Chapter 16: "When it all hits the fan"

Satoshi's face scrunched unconsciously as he tried to focus on the target few meters away. The bull's-eye was fixed to the tree at sasuke's height, just like Satoshi had asked. There were few of the kunai stuck on target, but never at the center. Satoshi threw the last kunai he had, watching it sail next to the tree and unto the bush. He sighed and dropped to the ground tucking his knees underneath him and stared forlornly at the target. His aim kept getting worse the past couple of days. He laid down on the ground, staring at the canopy overhead.

After that dinner at Naruto-san's place father had come home in a bad mood. He seemed very angry and sad to Satoshi and he had tried very hard to made father happy. He hadn't seen Naruto-san for days now, not after that dinner. He had seen Aiko-sama going about the village yesterday with sakura-san and hinata-san walking with her. She had talked to Satoshi and asked him how he was, he was very happy that she even took time to ask him when she was the daimyo's daughter. He giggled when he remembered Hoshi's expression when the beautiful lady had talked to him, he had looked so surprised!

Satoshi sighed again and turned to his side, his eyes not seeing the trees and bushed that covered the limits of the training ground. He kept remembering Naruto-san's face that night. 'He looked so sad, it's almost as if he's always sad. He only laughed when that gama sannin made a joke.' Satoshi felt another sigh escaping him, making him shake his head at all the sighing he did. 'Hoshi said that you sigh away your life. I have to stop doing that or I'll be bald soon.' He perked up when he sensed the chakra signature nearing the house and hurriedly scampered around to gather the kunai scattered about the target. He finished getting all five kunai before taking off towards the house, dumping the kunai at the table top and running to the front door with a scream.

"Tou-saaan!"

Sakura inclined her head back at the slight breeze that flew by. The breeze could only be felt at the hallway unless it was strong so the doctors and patients usually walked along the long straight path whenever they got a chance. Summer in fire country was as scorching and full of heat as a katon. The wind itself seemed like it had run through fire.

But even though the heat and the sun made people scarcely step out of the roof during the daytime, the evening were beautiful and peaceful. Sakura and Ino had plans with the konoha nine to have some time off at the lake. Whoever could get out of missions or duties were welcome, but they scarcely ever got any chances to meet up between their shinobi lifestyle and clan duties. The lake was probably going to be busy but the two of them were hoping to get there early to secure a seat for the group.

Sakura looked at the papers held between her fingers, she was supposed to check a shinobi who was injured in a mission this time. 'Concussion, laceration from elbow to shoulder. Nothing big compared to some others.' After checking the room number she headed for the stairs, intent on getting her rounds done and finishing up. 'Maybe I'll be able to grab lunch with Ino when she gets lunch break at the academy.'

Her thoughts were cut short when she saw Kakashi reaching the stairs supporting an injured Lee between himself and Gai. Sakura rushed forward, her habits kicking in and checking where the blood was flowing out from the barely conscious taijutsu user, listening with half an ear when Gai started an explanation of how Lee got injured. When Lee was safely in a stretcher and whisked towards the emergency unit sakura briefly looked back at Kakashi before following after Lee. But she knew Kakashi enough to gather from the half covered face that something had gone very wrong with the mission.

Kakashi waved away the concerned approach of an alarmed Shizune as he reached the hokage office. "It's not mine Shizune-san. Lee's in the hospital with Sakura." Shizune nodded briefly.

"You can't go in yet hatake-san. The advisors wanted a meeting with Tsunade-sama so could you wait? Or do you want to come back later?"

"I'll come back later then." And with that Kakashi left to go. He reached the memorial and was about to settle down when he saw the figure walking from the path leading to the honored graves, the ones usually left for the hokages and shinobi with exceptional careers. He didn't need to ask this person what he was doing there.

"Naruto, haven't seen you around recently."

The blonde inclined his head lightly before coming to a stop next to the copynin, staring at the memorial as he did so. "I had some personal agendas to complete so I was out of the village."

"So you're getting married next week. The whole village's in an uproar. First time having a daimyo's wedding in a ninja village, I'm not even sure if it's allowed in the laws." Kakashi's mask stretched a little as he smiled in response to Naruto's light laugh.

"Well I'm always one to do the opposite of the law aren't I? and Aiko said she wanted to get married where I was born, and that she was tired of the usual daimyo's weddings."

"Well seems like you found someone who can keep pace with your unpredictable ways too. Congratulations Naruto." Naruto looked at his sensei when he heard the last words, kakashi's eyes were turned down and he knew that the older man was genuine in his wishes.

"Thank you Kakashi-sensei."

"Well I hope you're ready for D-rank missions again. those were always fun for me. Ja."

Naruto didn't turn to see the copynin teleport away, merely brushing his bangs away from his face when the resulting wind blew over.

'D-rank missions huh… they were fun for him I'm sure.'

'What are you going to do about the new information? It'll be hard for you to leave the village now.'

'I'll have to wait till the wedding's over and done with. I'll leave after that and check whether it's true or not.' Blue eyes searched the names of the stone, searching for the one he knew was carved on the stone even when it shouldn't have ever been.

"Uchiha Obito."

Tsunade took a swig of the sake before sighing and passing it to her only remaining teammate. Jiraiya was leaning against the wall, both of them deep in thought because of the latest news he had received. Tsunade massaged her forehead to try and ease the headache that had intensified.

"So you're telling me that there's an Uchiha in the Akatsuki? Apart from the dead one? And someone had seen Itachi walking about?"

Jiraiya took another swig before answering. "I don't know whether it was really Itachi, only that it looked like him. The one in Akatsuki is sure since he has the sharingan apparently. One in Iwa saw the it before he managed to run after losing only his arm. He wasn't the target but his brother."

"So what are we going to do? The only jinchuuriki remaining are Naruto and Bee. Iwa is an uproar because Naruto is walking about and not dead, raikage won't do anything about the Akatsuki unless they go after Bee, gaara's the only one we can actually count on for support. Hitsuma is under the impression that Naruto has a doujutsu."

Jiraiya followed tsunade's form as she got up and walked towards the window. "He's talking about the rinnegan." At tsunade's incredulous gaze he plowed on. "From what I guessed it can be activated when one has both senju and Uchiha blood. Naruto getting the rinnegan is impossible, even though he has the uzumaki blood if he can't get the Uchiha blood he won't be able to activate the rinnegan, that's even if the rinnegan actually manifests itself."

Tsunade stared at the hokage mountain, her eyes passing from one carved face to the other, dazed by what Jiraiya had said. "Senju and Uchiha blood. So how did that nagato boy get his then?"

"That I don't know. It's possible that he had an Uchiha father or his mother was one. He was an orphan when we met him remember."

"So the rinnegan is with nagato or pein. Whichever he likes to call himself. The Akatsuki are a bunch of powerful and mad shinobi and Naruto can't get the rinnegan. How wonderful."

She scowled half heartedly at Jiraiya when he laughed out loud, the booming sound echoing in the room. Before she could make a scathing remark that would start the daily argument a knock on the door stopped her with Shizune poking her head through the opening gap.

"Tsunade-sama, hatake-san is here for the report."

Tsunade nodded and returned to the desk, feeling the soft of the chair and settling down comfortably. She nodded at Kakashi when he came inside and waved away the bow.

"So what happened to get the kid injured that much?"

The rustling of icha icha pages were heard before Kakashi started explaining. Tsunade felt her headache worsen when she heard the word Akatsuki.

"They were looking for Naruto. I don't know what he did to them but Hoshigaki was pretty angry."

Tsunade frowned. 'Go after Naruto? Already? But why would pein make them go after Naruto? Unless..' bronze eyes caught a quick glimpse at the lounging figure of Jiraiya, and caught the tiny nod sent her way.

"But they don't have the hachibi. Why would they go after Naruto?"

"I have no idea, unless they already have a failsafe method of catching the hachibi. If they are thinking through things properly they would know that Naruto would be protected with double security once hachibi is gone and would be hard to get to him. They didn't seem to know about the wedding though."

"Yes I guess so. We'll need to have another meeting soon, with shikaku included too I guess. You're dismissed Kakashi."

She waited until the man 'no he's still a boy' had left before turning her chair to face Jiraiya. "So I guess madara is pulling the thread on this plan?" at jiraiya's nod and serious expression Tsunade resigned herself to another discussion.

Naruto gave a brief kiss to the smiling Aiko who greeted him at the door before turning to go into his room. He was almost out of the room when her voice reached him.

"Father will be arrived three days before the ceremony. He wishes to talk to us and prepare." Aiko sighed inaudibly before continuing. "Yue onee-sama will be arriving too." Her grip tightened on the back of the chair. "She wishes to meet you before we get married too."

'This one and that one,' he turned his eyes to the woman he was binding himself for the rest of his life to, 'they all want to meet.'

'But you wouldn't mind the older girl would you little human. That one would have given you strong children. Not this whelp.'

He smiled at the girl, masking his complete disregard of the matter. "And I would be honored to meet your lord father and honored sister, my love. Don't worry; I won't mention what you have done. Yume is a smart woman, she probably already knows."

And he left the room, without turning to meet the angry and hurt eyes that bored onto his back. 'Yume would have been better than Aiko. But in the end none of them matters. Not even Sasuke.'

Shikamaru stared in disbelief at the figure walking across the stream, next to him shino was literally buzzing and neji was standing stock still behind them both. All of them were staring at the dark haired, red eyed figure they knew only from the bingo book. The other cloaked figure that had accompanied the dead man lightly treaded the soggy banks of the streams next to the corpse. The dead figure crossed the stream easily and lightly hopped onto the bank, all of them paralyzed from the gaze of red eyes that stared onto theirs. Dead lips, 'He is dead! He is dead!' stretched onto a smirk before the dead man started talking.

"To think I would meet people from konoha. I supposed you came to see who was killing all the humans." Dead lips stretched out even more 'He is dead! He is dead!' shikamaru thought desperately.

"Well, what are you going to do now you've found your killer?"

Neji knew for the fact that the man was dead. Uchiha Itachi was proclaimed dead by a number of ninja, and even more than that the man did have any chakra. The reason that solidified the man's current status was the heart that wasn't beating. 'His heart isn't beating!'

When Shikamaru thought he couldn't be surprised more than seeing a dead man literally walking, the cloaked figure that stepped next the dead man almost made him lose his focus; especially when the wind blew back the hood of the cloak, showing the previously concealed blonde locks and blue eyes of Namikaze Naruto.

"Hey Shikamaru. Don't tell baa-chan."

A/N- reviews are food! Thank you for reading!