AN: Skip the review answer if you want… it is kinda long

Guest: well, firstly, a surprising amount of guest reviews was received so I hope you know who you are, yeah? In terms of Naruto's power… well I don't know about you but I find children that are more powerful than adult shinobi rather unbelieving. I mean I understand child prodigies but honestly, a Kage level 16 year old is a little much considering the years needed to master most shinobi arts, so even if you do learn certain areas faster than others you will still need to master them. Also the amount of chakra needed in such a small body? I believe a jinchuriki would have it but not a normal child. Anyway the point that I am trying to get across is that Naruto is a prodigy among his peers but put up against more experienced and older shinobi who have spent years perfecting their art, he will have a really hard time winning and sometimes he will lose. I am not a fan of OP characters because I do not believe that you can make a fight interesting enough that way… unless you bring in another OP character of course. I want to create a fan fiction where the reader will be continuously wondering what will happen next AND how it will happen. Not one where you will go 'O look, another fight, Naruto will now use one of his god like bloodlines to defeat his enemy with his pinky' until another god like character comes along and then you go 'ahh now it's interesting' but then they are like "I'm god!" and then he goes "No I'm god!" and then massive explosions accure until Naruto wins. Where is the fun in writing something like that? Anyway, Naruto is in no way weak, if you just think what all his fights have consisted of until now, and I do not intend to make it seem like that. So I will ask you to stick around, yeah?

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto… this should have been clear by the fact that I am writing fan fiction… anyway I respect the universe Kishimoto has created, I just do not agree with some… decisions? He made towards the end that's all.

'War is not merely an act of policy but a true political instrument, a continuation of political intercourse carried on with other means'. – Carl von Clausewitz

Chapter 4: politics

As consciousness returned to the heir of the Uzumaki clan, so too did the pain of his injuries return to him. First, it was his back that started aching and it felt as if he might have some internal damage, which would need immediate medical attention when he arrived in Uzu. Next was the slash he had received at his side, it was not as serious as his back problems at the moment so he could live with that. Naruto tried to sit up but he decided that it was a bad idea after he felt the strain on his back; he slowly rolled onto his stomach and steadily stood up to his feet. When he tried to take a step forward however he stumbled a little and had to lean on a tree to get his balance back.

"You should just rest some more, comrade" Naruto looked around for the owner of the raspy voice "Down here, comrade" At that, he looked at the ground only to see the person who said he knew him laying there, not even moving an inch.

Naruto coughed a little to clear his throat "Well you look like shit"

Yohei slowly turned his head toward Naruto "Trust me, comrade I do not feel like it… I do feel like noodles though. And I can tell you now it hurts like a motherfucker"

Naruto gave a weak chuckle at that "Yes well we need to keep moving. It is only a few miles till we reach shore and then we are home free"

Yohei nodded in agreement "I agree… but until we leave I intend to rest", and with that he closed his eyes "Also I will be sleeping the shit out of these few minutes"

Naruto grumbled something that sounded a lot like "Lazy ass...", and stumbled off to inform everyone that they will be leaving. He did not go far however because he was immediately stopped by one of the ninja that were tasked with protecting the children.

"NARUTO-SAMA!"

Naruto flinched at the loud voice that rang through his head, making it feel as if his head wanted to explode from it "Kami damnit man… lower your voice"

The ninja came to a stop before Naruto and gave a quick, respectful bow toward him before speaking "I am sorry, Naruto-sama, but… but I have grave news"

Naruto looked at the shinobi's face, noting that he was not looking at him "Well spit it out then"

The shinobi looked up and Naruto was a little surprised to see tears streaming down his face "We… we just found out that four of the children are missing, sir"

Naruto's mind shut down for a moment "What? What did you just say?"

The shinobi took a deep breath and wiped his tears away "They are gone sir… we can not find them. The shinobi from last night must have escaped with the children without us noticing it"

Naruto could not believe it. Children that he was supposed to be protecting were gone, who knew what they would be going through now? How could he have let something like this happen? "No…" How could he have failed his clan again? "NO…" They were suppose to go home to their families after this whole ordeal "NO! I will not let this stand! Search those bodies for any lead to tell us where they came from!" And with that, his killing intent exploded to levels that completely terrified the shinobi in front of him.

The shinobi backed away from Naruto, scared shitless, and fell on his butt. He did not stay still however and scrambled away from the furious redhead while saying "Yes, sir!"

Naruto slumped next to a tree while taking in deep breaths. That little display had taken more out of him than he would have liked to admit. He did not stop thinking about his failure however, whoever kidnapped his kin would pay… they would pay with more than just their filthy lives too.

Konoha: underground ROOT base

Danzo sat in his throne looking over his remaining shinobi from his latest mission for Konoha in the shadows, with slightly narrowed eyes. He knew what the general ninja force thought of him and his ANBU division but they did not know how much he had to sacrifice for them, they may have upheld the 'honorable image' of Konoha but he, he and his men were the ones that ensured that Konoha survived on a day to day basis. He and his men were the only ones who were willing to do what shinobi were meant to do in order to survive : lie, cheat, steal, corrupt, exploit weakness, assassinate and die nameless for your village; that was the true purpose of being a ninja not running around spreading peace and love to everyone you met, not showing mercy to your opponent because it was 'honor less to kill a defeated opponent', not making treaties with other villages and alliances, no they were not samurai they were ninja! The scum of the earth, they had no friends, they had no identity, they had no honor, they only had loyalty to the village and that was it. Everyone else was fair kill. His faction may have been seen as nothing more than mindless drones that were good for nothing, but at least they did what was necessary, at least they were willing to win this war for their village by any means possible. The general ninja population also had the misconception that he did not care for his men… well they were correct in their assumption but he did care for his number of subordinates, so when he saw that only ten shinobi were kneeling before him he was not a happy man.

"I sent twenty-five of my very best shinobi to capture four children that were being protected by seven shinobi… so tell me Kuro why are there fifteen of you missing"

The aforementioned ninja lifted his head a little when he spoke "They were more skilled than expected Danzo-sama. We did capture the children that you wanted, sir."

Danzo nodded 'I can see how they survived the invasion now… it seems as if the Uzumaki clan are better than expected… but what changed? They were a peaceful clan that only focused on sealing techniques last I heard' "And how many of them did you kill?"

If Kuro had emotion, he would have been sweating bullets by now but seeing as he had that stripped of him from an early age he answered the question without pause "We managed to kill one, sir"

'One? …One?' He could not believe what he was hearing. He had spent years training these shinobi to the best of his ability and all of them were jounin level and up. His ANBU were a force to be reckoned with anywhere in the world. They did not have any emotional restraints when they made decisions; it was made in a split second for the most effective outcome. How could seven shinobi stand up to twenty-five shinobi who were practically computers? "How did this happen?"

Even Kuro could now pick up the faint trace of anger in his masters voice but he still answered without pause "The information that we received on the Uzumaki clan was less than substantial, Danzo-sama. The Uzumaki did not focus on combat sealing as their main offence; all of them essentially used ninjutsu or kenjutsu. Some of them used a restraining seal here and there but the most advanced seal we encountered was the outer barrier seal. Our men were not prepared for the amount of chakra that they seem to posses, sir, they made low level ninjutsu in to high level by pushing as much chakra into the technique as they safely could… and one of them seemed to create constructs out of chakra, Danzo-sama."

Danzo almost showed his surprise at that last statement 'Created constructs out of chakra? Could it be that they have that bloodline too?' "Are you sure what you saw was chakra constructs, Kuro?" at his subordinates nod Danzo continued "This is most concerning… and you say they were mostly using ninjutsu and kenjutsu?" he received another nod of agreement "What changed in that clan that they would switch their primary skill in such a way and when did this happen?" Danzo stood up from his throne and began to descend the stairs "You did well, Kuro. You have greatly increased our chance of winning this war, now take your men and rest so that you can be ready for your next mission. It will be hard, but we now have the perfect tools in our possession" Then he continued his walk past them and into the darkness, where he seemed to melt into the shadows like a specter of the night. It fit him perfectly, the true shadow of Konoha perfectly.

Konoha: Hokage's office

Hiruzen Sarutobi sighed, not out of frustration or irritation, but out of relief that the day had finally reached its end and he could now go home to his beautiful and just relax. It was not that today had been a bad day; in fact, it had been a great day for Konoha as a whole. Reports had come in that Iwagakure pulled their troops out of Kusagakure and Konoha had immediately secured the territory. Kumogakure had also stopped their skirmishes at Fire countries border, Sunagakure was now dominating Kirigakure, and they had retreated to their country. In two days the war had taken a complete turn around in Konoha's favor, it was perfect. This war would not be going on for much longer if he had anything to do about it and then Konohagakure would cement its place at the top of the pile with minimum loss, that is if Danzo and his lapdogs had completed their mission… but that was a story for tomorrow. With rest in mind, Hiruzen stood up to walk home and relax after a good day at the office.

Just then, his door decided to open up, and in stepped the figure that he was just thinking about "Not now, Danzo"

Danzo did not stop and continued his fluid movements toward a chair, not waiting one move. "You will want to hear this, Hokage-sama" If Danzo had not spent years controlling his emotions you would have been able to see how much effort he had to put in to say 'Hokage-sama' but you could not read a single emotion on his face, and his voice was neutral.

Hiruzen scrutinized Danzo for a moment before sitting down and lighting his pipe "Speak"

Danzo blinked once, the only way you would have been able to detect his growing anger of being spoken to like some low life, but otherwise showed no outward emotion "The mission was a success… however there were some unforeseen events that took place"

Hiruzen looked vaguely interested now "Go on then."

Danzo blinked once more, he would need to work on that in the future "The Uzumaki seem to have stopped using combat sealing and switched to primarily ninjutsu and kenjutsu"

Hiruzen took a puff of his pipe "Interesting… I wonder what caused them to change their way. However reports we received from the invasion of Uzu say that they used some kind of canon like explosive fuinjutsu to deal devastating damage to the enemy numbers, so we know that they are still very much advanced in fuinjutsu."

Danzo nodded in agreement "I agree. However we must let our spy master find out why they changed from their primary set of skills in combat."

This time, Hiruzen nodded in agreement "Yes, I will let him do that tomorrow. Now is there anything else? I really must go now, some of us have families." At that, Hiruzen smiled a kind (looking) smile.

Danzo almost grit his teeth at Hiruzen's statement "One of them created constructs out of chakra"

Hiruzen stopped himself from getting up when he heard that and narrowed his eyes at Danzo "What did you say"

Danzo looked back at his Hokage with absolutely no fear in his eyes "You heard me, Hokage-sama"

Hiruzen grit his teeth at Danzo's reply but ignored it immediately, the information that he had just received was far more important than Danzo's disrespecting remarks. If what he said was true then the Uzumaki were in possession of a very dangerous bloodline and they had to obtain it for the leaf at whatever cost. "I'll look into it… however seeing as you have held me up this long we may as well send for Hiashi." At Danzo's nod of agreement, Hiruzen motioned with his hand and an ANBU stepped out of the shadows to bow before him. "Tell Hiashi Hyuga that he has been summoned by his Kage" The ANBU gave a quick 'Hai' and disappeared in a shunshin.

Silence filled the room as Hiruzen and Danzo stared at each other while they waited for Hiashi to arrive. After five minutes of just staring at each other, the silence became impalpable, and Hiruzen was about to ask Danzo something but then Hiashi showed up in a shunshin with the ANBU that was sent to get him.

Hiruzen looked at Hiashi for a moment. He was young, very young, he had been given the title of 'head of the Hyuga clan' but three months ago after his father was mysteriously assassinated and was now trying to build his reputation within the village to gain some respect. Hiruzen almost laughed when he looked at Hiashi in his 'Royal' Hyuga clothes looking as if he was an important figure in the room. The Hyuga thought that his eyes could see everything that there was to see in this world, if that were true however he would have seen that he should not make deals with people like Danzo. Hiruzen cleared his throat and put on his warmest smile "Ahh Hiashi my boy, how great that you could join us so quickly"

Hiashi looked visibly irritated by the way Hiruzen had addressed him but never the less gave a respectful bow "I would appreciate it if you would address me with some respect, Hokage-sama." He then looked at Danzo "Greetings, Danzo-san"

Danzo had not even given Hiashi a second glance since he had arrived and had continued to stare at Hiruzen with an unreadable expression. He could see that Hiruzen was satisfied with himself with finding out about his deal with Hiashi and then involving himself in it 'What a fool you are Hiruzen. You think that you control me? You have gone senile old friend'. Danzo finally gave Hiashi a sideways glance and then gave him a respectful nod "Hiashi-san"

Hiruzen's smile grew a little at Hiashi's remark "Of course, Hiashi-san" He then motioned for him to sit down "Please, sit. We must make this meeting as quick as can be"

Hiashi nodded in agreement and then took a seat next to Danzo "I agree, Hokage-sama. I gather that you have acquired your part of the bargain?" He was now looking directly at Danzo. However to his surprise it was not Danzo who answered him but Hiruzen did.

"Yes, we have acquired the three children you requested. They will start their training after they come from the Yamanaka compound. I expect their chakra control to be exceptional before they bare children, Hiashi" Danzo said absolutely nothing as Hiruzen gave Hiashi his 'ultimatum'. He would let the old fool think that he was in charge for the time being.

Hiashi gave a sideways glance at Danzo before he spoke "And the children will still be given to Danzo-san?"

Hiruzen gave a small smirk at that "No, they will now be trained by someone that I will select"

Hiashi almost frowned at that "I am afraid that I can not agree to that, Hokage-sama, as I have already made a deal with, Danzo-san."

However, to his surprise Danzo decided to speak up at that moment "It is not a problem, Hiashi"

Hiashi looked at Danzo for a moment to try and read what his angel was, but could find nothing. After a moment, he nodded in agreement "Then it is settled, Hokage-sama. Now if that is all?" At Hiruzen's nod, Hiashi stood up, bowed and then walked out of the door.

Danzo took that moment to stand up "I will take my leave then, Hokage-sama" With that, he started to walk out of the office.

"Danzo" Hiruzen's voice stopped him mid step. "I hope this shows you what happens when you try to make deals behind my back"

Danzo turned around and gave, what he thought, a respectful bow to Hiruzen. "Of course, Hokage-sama" He then walked out of the office with one of his rare smiles.

Hiruzen did not see it and thought that he had put Danzo in his place once and for all "ahh yes. This turned out to be a marvelous day indeed" He sighed in contempt one last time before deciding to retire for the night.

With Naruto

Naruto was not in a good mood. He had not slept well because of his injuries but now after finding out four of the children he was suppose to protect were missing, and he did not even know who was responsible for it. He suspected Konoha – seeing as the attack happened within the land of fire but this was a time of war and any nation could have sent a team into the land of fire – he also did not have any way to tie The Leaf Village to this, seeing as those ninja had no identification on them other than some seal on their tongue. They would decipher that seal in time and find a signature of some sort on it though so there was at least some consolation. This did not improve his mood however and it was apparent to his traveling partners as they stayed far behind him while they walked toward shore. They had been walking for a couple of hours now and Naruto had had time to think about the recent events in his life and the battles he had been in.

He had been fighting more skilled ninja by the day and it seemed that he still had a long way to go if he ever wanted to be a proud heir to the Uzumaki and live up to his fathers expectations that he had of him. He needed this war to end so that he could focus on his training and become stronger, he also needed it to end so that his clan could rebuild itself.

Naruto suddenly felt a tug on his arm and he looked down to see what it was. When he looked down a pair of black eyes that were almost covered by red bangs stared back at him. "Hey mister… there are a whole lot of small chakra signatures around us"

Naruto was a little startled at the little girls statement and he wanted to ask her where she came up with such a ludicrous idea, until he picked up on one too. "Thanks, little girl… now go back and stay with the others, yeah?"

He could not believe that he had missed these signatures, but he was glad that they did not seem to be strong because his team was not in a condition to fight any real ninja. He jumped a little further ahead, signaling his team to be ready for attack, and shouted "Come out scum!"

At first nothing happened but then he was suddenly surrounded by six bandits all wielding swords. Who Naruto assumed to be the leader stepped forward and started to laugh "Hahahahaha... so you think you are tough kid."

Another bandit took a look at the children and a perverted smirk plastered itself on his lips "Hey boss they have girls with them!"

"Hahahaha!" The boss lifted his sword up to Naruto's throat and pushed the point against it "What say you just give those children to us hey kid?"

By this point Naruto was beyond furious and his killing intend florred the bandit "You…" He took a step closer to the leader "You…" When he took another step, the leader was ready to scramble away for his life. Then Naruto fell over from his back injury when he tried to unleash his chains.

The bandit looked on in a shocked expression, not believing his luck, but quickly sprung to his feet "Quickly men! They are injured. Kill the adults and take the children!"

Naruto heard the command and tried to stand up on his feet but his legs would not cooperate. When he saw the bandits getting up with smirks on their faces he could not control his anger anymore and he started to feel the familiar itch in the palms of his hands 'Please let this work…'

Naruto lifted up his palms in the direction of the bandits and pushed all his remaining chakra from them. At first nothing happened but then three chains burst out of each palm, impaling all six bandits in vital spots and killing them instantly. Naruto gave a tired smile before he passed out.

END

AN: I'm sure you notice this chapter is shorter than normal but I've decided to cut down the chapters for some reasons

Anyway hope I get more followers, favorites and reviews!

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