Alright, so this next idea is a Naruto one. This primarily comes from an idea that I came up with over a year ago that I started writing in a tab inside of OneNote that I totally forgot about inside that notebook until recently and finish it up so that I can release it into the world inside of my repository as I originally started writing it during those last thirty or so chapters of Naruto. What is that idea? Well, first of all, an alternate Kaguya origin story that goes farther back and relates to our world as many different technologies that are in that world are shared with ours along with Shinto gods and goddesses having attacks named after them. The second is a pseudo-crossover with Stargate: Atlantis, one of my favorite TV sci-fi dramas/space operas of all time. This culminates in the idea of the "Archipelago", a floating armada of ships that's always on the move and so secretive about their existence that they're only talked about as myths because no one's been able to prove they exist.

Content: AU!Naruto-verse, AU!OOC!Naruto, Hidden!Uzumaki remnants, Technology differences.

Rating: T+ for non-explicit, referenced content.

Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishi. References to Stargate: Atlantis belong to MGM and NBC. Any other references belong to their respective owners as well. I only own my laptop and my copy of MS Word. See the foreword for the full disclaimer.

XxXxXxX

Key acronyms:

BKA – Before Kyuubi Attack: Using Naruto's birth and the attack as a baseline, dates before those two.

AKD – After Kyuubi Defeat: Same as before, using the attack and Naruto's birthday as a baseline, time after.

LST – Lantean Standard Time: AKA Zulu time or GMT.

XxXxXxX

Two thousand years ago sounds like a long time, however, that's how long it has been since great cities were commonplace and national superpowers ruled and protected their interests. It was a time of great innovation; life expectancies doubled as new medical technologies emerged like minuscule robots to repair innumerable ailments such as weakened blood vessels in the brain that would later become aneurysms or eliminate cancer cells. Asteroid mining became the new business investment as metals like iron and gold were mined relatively effortlessly with the use of drones causing prices to drop on items that used them. The first groups of colonists left for Earth-like planets using perfected stasis technology. However, this age of peace and innovation was not one destined to last. As with all humans, the desire for power is always there, for some it's greater than others. No one knows how it started exactly, but the world didn't end with a *bang*, but with balls of fire. Weapons so powerful that later generations would list them as the "Lances of the Gods" after the names of these weapons were lost to the sands of time. Governments, some more inept than others, prepared decades before then. They created massive bunkers near most major cities that would put the sheltered citizens into a long-term stasis until it was safe for them to reemerge decades if not centuries later.

However due to the long amounts of time in stasis, loss of power, and many other catastrophes inside these bunkers many were added to the long list of the dead. They had created massive repositories of knowledge both in major cities and smaller towns, knowledge that the reemerging humans could then use to try and rebuild society. Hopefully this time around with better results. Some of these repositories were found by humanity, the ones that did rebuild what they could in their limited numbers, while others roamed continents trying to rebuild.

Due to the fragile nature of the world, something was created unknowingly using lost technologies of genetic manipulation and nanotechnology. This sentient plant/animal hybrid became what was to be later called the Juubi. It bore a fruit that was imbued with a powerful energy that was absorbed during the planet's rebirth that all could feel. Many were drawn to it, attempting to take this power for themselves; in doing so, they all died. For some it was quick, for others it was agonizing. But one thing remained constant, they all failed to take the power for themselves. That is until a young woman approached it. With the sole purpose to end all wars with the power gained. A noble cause, if any. At first, that is what she did, she forced all sides into submission and forced them to serve her lest they incur her wrath.

An age of peace followed of a hundred of years, an age known as 'The age of the Rabbit Goddess.' In that time the woman fell in love and had twin sons named Hagaromo and Hamura. She lived amongst the humans of which she ruled for fifteen years before she became corrupted as she had a power that no one else had, save for her sons. As she used the Infinite Tsukuyomi to build an army of zombies to conquer the rest of the world, along with merging with the Shinju. For fifteen years her army of White Zetsus roamed the world, conquering all in their path. Her sons, appalled by her actions, rebelled and sealed their mother's chakra inside themselves and banished their mother's Shinju body inside the moon. The younger brother would guard her body while the older would spread his ideals of Ninshu to the rest of the populace in hopes that this new power would be used for peace, not war.

Hagaromo did not know that less than two generations later the humans would use the same power that he preached peace for the use of would be used for war yet again. Cities would be demolished and millions of lives lost, all because man could not control his greed. Eventually, the eldest brother vanished from the face of the earth. Some say he died of old age, others say he ascended to a higher plane of existence; to this day no one knows, but one thing is true, he is known widely for his god-like eyes and his misnomer of The Sage of the Six Paths. The time will come yet again when The Rabbit Goddess will be released once more.

XxXxXxX

60 BKA.

Waves broke in front of the battleship named Iron Sides. The steel hulled vessel closed in on an island no larger than twelve square kilometers.

"Captain, we are close enough to deploy Zodiacs," a crew member stated.

The captain drank from his mug of coffee and nodded, "Deploy recon teams. You know the drill."

"Aye, aye sir."

On the topside of the ship, a group of seven men and women gathered, waiting for their commanding officer for instructions. Finally, Lieutenant Sanders arrived. "Gentlemen and ladies," he said. They stood at attention, "At ease," he said and they all relaxed a bit, their weapons at parade rest. "We have been tasked with recon to see if this island would be a suitable landmass for our fleet to use. We know the drill: get in, search for inhabitants, get out. If there are any locals we avoid them and leave, if there aren't we report that we have some new property. You have five minutes to finalize your loadouts, copy?"

"Yes, lieutenant," they replied as one.

The lieutenant checked his own loadout which consisted of an older designed assault carbine, a semi-automatic sniper rifle, and a heavy pistol. Seeing that he was prepared with several magazines for each weapon as well as a bullet chambered, he stepped into the boat, his team following shortly after. He gave a hand signal to the crane operator who dropped the landing craft into the water. The driver pushed the acceleration lever forward and the boat rocketed off from its 'mother' ship.

Landing less than a minute later the occupants left the boat, weapons raised, scanning the environment. Barely audible sayings "Clear" were heard by each of the members. "Ramirez and Gleeson, stay here and guard our exfil," the lieutenant said, getting a nod from the two men. "You five are with me, keep your eyes peeled."

The slowly crept inside of the forest, ready for anything. An hour later the lieutenant saw lights just past the tree line. He held up a fist to signal them to stop, then for them to fan out. He reached up to his neck, tapping his radio, "Eyes open."

"Lt, it looks like we have a small village, how do you want to handle this?" the female member asked.

He looked and saw people wandering in the streets, celebrating some sort of festival. All around the town's square, there was a reoccurring symbol or insignia of an orange spiral. "Turn around and pack it up, we're heading back to the ship," he replied. Slowly the team started to backtrack towards their boat. "Ramirez, we've got a village and we're on our way back. Prepare for exfil." He got no response. "Ramirez, what's your twenty?" Again he got no response. "Gleeson?" No one responded. He changed the channel to the one used on the bridge, "Captain, Ramirez and Gleeson have gone dark."

Silence filled the radio for a few seconds. "Get out of there, they might have had a first contact situation. The location of Atlantis must remain a secret," the captain replied.

"Alright team, back to the boat. Double time," he said into the radio. They got up and ran towards their Zodiac at best speed.

A few minutes passed before the female of the group spoke up, "Sir, I've got movement on the motion tracker."

"Where?" the lieutenant asked.

She paused in disbelief. "All around us, sir," she replied slowly in shock. At once everyone raised their weapons and disengaged safeties, ready for whatever was to happen next. Almost if on cue by some god watching, twenty dark-clad people came down from the trees they had been perched on. All of them were wearing masks and brandishing various bladed weapons.

A silence filled the clearing around them as no one moved. Finally, the lieutenant spoke up, "Hello… gentlemen," he guessed as the newcomers' clothing did not reveal their gender. "How might we help you on this fine night?" he asked.

"You have been caught trespassing on Ushizo, state your intentions," the leader said, a female voice behind the mask.

The lieutenant put on his best pleasant face, "Oh, we were just in the neighborhood looking for a pal of ours." He then saw Gleeson being held by blade-point. "Look, there he is," he bluffed. "Isn't that right Corporal Gleeson?"

Gleeson looked beyond uncomfortable, especially with a blade against his throat. "Yeah. It's nice to see you again, sir," Gleeson said unconvincingly.

"You lie," the man holding Gleeson hostage said emotionlessly, holding the blade close enough to draw blood.

"Speak the truth or your man will perish," the female leader stated.

"Well, we were looking for him," the lieutenant replied honestly, his aim never straying from the woman's chest, his finger on the trigger. "Our orders were to scout out this area and if we found any locals we were to return. Looks we found locals, so if you'll let my men go we'll be on our way."

"We cannot do that, you were able to get through the whirlpools around the island."

"Well algorithms run by highly advanced computers tend to do that," the lieutenant cheekily replied, shrugging only slightly.

No one moved as they waited for the other the move first. The lieutenant knew that his men were outnumbered at least three to one. They had run-ins with ninja before, usually in non-combat scenarios where advance scouting teams posed as traveling merchants on the way home after a sale. He knew that they were fast, scarily fast to the extent they could move faster than the eye could process. They also had mystic abilities and attacks that used chakra to fuel them, an internal energy that the Fleet scientists had been unable to implement into their armed forces both naturally or artificially through the closest they'd gotten was cybernetic enhancements. Even though they were not fast enough to dodge magnetically accelerator assisted rounds propelled by gunpowder with obscenely high rounds per minute, they were outnumbered and outgunned.

"Perhaps we can end this standoff without unneeded bloodshed," an older male voice said, stepping out of the shadows.

"Wārupūru-sama (1)," the leader said, turning to her leader with a bow.

The lieutenant kept his aim on the woman while looking at the Kage out of the corner of his eye. He was older in appearance yet he could tell that his eyes told him that the Kage was MUCH older than he appeared. He was sort of heavy-set, but not too much, had red hair, and had a jolly smile that hid his intentions of retribution if the Fleet forces assaulted him or his shinobi. He wore robes with an ice blue trim with a hat that had the kanji for 'Whirlpool' on the front of it.

The Kage turned his attention to the lieutenant. "So you are from the Archipelago?"

"Depends on why you're asking," the lieutenant asked in return.

"The Archipelago has gone by many names such as the Archipelago of Steel, the Fleet in the Fog, and the Wanderers, haven't they?"

"Among a few others," the lieutenant shrugged. "What are you getting at?"

"We can benefit from an alliance with one another. Exchange technology with us and in return we'll provide several shinobi volunteers to live among your people to both train your children in the use of chakra but also them possibly intermarrying with your people, uniting our two nations. You provide assistance to us in our times of need and we'll return the favor in your times of need."

"We'll have to contact our superior officer who in turn needs to contact our ruling council for approval for such an alliance."

The Kage nodded in understanding, of course, these were soldiers following orders and had no say over what their nation decided. "That is acceptable. Please, don't take too long, though."

XxXxXxX

Twenty hours later. 0800 LST. Admiralty Council Chambers, Atlantis.

The ruling council of admirals, a combination of military dictatorship and democratically elected officials in which the officers and civilians elected a captain of their ship to become the leader of the battle group which would award the elected Admiral a place on the Admiralty Council. Candidates for election needed at least ten years of experience in commanding a vessel after becoming a commissioned officer. After having at least ten years under their belt they had to have some kind of experience in commanding other ships and forces before. Some fleets had more heated elections than others. Among the admirals on the Admiralty, one was selected amongst them to become Grand Admiral of the entire Archipelago. However, the requirements and process on how the other decided on who was a candidate for Grand Admiral was known to the public, though the choice was announced to the fleet and her citizens.

Inside the closed session of the Council chambers stood Sanders in his formal uniform, his cap under his arm as he stood at attention behind his Admiral, Admiral Octavian. Sanders had been airlifted via VTOL under the cover of night to return to Atlantis for an emergency Council meeting to discuss the proposal set forth by Kage of Whirlpool. Currently, the members of the council were arguing on how they should proceed. Some wished for absolute isolationism while others saw the opportunity set in front of them, that being that they were offered not only trained ninja who would train their soldiers in how to use chakra, but also the possibility of creating new families that would have a basis in both cultures. These new chakra-enhanced soldiers would be capable of using both the weapons of the Fleet, but also the mystic and destructive abilities different jutsu that chakra fueled. The only absolute downside would be restructuring the entire military education system once the children came of age and creating new tactics combining the two combat styles.

"How do we even know we can trust this ninja?" one Admiral asked, quite loudly.

They turned to Sanders. "Lieutenant Sanders was the only one to come into contact with Whirlpool's Kage and speak with him," the Grand Admiral stated, silencing the other members. The Grand Admiral turned his attention to Sanders. "Lieutenant Sanders, you and your scouting team are the only ones that came into contact with the Kage, what do you think of his character?"

The lieutenant stepped forward. "He seems like an honorable person and someone who would honor his deals. While I personally would rather deal with the samurai, as their code of honor would prevent them from turning on us so long as we held up our side of the deal, he seems like one of the most honorable ninja we will ever come across," Sanders reported.

The Grand Admiral 'hmm'ed in thought, his hands folded. "Thank you for your assessment."

"Admiral, you can't be serious, taking a junior officer's observations as truth?" another asked incredulously.

"And you haven't had contact with this ninja, he has," he chastised his colleague. "I put forth a motion to form an alliance with the ninja village of Ushizo for the trade of technology in return for trainers and plausible citizens. All in favor, say aye."

"Aye!" said a resounding majority of the council members.

"And those opposed?"

"Nay," three members replied.

"Then the motion carries," the Grand Admiral said as he slammed down his gavel making the decision final and ending the council meeting. Members filed out of the room mostly pleased with their decision, the three that disagreed displeased with their fellow admirals. As for the Grand Admiral, he had a public event to plan.

XxXxXxX

Ushizo, one week later. Outside the Ushizo Kage's office.

There was a reason why the Grand Admiral waited for a week to pass. The Admiral and the Kage of Ushizo were ironing out the final details of their agreement that would unite their two great civilizations. This had been done via the use of video equipment that bounced a signal from Atlantis to Whirlpool by relaying it from one local ship to another to help hide the location of any technology-minded ninja or samurai who wanted to know where they were.

The details that were ironed out were as such: Ushizo would send one hundred volunteers, of which they would be various levels of ninja that would both be able to teach children of various levels as well as integrate with the communities they would become a part of; and in return the Fleet would build a clandestine submarine base and deploy technologies for consumer consumption and other technologies to be researched by their scientists whose results would be shared with the Fleet. Hidden heavy weaponry was hidden on the island that would be operated by the local ninja forces and taught by the locally stationed Fleet forces.

A single Blackhawk helicopter flew over the island housing the 'capital' of Ushizo. It was fairly well hidden from prying eyes on the ground level, though the same could not be said for anyone using technology that allowed for imaging from extreme altitudes when you were intentionally looking for it. The occupants flew over the beautifully serene island that seemed to house a tropical climate based on the plant life that they could see. The helicopter landed on the roof of the Kage offices after circling a few times around the small city, the pilots scouting out threats before any could become an issue. When they had finally touched down the side door opened and the Grand Admiral, with his elite guard detail in tow in case something went horribly wrong, exited the vehicle and walked towards the waiting Kage and his guard detail and selected advisors beside him. The Blackhawk took off and flew back towards the carrier that brought them here in the first place.

The Fleet group stopped at arm's length from the Ushizo group and waited in a borderline uncomfortable silence. The Kage extended his hand forward and greeted, "Welcome Grand Admiral of the Fleet in the Fog to our humble village."

The Grand Admiral put his hand forward as well and shook the hand of the Kage. "And we thank you for your hospitality," he replied. He took a moment to look around at the view that the building gave of the village and heard what sounded like a crowd gathered around the front of the building if the chattering was anything to go by. "Well then, shall we get this show on the road?"

"So we should," the Kage replied. The two respective leaders of their great societies walked to the railing where the Admirals suspicions of them being above a crowd was confirmed. The Kage then announced in a resounding voice, "People of Ushizo, I present to you our new ally and friend with whom our great society will flourish with their continued support." The Admiral stepped forward and allowed the crowd below to see him. The crowd below cheered in excitement.

The Admiral then cleared his throat and announced with gusto, "I and my people look forward to working with you and living amongst you." Cheers from the mostly red-headed crowd drowned out any further possible speech that the Grand Admiral could have prepared.

XxXxXxX

Konoha. Ten minutes before Kyuubi attack.

If there was anything that Kushina Uzumaki knew, it was that she blamed her secret husband for all the pain he was putting her through at the moment; after all, childbirth without an epidural or anesthesia tends to be a painful experience. Why? She also blamed the Kyuubi for that. How come? After much experience and experimentation on her own, the Kyuubi's chakra would protect its host and filter out any harmful substances. She could never get hammered drunk, although she could get beyond buzzed when she did drink enough to kill several lesser men although it would never last long, and most poisons would become inert before they could cause significant damage to her body (2). That also meant that painkillers wouldn't work for her at all. After all, in a high enough dosage painkillers can kill you, shinobi or not.

One good thing did come about of being the host of Kyuubi, she had a 'friend' she could talk to. After much deliberations between the two of them, Kushina and the sealed demon formed a working relationship. One of which being that they would have a form of equivalent exchange, something that Kushina had learned about when she was young and back with the Fleet before she came here to Konoha in a part of an alliance deal with Konoha, although Ushizo didn't need it as they had the Fleet. For every minute that she drew upon the Kyuubi's power, she would have to allow the Kyuubi to control her body for that amount of time in return. The funny thing was for years all it ever did was binge eat and binge drink. There was a reason for that, though, being trapped inside a prison that was sensory deprived except for communicating with its host gave the Kyuubi a sense of longing for the outside world.

Another funny thing about the Kyuubi? It also took the form of a fox traited, anthropomorphic woman inside her mind with ears and a set of nine tails (3). What made that weird was that the Kyuubi was a spirit or physical manifestation of chakra and therefore genderless and sexless. When she was younger the Kyuubi explained to her the longer it was inside a host, the more it took on the host's physical and mental traits. For example, the red hair it had was a slightly lighter shade of red that the Uzumaki were well known for primarily due to the fact that the container before Kushina, Mito, was another Uzumaki. Its food cravings were because of both of its hosts were both gluttons for specific foods and somehow never gained a single kilo, despite the fact that both were shinobi and worked out on a daily basis; that amount should have forcefully retired both of them by weight gain alone.

As the Kyuubi took its bestial form of a fox, it also took many of its personality traits from that animal: being sly and tricky before pouncing. Once Kushina had turned thirteen the Kyuubi played a specific prank on her that would repeat on a constant basis. When she was at the Academy she had a few crushes on a few boys, one of which being her future husband, and she fantasized what their lives would be after becoming a ninja. That was as far as her fantasies went. However, once puberty kicked its ugly head her mind was filled with explicit images from the Kyuubi itself of hypothetical scenarios talked about by Mito to her husband as well as mental reenactments of things they actually did in their bedroom replacing Mito with Kushina and First Hokage replaced with whomever Kushina had a crush on at the time. When the Kyuubi decided to strike, it was always at random and always in public in plain view of her current crush. Eventually, Kushina got used to these fantasies and adapted accordingly as any other young woman would do in her situation. There was one conclusion that both the Kyuubi and Kushina plainly agreed on and that was that Mito was a very reserved person in public but a completely different, and kinky, person behind closed doors.

Wanting to mentally torture its container more, the Kyuubi decided to 'gift' Kushina a yearly present: the fox's mating season. Now at the time she had only started to date Minato, as in they were to have their first date mere days before her first 'heat' would arrive, she had only explored her own body when confronted with an urge or the Kyuubi's mental images every so often only with her hands. But when the absolute urge to mate with the closest man repeatedly until she became pregnant with his child, it hit her with the force of an out of control carrier smashing into a patrol boat. She had to use every bit of strength and mental capacity that wasn't pulling her towards the front door of her apartment in the upper class area of the village and forcefully make her way into her neighbor's apartment and let him have his way with her to lock herself into her own home using a combination of dense chakra metal locks that were already installed on the door and sealing arrays to reinforce windows, walls, and doors to keep her from escaping.

A week later she walked out of her home disheveled, tired, partially dehydrated, starved, sore, and reeking of sex. The first thing she did was make a trip down to the local bath for a long soak, followed by a trip to the furniture store to replace the things she had used as objects as a substitute for the male anatomy, and finally home to dispose of what she had destroyed and to clean and air out the apartment as it smelled like 'shame and embarrassment' to her (4). Due to a Kunoichi's status when it came to being a POW or captured as a prisoner, the village encouraged marrying early in life and producing children before they died an earlier death than what would be considered normal for a civilian under normal circumstances. That being said, once you became an official genin of Konoha you were allowed to drink alcohol and enter adult only areas that were off limits to civilians until they turned eighteen. One of those areas being the local sex shop. Kushina lost count of how much money she spent at that place over the years she had been cursed with 'It' to keep herself from going on some sort of nymphomaniac sex spree. It was safe to say by the time she did move in with Minato that she had a VERY sizable toy collection ranging from vanilla toys to fetish toys; that, and she had become a VIP customer getting a sizable discount. The only good thing about 'It' was that it made her sex life with Minato great when they did start having sex. It was funny now that she looked back on it when she thought she killed her love after the week long 'sexpalooza'. It would be a year later when her now baby would be conceived because of 'It', and she was both grateful for that and cursing it at the same time for obvious reasons.

Kushina cried out in pain as she felt another contraction. "I see the head," Biwako said calmly. "He's almost out."

"WELL, IT CERTAINLY DOESN'T FEEL LIKE IT!" Kushina shouted back.

Time seemed to pass like hours as Kushina's secret husband attempted to console her, to which she instinctively responded to his hand holding during a contraction by crushing his hand. Finally, it felt like the pressure was released from within her to which Biwako announced to the couple, "It's a boy!" Followed by a baby's cry. Biwako continued with her midwife duties and wrapped the newborn in a blanket after cleaning him off. She approached the new parents holding the newborn, but before she could hand the child over a spatial distortion opened behind her and before she could properly react she was stabbed through the heart, the sword used emerging from her front just centimeters above the newborn.

The sword was drawn back at an angle, causing Biwako to spin around to face her attacker. Between one blink and another the baby was in her hands one moment, and in her attacker's the next. Being within arm's reach she noticed something immediately about the man who attacked her. He stood relatively tall and wore a mask with a single eye hole with a flame pattern trailing from it. The feature she immediately noticed was the Sharingan eye behind that hole. Her lips started to move to say the word 'Uchiha', as that was the only clan that had that specific bloodline, but the masked man was one step ahead of her and slit her throat on a second swipe and her final words were lost in wet, bloody gurgles.

The man sheathed his sword before addressing the couple who now noticed that their ANBU guards were dead on the ground. "I do apologize for the mess, but if you'd be so kind I would like to take Uzumaki-san for a walk," the masked man said apathetically.

"Like hell," Minato replied, drawing one of his custom kunai blades.

The masked man then pulled out a kunai of his own and held it to the child's neck, close enough that he could easily end the infant's short existence but far enough away to not kill him. "It would be certainly too bad if your son's life ended just when it has just begun," he threatened.

Minato paused. It was only a split second, but it was long enough for the masked man to make his move. Instead of killing his son, the masked man created a space-time distortion and vanished inside of it. Minato looked at his wife who nodded and said, "Go." Minato then performed a specific jutsu only known to every elected Hokage: Sense Presence in Village. What the technique did was simple, it sensed the presence of every being inside the village and allowed a Hokage, Minato in this instance, to find any specific person he was looking for. He found the presence of the assailant as well as his son outside of the village's wall boundary. A thing that Minato noted immediately was that the man both seemed both familiar and not at the same time, and that disturbed him. Minato then vanished in the yellow flash of his signature technique Hiraishin leaving Kushina alone in the formerly secret cave.

Kushina knew she was weak at the moment, after all, there hasn't been a mother that she knew of that would bounce back from giving birth almost immediately. She knew that her friend Mikoto was back to her old self, with a baby in her arms, the next day after she had her son Sasuke. She both beat herself up for letting her son get taken and letting her husband face this unknown entity but at the same time she didn't blame herself. There was another problem, however, the Kyuubi was getting restless for some unknown reason and was pressing against the original seal that imprisoned it inside of her. She was so focused on keeping the seal steady with the sealing arts that she learned from her parents and grandparents before her that she didn't even notice another presence in the room, or that the presence was about to knock her out. The Kyuubi shrieked out a warning, but Kushina was too late to react and the next thing she saw was the inky blackness of unconsciousness.

XxXxXxX

Field outside of Konoha...

Minato fought with the unknown man longer than he wanted. The first reason was that he was forced to use precision jutsu instead of ones that would completely obliterate his enemy because his enemy was currently holding on to his son. Every time he would use a ranged jutsu or throw kunai at him, he would dodge before they could hit. Every time he attempted to get in close the man would use his son as a human shield, forcing Minato to back off followed by him getting kicked away by his enemy. The more that Minato fought him, the more that he believed that he had faced this man once before, once upon a time, but he couldn't for the life of him figure out where or when that might have happened. There was also something wrong with the man himself, it was like he wasn't actually him.

Then the course of the battle shifted, and by shifted see 'stopped'. Minato's enemy stopped as the air in the night changed from a relatively calm one to an outright oppressive one. It was though a great evil had been unleashed. The unknown man then looked at his bare sleeve as though he were looking at a watch, "Would you look at the time, the party's just about to begin."

Before Minato could even begin to ask what the man had meant, he exploded in a cloud of white smoke; the same kind that Shadow Clones made when they were dispelled. It dawned on Minato that this entire time he had been fighting a Shadow Clone while the real masked man had been off doing Kami knows what. He dashed forward and gently caught his son in his arms. He looked down at his son and was astonished to see that his newborn son was sleeping away as if nothing was wrong despite the fact that there had been two people fighting. Minato then connected the dots: the masked man lured him away by threatening his son, they fought, and after an evil presence had been unleashed the man then disappeared. His eyes widened in shock as he said, "Kushina."

XxXxXxX

The 'secret' cave. Minutes after resealing of the Kyuubi.

Kushina knew that one thing was certain in the next few minutes: she was going to die. Her husband had already passed on to be digested for an eternity in the Shinigami's stomach in return for devouring the Yin half of the Kyuubi's chakra. She would never get to see her little boy grow up. She would never get to see her boy off to his first day of the Ninja Academy. She would never be able to guide him through his first crush. Dance with him at his wedding in the tradition that the Fleets culture came from. Spoil his children rotten. For having to miss these golden opportunities that she wanted to have with her son she silently wept. After all, she wanted her son to see her not go whimpering into death, assuming he would even remember this at all.

She was quickly bleeding out, but then again that tends to happen when you get the claw of a massive, borderline immortal being through your torso. How she was holding on this long, she did not know. Tenacity perhaps? She didn't know but she appreciated that she was at least able to spend her last minutes on this planet with her son. She was so engrossed with enjoying this moment while it lasted that she didn't notice Hiruzen Sarutobi appearing near her wearing his full combat armor.

He observed the room and saw his successor's body laying lifeless on the ground near his wife. He also saw Biwako's body lying on the ground further away, he didn't need a doctor to tell him that his wife had long since passed on to the Pure World. He made sure to note that he would need to plan her funeral, something that he hoped that he would never have to plan as he hoped she would outlive him. He looked back to Kushina's downed form and saw that she was barely moving.

He quickly made his way over to her and knelt beside her. "Kushina, what happened?" he asked.

Kushina looked up to her husband's predecessor with tear filled eyes. "A masked man attacked us after Naruto was born and took him, hostage. He killed Biwako before taking Naruto away, leading Minato on and leaving me here. But it was all a ruse," she lamented weakly. "I was snatched and the Kyuubi was released, as you might have noticed. Minato rushed back and lured it back here." Kushina paused for a moment, using a grimace to hide it, considering if she should reveal what they really did. She couldn't entirely trust Hiruzen, even though she saw him as a grandfatherly figure who would more than likely put the needs of the village first rather than her son. She then made her decision and continued, "Minato used the Shinigami's Seal on himself, completely absorbing the Kyuubi into himself while I held it in place with my Chakra Chains."

Hiruzen sighed. "So the Nine-Tails is forever gone?" he asked.

"As far as we know, yes." Kushina then coughed up a fairly concerning amount of blood. "Sarutobi-sama, I know that I am dying, containers that have had their tenant removed don't live long after it is extracted. I would like to ask you one final request."

"Anything," Hiruzen replied.

"I don't want my little Naruto to grow up an orphan, I want him to be taken to his family to grow up in a loving environment."

"Family? Minato was the only child in his family and his parents have been long dead, and the Uzumaki were destroyed when Ushizo was destroyed."

"That's what we wanted everyone to think," Kushina revealed with a knowing smirk, the kind she would have immediately after performing one of her infamous pranks on an unknowing target.

His eyes widened in surprise, "Then you mean-?"

"I would like that to still remain our little secret," she said before coughing up more blood. "There is a device on my dresser. Open it and type, 'another day passes on the sea and now I come back to thee.' Someone will answer. Follow their instructions to the letter. They'll make sure my little Naruto grows up right."

Sarutobi sighed and lamented the loss that the young Namikaze heir could provide for the village, but he would honor a friend and ally's last request. He was a man of honor after all. "Of course."

"Thank you," she said weakly, feeling that her end was nigh. She looked towards her sleeping son once more. "Grow strong, Naru-chan. No matter what you do your father and I will always love you and be proud of your accomplishments," she whispered in his ear before kissing him on the forehead. Black started to fill her field of vision as it slowly crept in.

It was strange, dying that is. There are multiple interpretations of what someone sees in their last moments. For some it's the largest high they'll ever get. For some they relive their entire lives in fast forward, pausing on the best and worst moments of their lives. For Kushina, however, she saw a possible future that she and her family could have had. Having a few more children, twin girls and another boy, all living together in relative peace (5). Minato going off to war only to return the next day ending the conflict with minimal bloodshed on both sides. Her watching each of her children up at the altar or at a shrine to exchange wedding vows with their destined ones, and being 'glomped' by her grandchildren when she came to visit her children. She would never get to experience this in real life, but she would at least be able to dream about it. And then Kushina drifted off into oblivion one last, and final time.

Hiruzen, who now held the infant after Kushina's grip had lessened on the child, felt That child shift and begin to cry feeling the presence of his mother no longer there, when in reality the infant felt his mother's life end, though he wouldn't know that for years to come. Hiruzen comforted the child as best he could, after all, it had been years since he had last held an infant.

He then left the cooling corpses of his countrymen to fulfill Kushina's final wish. As Hiruzen vanished from sight in a puff of smoke, another appeared in the cave wearing a completely blank ANBU styled mask wielding a needle as it approached both bodies of the now ex-Hokage and his secret wife (6).

XxXxXxX

Hi no Kuni coastline, abandoned coastal village. 12 hours later.

Hiruzen traveled to the abandoned coastal village that sat on the opposite side of the deserted and abandoned Ushizo, the island of which he could just see barely on the horizon. This small fishing and trade stop village had been around since the founding of Konoha and was a primary jumping point to gain entry to Ushizo. It had been a very prosperous village that saw many businesses catering to many needs like food, lodging, marine supplies, a prestigious red light district, and other general supply stores. It had been abandoned shortly after the fall of Ushizo due to the fact that the Whirlpool Navy had been the ones responsible for protecting the coastal village from pirates and raiders on the sea while samurai loyal to the Fire Daimyo or locally garrisoned Leaf ninja would take care of any land based raiders that would come their way. Shortly after the Fall of Ushizo pirates attacked in mass and any locals were forced to move inland to other towns or villages where a more established military or militia force could protect them. The once prosperous village was now a ghost town where if one was attuned to spirits you could see what life was like many years ago. Many belongings that were considered trash to the pirates and raiders were left in scattered messes.

Hiruzen, holding a bundled up Naruto, walked into the abandoned village with his long time friend Enma beside him as potential combat support as he would only be able to use one hand if it came to a fight, clad in a hooded cloak. Back in Konoha, he had left a Shadow Clone in his place to take care of any arrangements for the funerals for Minato, Kushina, the ninja, and civilians that had perished in the fight against the Kyuubi. He had been, unfortunately, drawn back into the position of Hokage until he or the Council of Shinobi Clans nominated a suitable replacement for Minato. He sighed as he knew that it may be a while before that happened after all, Minato was a beloved leader for the short time he was in the office as well as a war hero that many of the younger generation looked up to.

Hiruzen finally arrived at the meeting point at one of the old warehouses at the end of one of the many deserted docks. As he stood there he saw no one, though he felt as though many eyes were upon him. He closed his eyes and sent out a chakra pulse, something that many Sensor ninja knew how to do in one way, shape, or form in order to detect a possible enemy. When he opened them after not sensing anyone, he saw a male figure wearing a very peculiar set of what he identified as armor. He wore a type of body suit that hid any potentially identifiable markings or physical traits. On top of that was a type of chest armor made of an unknown material that was covered in different pouches that contained different types of equipment that he couldn't quite identify. The man also wore gloves and a helmet that glowed with a blue light, inside of which looked like a honeycombed pattern. He saw a knife of an unknown type sheathed on the man's chest next to one of the many pouches. There was also a weapon in a holster on the man's thigh as well as a much longer one that he held in his hand which was pointed towards the ground (7). Enma tensed up but did not act as they weren't actually attacked.

"Hiruzen Sarutobi?" the man asked, his voice distorted slightly.

"I am. And you are?" Hiruzen asked in return in an attempt to gain any information.

"My name in unimportant; what is, however, is that the child is safe and unharmed."

Hiruzen then moved slowly, allowing the cloak that covered both him and Naruto to fall away from the sleeping infant. The man nodded towards an unseen ally and a female figure dressed in similar attire appeared next to him without a sound and hovered her hand over Naruto as a small light shined over the child. She then looked back to the man and nodded. "As you can see, young Naruto is unharmed physically."

"That we can. Abnormalities, lieutenant?" he asked the woman.

"None, sir," she replied with the same voice scrambler, although she seemed unsure.

"Good." He then turned back to Hiruzen. "Please hand Kushina's child over to the lieutenant."

Hiruzen complied with the unknown man and woman and handed Naruto over gently to the woman who cradled him. "If I may ask, who are you?"

"We're no one, just ghosts in the mist," the man replied as an unnatural fog appeared around them. When it rolled away a few seconds later the two figures were gone with Naruto and the eyes that he had felt watching him were gone as well.

That would be the last time Hiruzen would see of Naruto for over a decade.

XxXxXxX

Atlantis, two hours later.

It had been a short trip to Atlantis after the submarine that had transported Wraith squad to the shores of Hi no Kuni to extract the last Uzumaki child left inside of Konoha. The Admiralty had been kept in the loop about the affairs of Konoha and the outside world as a whole through the use of deep cover spies in every major civilian capital city and every ninja village that contained a potential threat. Through the use of this spy network, the people of the Fleet were able to keep up to date on all international affairs that occurred after the supposed destruction of Ushizo. After the destruction, it became harder to aging intelligence freely and openly as the ninja of Ushizo traded information to them in return for other goods or services. After hearing about the death of Kushina many who knew her in her childhood, as well as close family, mourned her death.

Captain Welker, the squad leader, had been debriefed shortly after arriving at home. The lieutenant, on the other hand, walked towards the family quarters of Kushina's second cousin and his wife. The man and his wife had been married for several years and had zero luck in conceiving any children of their own. They were around the same age as Kushina, a few years older, and before they had been found after one of the evacuation rafts had gotten caught in a bad current and was carried away. Well the husband that is, he found his future wife and best friend while wandering near Water Country near the end of the Second Shinobi War. The wife had been unknowingly wandering through irradiated lands that were once an area that a power plant once stood. They were all found a year later and brought to Atlantis. She had later found that she wound the able to carry and children to term fearing that they would miscarry at some point. The wife had been understandably depressed. The lieutenant intended to make someone's day.

The lieutenant walked up to the locked door and rang the doorbell. A minute passed before she attempted it again. No one came so she started pressing the doorbell repeatedly until someone finally did come to the door. She was about to press the doorbell again but the door slid open just enough for the lieutenant to see a woman's face, mostly just a part of it as the rest was hidden by both the rest of the door and the door jamb. The lieutenant could see the woman's half lidded orange eye peering at her in more passive annoyance rather than anything else, a few strands of her blue hair sticking out as it looked like she had just gotten up regardless of the fact that it was almost noon.

"Nami? What are you doing here?" she asked in a very subdued, depressed sounding voice.

"I came by to say hi, that and I wanted you to meet someone," Nami replied.

"Who?"

Nami stepped forward and allowed the woman to see the bundle in her arms. "Do you remember Kushina Uzumaki?"

"The so-called 'Mistress of Pranks'?"

"The same."

"And?"

"This little guy is Kushina's son."

The door opened wider, revealing the rest of the woman's face. The only notable difference was that she looked unnaturally pale as if she hadn't gone out into the sun in a few months, outside of the winter months that is, and that she had bags under her eyes from not getting enough sleep. "Where's Kushina then? If you're going around showing me my second nephew, where is my husband's cousin?"

"Konan," Nami started, making sure to choose her words carefully, "Kushina is no longer with us."

"She's dead?" Konan asked solemnly.

"Yes, and this little guy was her son." Konan looked over at the little infant and saw several features that Kushina had when she last saw her years ago before she went off to Konoha for an alliance deal between Ushizo and Konoha. She remembered getting into all sorts of trouble with Kushina by proxy as her cousin would drag her into them. Nami continued, bringing Konan out of her reminiscence, "And I was wondering if you would like to look after little Naruto here."

"Me?" she asked in shock. "Why me?"

Nami sighed, "I know that you want the chance to raise a child as your own and before I brought Naruto to the orphanage I figured I would approach you first." She then took a step forward, "Do you want to hold him?"

Konan nodded and gently took the infant in her arms. As the baby settled in her arms it cuddled into her side, and for whatever reason to Konan, it just felt… right. As Naruto yawned cutely before settling back into a deep sleep she felt a genuine smile tug at the corner of her mouth for the first time in a few years. 'Maybe this could work,' she thought to herself.

Konan was knocked out of her current train of thought by footsteps approaching from behind her. "Sweetheart, who's at the door? You've been over there for-," it was then he noticed his wife's friend and greeted her. "Nami, I'm glad to see you're back from whatever retrieval mission you were assigned to. How'd that go, by the way?" the red-haired man asked, his long bangs covering his eyes suggesting that he had been taking a nap or something similar.

"It went well," Nami replied. "We managed to bring that little guy home," she said as she gestured to the infant in Konan's arms. "But we lost one of our own."

"The team was ambushed?" he asked.

Nami shook her head. "No, everyone made it back in one piece. The baby your wife is holding, his name is Naruto and his mother was Kushina," she revealed.

"Kushina is-?"

"She's passed on. She is survived by her son, her husband perished as well otherwise she wouldn't have had the Hokage trigger the extraction beacon."

The man sighed. "This will sadden her family and friends here. She was loved by many."

"Indeed she was," Nami agreed.

"What will happen to her son?"

"That is something that I was hoping you could help me with. I was on my way to the infirmary to have him checked up on by a pediatrician. Something about his chakra seemed off when I did a medical field inspection."

"Odd? How so?" he inquired.

"It was just… odd," she said in the lack of a better term. "It felt as though he already had a chakra system already in motion, but that should be impossible for an infant. Of he was two or three years old I could believe it with no issues because it's happened before, but an infant developing one so soon after birth?"

"That certainly is odd," he said while rubbing his chin in thought. "May I take a look?"

Nami shrugged. "I'd rather have a medical professional take a look, but a second set of eyes wouldn't hurt any. Be my guest."

The man stepped in front of his wife and if one were to look carefully they would see the man's pupils focus slightly while still keeping a fairly relaxed demeanor. It only took a moment for him to shift from relaxed to surprised and horrified. "Nagato, what's wrong?" Konan asked.

"I know why his chakra felt off." He paused as if for some unseen watcher for dramatic effect, "He has the chakra of one of the chakra beasts sealed inside him."

"But that can't be," Nami stated in shock. "The last known jinchuriki was Kushina and-." She then remembered the report given by one of their roaming spies. "An agent reported that some civilians said that a nine tailed demons fox was spotted terrorizing Konoha. But that should be impossible, right? She had total control over it through the use of a master level sealing array originally developed by Mito Uzumaki herself."

"Unless the seal was broken by an outside variable," Nagato replied. "If that is the case, then the question becomes for what reason? There are some villages that do have jinchuriki as living weapons in reserve in the case of an invasion by a foreign entity, but both Mito and eventually Kushina kept it a secret where only the Hokage, her husband, and a few very close friends even knew."

"Is there any way to know who these friends were?" Konan asked.

"We would have to ask someone higher up that her reports got sent to for review before being archived," Nami replied.

"That is something that we'll have to figure out later," Nagato stated. "But back to the topic at hand."

"Agreed. What we need to be focused on at the moment is taking care of Naruto. Speaking of which-?"

"We will take the boy and raise him as our own," Konan finished.

"Very well. I will go get the paperwork to make it official," Nami said as she left the couple with their new child.

XxXxXxX

Sixteen years later (16 AKD). Fleet carrier Pathfinder. 10 miles offshore from the Land of Waves.

A gathering of seven people stood around a table in the center of a briefing room wearing BDUs that were all color coordinated in bland black and held helmets under their arms. The only outlier was the older man dressed in a uniform that was colored in shades of blue digital camouflage and matching hat with the insignia of a captain proudly displayed on his uniform. He held in his hands a datapad, a commonly used device by both military and civilian personnel alike. He tapped a few icons on his screen and the table in the middle of them all came to life displaying a holographic topographic map which shifted into a three-dimensional map with scaled elevations.

"Congratulations, SRS class of 516 on your getting this far into the Special Recon Service program. Many before you have attempted to get as far as you all have and have failed in one way, shape, or form. Many of your fellow classmates and friends who you started with are no longer here, but you are. You should be proud of making it this far as the graduation rate is always under ten percent; however, you do have one final test," he spoke with pride. He then tapped a few more keys and the world map zoomed into what the locals called 'the Elemental Continent'. "We have been tracking the business conglomerate owned by a man known as Gato called Gato Shipping Corporation."

"Sir? Why are we concerning ourselves with this?" a young woman asked.

"Under normal circumstances, we would allow this to play out without interference, however, Gato and his cronies have found something new: old world tech." He tapped a few more buttons and an image of an old aircraft carrier was displayed. "From our intelligence department, we've determined someone in Gato's employ found the wreck of an old carrier. As manifests from that time were destroyed in the servers they were stored on, we can only speculate what they could have found. If we're lucky nothing, if we aren't then there's a chance a Mark VI was on board, which would devastate the entire continent for decades." He tapped more keys and the image disappeared and several red lights appeared on the map, all around coastal cities and towns, one town was starred near the Land of Water. "Gato Shipping Industries started around thirty years ago in a small town in the Land of Water that was then a poor fishing village by Gato with only one small schooner sized ship. After two years of legitimate and clean business tactics earning only slightly above breaking even, he shifted to scrupulous tactics involving corporate espionage, blackmail, and sabotage. It was only after gaining enough capital did he buy the majority stock in a mercenary band, capitalizing on the Third Ninja War to acquire recruits from either side. He then pulled a Zuckerberg and cut out the remaining shareholders, literally; from then on he had his own personal army.

"Using the skills he gained by manipulating enemies and enemy corporations into either bowing to him or selling out to him with a private army at his back he has been slowly taking over coastal towns and ports that could have a major impact on world trade as a whole. His current exports are drugs both natural and synthetic, slavery disguised as indentured servitude, sex slavery, and weapons trading. Dozens of villages and hundreds of people are under his iron fist that is enforced by his private army. We have received word that he is moving to kill a bridge builder who is intending to go against him on his own uncompleted bridge in person. Your objective is to interrogate him as to what they found before killing him. Are we clear?"

"Aye, captain," they replied in unison.

He then turned to the lone Staff Sergeant in the room. "Sergeant, you are in command on this mission."

"Aye, captain," he replied.

"Good. Gear up and move out."

XxXxXxX

Land of Waves, unfinished bridge. Hours later.

Kakashi was not having the greatest week of his life. Was it the worst? Not by a long shot. But the worst this year? Definitely. The top two days for that position were the days he found out about his sensei's death after defeating the Kyuubi and the second was the day he was forced to kill Rin, the woman he loved. The events this week definitely didn't take the cake. Said events being his 'cute little genin' getting him a very dangerous escort-turned-bodyguard mission which saw him fighting the Bloody Demon of the Mist, a misnomer for Zabuza Momochi and getting knocked out physically for close to a week after using his Sharingan eye to ensure both his and his genins' survival. He then had to teach them some skills that they should have learned back inside the Academy.

Speaking of the Academy, many things had changed since he had graduated years ago. The first had been a push by both the Hokage, civilian council, and shinobi clans to increase the minimum age that one could graduate from the Academy outside of times of war as there was no need for children who should enjoy what little innocence they have before they actually decide to become shinobi for the village. That age restriction was age fifteen for especially talented and gifted students, however, the restriction was for sixteen otherwise. This allowed the students to figure out what they wanted to do as a specialty. Both sides had their valid arguments, first was that they weren't in a war and better-trained shinobi would have a higher chance of survival if a war would break out rather than half-trained children; that and they would be more competent against surprisingly competent bandits. Some of the obvious downsides would be fewer amounts of shinobi forces during certain points, especially after they Kyuubi incident. Some wanted to bloat the forces to emphasize their power regardless of the fact they would be poorly or barely trained. Luckily reason won out and an amendment was made to remove the restriction if, for whatever reason, they went to war once more.

Right now Kakashi was in quite the pickle. He was cut off from two of his students that were fighting Zabuza's companion who used a particular bloodline to use the combination of wind and water chakra natures to create an ice-based set of techniques. He was worried about the two of them facing the androgynous companion. After all, if he went to go help them then he would be leaving his final student, Sakura alone to defend against Zabuza while trying to keep the bridge builder Tazuna safe. And while she was no pushover and wasn't as pathetic as she had been before becoming his students and was exceptionally skilled in healing, she would be no match for an A ranked shinobi like Zabuza. He was literally caught between a rock and a hard place where he was damned no matter what choice he made.

He could see out of the corner of his eye his struggling students. He had to end this quickly, but how? There was the Chidori, but that was risky because of the time required to power it up to its 'unstoppable' state where only the highest quality chakra metal blades would be able to stop it. Kakashi summoned a horde of hounds that attached themselves via jaw to the Mist ninja and followed up by making the three hand signs and started his technique. He felt the electrical discharge that the jutsu gave off. Zabuza prepared himself as he placed his Executioner's Blade placed in a defensive stance. Kakashi then focused his chakra into his legs and charged at Zabuza at a high speed and extended his arm outward to impale his chest with the lethal jutsu. Kakashi was outright shocked when he hit his target because his hand wasn't inside of Zabuza's chest but in the chest of his companion.

"What?" Kakashi said in confusion.

Kakashi wasn't the only once shocked, Zabuza was too. "Haku?" Zabuza asked in shock.

The androgynous ninja coughed up some blood before turning to Zabuza with a smile. "Thank you for allowing me to be useful to you, Zabuza-sama," Haku said as Kakashi's hand was removed and she fell to the ground with an oddly serene smile. How did Kakashi know Zabuza's student was a girl? It was sort of hard to ignore the breasts on either side of his hand.

Zabuza didn't know what to feel. He had trained his student to be a tool to be used and therefore distanced himself from his student, however, he had grown attached to his student. Their relationship had evolved past teacher and student, perhaps they were becoming friends? After all, they were both products of the Mist's Blood Purge, although he got out before he was forced to commit the atrocities that the current Mizukage wanted him and many others to commit against the civilians. He did, for a time, follow those orders on the shinobi as 'good soldiers followed orders', but for some of his comrades they would take it too far, especially with the children of bloodlines that the Third considered 'dangerous', and would torture the kids that literally did nothing wrong, and in some cases doing more to the girls before they ended their suffering; Zabuza considered himself a 'good person' in this regard, at least he would make their suffering as minimal as he could. Not long after his eyes were opened and he went AWOL before becoming a nukenin for hire. Even in his mercenary work, he would dispatch targets as quickly as possible as that was the least they deserved. Then he found Haku and the brat just stuck to him and eventually he got used to the brat's presence to the point where he trained her (8).

Losing his concentration, the mist that he had created started to clear away revealing a short, portly man approaching surrounded by at least a hundred ronin and other mercenary types who were only a threat to a ninja of any caliber if they were in a large group. "Gato, what is the meaning of this?" Zabuza asked with a slight hollowness.

"You know, I got around to thinking, Mr. Demon of the Mist and do you know what? I realized something. Why should I pay for a ninja who can't even complete a single job? A job that you said that you would do for an exorbitant price and would be able to complete it in short order. So I came up with a solution, a brilliant one might I add. I allow you, ninja, to fight each other to the point where you're both weakened, then I send my private army in, who is already on my payroll and aren't being paid extra, to clean you all up. Brilliant!" he exclaimed in glee at his own grandstanding. "Best of all? I can have the boys rough up those pretty girls there enough to be easily carried away and used as good little sluts who will spend the rest of their lives pleasing me and so many more clients with their 'talents'," he concluded with a demented smile. "Oh, and I haven't forgotten about your pretty daughter, Mr. Bridge Builder."

Kakashi knew he was in trouble. Sakura wasn't a hand to hand specialist, although she could fight she specialized in medic based skills. Both Sasuke and his other student were knocked out but were still breathing; whatever Haku did to them allowed them to stay alive regardless of the sheer amount of needles sticking out of them. He could take a few dozen of Gato's army and if he and Zabuza agreed not to kill each other they might be able to make it through, albeit battered and beaten. Even then that was no guarantee that they would make it out even.

And as if by some sheer twist of fate, and by some silent deity listening in, his 'prayer' was answered in a series of loud, controlled explosions behind him, as if Raijin himself were intervening. He looked at Gato's men and saw they were dropping like flies, their bodies filled with holes. Kakashi turned to see a group of six individuals dressed all in black holding the weapons that were causing the sheer devastation in front of him spitting fire and metal bits that he would be hard pressed to dodge if he weren't in an exhausted state.

XxXxXxX

Ten minutes prior, trees on the edge of the bridge's road behind Kakashi and co.

The Sargent looked through his AR HUD watching the feed from the small airborne drone that was currently cycled to the infrared setting. The little tri-rotor drone silently drifted a hundred meters above the battlefield that was an unfinished bridge, the fog hiding it. The drone's eye zoomed in on a watercraft, a yacht-sized vessel, docking at the bottom of the unfinished bridge directly below where the two ninja forces were fighting on. The soldier watched as several heated blobs in the shape of people walked off the boat headed by an extremely short blob.

"Command, this is Reaper Actual. HVT and friends have entered the AO," he reported.

"Copy Actual, you have permission to engage hostiles," the captain replied over the radio.

The entire six-man squad stood up and readied their weapons. "Copy, over and out." The Sergeant then turned to his team. "ROE is as such: take down Gato's guards with extreme prejudice as they are some of the largest piles of scum on the coast and the capture and interrogation of Gato. If he does not comply we take him back to the carrier to be interrogated further, if he does comply immediately we relay the intelligence to the fleet."

"And the ninja?" his second in command asked.

"Retaliatory action only. Try to keep them out of your line of fire." He then checked his own automatic rifle, a modified M8 carbine with a linked tracking sight and an extended magazine and flashed the safety from 'safe' to 'burst' and checked the revolver in his chest holster loaded with magnum 'smart' rounds. "Stack up." They slowly walked towards the ninja and opportunistic Gato so their sound canceling soles would allow his team to get into an optimal position.

As they walked silently they passed by a small arena, if you could call it that, that was riddled with senbon needles all over the place. The Sargent saw two people laying on the ground and according to his HUD, they were still breathing even though they were impaled by numerous needles. The one in a blue shirt had the fan symbol of the Uchiha, so it was safe to say that he was Sasuke Uchiha, the last Uchiha in Konoha; as for the other, something was familiar, yet foreign about her. She had red hair with yellow highlights running through it. Red hair, specifically the shade dubbed 'Uzumaki red', in the Elemental Nations was an uncommon genetic trait that was extremely common in pre-war Ushizo and now the Fleet. And if they were to be asked, they were not to be confused with gingers. There were 'dirty' redheads like the rebel Mei whose hair was more brown than red but it was possible an ancestor of hers was an Uzumaki. But there was something about this 'sunrise' headed girl that he felt… kinship with, somehow. But that was something to ponder later, he had a mission to complete.

The group approached behind the currently quiet ninja who was listening to the ranting Gato that hadn't noticed their approach regardless of the fact that the mist jutsu that Zabuza was famed for using had already dispelled. He took aim, to which his comrades followed, and waited for the opportune moment.

"Oh, and I haven't forgotten about your pretty daughter, Mr. Bridge Builder," Gato ranted on, still oblivious to their presence.

"Pick your targets and fire at will on my mark," the Sergeant ordered as he lined up his first kill. His comrades raised their weapons as well, aiming at the mercenaries. Green dots appeared next to the last names of the members of his squad on his HUD as they silently reported they were ready to engage; all they were waiting on was their superior's command. He placed his finger on the trigger and said over the radio, "Fire."

Immediately all six members opened fire on the mercenaries as one death spewing entity. The LMGs spitting a constant stream of FMJ bullets into Gato's men. Their shoddy armor made of either bronze or low-grade iron turned into Swiss cheese and the ones who chose not to wear armor? Like slicing a hot knife through butter. Or another analogy would be attempting to kill a barrel of fish with a Minigun. Messy. The LMGs fired constantly from their drum magazine filled with three hundred caseless rounds while those with rifles manually used bursts or if their rifle had it an actual burst mode. To the team, their sound canceling helmets automatically filtered out the thunderous gunfire using tech that had been around for years making it sound like muffled thunder from miles away. But for the unfortunate ninja outside it was like being right next to a thunderstorm in terms of sound loudness (10). For the pink-haired girl that was just outside the Sergeant's peripheral vision was covering her ears.

The six slowly walked forward as they each acquired targets. Half of them tried to charge the six, but were swiftly cut down, rounds that passed through their bodies impacting those immediately behind them; the other half tried to run away but realized that they were on the end of an unfinished bridge. The mercenaries watched in horror as their colleagues fell to the newcomers' weapons and there wasn't anything they could do to stop it. Brass fell from the case based munition weapons that clinked and chimed against the metal bridge as they fell. Between the six squad members, almost a thousand rounds of munitions were fired in the short amount of time they had started the engagement. Finally, all that remained was Gato and the gunfire stopped.

"Check the rest of them," the Sergeant ordered. He noticed the downed ally of Zabuza and motioned, "Corpsman, triage." The corpsman nodded and moved towards the downed female, he knelt down and started to tend to the woman, Kakashi, Zabuza, and Sakura watching his movements closely. The Sergeant on the other hand slowly walked towards the cowering Gato whose leg was currently trapped under one of his felled henchmen. The Sergeant walked slowly towards Gato and drew his revolver.

Gato, seeing the smaller version of the weapon that killed his men, he started to blubber in fear, "Please don't kill me! I'll give you anything! Money, power, women!" Seeing as the Sergeant didn't respond he added, "Men?" (9)

The Sergeant squatted down next to the trapped man. "Good, you're willing to negotiate. Tell me, what did you find on the shipwreck?" he asked.

His eyes widened. "What shipwreck?" he tried to lie. After all, they had found much, much that would bring him closer to being the strongest non-ninja in the entire world.

The Sergeant saw through his lie and pointed his revolver at Gato's knee and pulled the trigger. The gunshot was loud for an individual round, even louder than a standard 5.56 round. Gato shrieked out in pain as the round decimated his knee. "I won't tolerate another lie, that was your only chance. Tell me what you found," the Sergeant said as he pressed the revolver into the man's forehead, the still hot barrel searing Gato's skin. "If you lie again you die, if you tell the truth, I'll let you go."

"Alright! Alright, I'll tell you," Gato relented without even taking a moment to think. "We found weapons and other highly technological creations."

"And where are they now?"

"One of my warehouses." The Sergeant cocked his head to the side as if saying, 'go on'. "It's here in my warehouse at the docks."

"That wasn't so hard, was it?" the Sergeant said in a sickly sweet tone as he stood up and withdrew his revolver to his side, still keeping it in his hand. He turned to one of his comrades who just shot a mercenary who was attempting to play dead. "Call it in to Command."

"Yes, sir," she replied. She held her free hand to her helmet's earpiece, "Command, this is Hunter 3."

"So you'll let me go free?" Gato asked with an innocent look, meanwhile, in his mind, he was plotting how he was going to kill each of these six mystery soldiers as well as the Konoha ninja and Zabuza.

"I always honor my promises," the Sergeant said darkly.

Gato smiled before realizing that the man's weapon was now pointed at his head once more. "Wait! What are you doing!?"

"I said you were free to go. I just never said that you would leave here alive. Next time, make sure to get your deals both in writing and make sure they're extremely specific. Maybe you'll remember that in your next life, if you believe in that kind of thing." The Sergeant pulled back the hammer on his revolver before taking aim at Gato's head, the 'smart' round locking onto the center of his forehead.

"Wait! No!" he was only able to cry out before the loud bang was heard once more and the magnum round found its way into his head, killing him instantly. His face was forever etched in fear and the back of his head resembled an exploded cantaloupe or watermelon.

"Well that was something," Kakashi said as he walked up to the Sergeant as he holstered his revolver. "Just who are you?" Kakashi could see the chakra outline that the young man had, and he had to say that it looked eerily familiar to someone he once knew years ago.

Before the Sergeant could brush off his question, the corpsman called out, "Sir!"

The Sergeant ran over to his subordinate, Kakashi wasn't far behind. "Corpsman?" he asked.

"The patient's-."

"Haku," Zabuza interrupted.

"Haku here has lost a lot of blood but is barely holding on and has gone into shock. We can still save her if we get her back to the Pathfinder in the next half hour, I can keep her alive for that long without medical assistance."

"You do realize that requires breaking protocol?" the Sergeant asked.

"It does, sir. But when I took my Hippocratic Oath-."

"I understand, corpsman," the Sergeant interrupted.

"Please," Zabuza said in a weak, defeated tone, "save her. She's all I have left. She is like a daughter to me."

The Sergeant had to think quickly. He knew that Zabuza was considered highly dangerous and a nukenin of the Mist. The Fleet's spies had determined that he aligned himself with the rebels and their leader Mei. If they saved this girl they might curry favor and get under the table deals that would benefit the fleet, like islands that the Land of Water wasn't using for one reason or another. But the risk was also high considering that Zabuza might reveal their existence or might kill the entire crew of the Pathfinder once they healed his 'daughter'. Then if he caved to Zabuza's request, what was to stop the Konoha jonin to request medical assistance for his two students? After thinking for a minute, his mind racing a mile a minute, he made his decision.

He placed his hand on his helmet's earpiece, "Command, this is Hunter Actual. We need immediate medevac."

"Say again Actual? You need medevac?" the operator on the other end questioned.

"Correct, command. One in critical condition and three more in a state non-immediate death."

There was a pause for a minute. "Please stand by for the captain."

A moment passed before the operator's voice was replaced by the Captain's, "Sergeant, why are you requesting a medevac when your team's vitals are all in the green?"

The Sergeant had to think quickly to justify his request. "The ninja Zabuza Momochi has agreed to disclose information concerning any of Gato's operations he had a part in, in return he wants us to heal his apprentice," the Sergeant replied, making sure his external speakers were on so they could hear his reasoning.

"And the other two?"

He turned off his external speakers for his helmet. "There's a girl here from Konoha that looks eerily like me here. I can't bring her alone without arousing suspicion from her Jonin-sensei so bringing both of them would throw off any ulterior motives."

"You know that you are breaking protocol, right?"

"I am aware of that."

There was a pause. "Very well, but any confrontations are on your head and career. A VTOL will be inbound shortly."

"Copy that, over and out." He then closed the connection and turned to the group and explained, with minimal explanation of where they were exactly going, what would happen next.

The Sergeant looked at the downed Haku, he could see the eye movements behind her eyelids, as if she was experiencing something. A hallucination, perhaps? His eyes turned to his squad's corpsman who was currently holding a simulation of a heart and major arteries and veins constructed out of the chakra he leeched off of Haku supplemented by his own which was currently keeping the young woman alive. It was creepy looking inside her exposed chest and seeing the chakra heart pump blood. The other Konoha kunoichi, the pink haired one, looked outright sick at the very graphic scene; as was the life of a battlefield doctor. For the next five minutes he had to dodge questions from all conscious shinobi, he had to say that the pink haired girl was the most irritating of them all.

Finally, the promised VTOL arrived through the remaining mist. The VH-77 Mule was the workhorse of the Fleet. The current iteration of this VTOL vehicle was named aptly as it had multiple uses including cargo hauling, troop transportation, civilian transportation, and so on. The vehicle's profile was that of the Osprey but instead of propellers, it has jet engines. This specific variant sacrificed weaponry for passenger space, but it was equipped with one forward chaingun and two side gunner positions. There were, of course, different variants of the Mule including the VH-78 Eagle which traded weapons and cargo space for a stealth ablative coating and sensors and cameras to conduct reconnaissance missions. There was also the VH-79 Ocelot which traded all space, except for pilots, for chainguns, rocket pods, 40mm cannons, and enough munitions to take on an army. Of course, that was just the gunship class vehicles and not fighters, bombers, and so on.

The dropship landed at the end of the bridge and the rear of the craft lowered and three gurneys pushed by six people came out dressed in medic uniforms. The Sergeant's squad cleared out as many of the bodies as possible to allow the medics a clear path to the downed shinobi. The medics did move quickly and the companions of the shinobi didn't put up a fight or fuss when the medics did their due diligence, after all, the lives of their friends and allies were in their hands. The three heavily injured shinobi were moved into the VTOL on gurneys while Zabuza was reluctantly assisted by another medic into the VTOL. Once the future patients were locked into place to ensure their trip would be uneventful, and the Konoha Jonin-sensei and teammate were seated, as they wouldn't let their comrades be taken out of their sight, especially that Jonin-sensei.

Once everyone was confirmed to be secure the Sergeant approached the cockpit and closed the door the separates the cockpit from the passenger area and took the seat behind the pilot. "Having fun?" the female pilot asked in amusement.

"Oh yes, because a potential court martial is so much fun," the Sergeant replied as he removed his x-visored helmet and placed it on the console in front of him.

"Oh? And why would you risk that?" she asked as she finalized the flight sequence.

The Sergeant sighed, his blonde hair that was longer than the regulation specified length falling in front of his eyes. "I don't know."

"You don't know," she deadpanned. She shook her head and whistled, "I wouldn't want to be in your shoes right now."

"Tell me about it," the Sergeant replied as the VTOL took off from the bridge and made a beeline for the carrier at subsonic speeds.

It was only a few minutes before the Constellation-class supercarrier came into view. The Constellation-class was three times the size of the old Nimitz-class carriers used by the US Navy back before the Collapse. There were multiple reasons for the sheer size of the carriers themselves. One of which being the housing and development of the mechanical, semi-autonomous, exoskeletons dubbed Titans. These Titans came in different varieties for different roles and were armed appropriately for any conflict. The carriers also carried numerous fighters, bombers, and transport craft housed within as well as several types of watercraft. The Constellation-class was considered the hallmark of engineering for seafaring vessels in its day. It is still a versatile vessel but it had nothing on the experimental spacefaring battleships that were being put through the proving grounds before the Collapse.

The pilot maneuvered the VTOL around and said over the radio, "Juliet-325 to Pathfinder tower, we are on approach."

"Copy that, Juliet-325," the tower operator replied. "Continue on your predetermined flight path."

"Copy, tower. Out," she replied before cutting the radio off. The dropship landed on one of the elevators that would lower the dropship into the bowels of the massive vessel. Once the dropship's engines were powering down the elevator lowered. The Sergeant picked up his helmet from the console and his rifle from the stand next to his copilot seat and opened the door that led back into the passenger compartment with his rifle slung over his shoulder and his helmet under his arm.

As he walked through the passenger bay as the dropship's rear boarding ramp lowered he caught the eye of Kakashi. The only thing that ran through his mind as his eyes widened in shock was that he just saw a ghost, a much younger ghost, but a ghost none-the-less.

"Minato-sensei?" he asked quietly, but not quietly enough where his other student took notice.

However, the Minato lookalike ignored him and continued forward as the ramp finished lowering. Kakashi's thoughts were quickly redirected from the young version of his former sensei to his currently pincushioned students being wheeled out of the dropship's compartment followed by Zabuza's companion who was being rushed towards what Kakashi assumed was a hospital quicker than his students were. While he was slightly peeved that Zabuza's companion was being given preferential treatment, he did understand that having a hole in your chest and not having a heart, something you sort of need to keep living, is more important than your students having a copious amount of senbon needles placed at strategic points in their bodies to incapacitate them rather than kill them.

The other members of the six-man squad followed the Minato lookalike and one of the last followers gestured for Kakashi and Sakura to follow them while Zabuza was assisted by another medic out of sight. Kakashi lost sight of where Zabuza, Haku, Sasuke, and his other student were taken as his eyes were drawn to the absolutely massive golem constructs that were pointing massive weapons at them. How did he know they were weapons? Well, it probably had something to do with them looking like the ones that the Minato lookalike's team used when killing off Gato's henchmen but on steroids, and if the size of the projectiles were anything to go by, he did NOT want to be hit by them.

The behemoth's front opened up to reveal someone actually manipulating it. "Staff Sergeant, on the line. The Captain will be down shortly to debrief you," the man inside said. "And you," he then said to Kakashi and Sakura, his massive weapon pointed in their general direction, "no funny business. We'll be watching."

Kakashi waved his hands in front of him, presenting a non-threatening air. "Well it would certainly be disrespectful to misbehave in someone else's home, wouldn't it, Sakura?" he said. Not hearing a response Kakashi nudged his student quickly to which she only gave a quick nod. The mech pilot only gave an unconvinced glance before sealing up his mech and going back to his duties.

It was a few minutes later when a door opened and the Sergeant called out, "Officer on deck!" Everyone within earshot immediately stood at attention, particularly those in the Sergeant's squad. Those that were minding their own business on other parts of the deck went about their duties as they were preoccupied with their work. Kakashi had to admit that he was impressed at these soldiers' discipline.

The man that was called an officer was dressed in different attire than the soldiers were but carried a weapon on his belt like many others did. "As you were and buckets off," he ordered. Immediately Kakashi could see the six relaxing slightly before removing their helmets. He was astonished that each of the members of the team were all teens, no older than his students if he were to guess. "SRS class squad designated 'Hunter' for the duration of your mission led by Staff Sergeant Naruto Uzumaki, welcome back home." Kakashi's eyes widened as his mind started to connect the dots, especially since he was privy to details about his sensei's home life that very few were. "Now that we've dispensed pleasantries, it's time to get down to business." The captain then stood in front of Naruto. "Would you care to explain what in God's green earth provoked you to assist these outsiders?" the captain demanded.

"I believed it was the right thing to do, sir," Naruto replied with gusto.

"The right thing? You do realize that the Admiralty can not only have your rank stripped from you and dishonorably discharged, but arrested for treason?"

"I was aware of the potential consequences of my actions when I made my decision, sir."

The captain sighed. "Let's just hope they see it your way."

"If I may be so bold," Kakashi interrupted, "why is this such a great deal?"

The captain turned to Kakashi and replied, "I don't know how you in Konoha do things, and frankly I don't care, but we have a way of doing things that have been done the same way for generations in order to preserve the integrity of the Fleet. We have our reasons for the things we do."

The captain then turned back to Naruto, "Check your weapons in and get cleaned up. Dismissed!" Naruto and his team then left the deck and the captain turned to Kakashi and Sakura, "Come with me. I'm sure you want to see your comrades."

To be continued...?

XxXxXxX

And that's all I have for this pilot in particular. I do apologize for the length, after all, it is world building and that does tend to take up a lot of words. Before I make any more notes on what I would hope to accomplish should I make this a real series here I do have some inline notes for you guys.

1. This was literally what Google Translate gave me when I put "Whirlpool Shadow" for English to Japanese. I do suppose that Ushizokage could also work, but I've always thought that's been more of a fanon/headcanon idea rather than a true Kishi idea.

2. We've seen this happen in Naruto canon where Naruto was poisoned by the Demon Brothers but was fine in the end though he should have definitely had some trace of the poison inside him.

3. I've always loved the idea of a Fem!Kyuubi who looks like a human some of the time when it wants to be cordial, and I believe my explanation is pretty solid for why, even for headcanon.

4. Family Guy reference, I can't remember what episode though.

5. I guess this is my way of paying homage to the AU fics where both Kushina and Minato survive and continue to build their family.

6. If I expand this pilot beyond a pilot this plot point will be explored and explained further. The short answer: Danzo and power grabbing.

7. The best way to explain how this looks is to Google Image search "Titanfall 2 IMC armor" and one of the images should fit if you can't still get an idea what I'm trying to describe.

8. Or at least this is how I've always seen it as. I could be wrong, though.

9. Another Family Guy reference.

10. If you want a good visual reference look up on YouTube and watch watch?v=M96f_K13joo but start at about 0:43. The clip is from the 2010 movie RED and is pretty badass, even if it is a stupid, fun movie.

And now I'm going to try something new, a hypothetical Q and A down below for a few questions that might arise from this story's release.

Q: Do you ship Konan and Nagato?
A: Yes, why else would they be together in this fic if they weren't?

Q: Why does the captain seem like an ass?
A: The Fleet has remained hidden on purpose to keep destructive technologies away from the shinobi who would use them to completely annihilate their enemies and countless innocents just for the sake of doing it. Danzo anyone? Admit it, he would do it in a heartbeat. Think of the Fleet like the Brotherhood of Steel from Fallout, they may seem like assholes but they really are looking out for the populace.

Q: Do the soldiers of the Fleet have chakra?
A: Pre-Ushizo merger? No. Post-Ushizo merger? Yes. With chakra training introduced into the Fleet's training regimen for their soldiers, the members of the Fleet have varied skills and weaponry that the most shinobi nations do not have. This also allows for more varied combat styles ranging from the classic swordsman or assassin for stealth and all out gunfights for full on assaults where stealth isn't needed.

Q: Are the Kyuubi and Naruto on good terms?
A: They are on decent terms but he had no need for the Kyuubi's chakra during this pilot at all. They are by no means friends at this point but they are amicable.

Q: If Konan and Nagato are alive and well and living a family life with the rest of the Uzumaki remnants, what of Akatsuki?
A: Another organization shadow led by both Zetsu and Madara are doing shady stuff. As for the name, they have yet to be named by me. However, it will still have all the baddies that we all know and love from Akatsuki, just no Konan or Nagato.

Q: Does Nagato have his Six Paths of Pain?
A: No, he has no need for them as he has no need to be seen as an omnipresent god to satisfy some kind of complex.

Q: Does the Uchiha Massacre still happen?
A: Yes. However, I am considering letting Itachi's love interest that we've seen from his pre-massacre story arc surviving.

Q: Who is the 'sunset headed girl'?
A: As that is something that I mentioned in note #6 that is something that I'll leave a little ambiguous as I still need to flesh that out completely as well as her role in this story.

Q: Why is Naruto ranked a Sergeant?
A: Because I felt like it. Plus, it wouldn't be the first time that a young person in the Naruto universe has been promoted to a higher rank than his peers when extremely young. See Kakashi, Itachi, etc.

That's all I can really think of for hypothetical questions that you guys might ask me in reviews or something. If this plays out well I might do that more often. As for anything else I want to mention or accomplish should I make this into its own thing? I guess Naruto with a different support structure with a superpowered adoptive father and an entire clan behind him while still keeping that down to earth guy that we've known and loved for years. And no filler. Let's be honest, filler sucks except where it actually develops characters and explains enough for us to get the picture.

Until next time!