grin it gave was reminiscent to that of a monster from a child's nightmare. After that.… thing said that, everyone heard a soft "huff" from a shadowed balcony, which Naruto suspected was Sasuke. Naruto quickly jumped out of his seat and crushed the white body with a kick, it's grotesque face scrunched up in pain and surprise.

"What!" A said, surprise showed in his voice as all the guards exited from behind the curtains and stood by their leaders.

"What's Sasuke doing here?" Kankuro said with a hint of hostility, at the same time; the Tsuchikage's guards asked who Sasuke was and the Mizukage's guards talked about how Sasuke defeated Zabuza and Haku.

"Where is Sasuke Uchiha? Tell me now or else you will perish." Naruto said, his earlier amusement was gone.

"I'll give you a hint." The monster said, Naruto didn't feel like dealing with teasing hints that'd waste time and quickly threw the white thing to lee. Lee understood what to do and sent a devastating hammer kick into the monster, killing it effectively.

"There's no need to kill him, we might have been able to gather information." The Mizukage said, Gaara quickly rebutted her statement.

The Raikage looked ready to search and destroy, his eyes lit up with passion, something that looked ominously similar to Guy's and Lee's eyes when lit up with their fire of youth.

The moderator told his samurai underlings to search the whole place. A crushed the wall and ran towards where Sasuke fled, one of his guards quickly apologized and gave chase with A's other guard. The Tsuchikage was quietly reprimanding A, even though the small smile on his face showed amusement. They heard the scurrying of feet, a run as to where Sasuke was.

Naruto quickly summoned two shadow clones, both clones started gathering nature chakra.

"Shizune, please watch my clones, one of them will signal you when they're done." Shizune quickly nodded, she then stood beside the clones and quickly summoned a slug the size of a fist.

"Naruto, please be careful and hold onto Namekujikea, I'm not as proficient at slug-conversion healing like Lady Tsunade but I can do it well to one person." Shizune said as she handed Naruto the small blue striped slug. Naruto said a silent thank-you and put the slug on his cloak as he shed his Kage robes, which he handed over to a clone who out it into his storage scroll on his back. Naruto looked over to the three remaining Kage.

"Gaara, lets go. Lee come as well but from another side of the hall and check to see if Sasuke's group is separated. If I know Sasuke, he has a medical ninja with him and a sensor, they will be your targets. I'm counting on you!" Naruto said, getting serious, ready to see if Sasuke has changed too much.

"Temari, assist Lee." Gaara said as Naruto left through the hole A created with Gaara and Kankuro quickly following him.

As they were running through the halls, the heard crashes and sound of wind being displaced.

"I'll teach you to fear my anger!" said a voice that was annoyingly familiar, the Raikage saw Sasuke. As Naruto entered the clearing, he looked over the whole landscape and found many dead bodies with….. Sasuke Uchiha in the center, a clear look of absolute rage in his eyes.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't Naruto, Konoha must be very desperate to have made you the Hokage….dobe.." Sasuke said, his face held satisfaction at the silent rage bubbling inside of Naruto.