Disclaimer: See the prologue.

Last time: Neji Hyuuga is on patrol at the south wall of Konohagakure when a mysterious figure who can block his Byakugan throws him a strange bundle. After seeing what it was, he yells for someone to take him to the Hokage.

This time: The secret of the package is revealed, along with someone who could be of great help to the Leaf. No, it's not Naruto.

Pairings: Still deciding. Leaning toward a Naru/Saku, but I may decide to go with an unusual one like Naru/Ino or Naru/Ten.

The Hokage was dead tired. Not surprising, seeing as it was something like four in the morning. She had been sleeping peacefully when an ANBU had come by and started pounding on her door, yelling that there was something that she just had to see.

"Tsunade-sama, you need to stay awake," her assistant Shizune chided softly, "I don't think that Neji-kun, of all people, would wake you up for no reason."

The Godaime Hokage yawned widely and obviously before propping her head on her fist and answering, "This had better be good," the blond haired woman grumbled, "and I mean real good. Like Naruto is back or something." Both women fell silent as they wondered what the boy they both thought of as a little brother was up to now. Or if he was even still alive.

Four years ago, Naruto had finally managed to corner Sasuke and made his attempt to bring the rogue Uchiha back to Konoha and his previous life. The attempt hadn't gone over well at all. Naruto had been brutally beaten and nearly killed. Tsunade grudgingly admitted that, if it hadn't been for the Kyuubi's healing powers, and the timely intervention of Akatsuki, her adopted little brother would be just another soul claimed by the cursed necklace that she had given to him six or seven years ago. Then, the moment he had healed and recovered from the savage beating, Naruto had vanished. That had been the saddest moment Tsunade could remember since Dan died. Even her old teammate Jiraiya had been saddened. The Godaime still hadn't seen the old man since he left in pursuit of his wayward former student.

"Thinking about him?" said Shizune's voice. The slug sannin looked at her, the tourture of Naruto's sudden exodus clearly evident in her hazel eyes. Shizune had lost count of the number of times she had walked past her master's room at night and hear the older woman sobbing softly within. As much as they bickered and fought, the two were siblings in every way but blood.

"I hated having to write his name on the missing-nin list," the Hokage muttered, her voice thick with sadness, longing and self-hatred. "He wanted more than anything to be Hokage, Shizune." The younger woman nodded, everyone had known Naruto's greatest ambition. Anyone who listened to him for even one-and-a-half seconds knew, 'cause the boy was always proclaiming it at the top of his (considerable) lungs.

A soft knock at the door cut all possibility for further conversation. The transformation that went over Tsunade was astounding. In an instant she went from a tired and lost looking, to the stern, but distantly benevolent, Hokage that had been leading the Leaf since the Sandaime died in the Sound's attempted invasion.

"Enter."

At that simple command, the oak doors across from the two women opened and Neji Hyuuga strode into the room, the ANBU who had so rudely awakened Tsunade with him.

Tsunade noted, with some satisfaction, that the ANBU looked extremely nervous. Probably fearing her wrath for not letting her get her beauty sleep. Not that she needed it; her genjutsu kept her looking twenty even though she was in her fifties. Tsunade wasn't known for aging gracefully.

"Hokage-sama," the Hyuuga intoned, nodding his head curtly. Shizune sighed, that was lowest bow they had ever gotten out of the boy to date. She and Sakura had a running bet to see how long it would take for someone to get him to bow, freely or forced, it didn't really matter.

"What do you want Neji-kun," Tsunade demanded roughly. Shizune hid her face in her hand. Her master still had yet to learn the finesse that politics demanded. Did she have the cunning? Oh yes she did. Her grandfather was the Shodai Hokage after all and she was constantly outwitting vengeful debt collectors. But one could have cunning and still be as subtle as a flying anvil. Or Tsunade-sama's fist, whichever caused more damage. Shizune privately thought the fist would win and would turn the anvil into just so much scrap iron.

"Hokage-sama, while on duty for the south wall patrol, my men were spooked by what I initially thought was a wild animal," Neji began, launching into his report, "after being assured that it was no animal, I proceeded to use the Byakugan to try and see who or what was out there…"

"Get to the point," Tsunade grumbled. Shizune gulped, her master's infamous temper was on the rise. And ever since Naruto had left, it had been more prone to boiling that ever. Plus the fact that she had been asleep a grand total of four hours wasn't helping matters one bit. Not even her closest friends were safe when she was as strung out as she was right then. With that truly frightening thought, Shizune took a half step away from her cranky mentor, just in case Tsunade decided to throw something. Like that heavy mahogany desk she was currently seated behind. To his credit, the young Hyuuga prodigy showed no emotion, but then, Shizune reminded herself, he rarely did.

"Yes Hokage-sama," he replied in a monotone then continued, "The intruder was able to hid his or her inner coils from my bloodline." Despite herself, Tsunade felt curiosity ripple underneath the annoyance she was radiating. Very very few people could outright block the legendary All Seeing White Eye.

"I continued to observe the anomaly after I had sent my men to fetch ANBU. Just before the ANBU arrived, the thing charged the wall.."

"Back up!" Tsunade yelled suddenly, shooting to her feet, disbelief etched on her pretty face, "He charged the wall!?" Even most foreigners knew that was a death sentence. You never charged Konohagakure's walls. Not unless you had a collective suicide wish or some freaking huge jutsu to get over it with.

Neji nodded, "That's correct."

"What happened?"

"I'm getting to that ma'am," he replied. At the leader's nod, he continued, "He threw this at me," and he held up a rough burlap sack with bloodstains on it.

"That?" Shizune asked incredulously, "Some risked becoming a pincushion for that?" She just didn't get it. No one was that crazy.

Neji shook his head, "Not this. More of what's inside it."

"What's in it?" Tsunade inquired, at which Neji approached her desk and handed her the sack. The Godaime rolled it around before finally locating the knot that held the bag together. It had evidence of being retied. She looked at Neji with a piercing gaze, "You've opened it?"

"Yes Hokage-sama."

"What is it?" the Fire Shadow asked.

"You wouldn't believe me unless you see it for yourself." The Hyuuga answered. That made Tsunade cock an eyebrow. It took a lot to make a Hyuuga, especially this particular Hyuuga, admit to that. He added, "I will say that this will change all of Konoha's policies regarding Oto." That statement made Shizune and Tsunade exchange glances. What could be that earth-shattering?

"Let's see what it is then." Tsunade remarked and undid the knot. The next instant Shizune screamed as the contents of the sack rolled onto the Godaime's desk. Tsunade just stared at what was contained in the burlap sack. "You were right Neji-kun," she said with pure shock and disbelief coloring her tone, "this changes everything. We must take steps to find whoever did this and find out what they know."

"What about the people?" the ANBU spoke up for the first time. When his commander looked at him, he took it as a signal to continue, "Hokage-sama, they fear an invasion. They need to know about this. How are you going to tell them without raising suspicion?"

Tsunade relaxed into the comfortable chair and took a breath that made her ample assets bounce a bit before responding simply, "We don't tell them." Ignoring the shocked looks and outbursts she continued, "This is now classified beyond top secret. Anyone in this room who even speaks of this until I say otherwise will be declared an S-ranked missing-nin and treated accordingly." She glared at everyone with an expression that left no room for argument, "Am I clear?"

"Yes Hokage-sama!" said the three others in the room. After everyone else had left, she gazed at the contents of the sack that still lay on her desk. As she stared at the new development, she had to hand it to whoever managed to pull this off. After all it was not every day that someone just handed you Orochimaru's head. The authenticity still needed to be verified, of course, but the Fifth really believed that it was legitimate. She was willing to bet on it.

The next day had the Tower in an uproar. Tsunade, Shizune, and Sakura had all met and used every medical ninjutsu they knew to try and determine if the grizzly trophy was who it appeared to be.

"It would be just like that bastard to send us a fake just to get our hopes up," Tsunade muttered darkly as she trailed a glowing hand over the head, trying for any slight sign that the head wasn't who it appeared to be. So far, all the tests had pointed to what the Fifth really wanted to believe. Orochimaru was dead.

Sakura straightened up and arched, trying to pop her back, and unintentionally displaying some of the changes that had come over her in the past few years. "That seems a little unnecessary, even for him," she said with a grunt as some of her vertebrae popped.

Her mentor snorted, "This is Orochimaru we're talking about Sakura. You don't know half of what that jackass would do to get his kicks." She could clearly remember him taunting her with the return of Dan and Nawaki if she would just heal his arms. If it hadn't been for Naruto's determination and reminding her of what she had left behind, Tsunade probably would have done it.

"Well Tsunade-sama, I can't find a flap of skin to peel the face off." Shizune commented, "I think it might really be him." The other two women just looked at the slightly desiccated snake sannin's head. They hadn't really examined the thing with any real respect like they would have had it been someone like Kakashi or Jiraiya. And though no one present would admit it, way less respect than Naruto. The face was what they had really avoided. The head's expression wasn't remotely peaceful or bearing the trademark smirk the snake usually wore. Instead, the head had an expression of pure horror. As if Orochimaru had finally seen something to scare even him, as twisted and maniacal as he was.

Sakura spoke, "What now Tsunade-sensei?" At which the Fifth pinched the bridge of her nose, thinking about what to do. Her specialty was in the healing arts, just like the other two. A post-mortem on a decapitated man really wasn't her area of expertise.

"We have no choice," she answered, then reluctantly told them, "We have to take it to an specialist to get the final word. I don't know about you two, but I really don't do post-mortems that often. I'm not exactly good at this." The others nodded in agreement.

"Well Hokage-sama," the doctor said carefully, "I dunno how to say this." He scratched the back of his neck with the other hand resting on his hip in a clearly troubled and puzzled pose, "There is no evidence of tampering with the…uh… body, aside from what you and your assistants did."

"So what you're telling me is…" The Fifth trailed off, hardly daring to believe it. It was too good to be true.

"Yes ma'am." The doc replied. Though he was a civilian doctor, at one point he had been one of Konoha's top hunter-nins. If anyone could confirm the veracity of this head, it was him, "Someone did the Leaf a very big favor. What you have there is a genuine Orochimaru head." He rubbed his brilliant red hair. He had taken so many lives during his time as an ANBU hunter-nin that, after he had retired, he had gone to med school and now put his skills to a truly noble use as one of the few former shinobi who would even use a jutsu again. The way the doc saw it was, you could either leave those deaths on your conscience and have nightmares for the rest of your life or you could atone by saving lives. He had chosen the latter and never regretted his choice for a second.

"Thanks Ken," Tsunade told him, relief and elation clear in her voice, "I knew I could count on you."

The doc smiled at the compliment, "You don't need to thank me. Or tell me this is classified. You have my silence."

"I'll see your clinic gets some extra funding in the near future."

"No, Hokage-sama. Keep your money, I am just happy to help." With that and a final smile, the doc left on his way back to the office. He had given up his lunch hour to help with the request so it wouldn't seem strange of him to leave, even if he was the only doctor in Konoha to make house calls. Problem with that excuse was the calls were infrequent at best and had to be prearranged with his secretary. The lunch had been a tailor-made excuse as long as the examination could happen in less than an hour. It had taken him fifteen minutes to verify the identity and another fifteen to make sure he was correct. If the Leaf was to mobilize and strike at Oto, he wanted to make damn sure the right lives were lost, even if he didn't agree with the method.

Meanwhile, it was all Tsunade could do to keep from jumping into the air and clicking her heels together. It was true! All of it! Orochimaru was really truly dead! It had gotten to the point where she didn't think he would ever die but he had! And hopefully he hadn't transferred to the Uchiha brat. But Ken was the best they had and if he said it was Orochimaru, chances were way up on the odds that it was.

One Year Later….

The Fifth was tired. She felt as if she had used her seal. Twice. In a fricking row. Her initial hope that Oto would fall apart and disband after the Snake's death had been wrong. Her security on the situation had also been short lived. Someone had found out the third Sannin's death and leaked word to Konoha's newspaper system, so she had had to tell the people that, yes, Orochimaru was in fact dead and no, she didn't know who had done it. Now reports were surfacing of Leaf nins coming under attack during missions outside the Fire Country. She had asked the Kazekage to look into it for her. Gaara had readily agreed but had warned that they were experiencing a surge in mission requests and the amount of time they had to devote to the search for the cause of the attacks would take quite some time.

She was half tempted to mobilize Konoha's forces right then and lead a genocide campaign on all of Rice to uproot and destroy Otogakure, but she knew that the population of Konoha, which was largely civilians and retired shinobi, would riot at such an act, not to mention what the other villages would do to them for going after Oto with only circumstantial evidence.

Now she turned her attention to the other, more mysterious report on her desk. Her hand reached for the file almost automatically. The report that contained many smaller mission reports with in it, all pertaining to the same subject. The possibility of a Sound missing-nin. This was more rumor than hard fact as most of the incidents involved attacks on the squad in one form or another. What was consistent was that all the teams had been saved from death by the appearance of a cloaked stranger who had a slashed Sound hirai-ate plate mounted on the forehead of his cloak's hood. Kakashi had even had an encounter with the man. The Copy Ninja had claimed to have seen the man fight off some fifteen Sound by himself and not even get a nick in his cloak. The final part of Hatake's report had mentioned, in what was clearly a puzzled tone, that the missing-nin's fighting style had seemed familiar somehow.

"Keep that up and your face will wrinkle even more, Tsunade-hime." The woman in question jumped and hurled the file at the source of the noise. The speaker got smacked full in the face, which made papers go everywhere. Then her eyes widened as she saw who she had nailed.

"Jiraiya!" The Toad Hermit rubbed his face, dislodging one paper that had settled into his snow-white hair. He grinned and it was clear that the man himself hadn't changed much during the five years he had been gone. "When did you get back?" she asked.

"About twenty minutes ago," the other sannin responded. At seeing her hopeful expression, the old pervert sighed, "No sign of him." The Fifth's face fell and tears welled in her eyes, "His trail went cold almost two years ago. I've tried to pick it up and I even asked the sand kid if he's stopped in Suna but no dice."

"Two years?" the Slug Princess repeated dumbfounded. Naruto had gone way underground if he could avoid Jiraiya for five years and keep the trail cold for another two. "Is he still even alive? Did the Akatsuki get him?"

"I wish I knew," said the other, he sighed and looked at the ceiling, "I've checked all the leads I can think of. I even asked Gamabunta if he'd been summoned recently. Apparently Naruto either knows not to use the Summoning Jutsu or just decided to forget. Either way, none of the three toads that Naruto usually calls has been summoned since he left. I do know that Akatsuki doesn't have him."

"How can you be so sure?" the Hokage asked, hope on her face. If Akatsuki didn't have her little brother then his odds of being alive went way up.

Jiraiya laughed at the question, "You're not gonna believe it," he told her, still chuckling. Seeing her raised eyebrow he elaborated, "They asked me."

Tsunade sat bolt upright. "They did WHAT!?" she shrieked. She must have heard him wrong.

"Yeah, no joke. They came into the tea shop where I had stopped, sat down and asked me. It was laced with the usual death and dismemberment threats and it wasn't that straight forward but yeah, they asked me where Naruto was. Even ordered tea!" Jiraiya stopped to laugh again.

"What did you tell them?" asked the Fifth. She knew how violent the one called Hoshigaki Kisame and the traitor Uchiha Itachi could get.

"I told them to go to hell and what to do when they got there," he answered, laughing again. For a moment Tsunade joined in after she got the mental image of the three ninjas sitting around a table, making polite conversation while drinking tea.

Abruptly, Jiraiya shifted to serious mode, "So what's this I hear about a missing-nin from Oto?" He watched closely as his teammate and old drinking buddy stopped laughing and fall silent. To the untrained, it looked like she was ignoring him but Jiraiya knew better. She was going to tell him. She was just trying to figure out how.

"We don't know that much," she began slowly, "most of the teams who were saved by him were under such heavy attack that their memories of the incidents are, understandably, shaky at best. Kakashi has had the best look at him, so talking to him would probably be your best option."

"I'll do that then," Jiraiya said, mostly talking out loud. He turned to leave and left Tsunade to her mounting paperwork.

Jiraiya walked down the street that divided the residential district from the entertainment district. Most might think that he was on his way to do 'reasearch' for his little orange books, but this time, for once, that was the farthest thing from the self-proclaimed super pervert's mind. He was looking for a certain sliver haired shinobi. He had no idea where Kakashi's usual hideouts were, but he knew the Jounin generally hung out at the memorial stone, just staring at and reflecting on his teammate's deaths. He really did feel bad for the guy. Jiraiya could remember how his soul felt torn in two when Arashi Namikaze, the legend known as the Yondaime Hokage, used the Shiki Fuuin to seal the Kyuubi into the boy that he would come to regard as a surrogate grandson.

'Little brat,' the Toad Sannin fumed, 'leaving everyone behind to go and do something stupid. I'm gonna kick the shit out of him if he shows his face around Konoha again.' Though his thoughts were full of ominous threats, Jiraiya really was worried about the kid. No, not kid anymore. The blond should be around twenty now. Man, it would be something to see how much the scrawny loudmouth had grown. If there was anything left when he and Tsunade-hime got through with him. And Jiraiya would bet any amount of ryo that that Sakura chick would finish off whatever the two sannin left in one piece.Speak of the devil, there she was. Maybe she would know where the scarecrow was at.

"Sakura!" he called. He saw her stop and look around for who had called her name. It was clear that she didn't know it was him, even though the two had been on a couple of missions together. 'With Naruto,' he remembered painfully. Funny how all his best memories revolved around either the Yondaime or Naruto.

"Jiraiya-sama!" Sakura sounded shocked, "what do you want?"

"Do you know where Kakashi is?" he asked, mentally crossing his fingers. Sakura thought for a moment or two then shrugged.

"I dunno," Jiraiya almost facevaulted but before he could she continued, "try the memorial stone and check his house too. I know he hasn't been sent on a mission because he never came to get an assignment. I know 'cause I was in dispatch all day today. Why?"

"I heard that he had a close encounter with that missing-nin from Oto," the toad user replied, "I just wanted to see what kind of information he can give to me." Sakura nodded her understanding. Being the Hokage's apprentice had some upsides. The biggest one had to be that she occasionally heard some classified material that she wouldn't have access to just being a jounin.

"Good luck."

"Thanks," he answered as he turned to leave. Her voice stopped him one more time,

"Did you find any sign of Naruto?" The sheer amount of hope in her voice at finally getting some wind of the wayward blond after five years almost made Jiraiya want to lie to her and say that he had found him. He decided the truth was better,

"I haven't heard anything about him in two years. The trail went cold around the Mist village." He couldn't look the poor girl in the eyes. Instead he just faced her, his head bowed enough that his hirai-ate hid his eyes in its shadow, "I'm sorry."

Sakura felt her knees hit the ground as the old man walked off. Sure he was a pervert, and she hated perverts, but he had always given off this aura of being an extremely competent shinobi. A few times over the five years the white haired sannin had been gone, she had heard Tsunade-sensei wishing for his spy network. Then that memory was swamped by utter weight of what the old man had told her. He couldn't find Naruto.

'The trail went cold around the Mist village,' she thought numbly, 'first Sasuke-kun, now Naruto. Why do all my friends seem to leave me?' That was too much and she broke down and just started sobbing, the citizens around her noticing but not moving to help because they didn't want to take the time out of their busy schedules and help.

On the other side of the village was a tall man with a mask covering his lower face and a Leaf hirai-ate covering his left eye, leaving him with only his right eye to observe the world around him with. He wore a standard flack vest and black body suit and gloves with metal plates on them, but these were shoved deep into his pockets as he stared at a giant piece of obsidian carved in the shape of something like a cross between a compass rose and a raindrop with a little sundial sprinkled in. His silver hair glinted in the noontime sun. Konoha was rather warm at noon, especially at this time of day and season, but the masked jounin didn't seem to notice the heat. He just kept staring at the stone. At one name in particular, Uchiha Obito. The donor of the Sharingan currently placed in the eye covered by the mask.

"Welcome back Jiraiya-sama," Kakashi spoke abruptly, not even bothering to turn around. Hell, his eye never even left Obito's name. The footsteps were consistent with the traditional wooden shoes that the sannin had worn since the jounin had know him.

"Still stare at the stone for hours on end?" the man in question asked with a tiny laugh. Had it been anyone else, Kakashi would have shown them what it meant to be on the receiving end of a certain jutsu that had yet to be defeated, "You know that has to be some kind of complex."

"I'll let you know when I care," the Copy Ninja replied with no real emotion, "Wanna hear what I did to the last guy to tell me that?" He didn't particularly feel like in a talking mood right then. He was always kind of melancholy after remembering the death of his best friends.

"Not really," Jiraiya laughed, getting an amused snort from the other man. What the toad user said next caught Kakashi totally by surprise, "What I want to hear about is the little encounter you had with a certain Oto missing-nin." The White Fang's son regarded the sannin with his visible eye. In that instant, Jiraiya really hated that damn mask that hid most of the Copy-Nin's face, he couldn't read what Kakashi was thinking through it. Finally, after an eternity, the tall jounin sighed and responded,

"What's there to tell?" he asked, "I was on a mission and got ambushed…"

"We've got him now!" the gray camouflaged and masked Oto nin shouted to his subordinates. Before him was a tired and cut up Sharingan Kakashi. Orochimaru would have been pleased! But unfortunately, a sneaking turncoat had cut their great leader's life short, no doubt wanting to gain favor with the Tsunade whore, "Press the attack!"

Kakashi grunted, the Sharingan in his eye whirling as he watched, memorized, and predicted the large squad's movements. Too bad the eye was really designed for close combat. Wasn't really worth the chakra it took to keep it active, but the Leaf nin had no choice, the alternative was to be dead. He slashed the throat of an enemy who had tried to attack him from above and smacked the corpse over his shoulder in the same motion. He didn't have time to reflect on the victory of cutting the squad down another member and shorting the Sound one less shinobi to use against Konoha in the future.

"GOTCHYA!!" The moment the copy ninja heard the voice, he ducked, snagging the arm of the fool as he sailed over Kakashi's head, then tucked in and pulled, planting the Oto nin in the soil of the forest clearing where they were fighting. Now three ninjas leaped at him and he couldn't throw weapons fast enough to kill all of them.

'Chakra it is,' the lanky shinobi thought grimly. Not the best way to expend his chakra, but he had no choice. His gloved hands flew together, making rapid-fire seals, stopping with the sign for tiger,

"Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!" the tiny fireballs lanced from the area of his hidden mouth and struck all three of the leaping shinobi. They screamed as they were hit by the multitude of fireballs, which, upon going out, were revealed to have had shuriken hidden in them. The stars were glowing red from being heated up by the fire jutsu. A sardonic thought wondering if it hurt crossed Hatake's mind briefly before he was once again occupied.

'I am going to run out of chakra,' he thought desperately, just before head Oto made a gesture and an additional ten grey-clad shinobi leapt from their hiding places. 'Scratch that. I'm going to die.'

Kakashi paid dearly for his mental lapse; a blow from one of the new arrivals caught him off guard and the mighty jounin flew through the air to slam into the ground a couple feet away. Dimly he heard the leader cry for his men to kill the Sharingan wielder. The world seemed to stop spinning as he heard the footsteps of the Shinigami coming for his soul.

'Arashi-sensei, Obito, Rin.' One by one his comrades faces flashed by in front of him as Kakashi remembered the team he had lost and felt a little happy that he would see them one more time,

"I don't think so," a new voice said. Kunai flashed from nowhere and impaled every Oto nin in the neck except for the leader. As Hatake struggled back to his feet, a blur streaked from a tree to his left and landed in crouch. It took Kakashi a moment to realize that the figure in front of him had no shape. Then he realized that the stranger was wearing a black traveling cloak that completely hid his form by trailing to within just a few inches of the ground. His cloak's hood was up and when he turned around, Kakashi saw with a start that hood concealed the man's entire face with the exception of his mouth. The cloak's only feature was the slashed Otogakure hirai-ate plate fixed to the area where the man's forehead would have been.

"You alright, Hatake-san?" the man asked. Personally, Kakashi thought that it was more of a demand than a question, but the man was from Oto and was asking about his health. Add in the fact that he had just saved the jounin's ass and he supposed he could let it slide.

"Yeah," the other replied, working his neck to try and get ache that had developed when he had landed from the strike to the jaw. "Just who the hell are you, if you don't mind me asking." The cloaked man snorted softly as he turned back to the only remaining Sound ninja left.

"Just passing through," he replied in a low monotone, "thought I'd give you a hand."

"Thanks," Kakashi said, his gratitude real. He really thanked whatever Kami was watching over him. The deity had sent the right blessing at the right time. "What do you want?" It was obvious the man wanted something because he had risked coming to the aid of a potential hostile. What would the man have done if Kakashi was still in ANBU?

"What do I want?" the missing-nin repeated softly, a low silky tone that promised bad things to his enemies. Kakashi was suddenly glad that that killing intent the stranger was radiating wasn't directed at him. The man continued, "I only want to wipe Otogakure from existence."

"Traitor!" the Oto nin shouted, "Orochimaru-sama granted you a home when you had none! And now you repay us by slaughtering our men and making things diffi…" that was as far as the man got before he was cut off by a kunai embedding itself in his neck.

'From the side!' Kakashi yelled at himself. Just as he thought that, a second cloaked man dropped from the trees. Hatake thought for an instant that there were two Oto missing-nins running around. Then the new arrival poofed out of existence in a cloud of ninja smoke. 'Kage Bunshin. This guy is good. I didn't sense the attack coming or even where the clone was hiding.'

"Later."

The voice made the stunned jounin jump. The man had started to walk away, his cloak rippling in the wind that his movement made.

"Wait!" Kakashi called, and was surprised to see the man actually stop and make a half turn back to him, "why don't you come with me to Konoha? We could use someone who has your experience with the Sound."

It was a moment before the man replied, "Sorry. No. I still have unfinished business with their bastard leader." The man resumed his walk away from the other ninja.

"Who's the leader?" Kakashi yelled after him. The man blurred out of sight, but not before his answer was carried back to him on the wind,

"Uchiha Sasuke."

And that's all for this one. Yes Sasuke will be the villain for this fic. Don't like it? Oh well. write your own fic. Also, yes everyone's favorite Kazekage will make an appearance, and yes HE WILL KICK ASS and also I do know the Yondaime's name is Minato Namekaze! The way it was written here was no accident. I did that because I prefer the name Arashi over Minato. In an attempt to compromise, I kept his surname the same.

Jutsu: Katon: Houksenka no Jutsu: (Fire Style, Phoenix/Mythical Fire Flower). The user spits out many small fireballs instead of one massive one like in the Grand Fireball Jutsu. Weaker that the Fireball Jutsu, but potentially more useful because the sheer numbers make it harder to dodge and shuriken can also be hidden inside the fireballs. Sasuke used this one against a Rain shinobi in the Forest of Death.

Read and review. I'll update once the next chapter is roughly 5000 words. I won't commit to updating once a week or something like that. I will post the next chapter is at its length reqirement, however long that will take. Sound fair?