Title: A Demon's Tale
Author: swiftstar85
Genre: Drama/Friendship/Romance
Rating: T for some strong language, violence, suggestive material, and crude humor.

~Chapter Thirty~

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, though I wouldn't mind if I did.

Everything finally calmed down and explained, even with many questions going right through everyone's heads about what to do next. Even after the explanation of where Sai had really come from; which sadly Danzo refused to answer. It had annoyed everyone to great lengths that he was being a stubborn old man and not explaining a single word that Tsunade, with the permission from the other Elders, ordered Ibiki to take the old man into custody and begin his methods of interrogation.

The very thought of what was going to happen with Danzo was not pleasant for anyone to think about but no one shared any sympathy for him.

Eventually, everything had been explained of what had happened the past week with all of the teams. Everything that Gaara and Kankuro had gone through while in the Land of Hot Water and how they had found Yagura, Yukimaru and Guren and eventually had even lead up to finding Rin and her two fellow Shadoai.

Then eventually Team Gai explained what they had gone through on their mission in Wave. They even told Team Kakashi and Gaara of what Tazuna, Tsunami and Inari had said their hellos and congratulations to the new Kazekage. They went on to explaining that Port City had been under attack by the Chakra Brothers and the minions of Gatou who sought revenge on the city. They reported how they had come across Yugito Nii as Alea and how they found out who she was.

By the end of their explanation, Naruto represented a guppy fish, staring right at his fellow Jinchuriki after hearing that she had the power of manipulating the dead like Zabuza and Haku.

No one paid him no mind though.

The last to be explained was how everyone took down the two Akatsuki members, Kakuzu and Hidan; whom technically wasn't dead but buried in pieces in the Nara Clan property. Everyone was just a little creeped out to hear that the Akatsuki member was still alive but buried but at least they didn't have to worry about him for a while.

So, now all they had to do was figure out what the next part would be.

"Excellent work, everyone." Tsunade stated, her hands folded together as she looked at everyone that was piled into her office. Including the Elders and Quoi. She could almost smirk at the idea of having so many new allies all at once being in the Leaf village. It definitely was going to get very interesting from there on out. She definitely would want to see a few training matches between the four Jinchuriki and see what both the Two Tail and the Three Tailed Jinchuriki were capable of. She knew if they were anything like Gaara and Naruto, she was in for a lot of surprises. But that could wait for now. "Don't get complacent, though. There are still more Akatsuki to deal with. For now, everyone can take a break. You've all earned it. We'll also make some living arrangements for our new allies. Just until you're ready to move on and do whatever you desire." She told them.

Everyone just nodded while Yugito Nii bit her lip. She gave a meek little wince to think about it before she raised a hand. "My Lady," She began carefully earning a nod of encouragement from the Fifth Hokage. "If it's not too much to ask, can I send a messenger bird out to the Cloud Village? I think I played my death a little too long and it's time that I let my Raikage know that I'm not dead."

Tsunade reached up and chewed on her nail a little but she nodded. She knew that if they tried to prolong the revealing of Yugito Nii too long and the Cloud Village found out, there would be trouble. She knew very well of what would happen if they found out from someone else that they had their Jinchuriki in their village.

As it was, trouble might still be coming their way. The Leaf Village and the Cloud Village were not exactly friends.

"Very well, Yugito Nii. That will probably be the best course of action with you right at the moment. We don't any trouble with the Village Hidden in the Clouds. We already have bad reputations with them as it is." Tsunade said with a sigh.

Yugito Nii just smiled and shook her head as she tucked her hands behind her back. "I promise, Lady Hokage, I will do everything in my power to keep everything from blowing up. I swear, my Raikage will listen to me. He took me in when I had no home and raised me. He's just like my father and he is kind hearted once you get to know him. He's really protective over me and my best friend, Killer Bee; who is the Jinchuriki of the Eight Tails. He won't be happy that I'm here, of course, but I swear, he'll listen to me." She promised.

Tsunade faintly smiled but couldn't help but shake the feeling that something was probably going to go wrong anyway. "I sure hope so. We really don't want to end up fighting with the Cloud Village again." She said with a sigh.

"Oh, don't worry. You won't. I'll make sure of it." Yugito said with a sly smile. "Because if he tries to start a fight with you, I'll just pretend to cry and he and Killer Bee hates it when I cry. They'll do anything to keep me happy. I guess..." She grimaced but kept a grin on her face. "I'm kind of spoiled that way."

There were a lot of snickers and chuckles within the room as everyone found that highly amusing. Even Tsunade had to smirk behind her hand hands and shake her head.

"Yeah, well," Temari spoke up giving Gaara a rather scornful look. "We got a problem of our own to settle with our own village. The Suna Elders weren't exactly too happy about that letter that Gaara sent to us. I'm sure they're flipping out right about now."

"And poor Baki is the one who is going to suffer for it." Kankuro remarked. "If we don't get back, they'll probably send Hunter Nin after us."

Gaara shared a rather dry look with his siblings before shaking his head. "We're going back just yet." He suddenly spoke up.

"What?" Both Temari and Kankuro exclaimed in surprise and even the others looked surprised.

Again, Gaara shook his head as he looked right at them before turning his cool gaze onto Tsunade. He knew very well that things were going to get messier with his decision but it was for the best. "We have the Akatsuki to worry about. And as long as I am not there, they will leave the Sand Village alone. I will be staying in Konoha for a little longer until this whole Akatsuki mess is done and over with. I will be writing my concerns in a long letter for the Elders to understand. But right now, we have three other Jinchuriki to look after and protect, Temari, Kankuro. If we know the Akatsuki the most, which we should after how many clashes we've had with them, and they ruling the Sand Village for a number of years, they will come for Yugito Nii, Yagura and Naruto. I will not leave them unguarded." He said with determination.

Tsunade frowned at him. "You know they will be safe here, Lord Kazekage. We can protect them with all of our forces that we have. And I'm sure they're not exactly pushovers when it comes to fighting." She told him firmly.

Gaara looked back at her and nodded. "I am aware of that. But after how many clashes we've had with the Akatsuki, we know they possess quite powerful ninja among them. I just do not want to take that chance. And after what I will say to the Suna Elders, they will understand entirely." He told her.

Taking a deep breath, Tsunade finally nodded. "Very well, Gaara. You're more than welcome to staying as long as you want. You and your brother and sister. Let's just hope that the Suna Elders won't flip out on me." She said firmly eyeing him.

"They won't." Gaara said, his tone quite too serious for that remark.

A few eyes turned onto Yagura next, who got the idea of what they were asking. "I am known to be dead to the world and the Mist Village especially. But I suppose it will be best to inform them of my existence before they too find out the hard way. They will definitely not be pleased but as long as I carry Sanabi and stand with your village, they will not try and strike against you. They know how excessive my power can be. As it is, if I am guessing right, I know who the Fifth Mizukage is. She was not very fond of me, but she didn't hold me in contempt as many others had. She will listen to what I have to say." He swore to them.

Tsunade nodded again and turned her eyes onto Sen, Chiro and Rin. She frowned deeply at them; even as the youngest Shadoai was eyeing her so called twin brother with a slight happy but sad look at the same time. She knew that it was going to be very hard to get over the idea of knowing Sai's past now. He wasn't exactly from the Leaf Village but he had grown up there just like Gaara had. It was going to take some time getting used to the very idea. "Well, for our new allies, the Shadoai, we'll make sure you're well set up at the inn until we can find better accommodations for you." She looked directly at Rin, who cringed under the hard stare. "Rin, I will be wanting a full report from you of everything that happened after the battle with the Nine Tailed Fox."

Rin put on a firm look and jerked her head into a nod. "Hai, My Lady. And I won't leave a single thing out." She then frowned deeply as if she remembered something. "There was...one other thing that I should probably tell you, My Lady. But it will be best if I told you and you alone." She told her.

Everyone frowned to hear that. Even Kakashi looked curious to hear what she had to say. "Rin?" He asked merely touching her elbow.

Rin glanced at him but shook her head. "If you all don't mind, I would rather just tell the Lady Tsunade about it. It'll be her decision to inform the rest of you." She said, with an apologetic look.

Slowly, everyone nodded in understanding. They wanted to know what it was but they wouldn't push Rin into telling them. Especially if it was for Tsunade's ears only.

"In the mean time, why don't all of you get some rest?" Tsunade suggested to all of them. She could see that everyone was a little worn out from their hard day's battle with the two Akatsuki members. And if the two had been exactly how the reports had been given, the battles that Team Asuma, Team Kakashi and even all of the others had been a wearing one. So everyone must have been tired.

And then everyone was dismissed. Everyone but Rin, that is.

"My Lady," Rin said in a very serious tone as she looked directly into Tsunade's eyes. She knew that this bit of news was going to be just as unsettling and surprising to her as it had when she first discovered it. "There is one other thing that I need to let you know about."

"What is it?" Tsunade asked, her tone stern.

Rin shook her head as she lift her head higher. "The night of Minato Namikaze's sacrifice, Orochimaru wasn't the only person that Danzo was talking to. There was another person there. I have no idea who he was but I'm starting to get a picture of his identity. There was only one name that was given to Danzo. I'm not sure if it was true but….." She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "And it doesn't make sense one bit."

Tsunade's lips pursed at the way Rin was drawing it out. She knew it must have been a lot more serious than it was with Danzo consorting with Orochimaru about plots. There must have been something a whole lot more. "Tell me what happened, Rin. Don't leave anything out. What was the name you heard?" She asked firmly.

Again Rin shook her head as she thought about it for a moment. "It was right after Danzo was through talking with Orochimaru and I was about to start running for my life. A man in black showed up right after Orochimaru left. The thing was, I don't think Danzo was counting on meeting this man. He looked pretty surprised to see him. But…..he also didn't look pleased. I don't think the other ninja was happy to see him either. They were both really, really tense around each other. It was like they were going to start fighting at any second. But….the name that I caught, barely caught anyway was….." She had to think for another second. "I believe I heard Madara off of Danzo's lips."

Tsunade blinked in surprise. That was a name she did know but…..it couldn't be true. There was no way it was the same Madara she had heard of. "Madara?" She uttered in her surprise. Her brow furrowed and she stared sternly right at Rin. "Tell me everything that you heard that night and saw."

And Rin complied with her demands.

The next few days were somewhat slow as everyone adjusted to the idea that there were so many new faces in the Leaf Village. Some of the villagers were uneasy with the knowledge of having a Cloud, Mist and the new Shadoai Ninja within their village.

But with the entire Rookie ninja, the young Kazekage and his siblings mingling with them, smiling and joking with them, the unease was slowly starting to wear off.

As it was, Naruto had to have been treated by Tsunade after the fight with Kakuzu and it had been discovered that his arm had been heavily damaged from using his special jutsu. It had been broken in many places and it didn't help that it was his right arm. So it was harder for him to eat his ramen, even with everyone with him. Of course, with Sai trying to help him by feeding him and Naruto freaking out about it, it had everyone laughing as they watched that it was Kakashi who decided to do it.

The funnier part of the entire situation was that Konohamaru showed up and decided to show off a jutsu that had everyone bugged eyed and stunned stupid, though it had Naruto cheering him on. It was Konohamaru's version of Naruto's jutsu, The Double Sexy Harem Jutsu. It did not help that he had two naked ladies apart of his technique, making several blush furiously; minus Naruto and Kankuro. They actually quite enjoyed it.

Much to Sakura and even Sen's disgust. Both of them clocked Naruto and Kankuro hard on the heads, giving them quite large lumps.

"You can't do stupid stuff like that, Konohamaru! That jutsu is completely outrageous and I can't believe you're picking up Naruto's bad habits!" Sakura lectured the young teen boy.

Giving her quite the look for it, Konohamaru performed the jutsu again, only this time it was replaced with a naked Gaara and Sai, embracing.

Once again, faces flushed bright red while Sakura ended up with a nose bleed, staring at the two. Gaara's own face went bright red while he stared at the image of himself and Sai. This was definitely not a sight he wanted to see. Especially with himself entangled with Sai. He couldn't stop himself from smacking Konohamaru upside the head while looking away with a deep blush on his face. Everyone else were either snickering or looking away blushing. They knew better than to say anything about the sight they just saw.

"So," Sen was the one to ask as she looked around at everyone, her eyes mostly lingering on Sai, who was trying his best not to meet her eyes. She slouched a little as she noticed that he was trying to avoid her. She had been trying for the past few days trying to get to know him but he was still really uneasy about knowing who he really was now and still trying to get the hang of having a twin sister now. "So, what are we going to do now? Shouldn't we be hunting down the Akatsuki or even Caligo?"

Sakura sighed as she leaned against Gaara's shoulder, while he was engaged with lecturing Kankuro, who was teasing him about Konohamaru's ridiculous jutsu. The look that the young Kazekage was giving his older brother was enough to kill someone. "I think the only thing we can do right now is rest up and train some more. Now that we have a bigger team and new allies, we're going to need to get used to everyone's fighting skills."

Chiro nodded as he stood against a pole, looking very much like a bodyguard, even with Guren right next to him. The two were, surprisingly, getting along very well after the past few days. And since they were both serving as body guards to Sen and Yukimaru, they figured they would get used to being around each other. "That's the best course of action for now. The sooner we get to training, the better strategies we can come up with."

"Right." Kakashi stated as he turned a page in his Icha Icha book and went on reading. "There's still much for Naruto to even learn. And since Rin is offering to teach Sakura some techniques," He looked over his book at the pretty pink haired young woman. "You'll need to get some training in soon. So the sooner we get back to training, the better."

Gaara and Yagura nodded as they both glanced at one another and then to Yugito Nii as she was chatting away with Tenten and Rock Lee. The young Kazekage couldn't help but spare a small smirk as he watched his former Leaf ninja enjoying being around the Two Tailed Jinchuriki. There was something definitely there between the two.

"As for us, the Jinchuriki," It was Yagura who spoke, his tone quite dead and serious as he looked around at everyone. "We should probably get some training in together." He looked right at Naruto as he perked up, as did Yugito Nii. "Because the Akatsuki is after us, it would serve us better to get to know each other's powers and learn how to work with one another. With all of us working side by side to defending ourselves and each other, we can become that much more powerful."

"And eventually," Gaara added in a raspy tone as he lightly put an arm around Sakura's shoulders. "We will be rid of the Akatsuki for good."

Yugito Nii nodded with a smirk of her own as she shared a glance with her friends, Team Guy. "Well, I'm definitely going to be working with Rock Lee, Tenten and Neji with some more of my Taijutsu but I could use a bigger challenge in a sparring match. No offense, guys." She said, with an apologetic wince to her friends.

"There is no need to apologize, Alea." Lee said with a warm smile. "We understand. It is true that because you are a Jinchuriki, we…..are probably not equal in skills. You proved that while fighting with the Chakra Brothers, after all."

Gaara nodded as he looked directly at Yugito Nii. "Then it's settled. Once we get enough rest, we, the Jinchuriki will have a match against each other and test each other's skills." He stated.

Kakashi snapped his book shut with a coy look as he looked each four over. He was not the only one to look quite taken with the idea. He tore his one eye away from the four young Jinchuriki to look at Rin as she walked up towards them, smiling. "That's a swell idea, Gaara. And I'm sure that is going to be a match that everyone's going to want to watch. Especially with the Fifth Hokage." He said lightly.

Rin nodded as she folded her arms, smiling around at everyone. "She's been wondering when you guys were going to go up against each other. I think even the Elders are looking forward to watching it too." She then looked over at Yugito Nii before reaching into her pack and pulling out a small scroll. "Yugito, before I forget about it. A reply has come from your village. It seems that our fastest hawk served his purpose. We have a message from your Raikage." She told her, holding out the scroll.

An excited squeak escaped from the young Cloud ninja before she scampered over and snatched the message from Rin. She was quick to unrolling it and reading it. She looked excited to even hear back from her adopted father. But as she read what the message said, her face slowly fell.

"Uh-oh. This isn't good." Was the only thing that she could manage to get out, sounding very uneasy.

A/N:

Sorry, once again, for the long wait of the updated chapter. I've been really busy lately with work and school and not to mention that a fellow fanfiction writer has offered me to take over some of their stories. I agreed to adopted her stories so I'm going to be putting up some new stuff pretty soon. So I'll be working on this one and the adopted stories at the same time. I will do what I can to keep updating this story as fast as possible. But I can guarantee you that things are definitely going to be looking a lot more interesting from here. Anyway, hope you enjoyed this somewhat short chapter. Read and review and enjoy your day. :D