Since I only got one reviewer that requested I choose between the routes I laid out for myself (props to SSJ3 Kyuubi Gohan for being that person) I'll go with their suggestion. Rather than spending another two chapters setting up and dragging out the remaining time in canon (which is, rapidly, drawing to a close) I will instead begin the Invasion of Konoha mini-arc now.

Let's get this trainwreck moving.

There was a distinct flash, followed by a roar, as the Kazekage stood. "Begin Operation: Destroy Konoha!"

All those who were affected by the sudden Genjutsu had dropped to the ground, knocked out or disoriented; those who were still standing, which meant the fighters that were the most capable of carrying out the battle, had already engaged one another. The four present Kage, Kitsune, and Orochimaru had teleported inside of a barrier set up by Orochimaru's minions, and the time for battle had come.

"Orochimaru...I would never have believed that you would actually possess the gall to attack your home directly. Showing a Jiraiya-like streak, are you?"

"No, Sarutobi-sensei, I'm just bored." Orochimaru yawned. "And, to sate that boredom, Konoha will burn to the ground. How fitting that a village of leaves will be consumed by the elemental nature of its land, hmm?"

Mei and E fanned out to either side of the Hokage, though Kitsune stayed behind with his eyes closed and his hand on the hilt of his sword. He would only have one shot at the move he was preparing; if Orochimaru could keep him talking for just a few more seconds, then he'd be able to do it with absolute certainty.

"You are wrong, as you ever were on these matters...the Will of Fire is about protecting the young so that they may grow and fall in the defense of the next generation. Konoha is stronger than you've ever known it to be, because its people and families are bonded by a deep love of one another and the village that they live in. You will fail, my wayward student, and we may at last know peace when you fall."

There it was; he was ready. Now, Orochimaru just needed to speak for another sentence to mask the sound of the blade's drawing.

"Not before you do." The White Snake grinned manically, drawing the Kusanagi (which was on his hip for once, rather than inside of a snake that was inside of his mouth) in time with Kitsune's blade.

And then, without warning, the blue-steel falx of Kitsune split through Sarutobi Hiruzen's neck as easily as it might have threshed grain. The Shadow Helm flew from the decapitated head, landing squarely upon Kitsune's own. The shadow cast by it darkened his already-masked face, but no loss of light would be able to hide the unhallowed glimmer of darkness in his eyes; this was his hour, and his vengeance against betrayal had been achieved. "And that's as far as you go, Orochimaru. It's time for you to die, and join your teacher in the afterlife."

"Not much of an afterlife, though." He grinned. "After all, I still have a few tricks up my sleeve...so, Black Fox, tell me. How would you like to have a reunion with our recently-deceased Hokage to even the score up a little? Three-on-three seems a little more fair, especially at our level...Edo Tensei!"

[Well, fuck. I hope you didn't think getting out of this was going to be easy.]

No, but I had my hopes.

[Hopes that just got smashed to pieces, you mean.]

Kitsune closed their telepathic link, unwilling to deal with the demon's sass at the moment, and stared dully ahead as the Sandaime Hokage was returned to the (undead) flesh. It didn't really concern him, as he had ways around it, but he was still more than a little annoyed; the man had been paranoid by the end of his life and slowly dying before his death had come, and yet nothing truly seemed able to permanently strike him down. In that sense, of course, he was much like Kitsune.

At least his sword could drain all of the chakra from the technique, which meant that holding them down would be enough to kill them...how unlike him, though, to find some sort of silver lining in his morbidity. Perhaps his seal-created persona wasn't quite as vanished as he'd thought? Or was he changing in ways that couldn't be afforded? Either question brought unpleasant answers, and Kitsune needed to focus on the battle at hand.

"You will fall to your knees before the end, Orochimaru, and beg for forgiveness from those who cannot hear your cries."

"Of course I will. Every fool and their mother tries to get me to bend my knee to their service and obedience, and each of them has fallen. Sarutobi, the Kazekage, Kusagakure, the Uzumaki family, the Sandaime Raikage, your uncle...and most especially your parents. Minato was my friend, almost like a nephew in the sense that he was Jiraiya's apprentice. Your mother was exactly the same way, as one of Tsunade's few students...and I didn't begrudge that I had to choose my student from a pool of Danzo's rejects. Your parents might as well have been my students as well as theirs, for all that I did, and yet when I was forced to flee it was your thrice-damned father who tried to shove his accursed ball into my chest!"

"Good for him, then. It's not enough for me to stop hating him for all he's done, and for leaving this place before I could properly kill him for what was forced on me, but it's a slight start. At the very least, he made one right decision...and I don't particularly like your idea of a fair fight."

The black ink on his left arm, and the red of the right, glowed brightly. From the markings came the smoke associated with summonings, and one raced away in a flash of darkness before it could be seen. It raced through the dual-barrier system without any trouble, guided by the hole created after Kitsune shoved his blade behind himself, and escaped into the city.

"I am Kitsune, the Godaime Hokage. As a fire exists, it casts both warmth and shadow...my warmth is gone, off to save whoever it may, but my shadow remains. May I present to you Uzumaki Menma, the shadow of my hatred who is even more vile and disturbing than I, the man who they call the Dark Lord."

Sasuke wasn't having a very good day. While his chakra capacity was nearly full, thanks to the Dead Man abilities not interfering with his inner energy, he'd still fought enough battles; he'd defeated Hinata, managed to run through several unsuspecting Suna and Oto shinobi, and was currently back-to-back with Sakura as they held off a dozen more opponents by themselves...until Shiro appeared, using her blood as a concussive force to strike the various enemies down. The albino woman, in her signature off-white and red bodysuit, was a force of nature that could not be stopped. Sasuke even thought that it might be a possibility for her to defeat Kitsune, though he knew that the idea was ridiculous.

They moved on, joining up with the various other ninja of their year that they found on the course of their fight through the city; all of Gai's team had joined them, as well as Ino and Shikamaru...but something felt off about Ino. It was the lines spreading across her skin in a geometric formation, the rage and desire to kill that radiated from her in a not-quite-tangible aura. They were like Sasuke's curse-mark, except that she was actually using the power that was offered to her. She fought viciously, more than all the rest of them, and it was moderately frightening; Ino didn't fight like a berserker. She was a lady, if a shallow and competitive one, and hated having to work for herself. Dark sealing can change people with a fair amount of ease, however, and that was clearly what happened.

Sakura was thankful that she'd taken Naruto's advice and thrown the match, since she was at full capacity and could fight on even ground with Sasuke and her friends beside her. She struck out with physical energy coating her fists, and spiritual energy was what filled the air around her. Her enemies were left rooted to the spot after just a punch, and when they inhaled they took in the poison that made their hearts pound until they burst. Perhaps Sakura would have hesitated in other situations, where she were just trying to fulfill a mission, but she couldn't afford any mercy or pity right now; she would take the shock and horror of her first kills later, when it was done and she could mourn properly for those people who had died, were dying, or would die. For now...for now, she would need to do what Kitsune would do: protect the village and all of its people. Save the civilians and watch the backs of her allies, prevent as much damage as possible.

Shikamaru sent them out like the soldiers that they were, directing them like puppets and occasionally even using his own techniques to manipulate the enemy into death. Together, they managed to cut a swath of freedom around the center of the village; they could only hope that others were managing to do the same. Naruto was likely off by himself, leading people on a wild goose chase through the village like he would on any other day so that he could clone himself and kill them once they got tired...or, potentially, to lead them into some kind of a death trap. Naruto had always been great with tricks and traps, so there was no way to say that he wouldn't be able to improvise something from nothing when he had the entire village to tinker with.

As a boy in a black tank-top rushed by them with a sword on his back, followed by around thirty of the enemy ninja, Shikamaru couldn't help but laugh at the astuteness of his assumption. Seconds later, as he heard thirty or so panicked screams and a stream of red-coated steel enter the sky, he began to whiten; maybe his mother was right, and he really was too smart for his own good.

Naruto reached them, grinning. "I thought I saw you guys!" He gave a short, barking laugh. "C'mon, we need to go where we can help most."

"Where's that?" Sasuke asked.

"The western part of the wall. Kiri and Kumo are holding out, but Suna and Oto are starting to drive them back. We need to hurry up and get over there before our reinforcements get trashed!"

"...you're a clone." Sakura observed. "If you were really him, you'd be in your mask and armor. Not to mention that his eyes are red, not blue and your speech is like his old self."

"You're right," the clone responded as they raced off, "but the real me isn't available at the moment. He's up in the purple box over there, helpin' out Hokage-jiji against the Kazekage and Orochimaru-teme...but I don't think it's going too well. I felt the boss pull out somethin' that he's done his best to keep dead and hidden from the world, which means that he's gotten desperate...and I don't wanna know what that snake can do to make him use that."

They couldn't really imagine what he was talking about, given that he was so vague, but that was fine. They probably didn't want to know, and Kitsune definitely wouldn't want them to discover whatever secret he worked so hard to hide, so they wouldn't try to find out.

"You seem different from the other clones." Sasuke observed. "You're not a carbon copy of him, like the others."

"That's 'cause I'm Naruto." It responded. "I'm his seal-born personality, strapped to a clone that's summoned and dispelled at will. All in all, it's not so bad; I have all of the boss' knowledge and skills, and I take as much to kill off as any normal person. Most of his month was used up trying to figure out how he could pull me out of the seal."

He couldn't talk any more, though, because they'd arrived at the slaughterhouse that was the western wall.

"So you're still alive." The monotonous words are dropped without pity, and the man walks into the house without any kind of regard for who else might be there.

"Yes, somehow. I think our old friend, the Sai, might have been the one who made sure I stayed that way. How's your brother?" The pink-haired man rolled his wheelchair along, looking to the black-haired and black-eyed man who walked beside him.

"I wouldn't know, I returned a few minutes ago, after a distress call went out from our leader. I doubt that he would welcome me with any warmth, given what I was accused of and what I was forced to do to him in order to keep him alive. He wouldn't believe the truth, in any case, and that's what matters."

"Once a crow, always a raven, hmm?"

"More or less. My name and my mask have always seemed somewhat arbitrary, given that they don't define my traits."

"Ah, friend, but they do. Who else but you would've thought to destroy a country through carpet-bombing their economy rather than murdering them all?"

"As I recall, you were in favor of the butchery. I just wanted as few lives harmed as possible."

Haruno Sozetsu rolled his eyes, knowing that systematically dismantling an entire system of commerce reduced every person in the country to absolute poverty. The man just didn't like to fight, unlike all the rest of his clan; he'd been forced to view the end of the Third War, killed his first man at the age of seven, and the experience had scarred him for life.

"You mean you wanted fewer deaths on your conscience. That's what you mean. Our mission was to obliterate the country and everyone in it, no matter how it was done. Besides, I was the one who went with you while Inu took to the killing with taicho and the Sai."

"Yes, I remember. I always remember, Kame...these eyes of mine don't let me forget."

For such a legendary ninja, a man whose ascent through the ninja ranks was unparalleled save for Orochimaru, Kitsune, and the Sandaime Hokage, the Second Coming of Madara was a gentle man at heart...but he had returned to the city of his birth, to the land of dark and bitter memories and the emptiness of his family compound. He had come home because it was demanded of him, as Kitsune never asked anyone for anything, and he could feel the blood being cleansed from his conscience simply by standing in the war-wracked village of Konoha.

Uchiha Itachi was back.

Believe it.