Chapter 1 : Playing Politics

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"Four hundred and four, four hundred and five, four hundred and six..."

Beads of sweat ran down the bridge of his nose. His hair flopped about his face, nearly blinding him. And his grin was like sunlight over the horizon. Uzumaki Naruto was hard at work, for once in his lifetime determined to master, rather than merely learn, one of his numerous skills. But even upside down, his eyes and ears still worked, and he heard her footsteps long before she came into view. Still wearing that pink pinafore she had suddenly decided to start wearing, and an amused expression.

"Naruto, Kakashi-sensei said to tell you that...oh. One-fingered vertical push-ups on a thin, 10-foot long pole? Isn't that a bit much for balance training?"

"Nothing's ever too much when it comes to wielding the power of Nature, Sakura-chan! Besides, I get the feeling even Bushy-brows couldn't keep up with my training routine these days!"

"Oh come on, Naruto! No one trains as much as Lee-san!"

"Except Bushy-brows sensei!"

"Yeah...anyway, Kakashi-sensei wants to see you. He says it's important, and to meet him at the Hyuuga Clan compound as soon as possible."

"As in, now? Oh man!"

Even as he griped, Naruto flipped into a standing position, and grabbed his black tee-shirt from the nearby rock it had been spread out on. His kunai pouch went round his right thigh, his scrolls and shuriken around his waist. He threw on his orange-and-black jacket over the whole thing, and put his head through the band of his necklace. Finally, he tied his headband around his head, and turned a grin onto Sakura.

"Ready for action!"

"Erm, Naruto, this IS a rather formal meeting. Shouldn't you at least take a bath, and wear something a bit less... fragrant? This IS Hyuuga Hiashi, you know."

"Fragrant? What's wrong with what I have here now? Are they torn in the butt or something?" At Sakura's headshake, he continued "But then I don't need to...hey wait a minute!"

His face scrunched up into a thinking pose, as he bit his thumb while forming seals. He brought his hand crashing down on the grass.

"Summoning Technique!"

A sizeable cloud of smoke rose from under his palm, and slowly dispersed to reveal two toads of roughly thrice human size. The orange one on the right wore a ceremonial blue gi and a giant katana, while his yellow-skinned felllow came in similar attire, and carrying a gigantic battle-axe.

"Yo, 'Kichi, 'Tatsu! I'll need your help for a bit. 'Tatsu, go over to my place and bring me my 'special' clothes and my bathbag. Kichi, whip me up a small lake right here, so's I can take a dip for a bit."

"Shouldn't you be going home for that, bro?"

"Are you already getting hitched to the pink-haired one, Naruto?"

"Damnit, 'Tatsu, not that again! I mean those bloody clingy things Ero-Sennin got me a while back. You'll recognize them, right? And no, 'Kichi, I'm not going home. I'm in a hurry, so get going already!"

"Alrighty then. Suiton: Placid Lake Technique!"

A geyser of water seemed to erupt from the ground in front of Gamakichi, but quickly settled to form a smooth surface over a lake that was at least four feet deep. Sakura looked on in barely disguised amusement as Naruto tossed off the jacket and pants he had worn just seconds ago, and leapt into the lake clad in naught but boxers. Her amusement quickly turned to indignation though, as Naruto's head popped out of the water to shout "Come on in, Sakura-chan - the water's real warm" and give her what he thought was a sassy come-hither grin.

"Naruto..." was all that the pink-haired kunoichi growled.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

The previously bright blue noon sky had quickly darkened as the afternoon wore on. Dark, almost forbidding clouds roiled overhead, and lightning accasionally flashed within them. Hyuuga Hinata, watching the sky overhead, couldn't suppress a shudder of memory. Her feet shifted, and she tried to avoid fidgeting, even as her father turned his stern gaze upon her.

Hinata, her father Hyuuga Hiashi, and her sister Hanabi, stood under the massive arch framing the doorway to the Main Hyuuga compound, awaiting the arrival of their guest. The sught of Hanabi cradling her broken arm, which was still in a sling, only reminded her of just how close they had come to dying.

"Hinata-sama, Hanabi-sama!"

The Branch House member they had encountered at the scene of the devastation seemed to almost collapse in relief. His face was ragged with bruising, and his chuunin vest was ripped almost to pieces. Most horrible though, was his left hand, which was barely hanging on to his arm by a bit of flesh and half-broken bone. His expression gave the lie to his injuries, however, a smile of almost dissonant cheer gracing his plain features.

"Thank the kami you are here! The opponent is an Akatsuki who...aargh!"

The exclamation had been forced out of his mouth by Hinata, who had promptly set the bone and was healing the damage. Her sister instantly settled into a Jyuuken stance, warily observing the plump man in Akatsuki robes. The remaining Konoha shinobi surrounding him all wore signs of exhaustion, and amny were falling, either knocked unconscious or dead. A cold chill crawled up Hinata's backbone, even as she reflexively activated her bloodline.

The veins around her forehead instantly thickened with the increased blood and chakra flow to her eyes, as the pale orbs instantly focused on their opponent. Her body almost flowed into a fighting stance, but she frowned, her eyebrows knitting together even as the injured shinobi's arm began to reassert its ownership rights on the wrist. This Akatsuki's chakra system was extremely strange.

Hanabi seemed to come to a decision, as the twelve-year old charged through the surprised pack of Konoha shinobi, arm cocking back as if to push the Akatsuki away. And that was almost what she did.

"Hakke: Open Air Palm!"

A blast of chakra shot out of Hanabi's palm, aiming for the invader. Even as the young genius watched though, the man seemed to merely put his palm in the way of the attack and block it. No, not block it, Hanabi decided, as her eyes narrowed. He's absorbing the chakra in the attack. She advanced on the Akatsuki, who had suddenly erupted in a smirk. Wary eyes tracked every movement he made, even as her brain ran through options.

"That's what I was about to tell you, Hinata-sama. He absorbs all ninjutsu attacks. Elemental attacks, chakra blasts, whatever we throw at him doesn't work. And we don't have a genjutsu specialist here anymore - he struck Sakata-san down before he could do anything. I tried to engage him in hand-to-hand, but he used a chakra blade to sever my wrist. Maybe scions of the Main House can do better, because there's nothing else to try." The Branch member, whose name was Takuya, if Hinata remembered correctly, began to hack and cough. Her right hand, limned in green healing chakra, immediately diverted to his chest. Internal damage, her mind whispered.

Her Byakugan, of course, had allowed her to see what Hanabi had been doing, and she used the lull to leap down from the rubble beside her sister and move into fighting stance as well.

"Where is Uzumaki Naruto?" The invader's deep voice demanded. "Anyone who provides information as to his whereabouts may live. The rest will not."

"The hell?" one of the shinobi replied, a gangly, black-haired chuunin. "Even if I knew who he was, or where he was, you think I'd tell you?" He surreptitiously began wrapping an explosive taga around the handle of a kunai.

"It would be in the best interest of your continued existence, yes."

"Ah, go to hell! I ain't betraying my fellow Konoha shinobi!" And so saying, he threw the kunai at the foot of the intruder. The resulting blast stirred up a cloud of dust.

"Oi Ryoma, you can't tell me you don't know who the hell Uzumaki Naruto is?" The incredulous question was asked by an older-looking chuunin, who was otherwise tensely observing his surroundings, waiting for their opponenet to emerge. "Or you don't remember that guy who painted the Hokage monument, some years back?"

"That was the guy? But what would these guys want with a punk like that?"

"Beats me. But here he comes!"

The Konoha shinobi immediately bagan hastily backpedaling, dropping smoke-bombs as they went. As the purple smoke rose and hid a lot of the battlefield, Hinata subtly signaled to her sister. Together, they charged unerringly at the intruder's position, Hinata going for a strike to the guts and the Gate located at the stomach, Hanabi going for a direct hit to the brain.

It should have worked. The battlefield covered in smoke, their opponent should have been blinded and unable to react at his full speed. And attacking in tandem as they had, he should not have been able to avoid at least one of them. But, sinously shifting, his body moving almost like a snake's, he grabbed Hinata's wrist with one hand while gracefully shifting his head to avoid Hanabi's palm. Before Hinata could even think to react, he swung her bodily at her sister, who leapt back to dodge. Hinata herself managed to catch herself and flip over onto her feet before she went crashing into the rubble just ahead of her.

And his assault had not ceased. Leaning back, he seemed to form a strange seal, and tilt his head backwards. A massive buildup of explosive chakra was instantly visible to Hinata's eyes within the man's body. What was he going to do, let his body explode?

"Everyone, get out of here!"

Too late, Hinata saw his true intentions.

"Ninpou: Returned Gift!"

His arms straight out by his sides, he fired off two multicoloured boomerang-shaped blasts from each palm, forming an ellipse of destruction. Forewarned however, more than half the shinobi there had managed to escape the attack. The unlucky ones, however, simply separated into two parts in a gory display of blood and guts. The two Hyuuga however, had other defences, in mind. Spining on their axes like tops, they emitted uniform fields of chakra which formed protective half-domes about them.

"Kaiten!"

Even as they stopped spinning however, another problem confronted them. For the missing-nin - apparently a former shinobi of the Hidden Rain village - was charging at them. He threw a short jab at Hinata which turned into a rolling kick directed at Hanabi. Even as Hanabi managed to evade however, he turned and grabbed Hinata's arm once more, as she had thrown a Jyuuken strike at his right side. Spinning, he slammed her headfirst into the rubble. Not done, he heaved her headfirst at Hanabi, obstructuing her for the brief milliseconds he needed to slam a fist into her gut, then pund her head into the floor.

Bloodied and nearly broken, Hinata neverhteless tried to nail him in the back with an Open Air Palm, but without even turning, he absorbed the attack once more. He turned a strangely empty expression on her, and began to slowly stride towards the now incapacitated Hyuuga heir. Hanabi, however, seemed to spring at his unprotected back, face flushed with triumph. Faster than even her eyes could percieve, he bent at the waist, avoiding the head strike, then launched a powerful heel kick into Hanabi, then grabbed her outstretched arm before she flew off. The muffled cry of pain as the shoulder was forcefully dislocated was like the knell of doom to Hinata's ears. Merciless, the missing-nin snapped his other fist into the middle of Hanabi's arm, breaking the bone cleanly.

And then he grabbed her neck and began to suffocate her. In desperation, Hanabi launched one last Jyuuken attack, this time with her feet, into the nearly surprised nin's stomach, then cried out in pain as he dropped her to the ground, on the arm he had just broken. This was not the setback to the enemy Hanabi had thought it was however, as he had turned to backhand Hinata into the ground, then step on her prone neck. Even as he did, he grabbed once more on Hanabi's neck, and began to squeeze.

"I'll ask one last time. Where is Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Let them go, bastard. I'm right here."

As the world faded to darkness, the last sight she saw was Naruto-kun, astride a rather large orange toad, and an almost unholy rage marring his features...

Hinata sighed, as unwanted memories of her experience at the hands of the Akatsuki passed through her mind. She forced them to the back of her mind, as the outside world intruded on her thoughts once more.

"What's he going to be like, Nee-san?" This was from Hanabi, who had finally tired of waiting in the open for a guest who didn't seem like coming, and was now shifting on the balls of her feet. Hinata tended to forget, sometimes, that her sister had only recently turned twelve, and for all her skill had not even become genin yet. Like most of the Hyuuga, she tended to act with a deliberateness and reserve that was far in excess of her tender years.

"Calm yourself, Hanabi." her father interposed "It is not proper for you to show your impatience in your body language. You are a Hyuuga, afterall."

"Yes, Father. You haven't answered my question, Nee-san."

Hinata tried to take a moment to collect her thoughts. How was she to describe Naruto-kun to her sister, and by extension her father? His bravery, his ability to smle at anything, his inner strength...

"Hiashi-sama, your guests, Hatake Kakashi, Haruno Sakura, and Uzumaki Naruto, are here."

"Good, good, Honmaru-kun. Escort them in, if you will. And where is Neji, by the way?"

"Hai, Hiashi-sama. And Neji is just inside the door to the - here he is." For indeed the Hyuuga genius had just stepped out of the Main House building and out under the archway. His entire head and torso wrapped in bandages, of course.

Even as Honmaru stepped away to bring the guests in, Hinata couldn't help but wonder why, exactly, they had been invited here. Sure, Naruto-kun had saved her and Hanabi's life, and Sakura-san had saved Neji-nii-san's, but still, why would Father invite them here? If he had merely wanted to offer his thanks, he could probably have sent a courier with a hand-scripted missive, like he had done with Kiba-kun's pack a while back.

She would just have to wait and see.

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"I hate coming to places like this."

This terse statement was straight out of Uzumaki Naruto's mouth, and his expression said no different. He stretched one arm out behind his neck, and tugged at his collar. A branch of a chrysthanthemum tree leaned in fron of his face, and the blooms seemed to wilt before him.

"Be that as it may, Naruto, you're going to have to get used to coming to places like this if you become Hokage, you know."

"Hah! When I become Hokage I won't need to come to a place like this. They're going to have to come to my office, Kakashi-sensei."

"Good luck trying, Naruto," Sakura put in, "those clan politics are a massive headache for anybody to untangle."

"Speak for yourself, Sakura-chan. I see only bigheads and pricks…eh?"

For a Branch Member had appeared near silently before them. His tan brown robe was immaculate, and his expressionless white eyes rested squarely on the orange-clad teenager.

"Welcome. Hiashi-sama will see you now. Please follow me."

So saying, the Hyuuga trned on his heel, and began striding back towards the imposing building at the centre of the Hyuuga clan compound. Following behind him, Naruto merely snorted and said, "Well there's a happy camper!"

They walked alon the pathway, appreciating the garden on each side, and inhaling their sweet scent. Even as they arrived, they saw four figures standing under a massive stone archway, seemingly waiting for them. The tallest of them peeled away and came forward.

"Welcome to my humble home, shinobi. Come in, if you please."

0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

"So, why are we here, old man?"

An eyebrow twitched, and a vein in his forehead seemed to rise, but otherwise Hyuuga Hiashi seemed to show no reaction to Naruto's rudeness.

"I have called you here today for several reasons. Undoubtedly, the first reason is to extend my thanks to the two of you, Haruno Sakura and Uzumaki Naruto, for saving the members of my family sitting here with us."

Naruto suddenly blushed and said "Ah, come on, it was nothing… I was glad to do it."

"Nonetheless, you have my gratitude." Hiashi stretched his lips in a semblance of a smile, which bore more of a resemblance to a grimace. Neji smirked at Naruto, while Hinata and Hanabi merely looked down demurely, as was expected of the Hyuuga maidens.

"Nonetheless, this is not why you have brought us here, is it, Hyuuga-san?"

"As perceptive as your reputation makes you out, aren't you, Hatake-san? I will cut this down to essentials then. But first, how is Tsunade-sama faring? And I would not like you to rehash the reassuring drivel you're giving the other shinobi."

"Very well," Sakura replied, then grimaced "Her chakra system is completely burned out, and she may never regain the use of her left leg. Otherwise, the head trauma left no permanent damage."

Hiashi sighed "And so I assume a new Hokage must be selected, then?"

"We don't know yet. We are still not done trying all the treatments we've got at hand, and Shizune-sempai and I have some new ideas we can-"

Hiashi swung his arm down sharply, cutting her off "But the greatest likelihood is that a new Hokage must be chosen, isn't it?"

"Well, yes, Hyuuga-sama."

"very well. As the head of the Hyuuga clan, I have many sources of information. Several of those have indicated that the head of the defunct ANBU Root section, Danzou, is making a play for the Hokage's position." Kakashi's lone eye narrowed, but the other two merely looked quizzical. "Much as it pains me to say it, he is in a formidable position to take it. He certainly still possesses the power to fulfill the position's requirements.

But I do not feel that Danzou is the right person to become the village's leader, and his rigid policies may well return the world to an age best forgotten, an age of war and rampage."

"And so you have brought the other two likely candidates for the Hokage's position here. Or have I misread the situation?"

Naruto turned astonished eyes on his sensei. Him, already a Hokage candidate? He had thought, idly, about it in the past few days, but to be seriously considered…? But Hiashi was already replying.

"Yes, that is my reasoning. Not forgetting that the Hokage's apprentice is a significant political voice as well. And since you are a team, matters are made even simpler as well."

"What are you driving at, Hyuuga-sama?" That was Sakura's suddenly suspicious voice.

"Simply put, I would extend my support, amongst the clans and the village at large, to whichever of you two would seriously consider opposing Danzou's play for power."

"Wait a minute. Kakashi-sensei, who is this Danzou guy? I feel like I've heard his name before."

"Simply, Naruto, he is the former rival of the Third Hokage for his position, as well as the guy who sent Sai to assassinate Sasuke."

Naruto's eyes narrowed, but he said nothing more.

00000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Freedom was delicious.

The chirping of birds and the trickle of water along the streambed were not sounds new to the man known as Kira Bee. However, he hadn't gotten to hear them outside his little valley since the last time he had tried to escape the Cloud Village. And as such, every sound seemed magnified, every sight even more colorful and crisp, every smell accentuated to an almost unbearable degree.

Bee reached into his pouch, muttering "Where's that damn map?"

Perhaps you lost it at that last waterfall you felt the need to waste time at.

"Ah shaddap, dude. You know the way I rolled outta there, I almost thought a pair a' shears, had come to take away my hair"

You said you'd stop with that ridiculous rap already! You're no good at it!

"Sorry, sorry. Just can't seem to help myself. Maybe when I get to Subby-sensei, I can start singing enka couplets to you instead?

The crunch of bark falling away from tree branches instantly had Kira Bee looking up. Before him stood the weirdest … person Kira had ever seen. Tall, green, and severly challenged was the best way he could put it. And surrounding his black-and white striped face was a Venus flytrap! Worst of all of Kira's mood though, was the black cloak, patterned with red clouds, that the man wore.

"Not you Akatsuki punks again!"

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Cypher:I wanted Madara to be the one to fight him, but I suddenly decided to have Zetsu do it instead. As a result, I rushed the ending of this chappie a bit, and threw out the entirety of the chapter 2 I had written before.

I'll add a glossary when you're done looking through this one, and suggested changes. I;m still not quite satisfied with the Hyuuga convo, personally. But I had to stop rewriting some day.