Sorry about how long this took, and I'm sorry if it's not up to my normal quality, but I've been doing alot of things lately. I'm not abandoning anything, even if it took a month to work out this crappy chapter, but I will not leave it to dust. I'm also not leaving anything else to rot away, so don't worry about any of my stories.

The way I'm gonna be working from now on is that whatever story is at the bottom of my updates list, which means whichever is at the bottom of my page's list, will be updated first and then it'll all cycle from there. That way I can give equal attention to each story, but it might take longer to write some chapters than others. Just wait for me, and I romise you won't have to wait forever. Close... but not forever.

Warning: Since this is a battle, there will be no omakes until afterward. The omkae are only for in-between action and cannon. Don't worry though, because they'll always in the filler and other places, so they'll be plenty of time for them later.

Well then, enough of this crap! On with the show!

Chapter 15: Got No Strings on Me

"So, did you guys here? Konoha has a new Hokage, and get this; it's Minato and Kushina's kid; Naruto."

A turned around from his seat in the bar like everyone else as they listened to the Head Cloud Jonin as he brought news from the Council. It had only been a few months since the death of his father, the Third Raikage. Everyone had assured him that the title of Fourth Raikage would be his no matter how long the Shinobi Council deliberated on the matter. He, like everyone else in the bar, was in a state of shock.

They had all known the Yellow Flash had a child, no matter how long Konoha had tried to hide the fact. They had seen the boy during the Chunin Exams, and the Feudal Lords and clients had spread the word of the last Uzumaki boy. It wasn't very hard for the ninja to connect the boy with his late mother, Kushina Uzumaki. It you had ever heard anything about Kushina then you would know three things right away. One was that Kushina was not a woman to be messed with, unless you were suicidal. Two was that she harbored an intense love for Minato, and a burning hate for any woman trying to get her man. And lastly three, Kushina screamed at the top of her lungs that she and Minato were having a child. Truth be told, that was when everyone, living and dead, found out that she was the loudest woman in the history of the world.

Now when she ran from village to village telling everyone the wonderful news, in which Konoha ANBU and Minato had to stop her, they were all extremely worried. But then came the unexpected Kyuubi attack, and the death of both mother and father. The world had mourned, and yet, celebrated the death of both. Hey don't look at them like that! They were enemies of Konoha after all!

It wouldn't be for another twelve years that the world would hear from another Uzumaki. The tale of Naruto Uzumaki, Savior of Wave, had spread like wildfire throughout the ninja world. The villages had grown worried since they knew no orphan kid would just be named Uzumaki without a good reason. They had all done digging and found out that the boy was born on the very day his parents died, and that he was the Kyuubi Jinchuriki.

It would be a few months after the boy's saving of Wave that he'd reappear as gossip again for his supposed battle against Orochimaru in the middle of the Chunin Exams. Though they had all brushed that aside as gossip, they had gotten a rude awaking to the boy's growing power when he defeated Neji Hyuga, a supposed prodigy within the Hyuga clan, and later that same day Gaara of the Desert, the Jinchuriki of Shukaku.

They did more digging and found out that he was indeed the son of Minato and Kushina, so the village had grown wary of battling Konoha. It would be another two months when the rumor of the boy's defeating Orochimaru alongside the other two Sannin would surface. They had all taken that rumor more seriously since seeing the boy in the Chunin Exams, so now with the news of the kid becoming Hokage, they were shocked, but not surprised.

"So the brat really is just as powerful as his parents then? I wonder if those other rumors are true?" One of the Kumo ninja in the bar said as A only grunted a downed his sake.

"Well I hope not, it'd be tough dealing with a kid that had Kushina's Charka Chains and the Elemental Star abilities." Another ninja said as A stood up.

"The kid's nothing special! I'll crush him just like his dad if I ever get a hold on him!" A exclaimed as one of the nearby ninja scoffed.

"You couldn't even catch Minato, A-sama. What makes you think this kid isn't faster?" The ninja said as A turned to him.

"Because F, his father was a failure, and the kid will be too." A snapped as F sighed.

"Let it go, A. The kid's got nothing to do with that." F said solemnly as A glared at the man while the rest of the bar grew silent.

"The whole reason we pulled out of the Third War was because that bastard Minato was supposed to be the "Savior of the World"! But where is our savior now? Dead in a grave with his wife while his child is playing Kage! Jiraiya told us that Minato was supposed to be the "Child of Prophecy", but the only one I see is a dead one!" A shouted as the others in the bar lowered their heads, their spirits damped as A stomped out of bar.

"When the time comes, I'll test that brat myself. If he's our real savior, then he'll live to fight another day. We'll put our titles on the line, but if he's not our messiah, then as the Fourth Raikage, which by that time I will be, I'll crush him and Konoha, and become the light myself!" A exclaimed as he walked out, small smiles on the faces of the people inside the bar.

"A-sama is gonna test the kid, huh? We better hope he ain't dull then..." The ninja next to F said as F nodded with a smile of his own.

"Yeah, Darui, we better hope not…" F said as one pair of eyes locked on the two, writing down some lyrics that had just come to mind.

Konoha:

"How bothersome… I was hoping to avoid conflict since this was supposed to be a simple spy mission… Tell me, how did you discover me?" Sasori said in the gruff voice of his Hiruko puppet.

"You didn't even bother to conceal your charka signature. There are only three puppet users in the history of Konoha. Your charka, it's sharp and perfectly controlled to the point that I just couldn't help but take notice of it. It's perfect for medical techniques." Tsunade said as Hiruko's head nodded.

"Truth is that I have no talent for medical ninjutsu, so I didn't bother with anything more than the basics of it. I do however love learning about the human body. Let me show you." Sasori said as Hiruko's mouth opened, only to fire off a barrage of poison needles.

"Tsunade!" Jiraiya said as he flashed through hand signs. Tsunade had already jumped to his side as his hair came around them and hardened into a protective barrier.

"Hmph… well that didn't work…" Sasori said as he stopped firing, conserving needles for later in the fight.

Jiraiya opened his hair barrier as Tsunade shot forward, only to jump to the side to avoid getting poisoned by the kunai from Hiruko. She brought up her heel and let a quick kick to stop another one from stabbing her, making the kunai spin in the middle of the air. She spun around and kicked the kunai back at Hiruko as the tail from the puppet batted the kunai away.

"Do it!" Tsunade shouted as Sasori grew slightly confused.

"Huh?" Sasori said as he checked all around him, only to find Jiraiya coming down at him with a Rasengan in hand.

"Damn…" Sasori said as he moved his puppet's tail at high speed, catching Jiraiya in it's grasp only to throw him at Tsunade, who begrudgingly catch her teammate.

"Damn are you heavy, Jiraiya." Tsunade said as she dropped him to the ground.

"I resent that…" Jiraiya muttered as he got up, everyone back to where they started from.

"So before I die, how about a little art show?" Deidara said as he slowly rose to his feet. Naruto raised a brow as Yamato got into a stance.

"Art show?" Naruto asked as he fully unsheathed his blade.

"Yes, you see; I'm an artist. I travel the world showing everyone I encounter my special brand of art." Deidara said as he reached a hand into his pouch, only for his eyes to widen as Naruto's blade was at his throat. When had the kid moved.

"I find that hard to believe, but I'm curious. Show me this art of yours before I lop off your head." Naruto said as Deidara got out some clay.

"It's just clay, my dear Hokage-sama, sir. I told you; I'm an artist, not a fighter." Deidara said with a grin as Naruto backed up a bit but Yamato stayed on guard.

Deidara cupped his hands together and moved them around, shaping the clay. He uncapped his hands to show Naruto and Yamato a small clay butterfly as Naruto smiled lightly.

"That's very beautiful." Naruto said honestly as Deidara smiled back.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama. You're the second person to ever say something like that. Now watch this." Deidara said as he formed a hand sign. The small butterfly began to flap it's wings and take flight. It flew to Naruto and around his head a few times before it landed on his finger gently.

"My, my that's very impressive…" Naruto said, curious as to how Deidara had gotten the clay animal to move.

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Deidara said as the clay butterfly flew back to him. He cupped his hands together and the butterfly became bigger and more detailed as Naruto watched Deidara closely.

"A gift; from me, to you, Hokage-sama." Deidara said as the butterfly gently floated over to him. Right when it was in front his face it began to glow. Yamato's eyes widened as he moved to reach his Hokage, but he won't make it in time.

"Pretty…" Naruto said before the butterfly exploded in front his face.

"Hokage-sama!" Yamato shouted out as he saw the explosion take place.

"Art is an explosion." Deidara said with a grin as the young Kage was engulfed in the boom.

"This is getting tedious. We're not getting anywhere, and none of us are striking to kill, so why don't you just let me go?" Sasori drawled as Jiraiya grinned.

"So, who are you anyway?" Jiraiya asked, completely ignoring Sasori as Tsunade narrowed her eyes.

"Jiraiya, that's not his true appearance, it's puppet shell. You've already seen that it's got plenty of traps and functions, if even one of it's many weapons nicks your skin you'll die from the poison each of them have on them." Tsunade said as Sasori narrowed his eyes inside Hiruko.

"How did you find all of that out?" Sasori asked as Tsunade smirked at him.

"I saw the jaw contraption when you attacked us the first time. Then from there when you launched those kunai at us. When I had kicked the first I saw small amounts of poison come off of it and into the air. You're a puppeteer, so I made the assumption that you use poisons, and sense that scorpion tail came out just to stop Jiraiya I knew that wasn't your real body. You've shown me a lot in just this short time." Tsunade said as Sasori's eyes widened at her deduction.

Jiraiya simply regarded the stoic puppet warily after hearing that word he hated so much.

"Poison…" Jiraiya trailed off, feigning fright as he suddenly burst into action, releasing a volley of shuriken. Tsunade merely lifted her foot and impacted the ground, making a large amount of earth come up to which she kicked at Sasori's puppet.

Sasori's completely ignored the shuriken flying at him, merely shifting the position of his puppet so they hit armor rather than the joints. The puppet's tail shot out a great metallic tip moving with undue speed flashed in front him, destroying chunk of earth that was sent at him. It broke right through it and kept going. Jiraiya jumped in front of Tsunade and blocked the poison tip with his hand guards. Before Sasori could pull back Tsunade grabbed the tail and ripped it from the puppet. Sasori had heard many tales of Tsunade's strength, but for her to rip apart steel ball-bearings? That was monstrous!

Tsunade threw the tail away as Jiraiya picked her up and spun in place, throwing her lowly at Sasori, who was still in shock. He got over is shock as he saw her coming at him.

"Howe foolish… I can see through your ploy, Sannin." Sasori said as he launched a hail of poisoned needles toward Tsunade.

Tsunade spun in midair as the needles came at her, impacting her fist against the ground to send herself into higher air. Sasori didn't even bat an eyelash at the move as his needles continued toward Jiraiya, who was made to dodge them in a rather comical manner. Sasori, while Jiraiya was distracted, took the opening and sent his tail at Tsunade, who was midair and no way of dodging. The tail impaled her through the midsection as Jiraiya and her both showed great surprise at her even being touched. Before Sasori could do anything else, however, he felt the bottom of Hiruko begin to crack from some form of attack.

The giant puppet Hiruko jumped away just as a figure burst from the ground, their fist having already impacted the bottom of the large puppet. The puppet's under belly began to crack and fall out as Sasori ejected himself to the right side of the cave, shrouded in a black cloak. Tsunade landed next to Jiraiya, dirt-ridden and out of breath. Jiraiya grinned, but then he noticed something; Tsunade was cut… Tsunade was cut! He scanned the area, and saw that there was in fact a small needle near where Tsunade had burst from the ground.

"Tsunade…" Jiraiya said, building his charka as Tsunade nodded.

"I know, but there's nothing I can do about it right now…" Tsunade replied as Jiraiya shook his head.

"I can't do anything to him without you at my side, but there has to be something you can do about that." Jiraiya said as Tsunade clutched at her side where the cut was. IT was small, and if not for the poison racing through her then she would have healed it before she had even reached the ground again.

"Tell me, how did you do that?" Sasori said just as the remains of the Mud-clone fell to the ground near his Hiruko. The puppet itself disappeared in a show of smoke as Sasori sealed it away, wanting to make repairs and improvements for later.

"The moment my fist impacted the ground to shoot "me" in the air, you lost sight of me due to the uprooted earth. That was when I made the clone and started digging." Tsunade said as the cloaked Sasori nodded, seeing the genius of the plan.

Exactly what I'd expect from the Sannin, though I can still tell none of us are fighting at our full capabilities." Sasori said as he threw the black cloak away to reveal himself. Jiraiya and Tsunade gasped upon seeing his face, but then they both burst into laughter while Sasori's eyebrow twitched.

"Ha! It's just Old Lady Chiyo's grand-boy! I thought we had some reveal trouble like the Old Bat herself!" Tsunade laughed out as Jiraiya slapped his knee.

"I thought it was Old Man Homura's son! Oh boy, thank Kami it's just little Sasi-poo!" Jiraiya said as Sasori's face contoured into annoyance.

"What the hell's so funny? I'm more dangerous than either of those relics! Especially that decrepit old hag that calls herself my Grandmother! Both of them pale in comparison to my skill in the Puppet Arts!" Sasori yelled as neither two stopped laughing.

"Listen kid, you might wanna just give up now, because you are nowhere near old enough to stand a chance against both of us. You poisoned me, and it's damn hard using my charka to keep it from really effecting me, but I've got about twenty to thirty years on you in the use of poisons and cures. I did beat your Granny after all." Tsunade said with a mocking wink at the end as Sasori fumed.

"I don't care if you beat the Old Bat! I surpassed her years ago!" Sasori yelled out as he reached into his Akatsuki cloak and got out a scroll, "And I'll show you now!"

He unraveled the scroll to show the symbol for three on it and in a cloud of smoke, brought forth a big puppet that hovered in mid air right over his shoulders him. The puppet looked human like, besides the lines on his face that clearly made it a point that he was a puppet with the casual lines used to open and close a mouth. He was covered in rags, his arms had various incisions as if they could open.

While Tsunade and Jiraiya were slack-jawed and wide-eyed at the sight of his puppet, mainly because they knew who it was and what it meant for him to be in possession of it, Sasori thought over the remains of his Hiruko puppet and frowned. It wasn't completely destroyed, just the bottom of it. He didn't really think anyone would be crazy enough to go under a deadly weapon that only laid a foot or so off the ground, but then again she was a Sannin. Thankfully it wasn't damaged beyond repair. While human puppets parts were hard to come by because… he was the only one who could make them; that on top of they were incredibly hard to repair, even for him. Still he had reason to repair him, and make his pride and joy better. The Slug Princess had shown him that his battle strategy, and one of his favorite puppets, had a major weakness in them. When he got out of this battle and back to base, he was definitely going to add some defense attachments to the belly of Hiruko. He did know one thing though: you couldn't use such a strategy against this puppet.

Tsunade and Jiraiya both gaped at the released puppet for a moment before recovering their composure. Even they, two of the legendary Sannin, had to admit that killing a Kage, any Kage-level ninja, was a tough battle that no one would know the outcome of ahead of time. So for them to see this puppet and know who it was made from… well they knew that Sasori couldn't simply be captured for interrogation anymore. He had to die, because kidnapping, killing, and making a puppet out of a Kage-level ninja; especially the strongest Kazekage of all time, was not something they took lightly. The boy was on a whole another level than his Granny.

"The Third Kazekage, huh? Haven't seen that face in a long time, aye Tsunade?" Jiraiya said as he shook his head with a boyish grin. Tsunade chuckled beside him as she cracked her knuckles, knowing the real battle was to begin.

"No, Jiraiya, I haven't. It's been about twenty years seen the world in whole has last seen him, but here we are face to face with his stuffed corpse. So, human puppets, huh kid? That's…" Tsunade said as she lowered her head, but then brought it back up to give Sasori a hard glare, "despicable!"

"Say what you like, Lady Tsunade, but I find his now state a true work of art." Sasori said as he moved the puppet slightly so it rested on his shoulders like a trophy wife.

"Art? Kid, stuffing squirrels is one thing, but to do it to your own species is another. Though, I suppose as ninja it's not in the top ten of bad things. Hell, maybe not even in the top hundred." Jiraiya said as he shrugged his shoulders. Thinking it over, Tsunade shrugged as well because Jiraiya was right. The kid wasn't even a tenth as bad as their former teammate…

"I wish we didn't have to kill you here kid, because I'd love the chance to compare notes with you about that human puppet of yours." Tsunade said as she raked her hand through her hair with a sigh, "Now that I think about it, it's a pretty good thing; ninja-wise anyways."

"Thank you both, but that wouldn't stop me from killing you." Sasori said with a slight smirk, but that didn't last long when a giant toad landed atop him and his puppet.

"Wow, how the hell did he not see that coming?" Jiraiya said as Tsunade shrugged. The giant toad dispelled to reveal a black dome of sorts where Sasori and his puppet had been.

"Impossible, to have survived the weight of the Bringing Down the House Jutsu Toad? That one toad weighs more than a small village." Jiraiya said as the dome slowly broke apart to show a pissed off Sasori.

"Okay… now I'm mad…" Sasori said as he shrugged off his puppet and launched it at them. They were so dead now.

"Here it comes." Jiraiya said, getting into a battle stance.

"I can see it." Tsunade said, getting into her own.

Sakura watched as the battle between the Sannin of Konoha and Sasori of the Red Sand. She knew of him from the Konoha criminal history class at the Academy. Apparently Sasori was a rather skilled puppeteer, but he felt like Suna was holding him back. He was said to be very skilled, and now she was seeing him fight against the last two loyal Sannin. Even though she knew they could win, she wasn't sure how long it would be before that poison effected Lady Tsunade. Even now as she hid in the bush at the edge of the water, she could tell from the way Tsunade was dodging the puppet that the woman was trying very hard to show she wasn't effected.

Sakura's eyes widened dramatically as she saw that Tsunade was being led into a trap. While Jiraiya was dodging the Iron Sand abilities of the Third Kazekage puppet, Tsunade was doing the same and evading the puppet itself. She had to do something! She hastily pulled out a kunai and steeled her nerves. She needed to help Lady Tsunade!

Sasori was just standing back and watching as his plan unfolded itself. At first he had decided to kill Jiraiya with his poisons since the man was the main fighter, but that plan died within the first second since the man started moving faster and more gracefully than before. Sasori had then switched tactics and gone after Tsunade. The woman might be able to hold off his poison at their current level, but if he pumped her full of more she'd be in greater danger. Plus, after he escaped from this damn village, he'd be sure to get started on poison which no medic, not even this damn Slug Princess herself, would be able to cure!

He could easily see her getting closer and closer to her death as the tail of Hiruko slowly rose up into it's position. Soon she'd be impaled on it's scorpion tail and he could then crush the Toad Sage with the Iron Sand's full power. Yes, the woman was in place! Time to spring the trap!

"Now, you're dead!" Sasori yelled as he jerked a hand back. The Third Kazekage puppet rushing forward as Tsunade's kunai clashed against it's bladed mechanisms. The puppet pushed her back a bit, but that was all that was needed as the tail of Hiruko came shooting out at her. A clanging sound was heard as a pink blur passed near Tsunade.

Tsunade turned around to the source of the sound as she punched the Third Kazekage away. Behind her was that little pink-haired girl she saw when she had healed Sasuke Uchiha. The girl was holding back that tail she had ripped off earlier. Hmm… she had wondered where that went, but she could think on that later.

"Girl, what the hell are you doing here? All none Jonin ninja or higher were sent inside their homes! Get the hell out of her, girly!" Tsunade yelled as Sakura pushed off the tail and stood ready. It wasn't that she ungrateful for the girl saving her, but still…

"I'm sorry Lady Tsunade, and you can tell Naruto to punish me later, but I want to stay and fight. I'm not the weak little girl anymore! I'm tired of sitting on the sidelines while Naruto and Sasuke do all the fighting! I can help!" Sakura said as Tsunade stared at the girl in wonder, remembering a time long since pasted.

Flashback:

"Sarutobi-sensei, I'm not a little girl anymore! I can fight too!" Tsunade said as Sarutobi sighed, smoke billowing out as he did so from him smoking his pipe.

"That maybe true, but you will not. These intruders are after you as the granddaughter of the First Hokage and grandniece of the Second. It would be unwise to allow you to do battle simply because the others are getting hurt to protect you." Sarutobi said as Tsunade pouted and crossed her arms. Both of them were inside a bunker with Sarutobi, as the Third Hokage, being the final defense against the Waterfall and Cloud intruders.

"But Orochimaru and Jiraiya are out there risking their lives! Why do they have to protect me? I can protect myself!" Tsunade shouted, tears in her eyes as she thought the worst would happen to the only family she had left; her team.

"They fight to keep you safe, and to be sure you are never in this state again… Isn't that right" Sarutobi said as he opened the metal bunker door to reveal completely battle-worn and torn Jiraiya and Orochimaru, both keeping each other up by hanging on the other's shoulder, "Jiraiya, Orochimaru?"

"Yeah… Sarutobi-sensei's right, Tsunade-chan. We'll… always protect you. Now maybe… you'll go out with me…" Jiraiya said through ragged breath as he fainted to the floor.

"The moron is right, Tsunade. You are our teammate, our family. I'll protect you with my life… little sister…" Orochimaru said, though keeping himself composed he too collapsed right next to Jiraiya.

"You see Tsunade, they wish to protect and keep you safe, because they are more than your teammates. They, like everyone else in village, are your family. They are your brothers, and they will always want to protect you." Sarutobi said as Tsunade stared at the unconscious forms of her teammates- no, her brothers.

End of Flashback:

"Girly…" Tsunade said, not knowing the girl's name.

"It's Sakura, Sakura Haruno… Lady Tsunade." Sakura said as Tsunade blinked, but then nodded with a smile. The girl had guts if nothing else.

Before either of them could react, the tail sped forward and wrapped itself tightly around Sakura.

"Sakura!" Tsunade screamed out as the tail jerked away when she tried to punch it. The thing seemed to move with a mind of it's own as it hopped and slithered away from both Tsunade and Jiraiya in their attempts to rescue the screaming pink-haired girl.

Sasori was finding himself greatly assumed by the scene in front of him. Him, the greatest puppet master of all-time making two of the legendary Sannin run about like fools behind a wooden tail which he was controlling. Yes today was a great-

Sasori's eyes widened as a blur appeared behind him. He didn't get the chance to turn and see who it was as the person started striking him at… his charka points! Sasori jumped away before the person could strike them all. It was a good thing puppeteers could reopen their charka points or else he would have been in trouble.

"Dammit, who the hell are you?" Sasori asked as he made the tail and girl come to his side as he moved away from everyone else.

"Hiashi Hyuga, Lord of the Hyuga Clan and this is my nephew; Neji Hyuga, Prodigy of the Hyuga Clan." Hiashi said with a small bow of respect with Neji doing the same.

"It will be a pleasure to assist in your defeat today, Sasori of the Red Sand, kidnaper and killer of the Third Kazekage." Neji said as he slipped into the Gentle Fist stance alongside his uncle.

"Everyone stay back… or the girl dies." Sasori said as he flexed his index finger, making the stinger of the tail rest against Sakura's neck, "The Slug Princess may have been able to survive this long by speeding up the white-blood cell production process and creating a natural vaccine in her body, but does this girl have the same skill and experience to do so? I think… not." Sasori finished with a smirk as Tsunade glared at him and Jiraiya gritted his teeth while the two Hyuga grew more rigid in their stances.

"Now, let's play a game…" Sasori said as he outstretched his other hand and sent the Third Kazekage to do battle with them. Today was becoming fun…

"My, my… you certainly are a troubling one, Hokage-sama…" Deidara gasped out as he could feel his neck about to snap under the pressure of the boy's grasp on it.

"Really now? Because people have been saying it my entire life." Naruto said as Deidara grinned at him.

How did they get to this point you may be asking? It was directly after the explosion that Yamato started doing battle with Deidara. Yamato used several Earth and Water-style jutsu, hoping to catch Deidara off-guard when he suddenly used a Wood-style jutsu. Before they even got to that point in the battle, Naruto had burst out of the roof and caught the guy by the neck, hoping to snap it as he gazed at the man coolly.

Naruto didn't much like the grin the mad bomber had on, so he snapped the guy's neck like a toothpick before he could try anything. Imagine their surprise when the guy turned a grayish-white and became clay. Yamato's eyes widened as the Clay-clone started glowing.

"Oh bother…" Naruto said before the thing exploded in his grasp. Coming out of the same hole Naruto had, Deidara dusted himself off as Yamato glared at him.

"Whoa, you'd think he'd be smarter than to actually think I'd let him strangle me. Don't cha?" Deidara said as he grinned at Yamato.

"I'm gonna kill you!" Yamato said furiously as he went through three hand-signs.

"No need, I'll do it first." A calm voice cut through the air. Deidara and Yamato's eyes widened when out of the smoking explosion, out came a completely unharmed Naruto with his sword already in mid-swing to lop off Deidara's head.

"Back down the rabbit's hole!" Deidara shouted as he fell backwards, Naruto's katana passing over his head, cutting his bang of blond hair as he fell into the hole head first. Naruto went through a few hand-signs as he took a deep breath and held it.

"Fire-style: Forest Flame Jutsu!"

The Naruto blew out heated flames that went down the hole, coming up the other from where he had first been, but not before Deidara had jumped out and high into the air. Deidara twisted his body as he landed atop his already prepared clay bird from earlier. He soared around Naruto and Yamato as he looked down at them.

"Hokage-sama, how do you keep doing that?" Yamato said as he stepped beside his Kage.

"Shadow clones, Yamato. I'm able to switch with them in the blink of an eye, because they are me." Naruto stated, not taking his eyes off of the bird as Yamato looked at him in awe, remembering another time on the battlefield.

Flashback:

"Hokage-sama, how were you able to get through that field of paper-bombs? That should have been impossible." A younger Chunin Yamato asked as Minato patted his head with a smile.

"My Hiraishin Jutsu allows me to move at instantaneous speed from one seal matrix to the other. One moment I'm there, and in the same I could be here. It's like I've always been standing here." Minato said as Kushina knocked him over his head.

"Idiot, don't give away your techniques!" Kushina raved as Minato chuckled.

"Yeah well, we best get back to base away…"

End of Flashback:

"Yamato, stand back." Naruto said evenly as he stepped to the railing of the Hokage Mansion, snapping Yamato out of his thoughts.

"What are you gonna do, Hokage-sama?" Yamato asked as Naruto turned back to him, a small smile on his face that let Yamato know that he was both safe, and that he had asked a really stupid question.

"Whatever it takes to protect my village as it's Hokage." Naruto said, standing on the railing.

"Let me out, you insufferable woman! Naruto's out there fighting those people who work with my brother! I need to help him kick their asses!" Sasuke said as he pounded on his front door, trapped inside his house while chuckles could be heard from the shadows.

"No can do, Sasu-boy. Hokage-sama's orders were to keep every Genin, civilian, and Academy student within their homes. The Chunin are patrolling the streets and the Jonin of all ranks are on standby to help with the battles." Inoshi said as she rose from the shadows, clad in all her ANBU gear.

"So what? I don't care about his stupid orders, the moron is gonna get himself killed! I have to go, he needs my help!" Sasuke said as Inoshi sighed and sat on the wooden floor, patting the spot next to her for him to seat. He crossed his arms, thankful that in the privacy of his own house he could pout and be as childish as he was now while he sat.

"Listen young Padawan, Hokage-sama is doing everything he can to keep all of you safe. The only Genin that got out of it was that Hyuga prodigy kid, and he's there to help the Sannin to close up things alongside his Clan Head. Something about that Haruno girl being caught-"

Whatever else Inoshi was going to say found itself suddenly cut off by seven things all in a split second. The first was the sound of chirping birds. The second was the sight of blue lightning in the palm of Sasuke's hand as he shot at the door. The third was the resulting explosion Sasuke's Chidori caused as it made contact with said door. The fourth was the disappearance of said boy as he hopped off into an out of sight roof. Inoshi blinked as she struggled to make sense of the situation, but found that she couldn't. For a Genin to break through an Anbu-level barrier seal was something near impossible, but having known Sasuke for his entire life, she knew she should have expected the sort from him. So there was only one thing left in her thoughts.

"Was it something I said?" Inoshi asked herself as she blinked again, getting up and following after the boy to be sure he wouldn't die, because she knew if he did then she'd be next.

"Kabuto, call forth the Sound Ninja Four. I have an assignment for them." Orochimaru said through gritted teeth. It was now time to put his plan into action.

"As you wish, Lord Orochimaru…" Kabuto said, smirking as he turned away from his 'master'. He scoffed, knowing full well that he had but one master and he would do anything and everything to serve him well.

"Orochimaru-sama has a mission for you four." Kabuto said with his smirk still in place as he adjusted his glasses while gazing into the shadows where four figures were.

"About damn time…" a girl muttered as a large figure rose to full height, easily twice as big as her.

"Some action…" another figure said, this one male, "I'm in…" a voice of almost identical nature spoke directly behind him.

"Then let's not waste time talking…" the big figure said as another dropped his head from where he was on the ceiling.

"Indeed…" the one of the ceiling said with a grin on his face.

Kabuto couldn't help but let his smirk grow even wider. Plans were being put in place.

The plans of many were now falling into place, but the true question was; whose plans would succeed where others will fail?