Hehe... sorry for the long wait, but this chapter took me a while. I'm glad that you guys love this. It may not be as popular or good as Encyclopedia Ninja, but I'm enjoying this, so it doesn't matter to me.

Reviews response time (I love this part)!

Dragon Man 180: Hehe... when I posted chapter seven, I didn't realize it was April Fools until I read a fic and fell for the trick.

sephynarutocloud: Sasuke was half awake at the time. You do silly things when you're half awake. Once, I thought my sister was eating a banana when she was really eating a peach.

Anime Lance: Unfortunately, my SAT I scores aren't that great. However, I did score 740 in SAT II Biology.

Mizunezumi: Yes, it was depressing. I don't remember if that was how I wanted to end it, but it felt proper. Besides, this chapter's beginning makes up for it. As for your twenty pages, will fifteen suffice?

RLnaruhina: Thanks. It's been in my head for a while, and I guess it just fell into place.

Raiden no Onna: True, but Tenten and Maeka would have to be archers (or at least ranged units). Speaking of the assassin class, ever notice how there are almost no assassins in the FE series?

Gforce member45: Although it won't follow the game right down to the dot, I plan to take weapons (like Sol and Ky's swords) as well as attack moves (Gun Flame ftw).

Ultimate Shinobi 1: If you want, you can look it up on google. It's Fueenken, Naruto's sword, and Furaiken, Sasuke's sword.

Pyr00tje: Unfortunately, long chapters and quick updates rarely come together.

Note: After this chapter, I will write a chapter for Product Shinobi. I've been itching to write the next chapter for it. But after that I have no idea where it will go.

I do not own Naruto or Fire Emblem.

Onward!

Second note: This hasn't been beta'd yet, so please forgive my mistakes. He hasn't been on AIM recently.

Chapter 8: Strength and Weakness

Kakashi strolled into his office. As he entered, a ringing was heard. The walls were made of clouds, and the ceiling and floor made of glass. His desk was filled with buttons of all colors. There was also a screen for viewing. Right now it was focused on a baseball game.

Personally, Kakashi always thought that the term 'Mr. Kami-san' was the stupidest thing in the world. It practically meant Mr. Mr. God. But his superior had instructed him to do call him by that name, so he did.

"Mr. Kami-san, we've… got an interesting situation."

He probably only wanted Kakashi to call him that because it sounded nice.

"Oh, how interesting is it?"

"You've got a call."

"A call? No one has ever called me before…"

"That's what's so interesting about it."

"Oh… How did you know I got a call?"

"Well, there's the ringing noise."

"Oh yes, the ringing."

"…"

"So what do we do?"

"I don't know. Maybe you should press one of those buttons?" He was actually just joking about the buttons thing.

"Oh yes, these buttons. The Third God never really told me how to work this contraption… Perhaps this red one." He pressed it and the screen went out. "Oh dear, I was still watching that." He pressed the button again and the screen came back on. "Whew. That could have been bad, right?"

"Mr. Kami-san, couldn't you just-"

"Not now, Kakashi, I'm trying to figure out how to pick up the phone." He pressed a green button. The screen changed to show a world as well as the words "Apocalypse?" with a yes or no selection. "Eh… how about no." He pressed another blue button.

"Self destruct sequence initiated."

"No, no, no! I don't want that!" He pressed the button next to the green one.

"Sequence terminated."

Mr. Kami-san breathed a sigh of relief.

"May I suggest that you just use your god powers to pick it up?"

"Well… I suppose your right." The ringing stopped. "I wonder who's calling…"

'C0m3 0n, p1ck up!' Naruto thought. The ringing was starting to get on his nerves. God always was lax when dealing with him. It was like he didn't really care. But Naruto couldn't tell anyway, so he just did what he could.

He was smoking. He always smoked after his job. It was his way of calming down. It let him gain a hold of himself again.

"I wonder who's calling…" the voice on the other end said.

"You said that there were only three."

"Oh. Hello, Naruto. Did I say three, now? I'm pretty sure I said three hundred…"

"Damn it, God! Stop fucking around with me! You know my stance on this subject."

"Oh, you should learn to watch your mouth. Swearing is bad, you know."

"I don't care! I don't want to do this anymore."

"Then you'll have to hand over the Hokage."

"…"

"We've gone over this many times, Naruto. If you don't want to do your job anymore, you'll have to give up your sword."

"…"

"You've got two things going for you. Either you do your job or you quit. And when you quit, no one in Heaven OR Hell will like you. I wouldn't be surprised if the guards refused to let you into either unless you're on special orders. You're at an impasse here."

"I am not going to give up this blade. You've given me a job to help keep this Hyuuga girl safe and now that I'm a part of their company, I have to help the Uchiha get his kingdom back. And I'm going to get through it. But I will not collect any more souls until this is done."

"But only you can do it because only you have the Hokage."

"Then find another way! Make another Hokage."

"Ah, but I don't want to."

"Why not? You're God. You can do anything."

"Because that sword took me too long to think up. I don't want to go around having to think up of another unique sword that has the power of fire."

"But you can make it work out!"

"Yes. I can also kill you right now and get my sword back."

"…"

"You know what you're problem is?"

"What?"

"You need to get laid."

"…Excuse me?"

"You know, find some pretty human girl and screw her brains out. Like that… oh, what's her name? The girl with the-"

"You do know what happens, right?"

"Yeah."

"And you have no objection to that?"

"Well, it's just another pretty girl in Heaven, you know."

"Everyone's pretty in Heaven, whether they were ugly or not in real life. Everyone gets to look how he or she wants. I am not going to get some girl killed just to lose my virginity."

"So you're going to stay a virgin? How many years, then? Do you plan to be a three thousand year old virgin?"

"Well…"

"What about Tsumi?"

"…"

"You still care for her, don't you?"

"Yes, but-"

"Your stand on harvesting human souls is in your way, no? Well what about all the others you've killed? The last battle you killed almost eighty men. Don't tell me you have a disposition towards harvesting souls; you're actually killing people."

"Look. I don't like what I do, okay? But you give me no fucking choice and make me do this."

"Perhaps. But unless you give up the Hokage, you will have to do this work. I'll give you your break, but afterwards I expect you to continue."

"…"

"Anything else you want to talk about?"

"Well, besides the fact that I utterly hate you, our group consists of nine people. We're going to need more than that if we plan to take back a kingdom."

"Don't worry about it. I've already notified the elementals of this job and they will help you out. In fact, two of them should be arriving soon, possibly by tomorrow morning, maybe even tonight."

"Elementals? Like fire and water?"

"Not the four elements, different ones."

"You mean to tell me that there are more than just the four basic elements?"

"Well… there are now. Goodbye, Naruto. I hope to talk to you again."

And the line went dead. Cursing, he turned off his cell phone and put it away. Still distraught over his recent soul collecting, he put his cigarette into his mouth and returned to the town square.

The group was lucky enough to gain the town's trust. It was the first sign to disprove Itachi's claims and affirm their own. The town was also able to provide them with some supplies at a reduced cost. The plan was to stay the night and leave at the break of dawn to the capitol, perhaps a day's walk away. The only thing the town couldn't provide was shelter. But the group carried their own sleeping bags and tents so it was not a problem.

It was nighttime, the only safe time for Naruto to make such a daring call. If he called by day the group could easily find him if he wasn't careful. Besides, Hinata was already suspicious about him.

Approaching the town square, he saw that there was a fire in the middle with the group idling around it. They had managed to persuade the town to let them use the hot springs for bathing so they had washed off the grime and sweat from their travels.

He wondered where Sasuke might have gone, but he knew that Sakura would be nearby. Whether she had a sword or not, she had to be of noteworthy skill if she was the prince's teacher.

He heard some light footsteps. Taking one last puff from his cigarette, he tossed it aside and quashed it before turning around.

It was Hinata, accompanied with Kitsune-chan. The girl with the seal, she was a source of trouble onto him. He'd have to protect her and find a way to hide his identity. With a sigh, he opened his mouth. "Good evening, Hinata. Is something wrong?" he said calmly as he watched the small fox leap off of her shoulders and begin to dance around him.

"I… I heard that you're doing night watch again."

"True."

"Well… it's just that you did night watch last time as well," she timidly said, blushing. She mentally scolded herself, but she knew that she was unable to control it; he was very handsome. "I'm not a doctor but… you need to sleep."

Naruto bent down and began to pet the small fox. It turned over onto its back, exposing its stomach. He ran his hand over the animal's smooth fur. "I'll be alright, Hinata."

"A-Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"But-"

"Hinata, I'm not tired," Naruto gruffly said. Standing up, he began to walk around the camp. She and the small fox ran to catch up with him.

"T-Then at least don't do night watch tonight! Leave it for someone else!"

"Then why don't you do night watch?"

"W-Well…" Hinata trailed off, tapping her fingers.

"Let me guess. You don't want to do it, right?"

"N-No! That's not what I mean!" she burst out. Her hands clenched for a moment before timidly returning to its tapping.

"Then will you do it?"

"…Yes."

Naruto thought for a moment. "How about we do it together?" If she agreed to this, he could do both night watch and keep an eye on Hinata.

Hinata's face began to burn red. "W-With you?"

"I'm talking to you, aren't I?" Naruto coolly replied.

"Umm…" Hinata paused to think. There was no downside, right? She just wouldn't sleep for a night, shouldering a piece of the burden. How hard could it be? "A-Alright."

Having been the first to offer help to the people and the last to leave them, it was obvious that Uchiha Sasuke needed a wash. Dealing with burnt wood and dead bodies had its way of placing its scent on one's body and clothing.

He sighed. Never had he seen such destruction caused by mere bandits. If they were capable of doing such damage to a simple town, could they be strong enough to ravage a city like Konoha?

He shuddered at the thought.

He shuddered at the thought of her. Honestly, how could he let himself get that close as to develop such… feelings? It was wrong. So wrong. A prince and his bodyguard. What kind of relationship was this?

Taboo. It was complete and utter taboo. Comparing her rank to his, she was too much of an underling to fall in love with. True, she was a noble, but she was one of the lower nobles of the family. Plus, the guidelines of a prince stated that he was to marry a princess.

And last time he checked, she wasn't one.

He sighed. What would he do?

Hiding it seemed to be the only plausible answer. Act strong, act tough. Be impregnable. He was the leader of this ragtag bunch and he would succeed at any cost.

If only it were possible. He scoffed at himself for even thinking such a naïve thought. Surely he would crack. It was inevitable that no matter how hard he tried to keep his feelings hidden it would leak out, whether by his own actions or someone being able to read his actions or worse, Sakura finding out herself.

Maybe it wasn't all blown up he made it too be. He could be overreacting. It could just be a friendship. No more complicated than that. He was just being supportive in her time of need.

Giving off a hopeless laugh, he tilted his head back and stared at the ceiling.

It was about time to return to the campsite. No doubt that night watch would have begun by now. Standing up, he wrapped his towel around him and walked off to the changing rooms. After drying off and changing into one of his clean sets of clothing he began to walk in the direction of the camp.

They had done as much as they could for the quaint town within their time limit. They would leave tomorrow. Looking around, he stared uncomfortably at the town around him.

They could do a lot more. One day is not enough to bring a town back onto its feet.

But alas, they must leave. For who knows when Itachi's forces would take them.

Arriving at the camp, he was not surprised to see Sakura just entering her tent to sleep. She has had a rough time so far. She avoided him as much as possible now and has kept talking to a bare minimum with him as if she realized that their relation had somehow changed. Perhaps it was the impending thought of losing her family, most likely within the coming week.

Taking a breath, he entered his tent and prepared to sleep.

With questioning eyes Hinata watched the campfire slowly die out. Kitsune-chan, being rather afraid of fires, or at least campfires, was hiding within the hood of her sweater. She had her legs drawn into her chest, resting her chin upon her arms. Before long it had become rising smoke, all traces of heat gone, save for any fallen embers in the ashes. She would start night watch soon with Naruto. Taking a breath, she did her best to calm herself.

This would be the first time she would stay up an entire night and with a handsome… humanoid as well. She simply couldn't pin a name on the man. Just Naruto? No surname? In this time period, no one could get anywhere without a surname, famous or not. The surname was the person's pride, their honor, and, in some cases, everything. For a… living being like Naruto to not have one, it was a mystery.

"Hinata." She jumped in her seat. It was just Naruto, but…

His very presence made her feel a bit cautious. "Night watch isn't done by watching a fire die, you know," he calmly joked. He was smoking again. Taking a drag he tilted his head back and blew out a small smoke ring. Looking down, he saw Hinata eying the ring until it disappeared. He smiled a bit. "If you think that's interesting, I could blow a whole lot of other things too."

She blushed and looked down again. "S-Sorry, I got distracted. Let's go, Naruto-kun." She slowly stood up and her small fox took his place at her shoulder.

And then embarrassedly turned to him. She blushed again, "Um… what do we do during a night watch?"

Naruto sighed a bit. Not only was girl he had to protect annoying, she was rather empty headed. Or maybe she was raised that way. He wasn't sure. "You've never done night watch before?"

Blushing deeper, she shook her head, too embarrassed to speak.

"…" He just had to ask, "Have you ever stayed up past one AM?" He felt two foreign chakra signatures, unlike those he had felt before. But it wasn't hostile. 'Must be the elementals…'

"N-no," she replied, "My father had a strict bedtime curfew at ten PM." He knew it. It made sense either way. Her eyes had almost no bags under them, as if she never had to stay up past midnight. Not only that, but she was…

No. It would be better to not think about that. It would make things awkward. It would be best to simply bury the past. It was 1,400 years ago.

Plus, a few uninvited guests were just leaving. But he could catch up to them.

Gently, he grasped her hand before slowly leading her around the camp. "Come on then, I'll show you the ropes." She blushed at the contact and followed after. "The purpose of night watch is to make sure that we don't get ambushed. Of course, this is rather easily achieved, especially for you. With your Byakuugan, you can see over the entire camp from any side. Sticking with me so far?" He turned around to see her trying to stifle a yawn.

"I-I'm sorry!" Hinata quickly apologized after she discovered he saw her.

Naruto stopped pulling her. "Tired?"

She nodded, almost ashamed.

"It's okay, it's human nature to be tired."

"And it's okay for you not to be?"

"Again with the sleep issue?"

"It's just that it seems so… unnatural for you to not be tired, N-Naruto-kun."

"Oh, I sleep, but just not very often."

"Insomnia?"

"…Kind of." He took a breath. "Look, maybe you should sleep. It's obvious that you're not prepared for this kind of stuff yet. But you'll find yourself staying up longer and longer eventually."

"B-But-" she looked at him.

"Besides…" he donned a grin, "You won't remember a thing when you wake up."

"Huh?" Before her eyes he vanished and appeared besides her. She felt a quick tap on her shoulder before blacking out. Falling backwards, Naruto extended his hands and caught her. Sensing the sudden change of consciousness in his master Kitsune-chan jumped out and looked at Naruto.

"Don't worry, boy, she'll be fine." Picking her up in his arms, he carried her back to her tent and tucked her in.

She looked rather peaceful. Dreaming, perhaps? Smiling a bit, he stepped out and looked at the small fox. "Now keep an eye out, alright? Make sure that no one enters her tent." Kitsune-chan yipped gleefully before taking a seat in front of the tent.

Naruto began to walk away, but the small fox whined. "Don't worry about the night watch thing. Those two arrived moments ago and are acting upon protocol. Besides, I have to take care of a few scouts." With astounding speed, he took off, rushing past the debris of the town.

Within seconds Naruto was at the edge of the forest. The speed of the scouts was nothing compared to his. He wouldn't be surprised if he left burn marks on the ground where he stepped. He grimaced.

He'd have to kill again. But it wasn't like he had a choice. Sensing three chakra signatures he zoned in on them. Using his speed he ran by the group and stopped in front to cut them off. Then he forced some chakra out, making his presence known.

The three scouts came to a stop, carefully hiding in the trees. Breathing, Naruto shouted, "I'll give you an ultimatum: You three try to even move past me, and I'll kill you."

The scout leader was cautious about the situation. He couldn't risk getting caught, but he had to get back to the Fire Kingdom. King Itachi had to know that the group was unhindered in their journey to the Rock Kingdom.

The Rock and Fire were allies. To cut them off now was optimal. Once they reached past the Rock Kingdom's border, not only would the group be difficult to track, Itachi would have a difficult time getting the permission of the other kingdom's leaders to search for Sasuke.

He had to make a break for it. Gathering as much chakra in his legs, he pushed off the branch, his teammates following suit. Zooming past, their footsteps fell quiet on the tree branches.

Naruto sighed.

In a swift movement Naruto quickly appeared and roughly shoved the captain onto the ground. "I'll give you one more chance. Try to pass me and I'll kill you."

"I've got a job to do," the captain said.

"So do I," Naruto replied.

"Then you wouldn't mind if I tried this," pulling out several kunai he tossed them at the feet of Naruto. Flipping away, the captain was several meters away from Naruto.

He stood his ground looking at the kunai the man threw. He spotted red paper wrapping around the handle. 'Explosive tags…'

The ground around him exploded into searing flames. The captain sighed. No human could survive that, not if he didn't move from the site of explosion. Even the speed in which the person moved was too slow to escape without harm. As the smoke cleared, he saw a figure.

"No…"

There stood Naruto, unscathed. His sword had protected him from the flames.

"Impossible!" one of his teammates said, "It's impossible to be caught in an explosion and not be hurt!" he turned to his comrades. "We all saw him, right? He just stood there!" he turned back to face Naruto, this time his eyes with fear. "It's not… possible…"

Drawing his sword, Naruto began to calmly walk to the men. They instinctively backed away from him.

The captain took out his sword, "In the world of shinobi, anything is possible."

Naruto gave a grimace, "How right you are." Upon hearing the captain rushed up to deliver a cutting strike. Naruto let the blade run through him. "You men will not be leaving this place alive." With a belied look of disdain he cut the captain's sword in half before quickly stabbing his heart. Withdrawing his blade faster than they could see, the captain fell down, his lifeblood leaving his body.

His two accomplices began to back away. "What… What are you?" one of them said.

"Not human," was his only reply. He walked to them, each of their eyes filled with horror before pain and emptiness took its place. Walking back he picked up the captain's body and set it beside his two men. Taking his blade he ran chakra through it, the metals burning red.

Slashing the ground, flames erupted from the earth, dancing below the tree branches. They quickly consumed the three bodies, leaving no trace of them left. He stopped channeling his chakra and the heat dissipated, leaving nothing but charred blackness.

Naruto took out a cigarette and began to smoke, walking back to the campsite. Upon his arrival, he stood outside of Hinata's tent. He smiled at the small sleeping fox. 'F1gur3s… h3's st1ll y0ung.' Carefully picking him up he opened up her tent and slipped in. Gently placing Kitsune-chan on her sleeping bag, he looked over to make sure that she was fine.

She was smiling.

Without so much a word Naruto slipped out of her tent. Closing it up, he turned around. "Welcome, you two."

Two figures emerged from the shadows. One had a coat that covered much of his body and mouth along with circular sunglasses. He had a lanky look, but it may have been because of his jacket. The other was strongly built and carried a large silver-like shield, etched with engravings and thin slots on its sides. He wore thick padded clothing that looked like it could stop a katana easily.

"I'm guessing you're the elementals He sent here?"

"Yes, Naruto-sama," the one with sunglasses said.

"Alright, first things first. You are to address me by Naruto. We don't want to raise too much suspicion. I will refer to you as old friends. Also, your objectives are to make sure that the Prince takes back his kingdom. My objectives are to not only help the prince but also protect the girl in this tent," Naruto motioned to the tent where Hinata was calmly sleeping.

"Understood."

"Good. Get some rest, you two." They nodded and turned to leave. "And one more thing." They turned back.

"What are your names, and what… element do you represent?"

"My name is Shino," the one with sunglasses calmly replied, "and I am an insect elemental."

"I'm Katame, and I'm a protection elemental!" he cheerfully said. "I hope to be of service to you!"

"… Wonderful. Now go to sleep, we leave in the morning." The two walked off and began to set up their own tents.

Naruto sighed.

Was God just toying with him? What kind of elements were these?

Once more, Gatou kneeled before the king's throne. Trembling, he clutched his cane tighter, doing his very best to maintain his control. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead and dripped down onto the red carpet below.

"Defeated?" Itachi seethed. "It's just a pair of swordsmen! It's impossible that they could take on one hundred of our men and still survive! What kind of man do you take me to be?"

"Mercy, my king, mercy! P-Please…" Gatou trembled. "It… It would appear that they have somehow gained a small following when they engaged Zabuza."

"How many?"

"The survivor said that t-there were nine in total when they fought, your highness."

"That's still a tiny amount! They could not have won! They should not have won!"

"But your majesty! He also said that there was one man who defeated eighty of them without so much a flick of his wrist. They just… fell… with mortal wounds."

Itachi scowled. "Do you really believe that I would fall for such tricks? No one can do such a feat without moving!" He slammed his fist on the armrest before looking away. "Does he remember who they are? What crests did they wear?"

"Besides Uchiha and Haruno, there were two Hyuugas, an Inuzuka, and a Kasen. The rest did not have one."

"Hmm… Inuzuka and Kasen… they sound unfamiliar to me. Tell me about them."

"The Kasen Clan is situated near the borders of the Fire and Rock Kingdoms. They're a clan of archers."

"Interesting… and the Inuzuka?"

"U-Unfortunately…" Gatou paused, "we do not know much about them. The soldier only overheard the last name before being knocked out."

"A secretive clan?"

"Most likely, your majesty."

"Very well then," Itachi said. "Arrest the Hyuuga House."

"What?" Gatou looked up in surprise.

"Do not question my authority!" Itachi yelled, "I am the king, and you are a mere underling. You will obey me."

"Yes, yes, I'm an underling, but… may… may I offer a suggestion?" Gatou bowed down and gritted his teeth. If Itachi didn't want to hear it, he could execute him.

"… Speak."

Gatou sighed in relief. "My s-suggestion would be to not arrest the Hyuuga House… yet. Given the current rate of news travel, the other kingdoms could have heard about the arrest of the Haruno House. They could be planning an attack. If we were to arrest the Hyuugas now, we would be locking away our trump card, giving them a reason to attack us."

"I see…" Itachi thought for a moment. "It is decided then. We will not arrest the Hyuugas for now. Tell me more about the intelligence. How were they able to defeat one hundred shinobi with just nine?"

"The survivor described the mysterious shinobi as… demonic."

"Demonic?"

"His speed was unrivaled. He could cut through any blade and any thing. What made it worse was that he constantly hummed, as if to unnerve the forces by his calmness."

"Any physical descriptions?"

"He had blonde hair with blue eyes and wore black clothing. His sword was… rectangular, strangely enough."

"An odd man…"

"Indeed, my lord."

"Hmm… What about that group of scouts? Have they sent a return message?"

"The have yet to your greatness…"

"I see…" Itachi knitted his brows in thought. "Tell our allies in the Rock Kingdom to be on the lookout. There is no doubt that they are headed that way. They cannot leave our territories. Once they do we will have a difficult time with the other kingdoms allowing us to pursue them."

"Very well, your highness." Catching his breath, Gatou got up to leave.

"And Gatou…"

"Y-Yes?"

"Execute the Harunos for high treason. Spare no one, not even the children."

"...Very well then," Gatou grimly replied. He stood up and turned to walk away.

"And be sure to send a bird summon with the news of their deaths to my brother's teacher."

Gatou paused before shakily replying, "May your will be done, my king."

I know that I seem to ignore the other characters, but they haven't spent enough time (turns? chapters? lol) together so they can't have 'support conversations' yet, although some already have.