What's that, you say? Four updates in a week? By that logic, I can take three weeks off to focus on writing for publication...not that I will. It bugs me that this story would go unfinished.

Again, please give me your thoughts on Sasuke's chapter/mini-arc and whether I should write it. Unless I get an overwhelmingly negative response, I'll write it.

Let's get this trainwreck moving.

"A penny for your thoughts."

"You intend to go through with a war." It was no question. E knew, from decades of experience, what would happen with a change in regime. Kitsune needed to cement his power; every fiber of his history and his attitude screamed that he would conquer.

"Yes. I was hoping that I'd manage to unite the Shinobi Nations with a minimum of bloodshed." Kitsune admitted his ambitions with a cold kind of matter-of-fact statement, unapologetic, and he was clearly daring the gathered shinobi around him to rise up in defiance. "My terms are that you surrender to me. Acceptance will mean keeping your rights, ranks, titles, and so forth. Consequences will be dealt out as necessary."

"Then can I at least see the face of the man I'm submitting to?" Such words were unheard of from the Raikage. He was a man to fight, to challenge and to defeat any obstacle in his path...but he knew what the stakes were. The new Kazekage, Sabaku no Gaara, had already aligned himself with his "brother." Yugito would leave Kumogakure for her husband in a heartbeat, or less. A falcon had already been sent to Iwagakure demanding acceptance. If Onoki refused, there was no guarantee that his pair of Jinchuriki would abandon the village that scorned them; the same applied to Mei, whose regime had not been wholly kind to their former tyrant and his right-hand man. Furthermore, a delegation had already been sent to retrieve the Nanabi Jinchuriki from her home in a minor village.

At best, it was two against three with four Jinchuriki against a coalition of Kumo, Iwa, and Kiri. At worst, it was two against three with eight demon containers on the side of the two. One situation was dire, if salvageable, but the other would mean total and utter annihilation. He wasn't willing to risk that, even for the sake of his pride as the Lightning Shadow...so he would surrender, and join the burgeoning power of Kitsune's force.

"...yes, I suppose so. But only this once."

He pulled down his cowl, revealing blond hair that flared like the sun, and began the process of unlocking the mask's straps from around his head. While he could have simply used a minimal amount of chakra to let it stick to his face, he didn't want to take the risk of having that continuous drain affecting his concentration on battles and techniques; seven buckles were undone, and at last the mask's metal backing fell off. A black-gloved hand reached out to the mask itself, lifting it off of Kitsune's face, and the ever-present sucking and hissing of Kitsune's breathing was no more. His dual-toned voice would have been gone, had he not stopped speaking anyway, and his true face was revealed. The Dark Lord Kitsune, the Godaime Hokage, the Shadow of Flames, was none other than Uzumaki Naruto.

"They Kyubi Jinchuriki!" Mei exclaimed, surprised.

"Yes, I am, but that's really only a minor facet of who I am."

He gave a "come hither" motion with his hand, and Sai stepped out from the shadows to pick up the mask's backing. Kitsune placed his mask back on his head, for once actually using chakra to keep it on his face.

"If you would."

Sai went about re-locking the mask back into a makeshift helmet, and then he retreated into the darkness.

"...Kiri will also live under your reign."

"Ah, don't say that. That makes it sound like I'm a tyrant or something. I just like to fight and take places over, not to viciously rule them into the ground."

"Well, it is a military dictatorship that you're running." E slides the jab at him. "Regardless of what your councils might say."

"Councils? As in, the multiple?" Kitsune seemed fascinated, nearly shocked, at the thought.

"Well, yes. The ninja council, and the civilian council."

"I don't give a damn about civilians, though. I'll leave those kinds of things to you, as your way to govern."

"That's cutting out a severe portion of your populace, though." Gaara responded.

He was silent for a few moments before standing. "Gentlemen, my lady, I believe that I've forced you to stay longer than was intended. I apologize." With a deep bow, and a piercing not-glare that shook the trio of leaders to their bones, Kitsune left the audience chamber. He had a society to rearrange, after all, and that wasn't going to happen on its own.

Well...it could, but it wouldn't turn out the way that he wanted it to.

It had been a week since the failed invasion. The invaders were utterly crushed, though Konoha and its allies had still suffered various stages of loss. The passing of the Sandaime Hokage was a great shock to most, as only his former teammates were able to recall a time where Sarutobi Hiruzen hadn't been a dominating presence in the village's day-to-day affairs. Some could sense that their lives were about to get harder. Many were afraid of their new Hokage, a man who had killed thousands on his own and who spared neither pity nor mercy for those who found themselves beneath his booted heel.

Sakura only trained.

She trained during the day. She trained during the night. She trained and sparred with Kakashi, with Sasuke, and with anyone else who would let her train with them. She trained with Lee to build her strength, Itachi to build up some sort of resistance to illusions, Tenten or Shikamaru in flexibility and maneuvering. She took scrolls of knowledge, be they neutral-natured techniques like medical the medical arts or the secret Haruno scrolls, and she learned all that she could from them.

She had vowed to be powerful. She would be strong, stronger than anyone. Stronger than Kitsune. Stronger than the gods that she no longer believed to exist. Strong enough to kill the masked man and to avenge her father's murder. She would do it for him and for herself, and for all those people who had doubtlessly suffered by the power of his twisted thoughts.

She would do it.

Sasuke, for his part, mostly watched; he knew that they were on the verge of another war, that he should train himself for what was clearly going to come in the near future, but he couldn't. He wanted to, but couldn't find it in himself to do anything. His life, his very reason for existing, had been to kill Itachi and get his revenge for their murdered clan. To find that his hated elder brother was innocent, that he'd been framed and forced to make Sasuke seem dead in order to keep him alive, was world-shattering.

When he could muster up the will to actually do something, he would train with Sakura and help her unleash her anger. When he couldn't, he simply watched; she had become a dedicated ninja for the same reason that he had, to end the life of someone who'd taken that which was precious. He was, effectively, watching his own life from eleven years ago.

She'd passed through most of the stages of grief already, had even accepted his death...but she wasn't over it. She was angry. Violent. She'd nearly taken his throat out with her bare hands, so he'd left her to the others for a while. He actually found himself doing things that were distinctly outside of his normal routine, like visiting the (miraculously intact) Academy. And, dare he say it, socializing. It was weird.

But "weird" was the kind of thing that would happen when you've been trained from birth to be an element-wielding soldier-of-fortune. People ended up with all kinds of disorders and delusions, and it was never pretty to see them when they finally snapped; The masked man was clearly proof of this, as was Anko, or Neji, or even Kitsune. Each person dealt with the stress differently, and each one broke in a similarly different way. Sasuke wouldn't have been surprised if someone had developed a god complex after losing people important to them.

He watched, he looked from afar, and he waited. He waited for something that wouldn't come, some sense of peace that would never be reached. He'd spent more than half of his life hating the very same brother who loved him more than anyone, who he knew would even dare to defy Kitsune if it was for him. All that he felt for those years now, instead of the anger and the hate and the frenzy that he'd thrown himself into, was a void of sensation. There was nothing; no thought came to mind. No taste or smell, no sight or sound or touch. It was a hole in his heart and mind that would forever go unfilled, and he needed to find some way to start digging himself out of it.

That was how he found himself at the door outside of the Hokage's office, waiting for Kitsune to let him in.

The die had been cast. The ten descendants of the Legacy had been brought together, under his watchful eye, and he would know them for their true selves once they finally cast down the witch-woman who'd foiled him almost nineteen years ago.

That was what the prophecy foretold. That was what the Wheel had set into motion countless rotations ago, if the scholars were to be believed at all. The bloody woman would be slain by the very children she had raised from the ground up, who had been of her and yet not of her; the Nine, and the tenth, would destroy her. That was what he knew for truth, what had happened for hundreds of thousands of millions of years throughout the eternal cycle that was without beginning or end.

By the thunder of the West, the water of the East, the earth of the South, the wind of the North, and the flame of the central landmass betwixt all four. By the wrath of the First, the lust of the Second, the sloth of the Third, the gluttony of the Fourth, the avarice of the Fifth, the uncaring Sixth, the envy of the Seventh, the pride of the Eighth, the hatred of the Ninth, and the power of the tenth...she would die. That was her inescapable truth, her destiny, and she knew it as well as anyone who bothered to read the ancient texts and study what the Eldar People had known.

It was petty of him, but he would have his violence. He would have his fight. Her body, ripped wide apart and with its red stone glowing, would be a perfect offering to return her to her true and ultimate state of being. Her power would return with the deaths of the Nine, and the elimination of their descendants as well as the long-lost child of the tenth.

And then he would rule.

"Write the brat back."

Onoki glared as he spoke, fuming. The child wasn't even in his office for a week, and already called himself something as terribly cliched as 'the Dark Lord?' What kind of insufferable foolishness had been bred in Konoha?

"Tell him I refuse. Our catapults are powerful, our soldiers strong and steady, and we've been preparing for war for a lot longer than he has. Iwagakure has never been captured, and the mountain pass that guards us has never been overrun. He will fail to take the city, just as the Yondaime did. Just as the Sandaime did. Just as the Nidaime, the Shodaime, and Uchiha Madara did. We are the stone, and they will fall."

Kurotsuchi bowed as quickly as she could, making headway out of her grandfather's office, and barely missed the words as his receptionist's whispered, "There's a first time for everything."

Onoki sat down, bodily shoving his paperwork aside and unrolling the most recent geopolitical map onto the desk in front of him.

"I doubt that Kumo joined him. Kiri might not have a choice in the matter, because of how weak they are from their civil war, and Suna will stand by their ally, but we will have Kumo. The Mizukage's been replaced, meaning that their Jinchuriki leader died, and I remember the Kazekage saying something about killing his weapon of a son...which sets the Jinchuriki score at two to four in my favor, unless they get Taki's. That would make it three to four, still in our favor, when we have twice their number of soldiers. We outnumber them on all fronts by double, save for Kage, but that doesn't really matter. I'll need to check the catapults and the walls personally, double the guard and stagger the shift changes. Set up rubble on the peaks so that it can roll down and crush them. Reforge the ballistae and start making bolts. Go over siege tactics with commanders, send out the Anbu in advance, prepare civilians for evacuation into the cave systems. Stock all nonperishable supplies, set up a rationing system in the event that it's needed."

Let no man say that the Great Fence Sitter didn't weigh every possible option that he could foresee.

War was on the horizon, and it was something that the Tsuchikage, Onoki of Both Scales, knew and remembered far better than most people who lived. He had fought in three wars and the very end of the tumultuous Warring Clans era of life, a disastrous and vile time where the only people you could trust were your family; he'd been born of stone, of grit and granite, and he would stand proud. He had fought against Uchiha Madara and been defeated, utterly so, but had lived to tell others about it...which was a rare occurrence unless your name was Senju Hashirama. He had fought against the Nidaime Hokage, and they'd declared the match a draw. He'd faced the Sandaime Hokage, and they had drawn again. It wasn't until the Yondaime Hokage, the accursed Namikaze Minato, that Onoki had been thrashed as thoroughly as in his youth, against Madara. He had faced down and defeated the Sandaime Raikage, the Nidaime Kazekage, seven separate Jinchuriki, the Shodaime Mizukage, the Nidaime Mizukage, the Gold and Silver brothers, Orochimaru, and countless other formerly-feared historical names.

He would not stand for some insolent pup, some upstart whelp, declaring war unless he surrendered. There would be blood running down the stone of Iwagakure's walls, he swore to himself, before he was done. It would be the red of Hi no Kuni's hired mercenaries, the ninja who stuck to their trees and yet used the element of fire, the ones for whom his hatred ran deep. He would crush them beneath the stones of his catapults, pierce them with the bolts from his ballistae, and turn them to naught but ash and dust. He was Onoki. He was more than simply the leader of his village, the one who was a shadow of his element.

He was the Tsuchikage, the Stone Shadow. He was the earth, the rock itself, and he would not be moved.

Believe it.