Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.

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Chapter Sixty-Three

Return To The Leaf

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"I love this!" Shion called as the wind whipped through her hair. To her left, Hinata carried an un-armored Fu while Naruto flew to her right, the Biju Bunshins of the Nanabi and the Kyuubi both perched on his back, enjoying the ride.

"I know, it's great." Ino replied, turning her head slightly so that one of the sensor-orbs could slide in its fleshy track to "look" at her. "I think flying is one of the best things about becoming an Uzumaki."

"Technically, we aren't Uzumakis yet." Hinata called.

"Fu is!"

"Well, we will be as soon as we all think we're ready." Ino replied, making a point of not responding to Naruto's sister. "Of course, we may be about to lose one of our own to the Nara clan."

Fu opened her mouth to protest, then paused, causing Ino to snicker, the sound echoing oddly through her vibration spheres.

"I would think that Shikamaru would find going through a wedding ceremony to be too troublesome." Naruto teased.

"Fu has met Shika-kun's mother. Fu now knows how to deal with the Nara." Fu shot back.

"Will you need me to add a couple of internal walls to your house?" Naruto asked and Fu giggled.

"Fu thinks that would be too troublesome."

Hinata promptly face-palmed.

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"There it is!" Fu shouted, pointing at the horizon where a splodge of color at the base of a low mountain could be seen. "Fu is looking forwards to getting a good soak and a game of Shogi. Maybe Fu will finally win."

"I've never been to Konoha before." Shion marveled. "Are you sure we can get help for Hoki-san here?"

"Chunin Tsunade will deal with it." Naruto replied, his voice sounding smug.

"You know she hates being reminded of that." Hinata sighed as the distant blur began to resolve into individual roofs under the gaze of the four carved faces. Beside the faces, a large scaffold had been erected, covered with sheets. "It looks like they're adding something."

"Itachi must be finally accepting the position of Hokage." Naruto realized. "Good thing too, Jiji really slowed down after losing his leg."

Shion glanced at the duo, but when no explanation was forthcoming, she returned her attention to the growing city.

"It's huge!"

"So's Naruto." Ino giggled.

"Ino!"

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The two chunin behind the desk looked up as the group touched down. Shion dropped off Ino's back as Naruto walked forwards.

"Team Armor returning from A-rank mission." Naruto declared. "Party expanded with one priestess and one injured guardsman in stasis for healing."

"A message will be sent to the hospital at once." Izumo said as his friend started tapping a button in a staccato fashion. Naruto gave it a curious look.

"Communication device." Izumo replied. "Purchased from Uzu. When you tap the button, a device in the central tower hits a piece of bamboo with a short stick. Battle-code allows us to send messages that way."

A sudden flurry of thwacks interrupted him and he nodded.

"The message is being relayed to the hospital, a doctor will be waiting for your guardsman. Naruto, you are to report to the Hokage for debriefing."

"Thank you." Naruto replied, then he turned to his group.

"Ino, can you escort Shion home? Thanks. Hinata, you were the first responder, you take Hoki to hospital and get Tsunade to look at him. Fu, with me for the debrief. Kurama… Chomei… try not to get into trouble."

"Trouble? Me? What do you take me for?" Kurama huffed, causing both chunin behind the desk to stare in shock.

Naruto simply gave him an eloquent stare.

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Tsuchi Kin paused in dusting the shelves of the basement library as she heard the front door open. Checking that her weapons were still concealed but easily reachable in her maid outfit, she silently ghosted up the stairs, pausing so that she could covertly identify the intruders.

"Kin?" Ino called.

Kin rolled her eyes as she finished ascending the stairs. Spotting the guest, Kin gave a curtsy.

"You called, ma'am?"

Ino rolled her eyes. "Relax, we're back, which means you'll have clones to help you again. This is Shion, a Priestess from the Land of Demons. She'll be staying in the first guest bedroom."

"…and we're done." A voice declared from the back door, causing Ino to give Kin a curious look. Kin colored slightly as the owner of the voice entered through the back door.

"Kin, the hedge is trimmed, the pools cleaned and… Ino! When did you get back?"

Ino found herself being squeezed by her pink-haired friend.

"Sakura! Air!"

Sakura loosened her grip even as the rest of Team 8 appeared.

"Hey, Ino." Shikamaru yawned. "Guess this means Fu's back as well."

"He's missed the Shogi games." Choji smirked while behind them, Kurenai's eyes crinkled in amusement.

"You hired them to help with the chores?" Ino asked and Kin nodded, the blush still visible on her cheeks.

"I also get paid for teaching Kurenai-san about sound-based genjutsu." She half-protested. "It effectively means I get the chores done for me in exchange for an hour or two of lessons."

"Nice." Ino said, nodding in approval. "Very nice. Kurenai-san, I assume that you are wearing the tag?"

Kerenai nodded and tapped the small medallion suspended on a piece of cord around her neck.

"Chores are easier with chakra." Kin admitted. "Did you know that with just the right frequency, you can cause dirt to simply fall off the glass?"

Ino glanced at the spotless windows and whistled. "Impressive. I didn't know that until now."

"We can delay the lesson until later." Kurenai offered and Ino shook her head.

"No need to delay on our account, I'm just getting Shion settled in for now."

"We'll take the lesson to my house." Sakura decided. "Gets us out of your way and still lets us be comfortable."

Ino nodded, then her eyes briefly unfocused. "Naruto-kun's sending a squad or three of clones to take over the chores. Kin, the rest of the day is yours to do whatever you want."

Kin's eyes briefly darted to Choji, who blushed bright scarlet while Sakura giggled.

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Hinata de-armored as she landed, timing it so perfectly that the armor finished vanishing just as her feet touched the ground. Patting the vest pocket to reassure herself that the scroll was still there, Hinata strode into the Hospital and paused as she came face-to-face with a familiar person.

"Hinata-san." Shizune smiled. "Tsunade-sama has prepared theater two for the operation."

Hinata fell into position beside Shizune as the older kunoichi started to make her way to the operating room in question.

"Anything interesting happen while I was away?"

"Tsunade-sama gained promotion to Special Jonin for her medical skills, as did I." Shizune smiled, causing Hinata to give her a wide smile of approval. "In another few months, I intend to take the full Jonin test, do a few missions to build up my personal accounts and then see about taking a team."

"My younger sister is still at the Academy, but she should graduate in a few years." Hinata noted and Shizune giggled.

"Trying to hand-pick her sensei, are you?" She teased as they turned down a shorter corridor. "I'll keep an eye on her and consider it. I forgot to ask, you have the patient with you?"

Hinata pulled the scroll out of her pocket. "He's in here. I had to do an emergency tracheotomy on him after his throat was cut while Ino applied pads and bandages to prevent the arteries and veins from splitting. They'll need to be removed very carefully…"

"You really think that I need to be told that?" Senju Tsunade said from where she was standing, holding the door open ahead of them. "Bring him in and give me as much detail as you can, then we'll unseal and heal him."

"Hai, Tsunade-sama!" Both Kunoichi chorused.

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Naruto and Fu watched the veritable horde of clones vanish towards the Uzumaki Mansion, then they turned and entered the Hokage Tower. As they entered the Hokage's Office, they paused at the sight of Itachi sat behind the desk, the Hokage's Hat resting just before him. To one side, Hiruzen sat with a fake leg stretched out in front of him while Hyuuga Hiashi and Uchiha Fugaku sat on the other side of the office behind smaller desks of their own.

"It's not official until this evening, but Itachi is now the Godaime Hokage." Hiruzen said as the foot at the end of his fake leg twitched. "Ah-ha! So, that's the way it works!"

The Sandaime Hokage looked up and saw both Jinchuuriki staring at him in confusion.

"It's a leg taken from one of the puppets used by Sasori." He said with a shrug. "We have ninja testing out techniques to control the puppets like the Suna-nins did and in another few years, we should be able to create our own Puppet Corps. The Aburame are quite interested in it, they say that by using puppets in conjunction with their swarms, their combat potential will increase dramatically."

"Real-time feedback from the Kikkai, thus letting them know exactly what's going on while remaining hidden." Naruto realized. "Ingenious."

"Indeed." Hiruzen agreed. "However, I've distracted you. The Godaime requests your report."

Naruto and Fu turned to face Itachi and Naruto bowed.

"My apologies for the delay, Hokage-sama." He said. "I am ready to begin at your command."

Itachi nodded and Naruto paused for a moment to ensure that he had correctly ordered his thoughts.

"The departure from Konoha went as planned, as did the journey." He stated. "However, when we arrived at the Shrine, it was to find it under attack from a quartet of enhanced shinobi…"

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"How did it go?" Hinata asked as Naruto entered. "And where's Fu?"

"She went straight to her house." Naruto said. "And the report went as well as could be expected. What happened with Hoki?"

"Healed and staying in the hospital overnight." Hinata said with a slight smile. "Tokubestu-Jonin Tsunade-sama was incredible, she made the whole thing look easy."

"The best at what they do tend to do that." Naruto agreed as Ino appeared, leading several of his clones with platters of food. "I see you got the message for us to eat early, the Hokage wants us all in full armor at the appointment ceremony an hour before sunset."

"Probably to drive home just how powerful Konoha still is." Ino nodded in understanding. "Shion's settled into Fu's old bedroom."

"At least that we should have dealt with most of the problems now." Naruto sighed. "Unless that civil war in Mystical Stone spills over, things should be calming down… ow! What was that for?"

"Tempting fate." Ino stated as she lowered her hand. "You should know better than that by now."

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Orochimaru smirked as he stood on the edge of the balcony, his gaze roving over the assembled shinobi below, an army comprised of all those loyal to him, those who had joined his forces or had been conscripted for their unusual bloodlimits.

Several thousand shinobi stood almost motionless before him, split into three groups. The outer two groups were the normal shinobi while the center group were his so-called elite, those who were the product of his more… esoteric experiments. Almost half of them had some sort of curse seal augmenting their natural abilities while others were the products of his fusion experiments, more beast than men while still maintaining their abilities to use chakra and follow orders.

"My people!" He declaimed, the fuuinjutsu inscribed into the balcony picking up and projecting his voice so that everyone could hear him. "Tomorrow we begin the first stage in an operation that will tear down the old, flawed system and build a new world with ourselves at the apex! Tomorrow we will move out and begin the chain of victories that will form a new world, an empire that will last ten-thousand years!
"Tomorrow we will seize the Land of Hot Water while our allies wipe out Takigakure and Kusugakure! Once they have done that, the Land of Earth will be taken by their combined forces while we lay siege to Uzushiogakure, that they be unable to sally forth to aid our enemies and strike at the Land of Water, seizing their weakened lands! Soon, all the other lands will fall before our might and you will be able to tell your children and grandchildren, I was there when the new order was founded, I was part of its creation!
"Tomorrow, we take over the world!"

The cheering that rose from the assembled ninja was almost solid.