Empty

by zzzgnas

There is nothing worse in the world than the feeling of complete and utter helplessness. That empty feeling you get when you've lost everything and you know there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Uzumaki Naruto was four when he experienced this feeling for the first time. And from then on... nothing had gone right... Strong! Naruto. Third Ninja War Timeline.

13. Chapter 13 - Insatiable Hunger

Chapter-13

Insatiable Hunger

The thunderous chanting now reached its peak. "FEAST. FEAST. FEAST. FEAST…"

Day-0

Konohagakure.

Kirua looked at the piece of rubble on the ground in front of her. It read "HOME". She knew where the letters came from. After all she was standing in the ruins of her dream. "Kirua's Home for Orphans". She should have known that it was too good to be true. She should have known better. The world was far too cruel to give her even the smallest respite.

She could hear footsteps behind her. She knew who it was before the person even spoke.

"Irene-san… It seems orphans won't have a home after all." Kirua said softly and fished out a cigarette from her purse. Smoking had been prohibited inside the tunnels and it had made her time there all the more unbearable. Really… The gall of people these days. They were in an underground safe location so that they wouldn't get killed by the enemy shinobi and they were asking to have the 'dirty' people removed. If she had the ability to emit killing intent, she would have let loose everything she had.

Irene looked at her oldest ward, one of the few that were still alive. "It's probably for the best."

Kirua's eyes turned towards her in anger. "What did you just say?"

Irene met her eyes effortlessly. When you're a legendary retired shinobi, civilians seldom look threatening enough to warrant a reaction. "I said that it's probably for the best. This way, you won't give anyone any false hope. The atrocities committed to you will all still happen, but they won't be under your protection when it does." Irene looked up at Hokage monument. "It'll keep your conscience clear."

Kirua scoffed. "Are you telling me that you feel bad about what you did?"

Irene didn't meet her questioning gaze. "No. I'm saying that even after I resorted to those desperate measures, I failed. You won't do half the things I've done. If you refuse Danzo, Danzo's people will kidnap some, kill others to make an example… If you accept Danzo, your wards will live. As meaningless as their life would be, they will live. So… I'm not saying that I don't feel bad about doing it. I just want you to know what not doing it entails."

Kirua didn't reply. She didn't have to. They both knew each other long enough to know what was going through the other person's mind. Kirua understood perfectly that the weird standoffish advice was spoken with her best interests in mind. Irene understood that Kirua didn't care.

"What do you think I'm gonna do, Irene? It's not like I can build it all up from scratch by myself." Kirua said in a matter of fact tone. She turned away from the wreckage of what she'd hoped would become her home. Her eyes went to the five young shinobi talking amongst themselves. Two of them were near tears.

Kirua sighed. At least she wasn't the only one having a bad day.

With Team 7 and Team 12

Yuna struggled to hold back her tears. Everything had gone wrong so quickly. While she was thankful that Naruto had escaped, what Orochimaru told her about where he escaped to didn't make her feel any better. She hated feeling this way. Anko wasn't crying. Kakashi wasn't. Obito wasn't… Well, at least she had Rin, although it was because of a misunderstanding.

When Rin saw that Naruto wasn't with the other members of Team 12, she had assumed the worst. After the truth was revealed to her, she slowly calmed down, but she was still visibly upset. But it was nothing compared to what the other members of Team 12 were feeling.

A ninja goes on missions to protect his/her home. To provide for one's loved ones. It is what drives them. It is what makes a shinobi get out of bed in the morning, despite knowing that he/she would have to do something disgustingly horrible that day. After seeing everything they had seen in Amegakure and coming back to see their home destroyed… It was heartbreaking.

They'd seen what happened to the village from afar and even the most tired, wounded and incapacitated shinobi started running toward their destroyed home. If the situation wasn't so horrible, Yuna would have smiled at the amazing unity that they displayed. But that was not the case. The situation was horrible. Undoubtedly so.

The moment they crossed the gates, Anko set off towards her father's shop. She knew that the civilians had been evacuated before they left, but she couldn't help it. She just had to see it. Not that there was much to see. It was all gone. A pile of broken wood and rubble, a few kunai scattered around it. Yuna saw the look on Anko's face when they arrived. It was the saddest she'd ever seen her.

What bothered Yuna wasn't the unrecognizable state of the village. She was more concerned about the cries and wails of people who found out about the death of their loved ones. She saw Tsume Inuzuka looking as stoic as a Hyuga. She saw Shikaku Nara, who she knew was one of the best jonin in the village, looking uncharacteristically emotional. She saw Inoichi Yamanaka, screaming at the sky mourning the death of his little sister. The same one that had just earned a jounin promotion. The person who had just found her calling in the T&I department a few months ago. And the person who got her head bashed open by Midori of Iwa.

The only people who seemed to hold their composure were the Hyuga clan. But Yuna didn't know if it was because they were hiding it or because they were just being themselves. Yuna was also kind of indifferent to all this. She knew her family was safe. She had seen her mother with the medical team in Amegakure. She knew Sasuke was in the ANBU and she knew Asuma was in the fire temple… And… Her father… Kushina told her about the state of her father when she came across the Hokage. They'd carried him back in the scroll because Kushina didn't think anyone but Tsunade would be skilled enough to save him. Yuna accepted that with surprising ease. Well, not that surprising.

Yuna had always known that her father hated her, but she'd never had the courage to confront him. It was only becoming clearer to her in the past few days. A fucking genin put on the protection detail at the fire temple? Even one as skilled as Asuma? It was painfully obvious to everyone but Asuma himself, that this was his father's way of protecting him from war.

And her? An even less experienced genin, two years his junior and with no advice given, sent in face to face with goddamn Hanzo of the fucking salamander. That made it abundantly clear to her. Her father didn't care. Her mind carried her to the new year celebration. Naruto told her quite simply what he thought of her situation. If you don't like it, then leave. When he said it, it sounded absurd, but ever since then, she'd been noticing these little things in him, this sense of freedom that she had never experienced. All this made her long to do just that. Just walk away.

But no. Not until she knew why. Why did he not care? Why did he… hate her so much?

With Hiruzen.

Hiruzen Sarutobi was a proud individual. And he had every right to be proud. He was one of the strongest people in the elemental nations. The phrase flee on sight was seldom given to shinobi. He'd achieved it when he was 14. He was the youngest Hokage in the history of the village and had survived through both of the previous wars. He was proud. Proud of his strength, his village and his people.

The higher you think you are, the harder you fall. He knew from what his students told him all those years ago, that Hanzo may be stronger than him. While he didn't like admitting that to himself, he had no choice. By that time, even he had to put in a considerable amount of effort to defeat his team when they attacked together. Hanzo had swatted them aside like flies. That made it clear to him that Hanzo's level of power was beyond even him.

But he never imagined that he'd be defeated so easily. How could he have been so careless? Just because you win a battle, it doesn't mean you win a war. In war, each and every person is fighting every single enemy out there. It doesn't matter who your focus is on, it only matters whose focus is on you. That's why war was destructive. There's far too much going on to sense every single threat. But a flying salamander crashing down on you? He should have fucking seen that coming.

He groaned in pain as he sat up. He was not in a bed as he imagined. He was on the hard ground at the top of the Hokage Monument. But why did it feel so strange?

"Careful. Don't exert yourself any more than you've already done."

Hiruzen turned to the side slowly to see that it was Tsunade. Something about her made him feel empty inside. His mind instantly filled with regret over how he treated her the past few weeks. But he didn't say anything about that. Instead, his eyes just narrowed at the necklace on her neck. "Dan?"

"Dead."

Hiruzen's eyes widened. "I… I'm sorry."

Tsunade glared at him out of the corner of her eyes. "Sure, you are. Just like you were sorry about Nawaki's death."

"What?"

"Uncle told me everything. About the boy, about what you did to him and about how you threatened my uncle with ruining my career to keep his mouth shut."

Hiruzen started sweating slightly. Never let it be said that his female student was bad at intimidation. He got the feeling that she was barely even trying to sound threatening.

"So, sensei, don't pretend you're sorry. You can pretend we're amicable when we're in public, like we are now. I'll do the same. But… We're done. You and I, we're through."

Tsunade's hands stopped glowing and she started to get up. "Tsunade…"

"Don't get me wrong, sensei. If we're on the battlefield and I see you bleeding out, I'll definitely save you…" Tsunade started to walk away. "If there are people watching, that is."

Hiruzen's eyes widened at the threat. He had messed up. He struggled to get on his feet. "Tsunade, come back. Let me explain."

Hearing that, Tsunade stopped walking which surprised Hiruzen who was not expecting that. "I suggest you turn around, Sarutobi-sensei, you have a lot more to explain to the person behind you."

Hiruzen frowned at his retreating student. What did she mean by that? He turned around as fast as his healing body enabled him to and froze at what he saw. Or rather, who he saw.

Kushina Uzumaki sat at the very edge of his Hokage mountain, on top of his head, in fact. And when his eyes stared past her, he saw the remnants of his village. His wide eyes narrowed as he suddenly realized what was nagging him on the back of his mind. There was no noise from the village hidden in the leaves. They were completely and utterly silent… Except for the sound of some people crying.

"Have you ever been to Uzushiogakure, Sandaime-sama?", Kushina asked without turning around as he slowly made his way up to her.

"Yes. Of course, I have." Hiruzen replied immediately. After Tsunade's mentally exhausting discussion, he wasn't looking forward to any more drama, especially since Akira's been talking.

"No. I meant after its fall." Kushina's faint reply reached his ear.

Hiruzen didn't reply. The question was pointless. Why would he go there after it fell? Everything of value had already been looted away by the invaders. But he wasn't going to tell her that.

"You haven't. Why would you, anyway? But I have. Naruto has." At the mention of his name, Hiruzen's eyes narrowed. "He remembers bits and pieces of what happened there. He remembers that he once hated Konoha. He knows that his memory has been tampered with and he knows that you have something to do with it."

Hiruzen unknowingly took a step back. If a fight were to break out now, he'd have no chance. She looked perfectly healthy while he was hardly able to stand on his own feet… And he was dying to know what happened to the village to make it so silent.

"Don't be afraid, Sandaime-sama. I won't hurt you. Not unless you provoke the fight. And not until Naruto comes back. Despite everything else, you're very good at your job. And Konoha needs that right now." Kushina got on her feet and turned around. "But I will be coming to talk to you soon and you had better tell me everything."

Hiruzen stayed silent until Kushina walked past him, brutally suppressing the urge to ask where Naruto had gone because he knew it wouldn't be well received. Instead he decided to just have the last word. "And what if I don't?"

Kushina came to a stop abruptly. "I'd suggest you reconsider, because I don't think the village is equipped to handle a kyuubi-powered Uzumaki right now." She smiled sweetly at him. "For now, I suggest you think of something uplifting. Something motivational. That's what your people need right now." She turned away and started walking again. "I'll give you time to recover, Hiruzen, so you won't feel like I'm forcing answers from you when you're not at your best. I'm no coward. But please keep in mind that this is a warning. The next time, I won't be… so… accepting of your situation."

Hiruzen blinked rapidly as Kushina Uzumaki walked down the path to the base of the monument. He shook himself out of his shock and turned towards the village and slowly inched closer to the edge.

And when he finally saw what exactly happened to his village, he fell onto his knees. It was gone. It was just… gone.

For the first time in his life, doubt permeated his mind. Nothing else existed. Had he messed up? Was he the reason the village was destroyed? What could he have done better? What happened here? If only he'd been here. If only he'd thought to recall Kosuke from the bridge. If only…

'For now, I suggest you think of something uplifting. Something motivational. That's what your people need right now.'

Hiruzen once again got back on his knees. He started pulling on his leftover chakra. "PEOPLE OF KONOHA…"

Every single eye snapped in his direction, looking to their leader for his guidance. "OUR HOME IS DESTROYED. I WON'T STAND HERE AND SAY THAT IT'S NOT MY FAULT. THIS HAPPENED AS A DIRECT CONSEQUENCE OF MY ACTIONS. OF MY PLAN."

By now, even the crying had stopped. A lone tear fell down Hiruzen's face. "BUT THIS IS WHAT GAVE US VICTORY OVER OUR ENEMIES. SUNA… IWA… KUMO… THEY HAVE ALL BEEN DEFEATED. BEATEN BACK BY US. THEY'RE LICKING THEIR WOUNDS RIGHT NOW. WE DID IT. WE STOOD STRONG AGAINST 3 GREAT VILLAGES AND EMERGED THE VICTOR. AGAIN. WE SURVIVED."

Hiruzen channeled chakra into his hands in preparation for what was about to follow. "LOOKING AT YOU ALL NOW, I CAN SEE VERY CLEARLY THAT I'VE FAILED YOU. I PROMISED TO KEEP THE VILLAGE SAFE. I PROMISED TO TAKE CARE OF OUR HOME. I WASN'T ABLE TO KEEP MY PROMISE TO YOU, AND FOR THAT I'M SORRIER THAN I HAVE EVER BEEN BEFORE IN MY LIFE… … … BUT… I DID KEEP ONE PROMISE. I PROMISED TO SAVE KONOHA. KONOHA IS SAVED."

Tiger. Dragon. Ram.

"THE HOUSES ARE DESTROYED. THE RESTAURANTS, PARKS, BATHHOUSES… THEY ARE ALL GONE. ALL GONE."

Horse. Tiger. Boar. Horse.

"BUT WE'RE STILL HERE. WHAT IS BROKEN CAN BE FIXED. WHAT IS LOST CAN BE FOUND. BUT WHAT IS DEAD CAN NEVER LIVE AGAIN. AND WE'RE STILL HERE. KONOHA IS STILL HERE. OUR PEOPLE… ARE STILL HERE. THEY THOUGHT THEY COULD DESTROY KONOHA BY DESTROYING THESE MATERIAL THINGS? THEY WERE MISTAKEN. THE WILL OF FIRE DOESN'T FADE AWAY IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY. IT STANDS STRONG. WE WILL STAND STRONG. WE WILL BURN BRIGHTER THAN WE'VE EVER BURNED BEFORE. WE'LL SHOW THEM THAT WHAT THEY DID, ACCOMPLISHED NOTHING, BECAUSE WE WILL ENDURE."

Snake.

"KONOHA WILL ENDURE."

Boar.

"AND WE WILL SURVIVE."

Monkey.

"EARTH RELEASE: MULTIPLE EARTH CREATION TECHNIQUE. STONE CASTLE EMERGENCE."

The ground started trembling heavily as the civilians ran around in panic. Yuna stared in shock at her father. She had never seen him so… … vulnerable. She was still rooted in position when the first house made of stone emerged from the ground. Anko grabbed her hand and led her away, running in the direction everyone was running in.

The members of team 7 kept up with them easily as they made their way toward the village gates. The ground never stopped shaking. Out of the corner of her eye, Yuna saw a familiar purple-haired little girl, hiding behind a taller woman, who she recognized immediately as Hayate's mom. Tugging on Anko's arm, she pointed towards them.

Anko nodded in acceptance and they started towards them slowly with team 7 following them. The civilians were in complete panic mode. Rin was the first one to reach their target, used to weaving in and out of other people's reach. Yugao lightened up immediately when she saw them.

Yuna and Anko stopped in their tracks when they saw the young girl look around hopefully. How were they going to explain it to her?

Rin grabbed her and ran toward a nearby stone structure rather than away from it, forcing everyone else to follow her. Kakashi and Obito carried Hayate and his mom and they finally reached the roof of the stone house.

Yuna immediately noticed that many shinobi had thought the same thing and were occupying the space on the roofs, saving civilians whenever they could.

The trembling slowly started to die down after a few minutes. As they waited for the dust to settle, every pair of eyes were aimed at the same place. At the head of the third Hokage's stone face in the Hokage Monument. The dust slowly cleared to reveal more than a hundred identical houses in the once barren strip of land under the monument.

The Sandaime Hokage fell to his knees. With the last ounce of strength left in his body, he yelled out as loud as he could. "KONOHA PREVAILS."

Then, he fell to the ground and lay there unmoving.

Amegakure, With Nagato

Nagato had never been tortured before. He didn't even think Hanzo had it in him to care about his shinobi messing up. However they messed up, if it was bad, he would just fix it. But when it came to a certain red haired genin from Konoha, Hanzo was not reasonable.

According to him, it was because of his failure to kill the brat that he had been humiliated in front of every shinobi in the village. But even Nagato had to reluctantly force down the respect he felt for the Konoha genin. He was dumbfounded by the way he escaped the strongest shinobi in the elemental nations. He didn't know that summoning worked that way, because it never mattered to him as he could always just summon whatever he wanted.

He was being tortured for the first time in his life. But nothing happening to his body was remotely as painful as watching Yahiko get a kunai through his arm. Sure, it was painful. It fucking hurt a lot. But he would take this and any amount of pain if it meant Yahiko could get full use of his arm back.

He should've just stayed quiet when Hanzo asked if any of them had fought a red haired brat about 10 years old. He would never know why he responded. But he did. His name was Naruto. His main affinity seemed to be fire, but he used it differently. Using some sort of fuinjutsu. And oh. He was capable of unleashing black flames that even the rain couldn't stop.

Soon after, he'd found himself in this room, tortured for losing a fight. He didn't mind. He needed something to do while he worked up the courage to face Yahiko and Konan after what happened. He'd be out soon and he'd better find a way to apologize.

Kirigakure, 3 Hours Later.

"HAKU?" Mangetsu yelled as loud as he could. "Oi. Gōzu. Do you know where Haku is?"

The slightly older shinobi just shrugged to indicate that he hadn't. "Try upstairs."

Mangetsu nodded and immediately started walking. "Gather everyone. You all need to see this."

"Everyone's not here." Meizu replied.

Mangetsu clicked his tongue in annoyance. They didn't seem to understand the urgency in his voice. "Then gather everyone who is here."

Gōzu grinned. "If they're already here, then why do we have to gather them?"

A visible tic-mark formed on Mangetsu's forehead as he struggled to rein in his temper. He didn't understand how two people could get on his nerves so consistently. "Fine. Forget I said anything. I thought you might wanna know about this since it's about Naruto, but it seems you don't. I'm sorry for the fucking inconven-"

"What about Naruto?" A new voice interrupted him. He didn't need to look up to know that it was Haku who spoke.

"You can hear me now, huh?" He sniped up at the person who looked down at him from the roof.

"What about Naruto?" Haku reiterated, this time making the temperature drop slightly as she wanted to get her point across.

Mangetsu flinched at the tone and threw the book in his hand upwards, which Haku effortlessly caught.

"A bingo-book? You're joking right?" Haku asked, bewildered. Naruto was 11 years old. 11. That was not an age at which you made it into a bingo book.

By now, the twins had gotten up from their comfortable positions on the ground and made their way towards the two genin.

"Open it. He's there towards the end." Mangetsu spoke, making the other three raise their eyebrows.

Haku was a bit skeptical. He managed to stay out of everybody's radar for more than 4 years and suddenly within two weeks Naruto came up twice? It seemed too much of a coincidence. But then again, Haku knew that academy students had a hard time making themselves famous. The moment Naruto became a genin, people were starting to notice.

But her disbelief went away as soon as she saw his face. The photograph was very blurry and only the very basic features could be distinguished. But it was enough for her. She could spot him from miles away, a blurry photograph wouldn't stop her from recognizing him. His red eyes were slightly visible through his wet hair. That slightly puzzled her until she saw that the bounty had been issued by Amegakure. Maybe he was part of the five-way showdown that had taken place there?

But her curious expression went to jaw-dropping shock when she saw the amount. She looked away from the book towards Mangetsu.

"30 Million ryo?"

Mangetsu let out an exasperated sigh. "Read from the top, idiot."

Haku blushed and realized that he was probably right. She turned her attention back to the book and started reading aloud.

'Name: Naruto Uzumaki.
Age: 9 – 12
Color of Hair: Red
Skills: Water Release, Fuinjutsu, A mutation of the sharingan that enables him to bring black flames to life which burns even water. This technique, known to be wielded only by him and Uchiha Fugaku, led to this day being called 'The Day the Rain Burned'.Uses some kind of chains that are formed from his body which he uses in various different capacities.
Caliber: High B-Rank to low A-rank.
Rank: Genin
Affiliation: Konohagakure no Sato.
Accomplishments: Defeated three jonin-level Amegakure shinobi by himself and named them the Sannin of Ame, much like Hanzo did to the Sannin of Konoha, years before. Suspected to be the person who destroyed the Kiriniku forest separating the Land of Grass and the Land of Fire. The only person alive to have ever hurt Sanshou no Hanzo's summon, Ibuze.
Comments: Never underestimate him, he's deadly to people fooled by his appearance.
Known Accomplices: Sarutobi Yuna (Teammate), Mitarashi Anko (Teammate), Orochimaru of the Sannin of Konoha (Instructor), Uzumaki Kushina (Suspected Relative).
Rewards: 10000 Ryo Dead ( Amegakure )
100000 Ryo Dead / Alive ( Iwagakure )
30000000 Ryo Alive ( Amegakure )'

Haku stared at the book in stunned silence for a long time. None of the others spoke either. "Is – is this for real?"

Mangetsu shrugged indifferently. "Don't know. What I do know is that Konoha was engaged in a fight with the three other major villages and they somehow managed to escape relatively unscathed, considering that Hanzo finally showed what he was capable of."

Haku frowned. "What does that mean?"

Mangetsu held up a hand gesture signaling that he himself did not entirely know. "I only heard the gossip. Apparently, one kid, likely Naruto, did something to anger him before escaping. It left Hanzo so angry that he sniffed out every single shinobi still in his land and ended them brutally. He didn't follow anyone into their country though."

Gōzu interrupted him next. "Who suffered the most losses?"

"Kumo. They were beyond foolish in trying anything in such a situation. Nothing went right for them. Konoha beat the Sandaime Raikage's son's troops at Shimogamo Forest and then Hanzo dropped down on them while they were retreating. Other than that, it's all pretty even."

Haku frowned. The fact that Naruto did something so extreme for Konoha meant that their plan was working. Whoever sealed his memory wanted Naruto to form attachments and connections in the village, so that when his memories finally returned to him, he would be unable to do anything about it.

She zoned out of the discussion that followed, her mind too busy thinking about other things. Zabuza had told her that Yuna Sarutobi was one of Naruto's new teammates and the bingo book confirmed it. That was when she realized that this was probably the plan. In all possibility, the Hokage was the one to seal his memory. The act of putting his daughter in the same team as the young Uzumaki was probably to make sure that in the event his memories returned, Naruto would be unable to do anything about it without hurting his teammates as well.

One thing was for sure though. His memories would one day return. When she looked at the sky her eyes caught the first twinkling star of the night and she just knew that Naruto was looking too. His memories would come back. There was no doubt about it. The only real question was when…

With Naruto.

"WELCOME TO OUR LAIR! WE ARE SO VERY GLAD YOU CAME, UZUMAKI NARUTO." Strange patterns in a dark blood-red color formed all over its body as he started chuckling darkly, each sound making Naruto's entire world shake. "IT'S BEEN SO LONG SINCE ANY OF US HAVE TASTED HUMAN FLESH!"

Naruto blinked… Did this creature just say that it was planning to eat him? His mangekyou sharingan came to life immediately.

"Amaterasu!"

Black flames settled on the wings of the beast in front of him and it let out a sudden screech of pain. But the smirk that formed on Naruto's face was short-lived.

"SCATTER!"

Suddenly, his world was lit up by the stars and the moon as the beings covering them from his view, scattered. Pulling its wings back, the beast unleashed a powerful gale upwards scattering the black flames that were slowly consuming him.

Naruto squinted at the sudden increase in brightness but in the light, he was finally able to identify his familiars. And it filled him with dread.

Already suffering from chakra exhaustion, Naruto had used up the last of his reserves for unleashing the deadly flames which had just been countered easily. Naruto slowly opened his purple eyes to come face to face with two dark green slitted eyes.

…

"Ku-ku-ku… The boy still has some fight in him. Hayate, bring the chakra suppression seals."

Naruto's right hand immediately went to his left wrist to unseal his sword but he was forced to stop when his left hand exploded in pain.

Unbelievable splitting pain made his entire body shiver as he turned to look at the creature's beak, dripping with his blood. Giggling erupted all around him though he could see no one else.

Naruto grit his teeth, struggling to deal with the pain. "What do you want from me? If you do not want me as a summoner, I'm happy to leave. Just tell me which way to go."

The giggling started again but this time it echoed all around him. "Hear that, Kurokaze? The boy is happy to leave."

Now, with a name associated with his huge bodice, Kurokaze leaned down until his beak almost grazed Naruto's face.

"One does not simply leave a summons' lair. The only way you leave here alive is if you become our summoner." Then, Kurokaze laughed, a deep dry chuckle. "And there's no way you'll become the first summoner of the Vulture clan."

Naruto sniffed. "And why can't I become your summoner?"

Angry shrieks erupted all around him. Kurokaze made a clicking sound and silence reigned over them.

"There's no way you'll pass our trial." Kurokaze stared expectantly at the first human he'd seen in over a century, waiting for him to ask the obvious question.

Naruto frowned, annoyed at having to ask the obvious question to the pompous vulture. "What's this trial I'm supposed to overcome?"

Kurokaze's beak changed into a shape that made it look almost as if he was smiling. "Every summons will test something different. The snakes are impressed by how much punishment your body is able to take. The toads are impressed by how much you're willing to sacrifice. The moles want their summoners to be inhumanely fast and agile. The salamanders want their summoners to exhibit raw strength beyond anything humanly possible…"

Naruto frowned. He didn't really want to know that. "What about what you want?"

Kurokaze chuckled. "You needn't concern yourself with that. We already know you aren't capable. You've already done plenty of things that we'll never be able to forgive."

Naruto's eyes narrowed. "How can you possibly know that?"

"We've been watching you for quite some time now."

His eyes narrowed. "What does that mean?"

"It means exactly what I just said. We've been watching you."

"Why?"

A low chuckle sounded from the jet-black vulture. "Because you're famous, Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto frowned. "I am?"

"Yes. Nature's most recent and most deadly destroyer. Back when you were little, you did something to anger nature. But seeing as you were just a little kid, nature saw fit to forgive you, which is why you're still alive."

Naruto finally sat down on the ground listening to the vulture, finally relieving his exhausted legs.

"But… You destroyed Kiriniku Forest three months ago. That has angered nature greatly, but still… not yet enough for us to get involved." Kurokaze unfurled his magnificent wings completely blocking out the sky from Naruto's view. "But now, seeing as you just delivered yourself to us, I don't think nature will object very much if we decide to eat you."

Naruto looked around angrily and saw the uncountable number of glistening eyes staring at him. There were too many of them. If there was at least one of them as strong as Manda, or god forbid, Ibuze, he stood no chance against all of them together. He clutched his bleeding hand tightly. "Well… It seems I don't have much choice, do I? What are you waiting for?"

Kurokaze chuckled darkly. "What are we waiting for? We are nature's clean-up crew. We eat only what nature discards, what she doesn't want. And until you die, we can't be sure if nature wants you or not…"

Naruto tilted his head, already dreading what was about to come out of the vulture's mouth. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

"Yes. We're waiting for you to die, Uzumaki Naruto."

Day-1.

Konohagakure, General Hospital.

"Hokage-sama is resting. You can't enter." The ANBU spoke adamantly. The Konoha General Hospital was one of the few buildings untouched by recent events. But there was still a lot of debris and dust inside from the explosion. It wasn't a suitable medical environment at all. It took the kunoichi by the name of Mikoto Uchiha and ten ninjas under her command almost a day to make the place suitable.

"We're his family and we want to see him. Move aside or I'll have you thrown in jail faster than you can blink." Sarutobi Biwako was angry. Not because of what happened to the village. Not because she learned that Yuna had been there at Amegakure. It was because her husband of more than 30 years was a goddamn idiot. For fuck's sake, he could have gotten some rest before he pulled off that stunt. Would it have hurt his precious ego that much, just to wait?

The ANBU moved aside swiftly and let the three members of the Sarutobi clan enter the room. Asuma rushed forward in worry. Yuna's eyes widened when her father jumped out of bed, ruining more than just one of the medical appliances on his person.

Father and son hugged each other tightly, making Yuna look away. She wanted to be part of that hug. So badly. But she knew what would happen if she walked forward. The Hokage would suddenly start coughing and then Asuma and the attending nurse would gently place him on his bed.

Hiruzen asked his attending staff to step out so that he could speak privately with his family. The first thing he proceeded to ask was about Asuma's teammates, whether they were safe, whether they all had fun… It sickened her to no end that Asuma didn't see the blatant favoritism.

Normally, Yuna would just try it to see if it would be different this time. Just to see if something had changed. But she was tired. She was tired of being brushed aside like she was nothing. She was tired of being kept in the dark about family matters that she had every right to be a part of. She was tired of doing nothing while the people who should support her, just ignored her cries for help.

She was done. Plain and simple. She should have done this years ago when Sasuke left. That was the day she became an outsider in her own home.

"Yuna." Hearing her name, she looked towards her mother who was looking worriedly at her. "Why do you seem so sad?"

Unbelievable. Someone had noticed her. Well, if someone had, it would obviously be her mother. "Why do you think?"

Biwako flinched back at her tone, making Yuna wince slightly. She didn't want to take out her anger on her mother. She was the only reason she still went back home every day.

"Oh yeah, I heard that the redheaded brat went and offed himself. Serves him right, if you ask me. He should never have lived. He was just a dirt-y" Asuma got no further because he finally noticed the surprisingly large amount of killing intent coming from his little sister. Hiruzen frowned. He knew only one 'red-haired brat' in the village.

"Out." Yuna's faint whisper reached the rest of her family and sent shivers down their spines. "Both of you. Out."

Biwako looked stricken when she realized that the second part was aimed at her. Asuma didn't seem to realize the intensity of Yuna's request.

"No. I'm not leaving. I haven't even told him anything about my time at the fire temple. It was one of-"

"Nobody cares, Asuma. Everyone knows that it was Hokage-sama here, trying to protect you. While the rest of us were off fighting a war, you were drinking tea with the fire daimyo. What a fucking story. Now, GET OUT." Yuna screamed in anger.

Asuma was growing red with anger when Biwako placed a hand on his shoulder. "You can tell him all about it later. Now, let's give these two some privacy."

Asuma frowned. "Really?"

Biwako was already turning him towards the door. "Yes. We'll talk all about it later." As she led Asuma through the door, she paused and turned around meeting Hiruzen's eyes.

Hiruzen knew what she was trying to tell him. She was pleading with him to not tell her the truth.

'Please don't.'

That's what her eyes told him and normally, he would go along with his wife's request. But now, after Yuna belittled Asuma and revealed to him the real reason behind placing him at the Fire Temple, he wasn't sure he could.

A long stretch of silence followed after the two Sarutobi clan members left. Hiruzen was the one who finally broke it. "Your killing intent was impressive before."

Yuna's eyes widened at the compliment.

"I didn't think you were capable of that."

Her eyes dimmed at the snarky comment that she should've known would follow. "There it is." She muttered her eyes clouding with tears.

"What?" Hiruzen asked.

"Tou-sama… Can you answer my question truthfully? I just want to know." Yuna asked, her tear-filled eyes meeting his own. He nodded signaling her to go ahead. Yuna bit her lip in anticipation. "Why do you hate me?"

Hiruzen blinked at the question. He was expecting something along those lines, but nothing quite so blunt. "Yuna, I don't hate-".

"Truthfully, remember?" Yuna interrupted.

Hiruzen frowned. He didn't think he was that obvious at it. He was aware that he was partial to Asuma and at most times, Yuna never even entered his mind. But he had a good reason for that. A secret that kept his political career and his family life from falling apart for so long.

"You sent Asuma to the fire temple to protect him. I'm weaker than him… Less experienced than him. You sent me into war. No warnings, no advice, no nothing."

Hiruzen looked conflicted. He knew he had always been hard on Yuna, but the fact that he'd effectively sent her into war… That too, in Amegakure no less… Somehow he hadn't noticed it till now. "Yuna, I-"

Yuna held up a hand to stop his explanation. "And now. After I somehow made it back, somehow still in one piece, a crack away from shattering to pieces. After I lost my teammate…" Hiruzen's eyes widened when he got the confirmation he was unknowingly looking for. "After all that. You lie there and ask Asuma how he is? How his teammates are? How do you think they are? They had the fire daimyo's servants wiping their asses for the past week."

Hiruzen frowned at her words. Kushina had told him that there would be a reckoning when Naruto came back. But here Yuna was, telling him that he was lost. And in this world, 'lost' often means 'dead'. "You lost a teammate?"

Yuna's angry tirade reached a halt. Her father was seriously asking her about her teammates. Maybe he did care?

"Naruto… Naruto is gone." Yuna spoke sadly. She still couldn't stop the tightening in her chest when she thought about him, but it took the back seat at the time because the moment the name Naruto left her lips, Hiruzen's shoulders slumped… in… … … relief?

She didn't know how it happened but one moment, she was staring at her father in shock and the next, she had a kunai in her hand and she was surrounded by ANBU. Her hard eyes stared right into the eyes of her father. They had both just done something unforgivable in the eyes of the other and they both wanted the other to pay for it. Unfortunately for Yuna, she wasn't in any position to even escape her father's anger, let alone punish him for what he just did.

"Sasuke."

Yuna froze when she heard the name. Sasuke?

"Get her out of my sight."

The tall ANBU that had a sword pointed at her tilted his head backwards. "Hai. Hokage-sama."

Yuna couldn't believe it. That was Sasuke's voice. There was no doubt in her mind about that. He was in the village all this time? What was going on? Yuna was too stunned to do anything when Sasuke placed a hand on her shoulder. She didn't even register the fact that she had now turned around and started walking.

"What is going on?" Yuna asked timidly, her eyes already wet with tears.

"Walk." Sasuke replied coldly. When hurt washed over her face, he realized that he was probably being a bit too harsh. But then again… She had just tried to kill a fucking kage. She was lucky she was still alive. Some harshness was allowed for.

Yuna came to a sudden stop and turned around angrily at him. "No. Not until you explain to me what the fuck is going on."

Sasuke seemed to be looking directly at her from behind the mask. "You're too weak to handle what's going on. Now, I suggest not returning to visit the Hokage again. Not for some time at least. If you really want to know so much, the emotionless, ruthless Hokage isn't the place to start digging."

Yuna didn't get time to voice her protests because the next moment, she was face down on the ground at the hospital entrance. She stayed on the ground for a long time, tears starting to develop in her eyes. The only reason she stayed with her family for all these years was Sasuke. Sasuke and Biwako. Now, Sasuke had shown that he didn't care. Why else would he stay away for so long when she was only a step away from him? And Biwako… Either she didn't care either or she was too powerless to do anything. What was left for her?

With Kushina.

Minato Namikaze opened his eyes slowly, squinting at the bright light flowing in through the windows. He sensed someone moving about and suddenly the blinds were closed and the bright spots in his vision slowly faded away. But now the room was too dark. He couldn't properly make out the person moving about the room, but he didn't need to. He knew who it was just from the smell in the air. It was Kushina.

"Kushina… Are you okay?" Suddenly, things started coming back to him. How he fought Midori to a sort of standstill, how he was devastated by a single punch, and then… Amegakure! He abruptly sat up letting out a groan in pain.

"Easy. You took a lot of damage." Kushina spoke, taking a seat next to his bed.

"I… The Hokage?" Minato croaked out through his clenched teeth. The pain was agonizing, especially from his right foot. The intensity of it made him not want to look at his foot at all, so he lay back down.

"He's safe." Kushina said, her arms moving about, grabbing a cup of water. "For now."

Minato flinched at the indifference she showed. "What does that mean?"

"It means that he's safe unless he decides to try something." Kushina replied effortlessly.

Minato fidgeted nervously. She was being serious. "What happened?"

Kushina shook her head. "Not so soon. You'll answer my questions first. You're not off the hook yet."

Minato grimaced as the memories of their celebration at the jonin lounge came back to him. "Okay."

Kushina nodded before handing him the cup in her hand. "First question. Why did you teleport to me? Was it because I was closest or was it some roundabout way to get me talking to you again?"

"Erm… it was because you were the closest, Kushina. There's no other kunai. I've made just one till now."

Kushina's eyes narrowed. "I don't believe you. Why would you do that? You didn't even know if it'd work."

"It's true. Only made one kunai… I never got the teleportation to work before. The only thing I could get was a general direction for the kunai. This was the first time I actually teleported." Minato had his head down in shame.

Kushina's mouth opened in shock. "You've been… almost tracking me for the past few months, haven't you?"

Minato looked away. He was going to be brutally honest with her. Was he ashamed of the truth? Yes. A 100 percent yes. But he wouldn't hide it anymore. "Yes."

"Can you do it now?" Kushina asked.

The question took Minato by surprise. He was expecting her to be angrier. He slowly extended his senses to find that he couldn't. "I don't understand. Where's the kunai?"

Kushina shrugged. "I don't know. That's why I asked."

"What did you do with it? It can't just be gone. I should at least get a general direction from it."

"I didn't do anything. Naruto has it. He used the summoning technique to escape Hanzo. He had the kunai with him." Kushina muttered under her breath, staring into space.

Minato's eyes widened. "Your brother was face-to-face with Hanzo?" He was stunned into silence when he saw her nod. "Does that mean Orochimaru is dead?"

Kushina chuckled. "No. Naruto saved him. Orochimaru's still alive and well."

"And Naruto is now…?"

"M.I.A."

Silence followed her declaration. Minato didn't want to think about it, but he did know what it meant to their relationship. If it turned out that Naruto was dead, Minato was the reason why Kushina lost more than 3 months with him. But he had to ask. He had to at least try.

"Where does that leave us?"

Kushina raised her eyebrows at him. "It doesn't leave us anywhere. Until I'm sure you had nothing to do with his memory troubles, there is nothing going on between us."

Seeing her stand up, Minato struggled to sit up. "You know I didn't have anything to do with that."

Kushina didn't stop walking. "We'll see."

Just before she reached the door, Minato voiced his final question. "What are you going to do now?"

Kushina didn't even look up. "I'm waiting to talk to someone about something very important. In the meantime, I have a list of people I want to investigate. A list of people that have wronged Naruto."

"Am I on the list?" Minato asked quietly.

Kushina didn't reply to his question. She simply turned around and walked toward the door.

"Kushina!"

She stopped and turned around. "Yes."

"Is there any way we can go back to how we used to be? Any way at all?"

Kushina smiled at him. "There's a way for anything to happen if it's meant to be, Minato. You know that. In this case, you'll have to prove to me that you were innocent and you'll have to prove to me that you knew nothing about how Naruto's memory got sealed. And you'll have to prove that you aren't part of the conspiracy at play here." Kushina's smile slowly fell. "All this is conditional on Naruto returning. If he doesn't, then you and I have no future together."

Kushina turned around and started walking again. Minato bit his lip in frustration. He wanted to run after her. He wanted to hug her and hold her. He knew she wouldn't push him away because he knew she was hurting. But his injuries left him incapable of doing anything.

"Kushina. If he's still alive, he's still in whatever realm his familiar lives in. If the kunai is still with him when he comes back to the elemental nations, I'll be able to sense him. I'll find him, Kushina. I will."

Minato meant that when he said it. But… He had no idea where to start. He didn't even know if Kushina had heard his promise. There was no reply. The room was just empty. Even the small sounds of papers being pushed and medical tools being moved about, couldn't be heard.

Sighing, he slowly got out of bed, his chest heaving in protest. He slowly inched toward the windows and lifted the blinds. The sight that welcomed him wasn't something he would have predicted in a thousand years. Konoha was gone. The old wooden buildings were no more. The land didn't look as rich as it once did. In fact, it looked a bit barren. Huge stone buildings stood tall near the Hokage mountain.

Minato used his finger to trace a line on the window pane and it left a clear path in its wake. Dust, he realized. What had happened when they were away?

With Naruto

Naruto was lying on his back. He had obviously never been so far up in the air. It stunned him how little everything changed. Sure, breathing was a bit more difficult, the temperature was a bit lower, but nothing that made it intolerable.

His stay in the lair of the vultures was uncomfortable, not because of the lack of basic amenities like a bed, good clothes, clean water, etc. No. He never liked sleeping in a bed anyway. What made it uncomfortable was the lack of food. There was nothing to eat here except the rotting bones of whatever game the vultures dragged back. It wasn't something he was proud of, but he hadn't eaten in over 40 hours. His stomach was growling constantly. It was a very disgusted Naruto that reached for the remnants of Kurokaze's feast.

He wished he hadn't. Now, on top of dealing with the pangs of hunger and the wound on his left arm he'd received the day before, he had to tend to the deep gash on his right one where Kurokaze's beak had torn into him. Both of those were going to leave a scar. Apparently, the bones were Kurokaze's dessert.

Now, Naruto was curled up in a ball at the far end of a small cave, both legs chained to the wall, chakra seals on his body. How the vultures built the chains, he would never know. How the vultures drew kanji, he would never know. There were sentries posted at the entrance and even if there weren't any, he wouldn't dare to escape now. Not without planning it properly. Not when he didn't know the layout of the mountains he was in.

"What are you looking at, boy?"

"Tch." That was the other thing that made Naruto hesitate. Kurokaze never left him alone. He thought birds were supposed to go stretch their wings at least once a day. But not this old bird. He hadn't gone anywhere where Naruto wasn't in his sights. It was almost as if he was afraid to leave him alone. Naruto sniffed. At least he wasn't being underestimated.

He wasn't sure if Kurokaze was the leader of the vultures, but he sure as hell seemed to be and that was why he wasn't taking any chances. When he decided to make his move, every single move would be perfect and with purpose. He wasn't going to just blindly run.

After he got over the shock of realizing that these creatures wanted to eat him, he found that he didn't mind the vultures too much. He wasn't allowed to eat, but he was allowed to drink water… Although the water wasn't clean, it at least served to somehow lessen the intensity of the pangs of hunger that plagued him.

Anyways, being a prisoner here, he didn't feel like a prisoner sometimes with the way his jailer talked to him.

"I asked you a question, boy."

Naruto frowned. Most of the time anyway.

"And I'm sure the 'boy' has replied." Naruto retorted snidely.

"Are you asking me to use your name to address you?" the vulture asked, seeming amused.

"What if I am?"

Kurokaze tilted his head to the side. "Alright. What are you looking at, nature's destroyer?"

Naruto shook his head. "No. That's not my name."

"Forest burner?"

"No."

"Bone stealer?"

"I said I was sorry, didn't I?"

"Bone stealer it is. You are a guest here, bone stealer. You aren't allowed to partake in anything we don't grant you."

Naruto scoffed. "That seems an awful lot like saying I'm not allowed to partake in anything."

Kurokaze moved his wings in a motion that made it seem like he was shrugging. "We are giving you shelter, aren't we?"

"Against what? In case you haven't noticed, we're above the fucking clouds."

"Would you rather be outside?" Kurokaze asked, tilting his head in amusement.

"Fucking… Yes, actually. Outside is good."

The black winged vulture stared at him for the longest time. "Nope. You're much more likely to off yourself if you're stuck in here with me."

Naruto sulked. "I still don't get it. I mean, why not kill me now? There won't be much of me to eat if I starve to death."

"You raise a valid point."

Naruto stared at the vulture waiting for him to continue, but he showed no indication of doing so. "But?", he prompted.

"But killing is prohibited in our sacred home. Waiting for you to die is our only course of action. If you want to go out satisfying us, you could just off yourself. As you are now, you would feed at least a dozen vultures… For one meal."

Naruto sighed. "Or, you know, you can let me go. I won't harm nature again?"

At that, the old vulture chuckled darkly. "How naïve. You won't harm nature? That doesn't matter boy. If nature wanted you dead, you'd already be dead. You're here because we want you dead for what you did to mother nature. We want you gone. Wiped off the face of the earth and for some reason, mother doesn't want the same. So, you'll stay here till you die or you'll stay here till nature intervenes."

Naruto looked around nervously. There were times when he could look at anything without flinching even a little bit. Most of those times was when he knew he did nothing wrong. But something about what the vulture spoke, told him that he was not exactly in the clear. He had burned down Kiriniku Forest for nothing more than petty revenge. He had seen the state of Uzushiogakure, but he had no recollection of how exactly that state came to be. He didn't know if that was the work of Iwa, Kumo, Kiri, or even himself. He just somehow knew that every single person on that island had been killed, except for him.

"How will you know if mother nature intervenes?" Naruto asked, finally breaking the silence.

Kurokaze's cackling laughter grew louder. "Believe me, you'll know."

Naruto frowned. The vultures were almost like some cultists he'd once read about. Completely devoted to what they worshiped and impossible to have a normal conversation with… and deadly to those who defied their beliefs.

Wanting to think about anything other than his grim circumstances, he decided to ask a question that had been bugging him since he'd arrived here. "Kurokaze-san, why have I never heard of the Vulture summons before? I've read a lot of books and the vulture summoning contract has never once been mentioned."

"Hmph. Of course, you'd ask such an insolent question." Kurokaze snapped at him.

Naruto looked at the vulture, surprised at the reaction. "Woah. It was just a question. You don't need to answer." Naruto slowly got up on his knees, wanting to stretch his sore muscles. "Not that it matters much anyway if I'm going to starve to death here."

Kurokaze looked at the chained redhead in something akin to pity. "Alright. You win. You're going to die anyway, right? What's the harm?"

Naruto let out a pained grin. "Thanks… I guess…"

"I already told you yesterday. You've never heard of us because we've never had summoners before. Nor will we, if I have it my way."

Naruto frowned. He'd heard the same thing yesterday, but with the friendly attitude that some of the vultures took with him, he assumed there would be a possibility of befriending them… The adamant way in which Kurokaze said it pretty much ended that train of thought. "Why is that?"

"If you want to know my reason, it's that humans will never adhere to our principles. If I let a human sign the contract, we'll be summoned in order to kill others. That is a strict no for us. We do not kill. Humans have no use for weapons that do not kill and we have no use for humans we cannot eat."

Naruto stared at the vulture strangely. "I can't believe I'm even asking this… But you guys do realize that if you have a summoner, you'll be able to get him/her to kill whenever you feel hungry and you won't be violating that stupid rule you have about killing?"

Kurokaze blinked nonchalantly…

Naruto shrugged when the vulture didn't reply. "Anyways, what you said just now… That's your reason. What's the real one?"

Kurokaze stared at him out of the corner of his beady eyes. "Picked up on that, did we?" The vulture unfurled its wings again very much like how Naruto stretched his muscles just a few minutes ago. "How familiar are you with the sage of the six paths?"

Naruto frowned. "I recently faced someone who said that he had the blood of the sage of the six paths flowing through his veins."

Kurokaze scoffed. "As if. That man is long gone and he won't be coming back."

"Well, whatever the case, the Rinnegan or whatever he called it. That's one tough kekkei genkai."

Kutokaze frowned. "It seems I mistook you for someone ignorant. Perhaps you did face someone of his blood and power. It does not matter now. It is not relevant to what you want to know. The sage of the six paths was born with the name, Hagoromo Otsutsuki. He was the older of the two children of Kaguya Otsutsuki. Kaguya was the leader of a very powerful empire at a time when chakra and ninjutsu were non-existent. But her empire was at war. And like all humans before her, she was born a certain way. She was born selfish."

Naruto sat back down and crossed his legs. He had a feeling that this story was going to be a long one.

"There was a tree. A big and beautiful tree that gave life and joy to all the living beings thriving under it. That tree was the very embodiment of mother nature. It was a kind and benevolent force that lived by the purest form of compassion. But it had power. And power is always coveted and in human hands, it is always corrupting. When Kaguya came to the tree with her request, nature saw the innocence of the intention behind it.

That was nature's first mistake. She entrusted her fruit, the fruit that held the power of all of nature, to that accursed woman, on the condition that when the conflicts were resolved, the power granted to her by nature would be returned. However, when the war ended and all her enemies were subjugated, Kaguya Otsutsuki became too attached to her power. She had sunk too deep in the endless power of nature. The tree started losing its form and its mind, without the chakra it needed to properly function.

On that broken promise, nature declared itself against all humans and entrusted the other creatures, the innocent, with all the power it still had. Our purpose is to bring about the end of the disease that is known as humanity."

Naruto continued to listen in stunned silence. The vulture was crying. Tears pooled in his big jet-black eyes which convinced Naruto that the seemingly far-fetched tale he was spinning, was in fact true.

"But with all her power gone, nature became unable to sustain her form. We all thought that our mother nature died that day. But that… That wasn't the case. She came back. For vengeance. Unable to maintain her outward beautiful appearance, she became the sinister, ugly creature now known as the Juubi. The Juubi had one goal. To take back what was taken from her."

Naruto flinched in surprise at the growl-like noise that Kurokaze let out.

"But when the others saw what became of nature, they turned. They abandoned mother nature. Mole, toad, tiger, snake, monkey, bee, slug, turtle, boar, rat, ram, horse, dog, dragon, hare… and every other living being that nature trusted and adored… They all turned and ran. They joined the humans in their fight against nature. All except two. The salamander and the vulture. We were the ones who prevailed. Endured.

While the stupid offspring of Kaguya Otsutsuki fought the Juubi, or rather, tried to fight, we were fighting a war of our own. The salamander and the vulture against every other creature blessed by mother nature. Severely outnumbered and with no end in sight, we fought and fought and fought. We fought and killed beings that we once considered siblings. Beings that once considered us siblings. Beings that were family to us.

But with all the losses we incurred, even our faith was shaken. The war reached its conclusion when the salamanders abandoned nature. Given where you were, you should already know how strong the salamanders are and how valuable they were as our allies. It wasn't long after their betrayal that Hagoromo Otsutsuki and his brother Hamura Otsutsuki cornered the ten-tails. They split her into 9 parts."

Naruto stared unblinkingly at the vulture towering above him. "The 9 tailed beasts?"

Kurokaze chuckled darkly. "Yes. Kyuubi became malice. Hachibi became wrath. Nanabi embodied luck. Rokubi became envy. Gobi became pride. Yonbi became cunning. Sanbi embodied endurance. Nibi was lust. And… Ichibi was love. The nerve of them. Everything that made our mother who she was. Ripped apart and stored in separate places. And to make matters worse, the sage gave the containers their own minds and fed them lies. He told them that the world would end when all the tailed beasts are gathered again and the juubi returns."

Naruto frowned. "What happened after that?"

The vulture turned away from him. "Nothing. The bijuu, believing their creator, decided that for the safety of the entire world, they should stay away from each other, hidden away from everyone else. Only the Ichibi protested that decision but well, the Ichibi is not taken seriously. By anyone. The humans went back to their daily lives, not knowing the extent of the damage they'd caused. There was a period of peace that the other animals use to justify their betrayal, but in the end, that too ended. Wars started again, ironically by the children of the person who brought about that fragile peace in the first place. Unlike the wars before it, this was fought with nature's power and was much more destructive than before. The system of waging war became more and more structured and today, it is known as the village system. Tomorrow, it could be something else. Either way, the fighting will still continue."

Naruto nodded. He knew that what Kurokaze was telling him was true. There would be no end to this fighting. He had told Irene pretty much the same thing a few days ago. An endless cycle of hatred… which brought up his next question. "I don't believe that you've done nothing. You hate every living creature but you do not kill? All these years and you've done nothing? That's impossible."

Kurokaze turned to face him again. "We do not kill."

Naruto frowned at his stubborn reply. "You're disappointing me."

At the blunt declaration, Kurokaze was stunned. The audacity of this human… "Careful. Just because we can't kill you doesn't mean that we can't torture you."

Naruto scoffed. "Go ahead and do that then. That'll make my last moments tolerable at least. This is unbearable. If someone does that much to wrong you, you kill them. Plain and simple. If possible, you make them watch as you kill their loved ones before you do it. What you don't do is suck it up and just go about your day to day lives."

"I'm warning you-"

"I don't give a flying fuck about what you say to me. Do you know what my sensei told me about the summoning technique? He told me that when you arrive at the home of your familiars, they will ask you to do unspeakable things, they will tear you down and remake you from scratch before accepting you. You will never be the same again. That's what he told me." Naruto held his hand out in front of Kurokaze, challenging him.

By now, his raised voice had drawn the attention of many vultures on the mountain who were now staring at the scene unfolding in front of them.

"I am nature's most recent and most deadly destroyer, isn't that right? I won't stop. I don't care what I destroy as long as I can keep the people I love safe. I embody everything you hate about humans."

Kurokaze unfurled his wings threateningly and unleashed a huge gale but Naruto didn't flinch and he heard the other vultures gasp. Naruto glared at the vulture in front of him. "You can kill me now, Kurokaze-san. If you do that, you'll have your people's respect. You'll have my respect. You'll be able to get revenge. Isn't that something you want? Revenge against everyone who's wronged your precious Mother Nature. Isn't that what your ultimate goal is?"

Kurokaze glared at his captive for the longest time. Naruto could feel the chakra building up in him and quietly grinned. This was it. The end of his short and miserable life. He hadn't given up. Oh, he was going to fight to his last breath. But realistically speaking, this was probably the end. There were more enemies than he could count in the mountains. It was highly unlikely that he could even kill Kurokaze alone. But this was the warrior's end. He couldn't hope for much more.

…

Suddenly, Naruto's eyes widened. All the chakra that had been building up in Kurokaze's body was gone. In its place was the same kind of chakra that he had seen in Akira Senju just before he overcame a tailed beast bomb. The same chakra that he'd seen in Hanzo just the day before. A sinister and overbearing presence settled in the cave.

Kurokaze's eyes opened. His once pitch-black eyes were now green, with slits for pupils. The blood-red markings he'd seen yesterday, formed all over his body. Before he knew it, he felt himself getting tired. Visually triggered genjutsu, he thought. The last thing he heard was the unnatural echoing sound of every vulture in those mountains saying the same thing.

"WE DO NOT KILL."

Day-3

With Hiruzen, Konoha Council.

Hiruzen didn't particularly like council meetings before the war when it was just the shinobi, he had to explain things to. Now, however, civilians were demanding to sit at the council. After all, in their eyes, civilians and shinobi were equally important to the village and to an extent, Hiruzen would agree if this wasn't a time of war. Oh well, it was only natural for the people to want to know what is being done to protect them.

Civilians were… soft. They didn't have the battle-hardened instincts of most of the shinobi in his council. If there was ever a tough decision to make, you could always count on the civilians to make the wrong call, as was evident by the people they chose as their leader. He didn't know what the people saw in him. He was the very definition of the term whistleblower. He had made his fortune from the casino in Tanzaku Town. Hiruzen respected a self-made man like any other. But this guy expected Konoha shinobi to be at his beck and call. That, coupled with the fact that there was no increase in revenue by his opening a casino in the Land of Fire, left a bad mark on him in Hiruzen's mind. At least his daughter was a competent young kunoichi.

"Is everything in order, Yuhi-san?" Hiruzen asked politely, seeing that there was little chance of the man shutting up, until he asked him to.

"Yes, yes. Everything is fine. You can proceed with the meeting now." He replied pompously.

The small spike in killing intent from the shinobi side of the room was not at all surprising, but Hiruzen chose to ignore that while struggling to stop a smile from showing.

"As you all know, we've very barely made it past our most recent conflict. I would like to thank my student Orochimaru and his colleague Minato Namikaze, whose efforts are the reason why I'm alive today." He paused to meet the eyes of both of them. "Of course, everyone here deserves praise for pulling our village through this ordeal and more than anyone here, our dead deserve that praise. Let's embed them in our memories and remember them in our prayers."

Hiruzen bowed his head for an appropriate time before looking up again. "My other student, Jiraiya, was previously thought to be dead at the hands of Hanzo. It is with great pleasure that I tell you all that he is indeed alive. He has sent word through Minato, his student, that he is recuperating in the toads' home as we speak."

A bout of cheers sounded throughout the room. Any good news, no matter how small, was welcome at this point. "What we just went through is a great victory for our village. But we aren't out of the woods just yet. We need a plan on how to move forward. We need to be prepared for what follows. The good news is that it isn't likely that we'll have to fight at two fronts at the same time again. Suna has been betrayed by Iwa and they have already extended a non-aggression pact. Should we accept, we need only worry about Iwa and Kumo and possibly Kiri, although they have remained neutral till now. What do you all think?"

The room was silent for a long time, until Homura stood up. "I believe we should accept the pact. We cannot afford to fight everyone off again."

Hiruzen nodded. "I too believe that's the way to go. Suna has learned-".

His words were cut short by a rather loud whisper from the civilian side of the room. "They're joking right? What do they mean when they say they're going to accept?"

"Yuhi-san. I would like to remind you that shinobi have good ears and if you would like to say something in secret, you should wait till you're out of the council chambers." Hiruzen calmly stated, years of diplomatic experience preventing him from verbally berating him. "As for your question, it is as my friend Homura said. We cannot afford another war with them."

"But they're in the wrong here. We should ask them for something in return for our mercy. That's the way business works."

To everyone's surprise, it wasn't the Hokage who replied, rather, it was Nara Shikaku. "Well, when we have a problem regarding business policies, we'll be sure to ask you. This here, it isn't business. It's war."

Kizashi Yuhi scoffed at the comment, not paying it the slightest amount of attention, focusing on the Hokage instead. Hiruzen, on seeing the man turn to him for a reply, he sighed. "Yuhi-san. Shikaku is right. This is a shinobi matter. Your opinion on the matter is noted and will be taken under consideration. But as long as this war lasts, it is highly unlikely that we will start anything against Suna."

The civilian leader had nothing to say to that, but he did nothing to hide the fact that he didn't like it.

Hiruzen turned to the shinobi side. "Does anyone have any ideas on how to proceed with this war? We need to end this as soon as possible. We are at the end of our ropes here. Any ideas, no matter how stupid it may sound, is welcome."

The room went silent again. Hiruzen looked around at his jonin shinobi. These were the best shinobi his village had to offer but this was the first time some of them were sitting in on a war council. Tsume Inuzuka, Shikaku Nara, Chouza Akimichi and… Fugaku Uchiha were new clan heads. They were new to the position and were probably only just getting used to the duties. His eyes rested for a little more time on Fugaku Uchiha. The man was the only survivor of Iwa's initial attack on the Land of Grass border.

Somehow though, he found it hard to believe that a fresh-faced jonin had survived where Tenzen Uchiha, Kagami's own son, didn't. He was even keen on opening an investigation on his ass. But… Danzo had vouched for him which was not at all common. So, he would let it go… For now.

His new ranking in the bingo book along with the Uzumaki kid was very surprising. More surprising was the fact that both of them seemed to be able to use the Mangekyou. Anyway, after Tenzen fell, the Uchiha clan had somehow come to a unanimous decision to appoint Fugaku as clan head. As remarkable as his bingo book entry was, Hiruzen was certain that some sort of foul play was in there somewhere, but Danzo had asked him to let it go, so that's what he was going to do. Besides, he had bigger things to worry about.

"If I may, an alliance with Kiri could be beneficial."

Hiruzen's quickly darting eyes found Hiashi Hyuga in the crowd. He was already shaking his head. "There is a reason why no one allies with Kirigakure, Hiashi-san. They do what they want when they want to. We cannot have such a wildcard on our side. It is in everyone's interest that Kiri remains neutral."

Hiashi nodded and the room fell silent again. The next obvious idea came from Orochimaru himself. "An alliance with Suna is the only other way I can think of."

Danzo spoke up. "That's completely out of the question. We will never be able to trust them enough to fight with them."

Hiruzen nodded his head in agreement and Orochimaru just shrugged uncaringly. The 'discussion' was going exactly like he'd thought it would. If there was a good idea worth mentioning, it would have occurred to them already. War was going to break out again. It was just a matter of when.

"Chunin Exams."

The whisper somehow drew the eyes of every person in the room. Shikaku Nara had his eyes closed in concentration, his hand in a strange gesture. Hiruzen was about to call out, when Chouza shook his head at him, telling him no. Curious, Hiruzen just looked at Danzo who simply shrugged.

"Chunin exams." Shikaku spoke again, opening his eyes revealing the determination in it. "It's perfect. Every village sends one or two genin teams to participate in a competition of sorts. Two genin from different villages will face each other in large-scale exhibition battles held in a tournament setting. They will be proctored by some senior ninja from a village different from both candidates… It's perfect."

Hiruzen frowned. "I fail to see how this helps. Why would the other villages agree to this?"

Shikaku grinned. "The matches will be seen by the daimyo of every nation, major and minor. The daimyo decide the income of their respective villages. Whoever wins or impresses them enough will of course be favored when they distribute the missions. That is the basic purpose of war, right? A pissing contest between the daimyos. This is perfect because genin fighting each other wouldn't cause as much damage and the purpose is still being served. Everybody wins."

"Except the genin." It was an angry Kushina who spoke. "The children would be putting their lives on the line for us. Isn't that what we're trying to prevent? Keeping the next generation safe is supposed to be our mission."

Shikaku shrugged. "Killing moves can be disallowed or something, I don't know. This is just a suggestion, Kushina-san. If it's a bad idea, just disregard it. No harm done."

Realizing that Shikaku was right, Kushina returned to her seat next to Mikoto, who was distracted by the new Uchiha clan head's demeanor.

Hiruzen however, was oblivious to that particular bit of drama. A slow grin formed on his face as he thought over what Shikaku just said. He was still grinning as he turned toward Danzo who was unsurprisingly, appalled at the thought of a peaceful idea on how to settle the war.

"Homura. Write to Lord Mifune of the Iron Country. Ask him if he would want to host the five-kage summit for the first time in half a century."

Iwagakure.

"What do you mean he attacked them?" Onoki shouted at his older son. The troops sent to the land of Fire had only just returned. He was just now learning that the very low number of people who returned was not the only bad news that he had to deal with. On top of the heavy casualties, the alliance with Sunagakure was almost definitely void now, his granddaughter was dead and on top of everything, he had nothing to show for it. Konoha had escaped relatively unscathed. In fact, the only ones who had lost more than Iwa was Kumo. The idiots.

"I mean just that, father. He just started attacking them left and right. You should have seen the look on the Kazekage's face." Midori laughed as he told the tale.

"Did it occur to you to stop him? We have done this before and we've lost. We need allies if we want to finish Konoha." Onoki asked, exasperated with the events that had unfolded.

"Of course, it occurred to me to stop him. I was just about to do that when something happened."

Onoki sighed at the obviously childish attempt to build suspense. "What happened?"

"He knocked the Kazekage unconscious." Onoki's eyes widened. "Then, I thought the other Suna shinobi wouldn't take too kindly to that, so I joined in on the fun."

Onoki went silent. That brat won against the so-called strongest Kazekage in history? It seemed that his granddaughter knew how to pick them. The thought of her made him sad, but now wasn't the time for emotion. When the war was over and done with, and the people responsible for her death were tortured and killed, then, he would mourn her. While they celebrated their victory over Konoha.

…

But there was something he still needed to know in order to keep going.

"Who killed her?" Onoki asked finally.

Midori looked at his father sharply. That was something he didn't want his father to know because of the fact that her killer was someone he could've killed easily. He let him go after he killed that blonde Yamanaka. But his feelings on the matter didn't change things. His father would do everything in his power to kill the person responsible.

"Fugaku Uchiha."

The next moment, Midori felt a light breeze on his face and realized that his father had left through the window. Whatever he was planning, it wasn't going to be any good for Fugaku. He knew he should have felt good about getting revenge on his daughter's killer, but at the moment his mind was on only one thing.

The Uzushio-massacre hadn't been successful. Someone had survived. He knew. He knew just from the look on that boy's face that he was there when Uzushio fell.

His mind drifted to that fateful day, 6 years ago. The day he saw everyone he had ever known before then, die. The siege lasted weeks. But the moment they got past the seals, Uzumaki Tenji descended on them with an army of Uzumaki at his back. Within a day, a force of maybe 15000 shinobi was reduced to a mere 3000. For an entire day, it didn't matter how many spears were jutting out of him, it didn't matter how much blood he'd lost… All that mattered to Uzumaki Tenji was that there were intruders in his land.

But at some point during the next day, even with the heavy losses they had dealt to their enemies, the Uzumaki decided on a rather extreme last resort. Midori had never felt like he was cheating death by just being alive, but on that day, when the death god himself appeared before him, he realized that the only reason the five villages were still standing was because the Uzumaki let them. His spies in Konoha would later tell him that it was a top secret kinjutsu named 'Reaper Death Seal'.

The screams Midori heard that day from afar still haunted him to this day. Ao was the cowardly Kiri-nin in charge of the ships. He sounded the retreat the moment he saw the blood covered Uzumaki bursting through their forces with injuries that should have killed any normal human. Midori protested as much as he possibly could have but it ended when Uzumaki Tenji appeared before them, his wizened, grey hair now its normal color with all the blood on it. A simple raised arm was a giant Tsunami that crashed into the ships that were still at the shore. Another raised arm was a giant water vortex sent toward the ships that had managed to get off shore. Three warships survived that attack and apart from the people already on the island, they all retreated. At the time, Midori never thought that he would thank Ao for his cowardice…

When the invaders still on Uzushiogakure saw what was happening, they tried to run. But when they reached the shore, they saw that their ships were already destroyed and the ones that were still intact were already a small speck in the horizon.

Midori had watched as the island that would give him nightmares for years to come slowly faded into the horizon. He could almost see the giant apparition of the grim reaper above the island, but it was just his imagination. After all, there was no way the god of death had Uzumaki Tenji's face.

The boy was the exact reason why he was reminded of that situation from all those years ago. He had the same look on his face as Uzumaki Tenji did.

When Midori arrived back in Iwa with around 50 shinobi who had survived the ordeal, he had cried. He'd cried, uncaring of who saw it, in front of his brother, his newlywed wife, his own wife, his daughter… his father… he had died that day. The Midori of today was just someone who knew that the Uzumaki were gone. They couldn't hurt anyone anymore. That was the only thing that kept him going.

He had, of course, come to know of the Uzumaki girl in Konoha by the name of Kushina. But he had met her once, on some mission or other. She didn't have the same look as Uzumaki Tenji or the Uzumaki boy. She was not a true Uzumaki. She wasn't a threat.

But this boy was. Uzumaki Naruto was already proving himself. To have someone like Hanzo acknowledge his skill at such a young age was unbelievable. He didn't know why the boy hadn't been noticed by any of Iwa's spies till now, but there was one thing he was absolutely sure about.

That boy was going to be the biggest threat to Iwa in history, bigger than even Madara Uchiha once was. His father would never understand. He firmly believed that Madara Uchiha was the strongest adversary Iwa had ever faced or ever will face. No one else would come close. The overconfidence that stemmed from surviving an encounter with the legendary Uchiha, blinded him to many threats… such as Uzushiogakure… such as the one the boy presented now.

When he reached back all those years ago, Midori had asked his father to send people out. Find all the survivors and end them as soon as possible. But he didn't listen. Kumo tried to do something about the girl in Konoha, but failed at that as well. But when some time had passed, it became impossible to track any people who may have made it out of there alive.

If Midori had his way, the boy would not have been alive right now. But this was still salvageable. He was still young. Not at his prime yet. Midori would do everything in his power to make sure that what he saw that day wouldn't come to pass again. He would make sure of it.

With Mikoto and Kushina, 30 Minutes Later.

"What do you think about Shikaku's plan?" Kushina asked her friend. "Do you think it's wise?"

Mikoto frowned. "Let it go, Kushina. Our opinion on the matter isn't going to change anything."

"But do you think it's a good plan?"

Mikoto sighed. "Honestly, yeah. It's economically the best way to fight a war while having minimal losses."

"And ethically?"

"Ethically, nobody gives a fuck, Kushina. We're shinobi. Ethics do not have a place in our world."

Kushina scowled at her reply partly because she didn't like that Mikoto wasn't agreeing with her and partly because she knew that Mikoto was right. This was probably the best way to minimize the bloodshed, barbaric as it was.

They were nearing Mikoto's new apartment and Kushina's eyes fell to the ground when she remembered who she shared the building with. She was still having trouble dealing with it. Just when he was returned to her, he was taken away again. But almost trumping her sadness was her curiosity. She remembered very clearly the seals that formed all over her brother's body just before he disappeared. Seals she wished had never existed. Why were they on his body? She didn't know. And she didn't know if she wanted to.

Being so deep in her own thoughts, she didn't notice until she arrived in front of Mikoto's apartment, that she had just climbed three flights of stairs. Amazed at her own inattentiveness, she shook her head to clear her thoughts. She could think about all this later. "This apartment is amazing, Mikoto. It must cost a fortune."

Mikoto grinned at her. "Not to me, Kushina. You know that."

Kushina was about to make fun of her with the rather conservative lifestyle she led despite the riches she possessed, but she was stopped by someone gently touching her hair from behind. She turned around slightly to see a little purple-haired girl jumping up to just touch the base of her hair.

"Your hair is sooo long." Yugao said in awe.

"Um… thanks?" Kushina said, puzzled. Children weren't always kind to her hair. To many people, red hair translated into something exotic. For children, 'exotic' meant 'weird'. Some of her most humiliating moments at the academy involved her hair. But apparently this girl liked it.

Mikoto smiled at the duo. "Yugao-chan, this is Uzumaki Kushina. She's Naruto's sister."

Kushina's eyes widened. This girl knew Naruto?

Yugao froze for a few moments before jumping high in the air. "That's so cool. I have a brother and a sister. Ne, nee-chan, can I make my hair red too?"

Kushina stared at the girl, obviously confused. She was somehow reminded of her own bubbly nature from when she was a kid. She turned to look at Mikoto who just smiled at her. "This is the kid that I told you about. The one that Naruto takes care of."

Kushina dumbly nodded. She hadn't quite registered that in her mind when she heard it. After all, she'd had her mind full for the past few days. "I see."

"Yuna-nee told me that Naruto-nii won't come back until later. But she didn't tell me why. Do you know?" Yugao asked.

Mikoto exchanged a worried glance with Kushina. How were they going to explain to her that there was a very real chance that Naruto might not come back. They didn't want the young girl to hold on to false hope.

Deciding to be as blunt as possible as early as possible, Mikoto spoke. "Yugao-chan… Naruto is missing. He might not come back at all."

Kushina winced as the reality of the situation once again slapped her in the face but to their amazement Yugao wasn't shaken at all.

"That's a lie, Mikoto-nee. Nii-san will come back. I'm sure of it." Yugao said adamantly.

Mikoto worriedly looked at Kushina. "How can you be sure, Yugao-chan?" the Uzumaki clan head asked.

Yugao smiled. "He promised he would. So, he will."

Training Ground 7, 30 Minutes Later.

Rin looked sadly at her friends. She always thought that Anko was the master of not letting anything get to her. Even during the time her mother had been murdered, she had missed only a week of classes. She was back in class by the next week, behaving almost exactly the same way. From her psychology classes, Rin was sure that Anko didn't feel as fine as she made herself out to be. But still, she had put on a brave face for Yuna, not wanting to worry her. But now… In the past three or four days, she hadn't seen her smile even once. Not Yuna either.

It was kind of depressing. But she knew it was hard not to feel like that. She was barely holding it together herself. The only person who seemed to be truly unaffected was Kakashi… which was driving her crazy. How was he so indifferent to this?

She didn't get to continue that train of thought because their senseis chose that moment to appear and they looked… conflicted? Rin sighed. 'What now?'

Even when they both arrived at their location, silence still reigned. Orochimaru was the first one to speak. "We have good news and bad news… What do you want first?"

The five genin looked at each other and just shrugged. "I guess we need the good news more. Let's go with that first." Obito said.

Orochimaru nodded. "We have come up with a plan to end the war. We don't know when it'll come to pass, but we do know one thing and that's the bad news." The five genin didn't even flinch. It couldn't have been worse than facing a tailed beast, right? "The plan depends entirely on Konoha's genin population."

"WHAT?"

Minato's eyes widened when he realized that it was Kakashi who yelled. He hadn't expected that reaction from his stoic student.

"The plan is to have genin from each of the major villages fight each other in a tournament setting to show off the villages' strength. The outcome of this tournament will decide our future. The missions we get from the daimyo, the trade, the peace treaties… It will all depend on how the genin performs at the tournament." Orochimaru spoke in a surprisingly authoritative voice.

Wincing at the rather blunt way of announcing it, Minato opened his mouth. "No pressure, though."

The result was that all of the other 6 people turned to glare at him.

"Why are we here, sensei? We can't possibly compete in this 'tournament'. In case you haven't noticed, Naruto's still missing." Anko snapped. It was pissing her off that no one was addressing the rather serious issue that Naruto was still missing. Everyone seemed to skirt around it.

Orochimaru glared at his hotheaded student. "Do you think that I, of all people, would forget about that so soon? He's missing because of me." Anko fell silent, his words hitting her like a slap to the face. "Nothing to say to that? Good. Now, pay attention. Another thing I haven't forgotten is that you two were pretty much useless in both of the conflicts team 12 was a part of. Kushina-san told me that Naruto pretty much fought that battle all on his own against Jiraiya's child of prophecy himself. By himself against someone who had the Rinnegan? What the fuck were you both doing?"

Yuna's mouth fell open at the rather hurtful things her sensei was saying.

"You both realize that you both would never have passed the genin exam if it wasn't for Naruto, don't you? He's been pulling you ahead for the entire time you've been a team and you couldn't even stay conscious when it mattered."

Minato stepped forward. "That's enough, Orochimaru-sama."

Orochimaru frowned. "Stay out of this, Namikaze." He then turned to his genin again. "Well, still nothing to say?"

Anko glared at him defiantly but still said nothing. But Yuna was not silent. Her shoulders started shaking and her face shadowed over. "Don't you think we know that? He has been fighting our battles for us ever since we became genin. We know that he's the reason we passed. We know that he's probably stronger now than we are ever going to be. We know that when he asked Anko to make that underground bunker in Kiriniku, it was probably because he knew we were too weak to fight with him. We know that he probably doesn't tell us his secrets because he knows we're too weak to handle it all. Don't you think we know all that?"

Orochimaru raised a hand and she immediately stopped. "What are you going to do about it?"

"W-what?" Yuna stammered.

"I asked you what you'll do about it. Are you going to give up or are you going to get stronger?"

The two kunoichi from team 12 stared up at their renowned sensei. What was he getting at?

"Naruto isn't going to be MIA forever. He's gonna be back. It might be before the tournament. It might be after. But when he does, is he going to have team 12 waiting to fight alongside him, or will he come back to see the both of you still on the ground?"

Silence reigned over the training ground. The members of team 7 stared at each other awkwardly. They felt like they were intruding on a rather private moment.

"We're going to fight alongside him… From now on… No matter what." Anko whispered.

Orochimaru nodded. "Yuna?"

"I- I will get stronger. I will fight."

"Good. You are not going to have a good time for the foreseeable future. When I beat you down, you better get right back up like Naruto usually does. Staying on the ground is no longer an option." Orochimaru spoke sternly. "Is that clear?"

Both of them nodded.

Orochimaru nodded. "Good. Now, 50 laps around the forest of death. Go."

The two of them looked at each other in confusion. Orochimaru sighed. "NOW!"

They both jumped into action and leapt away. Minato raised his eyebrows in surprise. "That was a surprisingly amazing teaching moment."

Orochimaru tilted his head and grinned. "Tough love always works, Minato. Remember that."

Minato nodded. "Do you really think he'll be back in time for the tournament?"

Orochimaru sighed. "I hope he does, Minato-san. He is undoubtedly the best genin in the elemental nations. The tournament is months, maybe even more than a year away. Planning something of this magnitude won't happen so quickly… and besides, the other villages have to agree first for this to happen."

Day-9

Kirigakure, With Haku.

She was sweating profusely when she woke up. The nightmares were returning in full force. It was always the exact same thing but the terror never lessened. A lot could be said about someone from what they dream about. If people knew about what happened in Haku's dreams… Well, they would be horrified to see that the person in the young girl's nightmares was her own father. But it didn't bother Haku anymore.

…

What bothered her was the fact that the nightmares were coming back. Apparently, she hadn't quite overcome them.

As she lifted herself off the modest bed, she couldn't help but sigh. She was still very tired from a recent mission she'd gone on. And the only way to get over that was a good night's sleep. It wasn't enough that her sleep had been interrupted, but she was sweating so much that she would never be able to go back to sleep in the wet sheets.

Her mind started wandering as she made her way to the roof. Ever since Naruto went missing, she spent most of her free time there, sometimes even sleeping there. The night air was cold even for her. But somehow it always managed to comfort her. This was not the first time she was dealing with these nightmares. After Zabuza brought her to Four Island, she had the same nightmares for the longest time.

When she first arrived here, she realized that she wasn't the only one… And that was the only thing that kept her from taking her own life. Little by little, she came to know everyone's stories. And it gave her some comfort to know that she wasn't the only one suffering. She knew that it was bad to feel that way, but she had no choice. It was her only respite.

Mei and Akane Terumi, the most popular girls of Four Island, were the disgraced children of the once great Terumi Clan. They lived lavish lives in One Island for the first few years of their lives before the war wiped off all the strong members. When the remaining members refused the Clan Restoration Act, they were cast out. The older members soon died out leaving the two of them to fend for themselves. It didn't help that they both had two of the rarest bloodline limits in Kiri, which until then, was thought to be impossible. The transition hit them the hardest out of all of them, because they were the only ones who knew what a luxurious life meant in the first place.

Gōzu and Meizu were the twin children of a medic in the Kiri shinobi forces. He was renowned to be the expert on lethal poisons. In the second ninja war however, his poison failed against the might of the Slug Sannin and he was removed from his position in the medic corps. What followed could only be termed as a tragedy. The incensed medic started testing new poisons out on his own wife and children. The civilian woman who had the misfortune of being married to the mad doctor didn't last long. And his children… Let's just say that there's a reason they kept their faces covered.

Mangetsu Hozuki was the prodigy of the Hozuki clan. Unfortunately for him, the Hozuki clan was based in Three Island, home to the most radical supporters of the bloodline purge ideology. Mangetsu was the latest in a long line of swordsmen and one day during his training, his instructor managed to get through his guard. But the sword never met skin. The dormant kekkei genkai of the Hozuki clan had awakened itself to protect its wielder. The witnesses were quickly silenced to preserve the Mangetsu clan's standing in Three Island. It turned out to be a moot point because Mangetsu figured out what was about to happen and escaped to Four Island before they could kill him. The only regret he still had was that he couldn't say goodbye to his younger brother before he had to leave.

Haku knew that this was the reason why she could talk so freely with Mangetsu. If anyone could understand the pain of one's own parent trying to kill you, it would be the one whose whole family wanted to, just for defending himself. Haku was just relieved that he somehow managed to escape because if it was any other clan in Three Island, Mangetsu would've been killed on the spot.

That left Zabuza and Yagura. The reason why Yagura was in Four Island was not all that mysterious. He was the jinchuriki of the Sanbi, the three-tailed turtle, and for that reason he was always held at arm's length. He had been delivered to an orphanage in One Island soon after the beast had been sealed into him. To this day, nobody knows who his parents were and if they're still alive or dead. Yagura left the orphanage when he was just 3 years old and eventually reached Four Island, known to everyone as the land of the rejects. He decided to make this his home when he saw that none of the people gave a shit. He could do whatever he wanted. He just had to make sure to steer clear of trouble.

Zabuza was not like the others. He belonged in Four Island. He was born and… 'raised' there. Haku didn't know much about him but she knew that he lived in an abusive home before he set out and eventually found a new home with the rest of them. Thinking about Zabuza's past led her to her own memories of meeting him. It had been several weeks since the 'incident' and she was starving. It was tough living off the streets as a 4-year old, but rich people threw away a lot of food. It was going well for her, all things considered, until she was cornered by four academy students. They had seen her making a snowflake and immediately realized that she was one of the few that had bloodlines living in Three Island and they started bullying her. That's when she met Zabuza. He was a scrawny 10-year-old, younger than all four academy students. But it ultimately didn't matter because he scared them away.

Haku thanked him profusely, but just scaring them wasn't enough for Zabuza. The next day was the graduation day at the ninja academy and in keeping with the title of 'the bloody mist', the students were put against each other and made to fight until only one was left. It was a barbaric practice from centuries ago that had stood the test of time. Only Three Island still practiced it.

It was also why one Kiri-nin was believed to be 10 times the worth of other villages and it was also why Kiri had the greatest number of missing-nins. You don't become a loyal shinobi when your own leaders force you to do something so monstrous against the people you grow up with.

On the day of graduation, Zabuza followed the four academy students to the exam and killed them brutally. But by then, the test had begun and he was locked in with the other academy students that had 4 years more training than him. When they opened the gates again, the chunin instructors were surprised to see that the one person who remained was not even a part of the academy. From that day on, Zabuza became known as the demon of the hidden mist.

As punishment for his actions, he was given a headband and put under the tutelage of Mizumo Kaguya, the most brutal instructor in Kiri, known for his impatience and rather violent nature. On his way back to Four Island, he asked Haku if she wanted to come with him and she agreed wholeheartedly. There, bar fights and fires a daily occurrence, it didn't take long for the 8 children to band together in the interest of survival. They owned nothing of material value. They slept out in the bitter cold and went without food for days at a time, because food was always sparse come winter. Their only source of income was Mei and Zabuza who took care of them when they were around. The rest of them had only one goal. Get stronger so that they could also contribute. Day in and day out, they trained. Once they were good enough to walk on water, they went fishing for their food. That became her life in the four months before Naruto arrived in Kirigakure.

Mizumo Kaguya was the unofficial leader of Four Island. He was a difficult person but had the respect of every single person on the island, especially Zabuza and Mei. He seldom went on missions, which was why everyone was surprised when he returned from one, carrying a redheaded boy no older than Haku or the twins. He handed the heavily injured boy to Zabuza and just asked him to take care of the boy. Not knowing what else to do, he carried him back to their 'camp'.

Haku knew what true hatred looked like. She had seen it in her father's eyes as he killed her mother. When Naruto's eyes opened, her definition of hatred faded away. What her father demonstrated on that fateful day didn't even come close. The way he looked at everyone around him sent shivers through their spines. The way his eyes snapped around looking for possible opportunities to escape… Haku would never forget those eyes that immobilized them all with its intensity.

That's when he snapped. Pulling out two swords from his seals, he pounced on them. Haku didn't know what would have happened if Mizumo hadn't been there. The wizened old man cut deep into his cheek with the dagger made from his femur and proceeded to knock him out. He told him that when he got strong enough to do that to Mizumo, that's when he would help him get revenge on Konoha.

For the first few months, that was all they knew about the mysterious redhead. His name was Uzumaki Naruto and he wanted revenge on Konoha. He would interact with them only when necessary and spend all his remaining time training or laying down at the highest position he could find, staring at the stars. He challenged Mizumo every chance he got and he was always beaten back, though the veteran Kaguya had to put an ever-increasing amount of effort into it.

Eventually, Haku managed to get him out of his shell and finally, after a few months, they told each other about their pasts. Haku had gone first. She told him all about her past. For some reason, she felt like she could trust him and so she started recounting the tale of how her father murdered her mother in cold blood and then tried to kill her as well. She told him how her instincts had taken over and she had unknowingly killed her own father, something she hadn't even told the others back then. By the end of it, she was in tears because this was the first time she'd told her story to someone that wasn't Zabuza.

Naruto held her tight against him until she stopped crying. She was surprised at the gentle gesture and his soft eyes. "You've suffered." He told her. "And you're stronger for it."

When she calmed down enough, he started telling her about his own past. The things she heard that day… Everything that happened in Uzushiogakure was horrifying. Every single detail. He told her about his own abusive father, showing her the scars he carried on his back. He told her about his friend Uzumaki Hayami, trapped under her dead parents, slowly bleeding out. He told her about his grandfather who fought for days with injuries that should've killed anyone else. He told her about the destruction, murders and rapes that he witnessed right in front of his eyes. Horrified, yet captivated by the story, she couldn't tear her green orbs away from his slowly spinning red ones.

That was it. She thought. It couldn't possibly get any worse. That's when Naruto told her about Konoha, their greatest ally. They had sent word to Konoha almost immediately when the invasion began. It took two days to travel from Konoha to Uzushio. A large army could take a week at most. The invasion had lasted more than a month. But no sign of Konoha. None at all. And they had his sister. "Konoha will pay for what they've done. He would make sure of it." When he said it, his entire body started glowing with black seals appearing all over.

Haku thought about all the tragic stories she'd heard. She thought they were strong for surviving what they did. It meant nothing in the face of what Naruto suffered.

She took some comfort in knowing that there were others who suffered as much as she did. That's how she kept going…

What gave her comfort wouldn't do the same for Naruto. Because no one has suffered as much as he had. With nothing to do but hug him, Haku hugged him as tight as she could. Surprisingly, Naruto hugged her back. Not knowing what to say, they both laid back down, staring up at the stars.

A year and a half later, Naruto and Mizumo went M.I.A. Scouts were sent out after them. Many volunteered to help, including Mei and Zabuza. After weeks of searching they found the rotted corpse of their leader at the bottom of a lake. But Naruto was nowhere to be found.

Since then, every night for the past four years, she would try to sleep in her own bed. Every night she would wake up silently screaming and every night she would think about how she met Naruto and how he'd suffered. Every night, she would arrive on the roof and lie down on the hard ground, staring up at the stars. Then and only then, she would close her eyes and fall asleep and there would be no more nightmares for the rest of the night.

Day-12

Konohagakure.

It amazed her how quickly she had been sent back to her normal life. The brothel was one of the first buildings to be rebuilt after the temporary shelters. It was nice to see that everyone had their priorities straight. Kirua scoffed. What a joke.

After the first day, she had been back here, hard at work. The orphanage lay forgotten in the wreckage. Some part of her still held hope that when Jiraiya returned, he would remember to check on her and his gift to her, but that part was what she called young Kirua. There was no way Jiraiya would remember. Absolutely no way.

It didn't matter anyway. She was pretty sure she was heading toward her own death. After all, it wasn't everyday that a prostitute to visited the Uchiha clan head in his home. She didn't even know why she was there. All she knew was that she'd seen Uchiha Fugaku in the morning. She remembered meeting his eyes. Then she remembered thinking how paying him a visit would help her somehow. For the life of her, she couldn't figure out how this idea came into her head.

She came to a stop in front of the clan head's house. She could feel eyes on her back and knew that she was being watched. Nevertheless, she pressed on. She walked right up to the door and knocked softly. She didn't need to wait long for the door to open, revealing a shirtless Fugaku covered in sweat. The musky scent that reached her nose was all too familiar. With an impatient click of his tongue, he opened his mouth. "What? I'm busy."

Now face to face with him, Kirua realized something. This wasn't the same innocent man that had stopped his clansmen mere days ago. This was someone else. "I- I- Y- You told me to come to you if I needed help." Kirua stuttered out.

A puzzled look appeared on his face until suddenly he remembered. "Oh, right. Come in."

Kirua took a step back. "Uchiha-sama, I can come back if you're too busy. It's nothing really."

Fugaku's sly smile fell off. "Get. In."

Kirua gulped slowly before brushing past him into the largest house she had ever been in. She didn't get time to even scream before a hand closed over her mouth.

"None of that." Fugaku whispered roughly into her ear.

Kirua looked around desperately for something to use. Anything. The 16-year-old former bartender, Kazane was bound and gagged on a chair, tears flowing down her face. What was going on?

"You won't scream if you know what's good for you… And her." Fugaku whispered and waited until her struggling subsided. "Now, I am going to let you go and you will walk to that chair next to the girl and sit on it."

Waiting for a moment for his command to register in her mind, he removed his hand from her mouth and pushed her forward. A small yelp escaped her when she fell to the ground, but she stood back up almost immediately and walked to the chair Fugaku had pointed out.

Kirua sat down, unable to take her eyes off the broken girl whimpering on the chair next to her. She didn't know how much time had passed before she felt eyes on her and she looked up. He smiled at her. "You were right." He said with a knowing smirk on his face.

Kirua stuttered in confusion. "Ab – About what?"

Fugaku smiled and beckoned towards Kazane. "You were right about her." From the puzzled look on Kirua's face, he gathered that she didn't understand. "She's pregnant."

Kirua's eyes widened in surprise. It had barely been a fortnight since the former Uchiha clan head had his way with her. It was too early for anyone, even medics, to tell if she was pregnant. Her wide eyes went from Kazane to Fugaku and her silent question didn't go unanswered.

Red eyes were spinning furiously in his eyes before giving way to an unfamiliar pattern. "These eyes see everything."

Crippling fear gripped her body and she started trembling. She had never been so afraid of someone in her life, and she was someone who had lived in the red-light district all her life. "What – cough – what are you going to do to her?"

Fugaku laughed at the silly question. "See… That's what I like about you. You realize what's going on despite only being a civilian." Fugaku took a step forward in her direction. "These eyes are incredible, Kirua-san. And if Konoha… no… If the Uchiha clan had more, we would undoubtedly become unbeatable. No one will ever again disrespect the Uchiha clan."

Kirua flinched when Fugaku took another step in her direction but decided to ask the question despite her fear. "What does that have to do with Kazane?"

Fugaku smirked at the question. "I'm glad you asked, Kirua-san. But unfortunately, it's not something you'll be able to understand. I've read the message hidden in the shrine. I have the knowledge that no other Uchiha alive possesses. I am the sole wielder of the ultimate doujutsu, the Mangekyou Sharingan. And I've suffered my whole life to reach where I am now…"

Fugaku stared into her eyes for a few moments before he blinked. "And this child is the key to the Uchiha Clan's future." He said pointing at Kazane's stomach. "Tenzen Uchiha had Kagami Uchiha's blood flowing through his veins. That was the only reason that pathetic old fool ever unlocked the ultimate doujutsu. There is power in his blood… And I'm going to use it."

Kirua internally let out a relieved sigh. This at least meant Kazane would stay alive until she gave birth… But it still didn't answer the other question she wanted to ask… Why was she here?

Fugaku smiled at the unspoken question. "You're here because you're the only person alive who knows that the child she's carrying is in fact Tenzen Uchiha's. This child is going to grow up to be exceptionally strong and will bring the Uchiha clan to great heights. But I don't want that man's name associated with him."

Kirua suddenly understood why she was there. And just as the thought occurred to her, she smiled. It seemed it was finally time for her to join the others. And while she knew the circumstances were nothing to smile about, she did so anyway.

Hours, even days, after he slit her throat, Fugaku Uchiha thought of that smile… What did she have to smile about when all her life was worth was the silence it brought him?

Day-16

With Hiruzen.

The headache of planning something that had never before happened was something new for him. Ever since he became Hokage, he had followed proven protocols and tactics in planning his moves. None of it applied in this case. For example, normally a kage summit was a declaration of war and any conversation at a kage summit would be expected to be about it. There had never been a kage summit for negotiating peace. Before sending out the letters inviting them to Iron Country for the summit, he had to make sure that his letter was worded in such a way that they did not appear desperate and at the same time, not threatening. Despite being the most successful Hokage in history, diplomacy was never his strong suit.

And that was why, Shikaku Nara was seated across his desk, coming up with innovative, inventive ideas for saying the same thing in different ways. Hiruzen couldn't help but grumble to himself about not noticing this gem before. Shikaku Nara was beyond expectations. In fact, all three of Sakumo Hatake's students were proving themselves. Inoichi Yamanaka had become one of the most brutal and efficient interrogators in the history of the department. At several points over the past few days, Hiruzen was reminded of his powerful ancestor, Hatsunori Yamanaka. Chouza's achievements were less noteworthy, but the underground stores of food hidden by the Akimichi clan was the only thing keeping the village together at the moment.

Hiruzen frowned when his thoughts reached his own students. For the first time since they became jonin, all three of them were ignoring him simultaneously. Orochimaru wanted nothing to do with him after what he made Jiraiya do in Amegakure. He suspected that Jiraiya was avoiding him for the very same reasons. Tsunade though, was different. She had resigned from the hospital to take care of her late lover's niece. At least that's what she gave when the hospital staff asked for a reason. His crystal ball told him that Tsunade was just drinking herself to the ground while Kato Shizune watched on in horror.

Wanting to rid these depressing thoughts from his mind, he got up suddenly. Other than a raised eyebrow from Shikaku, there was no other reaction. His thoughts wandered to his eldest son. Sarutobi Sasuke, named after his father. He was an ANBU captain answerable only to the ANBU commander and himself. He was definitely capable of the position, but he was not apt for the task he had in mind. He needed well-known shinobi at his side when he went to the Land of Iron. Sadly, his students seemed to want nothing to do with him. That left him with Minato, Fugaku and Shikaku as his choices.

The letters were only just going out, so he definitely had more time to decide. He wasn't really sure about this plan, especially since he could already guess the outcome. Kiri would win for sure and Suna would lose. The remaining positions were the only things privy to any changes. But Mifune had accepted that the plan had its merits. If there was anyone who wanted to see peace between the villages, it was Mifune. And with the Iron country backing the plan and willing to conduct the exam, the others would have a tough time backing out… Hopefully.

The only thing he could be sure of was that his trip to the Iron Country would be uneventful. None of the five major villages would dare to start anything in the presence of the samurai. Small comforts.

Sighing, he looked at Shikaku again. "Nara-san. This plan… What if we lose? What would happen to us then?"

Shikaku wasn't prepared to answer that question. Not because he hadn't thought about it, no. This was one of the first things he thought about. It was because he never expected the Hokage to doubt his people. This was new. But he recovered quickly and proceeded to answer the question. "We'll have a very hard time recovering from it, Hokage-sama. And that is conditional on the other villages honoring the purpose of the tournament. It is very likely that they will proceed to wage war if they are unsatisfied with the results. However, if we manage to place high in the tournament, they can still wage war against us, but everyone in the elemental nations would know that they're in the wrong. More precisely, the daimyo of each nation will know it. Best case scenario, our enemies will not have the backing of their daimyo and that is huge for us. Worst case scenario if we win is that all the others band together against us. I don't think we'll survive that… Of course, this is all conditional on the Chunin Exams taking place in the first place."

Hiruzen nodded. "Don't worry about the worst-case scenario. It is highly unlikely that we'll finish at the top. You need only look at the way Kiri trains their genin to realize that."

Shikaku almost flinched in surprise. Woah. That was something he never imagined the unwavering Hokage saying to him. Where was his faith? Something was wrong.

Hiruzen turned around again and sighed looking over the dark grey stone buildings that reminded him of the walls of the Konoha Correctional Facility. "Make sure that these letters are delivered by the end of this week. We need to start these talks as soon as possible if we want to prevent war from breaking out again.

Day-27

With Mikoto.

"Yugao-chan, are you sure you want to be a ninja? It's very dangerous." Mikoto asked for what could have been the hundredth time.

"Yes. Yes. Yes. How many times do I have to tell you?" Yugao replied irritably, bouncing on her toes.

"Don't you want to wait till Naruto comes back? He'll want to be the one to teach you. Wouldn't you also like that?" Mikoto didn't want to use Naruto like this, but the brat was leaving her with no choice.

"Nii-san will be proud if I'm the one who'll protect him when he comes back. Yuna-chan told me about how he protected them all, even their big meanie sensei. If he's protecting all of them, who's protecting him?" Yugao started jumping up and down again. "The answer is me. Me. Me. I'll protect him."

Mikoto sighed again at the hyperactive young girl. She wasn't looking forward to having kids of her own if this was how one acted. Now she understood why Hayate's mom was so reluctant to agree to Naruto's request to take care of Yugao when he was away. Even for money. It was just too much. Fortunately, she came to realize that the more time Yugao spent with Hayate, the more time she had to relax.

Well… At least, she wasn't dealing with the brat alone. Over the past month, Kushina had slowly moved into Naruto's apartment for two important reasons. Firstly, she wanted to take care of Yugao while her brother was… away. Secondly… She couldn't live with Minato now, could she?

Yugao took it in stride. She still missed her nii-san, but Kushina wasn't a bad alternative at all. She knew how to take care of things that Naruto didn't, like tying her hair up, properly cleaning and dressing herself. It also helped that Kushina was supportive of her decision to start ninja training.

Mikoto couldn't help but sigh again. She got where Kushina was coming from. She really did. In Uzushiogakure, there were two kinds of people. People who specialized in swords and those who specialized in seals… By the time an Uzumaki turned 3, he/she would already know their passion and training would start. Kushina had started training kenjutsu even earlier because she was the daughter of the main family. By the time she was 4, she was already skilled enough to give genin from other nations a run for their money… in kenjutsu only though.

It was no surprise that Kushina agreed, but Mikoto still had a bad feeling in her mind. It'd been hanging over her like a cloud for the past few days. A feeling as if something very bad was about to happen. The calm before the storm. She remembered having this feeling before her brother left on that kami-forsaken mission. And she knew how that turned out. Her life had taken a very big turn that day. But just the feeling alone was not grounds for staying in and ignoring her duties to the village. But she did want Yugao to stay inside, just in case. She didn't of course voice her concerns to Kushina anticipating the teasing reaction to her unwarranted paranoia.

Mikoto watched Kushina pick up a giggling Yugao and fought off her apprehension again. She got up to follow them but she paused when she reached the door. Turning around she walked to her bed and picked up a recently purchased tanto from a secret compartment. She'd bought it last week when Kushina took Yugao shopping.

She suddenly looked up and caught her reflection in the mirror and noticed a crack on it. That was odd. It was in a rather sturdy position. Maybe it happened during the attack on the village. She frowned when she realized that if it indeed happened during the attack, she should have been diligent enough to notice it in the past few weeks. She was a ninja for fuck's sake. Constant vigilance. Shaking her head, she sealed the sword into a scroll and bustled out of her apartment. Kushina and Yugao were very excited about today. She wouldn't put it past them to forget about her.

With Minato

Space and Time…

He still didn't know how these two were interrelated. It was a mystery he wanted to solve. But this was a place where so many people before him had failed. If he had to point someone out, he would say that the Nidaime Hokage came the closest with his version of the Hiraishin.

As he started cutting through the tree his foot was stuck in, he realized why it was that even the Nidaime Hokage failed to fully understand space and time. He had the teleportation down. He could go from point A to point B with very little error. But he had no control over his momentum and body position for some reason. If he tried to focus on his momentum, he'd lose sight of where he wanted to go. And vice versa. He'd been working rigorously on it for the past month and he finally had enough control to travel in straight lines through open spaces.

Today, he decided to take a step up and try to navigate through the trees surrounding Team 7's training ground. The result was his entire foot stuck inside an oak tree.

He groaned in frustration as he continued to saw through the tree using his three-pronged kunai. He had learned much earlier that it was not a good idea to train space time techniques while carrying weapons. So, he was armed only with the kunai which he was rapidly realizing was not particularly good at cutting through stuff.

"What are you doing?" Minato heard from behind him. Another sigh escaped him as he realized that he couldn't turn around with one leg stuck in a tree.

"Um… Do you mind coming around so that I can face you?" Minato asked sheepishly.

A few moments of silence passed and Minato was about to assume that whoever it was had bolted. But before he could decide on that, the tree was cut in half by… wind?

As soon as his leg was free, he sensed her chakra. He didn't know how he hadn't sensed it before. "Kushina?"

"And Yugao too. Don't ignore me, treeman."

Minato blinked in confusion at the tiny purple haired girl glared up at him. "Who is this little lady?"

Kushina couldn't help but smile at the fact that despite the unusual circumstances Minato had found himself in, he still managed to smile and greet the young girl in front of them. It was very Minato-esque. Sadly, being stuck inside a tree was also very Minato-esque and he should have known better than to attempt space-time techniques without supervision.

"This is Yugao Uzuki. Haruka Uzuki's daughter." Kushina replied and Minato's eyes went wide.

"Wh… How? I searched everywhere for her. The orphanage had no clue about her whereabouts. I looked everywhere."

Kushina smirked at her ex-boyfriend. "Well, I guess Naruto did an excellent job of taking care of her."

Minato visibly flinched when she spoke about Naruto. Kushina sighed as she realized that Minato was feeling a lot of guilt for what had happened. She wasn't ready to completely forgive him and she didn't know how long that would take. But she didn't want things between them to be… awkward. "Look, Minato. I know I said some things to you earlier, but I didn't mean everything. I've had a chance to think things through and I realize that from your perspective, you had your reasons, wrong as they may be, to not tell me about him. While it sucks that you didn't tell me, at least it wasn't on purpose like your sensei."

Minato's eyes widened. "Jiraiya-sensei knew? How?"

Kushina shrugged. "Apparently, he was the one who found Naruto and brought him to Konoha."

Yugao looked at both of them in confusion, unable to make sense of what was being said. Fortunately for her, Mikoto chose that exact moment to catch up with them and she ran towards her. "Mikoto-chan! The treeman says he's been stalking me."

Minato, tired from his training, had unconsciously summoned up a bottle of water from a storage seal on his wrist and started drinking from it… which was why he was able to spit it all out when he heard what Yugao said. "Excuse me?!"

Day-28

With Naruto.

"GROOOWWWLLLL!"

He was beyond annoyed. He was dealing with a lot of pain right now. The least his stomach could do was stop complaining about it so loudly. He was still slumped against the wall of the cave. He had tried standing up the previous day and found that he couldn't. Not at first anyway. His body was weak. Too weak to even hold himself up. It couldn't be too long now. He had already lost the ability to move. Why couldn't they just kill him?

Ha. Why couldn't he kill himself? The thought entered his delirious mind so suddenly that for a moment, he actually thought that this was the first time it occurred to him. But it wasn't. His hands were chained to the ground, far apart from each other. He didn't know what the chains were usually used for and from the very pungent smell coming off it, he didn't want to know either. Damn kinky birds.

Never in his life had he been more uncomfortable than when he heard vultures mating. Living in the red-light district for over 3 years ensured that he knew about the activity, but birds were never part of the brothel experience. So, it was a first for him.

He chuckled lightly, amazed at what he was thinking about so close to his death. Like Shinzo aspired, Naruto had always seen himself perishing in the battlefield. Starving to death had never even been a possibility. And even if that was going to happen, he never imagined that he would last less than a month.

There were many reasons for his declining body, the least of which was the deep gash on his right arm. The lack of nourishment was definitely a leading factor. But unexpected things were starting to become difficult for him. Natural things that he'd never had problems with before.

Breathing was becoming difficult. The moment he'd awoken to the sparse air of the mountains that the vultures called home, he'd realized that breathing was going to be more difficult. Now, with nothing to do except inhale, he was becoming increasingly aware of the energy spent on breathing every day. The way his chest heaved and fell was usually the most comforting thing. Now, it was painful. If that wasn't enough, his gash was not healing like his wounds usually did. After close to a month, he was sure that it was infected which meant that he didn't have much time left.

If he was going to go down fighting, he had to act when he still had some strength left. He should've done it the moment he realized that the vultures were hostile to his presence. Back then, he wasn't so weak. He could've at least put up a fight. But he didn't know then what he knew now. He didn't know that the vultures wouldn't kill. Faced with the razor-sharp beak of Kurokaze, he wasn't ready to take any chances without knowing the layout of his 'prison' and the number of his enemies.

Now, he had no choice but to fight or die. But now, there was something else to consider. The events of his first day here weren't easily forgotten. The amazing story that he was told was too unbelievable to be untrue. He realized that he was one of the only humans to have ever heard that story and that made him feel a bit special despite the situation. But the events of that day were etched firmly in his mind. The strange chakra that Kurokaze unleashed that day was amazing. The power held by just a little amount of that chakra was simply breathtaking. Spectacular. He learned when he woke up that the chakra was called nature chakra and that it was something that no human deserved to wield. According to the vulture anyway.

What bothered him though was the genjutsu he fell under. Naruto had never fallen under a genjutsu so strong that his sharingan couldn't see it coming. But Naruto knew that somehow his sharingan wouldn't have helped. Every time he'd seen nature chakra being used, he was only able to feel it. There was a sort of presence he could sense. He was never able to see the chakra being built up. And that led him to think that his sharingan wouldn't be able to see nature chakra.

There was only one reliable thing he knew about it. His face lifted to glance at his captor and saw that Kurokaze was staring back at him. He remembered how Akira had to concentrate for an insanely long amount of time to gather the required amount of nature chakra. Kurokaze also took a long time, less than Akira of course, to gather enough chakra for the genjutsu.

That time was all he had. If he were to fight, he would have to produce results within that time. Because after that… He was done. Especially since he still didn't know the medium Kurokaze used for the genjutsu.

Regardless, there was a reason he hadn't acted till now and that was because no weakness had presented itself. But something had happened that morning. He didn't actually realize that the vultures would have baby vultures around despite hearing the terrible noises every day. That morning, Kurokaze's son had come into the cave to inform his father of the start of an important meeting. Naruto could see the love between them. They were at the stage of the father-child relationship where the father gave him some responsibilities to fulfil and the son did his best to please his father. Naruto knew that this was the case, when Kurokaze asked his son to guard the prisoner.

With the severe lack of nourishment and the rather tight shackles on him, Naruto wouldn't be able to lift a finger to harm the young vulture. But what Kurokaze didn't realize was that Naruto wasn't looking to harm anyone… yet. He was looking for information.

Naruto learned a lot from the polite young vulture named Hayate who he now realized was the same vulture that Kurokaze commanded to fetch the chains when he arrived here.

Naruto learned that Kurokaze was said to be the greatest leader among the vultures in the last 100 years. When asked about the reason, Hayate told Naruto that they had never ever gone hungry for more than a week. Before the time of Kurokaze, the vultures were bordering cannibalism. Kurokaze came in when his kin needed him the most. He proposed migration from the barren land across the sea to the densely populated elemental nations that they had left behind after nature's fall.

In doing so, he had saved everyone. There was no shortage of dead bodies in the elemental nations. The vultures had only two rules. Do not kill and do not waste. Hayate didn't seem to realize that Naruto was soon about to be his family dinner, which was probably why he was nice enough to give Naruto a half-eaten bone. That was when Naruto saw a possibility.

Naruto proceeded to ask him about his father's meetings. About the monthly meetings. About the unrest in the vulture population. About the resentment they held for not being able to get their revenge. Hayate, glad to have made a friend, did not hesitate to tell him everything. How wonderfully stupid.

By this time next month, Naruto would be free… If he survived that long. Now Hayate was gone and Kurokaze was back, but it didn't matter. Unable to use any chakra because of the seals that had been placed on him, Naruto had no way to access any of his weapons. But that was ok. The bone that Hayate had given him had already been sharpened against the rock surface he was pressed against after sucking the nourishment out of it.

That half-eaten bone touching his lips was the best feeling he'd ever experienced in his short life till then. Tasting something had never ever felt better.

Day-39

Amegakure

Yahiko frowned. No matter how he looked at it, this wasn't the way to go about stopping the war. This wasn't the way of peace and understanding that Jiraiya-sensei preached about. There had to be some other way.

Hanzo was preparing to head out into the world, leading his people to war. They would devastate all the major shinobi villages and any minor ones that stood in their way. That would lead to nothing but more pain and destruction. No matter how much he hated the man, Jiraiya of the Sannin was right about this.

Which was why Yahiko wanted to proceed in a different direction. A direction that would make sure they would have no part to play in the coming wars. A direction that unfortunately could be considered as rebellion.

He wanted to form a group of shinobi within Ame. It would be filled with people that desired peace without war. He even had a name for them. Akatsuki. The Red Dawn. It was strangely fitting for their group. He could only hope that Nagato and Konan thought this was a good idea. It didn't help that Nagato had been acting strange ever since he had been released from Hanzo's hold. They had protested of course, but he suspected the only reason Hanzo let him out was because he was getting bored.

But no matter how many times Yahiko assured him that losing utility in his hand wasn't his fault, Nagato just didn't listen. He knew that his friend was blaming himself.

Yahiko sighed. This was becoming incredibly stressful. They hadn't even begun their revolution yet.

Day-41

With Mikoto

She should never have answered the summons from her former clan. If nothing else, she should have found the lack of any sound in the compound a sign that something was wrong. She had made it to the clan-head's house when she hesitated. Something was indeed very wrong.

She should head back… Shouldn't she?

After all, instincts meant a lot to shinobi. And at the moment, her instincts were screaming at her to run as far away as possible. But against her better judgement, she knocked on the door.

She heard some scuffling inside as someone hurried to the door. The moment the door opened, she knew she had chosen wrong. She couldn't close her eyes as she stared at the chaotic scene in the living room. She couldn't help but gulp when she saw the girl, too young-looking to be eighteen, sat in her chair, bound and gagged, unconscious. She felt sick.

Finally her eyes found the one who opened the door for her. "Fugaku, what… What is this?"

Fugaku smiled. "Come in, Mikoto. We have a lot to talk about."

In every person's life, there are innumerable crossroads where one must choose a way forward. Often they are invisible crossroads – decision points that seem minor or even insignificant at the time but which have life-changing results. A single moment often decides how the rest of your life plays out.

And most times, the decisions you take can't be reversed. No matter how much you wish for it.

When Mikoto Uchiha saw what was displayed in front of her, her response should've been to fight. To kill the person responsible as quickly as she could. Or, failing that, to run away and bring it to someone's attention. She shouldn't have been there a second more than she had to.

But even as the rational part of her brain tried to make her body move, the sentimental part of her just couldn't reconcile the man she once loved with a man capable of… this. Of abducting a young girl and holding her captive for whatever reason. Surely there was a reason for this. Surely, Uchiha Fugaku, the man she once loved more than anything, wouldn't do this without a reason. Her eyes moved up and met the eyes of the Uchiha clan leader and at that moment, her fate was sealed.

That moment marked her final moment in the elemental nations as Mikoto. As herself.

Three curved spokes with three black dots on their concave sides, on the familiar red background. A Mangekyou Sharingan. The very next moment, her mind went blank.

"Kotoamatsukami!"

Suddenly, Mikoto found herself in a world with red skies. The moon was out behind her, lighting up her entire world. But somehow, she felt that it was still dark. As she surveyed her surroundings more, she saw that she was standing in a circle. And that she couldn't move.

Despite the situation, Mikoto couldn't help but smile. It was peaceful. No sound, no surprises. It was mesmerizing. She found herself feeling the sensation one gets when they're slowly falling asleep and you realize it. Someone was drawing a curtain around her and somehow, she knew that once it was fully wrapped around her, there would be bliss. Pure, utter bliss.

His former lover crumpled to the ground, a euphoric smile on her face. Mikoto Uchiha was back. Her time away from her responsibilities to him was over. She was finally right where she was supposed to. By his side.

A strangled cough from behind him made him turn around. Kazane was finally awake. Her eyes were on the most recent presence in her hell. She recognized her. Her pictures were on the disgusting man's table… He had once loved her. She realized.

"I thought you loved her." She croaked out.

Fugaku smirked at her. "I did. At one point not too long ago."

"What changed? How could you do this to someone you love?"

His smile vanished. "She didn't love me back. She was making a mistake, walking away from the greatest clan in Konoha. She just didn't see the right path."

Kazane wasn't pleased. Breathing through the pain in her tied hands that returned now that the numbness resulting from her short nap had disappeared, she stared defiantly at her captor. "And what makes you worthy to decide how she should live."

Fugaku laughed at her question. "My eyes make me worthy, ignorant woman. My eyes are all powerful. My eyes see through everything. My eyes have the power to subjugate even the most powerful shinobi in the world and make them kill their own loved ones. These eyes… They make me a god."

Day-43

With Haku

"Hey, did you hear the news?" Mei asked as she came into the room.

None of them had any idea what she was talking about. But that wasn't really surprising. They were all genin, with the exception of Zabuza and Mei. Well technically Zabuza was a genin too, what with the demotion and all. But he might still have a position somewhere in the grapevine that made him privy to such details.

Sure enough, Zabuza was the only one who responded. "Yeah. Something about the five kage meeting up."

"What?!" Yagura yelled in shock. "A kage summit is going to happen?"

"What for?" Haku asked calmly.

Zabuza and Mei both just shrugged. "Best I can guess is that it's a gathering to discuss peace terms." Mei speculated. "But then we wouldn't be invited."

"Is it a declaration of war?" Mangetsu asked.

The question was met with a round of laughter. "There's no way any of the other 4 major villages are in a position for war. They've all lost too much, too quickly." Akane spoke through her smile.

Zabuza didn't join in. There was something bugging him. "Who called the summit? We could probably guess the motive behind it if we know who called it. If it was Iwa, then it's almost certainly a declaration of war."

Mei's eyes darkened. "It was Konoha."

Silence met her statement.

"What do you think they could want?", Akane finally asked.

Everyone was silent. Some of them just shrugged. Haku finally voiced what her mind had arrived at. "No idea. But I doubt it's anything good."

Day-48

With Kushina

Kushina was getting worried. Mikoto hadn't come back to her apartment in the past week. She could guess what happened. Mikoto could've been sent on a mission on short notice. She might have gone to the hospital. She did say she was still having some strain using chakra after having used a bit too much chakra so suddenly in their latest bout with Kumo. Maybe she was finally getting it checked out? Kushina didn't know. And for some reason, none of those reasons seemed right to her.

The biggest problem she faced now wasn't her missing best friend. It was her missing brother's 'little sister' that couldn't come to terms with not seeing Mikoto for a week. Her best friend had somehow become a 'mother' figure for the young girl. Kushina wasn't surprised.

Even when they were young, Mikoto had played the role of mother in their group. She was always the one who berated her for being too reckless, told off Hitomi for being too frigid like the rest of her clan and slapped Rumia on the back of her head when her gossip became too much. Thinking about Rumia made her wince internally.

She couldn't imagine what the Yamanaka clan head was going through. Sure, she had suffered a lot. More than most people suffered in a lifetime. But even when she thought her brother was dead, she had never been subjected to his dead body. She didn't think she could see that and keep going.

But Yamanaka Inoichi was throwing himself into his work. He was relentless, effective and a bit scary. He was rapidly encompassing the role Yamanaka clan members played in the T&I department. Kushina didn't know what that was about, but she was old enough to know that people reacted differently to seeing the people they loved get killed. If it kept him from thinking about his only sister's dead body, with her face bashed in beyond recognition, the Yamanaka could overwork himself for however long he wanted.

"Kushina-nee?" Yugao asked, making her snap out of her thoughts.

Kushina smiled at her. "What is it, Yugao-chan?"

Yugao climbed up onto her lap. Kushina didn't show it, but she was still very uncomfortable when she did that. It reminded her too much of the times she spent with her brother before everything went wrong.

"Why do people keep leaving me?" Yugao asked softly. Kushina flinched. It wasn't a question she was expecting. "My mother left me. Shinzo-nii and Shizuka-nee as well. But I understand that. Naruto-nii told me about how they went to another place and how it'll be a long time before I can see them again. But Akira-ojiisan and Mikoto-nee don't come to see me anymore. Hayate isn't coming by enough. You're the only one left. Why do people keep leaving me?"

Kushina didn't know how to respond. So, she just hugged her small frame close to her body. They stayed like that for a few minutes until Kushina opened her mouth to speak. "They'll come back, Yugao. Akira is a lazy fool that won't get out of his bed unless he has a mission that day. Mikoto is a very busy kunoichi who sometimes just gets called away. I promise they'll come back, Yugao-chan."

Yugao gave her a small smile. "Like how Naruto-nii promised."

Kushina froze. She knew the kid thought promises couldn't be broken. Like it was something the universe wouldn't allow. But she knew, from personal experience, that circumstances often forced you to break the promises you made. She remembered the promise she made to Naruto all those years ago. 'Just a week, Naruto. I'll be back before you know it.'

Making a promise wasn't the same as keeping it. And hearing a promise shouldn't force you to believe in it.

With Naruto

Kurokaze couldn't help but frown while trying to hold in his anger. How had it come to this? The prisoner had been starved for over 50 days. Having starved for on and off for a long time in his life, he knew what the prisoner was dealing with. He should never have been able to break the chains that kept him down. He shouldn't have any strength left. Definitely not enough to grab a vulture and keep him from moving with just this makeshift weapon.

Speaking of… He knew the moment he saw the sharpened bone in the prisoner's hand. He knew it the moment Hayate looked up at him from under the prisoner. The fool had literally thrown him a bone just to be nice. Not realizing the threat he presented. Not recognizing the power he held.

"Will you kill me now?" Naruto snarled at him. His voice was tiny and weak but he was emanating a killing intent so fierce that it was making the gathered vultures nervous.

Kurokaze simply didn't know what to do. He was the one who emphasized so much on that particular law. He was also the one who would lose his child if he held on to that law. Looking around at the numerous faces that were gathered, he knew that none of them would care if he decided to kill the boy where he stood. But he knew. He knew that even if none of them would hold it against him, deep down, he would lose a lot of respect. Besides… It looked like they had come to have a lot of respect for the boy as well.

Kurokaze met the destroyer's eyes. "Go ahead if killing him makes you happy. We do not kill."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise despite expecting the response. Looking at the gathered crowd, he could see the respect forming on their faces. They were pleased with their leader. He roared in anger.

"Unbelievable. Spineless cowards, the lot of you. You think "Mother Nature" is pleased with your loyalty when that loyalty involves nothing but sitting around, gathering dust, as she suffers. I don't presume to know anything about her. After all, I never even thought of Nature as a sentient being. But mark my words… If I were her, I would be pissed. You would be the first thing she destroys if she regains her power."

"Don't presume to know anything about us, boy. We have-"

"Tell me then… What more do you want from me? You want to eat me, but you won't kill me. I want to get out of this place, but you won't let me. And what's worse, you won't even tell me why that's not possible. Believe me when I say that I'll kill more than just Hayate if I start killing. But I don't want to. You think I enjoy killing? You think I enjoy being nature's destroyer. Just tell me what you want from me. Tell me what I can do that will make you either kill me or give me something to eat."

Kurokaze looked around, his eyes seeking out the other members of his inner circle. All three of them nodded, answering his silent question. It seemed that his hunger was finally close to reaching its peak. And maybe… Just maybe if he managed to survive…

Kurokaze sighed as he looked him over once again… His tiny hands shaking, his head spinning ever so slightly and eyes half-lidded… He was the first person to have ever escaped their chains let alone threaten one of them with death.

"Boy, for what you just did, you have our utmost respect." Kurokaze sighed again. "But until you have suffered as we have suffered, as long as each of us have suffered… Until you have suffered enough to make that impossible choice that each of us had to make… We cannot set you free either through life or death."

"If you kill my son now… He will die, yes. But my sons are numerous. We do not feel familial bonds as other creatures do. We know what it means to do what needs to be done. Even at the expense of the ones we love. So if you must, you can kill him."

Naruto glared at him as did Hayate from under him.

"It changes nothing. We catch you again and you continue to starve to death. You will just have killed some of us before you died. If that does not interest you, then we advise you to lay down that… weapon and surrender. Once you survive as long as I have survived without food, you will be set free. Then… and only then, will I tell you what you must do to become our summoner."

Naruto looked up at the indifferent face of his captor and then down to the pleading face of his son.

"You asked me why there has never been a summoner before? It's because of this. None have reached as far as you have. You think we didn't think to have a summoner do our bidding? You think we're that stupid? None of them have ever been worthy and we came to the conclusion none of them will ever be. But if you lay down your weapon and continue to suffer your pain till we say it's enough… You have a chance, a small one, of walking away from here alive."

Naruto didn't know what to say to that. His logical mind knew it was better to die. It was better to die now. His trembling hand grasped the bone even tighter. It was so close. He just had to drive it into the many places in his body he knew would kill him. But… But he couldn't do it. Because every time he blinked, he saw their faces… Mikoto Uchiha's face. Kushina Uzumaki's face… His team…

…

Then he would see Hayami Uchiha's face. Then, his own younger self's face with tears of blood flowing down his face. Midori, the Iwa ninja's face… And finally he would see Yugao Uzuki…

"Tch." He needed to go back to her. He needed to.

He threw the bone away and stared up at Kurokaze, "How long did you survive without food? Tell me, I'll match that and then I can leave."

Kurokaze chuckled darkly. "I was right to say you haven't suffered as we have. If you know how long you have to go without food, it becomes a test of your patience, not your ability to withstand the most painful pain in existence. And that is what we test… your tolerance to the deepest pain possible."

Day-57

With Rin

Ever since the war reached a standstill, Rin was having trouble falling asleep. It was especially bad because her sensei had been relentless for the past month. The frequency of their breaks were declining pretty quickly. She knew they needed it. When faced with an actual threat, they had fainted. Actually fainted. Both her and Obito. Yuna as well. Even though Anko didn't faint, she had been incapacitated. But Kakashi and… Naruto… They were completely fine. Sure, they had seen other shinobi, older shinobi on the ground when they woke up. But they had also heard about people their age handling it well.

Even the ever-supportive instructor to Team-7 couldn't completely hide his disappointment when they told him. They had failed. Failed to be of any use to anyone. And worse, if Kumo hadn't been stopped, they would have been liabilities. It wasn't a good feeling.

Sigh.

Everything came back to that day didn't it? Anko told them how she froze in place at the sight of the tailed beast and its attack. She did that to make them feel better. And it did make her feel better. How lucky that she fainted before then. She didn't want that to add to the nightmares she already had.

But then, Anko told them about Naruto and how he never took his eyes off the death bomb heading towards them. He had actually smiled at it. Like somehow it was the most amazing thing he would ever see. Rin sighed again. Maybe it was.

She didn't know what was going on with that brat. Every day it was something new. She felt for him. She really did. The things he probably had to deal with? She couldn't even imagine it. Working at the hospital, she had seen her fair share of traumatized shinobi. But none like Naruto. She remembered his rage, his anger, after he crushed Kakashi in battle. Traumatized victims were hopeless. No motivation to do anything. Naruto wasn't like that. He had all the other signs of trauma but he was also angry. So angry…

Naruto… That's where she always ended up wasn't it? When she lay in her bed trying to sleep, she would end up thinking about Naruto.

Sigh.

DING!

Rin frowned as she got up from her bed. The doorbell? It was near midnight. She could see her parents waking, but she signaled them to go back to sleep. She'd handle it. Both of them were civilians, so they were certain that even if it was something dangerous at their door, Rin would handle it better than they ever could.

Rin made her way down the stairs. Her parents were kind of successful with their import/export business, so she was in a very good neighborhood, in a very nice house. Despite saying that she would handle it, she felt a little nervous as she neared the door. But she snapped out of it soon and opened the door slightly to see who it was.

Yuna? What the fuck?

She opened the door fully and stepped outside. "Yuna? What the hell are you doing here?"

Yuna shuffled around uncomfortably. "I… I'm sorry. I needed someone to talk to and… I didn't know where to go. Anko's father is kind of strict and I didn't want to get her in trouble. Naruto is gone. Orochimaru isn't the talking type and that left only you and Obito. I'm sorry if I woke you though. Really. I'm so-"

Rin smiled and held up her hand. "Thank god you didn't go to Obito's. You don't know how much of a pervert he is."

Yuna grinned. Rin was simply the best sometimes. She instinctively knew what people wanted to hear. Maybe part of her medic training? Nah, she was probably always like that.

"Come in. We can talk up in my room. I laid some privacy seals in my room." At Yuna's unspoken question, she replied, "Just wanted to see what all the fuss was about fuinjutsu."

Rin led her up a flight of stairs and into one of the multiple rooms on the floor. It was a well-kept, cozy house. It was pretty nice anyway you look at it. But Yuna lived in the home of a Kage. This didn't impress her. She didn't even notice…

Rin handed her a glass of water that she gladly accepted and they sat in silence for a few moments.

Yuna didn't know how to begin. She had learned a lot that day. None of it good. It wasn't something that should be allowed to become public. Her brother had been right when he told her she couldn't handle it.

Rin just accepted the fact that Yuna was struggling to say what she wanted to say. She would just come out and say it when she gathered enough courage. For now, she just leaned on the glass window and gazed out at the village. It was very different from what she was used to see but hey. You couldn't expect everything to be the same after the village got leveled.

"I…" Yuna started but hesitated again.

Rin looked at her sharply. "Deep breaths. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to, Yuna. You know that right?"

Yuna smiled that strained smile again. "I know. But I need… No, I want to get this off my chest."

Seeing that she was ready, Rin leaned forward.

"But… This can't get out. Not ever." Rin frowned at the request but nodded all the same. While she loved to gossip, she would never betray a friend's trust. "I found out why my father hates me so much." Yuna finally whispered.

"That's crazy, Yuna. Your father surely loves-" Rin stopped her autonomic sympathetic reply when she saw the look Yuna was giving her.

"My fath… The Hokage hates me. That much I do know." Yuna spoke with finality. "I asked him why, the day after we got back in the village. After some… let's say 'intense' moments, he kicked me out. But not before revealing that his son, my brother, Sarutobi Sasuke, was in Konoha all along. As part of his personal ANBU guard."

Rin's eyes widened. Identities of ANBU were state secrets. And revealing them was punishable by death. Yet here she was, talking about it like it didn't matter. But more than all the worry that came with it, Rin realized the impact it had had on Yuna. Sasuke Sarutobi was her sole relief in a situation with an indifferent father, a seemingly uncaring mother and a bullying second older brother… Until one day, he just disappeared. He's on a mission is what everyone said. Rin remembered the day. It was the same day that Yuna closed up, becoming so cold to the rest of them that she became competition for Anko for the 'Biggest Bitch' award.

Yuna continued. "I was angry. Angry at my brother, angry at my father and at my mother… Because there was no way she didn't know that her son was in the ANBU. So I lashed out… Sniff… And my brother efficiently beat it down. I asked him about the truth. I just wanted to know the truth. Sniff… He told me I wasn't ready for it. That I couldn't handle it…"

Rin jumped onto her feet and hugged her hurting friend. Something really horrible had happened and Yuna had barely been holding it together. But remembering it all was breaking the facade. She was barely keeping from crying.

After some tears, Yuna shook her head while holding the embrace. "Sasuke said I couldn't handle it… But he also said that I wouldn't get any answers from the Hokage, no matter how hard I pressed… So. Sniff… So, tonight, after dinner, Hokage-sama went back to finish some of his work. Asuma was already out on a mission. Sniff. I cornered my mother and asked her the same question I asked Hokage-sama earlier. Sniff. Why does my dad hate me?"

Rin's heart ached for her. How is it that just a few months ago, their biggest concern was passing a few written tests, but now, their problems ran so deep that she couldn't see any end in sight. Naruto was missing. Yuna was broken. Minato-sensei was becoming more and more distant. Why was so much happening so quickly?

"Then… Sniff. My mother tried to laugh it off. Tried to deny it. She tried all sorts of things. But she knew I wouldn't let it go. She knew that the only way I would stop was if she told me. So… Sniff… She told me."

The sobbing stopped suddenly and Yuna went completely still in her arms. Rin broke the hug and leaned back to get a look at her face. She was white as a sheet.

"She told me… About an affair she had after Asuma was born. About an affair that Hokage-sama later found out about. An affair that my… My... My parents both think, led to my birth." Yuna started crying again.

Rin wrapped her in a hug quickly. This was too much for her to handle. She couldn't even imagine what Yuna was going through.

"Hokage-sama has black hair… Sasuke has black hair. Asuma has black hair. Mother has black hair… Sob… I… My hair… My hair is brown… Sob…"

Rin couldn't help but sob with her. This was so horrible. To find out about all this after so much tension, so much anguish that she had gone through alone? It was probably devastating. Yuna probably couldn't form a single cohesive thought.

"That's why he hates me. Because he's the Hokage, he can't allow people to think he was cuckolded. And because my mom was the Hokage's wife, she couldn't let other people know either." Yuna cried earnestly, no longer caring to hold back her tears. "I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. I just don't know."

Struggling to hold back her own tears, Rin adopted a soothing voice. She said everything she knew was appropriate… Because she didn't know what to do either.

"Don't worry."

"It'll all turn out alright."

…

…

"Remember what Yugao-chan said? Tears are just how sadness escapes the body. So cry, Yuna. Cry…"

With Naruto

Angry.

Angry.

Angry.

He was so angry.

He was angry that he had let himself get into this mess.

He was angry that he didn't listen to his sensei's advice to not attempt the summoning technique. At least his death would've been quick if he'd simply faced Hanzo.

He was angry that he'd left his sister behind just when they'd found each other again.

ANGRY. ANGRY. ANGRY.

He was so angry.

He was angry that all the creatures in the place he had summoned himself into were just that. Mindless creatures with no goal. No, he misspoke. They had a goal. They just didn't do anything toward achieving it.

AngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngryAngry…

…

…

…

Hungry.

He was hungry.

He was so hungry.

He would eat anything. Anything. He had even tried to just bend down and eat the rubble. His chains made it unable to do that though.

Hungry.

Hungry.

HungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungryHungry…

…

…

Hungry?

Hunger?

…

…

…

RAVENOUS HUNGER. DELIRIOUS HUNGER. INTOLERABLE HUNGER. TORTURING HUNGER. DEADLY HUNGER.

INSATIABLE HUNGER.

Naruto started laughing giddily. He didn't know why. He just had to. With his body unable to do a thing, his mind was working overtime. Feeling none of the mirth his laugh indicated, he looked up to meet the eyes of his jailer.

"Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. Just a little bit more. … … … …"

Naruto didn't stop laughing even though he knew the action was causing him to spend what little energy remained in him.

Kurokaze had an amused look in his eyes. "It's nearly time, boy. You won't suffer for much longer."

Naruto didn't know how much time elapsed after that. He just knew that it'd been a long time. He couldn't stop anything. He couldn't stop laughing even to breathe. He just lay on the floor laughing giddily, clutching his stomach in pain.

Kurokaze stared at the pathetic sight in front of him and sighed, his decision made."Uzumaki Naruto. You will be summoner to the noble clan of Vultures. You will hold yourself to the promises you'll make. You will keep us fed, and you will feed us only the deserving. You will defend nature and you will kill those who would harm her. From this day forth, vultures will soar through the sky again, and will be at your beck and call. You will be our sole summoner and my own son will be your familiar."

Kurokaze leaned forward and held the chains in his beak and broke them in two. Naruto slowly sat up, his fits of laughter slowly turning into the occasional chuckle before they too disappeared.

"But if you want to be our summoner, you will become like us. You will feast like we do. You will become as we are. You will feast on the dead, knowing it won't be enough to satisfy you. You will drink the stagnant blood, knowing it won't quench your thirst. You will find that the flesh and blood of your own species is the only thing that will satisfy your hunger. And battling that cannibalism borne of your hunger, you will go forth purer than before. Stronger than before." Kurokaze chuckled. "Hungrier than before."

Kurokaze gestured to one of the other vultures and immediately the chakra seals on his body disappeared. The confused Naruto just looked at his hand where the chakra seal had been just a few moments ago. Pumping chakra through his body, he saw the black markings of the storage seals on his wrist light up.

He now knew what the vultures expected him to do but no matter how hungry he was, even if it killed him, he wouldn't resort to that. Never.

Kurokaze chuckled darkly. "I see you realize what you have to do."

Naruto shook his head even as his stomach growled. No. He wouldn't do it. Naruto felt himself drop to his knees as the vultures surrounding him started chanting. "Feast… Feast… Feast…"

Kurokaze leaned forward. "Don't tell me you're just talk. What happened to doing whatever it takes to reach your goal? To not sitting still and gathering dust? What happened to what you said about doing what needs to be done?"

Silence met his questions.

"I can smell it on you. We all smelled it on you when you first arrived here. You have what you need with you. You need only to reach out and… eat it."

With each passing moment, with each word that came out of the vulture's mouth, he could feel himself slipping. Suddenly, the strength he had mustered up to escape disappeared and it left him empty. The painfully severe hunger re-established itself in his mind.

If you attempt the summoning technique without agreeing to a contract, you will be transported to the region of your familiar animal. There, you will face trials beyond any and all of your limits. They will tear you down and remake you from scratch.

He remembered what Orochimaru said. Was this the trial he needed to face to have no limits? Was this what he was supposed to do to become stronger? Was this what he needed to sacrifice? His humanity?

His shivering right hand reached the storage seal on his left wrist and suddenly a scroll appeared in his hand. A body scroll.

The chanting became louder. So much so that he had to actively tune it out. He reached out and unfurled the scroll. His stomach stopped its growling in anticipation.

Naruto looked up and met Kurokaze's eyes which made it clear to him that this was the only way he was making it out of here alive. But by this point, his hunger was enough of a motivation that it didn't matter. He passed chakra through the scroll and it appeared. The severed hand. Unknown to him, it was the hand of one of the senior-most shinobi in Konoha, torn from his body by his own failed experiment.

The thunderous chanting now reached its peak. "FEAST. FEAST. FEAST. FEAST…"

And so it went… Right up until Naruto leaned down and took his first bite of human flesh.

Silence.

No one said anything. They all watched in stunned silence as the boy they'd wanted to kill exceeded every expectation they'd ever held. Hayate came up near his father, his bead-like eyes never leaving the spectacle in front of him.

Only the first bite was in any way difficult for Naruto. As soon as his teeth broke through for the first time and the stagnant blood filled his mouth, he was euphoric. He took bite after bite after bite, relishing the taste even as he realized that Kurokaze was being truthful. He would never taste anything better. Ever. And that was the curse he would have to live with for the rest of his life. He would never taste anything that would be more satisfying than the human flesh he was feasting on now.

He didn't know how much time had passed. It could've been minutes that seemed like hours. It could've been hours that seemed like minutes. He just didn't know.

Naruto put the bone down devoid of all flesh and stared up at the leader of the vultures. But Kurokaze wasn't looking at him. He was looking far away into the distance. His eyes were a vivid green color that made it clear to Naruto that he was using Nature chakra. As soon as he realized this, the eyes seemed to drop down to meet his, and Naruto was suddenly very afraid that he would be put to sleep again with the genjutsu. And that this was all for nothing.

Kurokaze unfurled his wings and the boy flinched, surely because he expected the genjutsu. But that wasn't what he intended. He wouldn't harm his first summoner. Or rather, his first would-be summoner. Mother Nature had spoken to him. And she told him what the boy must do to survive. To be their summoner.

"Uzumaki Naruto. You have one final trial you need to pass. Do this and the full power of Nature will eventually be yours."

Day-58

8 A.M Iron Country, Outside the Kage Summit Venue.

Minato glanced around at the samurai and various foreign shinobi gathered around the entrance. He wasn't pleased with what he saw. It seemed that they were the last to arrive. Granted, aside from Kiri, they had the biggest distance to travel. But it wasn't a good start to a meeting they had called. No, it wasn't a good start at all.

Hiruzen Sarutobi and Orochimaru walked beside him. They didn't show any reaction when they saw everyone else was there. Their faces seemed uninterested. As if nothing the others said would make a difference. Minato wondered if he had missed a memo or something. The other two were too much in sync for that not to be the case.

They finally arrived at the entrance to the meeting chamber. Two samurai crossed their spears blocking their entrance. "Only the Kage can go beyond this point."

Minato was sufficiently intimidated to not press things. But Orochimaru was not. "How do we know this isn't a trap? The other kage could be inside with their guards and we would be letting our leader go into a trap."

The samurai sniffed disdainfully at the legendary shinobi but nevertheless acknowledged his need to protect his master. He/She turned around and nodded to another samurai a few yards from the entrance. A few hand-seals later, a large source of light opened up on the wall directly in front of them. To their shock, it showed 4 kage sitting in a semi-circular table with the rightmost seat empty. On another table was General Mifune, the leader of Iron Country.

Over the years, many people came up with ways for real-time telecommunications. But never anything so refined. So smooth. So elegant… So real-time. The seals that went into making this possible would definitely be amazing to look at.

The samurai probably felt their shock because he/she turned around and chuckled at them. "As you can see, you will be able to monitor the events from outside, although you won't hear anything. That feature has been disabled seeing as it is supposed to be a meeting between only your leaders. Once your leader makes his way in, the summit will begin. If at any point, violence is imminent, it is advised to let us handle it. Anyone who tries to interfere will be met with indifferent violence."

Minato frowned. Now that was just unnerving. He didn't think it was possible to be this intimidating without eye-contact.

Hiruzen nodded at the samurai and that was all he needed to see. "If you could make your way through here, Hokage-sama." He beckoned inside with a small bow in his frame.

Orochimaru just frowned. The security was as tight as he thought it would be. But if this was how it would start, why did they say 2 guards were the maximum you could bring? He was supposed to be pissed at his sensei so he didn't really want to come with him. But there was no one else available. Danzo maybe? But the man was missing an arm now. If it hadn't gotten out yet, they shouldn't just let them know that one of their S-rank shinobi had been incapacitated in some way. Tsunade and Jiraiya were both dealing with their own shit and so, like always, he was left to pick up the pieces.

Minato just felt relieved that he wouldn't have to be face-to-face with some of the most legendary shinobi the elemental nations had ever seen. He looked around at the guards the other nations had brought. Immediately, he grit his teeth as he struggled to see anything but red. Midori was there. The same Midori that was widely known as the Steel Guardian of Iwa. The same Midori that had crushed the head of someone he had known for over 5 years. And beside him was Kitsuchi, an expert in offensive Earth Style ninjutsu who had made a name for himself in the previous war.

Minato could feel the smirk forming on the Iwa shinobi's face and he knew he wouldn't be able to control himself if he saw it. He tore his gaze away and saw the two Suna shinobi. He recognized them both from the bingo book. The deadliest puppet master alive and her younger brother, the deadliest poison user alive. Chiyo and Ebizo.

Some distance away from the Suna shinobi, he saw the people from Kiri. Jinpachi Munashi, the best user of the unique blastsword Shibuki since the swords had been created. With him was the other half of the 'Heartless Pair', Kushimaru Kuriarare, the wielder of the unique longsword Nuibari. He didn't need to look further into it. If a battle ensued, they had the biggest advantage. They were so used to each other that the duo had earned a nickname.

Lastly, farthest from them were the shinobi from Kumo. Ay and Bee, the A-B Combo. He took it back. They were undoubtedly the most deadly shinobi couple here. Ay was a kage-level shinobi and Bee was a perfect jinchuuriki if the reports were to be believed. With Ay's lightning armor and Bee's 8-tailed form, Minato was running the other direction as them if a confrontation were to start.

He felt a hand on his shoulder and he turned to meet Orochimaru's gaze. The unspoken message passed and Minato calmed down instead of sizing up possible opponents. He could still feel Midori's smirk threatening to burn him from behind, but he ignored it. He would get plenty of time to decompress after the summit ended.

---

That was a long wait, wasn't it? Sorry, really. I know what it feels like to have a story you want to read and when you check and you see that it's not been updated in like two months, it's just a major let down. I'm hugely flattered that people have been waiting on this story and want the next chapter enough to go through the trouble of sending me PMs / posting reviews, etc. Well, I don't really have a good reason, just that life got in the way. My semester's finally over and with that, so is school. The prep, the exams and all the partying we did after that collectively contributed to the lateness ig. Hopefully, it's been worth the wait and you all liked it.

P.S. Not going to say when the next one's coming because I don't have anything written out, like, at all. I just have an overall idea of what all to put and the order in which to put them. With this, I have completely exhausted my buffer chapters. Plus, I did write some parts of this chapter in a hurry, so if anything seems a bit rushed please let me know. I'll be proof reading this beast of a chapter (more than 30k words) sometime during the weekend, and if there's edits, I will mention them here.

AN0: I'm aware that chunin exams have been around for a long time and what occurs in canon is like the 12th or something, but it didn't make sense that the villages continued this 'substitute for war' while three wars still happened. So, in this story, chunin exams are an innovative solution to the problem of Konoha being well and truly fucked if they proceed to face three of the other four major villages in an all-out war.

AN1: Sorry about the Mikoto thing really. I really didn't want to use Kotoamatsukami on a character I liked but I do have plans that needed this to be done.

AN2:Sorry about the Kirua thing... This was one of the scenes that I sort of hurried through, reading it again made me kinda unsatisfied with it so I might modify it later. But she still be ded tho.

AN3:The situation with Yuna was totally unplanned. When I started writing this, I never meant for Hiruzen and Yuna to have this sort of relationship, but I unconsciously wrote it this way. It only occurred to me that Hiruzen was being a dick to Yuna when a reviewer pointed it out. So I had to find a reason for Hiruzen being a dick other than well, him being a dick.

AN4: If there's one thing I realized writing this chapter, it's that I love writing Haku and Rin POVs the best. It just flows out for some reason.

AN5: I got the idea for the vulture summons from a fic called 'Introverted'. I don't know if Zabuza's backstory (What a badass!) is actually in canon or I just read it in some fic. If so, I don't remember which fic it was, but know that it is from somewhere else.

AN6: I did try splitting this chapter into two based on the two months it covers, but I just didn't like how that turned out. So... yeah...

CODA is an amazing movie. Don't be a dumbass like me and watch No way home (at least) before you watch the new doctor strange movie. The next chapter's titled 'Wrath of the Wronged'. And see you guys next time.