-AN-

My feeds are full of nothing but adverts for Honkai Star Rail. I might finally cave and give it a shot, since I'm waiting for Starfield to release. It's to bad all these AAA labels have been releasing half finished games recently. But I always wait for 6 months before buying anyway, pre-ordering leads to sadness. Here's the end of the Tsunade arc. I promised myself I wouldn't be sticking to canon after this, so we're holding to that.

-Story Start-

Mornings were supposed to be a time of refreshment, of starting a new day and preparing ones self to meet it. Naruto's routine had always been the same first thing in the morning. Clean up, brush teeth, down some food, and then change and train. Unless on a mission that didn't allow it, he always did the same thing. And this mission had allowed him to continue that routine. He valued that routine. He cherished it really.

A frantic Shizune and a half alive Jiraiya was not his preferred way to start a day. "Slow down Shizune-san, what's the issue?"

"Lady Tsunade went after Orochimaru on her own! We need to go after her." Naruto was going to look past the fact that the snake-teme was apparently after the blonde drunk as well. But considering the state of his arms, it made sense.

"She's gonna be the next Hokage right? She should be able to handle the snake on her own." Which in Naruto's mind should be true. Though he had only been half joking that the woman was in no shape to be a ninja anymore, seeing Shizune's worried face started to make him worried as well. "Fine, let's go, grab the drunk pervert and let's go."

"Mmnnoot druuunk. Poison…" Slurred speech and all, Jiraiya tried to steady himself as Shizune draped an arm over her shoulder.

"Sure sure drunky. Let's go find your other two teammates." Maybe today wouldn't be so bad after all? Gathering up his scrolls and jacket, they were out the window and racing across town. Naruto couldn't see the castle that was supposed to be the main attraction of this place outside of the gambling, and had a feeling that's where their errant drunk future hokage was. Shizune pointed just outside of the wall,

"I can feel her chakra there!" Changing direction slightly, they all mentally preparing for what was coming. Scaling over the wall and covering the distance as fast as they could, it was Naruto who spotted the woman first. On her knees before Kabuto, face splattered with blood, it took only a thought for the boy to shunshin in front of her with an angry ball of chakra formed in his hands. He'd make some distance, then get with the explosions. Savoring the surprised look from Kabuto and missing the shocked one from Tsunade, the boy drilled the attack into the spy and launched him away.

Turning to look back at the older woman, Naruto's anger got the better of him, "You just gonna sit there and let him kill you! I thought you had more fight in you than that baa-san!"

Orochimaru sucked his teeth with a frown. With Tsunade's refusal this was a lost cause, and he didn't want to alienate Naruto any more than he possibly already had. Uzumaki secrets were in the balance here, and he needed the boy's blood and chakra network intact and unharmed. "My my Naruto-kun, you have, impeccable timing."

Naruto flipped him the finger without looking, "Just you hold on, I'm gonna give you a repeat performance from the forest of death in just a second."

Changing tactics once that oaf Jiraiya and Tsunade's assistant finally landed, a grin slowly formed on his face, "But Naruto, how will you learn anything about your history without me?"

"Well Tsunade is supposed to be the next Hokage, and since she owes me one, I'll be getting info outta her." While he hadn't brought it up, he figured at this point it was the least she could do.

"You assume she'll want to help you, after all, she is more like Jiraiya than me. Tell me, how's life been with your godfather lately anyway?" Ah, the boy froze up for a moment. His guess had been right, the old fool hadn't told the boy. "Has he been telling you stories about your parents? Why-" The fist that connected to his face belonged to a blonde, but a much older one.

"You bastard, what're you trying to pull?" Rage pushing her past her normal fear of blood, she was finally ready to beat her former teammate into the dirt.

Naruto however was turning away, eyes wide and an odd ringing in his ears. There was no way, no way that the pervert was his godfather. After all this time? There were so many questions even with just that. Who were his parents, what were they like? Did they want him, love him?

Why did he leave him alone in a village that hated him?

Making eye contact with a still out of it sage however, Naruto got the feeling he wasn't getting an answer right now. Plus there was the chance the snake bastard was lying to his face. Not like he hadn't before. Turning back and welling up his chakra, he went back to his original assessment for the day so far.

Today belonged in the garbage.

The field was suddenly covered in black and orange blondes, each grinning and staring all at a certain snake. "I'm gonna enjoy this Orochi-teme. And when I beat the shit outta you, you're gonna give me some straight answers."

"Kabuto quit playing around!" The silver haired spy suddenly at his side, the damaged ninja grinned, "You can try Naruto, but this is a little out of your league!" With Kabuto assisting by welling up blood on his summoning seal, both of the men disappeared in smoke, rising above the others on the head of the snake boss summon Manda.

"Orochimaru you insect! How dare you summon me without sacrifices!"

Orochimaru was grinning however as he looked down on everyone else, "Don't you see them before you Manda-sama, they'll make a fine meal."

Manda snorted but turned his head, "Paltry. I expect twice the normal amount the next time you call me, or it'll be you on the menu!"

Naruto was already over it, and directed his clones, "That's one big target for me Orochi!" Blurring forward behind his clones who where already placing seals all along the writhing and moving snake, Naruto unsealed his sword. He figured that at the least he'd have plenty of blood to repair it. Jumping ahead with a shunshin, he began carving his way up the snake's back.

Shizune watched on as the giant snake destroyed just as many clones that kept appearing, while trying to urge the toad sage to move, "Can't you summon a toad and help?"

Shaking his head Jiraiya denied it, "Can't. Chakra still outta wack."

"Who's fault is that?" Tsunade appeared next to the two, already making hand signs.

"You really want me to answer that?"

"You're the idiot who's ready to drop his pants any time a beautiful woman shows some interest. Don't be so easy." Slamming her hand into the ground, They all rose into the air along the back of Katsuyu. "Katsuyu, let's get ready for some acid!" She'd be helping the kid out before he killed himself. Deal with the emotional baggage later.

A Naruto clone alighted next to them, "Actually you might wanna run away, like really far away."

Tsunade had her fists balled in frustration, "And why's that you cocky brat?"

The clone shrugged, "Boss is gonna show em what a real explosion looks like."

Jiraiya grabbed Tsunade, "Yeah, we gotta go, trust me on this!"

Naruto himself was trusting his clones to follow his plan, which currently, was piss off the large snake and make it move further away from the town. Which by his measure as he came within spitting distance of the snake summoner, was at least a dozen miles by now. Repaired sword on his shoulder, a blood covered Naruto formed three new clones around himself. "I told you I was here for a repeat performance."

Frowning and motioning Kabuto to stand down while Manda raged at the explosions rattling his body, Orochimaru tried to reason with the little brat, "You know I'm right. They're lying to you Naruto-kun. They all are. And just like any tool, once your usefulness is done, they'll break you and throw you away. That is all any of the Uzumaki were to the leaf."

Unsealing a scroll about a meter long and now having 6 black bands encircling it, the boy made a slit in the snake's hide and shoved it in. "See, here's the problem teme. You might be right and the leaf is gonna have it's day of reconing one day or another. But because you're such a flaming asshole just no one wants to give you the satisfaction. And shitty old man or not, the Sandaime was all I had for a long time. And you killed him. So send Kabuto for me if you want, but I'm gonna have to send him back to you in a bag." The scroll under his foot was starting to glow.

"You aren't the real one, are you?"

"Oh no, boss switched out like as soon as he summoned the scroll." Clone grinning as the other two raced forward, the last clone allowed the Kubikiribocho to poof away, "If you make it out of this somehow, I'll be happy to blow you up again though!"

"Kabuto!" And then there was heat, and light.

Back with Tsunade and the others, now several miles away from the battle, the Naruto clone gained a funny look before the real Naruto replaced him. Covered in blood and his sword being summoned to his hand not a second later, he turned back towards where the snakes were. "Um. Probably not going to want to look that way." Bringing up the black mask for the coming smoke, the boy turned away and covered his ears.

Tsunade gave Jiraiya a strange look as he copied the boy, "What do you mean don't lo-" There was a flash of intense light and heat even at this distance, then the very earth began to shake. An earthquake rattled them and had them all covering their ears from the noise. If Tsunade tried to describe it, it was like every explosion she had ever heard was suddenly made all at once in the same place. Then came heat and a shockwave that on instinct Katsuyu pulled them all inside of herself to protect them and ride out the blast. And even then, they could still feel tremors as they all tried to turn to see what had happened. As the tremors eventually subsided and Katsuyu let them all free on the ground, albeit slowly, everyone looked on in awe at the truly massive mushroom cloud that stood where Orochimaru was.

Naruto however turned away with a sigh, "One of my clones noticed the bastard slip away. I'm gonna need a version that slows him down or something next time. Or maybe something that pulls in the target first before exploding." Muttering to himself and he mentally began making plans, the prospective Hokage looked down at the boy,

"What the hell is that!" Pointing at the rising cloud of dust and ash she watched as the boy shrugged.

"That is Glass Bomb version 2. Twice the yeild as version 1. Who knew using tungsten instead of random metal would do that?" Waving her off he turned his attention to a more recovered Jiraiya, now having spent some time in the very helpful slug summon, Naruto ignored the beast de-summoning itself. "So, was he telling the truth?" Said casually but mask still on his face and covering his mouth, all the old sage had to go off of were his eyes. And those were cold.

Jirayia weighed telling the truth to the boy. On the one hand it'd only get worse if he lied about it, on the other, if he told him now he'd probably get the shit kicked out of him from here till they were back in Konoha. The decision however was taken away from him.

"The old goat being your godfather? Of course it is, what's the big deal?" Tsunade however didn't see the issue. It wasn't like the toad hadn't been watching out for the kid. While she wasn't involved she had gotten news about the kid, Jiraiya not able to help himself bragging and sending letters. He had been insufferable those 9 months.

"Ah. Thanks, baa-chan." Naruto was turning away, sealing his sword away and throwing his hands behind his neck. It was going to be a long walk back to Konoha after all. And he needed to find a river to wash off in soon. The smell of blood was thick.

"Ah, Naruto, you're not mad?" There was hope! Maybe the kid was being a little more mature after all!

Looking back at the toad sage, purple eye shining, the Uzumaki was grinning under his mask, "Mad? Me? Naaaah." Jiraiya never saw the clone appear at his side with a primed set of seals. Explosion going off and sending the old man flying, Naruto watching him go, "I'm waaaaay past mad. And that's three for three on sannin."

Looking between the brat and her flying teammate, Tsunade wandered up to the kid, "You wanna explain what the drama is about?"

Mulling it over he had to consider that she was truly an outside party. Sure she was trained by the third, but she had left before Naruto himself had even been born. "It's a long stupid story."

Grabbing the kid in a headlock under one arm, she grabbed Shizune and started walked, "We have a long way to Konoha kid, I wanna hear all of it." Thinking something else over she eventually let Naruto go. She was in a good mood and was always happy to see the pervert get his, so she took off her grandfather's necklace and tossed it to the boy who caught it with some confusion, "For knocking some sense into me." Seeing the boy nod and put it on himself, he finally got to telling his story. She had hoped it might prepare her for the shit storm she knew she was about to walk into. Though as they walked and talked, her ire rising and falling with each story, she reevaluated that thought. There were a lot of people in Konoha who were about to have a bad time. Now who was going to be the reason behind it was still unclear.

-b-

It could be said that during normal operations the village council was a slow moving bunch who could very rarely agree on anything right away so that things could progress. After being shouldered with the workload of a missing hokage in the wake of an invasion however, they were quick to see the returned Tsunade announced, inaugurated, and behind the desk with paperwork before a week had even ended. The older woman wasn't entirely happy about it, and made her ire clear but at the same time it gave her a chance to begin making subtle but clear changes and reforms revolving around her specialty. Meaning the Konoha hospital and combat medic program was being revitalized from the ground up. That was her focus on the moment though she had some smaller side projects to keep an eye out for.

Through this time a tired but resolved Naruto returned to his team with a focus and determination they had all somewhat missed. While the boy no longer needed to experiment with explosions anymore, much to the enjoyment of everyone who had to go back and repair the training ground, he was still hard at work. Now that he knew his affinity and was clear to spam clones again, it was a tired Kakashi who advised that maybe stripping leaves off of every available tree in the area wasn't the best of ideas. The real Naruto helping his teammates and participating in team drills disagreed, stating that improving and growing was their duty as ninja. Plus, it motivated Sakura and Sasuke to learn about their own affinities as well. Both hadn't been stagnant while their friend was gone but they still had catching up to do.

Today however was coming to an end, with Kakashi getting a promise from all three of his students that they would actually relax and cool off training for the evening. Regular missions would be resuming soon with the new Hokage in office, and they needed to get back into a schedule of real rest between intense training. So as Naruto waved his friends off, both promising to get ramen with him tomorrow night the now introspective boy was on his own. While he tentatively had a goal to end up at Ichiraku's and then head home, he wasn't all that interested in being alone at the moment. It had been good the last few days being with his team. Not having to worry about conspiracies and plots and worrying about who knew about his parents or not. Jiraiya had mentioned that Kakashi-sensei knew as well, but might have been under orders not to say anything. Naruto should confront the older man and ask about that soon. He had been a good sensei, and hadn't played favorites, and now that they all were improving so fast he himself was working harder. Late to training a lot less often and with less excuses. Naruto turned a corner and had his thoughts derailed as he bumped into someone soft. Hand immediately coming up and catching the other person's arm, he focused and found himself standing before Ino and Hinata. "Ino-hime? Hinata-chan? Sorry, mind's way off tonight."

Ino steadied herself with a shake of her head and a smile, "It's okay, I wasn't paying attention either. Plus, we were looking for you anyway."

Seeing the boy raise an eyebrow and tilt his head, Hinata pulled out a scroll, "We have, something to bring up with you but, maybe we can go get some food? And talk?" Naruto was worried as Hinata was looking worried about something, she had been getting a lot better about being able to talk to him. This shy mood was odd now, especially with Ino-hime here. She always seemed more confident with Ino-hime.

"Sure sure, what're we in the mood for today?"

Ino looked over the slightly more muscular boy, confirming that he had been putting on the mass lately. Probably owing to eating better and swinging that oversized sword of his, "How about the barbecue place my team usually haunts. Plus we can get a booth and talk in private." Seeing the other two nod, Ino led the way. While the boy had been gone, Ino and Hinata had teamed up to research and put together as much as they could on the Uzumaki within the village. What they had found so far wasn't making them feel any better or confident about what could have happened in the past but they decided that they should probably bring what they did have to his attention. They didn't want him thinking they were hiding something from him after all. While Hinata wanted to wait until they had information on his father, Ino postulated that he would appreciate even just some info on his mother and some history about his clan. They hadn't been able to obtain Sasuke's help as of yet, mainly because the council couldn't or wouldn't allow him on meetings until a new Hokage was named. Though now that one was that would change. Not that their fellow young ninja was excited about the prospect. Soon they found themselves at the restaurant and were seated at a table, Ino ordering for them all while Naruto sat opposite to both girls, Hinata took a deep breath before starting off with why they were here.

Eyes hardening with focus Hinata looked directly at the confused boy, "Naruto-kun. I….I kept something from you, not bad! But….I had a project I wanted to do, to help you. And while I don't have as much information as I would want, Ino-chan helped and convinced me that we should share what we've found so far."

Naruto scratched his neck as he was now really confused about why they were here, "Okay. Well I'm not mad if you kept something to yourself. You're my friends! And you're telling me in the end, so it'll be fine." What could they have been looking up to make them both look slightly nervous?

Hinata pulled out a scroll and handed it to the boy, "I had been researching the Uzumaki over the last few weeks. Actually, nearly 2 to 3 months now. My goal was to give you information on your family and your clan. But the records were so distorted and some of it was just flat missing. We were able to figure out a few things however. Like who your mother is, and some of the history of your clans ancestral home. I wasn't able to find anything on your father, or what happened to your inheritance completely other than the council got a hold of it and liquidated much of it." Looking away for a moment, somewhat ashamed for her own perceived failure, the girl was quick to try to reassure the boy, "But we're going to keep digging! It's not fair that this info was kept from you. And we both want to help you, however we can."

Naruto was stunned, looking at the scroll in his hand to the two young girls sitting across from him. They had taken time out of their lives to look for and compile information that he was missing about his family, all on their own. Sure he knew who his mother was now thanks to the snake bastard and pervy sage, but his friends hadn't known. That they thought of him enough to even try was, it made his chest tight in an odd way. "Thank you. Ino-hime, Hinata-chan. I uh…" After realizing so many people had been lying to him for so long, that he had friends that were willing to cut through that bullshit without a thought was, moving to say the least.

Ino nudged Hinata, "Told you he'd appreciate it." Getting the shorter girl to nod, Ino smiled and moved about cooking meat, "Apparently your mom was a real badass, had a ton of titles including Red Hot Blooded Habanero and Jinchuriki, though we don't know what the second one could mean."

Hinata chimed in now as well, "Your own file has that term as well."

Naruto however froze up, immediately seeking out the fox, 'What was sealed in my mom?'

The old fox grumbled, 'Your mother was my last container.'

'And you didn't think to tell me?'

'Never asked, little monkey.' The fox considered for a moment, before remembering some ancient words of wisdom he had all but ignored lately, 'When you have some time to yourself, I'll tell you about her.'

Shaking his head and sighing, the boy resolved to do just that. However he now had a new dilemma. Did he tell the two girls across from him about the Kyuubi and what he was? He had planned on telling his team, but did these two need to know? He did have to consider that they had gone through all this effort for him, and had trained with and supported him. Perhaps he could trust them, if not the adults of this village. "Yeah, I know what it means."

Ino blinked as she was genuinely surprised by that. Granted Naruto had spent plenty of time in the library, maybe he had been using his clones and picked it up somewhere? "Oh, what it is?"

Naruto took some meat for himself preparing it quietly while he thought it over one last time. "It means the power of human sacrifice. Meaning literally the person was used as a sacrifice to seal away a great power." Keeping his voice down though not really needing to in the loud restaurant, the boy watched both girls carefully. "My mom was the container of the nine tailed demon fox. The Kyuubi." Hearing both girls gasp as they caught on quickly, Naruto took his plunge and said it out loud, "And I'm the current one."

Hinata however latched on to what she thought was important, "That's terrible. Does it hurt keeping it at bay? Are your at risk from it?" Seeing the boy shake his head, the girl then looked at his scared and purple eye, "That's how your eye healed…"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, fox said he didn't do anything to it, but purple like this ain't a normal color after all." Internally he sighed, happy that at least Hinata seemed to accept it readily. Ino on the other hand had stayed quiet.

"So, you've got a huge mountain sized fox in your guts?" Ino watched as Naruto nodded carefully, and grinning, Ino forked over some more meat his way, "No wonder you're such a glutton."

Laughing at the absurdity of it, Naruto decided he had to be dreaming. "You're not freaking out like I thought you would."

Ino shrugged while next to her Hinata finally started eating, "We've been around you enough by now to figure out there's a difference between a seal scroll and it's contents." Waving a hand in a matter of fact manner, the perky blonde was all grins, "And the fox hasn't gotten out yet, and you've only gotten stronger. So I'm not worried. You don't give up, ever, so I'm not worried about you letting the thing out anytime soon." She wouldn't lie and say she wasn't at least a little worried or internally freaked out. But this was her friend and crush who had fought and bled for this village. The murderous fox never would have done that. He was Naruto and that was enough.

Hinata herself never even considered the Kyuubi as a threat. If Naruto was holding it back, then it was safe, and that was it. She had always admired his will and determination to never give up, and she suspected if he and the fox ever had a battle of wills, Naruto would be the last one standing. "Would you like for us to continue looking into your clan? Maybe we can find something else with the new Hokage's help?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, Tsunade-baa-chan should be willing to help. We actually talked a lot on the way back from our mission to get her." Seeing the surprised looks on both girls faces, Naruto launched into an explanation on just where he had been the last couple of weeks. From the confrontation with Itachi to his roadside training. To his confrontation with Orochimaru and then finding and fighting with Tsunade at first. All the trails and revelations that followed from there and till now. Together the girls sat and listened, asking questions and laughing at some of his antics. Both however clued in that their initial thoughts were proven correct that there was something major going on surrounding his clan. That he already knew who his parents were now didn't drain their spirits at all, because they had gotten him more clan information that he didn't have before, plus some specifics about his mother. Though Ino latched on to what she thought was the bigger bombshell.

"You dad, was the fourth?"

Naruto nodded, mouth full of meat before chewing and swallowing it down, "Yup. Mister Yellow Flash himself." While angry, Naruto sort of got why no one would have told him about his father. The man was a living legend known across the nations. If the world had known he had a son, well he probably wouldn't have made it past being a toddler.

Ino finally leaned back, "That's just, wow."

Hinata nodded after taking a breath from drinking a large glass of milk, "Thinking on it, the resemblance is uncanny."

Giving her friend and rival the side eye, wondering if milk was her key, she nodded as well, "I mean, there aren't that many blondes in the leaf village, and you certainly aren't a Yamanaka." In fact, the more she thought about it, the more obvious it seemed to be. Boy with amazing amounts of chakra with a mysterious past and no records about his parents is actually the secret child of the last Hokage and a super powerful Kunoichi? What were the odds?

Seeing Ino's gaze and seeing they were past the more heavy topics, the shorter girl sat up slightly straighter so her open jacket could show off a bit, she relished in Ino's pout, "Naruto-kun has always been the most surprising ninja in the leaf." Never mind that now the idea she had shelved away in her mind about solving their little love war had more merit. Son of a Hokage and the heir to a prominent clan? She was going to bring this to her father's attention soon. Council be damned.

Naruto however was trying his best to focus solely on the food in front of him and not the now slightly more animated girls across from him. He may have been distracted, but he was sure Ino-hime's wrappings were tighter than that a second ago. And now noticing that she was filling out fairly well with her improved diet, he wonder if she or Hinata would catch up with Tsunade one day. Certainly looked like it. Shaking the pervy thought from his mind and cursing the ero-sannin, he thought of something Ino had told him a while ago. "Oh! Ino-hime, didn't you say you were looking for a way to better paralyze your opponents in case Shika or Choji couldn't help you?"

Ino pointed a chopstick in the air, "That's right. Can't rely on the boys to come save me all the time. I was starting to think that with my knowledge of plants that maybe I could get into poisons."

"Well, I could talk to Shizune-nee-san and see if she'd give you some pointers. She's really good with poisons and subtle ninja tools like that. Considering she's baa-chan's assistant, she probably could help you with a lot more too." For these two that had accepted him with no questions, he'd do anything to help them. Talking to granny and her assistant would be easy.

Ino saw stars and reached over to grab Naruto's hands, "That'd be amazing! If I could get help with poisons and maybe some lessons on medical basics, I could paralyze my enemies without the other two, and make interrogation easier." Already she was imagining the possibilities. As she returned to eating and missing Naruto's blush, she starting making a list of things to ask the older woman.

Hinata smiled at the interaction of the two while she finished another plate. She was actually happy at the moment. She didn't have to worry about the judgement of her father or the clan council. She didn't have to worry about her sister or the possibility of her being made the heir instead of herself. This was peaceful, fun, and she wanted it to continue. Outside of her team, these two were easily her best and closest friends. Naruto however turned to look at her with a thoughtful frown on his face.

"Sorry Hinata-chan. I'm not sure if Tsunade or Shizune would be able to help you with your skills at all. Tsunade is super strong though! Maybe she could teach you how she does it?" He didn't want her to think he was playing favorites with his friends after all.

Hinata shook her head, "It's okay Naruto-kun. Most of my skills are starting to revolve around my flexibility and chakra precision. Though I wouldn't mind talking with Tsunada-sama if the ability presented itself." Even if their skills didn't line up, talking with a legendary kunoichi was not an opportunity to pass up.

Naruto gave her a thumbs up, "Of course. I'll talk to them both and see if they can make some time." Happy that he could take care of his friends in a less lethal way, Naruto settled in for joking and gossip from Ino. He was close with his team and he'd spend time with them tomorrow, most likely tell them his secret too, but these two across from him were a bit more special. And as the night wore on and he finally had to say goodbye, be was happy he had them in his life.

-AN-

Naruto's back home and starting to figure out who he can trust and who he can't. With Tsunade now the Hokage but with less faith in the council and village will he finally start getting some concrete answers? The last planned cannon even is coming up, and then from there we're off the rails for good.

-OMAKE-

Ever since the little blonde prodigy had been added to the bingo book, Deidara had waited, patiently, for his next work. For artists like themselves, it wasn't a question of it he'd leave another beautiful artwork somewhere. The real question was where would it be? And after hearing news from Tanzaku town, he and Sasori were off to investigate.

Now here and standing on a hill overlooking the outskirts or the town, Deidara was in awe. Not only was the crater deeper and wider, the molten rock this time had less sand content, so no glass. Dirt and ash covered everything within miles, and even from here the entire area gave off an aura of death.

"This is truly something else. This boy, no, this visionary. If only they had battled within the town itself! Why the mark he would have left on the world, on our very history!"

Sasori sighed, his senses and chakra threads tingling as they were more in tune with the environment around them. "You bomb junky, this is a testament to the lasting impact of humanity itself! Look, nothing will grow here for decades! That is art, the lasting impact of our lives, an eternal moment frozen."

Deidara turned to his partner, "What do you mean nothing will grow here?"

Sasori pointed into the distance, "Look at the crater's edge, the trees and vegetation are already dying. Something lingers here, killing everything and leaving anything else scarred. There's no wildlife here. No, this site will remain untouched, pure, even more so than his first." Sasori lifted his arms above him as if in prayer, "I can agree with you, this boy truly is a visionary. We must find him. Maybe before leader harvests his beasts."

Deidara, "Just a conversation, a few words would be enough I think. We must pick his brain."

"So we agree then?"

"For once, yes."

Both stood in silence for a while, just admiring the beauty that stood before them. In just a short time this young man had already made a name for himself and in such a grand way. If only they could have been born at different times.

"I still think it's weird you cut your junk off."

"Maybe actually use yours and I might appreciate your argument."

"Are you calling me a virgin!?"

"Just saying I've never seen you approach any women."

"I've bedded plenty of women! Dozens! Hundreds!"

"Fantisizing about Konan doesn't count."

"Wh-yo-fuck you!"