Welcome all to the next chapter of A Tale Of Two Men.

"Thinking" or "Bijuu speech"

"Dialogue"

I don't own Naruto, all rights belong to Kishimoto

Chapter 4. Butterfly effect

(13 Days after the failed attempt of implanting the 3 tails inside Rin Nohara.)

Hiruzen stared at the opened scroll on his desk, the contents of which plagued his mind. The scroll was a formal request for a kage summit, sent by the current acting Mizukage which he had no clue's as to who that could be.

There was no doubt as to it's validity, it bore the Kage's seal. If the bloody mist was calling a summit, that could only mean one thing, they were desperate.

The rumors of the third Mizukage dying in battle must be true then. The stunt they had pulled with Minato's genin had backfired in their face and their Kage had been killed. Whoever was in charge over there would have a unenviable amount of work to do.

The Reason for this summit was quite obvious, the mist wanted their bijuu back. Anyone put in their position would want an asset that important back

and they were offering a proposition that was quite temping. A complete and total ceasefire on all fronts, an end to this horrid war that had claimed so many lives. Losses that could have been prevented if not for the power hungry kages and daimyos. "Damn them, damn them all for causing this conflict."

But this paper held the power to change that. He could stop the war, stop the pai-

"So Saru, the mist has decided to play all their cards at once huh." The unmistakable voice of Danzo, his former teammate rang out.

"Danzo. I would ask how you knew to pop up but I've learned to just accept things in my old age." "I know you've got spies everywhere in my village

Danzo."

His rival had never forgiven him for taking the Hokage position, like any egoist Danzo thought that everything would come his way. However foolish it sounds. Danzo had his custom smirk on him, that seemed to pop up whenever he thought he was in control of a current situation.

"Saru, I'd heard from the the grapevine that a scroll had popped up in your lap, and that it bore the mark of a Kage." Danzo raised his slightly so that it appeared as though he was looking down to someone below him. Further enhancing his feelings of superiority.

"Now, as to the contents of that scroll my friend. I believ-"

"Danzo, whatever you are going to say leave it in your own mouth. I have no time to listen to your manic rambling of war and conquest. Just leave me."

Danzo sighed, massaged his forehead and sat down in front of Hiruzen. " Hiru. I've known you for many years, we both have the teachings of Tobirama sensei inside of us. I come to you now not as your rival but as your teamate. At least hear me out, for sensei."

"What the hell is he up to? I haven't heard him speak like this since we were kids." "I'll give you 2 minutes, anymore and you'll wake up in a cell.

Danzo seemed to brighten up, almost as if the mask he always wore slipped off for just a second. "That's all I ask for." Danzo put together his hands and straightened up, almost as if he was presenting a essay in school. "You have the chance to alter the course of ninja history sitting in your fingertips and all you need to do is grasp it. When Hashirama decided to GIVE away the tailed beasts to the other villages, he made the decision to supply enemies of the village with weapons of pure destruction. Ever since that decision we have had 3 wars with no end in sight." Danzo stopped for a second to catch his breath and laid back into his chair.

'Saru- You hold the chance to shift the power in konoha's favor so much, that any other village couldn't dare to rise against us. Think about it. A world with no war, because you tipped the tales in your villages favor. A mark on the world Hiruzen, all you have to do is tell them no. Keep the three tails in Konoha.

Thanks for your time saru." Danzo stood up from the chair and walked out to the door. Before he left, he looked back at hiruzen. "It's what sensei would have wanted." The door closed, leaving a silent Hiruzen to ponder his friend's words.

For a long time Hiruzen sat at his desk staring at the scroll, this was going to be his last decision as the Hokage before Minato took his position. Hiruzen smiled thinking about the man, he would be an excellent kage. Kind, Just and loyal to his people, merciless yet fair to his enemies. Hiruzen couldn't wait for him to take the position.

Hiruzen grabbed his pipe and walked to the window overlooking the village. The busy streets were filled family's, shinobi and merchants. Most of them in blissful ignorance of the absolute state of death and destruction the war had caused. His village, his people and he would do whatever necessary to keep it that way.

He lighted the pipe using fire chakra and took a deep puff of it. The fumes had a calming effect upon his old body, god how he needed that.

Hiruzen took the pipe out of his mouth, a determined look upon his face. "Kuzuri!" An anbu with long red hair dropped down from the ceiling.

"Yes my lord what is it that you require?"

"I have a mission for you."

Things were going to get very interesting in Konoha...

Iwagakure Slums.

Masashi sat at his table writing notes onto one of the many papers laying upon the table, the papers were organized into different notes or theory's upon the world he was stuck in. For the past few weeks Masashi had experimented with the differences between the human body and mind in this fictional world.

He had cut himself on a rusty piece of metal while on one of his supply runs and panicked seeing as he had no sort of disinfectant. To his surprise the wound had cleaned itself up in nearly 48 hours and no signs of infection were visible.

He had found out that the current limits to his endurance; were 3 miles of straight running nonstop, he could do 30 pushups, 5 pullups, vision had been enhanced at night, jumping was nearly 3 times the human average. But his most impressive feat by far, was that he could hold his breath for 5 minutes straight.

It seemed as though the average body in naruto had been amplified by chakra by around three times. Unless he was able to inherit some skill from his real body into the current one, but that was highly unlikely. It appeared that in the Naruto verse people were more tuned in to fighting or surviving.

There was a slight chance of him being a part a part of a bloodline, but there was no way to tell really tell in the moment.

Standing up from his seat and stretching out he walked over to the window of his hideout. "God I miss home." this had been easily the hardest time of his life, no contact with anyone outside of Desu but could you even call him a person? He acted like a person same as everyone else, but it was such a horrifying feeling to know that there were no real people here. He was in a world of puppets, simply acting out the whims of a creator.

"How I wish I could could give everyone of you back home a hug, even if some of you sibling were little shits." A fond smile of remembrance found itself upon his face. It was true that saying, you don't know what you have until it's gone, and it was certainly gone.

"Dad I wish I could talk to you right now, you would know what to do. Whenever I told you a problem I had, You would look me in the eye and say...

Panic started to crawl across his body, he couldn't remember his name! Hurriedly he dashed to the table, making a mess of the papers as he sifted through them looking for his name. "Where is it! Where is it! I know it's somewhere around here!" For minutes he tore apart his reseasch papers, the meticulous organization of papers quickly crumbled under the panicked scrambling.

"Shit! Shit where is it!" He dug through the papers for minutes till at last he found it. There was his name, his real name. Not the fake he was he was known as but the one that he had been given by his real parents. He laid there clutching that paper tightly, the only link that he had to who he was.

"These memory loss attacks are getting worse and worse." It had happened slowly so he hadn't given it very much thought, but things from his past were starting to fade away quite rapidly if they weren't reminded to him. This was different this time, never once had he even for a second forgotten his name.

Whatever faded away he would always have his name, for that was who he was. But for some reason that too was being erased.

suddenly! The unmistakable sound of screaming rang out throughout the night. Rushing over to the window he saw a mass of citizen's rushing towards the village gate. "What the hell is going on. It sounds like the village is being attacked." Leaving his hideout Masashi followed alongside the massive group of citizens.

The mass continued to run all the way up to the village gate before stopping, almost instantly any noise that was coming from them was silenced.

The Few guards posted at the gate were having quite a time making enough room for the massive doors to swing open. "What on earth is everyone here for?"

Finally after a few minutes of silence, the gate began to swing wide open. Unfortunately his current height stopped him from being able to see through the crowd. Looking around he saw a ladder leaning up against one of the houses. Carefully climbing up the ladder making sure his footing was solid, he was able to get a view of whatever was coming through the gates.

The pungent smell of blood reached his nose but he paid it no mind, for the sight in front of him warmed his heart. Through the opened gates flooded a mass of returning shinobi. Many had grievous injuries but the smiles on their faces almost made them disappear.

Fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters were reunited after a long and bloody conflict. The joyous cries of reunited loved ones echoed throughout the village.

As Masashi walked back to his apartment the subject of family weighed heavy on his mind. Seeing all those family's had left a hole in him.

"I'll get back to you guys I promise." Masashi was so deep in his mind that he didn't notice the teen boy walking out of the alley in front of him, right up u- Rules & Guidelinesntil they collided right into each other.

"Watch where your going dumbass!... Oh what's up Shashi. You out on another one of your supply runs?" The scrawny frame of Iwa's resident info broker stood before him. Desu held a scroll in his hand and there was beads of sweat rolling down his face.

"Are you alright Desu?" The teen waved him off and smiled but his eyes scanned the area surrounding him. Something was clearly bothering him.

Desu turned his head as though he had heard something. "Oh nothing Shashi, I'm just doing a favor for a friend." The beads of sweat started to flow quicker.

"What's in the scroll?" Masashi asked, trying to see if he could learn anything about the situation.

"Oh this? it's a simple grocery list. I'm just making a quick run for a friend of mine." Desu put up maybe the worst bluff that he had ever seen and to boot his eyes kept darting around.a"well I need to get going Shashi. you have a good night!" Running off into the dispersing crowd and disappearing into the night.

"Looks like he got himself into some trouble with the wrong people. I'm going to need to stay out of trouble, can't put your life in jeopardy

over an npc." As he walked back to his apartment, his mind wandered to the returning soldiers. He had heard through the ramblings of the crowd, that a ceasefire had been called. "The timeline sounds right. Although I can't be sure until I see specifics. Not exactly easy to track canon while I'm stuck in the damn slums if Iwa. Although, I'm actually carving out a life for me in these streets."

All things considered he was living pretty well, he had all the necessities and a roof over his head. "Just got to wait half a year to join the academy.

Just you wait shinobi world. You're not ready for someone with knowledge of the timeline and character abilities. But first I got to go to bed."

Desu's heartbeat pounded so loudly that he woudn't be surprised if other people could hear it. Darting throughout the streets while keeping his eyes peeled.

He clutched the scroll tightly. "I need to get this info out, someone needs to expose what's going on here! I just need to get to the dead-drop!"

Desu stopped for a moment to catch his breath. "Just a little longer. Two more blocks! Come on man you got this!"

The hair on the back of his neck stood up. Quickly looking around he spotted the source, and they spotted him. "Shit!" Desu took off as fast as he could, the stalkers hot on his tail. Desu ran into a store, accidently bumping into the owner. "Hey watch it kid!" Desu didn't even have time to apologize.

Left. Right. Right. Left. He tried and tried to lose his pursuers, but no matter what they stayed close. "Damn it! Why won't these bastards give up."

turning a right corner he spotted something he could use. Quickly, he jumped into a trash bin and held his breath. His heart beat even louder.

The sound of two adults running came to a stop right next to the bin.

"Where is that little shit!?"

"Hell if I know, he was right in front of us."

Desu peered through one of the small rusted holes in the bin. Two men stood in front of him, Both bald but varied in size.

The skinny one grabbed the collar of the fat one. "if we let that kid get away. The commander will put us in block 0 and I don't want to fucking be there!"

"Get your hands off me yoru!" The bigger man pushed him back. Both men glared at each other, they might have fought if not for a whistle sounding out throughout the night.

"That's unit 4. They've found something!"

"Alright man let's go catch him then!" Quickly the men ran off. Desu didn't let out a breathe until he was sure they were completely gone.

"That was too damn close. Sounds like they got multiple duo's out on the look for me."

Climbing out of the trash bin and dusting himself off, he continued to the dead-drop. "I need to warn Masashi and the other children. I can't let these people get their hands on any of them." Turning the corner he saw the dead drop, and ran over to it.

Desu didn't notice but a mist had started to hover just above the ground.

He moved the rock out of the way and took the covering of grass of the hole. "Shit! god damn it!" Nothing was in the dead-drop.

"Looking for this?" A cold voice echoed through the streets and in Desu's ears. Turning around he faced a figure in a white lab coat and gas mask.

The man held a frog summon. "Looks like you aren't going to be reporting anything today...Spy." Malice wrapped around every word he spoke.

Desu bolted from his position but. "What the hell! Why isn't my body moving!? Is this a genjutsu!?"

"Even for all of your precautions, you weren't able to see my mist." A muffled chuckle came from the gasmask. "Don't think about calling for help either. You won't be able to." The man crushed the frog summon in his hand turning it to smoke. The masked man walked up to desu, putting his hand on top of his head and petting him.

"Normally traitors to the village are handed to the kage and executed but... I think that would be a waste of a specimen.

"Fff-u-c-k y-o-u." Desu managed to squeak out. The man's face was hidden but surely under the mask was a wicked smile.

"Good. You've got spirit boy." The man leaned in so he was right next to his ear. "I like it when my test subjects survive for multiple experiments."

Chapter end.