The Hope Of Oto

by sinisteruto

Fed up with the lies, deceit, and hate of his home village, Naruto deserts the hidden leaf village and joins forces with Orochimaru thanks to his ally Kabuto. Naru/Yakumo and Harem.

14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any other series that I might use for inspiration.

Chapter 14

Chuunin Exams: Part Three

Meeting Between Siblings

'N-no way! T-this just can't be happening...she...she...she!'" thought a devastated Kurenai.

"Nai-chan, are you alright?" asked Anko, placing her left hand on the red eyed genjutsu mistress as a comforting gesture.

"A-aaaaaah!" cried a hysterical Kurenai, slapping her friend's hand away defensively.

"Ite! Nai-chan, I know what we saw is a bit hard to take, but really, I don't think it warrents this kind of a behaviour, it's not like you've just seen a ghost or anything, what's gotten over you?" asked a concerned Anko.

"S-she's alive! And she...she...she...!"

"Kure-chan, what's going on with you?" asked a worried Asuma, feeling rather uncomfortable with his girlfriend's behaviour, and not without reason either. He could honestly say that this was by far the most emotion he had ever seen from the ice princess of Konoha since they started dating about six months ago.

"H-Hokage-sama, is it...is it really her?"

"I'm afraid so Kurenai-chan, I'm afraid so..." trailed off a fearful Hiruzen sadly, successfully hiding his fear but however unable to mask his sadness.

"Sensei, what is she talking about?" asked Jiraiya curiously.

"Jiraiya-kun, I'm worried, I'm very worried! For as long as I have lived in Konoha, I have never once thought that there was any foe that our village couldn't concur, demo...I can't help but wonder..."

"What do you mean sensei? Are you worried just because Orochimaru played a little trick on you? Don't be ridiculous, Biwako-sama was Kushina's personal doctor during her pregnancy, she would have informed yout if Kushina was carrying twins. Also, I regularly visited Minato and his wife during the pregnancy, there's no way that I wouldn't have been told if she were carrying twins. Minato wouldn't keep such a secret from me. I was his father and he was my son in everything but blood!" exclaimed Jiraiya furiously, trying to knock some sense into the old man's head.

"Actually Jiraiya-sama, it is possible that they themselves didn't know about the twin, sometimes, an identical twin can go undetected until the day that the children are born. This is because of the mitotic effect that creates the twin in the first place, the cell splits into two exact copies of itself that grow seperately until two different fetus's are formed. Because they were originally one, and because they are exact copies of each other, the two will have the exact same chakra signature up until the first few years of their chakra coil development. So, because the babies are in such close proximity to each other inside the womb, and because they have the same chakra signature at those early stages of development, it is possible for a medic's diagnostic jutsu to completely miss the second fetus." explained Itachi.

"I see, but...you're not a medic, how would you know about something like that, Itachi?" asked Jiraiya, his mind unwilling to accept that explanation so easily, perhaps because it wasn't Tsunade that was explaining it to him, after all, she was known as the very best when it came to things like this, and as her teammate, he was used to getting this kind of advice from the very best.

"I did the research when Okaa-sama was pregnant with Sasuke, I wanted to make sure I could help her if anything bad ever happened during the pregnancy, at least, to help her survive long enough for professional help to arrive." explained the ever emotionless Itachi.

"I-I see..." Jiraiya replied simply.

"I understand what you mean Itachi, and it all makes perfect sense, but...wouldn't a Hyuga medic, or even just a normal Hyuga have been able to see that there was more then one baby inside the womb?" asked Inoichi curiously.

"Kushina's pregnancy was kept as an S class secret that only a few knew about, we didn't want to involve too many people in the whole ordeal for obvious reasons. Therefore, a Hyuga wouldn't have had the chance to evaluate Kushina, and even if one by chance had seen that she was carrying two children, they most likely would have assumed that we were already aware of that fact and not said anything about it. In hindight, it was very foolish of me not to ask Hiashi to dispense one of his kinsman to assist Biwako." explained a depressed Hiruzen.

"Okay okay, I get it, I accept that there is a chance that this so called twin is legitimate..."

"There is no chance, just fact, Jiraiya-sama. We have been given confirmation by our barrier detection squad and a trusted Hyuga jonin, everything checks out." cut in Ibiki.

"Alright, so he is Minato's son, so he is jonin? So what, how is that enough to make sensei think we don't have a chance of winning, and why is it enough to instill so much fear into the Genjutsu mistress of Konoha? Surely we have faced worse odds then a twelve year old boy with little experience?" asked a confused Jiraiya.

"I don't think that's neccessary what has troubled Kurenai and Hokage-sama to this extent, Jiraiya-sama." said Itachi.

"What, you know something don't you, Itachi? What is it?" asked Kakashi eagerly.

"I guess you could say I do, Kurama Yakumo...that is the name of one of the kunoichi you saw in those documents. A jonin level jinchuuriki who possesses bijuu level chakra reserves is dangerous, and so is a jonin kunoichi with bijuu level chakra reserves, but...Kurama Yakumo is possibly the most dangerous person in that group...no, actually, right now, she could be the most dangerous person in the elemental nations." explained Itachi monotously.

"N-no way, you can't be serious, that little girl?" asked a perplexed Asuma.

"Yes, that little girl." replied Itachi.

"I don't understand Itachi, just how do you know this girl?" asked Jiraiya curiously, the prospect that his spy network might have missed something apparently so important not sitting well with him.

"Actually, she is from a minor clan that joined Konoha just over a decade ago, a clan that was said to have genjutsu powers rivaling those of the Uchiha clan. The Kurama clan's induction into the village was for the most part kept a secret as the clan's numbers had been depleted by war over the years. Yakumo was the heiress of the main house and was apprenticed to Kurenai-san on Hokage-sama's orders after her parents beseeched the village's help to help control her powers. However..." trailed off Itachi with a grave undertone.

"What happened Itachi?" asked Kakashi curiously.

"Kurenai discovered that the Kurama clan had a secret, once every few generations, a genius surpassing all other Kurama clan geniuses is born with godly illutionary powers, and fate had it that Kurama Yakumo be that genius, but...these powers come with a price of their own, after all, very few things in this world can be obtained and used without a price."

"A price...?" asked Jiraiya.

"Yes, you see, Kurama Yakumo's powers are so great that her genjutsu can twist and alter reality itself..."

"Nonsense! You really expect us to believe such a thing can be possible! That kind of power, we are talking about something devine here!" exclaimed Inoichi incredulously.

"Exactly, except, her power isn't devine at all, the opposite actually, her powers are demonic. The power to alter reality, or to manifest a genjutsu into the real world, the price for failing to control that power has demonic consequences." explained Itachi.

"Demonic consequences...what does that mean exactly?" asked a disbelieving but curious Inoichi.

"Kurama Yakumo was unable to control that power, and because of that, that power manifested a form and an identify of its own inside of her by using the darkness within her heart as a lifeforce. This demonic entity had its own dreams and ambitions, its own mind, and its own identity, it was an entity that idenified itself simply as...Ido."

"Ido...?" asked Asuma curiously.

"Yes, Ido...! This entity was powerful, and could use the Kurama clan's genjutsu at a level that not even Yakumo herself could, it was also powerful enough to take over her and use her body as its own for long periods of time. You see, Kurama Yakumo had a physical disease that disabled and hindered her in her quest to become a ninja, and because of this Kurenai-san cancelled her student/teacher relationship with the girl, but...she had come to see Kurenai-san as more then just a teacher, but as an older sister too. That is why, when she was de-registered from the shinobi ranks, she was extremely hurt, angry, hateful, and vulnerable. Ido took over the girl during that time and killed her parents and a majority of the Kurama clan, leaving her all alone in the world. It was at this point that the village started to see her as a threat, and at this time that Hokage-sama asked Kurenai-san to seal away her powers, it was either she do that, or kill the girl. Of course, she chose the former, she couldn't bring herself to kill a little girl, especially one she had come to see as a little sister." explained Itachi, pausing momentarily to regain his breathe.

"Following the incident, the remnants of the branch house left the village and were scattered around the elemental nations, choosing to live the remainder of their lives as civilians and leaving Yakumo on her own in the Kurama mansion. At the same time, Yakumo was placed under constant supervision by the A.N.B.U and a few specilaized medics, destined to never leave the Kurama mansion again and never to be able to live a normal life again, destined...to live a life of complete isolation and loneliness. Everyone forgot about her, and no-one ever visited her again. But...two years later, at the age of only six, she managed to assassinate all of her medical observers, and a whole A.N.B.U squad before making her escape from the village. Uchiha Shishui and I were ordered to conduct the investigation because of it's genjutsu implications, however, the victims had been dead for over two weeks before their bodies were discovered, a genjutsu analysis was henceforth inconclusive. We do however believe that she had at least one accomplice...someone helped her escape, and since she is now an Oto jonin, we can assume that it was Orochimaru who was behind her escape." explained Itachi.

"But I don't understand...if this girl's life was so horrible in Konoha, what possible reason could she have to return?" asked Asuma.

"Revenge...! Think about it, she's now been able to become a jonin, and a jonin sensei no less, namely, this can only mean one thing, she has completely subjugated Ido, in other words, she has full control of her powers. I believe she has returned for revenge because she left paintings behind in her sleeping quarters, most of those paintings were gruesome images of a mutilated Kurenai and Hokage-sama, and some of them contained images of a completely destroyed Konoha, the only reason she would have returned, is to turn those images into reality!" said Itachi dramatically, striking fear into the hearts of his comrades.

"N-no way...!" exclaimed a wide eyed Inoichi.

"I'm afraid that is how it is." said Itachi gravely.

"Itachi, what about you, not counting Uchiha Shihui, you are probably the best genjutsu user in the elemental nations, surely there is something that you can do?" asked Jiraiya pleadingly. He would have rather handled something like this on his own, he did not like nor was he used to asking others for help, especially someone so much younger than he was, but the fact of the matter was that genjutsu was not his forte, in fact, he was quite a dud when it came to that ninja art.

It's not that he didn't believe that he could defeat this Kurama Yakumo brat either, actually, he was reasonably confident that he could, just that, if he made even one mistake and got himself caught in her genjutsu, then it would be all over, whereas, if someone like Itachi made the same mistake and got caught in her genjutsu, it wouldn't neccessarily spell defeat, there would still be a significantly higher chance of not just survival, but maybe even victory.

"Hmmm...perhaps, she'll probably never expect someone to try and combat her in her own expertise, also, she's probably over-confident and ove-reliant on her genjutsu prowess, if I can catch her off guard and end it quickly...then it might be possible." replied Itachi.

'I hope Tsukiyomi will be enough, I'd hate to be forced to use Izanagi or Izanami.' thought Itachi. Chakra requirement aside, tsukiyomi wasn't much of a problem for him, he could use it as many times as he wanted because he no longer had to worry about getting blind, his mother's eyes had made sure of that. The only problem was izanagi and izanami. Itachi wasn't sure what would happen to his eyes if he used one of the two Uchiha kinjutsu, sure he now had the eternal manyeko sharingan, but what did that mean exactly? Did it mean that he would never lose his eyesight again no matter what happened, or did it only apply to mangyeko sharingan techniques?

He supposed it shouldn't apply to any other techniques besides the mangyeko sharingan abilities, obviously, his eyes couldn't possibly have a perfect form of immortality. If someone stabbed him in one of his eyes, would that eye regenerate and regain it's sight because it was now an eternal mangyeko sharingan? Nonsense, that couldn't be possible, therefore, it probably wasn't possible that he would be able to keep his eyesight if he used either of those two Uchiha Kinjutsu. He would have liked to test the theory though, in hindsight, he probably should have tested the theory before he implanted his mother's eyes, after all, he did have a large arsenal of sharingan that came into his possession after the massacre.

His eyes are a momento from his mother, therefore, it shouldn't be a surprise that he would be hesitant to risk losing them to some kinjutsu. That would mean losing the only connection he had to his mother, that would mean, that his mother would no longer be able to watch the world through his eyes anymore.

'But, what would mother say if I allowed Konoha to be destroyed because of her eyes? Would she be proud of me then? Would she approve of my actions? I wonder...' contemplated Itachi.

"Then it's settled, Itachi, your main target during the invasion will be Kurama Yakumo, we're counting on you!" ordered Hiruzen.

"Hai Hokage-sama, I'll do my best." bowed Itachi respectfully.

"Yuhi Kurenai, you too, you will be partnered with Itachi for this mission. You know Yakumo better than anyone else in the village, furthermore, the two of you used to have a siblling bond. I want you to use that to your advantage, she won't be able to maintain her concentration at all times if she gets emotional, use your bond with her to give Itachi an opening." ordered Hiruzen authoratively.

"Demo...!"

"Kurenai! I know how you feel, but look at the bigger picture, are you willing to risk Kiba, Shino, and especially Hinata for the sake of one person? Is Yakumo more important to you then all three of your students? Is she more important then Konoha itself?" asked Hiruzen.

"I-I...but...!" sputtered Kurenai hysterically.

"Kurenai, can I count on you? Can Itachi count you? Can your students count on you? Can Anko or Asuma count on you? Or are all of us less important to you? Are you not willing to put aside your own feelings for the village's sake?" asked Hiruzen cruely.

'Sensei, aren't you expecting a little too much from her?' thought Jiraiya.

"Now wait a minute tou-san...!"

"Asuma! Stay out of this! Listen, I know that I'm asking a lot from you Kurenai, but, I would never ask you to do something that I woudn't do myself, believe it or not, you and I are on the same boat here." explained Hiruzen sadly.

"W-what do you mean Hokage-sama?" asked Kurenai with wide eyes.

"I'm also going to have to prepair myself to kill a once precious student of mine for the sake of Konoha, this whole month, I'll be prepairing for a battle to the death with Orochimaru, so don't think that I don't know how you feel, because I do. Demo...even if I have to forsake myself, even if I have to crush my own heart, I'm willing to do this for the sake of my loved ones, for the sake of the village, and in order to uphold the will of fire! We have to protect the village and leave a legacy for future generations, Kurenai, don't think of yourself as a bad person for doing what you have to do, many will see you as a hero, I...will see you as the hero that you are, to me, you will always be a precious comrade who unselfishly carried the fate of her village on her shoulders without falter, you will always be my hero!" said Hiruzen with conviction.

"H-Hokage-sama, is that what you truly believe?" asked Kurenai, eyes wide in surprise.

"Hai, from the bottom of my heart." replied Hiruzen seriously.

'Is that what you told Shishui when you ordered him to eliminate the Uchiha clan...Hiruzen?' thought Itachi.

"Then...I'll do it...sniff...I'll do it! I'll protect my loved ones and the village...sniff...n-no matter what the cost!" exclaimed Kurenai rigidly, bowing to the hokage respectfully, although, whether she was bowing as respectful gesture or to hide her tears was another issue altogether.

'Kurenai, you're about to walk a very difficult path, however, I will do my best to protect your delicate heart if it is within my ability, I won't allow anything to happen to you...' thought Itachi with determination, unwilling to allow someone who reminded him so much of the two most important women who were once a part of his life have to go through something so traumatic.

'Kurenai...there's so much I still don't know about you, why have you never told me about this Kurama Yakumo...why won't you let me in? All I want is to take care of you.' thought a confused and frustrated Asuma.

'She's found her resolve...good!' thought Hiruzen with a little relief.

'Still, even if we defeat this Kurama Yakumo, what then? She has students, and she has other comrades as well, will they not want revenge for their comrade's death? Yakumo will attack the village for revenge against the Leaf, we'll kill her, and then her loved ones will come back to do the same thing, and the cycle of war and hatred will continue. Even if Yakumo were to win, Kurenai's genin team, Asuma, and Anko would want revenge too, basically, this is just a mindless and endless war torn existence. Is there really ever going to be a time where we can all come to understand one another, can there ever be true peace?' thought a subdued Jiraiya.

"Good! I believe in you, Kurenai." said Hiruzen with a smile meant to comfort and encourage the genjutsu mistress.

"H-hai! Thank you, Hokage-sama!" replied the red eyed beauty.

"So, what about the others, more specifically, what about Namikaze Arashi? What do you plan to do about him?" asked Kakashi curiously.

"For now, we will simply watch the proceedings, we'll decide what to do based on what we see." said Hiruzen, pulling out a transparent crystal ball from a drawer on his left hand side.

"So you're going to use that huh, alright, that sounds like a plan to me." said Jiraiya eagerly.

"Come, all of you, we're going to need to put together all our minds in order to get to the bottom of this." said Hiruzen, subtly ordering his subordinates to all gather around him to observe the mystery that was tormenting them and would be for the immediate future to come.

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"Aaaaaw I'm so bored! This is so unfair, why are we all stuck in this stupid hotel room when Arashi-sensei and Yakumo-sensei get to go on a date!" whined Amaru petulantly, using Naruto's alias even in the privacy of their hotel room, just in case someone was eves dropping on their conversation, also, because she wanted to get used to that name. It would be quite disastrous if she accidentally used his real name in the presence of the enemy before the invasion.

"Sigh...they're not out on a date, they just went to get something to eat for all of us, can't you just stop complaining for just one minute?" asked an exasperated Guren.

"Guren-sensei, you're so naive..."

"Excuse me?" asked Guren maliciously, breaking the redhead mid-sentence.

"Um...aaah...nothing, n-nothing at all Guren-sama!" exclaimed Amaru nervously, flailing her arms in front of her as a placating and somewhat submissive gesture.

"I thought so..." said Guren with a threatening undertone.

"Sigh...but why do they have to get ramen though, aren't we always eating that nowadays?" complained Suzumebachi.

"Well, apparently it's the food of the gods, more like food of the pigs if you asked me." mocked Guren.

"Nee-chan, you shouldn't talk like that about nii-san's favorite food, he'd be so hurt if he heard you say something like that behind his back." admonished a worried Yukimaru.

"Yeh...but unlike you, I can do things for him to um...earn his forgiveness, things that you can't do for him." replied Guren mischieviously.

"Oh yeah! Like what?" challenged Yukimaru.

"Really...you need me to answer that?" asked Guren with a raised eyebrow, causing Yukimaru's eyes to widen in realisation and horror.

"Oh...! N-nevermind!" exclaimed a horrified Yukimaru, causing everyone to laugh at his expense.

"Guren-chan, you shouldn't say things like that to him, he's your little brother, little brothers shouldn't have to hear things like that about their sweet older sisters." said Suzumebachi, chasticing her comrade and friend lightly.

"Hn, me and Arashi-kun are his legal parents, and everyone knows that their parents get it on from time to time, otherwise how would they have been born." said Guren as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Tche...I give up, you're hopeless!" replied the Kamizuru heiress.

"And I give up on you too, hypocrite!" replied Guren indignantly.

"Hypocrite, why am I a hypocrite again?" asked an amused Suzumebachi.

"Oh I don't know, maybe it's because someone that I know has a tendency to share explicit details of her intimate experiences with Arashi-kun with her own surrogate little sister? Yeah...you think I don't know about that?" asked Guren mockingly, refering to the Kamizuru heiress's relationship with the nanabi jinchuuriki, Fu.

"Hehehe! Hahaha! You foolish woman, don't you know...it's okay to share those things with your little sister, but not with your little brother, tche, you're so clueless!" retorted Suzumebachi, laughing at her fellow jonin's expense.

"B-bitch...!" cursed an embarrassed Guren.

"Guren-sensei, Suzumebachi-sensei, don't overeact, but...we're being watched...!" said a voice inside the two jonins' minds, a voice they recognised to belong to one of their genin compatriots, Ranmaru, who was using the eye of the scavenger technique to communicate telepathically with his superiors.

"We're being what! Whose watching us, Konoha scum?" demanded the Kamizuru heiress.

"Hai, the Hokage, Uchiha Itachi, Jiraiya of the Sannin, the copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi, the genjutsu mistress of Konoha, Yuhi Kurenai, the Hokage's son, Sarutobi Asuma, head of Konoha's interogation unit, Morino Ibiki, the Jonin Commander, Nara Shikaku, a member of the Ino-Shika-Cho, Yamanaka Inoichi, the A.N.B.U commander, Tenzo, and last but not least, Orochimaru-sama's former apprentice, Mitarashi Anko...these are the people that are watching us." reported Ranmaru evenly.

"How is it that they're all watching us, Ran-chan? I can't sense any one of them around the block, are they using some kind of special chakra cloaking jutsu?" asked Suzumebachi curiously.

"No, they are still inside the Hokage's office roughly four miles south from here, the Hokage is using a crystal ball that projects images to watch us. Also, I didn't notice it until he activated his jutsu, but there is a surveilance sealing tag on the ceiling of your hotel room, actually, on the ceiling of every hotel room. That is most likely the secret of his jutsu." explained Ranmaru.

"I see, so than, they're watching specifically this room, and no other room?" asked Guren.

"Hai, why do you ask?" asked Ranmaru.

"I just wanted to be sure that it is specifically the Oto contingent that they're monitoring, and not just every foreign shinobi in general, also, since you're in the room next door to ours, and they're only watching ours, then it means they haven't seen your doujutsu as of yet, namely, they haven't realized that you're spying on them." explained Guren.

"While I agree that it is good that they haven't seen your doujutsu, I still don't believe it would be a big deal even if they did. They're going to see it anyway during the chuunin exams so it makes no real difference. Also, even if they were to see it now, there is no way that they would know that you're watching them. This is because, they have no idea what abilities your doujutsu possesses, they don't know that you can see through solid objects and they certainly don't know that you can see things from distances longer than the four or five miles that the Hokage's office is situated from our location. Continue to observe them and do not worry about them discovering your fuingan." ordered Suzumebachi.

"Hai, Suzumebachi-sensei!" acknowledged Ranmaru respectfully, taking his superior's advice to heart.

"Okay, fair enough, I agree with her, but let us now focus on the real issue at hand, why are they spying on us specifically?" asked Guren wearily.

"Yeah, Ran-chan, you should have been able to read their lips with your eyes, what did they say?" asked the Kamizuru heiress.

"A lot of troubling things, one, they know that Orochimaru-sama is the leader of our village, and they know about his connections with the Akatsuki. That is because, Jiraiya has been tracking and monitoring Orochimaru-sama since he defected from Konoha. Luckily, Jiraiya knows nothing beyond that..."

"Aaaaaargh! That stupid frog... I'm so gonna kill him!" exclaimed the sadistic Suzumebachi furiously.

"Toad...he's not a frog, he's a toad." corrected Guren.

"Whatever! Same thing!" retorted the honey bee irritably.

"No it's isn't..."

"I said whatever!" exclaimed Suzumebachi in frustration.

"Tche...alright, I was only trying to help you know, but it's fine, you can hold on to your ignorance if that's what you really want." said Guren with mocking nonchalance.

"Why you..."

"Ahem! As I was saying..." cut in Ranmaru, breaking off the would be cat fight between his superiors skillfully. He wouldn't dare to outright tell them how childish they were acting at the moment, not with their volatile and sadistic personalities, nope, no thanks, he didn't even want to imagine the horrors that they would put him through if they sniffed even a hint of disrespect coming from him, heck Guren didn't even tolerate that from Kabuto, and he is the freakin jonin commander.

"Please continue Ranmaru-kun." said Guren, giving her fellow kunoichi a victorious smirk, one that pissed Suzumebachi off to no end. Fortunately, she was able to reign in her temper in light of the severity of their situation, not willing to do anything that might, in the short or long run, jeapardize hers and her comrades' lives.

"Hai, they are under the belief that Akatsuki will attack Konoha during the final round of the chuunin exams, this belief stems from the fact that there are five jinchuuriki in the village, that is, if we can count Arashi-sensei's clone as a jinchuuriki."

"Well Konoha is under the belief that the clone is actually a twin containing Kurami-sama's other half, as far as they're concerned, there are now five jinchuuriki in Konoha instead of the four that we know there are. Nevertheless, if Konoha believe that Akatsuki will attack Konoha, then why are they spying on us? Shouldn't they be out there looking for possible hidden Akatsuki bases in Fire Country?" asked Guren, wondering about the intellect of the so called god of shinobi.

"Konoha have won all three of the shinobi world wars and they have successfully warded off any invasion attempts in the past. Probably, they are confident that they will once again prevail no matter who challenges them because of their history, in other words, they are content to let the enemy attack because they feel that the result is already written in stone, that they will prevail no matter what the enemy throws at them. Also, no one is simply going to allow themselves to be captured, no doubt they plan to use the situation with the jinchuuriki to their favor." said Suzumebachi analytically.

"That still doesn't explain why they are spying on us though, what does Akatsuki have to do with us?" asked Guren.

"Everybody knows how much Orochimaru-sama detests Konoha, that is why they are spying on us, they believe that Orochimaru-sama would take advantage of the chaos that would ensure if Akatsuki attacked Konoha. That is why they are seeking to get some intel on us. Also, the Hyuga gate guard reported that our chakra capacities were unnaturally high and that our chakra was very strong, particularly Suzumebachi-sensei and Arashi-sensei's chakra. " explained Ranmaru.

"I see." replied a thoughtful Suzumebach.

"Okay, Konoha have a lot of things wrong, but that is all irrelevant. What is relevant though, is that they see us as a threat, and that they are prepared for war time. Also, we didn't expect there to be so many jinchuuriki in one place and because of that, Konoha will probably make preparations to neutralize the threat posed by that kind of fighter, this puts the effect of Sabaku no Gaara's role in the invasion in jeapardy, no...actually, the whole invasion has been put in jeapardy, we're going to have to start thinking of ways to modify and improve our strategies for the invasion." said Guren with a grave undertone.

"That's not even half of it, the Hokage has ordered Yuhi Kurenai and Uchiha Itachi to target Yakumo-sensei if Oto becomes a threat to Konoha's safety, also, there is something else that you absolutely must know, especially you...Guren-sensei, this information involves your main target for the invasion..." trailed off Ranmaru, leaving the two kunoichi hanging on every one of his words in anticipation.

"My target? You mean the A.N.B.U commander, you said that his name was Tenzo right?" asked Guren curiously.

"Yes, that's what the god of shinobi said when he was refering to him." replied Ranmaru.

"If I'm not mistaken, even Kabuto-sama was unable to find out anything about this man, not even his name. That, to me, just screams 'S-Rank Secret' in my ears. I'm curious to know what you could have found out about him in this secret meeting, Ran-chan." said a curious Suzumebachi, subtly ordering the young prodigy to disclose the information that they didn't desperately need, well, at least, she didn't think they desperately needed, but would like to have nonetheless. She believed that Guren would be able to take care of business regardless of whether she had intel or not, she was after all, the most powerful kunoichi she knew of, not counting herself of course.

'Still, it would make things a whole lot easer if she knew exactly what she is dealing with. If she could end it quickly, then she would have enough energy and strength left to help out in other areas of the war, her involvement would significantly reduce the death toll on our side.' thought the Kamizuru heiress.

"You're probably not going to believe this but...Tenzo has the first Hokage's powers, in other words, he is a mokuton ninjutsu user. He told the Hokage that he has sent four of his mokuton clones to keep an eye on the four jinchuuriki that were already in the village before we arrived. He wasn't lying either, I could tell." said Ranmaru matter of factly, shocking the two powerhouse kunoichi considerably. It took every single fibre of their beings just to hold in any sort of reaction, a testiment to their will power and the top class training that they have received.

"W-what? Bastard! Shouldn't this have been the first thing that you told us?" exclaimed an infuriated Guren.

"I don't think so, I doubt you would have listened to anything else I had to say if I had done that. You wouldn't have been able to stop thinking about it, even I can't stop thinking about it, it sounds so unreal even to me, the guy who confirmed the information with his own eyes." said Ranmaru, hoping that his explanation would be enough to justify his actions.

"Okay, fair enough, but how is this possible, I thought that there was only one senju alive in the world? What is this guy, Tsunade's secret son?" wondered Suzumebachi.

"I don't know, but you kind of feel like Orochimaru-sama would have known about this if he was really Tsunade's son. Also, Orochimaru-sama once said that Tsunade left Konoha because she hated the village for taking away everything that was precious to her, why would she say that if she still had a son living in Konoha, or any kind of relative for that matter?" asked Guren.

"Isn't she related to Naruto-sensei? Why did she leave him all alone in this pathetic hell hole if she was really such a good person who wouldn't desert her kinsman?" asked Ranmaru. The question was posed with his usual calm and even tone, but to Guren and Suzumebachi, who knew him very well, the hate and malice in his voice was unmistakeable.

"Okay, point taken, but we still shouldn't jump to conclusions, it could be anything, for all we know, Konoha have been experimenting with the Shodaime Hokage's dna just like we have been. We'll have to inform Orochimaru-sama about this and hear what he has to say." suggested Guren

"Yeah, but I think it's obvious what you're going to have to do now." said Suzumebachi.

"Yeah, I heard you were unable to successfully harvest Hashirama's cells, and the day that we have to transfer ownership of his body draws near. Maybe we can replace his body with Tenzo's and continue with experimentation." suggested Ranmaru.

"Yes, initially, Yukimaru-kun's dna was at an incredible eighty percent compatable with the Senju dna. We wanted to give him both Tobirama and Hashirama's cells to make him the ultimate shinobi. Hashirama's dna is powerful and dominating, sometimes, actually, all the time, his dna will completely take over the subject and said person will die a painful death. The longest time someone has survived before being taken over has been only three days. That is why we decided that we would implant Tobirama's dna first, we wanted to see how Yukimaru's body reacted to dna transplants in general and we also were planning to intergrate Tobirama and Hashirama's powers into one body. If we had implanted Hashirama's dna first, then it would have simply rejected any future transplants because of it's dominating nature. So we implanted Tobirama's first, and we planned to follow that up with a complex implanting method that would allow Hashirama's dna to intergrate with Tobirama's using the common gene that aligns the two shinobi to the water element as a focus point. But, something completely unexpected happened..." trailed off Suzumebachi.

"What happened?" asked Ranmaru, his curiosity peaked by his friend's dna implant experiences. He'd never had the guts to ask him about it and it seems that Yukimaru had never felt the need to talk about it, but he'd always been curious.

"We expected compatability to rise from eighty percent to ninety percent after implanting Tobirama's dna, but the opposite actually happened. The compatability actually decreased from eighty percent to 65 percent. Prior to the project, Guren and Naruto-kun, as Yukimaru's legal guardians, had agreed to only allow us to proceed as long as compatability was 75 percent and above, and so when it decreased and went below that standard, they absolutely refused to allow the experiment to proceed as scheduled until the science devision found a way to increase Yukimaru's chances of survival. We have tried everything to meet those standards, but we have only been met with continuous failure, even as we speak, Tomatoe-chan is probably at the main laboratory working her ass off to fix this problem. However, hehe, it seems as if even Kami-sama is on our side..." replied Suzumebachi with elation.

"What do you mean?" asked Ranmaru curiously.

"Yeah, what are you getting religious about?" asked an equally curious Guren.

"Well, Tomatoe-chan has always been under the belief that this whole thing would not have been an issue if we could have obtained a living sample of Hashirama's cells, and frankly, both I and Kabuto-sama have shared that sentiment. And now, just when we thought we would lose the chance to harvest Hashirama's powers altogether, we are presented with this opportunity, can you blame me for thinking that this is more than coincidence?" asked Suzumebachi rhetorically.

"Are you trying to tell me that you can increase Yukimaru-kun's chances if I capture this Tenzo guy?" asked Guren.

"Yeah, think you have what it takes to do it?" challenged Suzumebachi.

"Tche...do you even have to ask?" asked Guren with a mental smirk.

"Na, not really, but be careful, don't underestimate your enemy, Hashirama's powers are no joke from what I've heard." warned the Kamizuru heiress.

"Heh, you almost sound concerned about my wellbeing, Suzu-chan." mocked Guren.

"I'm more concerned about getting our hands on that dna material." replied Suzumebachi with an equally mocking tone.

"Yet you didn't deny that you're worried, just admit it, you care about me."

"Whatever, that's not the moral of the story, let us focus on what matters for now." replied Suzumebachi, skillfully diverting the conversation back to her comfort zone.

"Oh well I guess you're right, but just so you know, I care about you too." replied Guren with a knowing smirk, the Kamizuru heiress doing her best to hold back the blush of embarrassment that was threatening to form on her facial features.

"Anyway, this solves the Gaara situation I suppose. If Konoha do end up developing a method to neutralize a jinchuuriki, you can reasonably assume that Jiraiya, as a seal master, and Tenzo, as a mokuton user would have been at the centre of whatever plan they concorted. But, the two of you have been assigned the mission to take care of those two, leaving Gaara free to create as much havoc as he can. Now that leaves Itachi and Kurenai, what are we going to do about them, they're planning to use Yakumo-sensei's emotional connection with Kurenai to create an opening?" asked Ranmaru with concern.

"Maybe I should help her, I can use my eyes to combat Itachi's sharingan." suggested Ranmaru.

"No, you're an important element in Raiga's kinjutsu, what are you going to do, desert him?" asked Suzumebachi.

"No, but I can go and help after we take care of Might Guy, I'm sure she can hold them off long enough for me to come to her aid." retorted Ranmaru.

"No that won't be neccessary, Kurenai will be dead by the time Itachi arrives to her aid, that is, if he arrives to her aid. Remember, Uchiha Itachi is Kazekage-dono's target, and the Kazekage seems confident that he can take care of the Uchiha. Even if Itachi by some chance won the battle, Kurenai would be long dead by the time he defeats the Kazekage, and he would have used up most if not all of his energy, Yakumo-chan would rip him to pieces. Do not worry about her of all people, she will be unharmed." replied Suzumebachi confidently.

"I guess you have a point."

"I know I do, now, is there anything else?" asked the honey bee.

"Not much really, just a few miner details that Orochimaru-sama needs to hear about, oh wait, did I tell you that Arashi-sensei's clone is dating the nibi jinchuuriki, Nii Yugito?"

"What/What the hell!" exclaimed the two elite kunoichi in complete shock and horror.

000000000000

"Okay what are looking for exactly here old man, there doesn't seem to be anything special happening, just a bunch of kids playing around?" asked a bored out of her mind Mitarashi Anko. Absolutely nothing was happening in the images portrayed by the Hokage's crystal ball, just a bunch of genin chilling and chatting lightly in the comfort of their hotel room and two Jonin kunoichi who looked like they were simply meditating.

"She's right sensei, also, the person we really wanted to see is not even there." pointed out an equally bored Jiraiya.

"These are all just kids, should we really be feeling threatened by these children?" asked Inoichi skeptically.

"We should not take the threat that they pose to us lightly, Shishui was only 16 when he disposed of the majority of the Uchiha clan. Also, if the barrier detection squad and a Hyuga elite were able to identify these kids as major threats, then how much more dangerous are the older and more experienced ninja of their village? How much more dangerous is Orochimaru himself?" was Shikaku's response.

"Yeah, I guess you have a point, but still, it is hard to believe that brown haired girl supposedly has bijuu level chakra reserves, how is that even possible?" wondered Inoichi.

"I know what you mean Inoichi, the only other person I have met before with that kind of chakra was Hashirama sensei, I never thought someone else like that would ever exist again, much less a supposedly sixteen year old little girl." thought Hiruzen out loud.

"Actually Hokage-sama, it is rumoured that Kiri had one such person once upon a time, a former member of the Seven Ninja Swordsman, Hoshigaki Kisame." said Kakashi.

"Hoshigaki Kisame...? I think I've heard about him, isn't he wanted for the assassination of his own comrades, his master, and a number of feudal lords?" asked Kurenai.

"Yes, that seems to fit the description perfectly." replied Kakashi.

"There are many mysteries and anomalies in the shinobi world, truth is, there are things that exist out there that we will most likely never fully comprehend, all we can do is to take things one step at a time and deal with the things that come our way." advised Itachi.

'This is the most I have heard him talk since the day he declared his intentions to take a genin team in that jonin meeting six months ago. He's something else, he doesn't act or sound like a teenager at all, talking to him, it's almost like talking to a veteran like Hokage-sama. He's very wise for someone so young, what a guy.' thought Kurenai, genuinely impressed by the Uchiha prodigy's intellect and skill. She'd heard all the hype going around in the village, everyone who had worked with him before had nothing but admiration and praise for him, even Anko, and she of all people did not give away complements that easily, Kurenai knew at least that much about her best friend. To be honest, she'd wanted to work with the young Uchiha for quite some time now, she'd heard that, despite the seemingly unmatched talent he had for ninjutsu, that he was actually not only a better genjutsu user, but that he actually had a strong passion for the delicate art and considered it to be his favorite. She could just imagine all the different kinds of conversation that she could have with him as a fellow genjutsu practitioner, all the things she could impart to him, and learn from him vice versa, just thinking about it almost made her want to break down into a fit of giggles, and who could blame her for her giddiness, the life of a genjutsu practitioner was a very lonely one, there was literally no one else in Konoha that shared her passion up until now.

"Hmmm...I don't know if any of you have noticed, but, these kids seem like a closely knit group. They all seem to get along with each other very well, namely, there seem to be very strong bonds between the lot of them. This is something I was worried about, I was hoping that this wasn't the case, if these Oto kids have this much of a strong bond with Arashi-kun, than, it might be imposssible to get Arashi-kun to come back and take his rightful place as a Konoha shinobi. This is bad..." explained Hiruzen with a grave undertone.

"Not neccessarily, the situation could in actual fact prove to be to our benefit." retorted Jiraiya.

"To our benefit, I'm not sure I follow you, Jiraiya-sama?" asked a confused Inoichi.

"Much as I hate to admit it, Orochimaru is not the kindest person in the world, actually, he has, over the years, become a very cruel, violent, and sadistic individual who is by far the most ruthless ninja village leader. I'm pretty sure that very few of those kids are happy to work for Orochimaru, probably, they only do his bidding because they fear his wrath. If we can convince Arashi that we can get rid of Orochimaru and offer he and his friends a safe and lovely home to stay in, then I'm sure they would take that opportunity." suggested Jiraiya.

"A very good idea Jiraiya-sama, except that you're forgetting one thing..." trailed off Shikaku.

"What?" asked a confused Jiraiya.

"You're forgetting that Arashi-san has a twin living in Konoha, a twin who, for all we know, is currently plotting his escape from the village to join Kumogakure no Sato, a twin who has a less then positive opinion about us. Even if we were to somehow convince Arashi-san to betray Orochimaru, he would change his mind as soon as he spoke to Naruto-kun, after all, who better then your twin brother to ask for an opinion about a place he has lived in all his life." pointed out Shikaku.

"You have a point, but let us not be quick to make assumptions, for all we know, the twins might not develop as strong a bond as twins usually have, they have been raised not only apart from each other, but under completely different conditions." retorted a hopeful Hiruzen.

"Okay okay okay hold up! Am I the only one that wants to know how the so-called twin ended up in Orochimaru-teme's hands in the first place?" exclaimed an exasperated Anko, wondering if she was perhaps the only one exhibiting any form of brain wave activity in the hokage's office.

"There was a lot of chaos during the Kyubi incident, as a result, I didn't even get to have a conversation with neither Minato or Kushina before they died, anything could have happened between the time of birth and the sealing of the Kyubi. For all we know, Orochimaru could have been involved in the incident." explained Hiruzen sadly.

'I always knew that Kushina's seal could not have simply failed, but I never thought that you could have been behind all of this. Orochimaru, I should have killed you when I had the chance all those years ago.' thought Hiruzen with regret.

"I see..." was Anko's only response, clenching her fists in anger and hatred.

'Orochimaru, just how many people's lives do you plan to destroy with your demented ideology! I hope you really do plan to attack Konoha, this time, I'll finish you off myself, even if it kills me!' thought Anko.

"So...what are we going to do now?" asked Kakashi.

"Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Itachi, I believe you were organising a social activity between your students when I called you in, where are they now?" asked Hiruzen.

"We were at Ichiraku's when you called us in sir, why do you ask...sir?" asked Kakashi.

"I'm asking because I believe that is where we will find Arashi and Yakumo, after all, what is the first thing you do when you arrive at the home village of your long lost twin brother?" asked Hiruzen rhetorically.

"You look for him and introduce yourself." said Shikaku, a look of realisation plastered on his facial features.

"Exactly, that is why we are now going to take a look at the events taking place at Ichiraku's" said Hiruzen dramatically, the irony not lost to anyone in the office, after all, Ichiraku's was also the place where Naruto met Yugito, and now he would be meeting his long lost twin brother that he knew absolutely nothing about.

0000000000

'Something's up with the dobe, does he not realise that what he is doing could be considered treason, or are they set to have a political marriage?' pondered one Uchiha Sasuke.

He'd grown a lot since the massacre of his beloved clan five years ago, both in mind and physique, just above average in height compared to the other male figures of his graduation class, wearing a blue shirt with a turtle neck collar and an Uchiha clan emblem at the back, white, knee length shorts, and black shinobi sandals.

He was sitting on a stool near the right end of the Ichiraku Ramen Stand. On his right side, seated on the end seat was one of his teammates and rival, Uzumaki Namikaze Naruto with Nii Yugito sitting on his lap, the two flirting, kissing, and feeding each other in what Sasuke thought to be an uncivilized and rude public display of affection, the two seemingly lost in their own world. Naruto was wearing a different outfit, one far more pleasant to the eye compared to his former outfit, he was still wearing a jumpsuit, but this one had dark black pants with red, flame-like stripes running down the sides of his legs and the top was black and dark orange. Strapped to his back was a short tanto, to his thigh a brown weapons pouch, and he was wearing black ninja sandals.

Initially, Sasuke had been unable to believe that the dobe had not only found himself a girlfriend, but one who was considerably older and a jonin of an enemy village no less. Not only that, but the extent of her beauty was something that Sasuke thought he would never see again since the passing away of his beloved mother, that was partiallly why it only made sense that the dobe only got his hands on someone of her calibre because of a secretly arranged marriage alliance between Kumo and Konoha, there was no other way the dobe could have bagged her on his own merits, Yondaime Hokage's son or not.

Speaking of which, that was something else that Sasuke was having trouble accepting, the dobe was the Yondaime Hokage's son all this time? That was just so unreal, the Fourth was said to have been a genius amongst geniuses, a shinobi that was incredibly powerful and feared throughout the elemental nations, a shinobi whose achievements were respected enough to be considered by many as the greatest of all the Hokages, and a person of great intellect and skill. Considering all that, the dobe had nothing in common with this man, how could it be possible for someone like that to produce a dobe, not just any dobe, but a deadlast dobe?

'His physical appearance perfectly matches the Fourth, maybe he only received the Fourth's physical traits and took everything else from his mother. Still, she would have had to be unbelieveably stupid to consumate with the Fourth only to produce someone as stupid as Naruto.' thought Sasuke apethetically. He was however broken from his reverie by a firm but sensual hug from behind, soft and delicate hands rubbing up and down against his torso seductively.

"Oh my, you're making it so easy for me to read you lately Sasuke-kun..." purred Ino with the voice of a seductress, her breathe blowing against a stone faced Sasuke's ear erotically. She is a beautiful, pale blonde haired, and blue eyed 12 year old girl with hair styled in a long ponytail with one chin length bang covering the left side of her face, wearing black spandex shorts, a purple skirt and a purple sleeveless top that exposes her lower belly.

"Hn, I have no idea what you're talking about, get off me, crazy woman." demanded Sasuke.

"Hehehe! Oh...I've seen you staring at Naruto and especially his girlfriend all day, and it finally clicked to me. You're staring at Yugito-san because...you're attracted to bubbly, voluptous, long legged, smart, but most importantly... blonde haired women, aren't you Sasuke-kun? That's why you're so jealous of Naruto-kun isn't it?" whispered Ino with a knowing smirk.

"Hn." Sasuke rolled his eyes at Ino's seduction attempt, honestly, how in the pits of hell did she come up with that ridiculous theory, there was a reason there were no blondes in the Uchiha clan.

"It's okay Sasuke-kun, give my body a few more years to develop and I'll be even better than her, you won't have to wait too long, I promise..." trailed off Ino suggestively, causing Sasuke's eyes to widen considerably, the beginnings of a short and long term plan formulating in his mind rapidly, in fact, if not for Ino's tight embrace, Sasuke wasn't sure if he would have been able to resist the urge to smack the palm of his hand against his forehead, why hadn't he thought of something like this sooner?

It was no secret, at least, not to team 7, that Naruto disliked, or even outright hated Kakashi and Sasuke's older brother, Itachi. The whiskered blonde and the cycloptic jonin had been at each other's throats for two weeks now and Naruto, uncultured as straight forward as he was, had made his feelings about their porn edicted sensei and his partner in crime loud and clear. But that wasn't anything important, at least, not to Uchiha Sasuke, up until that point, he'd treated the situation just like everything else that didn't and probably wouldn't contribute to Uchiha Shishui's death, close to maximum apathy and minimum curiosity.

But then...Naruto had revealed something that nearly obliterated his apathy during one of their latest arguments, according to the blonde, Uchiha Itachi, Sasuke's own brother, with the help of their own sensei, Hatake Kakashi, had attempted to wipe out and replace sections of Naruto's memories, not only that, but it appeared that Uchiha Itachi was capable of pulling off something like that with just his sharingan.

Now that had done more than peak Sasuke's curiosity, he never knew that the sharingan could do that, and he never knew that his brother was the kind of person that would do that just to keep a secret, a secret that Sasuke felt wasn't anyone's to keep for that matter, as he felt that if Naruto really was the Fourth's child, than he at least deserved to know that, in fact, everyone deserved to know who their parents were, everyone deserved an identity as far as he was concerned.

Sasuke, paranoid as he was, had become weary of his brother and started to see him in a new light. They hadn't gotten along in a long time now, but Sasuke had never thought that his brother would ever give him reason not to trust him, but now, he did not trust his older brother at all. He'd started to think back to all the events of his life, trying to find clues to confirm whether his brother had shown any signs that he was as cruel as he appeared to be, and Sasuke had to admit that he was shocked by what he had come to realise. Itachi had never shown even a hint of emotional or psychological damage before or after their clan's demise, and especially after their mother had been murdered. He never harboured any signs of hate or vengefulness against Uchiha Shishui, and he never even showed any signs of regret or remorse when Sasuke confronted him about his actions against Naruto, neither did he seem to think he had done anything wrong.

However, all these things didn't bother Sasuke half as much as what Sasuke had remembered about what he'd been told after the massacre. When he'd came to, he hadn't remembered everything that happened in detail, he'd only known that his clan had been slaughtered, his mother was alive, and that his brother was alive, but none of the finer details of what happened. The doctors told him and his family that his condition was normal, that the lost memories were the mind's own way of dealing with the trauma, that the memories would one day return when he was ready to deal with them. But the memories never returned, to this day, Sasuke did not remember anything beyond Shishui torturing his mother and taunting him about it before passing out. There were some gaps, things that were missing that Sasuke thought he should have been able to recall, but to this day, he couldn't recall any of them.

It was at this point that Sasuke came-up with a theory, if Itachi could make people forget things with his sharingan alone, than, was it possible that Itachi had used this ability on him as well? Now that he thought about it, Itachi could have done that literally any time that he wanted to, the guy had enough chakra and control to keep his sharingan activated almost at all times of the day and they made eye contact all the time, who knows how many times the guy had caught him in his genjutsu before he activated his own sharingan during that border patrol mission.

'That's it! Ino is the heiress of the Yamanaka-clan, if anyone can confirm my suspisions and help me remember, it should be her.' thought Sasuke with a little optimism mixed with a lot of trepidition, trepidition because there were problems with that plan that he couldn't ignore. Ino was not a person that was known to be able to keep secrets, in fact, she was quite the queen of gossip. He didn't feel comfortable allowing anyone into his mind, much less someone with that kind of character. Also, she would probably set some kind of stupid condition in order to lend him her help, probably demand that he date her or even worse, sign a marriage contract or something stupid and fan girlish like that. Speaking of fangirl behaviour, what if she decided to look for more than she was supposed to look for inside of his mind, what if she tried to find out what he thought about her and found out just how little he cared about her, what if she searched his mind and found out that he was just using her for his own gain? What would she do then?

People may have thought that he was emotionally challenged, maybe he really was, but he was certainly no fool. He was quiet and he never interacted with others unless he absolutely had to, but that didn't mean that he didn't pay attention to his surroundings. He is a shinobi blessed with the powers of observation granted by the sharingan, and therefore perceived and understood a lot of things, and one thing he definitely understood, was just how far a woman scorned could go to attain her retribution. He didn't even want to imagine what one who had full access to his mind could do to him.

'But I have no choice, she's the only one that can help me. Also, she is from a respectable and powerful clan, with the proper motivation, she could become a useful ally. I have to assume that Shishui has powerful allies too, I don't want to ever be caught unprepared again!' thought Sasuke, the cogs in his head moving rapidly as he tried to come up with a viable plan of action.

'The Yamanaka are also good at sensing chakra, her abilities could prove useful when I have to track Shishui down, it's not like I will just run into him by chance. Maybe...maybe I should accept her advances and become her boyfriend before I ask her to read my mind.' thought Sasuke with conviction. He figured that he could eventually develop genuine feelings for her. She was quite pretty and would definitely develop into one of the finest women in Konoha. Also, she was someone that would do almost anything he asked her to because of her infatuation for him, and up until recently, Sasuke hadn't realised just how much of a good thing that was for him. If he told her that he wanted a strong woman that could challenge him and protect herself and their future children, he was reasonably sure that Ino would do everything in her power to become that woman. If he played his cards right, Ino would go on to master all of her clan's techniques and become one of the strongest kunoichi in Konoha, and she would be 100 percent loyal to him.

Her personality would obviously develop the right way with that simple change of focus, she would learn what it meant to be a true shinobi and would become someone he could trust with his secrets, if anything, he would also make subtle but significant efforts to mold her into that person, a few subtle gestures and suggestions should do the trick.

'It will take a quite a while before we get to that point, but what do I have to lose? If I can get her there, I might develop genuine feelings for her and she could help me with my second objective if that happened.' thought Sasuke with a little excitement, his vision becoming clearer and clearer within his mind. Now that he thought about it, it was quite a brilliant idea, using Ino, with her genes and her clan's secret ninjutsu to rebuild the Uchiha clan would do his objective no harm what so ever. Also, with the way he would shape her character and the time they would inevidably spend together, she would only find positive thoughts about her if she decided to look for more than he asked her to inside his mind, and he therefore wouldn't have to fear for his life when she mind raped...eh...mind walked him.

"Sasuke-kun! Sasuke-kun! Are you alright? What's wrong my love?" asked Ino with concern, breaking the rooky of the year out of his thoughts.

"Oh Ino, it's just you, sorry, I was just thinking about something that happened in the past. Was there something that you said...or wanted to say?" asked Sasuke. He may have decided that he would date her, but he had no intention of asking her out himself. He figured that he wouldn't have to probe too hard anyway to get her to ask him out instead, she did that almost all the time.

"Well...I was wondering, since I will be preparing dinner today, if you would like to come and have dinner with me and my family tonight? I just thought that you might want to have a family meal every once in a while instead of just you and Itachi, plus, you get to meet your future parents in law." asked Ino bluntly but hopefully, fearful that her dear Sasuke-koi would reject her advances again, in fact, somewhat expecting it to happen really.

'Blunt and straight to the point, she's not one to beat about the bush is she?' thought a somewhat amused Uchiha Sasuke.

"Get away from him Ino pig! Sasuke-kun is mine!" screeched Haruno Sakura, a 12 year old girl with long pink hair and vivid green eyes, wearing knee length, tight black shorts with a long and red top. Viciously pulling on the blonde Yamanaka's pony tail in a bid to get her to let go of her crush.

"Aaaaaah! What the hell is wrong with you Forehead Girl?" exclaimed Ino indignantly, unable to help but to let go of Sasuke to try and wriggle herself away from Sakura's tight hold on her hair.

"I know what you're trying to do Ino-pig, and it's not going to work! As if Sasuke-kun would be interested in someone like you!" exclaimed Sakura furiously.

"You've had your chance Forehead girl, you've had six months as his teammate and nothing's happened yet, clearly he has no interest in you. Don't put me in the same boat as you, Sasuke-kun and I are going to have dinner tonight with my family, right Sasuke-kuuun?" cued Ino, finally untangling herself from her former best friend's assault on her hair.

"Hn, whatever, what time do I have to be there?" asked Sasuke apathetically, completely shocking everyone inside the ramen stand. As a result, Naruto completely haulted his flirting with his Yugito-chan, staring at the scene with eyes wide in surprise. Shino's bugs buzzed wildly, showing that the usually emotionless Aburame was just as shocked as everyone else. Choji choked on a mouthful of food, Kiba spat out his drink, Hinata's stopped twiddling her fingers, and Shikamaru's eyes widened in horror, wondering just how much more troublesome Ino would be now that she was so close to fulfilling her fantasy. Ino looked like a dear caught in headlights, just standig there with a completely stupified expression, not having expected the sudden turn of events at all. She'd be hoping, yes, but now that it actually happened, she was caught unawares and her mind had just frozen up completely. Sakura spotted a hurt and pained expression, tears spilling down her cheeks rapidly, her mind almost refusing to believe what her ears and eyes had just perceived.

"Yugito-chan, I thought you said that I was now immune to genjutsu?" asked Naruto, staring back at Yugito with accusatory eyes.

"Naruto-kun...you're not in genjutsu." replied Yugito with a raised eyebrow, wondering what the hell had gotten into her Naruto-kun all of a sudden.

"B-but...Sasuke-teme is gay, how come he accepted Ino's proposal for a date than?" asked Naruto innocently, causing Sasuke to twitch irritably, was that really what the dobe thought about him, was it what everyone thought about him? He didn't understand why everyone was acting like this just because he accepted a proposal to go on a date, if he had known it would attract this much attention, than he would have denied Ino now and asked her out later and privately.

"Nevermind that Naruto-kun, listen, I was thinking, that maybe it was time that we took our relationship to the next level, I have something special planned for you tonight." purred the Kumo seductress, placing a soft, sensual, and wet kiss on the blonde Uzumaki's lips.

"What say you, Naruto-kun?" whispered Yugito sensually, causing, once again, shock and surprise to filter throughout the ramen stand, this time, even Ayame and Teuchi unable to help but to react to the proceeding events, Teuchi dropping a pan he was washing and Ayame dropping a potful of ramen.

Sakura did the impossible and became even more depressed then she already was. In fact, come to think about it, she'd been depressed for quite a while now, it seemed like everyone was moving on and leaving her behind all of a sudden, not only that, but, out of the whole graduation class, everyone was from a great, respected, and noble lineage, even Naruto, whom she along with everyone else in their graduation, had thought to be a no-name deadlast, turned out to have a very strong shinobi lineage. All this and now, Naruto didn't seem to give a damn about her anymore, the one person who had placed her on a high pedestal was now the person that ignored her the most, even more than Sasuke did.

To say Sakura was jealous was an understatement, she was jealous of Yugito, she was jealous of Ino, and she was pissed off at Naruto for some reason she couldn't explain. Naruto was supposed to there for her when she was feeling sad, trying to cheer her up and begging her to go out on a date with him, and Sasuke-kun was supposed to accept her invitations to a date, not Ino's, why wasn't anyone playing their role anymore, why was everyone moving forward and leaving her behind.

'It's not just me, Naruto doesn't care about anyone in team 7 anymore, he absolutely hates Kakashi-sensei and he and he acts as if me and Sasuke-kun are not even there!' thought Sakura on the brink of tears. It was truly heartbreaking to her, how things had gone on such a downward spiral over the last two weeks. Team 7 hadn't just been a place of occupation for her, she come to think of them as a family of sorts. Kakashi was like a lazy, porn addicted, but wise and caring uncle, Naruto, her annoying little brother, and Sasuke-kun was...well, he was her Sasuke-kun.

'Everything is gone, Naruto has moved on, and Sasuke-kun...sniff...Sasuke-kun...!' cried Sakura, unable to hold back the tears anymore.

"N-no way! Naruto's going to lose his virginity before I do, and with such a hot babe? This can't be happening!" exclaimed Kiba, hands placed on his head as he gazed to the heavens in despair.

"D-don't be m-mean K-Kiba-kun, N-Naruto-kun deserves to be h-happy."stuttered Hinata, blushing furiously at what she was talking about, or rather, who she was talking about, not to mention the images that Yugito had caused to filter through her mindscape, secretly wishing she was as bold as Yugito, no scratch that, rather, wishing that she was the woman sittng in Yugito's place.

"H-Hinata..." trailed off Kiba, mentally smacking himself for being so insensitive.

'Even now, all she can think about is Naruto's happiness, Hinata, you really love Naruto, don't you?' thought Kiba, his hands curling into tight fists from the anger and frustration that was directed at Naruto, but maybe, even more so at himself, for failing Hinata as a friend and teammate, for failing to help Hinata gain her confidence in time. Now it was too late for her, Naruto was clearly in love with that Kumo chick, and as much as he hated to think that way, he didn't believe that Naruto would leave such a hot babe for Hinata, it wasn't possible as far as he was concerned, despite how shallow he knew that it sounded.

'Naruto is going to have sex with that troublesome Kumo woman...? This is too troublesome, I can't figure anything out wihout any information, and neither father or Naruto is willing to talk, not even Asuma sensei. This so suspicious, and not to mention troublesome, how am I going to get to the bottom of this!' thought Shikamaru. If there was one thing he hated, it was unsolved mysteries, well, actually, he did like the challenge that they presented, but only when he was able to eventually solve them, this situation however was too troublesome and he hated it, because there wasn't enough information to solve it and the people who had it didn't want to share it. There were just too many mysteries surrounding the blonde Uzumaki and none of them made any sense at all.

Perhaps, what both Naruto and Shikamaru didn't know, was how much of a genius strategy his pranking feats were, perhaps Shikamaru's first lead might have been the question of why the villagers would show so much hate for someone that was supposedly the great Yondaime's son, if Naruto hadn't spent so much time terrorizing and antagonizing the villagers that is. Right now, the natural assumption was that Naruto had earned that hate on his own merits, hence, denying Shikamaru the most important lead that would have helped him solve the blonde enigma's puzzle.

"Yugito-chan, you mean...?"

"Hai, I want you to make love to me tonight Naruto-kun, I can't wait any longer, I just want to show you how much I love you. Don't you want to show me how much you love me, don't you want to make love to me, Naruto-kuun" cut in Yugito as she shifted positions on the blonde's lap, 'accidentally' grinding her ass on the blonde's crotch, causing his manhood to expand rapidly.

"Y-yes! A-anything for you, Yugito-chan!" Replied Naruto in a trance like state, causing the blonde haired beauty to smirk happily.

Her plan was coming to fruitition, she'd spent a majority of the last two weeks at the blonde's apartment, claiming that she wanted to spend as much time with him before she returned to Kumo as her excuse for basically moving in with him for the last two weeks. Although that was part of the reason, there were two other major motives that she never told him about, wouldn't, tell him about. One was, it was also for his own protection, there was no telling what Konoha would do now that she had made her move, they'd already tried to abduct him and delete his memories, so she felt that her actions were justified. They wouldn't dare make a move while she was there with him, and if they did, she would make sure that their plans failed.

Another reason was that her stay at his apartment served as insurance, insurance that even if she failed to escape with him to Kumo, that Naruto-kun would definitely escape on his own later on and follow her back to kumo. The concept was simple, the impact of her departure would be far greater now that she was technically living with him than it would be if she had been staying with Killer Bee and his genin team. Right now she was the one cooking for Naruto, she was the one ironing his clothes, the one preparing his stuff for the next day, the first person he saw in the morning and the last person he saw before he went to bed. She was the one he was sparing with and she was the one he asked for training and advice. Right now, she was everything to him and had completely assimilated herself into his day to day life in just two weeks. Making love to him was the final nail in the coffin, she would be his first and she would make damn sure that she was his best and possibly, only. Her departure would leave a gaping hole in his life, he would have no choice but to follow her back to Kumo, especially considering that he probably thought that he would never find someone else that would accept and love him anywhere else in the world.

'This is not possible, that idiot is going to lose his virginity before me? What a nightmare!' thought Ino in despair. Deep down, she was willing to acknowledge that this was probably the best gossip material she had ever laid eyes on, but by the same token, it had possibly the worst implications that she could have thought possible.

"Ino..." trailed off Sasuke, a contemplative and serious expression on his face, although somewhat dimmed by the light blush he was spotting on each of his cheeks. He would never admit out loud like Kiba did, or share his feelings on the matter with anyone, but the thought of the dobe taking such a big step forward in life before he did really didn't sit well with him. It didn't matter that he had never really given thought to this kind of thing before, after all, sex was not going to kill Shishui, unless he had a very weak heart, something Sasuke was positive wasn't the case, but the fact that Naruto was going to do it just pushed him to the edge for some reason, maybe their rivalry wasn't so one sided after all, or maybe it still was, just that the roles were sort of reversed.

"Yes, Sasuke-kun, what is it?" cued Ino.

"I was wondering, since it is our first date, wouldn't you rather we go to my place at the Uchiha compound, you know, so that we can be...alone." suggested Sasuke, emphasizing the word alone to convey the hidden message in his request.

"B-but what about your brother, wouldn't he b-be there too?" asked Ino, eyes wide in disbelief and a little excitement, struggling to believe that Sasuke and her were thinking the same thing.

'Is he really suggesting what I think he is?' thought Ino, more then happy to believe that one of her greatest desires could possibly be fulfilled so much sooner than she thought.

"There are many houses in the compound, Itachi doesn't have to sleep in the same house that we have our date in, or anywhere near it." replied Sasuke simply.

'Oh my god Sasuke-kun's wants me to take his virginity! And...and he wants to take mine, and he's being so romantic about it, inviting me to his house for a lovely dinner, just the two of us! That...that's so romantic! True love conquers all! Take that forehead girl!' cheered Ino mentally.

"Oh, just the two of us huh...Sasuke-kun, I didn't know you could read minds too, have you been holding out on me?" purred Ino seductively, running her forefinger over the Uchiha's lips sensually.

"Hn, be there at 7pm, and don't be late." replied Sasuke, using up every inch of his willpower to keep hold of his cool and composed attitude.

'He acts so cold, even though deep down, he's quite the romantic. I've been waiting for this moment for a long time, I'm sorry Sakura, but...I can't let you win, Sasuke-kun is mine!' thought the blonde Yamanaka possessively, already picturing in her mind what it would be like to wake-up in the morning at Sasuke-kun's side.

"Alright...I'll be there...I promise..." whispered Ino, placing a chaste kiss on the Uchiha's lips, causing him to blush furiously, not having expected her to be so forward, especially in a public place.

Sakura couldn't take it anymore, seeing her future running away with her best friend was just too much to handle for her at that point in time. That was perhaps why she got up, slapped her best friend Ino across the face, and ran straight towards the door, but only to collide with a solid brick wall, falling flat on her butt as she recoiled from the impact.

Sakura was dizzy for a while, it took her a good few seconds to recover and regain composure, but when she did, she saw something completely unexpected. The object she had collided with was so hard that she thought that she had hit a brick wall, or even a steel wall, she certainly didn't expect the object to have been a human being, and not just any human being, but Uzumaki Naruto of all people.

"What the hell Naruto, I thought you were..." trailed off Sakura, eyes slightly widening in realisation, looking back towards the right side of the ramen stand only to see Naruto on the same stool that he had been sitting on, with Yugito still sitting on his lap, although, he had turned around to look back at all the comotion, the two making eye contact briefly.

'A shadow clone...?' thought Sakura, turning her attentions back to what she thought to be a shadow clone. Taking a closer look, Sakura, with her keen ability to pay attention to detail, was quickly able to realize that something was not quite right about the picture. This clone somehow seemed...bigger then the original, but that was soon to be the least of her worries, because not only was he bigger, but his whisker markings looked a little longer and deeper, not to mention his eyes, they looked a lot more animalistic than Naruto's did. He was also wearing a completely different outfit, wearing a red flak-jacket with a long sleeved, black top underneath that looked tighter than it was supposed to be, showing just how much muscle the blonde had underneath his clothing. He was wearing black ninja pants with white bandages around his ankles and black shinobi sandals. On his right thigh was a dark blue kunai pouch and on his forehead was a...

'A forehead protector with musical notes?' thought Sakura with a confused expression, wondering why Naruto's clone would be wearing something like that.

"So rude Arashi-kun, is that anyway to treat a lady? You didn't even apologise, did you?" admonished what sounded like a woman, seemingly appearing out of thin air. Sakura thought the girl didn't look a day older then her, but couldn't help but notice that she had the most beautiful skin she had seen before, spotting not even a hint of a blemish on her soft looking and creamy skin. The girl was of average height, with long brown hair and dark eyes, wearing also a red-flak jacket, a tight, short sleeved top underneath the flak-jacket and black shinobi pants that hug her feminine figure, white bandages around her ankles, and black shinobi sandals.

"Actually, she's the one that bumped into me, so techniqcally, she should apologize to me." retorted Arashi with a toothy grin, showing off the razor sharp shark teeth that occupied the inside of his mouth across his jawline.

"Stupid clone! I thought I told you guys to start working on water manipulation! What the hell are you doing here!" exclaimed Naruto indignantly, throwing a wind infused kunai at the other blonde with great force, the wind frequencies on the kunai causing said item to fly at blinding speeds towards the so called clone's heart. Yugito tried to stop her boyfriend, but it was too late, for he had already let go of the small bladed weapon, and she could do nothing but watch and see what would happen.

It came as a surprise to not to everyone in the stand, but more so to Yugito and Naruto when the supossed clone caught the kunai between his fingers with ease.

'Heh...he absorbed the wind chakra without manifesting the scales, when did he learn how to do that?' wondered Yakumo.

'He overcame the wind resitence by infusing the kunai with wind chakra to increase the speed of his attack, quite impressive that my clone has mastered something that I have yet to even learn.' thought Arashi, the irony of the situation not lost to him at all. He had a very strong affinity towards water, and a weaker one for wind, but had never gotten a chance to practise wind style. Perhaps partly because he didn't really see the need for it. He could create almost every wind effect and more with his sound manipulation, for example, a high frequency kunai like the one he just caught using sound vibrations. Also, he was still discovering and inventing new sound, water, barrier,and sealing techniques, was part of the science and research devision and had a genin team to mentor as well, he really didn't know where to fit in wind manipulation between all of that.

'But then, I will get all of the blood clones experience and memories when I re-absorb it, including his wind style abilities.' thought Naruto with a mental grin.

"S-sugoi! How did you do that, have you clones been holding out on me, did you discover something new while I was away?" asked an excited Naruto.

'What's going on here? This is not Naruto-kun's clone! His chakra is similar but also different at the same time, plus, this guy smells like fish and even looks kinda different. But why does he look like Naruto-kun so much, I know he's not using a henge, so why?' thought a confused and weary Yugito.

"Naruto-kun, I don't think that is one of your clones..." trailed off Yugito with a concerned expression, confusing the Ichiraku's and the rest of the Konoha twelve, Naruto included.

"A very good analysis, what gave me away?" asked Arashi with a shark-like smirk.

"There are obvious visual differences, like your outfit and your forehead protector, and less obvious but more important, the exaggerated physical traits on your face. And then of course, your ridiculous chakra reserves and the differences in your chakra signatures, there is also the matter of your scent, you kinda smell like the ocean, and a little fishy. Oh and did I forget to mention the slip up the girl next to you made earlier...I believe she refered to you as Arashi, and not Naruto as she should have. Quite a rooky mistake I have to admit for someone going under cover." explained Yugito, causing everyone, and that means everyone, even the Ichiraku's to put their guard up, now realising what a dangerous situation they were in.

"I see, so not only do you have a potent nose, but you're also a chakra sensor. That's quite impressive, Nii Yugito." commended Arashi, genuinely impressed by the first person he had met who could track both by sent and by chakra signature. He'd already suspected that she would be a scent tracker, the nibi was a cat after all, but he didn't expect her to be a chakra sensor too, that was something that he was not planning to forget anytime soon.

'Bastard! He used the situation to find out about my abilities, h-he tricked me!' thought a pissed of Yugito, a deep frown forming on her facial features for the first time since she arrived in Konoha.

"Just who the hell are you, and what do you want from me!" exclaimed Naruto, a pissed off expression etched on his facial features.

"I haven't seen you since you were born, is that anyway to greet your long lost twin brother who has been waiting for years to see you again, huh...otouto?" asked Arashi with a toothy smirk and a sinister glint in his eyes, shocking, once again, everyone inside the ramen stand.

Chapter End

Yeah not much progress, but don't worry, the chuunin exams will commence in the next chapter.

I'm not going to apologise about the cliifhanger, I've done it so many times that it just seems foolish to keep apologising for something that we all know I'm going to do again, lol.

I know Uchiha haters are gonna complain about the Sasuke/Ino thing, but just remember to keep an open mind and wait till I reveal what I have in store for the plot. It is important to remember that I am also an Uchiha hater, but that doesn't mean I will ignore story development just because of something petty like that.

Anyway hope yaw enjoyed it, keep it real.