Shadows Smirk

by Foy the Snooze Button

Naruto was at a great disadvantage since the beginning of his life. Rejected by the one he thought he could trust, he set his sights on greater things. Working from the shadows with other less appreciated, he makes a name for himself controlling a place underappreciated and thrusting it forward. Fuinjutsu!Naruto, Smart!Naruto. A Snoozy Foy twist on a common plotline.

24. Chapter 24

The updates I've made to these chapters are to correct the grammar, punctuations, and paragraph it better. At the moment, chapters 25 to 31 are ready to be uploaded. Just 4 chapters left before the story is done.

Regardless, I'll start uploading the new chapters on Friday, with a two-day interval between uploads. I know it seems like I abandoned this site and this account and my readers. I'm really sorry about that. I've been committed to finishing this story, AND Whisper Group (update for that coming soon).

Long story short, the reason I outright stopped updating this story since last year was that I got demoralised because of low reception on my stories recently, and it affected my passion for this fic. So, I took a step back to finish the story. My regret is not announcing it here, or posting some sort of one-shot story an update at the end.

I'm grateful for your patience. Thank you so much!

CHAPTER 24

On that day in Hidden Sound, blood soaked the earth till the soil turned to mud.

A beast of deep red fire and white-hot stone rods in his grasp carved a path of burning destruction through all of Sound.

Any shinobi that dared stand in his way, from jounin to genin, was torn down without remorse or hesitation. His vulpine red eyes stared forward at his destination, the Otokage's building, as he blindly cut down and smashed to bits anyone in his path.

Civilians fled in every direction but even they weren't spared; Naruto had given specific instructions: destroy half of Sound.

And maim Orochimaru of the Sannin beyond physical and mental recognition.

Daku, not using the aid of clones, swept aside a man wielding a pickaxe as a weapon, deducing him to be an overzealous civilian with little to no shinobi training. He didn't care. With each step he took scorching hot blue fire trailed behind him, razing whatever structure to the ground as soon as they got into contact and hardening the blood-soaked mud underfoot.

He got to the main door of the Otokage's administrative building, a two-storey building that was akin to a sophisticated laboratory, and he allowed his chakra to feel inside. He squinted his eyes in suspicion when he felt a short burst of chakra behind the door, at this point no one dared near him so he didn't bother looking over his shoulder before he kicked open the door.

And then summarily gazed into a pair of Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan; he couldn't look away.

Daku felt his chakra flare uncontrollably and the fire burning around him sputtered off. His turban wrapped itself back around his head as the Kyuubi chakra involuntarily receded and his stone batons crumbled into dust. Over his vulpine eyes spiralled into life an exact copy of the EMS of the user; the sharingan spun quickly and Daku felt himself fall backwards.

As his back met the ground, his body crumbled back into its base form; a wooden skeleton with stone joints, and clothes swaddled around his form. There was no chakra to give him life and no chakra to power the various seals peppered over the base form.

Madara scoffed and deactivated his sharingan, looking over his shoulder to the smirking Sannin. "This is the creature you said would pose a challenge? You insult me, snake."

Orochimaru chuckled, sounding like a hiss as he turned around, motioning for his puppet, Madara Uchiha, to follow after him and the reincarnated legend did so with a deep frown on his face. "I do not mean to offend you, Lord Madara; I truly thought he was smarter than that." They proceeded silently down the stairs to the subterranean corridors. Orochimaru allowed the triumphant hiss to escape his thin lips. 'Just a few more days…'

Behind them, and as the door of the building slammed shut, many Sound ninjas, either unharmed or bearing Daku's burn marks, descended on the pile of wooden bones, stones, and clothes that used to be Naruto's dark creature, smashing Daku's remnants to broken splinters.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

A few minutes ago

Training Ground Zero

Raikage's Private Quarters

Kumo

Naruto stared across the special training ground at his opponent, Ay the Raikage. The boy rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck once while the muscular man threw off his cloak and hat aside.

"You fight without your shirt?" the blonde boy asked the other blonde and the man grinned savagely.

"Only when I want to go all out," he clenched his fists and they cracked loudly. "Aren't you taking off yours?"

"I'd preferably not," Naruto answered without missing a beat.

Off to the side of the fighting ground stood Naruto's DARK guards and the Raikage's guard; Yugito, as Bee and his team were out of Kumo on a mission. Mole sat on the soft grass with her legs crossed and both of her hands placed on the ground, ready as a touch sensor in case anything unexpected happened. She nodded her head to her right and left and her subordinates saluted and melted into the environment. Yugito merely leaned onto a tree, observing as the two leaders got into their ready stances.

Ay shot forward first, both of his fists leading the way as bolts of lightning arced off his body and scorched the grassy ground. Naruto's eyes widened at the speed and he crossed his arms over his face, the intended target.

Mole's eyes squinted in concentration when she felt her master's chakra fluctuate violently. She noticed something she never thought she would ever see in all her days as Naruto's servant; she saw his defence slacken, just barely enough for most to notice, especially in the heat of the moment. She hopped to her feet immediately and darted to her master. Yugito sharply stood upright when this happened and she began yelling out in protest.

It all happened in slow motion.

Mole forced her limbs to speed up, as Naruto's arms slackened even more, fully exposing his unprotected face to the older ninja's lightning-covered fist. Ay grinned at the opportunity and allowed his fists to surge forward, not noticing how Naruto's eyes became half-lidded and a pair of red sharingan eyes covered his vision. He ignored everything else, even the brown-haired woman who was pelting toward them, yelling for him to stop. Yugito darted after her, thinking that the mole-masked woman had ill intentions for her village leader.

Naruto's limbs gave out, as the world moved like it was in thick syrup, and he began falling backwards.

Barely a millimetre away from the sleeping boy's face a thin sphere of purple chakra covered his whole body from the attack as well as its backlash, but without having root seals to keep him in place his limp body blasted off the ground towards a sturdy mahogany tree. The purple shield, far weaker than the blue bubble shell, was Naruto's contingency automatic defence on the occasion that he was incapacitated, and couldn't subconsciously activate his blue bubble shell.

Mole, with her fingertips just inside the purple defence, grasped onto Naruto's shirt but the force of the attack threw her after him as well. The woman hastily used her body to protect her master, wrapping her arms tightly around him and making sure his head was safely nestled under her chin before her back met the unforgiving tree, which snapped in half from the middle as soon as this happened.

Mole, ignoring her injuries, laid her master down gently and scanned his body by laying her hands on his forehead and chest, over his heart. The Wave leader's chakra was all over the place and this seemed to have dragged him into hypersleep; she lifted his eyelids and her eyes widened in fear when a pair of evolved sharingan, ones she had read about during her time in ROOT, looked back at her.

The loyal kunoichi didn't look up when Ay rounded on her.

"What the hell was that all about?!" Mole clenched her teeth when she heard the distinct sound of a kunai being unsheathed. The blade was then placed on her neck and she could only guess that it was Yugito. Leopard swiftly disarmed Yugito and shoved the woman away, and Raven knelt beside Mole, examining Naruto as well and exchanging grim expressions after she had reached the same conclusion as her captain. Yugito reared her hands back as her weapon clattered to the ground and her nails elongated to claws, ready to tear Leopard to bloody ribbons. She hesitated though when Eagle joined in and stood guard before their sleeping master.

Ay dragged her back before she could get herself in trouble with Wave's finest. The grim atmosphere around the two kneeling DARK ninjas, Mole and Raven, was too foreboding and it alarmed him. He motioned for everyone to calm down as he squatted close to Naruto's prone form, again telling them that he meant no harm.

"What's wrong with him?"

Raven looked to Mole, her captain, for permission to speak and Mole granted it with a curt nod as she gently unsealed Naruto's wheelchair from a storage seal on his left wrist, mentally praying for his forgiveness at having to roll up his sleeves a little to do so. "My lord Naruto Uzumaki is under a genjutsu, Lord Raikage," She said, her strong voice betraying the emotional turmoil rolling in her. She was one of the most loyal Hoshi ninjas in his force because, despite taking her clan from their first home, he gave them an even better place to live with equal rights with Wave-born. He was the embodiment of strength and serenity, level-headedness and power that she had dreamt one day to reach. Her life in Hidden Star wasn't the best and she had been one of the many chunin spared that day.

To her, and a large chunk of the Hoshi clan, serving Naruto as a ninja alone was a high honour, but serving him as a personal guard…

The amount of humility she felt after having been personally summoned to Daku's office and informed that she had been listed among those to be the Wave leader's guards could not be put into words. Naruto had then done a one-on-one interview with each of the four selected, without their masks; that day she had tried not to blubber from excitement. She might not have had the dark backstory of her captain, Mole, or the close connection to a leader like Daku but Naruto had admitted that she specialised in something that he one day wished to master.

Genjutsu.

Her leader only had fuinjutsu preventions against conventional illusions, from low E to high A. He could deflect them all with varying degrees of effort. The seal master had said that he needed her skills in genjutsu in his guard team in case he, or her team, ever fell victim to an illusion that could not be easily broken by his seals.

A musical illusion to her was child's play, which was why she didn't fall under it when the Sound Four blood clones attacked. Now though as she watched as Mole placed her lord into his wheelchair, she felt useless.

"I didn't use a genjutsu on him," Ay said thoughtfully and scratched his chin.

"It is a sharingan genjutsu. An extremely strong one," she said mechanically as she knelt beside her master's wheelchair, checking him again to see if she could do anything at all.

All the while, Eagle and Leopard made sure that they were between their lord and Yugito, much to Yugito's frustration; her claws retracted and her hands were up to show she wasn't on the offensive anymore. Baboon was with Naruto's genin team.

Raven got to her feet and whispered to her captain. "I cannot do anything to remove the genjutsu without damaging his mind." She ran her fingers through her short, neat hair, a nervous habit of hers, trying to think of something to combat one of the strongest illusions she had ever read about.

"What do you suppose we do?" Ay asked them, speaking to Raven and Mole, who were yet still to say anything.

Raven clasped her fingers together and droned lowly, "We need to get him back to Wave, and quickly ask for a sharingan specialist to come and see what they can do. Itachi Uchiha or Kakashi Hatake, probably" Mole nodded and wheeled Naruto away, the others followed close behind. Mole whispered something to Raven and she nodded, trudged back to the bewildered Kumo shinobi and said, "My sincerest apologies, Lord Raikage, but we would have to postpone the alliance signing for another day."

"I still don't understand how sharingan genjutsu can affect him here. There are no Uchiha for miles around." He frowned and scratched his chin before he pointed out playfully. "Are you sure he's not pretending?"

Raven didn't share in his humour. "My lord Naruto Uzumaki does not pretend about such things, lord Raikage."

"Ok, ok, sorry," Ay apologised. "If he needs anything from Kumo, don't hesitate to ask." Raven bowed deeply and hastily walked back to meet her comrades and her sleeping lord. Yugito watched her go with her teeth gritted painfully.

"Do you want me to kill them, Lord Ay?" Yugito asked in a quiet, cool tone. In the short term, removing Naruto and a chunk of Wave's strongest ninjas from the picture would give Kumo better footing in case they wanted to invade Wave as well. For Yugito, though, removing Naruto, who was too powerful for his good as a ninja and a jinchuriki, was something she wouldn't object to.

"No, just make sure they leave Lightning country safely." Ay didn't share her sentiment. She bowed and ran after them.

"What do you think is going on with the master?" Mole asked the resident genjutsu in the team discreetly, away from the ever-itching ears of the cat jinchuriki. "Is he hurt? Is he suffering?"

Raven placed a hand on Naruto's head and concentrated, looking for something she was familiar with. Human fighting spirit. She shook her head negatively. "My lord Naruto's chakra control is tangled up like there is another person's chakra trying to take over but my lord's chakra is much more and much stronger. There is nothing that can defeat him."

"What do you think is going on then?"

Raven tilted her head down and removed her hand from her master's head, a small frown etched on her face, hidden under her raven mask. "Even though the foreign chakra is fighting my lord's chakra, and losing, the master cannot simply be pulled out by dispelling the illusion. Think of it like he's…" She searched for the right word and muttered it when she finally found one. "Sleeping. A really deep sleep."

"Master is sleeping…" Mole whispered, pushing the blonde past inquisitive Kumo citizens.

The genjutsu master nodded. "Yes, and the only way I can fully study him is to question Itachi on his Mangekyo sharingan." Her eyes picked out her master's students and they rushed over to them. Inari looked at his teacher's slumped position, his eyes half-lidded and red. Naruto was breathing but he wasn't going to ask them how their sightseeing went, which was unlike him.

"What's wrong with sensei?" Inari asked, trying to decipher the discreet hand signals Leopard was flicking to Baboon to fill him in on what was happening. Naruto had instructed them on all of the hand signs; it was that the DARK ninja's hands were moving much too quickly for any of the genin to catch.

"He's sleeping," Raven answered gently and ushered the crowding genin to keep walking until they got to the gate and they began moving in a steady jog.

Kam furrowed her eyebrows and stared fixedly at her teacher. "Sensei doesn't sleep like that—" her head snapped to Inari when he wanted to ask her how she knew about the way Naruto slept, hissing for him to keep quiet.

Sadly, she didn't warn Noriko. "How do you know how sensei sleeps?"

"That's none of your business," She hotly whispered, and if not for the tense atmosphere the two male genin would have giggled at how flustered she was getting.

"We will fill you in as soon as we get to Marsh, for now, we need to move quickly." Mole grunted lowly and increased the speed they moved, making sure not to tip their sleeping master over onto the hard ground.

Bringing up the rear was Yumi and her guards. The woman was now healed enough to not need the Wave leader's wheelchair. A guard had filled her in on what had happened and now she didn't want to slow them down by asking frivolous questions.

When they exited the densely packed trees of Lightning country's border, Mole muttered her apologies again and unsealed Naruto's seal-board from his elbow, after having to roll up his left sleeve to do so, flashing his sleeve of seal tattoos for only the briefest of moments before it was blocked by a small burst of chakra smoke. The captain threw the board about a foot away and said, "Expand" while opening her arms.

The wooden board vibrated and plates of steel covered its wooden frame before another burst of smoke covered it. Eagle blew the smoke away with a small wind jutsu to reveal a solid metal board that was large enough to carry all of them; even Yumi and her guards, though the added weight would slow them down. Mole always had the option of asking Yumi to wait behind; the Chill leader certainly wouldn't have any problems if it meant her comrade would get back to his country quickly, but Naruto had given her instruction for the woman not to be separated from the group again, especially after what happened in the Sound four blood clone attack.

There were thirteen glowing blue circles on the expanded skateboard with average-sized wooden chairs in the middle, each person took a seat on them and immediately felt seals fasten them on safely.

There was a seat at the very front that was meant for Naruto to sit on, as the pilot of the seal-board, but since he couldn't do that in his state, he was placed in a seat on the second row with Baboon seated behind him, Eagle to his left, Raven in front, Leopard at the very back with the Chill watching their flank and the Wave leaders students were seated in the very middle rows, Inari and Kam side by side and Noriko in front of Inari.

Mole took the pilot's seat and took a deep breath, digging through her extensive memory of the instructions Naruto gave her on how to fly his expanded seal board. It was an idea Naruto was still trying to work on and was making measured progress in it; a means of safe air transportation that was able to carry more than fifty people at a time with little to no problem. He wasn't progressing as quickly as he wanted to but he had made a few breakthroughs in his research, which he quickly applied to his board with each increased expansion.

Mole clapped her hands together and a dome of blurry, light blue chakra covered all of them, a protection against external attacks. She flipped through two hand seals, dragon and rat, and the chakra in front of her thickened until it was a dark blue when seen from inside but the same colour when observed from outside. The wall of blue chakra spun in itself and various circles and switches with different kanji correctly labelled on them melted out from the section of the wall above her.

Mole pushed her hand forward, into the slowly spinning vortex, and pulled out a small, well-crafted wooden wheel that was painted a soft blue and that had the Wave country sign drawn in the middle. She flipped three switches above her with her right hand and pressed two buttons with her left, outside the seal board the appearance shifted and moved, and the frame of the board fully merged with its environment. Mole steadily pulled back the wheel in her firm grip, showing that it was still connected to the spinning whirlpool of seals, which was now becoming less visible to allow her to see in front of her. The result of this was that the wind blew beneath them strongly, struggling to tip over the board but the pilot's strong grip fought against it; the board rose into the air, making a deep whooshing sound as it lifted off the ground and levitated into the sky. There was a soft pinging noise, the sign that they were high enough to fly comfortably, and Mole pressed her feet down a little and the board filled with astounded people shot off in a burst of wind and super suppressed blue fire toward Wave country.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

With Naruto

He could hear birds singing and he scrunched up his nose when the delicate scent of lavender and ramen wafted to him. The boy sighed, fearing what he would see as soon as he opened his eyes, especially because he felt unfamiliar grass under his hands, tickling his bare feet, and also that his head was tenderly lying on someone's lap while they ran their slender fingers through his hair slowly like the person was washing away all the worries from his head.

And it was working, much to the orphan boy's terror.

Naruto inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, gathering the courage to open his eyes. His eyes immediately met bright purple eyes, a gently smiling face on smooth pale skin.

A familiar face.

The woman didn't stop running her fingers through his hair, making him sigh in satisfaction and close his eyes to relax. The woman giggled, her voice sounded musical to him, and she stopped combing her fingers through his hair. "You can't sleep forever, Naruto."

The boy grumbled sourly. "But I want to…" he turned on her lap so that his right cheek lay on her thigh and he looked up at her with childishly large eyes, still trying to recall who she was and why she was there in his mind. She silently allowed him to look at her, taking in every detail.

Her happy purple eyes.

Her smooth, pale skin.

The crimson red hair that cascaded down her head and pooled around her…

He breathed in again and he was assaulted with the smell of ramen, overpowering the lavender.

Then it finally clicked.

"Mom…?" he slowly got up; his eyes wide in surprise. They began to water as she nodded. Kushina Uzumaki smiled and opened her arms, Naruto wasted no time diving into her embrace and squeezing her as tight as his arms would allow, silently crying into her neck. The woman nodded slowly and rubbed the back of his head, urging him to let out everything he tightly bottled up.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

The Roof

White Lotus Flower abandoned hotel

Sunagakure

"Your brother is doing well," Gaara, the Kazekage, said to the other male standing beside him, Itachi Uchiha. "A lot better than when the copy ninja was solely training him." They watched as the youngest Uchiha applied chakra to his feet to stay in place while a blizzard of sand and wind cut around him. The boy narrowed his eyes despite the wind and crouched to stay in place, digging his hands deep into the sand and spreading his chakra through it to stay rooted to the ground. Not like simply covering the soles of his feet with chakra but spreading it around under him, like tree roots.

A trick Naruto taught him.

Sasuke correctly chose to wear the traditional wear of a regular Sunagakure occupant; black trousers that were taped at the ankles to prevent sand from entering, and a long-sleeved red shirt that was taped at the wrists. The boy swaddled a light brown turban over his head, leaving only his eyes exposed but his mouth and nose protected from the heat and the sand. Behind him Sakura wore similar clothes, by the Uchiha's prompting; the only difference was she didn't cover her whole head but only her mouth and nose were wrapped in a thick yellow scarf.

Sai though stubbornly chose not to listen, only wearing a short-sleeved black shirt instead of his regular midriff shirt. Needless to say, the sand and heat from the sun were doing damage to his arms and face. The team were back-to-back, scanning the thick blizzard for any signs of movement. Sasuke's three tomoe sharingan caught a chakra signature blurring with the wind and he counted to three before he pointed forward, Sakura took this as a sign and she raised her right fist back and smashed it into the ground.

The sand broke up and the ground cracked open from the impact of her fist to where her teammate had pointed to. The genin causing the blizzard stumbled briefly but that was all that was needed for Sai to throw three ink arrows from his sketchpad that stabbed into the attacker's left arm and stomach.

Sasuke threw a kunai in a seemingly random direction and flipped through a few hand seals. "Body flicker technique." His doujutsu kept track of the path his blade took and he instantly switched with it, planting his fist into the face of a different genin when the genin intended to bat the blade away. The manoeuvre Sasuke had used would not have even worked if not for his sharingan, this time it was Kakashi that had taught him to do that. He dug his hands into the sand under him, ignoring the unconscious genin he had punched in favour of dragging out the last genin that had wanted to ambush him from under the sand. He forced the boy to look into his eyes and he said, "Sharingan: Genjutsu Sleep."

The person in his hands went limp and fell off into a fitful sleep.

Itachi pursed his lips at the lack of finesse on his younger brother's part but had to applaud its effectiveness. Sasuke was the undisputed leader of team 7, not because of his higher learning from the others but because the Uchiha had placed himself in that role and the others accepted it without question. Probably since Sakura still harboured feelings for the Uchiha and Sai was more passive than anyone gave him credit.

Itachi had to admit that Naruto was a good teacher, for one his age. Kakashi too but it was the young blonde Sasuke aspired to reach in terms of strength and intelligence.

Sasuke was not completely comfortable with Itachi just yet but he always kept in mind what Naruto had first taught him all those months ago in the latter's personal training area. Sasuke reluctantly explained to his older brother how Naruto trained him, especially when it came to his altered cursed seal and, to a much smaller extent, the sharingan, which was Kakashi's jurisdiction at the moment. Through training, he was made to wear weights, much like the other students under Naruto, including the Wave Genin. Sometimes they were to balance on reinforced needles and go through each hand seal without chakra. This was to increase their seal's speed and their chakra control of individual parts of their bodies.

When Itachi asked if Naruto could even do those exercises, Sasuke replied that before they were made to do anything their blonde teacher would perform it first to show them how it should be done. This raises the question of when Naruto had learnt all the skills in his arsenal and how he could become so strong so fast.

The first thing that came to mind was that he was a prodigy, and to a lesser extent the Uzumaki was indeed a prodigy but only when it came to fuinjutsu; Naruto was able to create seals by simply using his chakra to draw on a surface, not needing the use of an ink pot and brush since he was a level eight but still using them out of personal tradition. Tsunade had once told him when they were discussing his return to service in Konoha, that Naruto had said that he always had ideas for seals and he always had shadow clones studying them and perfecting his craft while he focused more on leading his country and strengthening his alliance.

That brought up another thing that made Itachi think Naruto was strong; his shadow clones.

At this point, it was a fact that Naruto was among the top-highest chakra reserves in all of the elemental nations because of his heritage as an Uzumaki and also his status as a jinchuriki. Creating thousands of shadow clones could only deplete a little more than half of his reserves but still enough for him to remain conscious. The clones could study whatever Naruto had no time to study and Itachi raised this observation with the equally baffled Hokage.

Tsunade wavered, mulling Itachi's assumption in his head before nodding, but also shaking her head; Naruto made use of thousands of clones to study scrolls and perfect his chakra control by going through advanced exercises but the thing about shadow clones was that they had no muscle memory. Naruto had to go through the body-strengthening exercises himself.

Itachi was a logical man; he didn't believe in anything that didn't have any scientific backing. Though when it came to Naruto he was confused until the Hokage took pity on him and told him exactly why Naruto drove himself straight to the peak.

Determination.

Tsunade Senju admitted without shame that with everything Naruto had studied and mastered, he could take her down easier and more efficiently than when they met in Tanzuki town if he were to meet the Naruto of now.

Back then, the boy didn't have the determination to succeed but a burning determination to surpass. To surpass the expectation of failure and weakness that the Third Hokage had imposed on him. So, in a way, Hiruzen Sarutobi had put Naruto on the path he was on now. Though now it wasn't only because he wanted to somehow show his strength to the dead Kage but now it was because there was an entire island country that looked up to him for protection and leadership, five minor villages that looked to him to contribute equally as well as pull his weight and a separate group of people that looked to his guidance and competence, not just his students but those that he had shown his strength, like Nagato, Konan, Tsunade, Temari, Kankuro, Gaara and a lot of others.

That was why Naruto was strong.

Team Seven inspected the unconscious Sand team and retrieved a hand-sized square of paper with the kanji for fire on it. Sasuke threw the paper to Sai, who sealed it into his sketch pad, and motioned for his teammates to follow him as he speedily ran to another section of the decrepit, abandoned section of Suna.

"I expect nothing less from a trainee of Naruto," Gaara said easily and turned his head to Itachi. "What about you? How do you think Sasuke did?"

"Sasuke did ok," He said stonily.

A corner of Gaara's lips went up for the briefest of moments. "You hold a grudge against Naruto for defeating you." The Uchiha didn't reply. "Your silence only reinforces my assumption, Itachi."

Itachi shook his head slightly and said, "I do not hold a grudge against Naruto for defeating me." He crossed his arms and activated his sharingan as another team arrived under their observation post. Deep purple hair and pale eyes with a spider web of veins around them told her that it was Naruto's first student, Hinata Hyuuga. Followed closely by Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, then Shino Aburame; they were hot on the trail of another team, with Hinata taking the leadership role, yet another one of Naruto's students leading their respective team, while Shino covered their rears with a few scout beetles fluttering in hidden positions around them in a fifteen feet radius. They uneventfully passed by not too soon after and Itachi deactivated his sharingan, then continued. "I hold a grudge against Naruto because he didn'tdefeat me."

"I remember now; it was Em and Frog that defeated you. I hear they are shinobi of high rank in Wave. Little wonder they bested you."

The Uchiha refrained from snapping. "They made use of one of Naruto's seals. If not for that, they wouldn't have stood a chance against me." His ego was taking over; he closed his eyes and reeled it back in.

Gaara conceded to that point but added. "I agree that you would have been a greater challenge without the reverse sharingan seal, but I'm very sure you didn't know both of them had Chakra High seals."

Itachi turned to the Kazekage to drill him with questions on what the chakra high seal was before Kankuro and Temari leapt onto the building they were standing on with a raven perched on her left elbow, a small scroll tied to its left leg. "A message from Wave, Lord Gaara."

Gaara took the scroll from her outstretched hand and opened it away from Itachi's prying eyes. His eyes scanned the urgent letter and a small frown crossed his face, he looked up at the Uchiha and said, "You're needed in Wave, immediately."

The command reminded him of his new duty as a Konoha ninja.

He could never again be an official Konoha ninja, not after massacring his clan and making an even more infamous name as an S-rank ninja through the continent.

No Leaf ninja trusted him enough on missions. That much was obvious and that was why he had to move around, in Konoha, in a sharingan illusion. That was why the Fifth Hokage had given him the title of Konoha's Ambassador to Wave country.

She had two reasons for doing this; it was a stipulation in the Konoha/Wave Alliance in Konoha's favour, like with any other major village allied to Wave, and also because of Itachi's disadvantageous and deserved position as the village pariah. Temari was Suna's ambassador, Ao was Kiri's ambassador, and now Itachi was Konoha's ambassador. It was also the other way around but instead of just Wave having its ambassador the alliance had an ambassador to each major village they allied with while minor villages had representatives, who merely reported there and stayed for a few weeks before returning. Ambassadors were able to stay for at most two years before they had to apply for re-admission into their respective villages.

Back to the current situation, Itachi was duty-bound to comply with the directive to return to Wave, as he wanted to represent Konoha well. He was only unhappy about it because when he had first met with Naruto, the boy was too calm, a stark difference from when he first met him in Tanzuki town.

The Naruto then and the Naruto now were completely different. One was cautiously finding his feet and the other was confidence personified.

Itachi didn't like it and he couldn't do anything about it; Naruto was superior.

Itachi nodded and began his hurried journey to Wave Country.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

One hour later

General Hospital

Wave Central

Wave Country

There was a buzz going on as medics, both junior and senior medics rushed around the pristine hospital. Their feet skidded on the marble floors as they prepped the hospital for the arrival of their leader. The patient's rooms were checked again and again, repeatedly, to impress their leader and a squad of five medics, a mixture of Hoshi, Marsh and Wave medics, scurried together to the east wing of the hospital, to the section where chakra poison and infection patients were being treated.

The leader of the squad began muttering orders as they entered the very last room, overlooking the entire country, and they began fretting over every detail; straightening bed sheets, fluffing pillows, triple-checking the medicine cabinet, cross-checking the seals on the walls. When they were done, they were told to return that evening, when their leader was expected to return via seal-board flight, but until then they were to make sure the other patients remained calm and unaware of what was going to happen. The head doctor was in their numbers, the leader of the ten-medic squad; a portly woman with long grey hair. She was dressed in the Wave senior medic uniform, which consisted of a short-sleeved blue apron dress with black pants and a white cap with the kanji for medic on it. She was a retired Marsh Kunoichi in her late fifties.

The woman sat down behind her office desk and looked through the hastily written report of Naruto's condition by Raven, the genjutsu expert. It mostly said that it was a doujutsu illusion that couldn't be broken with traditional methods.

Her apprentice, a petite Wave Kunoichi in her early twenties shuffled in and presented her with more reports of the other patients under her staff's care. The Wave leader had specifically outlined that a condition to become Head Doctor of the hospital was if the person was a well-established medic ninja, not a civilian, and seeing as the Wave apprentice was the best in her class and had impressed her enough to be taken under her wing, she intended to pass on the title to her. The Marsh woman was the very last 'Other Village' Head of a 'Wave department', with the water and electricity heads passing on their positions to their respective successors, a Wave-born for the water and a Hoshi clan member for the electricity. The civilian and shinobi schools were already being led by Wave citizens, plus the library was under Wave again.

Those who have passed on their jobs were fully compensated by being given permanent accommodations in Outer Wave and were being paid retirement benefits for their efforts, but only if they chose to stop working for their respective departments, if not they were paid salaries.

The Head Doctor owned a house in Outer Wave, a one-story apartment stocked with the best furniture and utensils money could buy. It was there that her children and grandchildren visited her.

She only met with Naruto during council meetings and when she was to report the monthly happenings of the hospital, and despite his age he had shown to be able to keep up with whatever she threw at him.

Thirty minutes before the planned arrival of the Wave leader, the woman heard a soft knock at her door and Itachi Uchiha poked his head in. "Ah yes, you are to wait in the Chakra Poison and Infection Ward, Room 40. My apprentice can take you there." She nodded her head to him and her apprentice, Okami, stood up to leave.

"Yes, sensei."

They stalked up the stairs and moved aside when several squads of DARK shinobi rushed up to the roof, where they heard an audible thump. The apprentice looked on worriedly, assuming the worst in her mind until Itachi placed a hand on her shoulder and she snapped out of her daze.

They arrived at the room and Okami politely gestured for Itachi to stand beside the hospital bed, to the left and away from the window; everyone knew that Naruto liked looking out of the window, over Wave country. There were numerous sounds of stomping, and people running through the halls and the door to the room flew open with a sharp bang. Okami suppressed her shocked gasp at Naruto's unconscious state as they wheeled him in on his floating wheelchair.

The head doctor stomped in as well and ushered everyone out, besides the other four medics she had personally appointed to care for the leader. Mole put up a fuss as she was pushed out of the room, adamant that her position was beside her master but she was finally allowed in when she had reminded them, very loudly, that her position as Deputy DARK Commander superseded her position as head doctor.

The older woman had the mind to refuse treatment to Naruto when Mole had declared those words, especially as Mole pulled Raven in as well, but sobered up when, after closing the door and keeping out those that would merely congest the room and distract those that could help out, Mole had removed her mask and quietly thanked her, her hazel eyes droopy with held in grief.

The woman began directing orders to the other four medics, of which her apprentice was among; to connect Naruto to the heart monitor and make sure his neck was not in an uncomfortable position as the woman clicked a button on a remote to lift his upper body slightly, like he was reclining in a chair. They kept the standard chakra poisoning antidote at the ready beside them but with a genjutsu it was all but useless.

The head doctor watched as the medics took his vitals and noted them down on two different clipboards, which would both be stored in her office. When they were done gathering all the information they needed, they slowly, hesitantly, stepped aside for Itachi to walk closer to the bed. Mole's right hand shot forward and grabbed his left wrist; she was silent for a few, short seconds before she whispered.

"Can you help him?"

He didn't look at her, only keeping his eyes firmly on Naruto as his sharingan merged within itself, spinning quickly to form the evolved sharingan. "I'll see what I can do."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

With Naruto

The boy had so many questions. The words rushed out of his mouth so fast that it was pretty much a mishmash of sounds and wild gestures. Kushina covered her mouth and giggled in amusement, his face turned red and he stopped.

"You are just too cute, honey," She lilted and pinched both of his cheeks. Naruto winced and rubbed his sore cheeks.

"But-but-but…I want to—"

"You have questions," she interrupted and when he nodded, she gently bopped his nose, his face reddened again, even more embarrassed by how fragile he was behaving. Naruto sat back on his heels. She frowned at his exposed tattoos, and he cheekily scratched the back of his head, quickly speaking before she could rain fire down on his head.

"Where am I? How are you here? Why am I here? Where are all of the seals on my body?" because he was just left with the tattoos, not the seals, strangely enough. Hopefully, though his questions would drown out the yelling as he guessed she would spew on him about his body art.

She narrowed her eyes at him for a full minute, unnerving him when she shuffled forward and sat back down on her heels. Her red-painted lips were screwed tightly to the side before she sighed deeply. "Minato had tattoos too; they weren't as many as yours though. I didn't like them but he had them before we started dating, since when he was a genin, I guess." She shakily placed her hands on his shoulders, making him wince when she unconsciously squeezed them but relaxed a moment later when she had managed to reel in her temper. 'This is a happy moment; I can't waste it yelling at my son.' A small smile bloomed on her face and it was mirrored on Naruto's face. "Let's see, in order; you are in your mind, I'm…not your true mother…I'm just the physical manifestation of the chakra she stored in the containment seal in case this sort of thing happens, you were placed under a sharingan sleep illusion through Daku, and lastly, the effects of the illusion wiped away your failsafe seals."

His head lowered at the painful truth that she wasn't his real mother. Then something dawned on him; something that scared him out of his treacherous thoughts. "But that means—" his eyes slowly widened and she nodded.

"Your seal tree is gone."

His seal tree did not only help control his chakra; it also safely stored Kyuubi's chakra and a combination of their chakra. He had created the tree in his mindscape, an addition to the Death Reaper seal, as a way to lessen the load on him when it came to controlling all the volatile and dangerous chakra brewing up in his body.

Kyuubi, no matter how much Naruto tried to deny it, was right; he wasn't ready to control all of the deadly chakra in his body, including the combination of both his and Kyuubi's, by himself.

Naruto's well of chakra could be easily dealt with; if by some chance the tree fell apart, his chakra would seep back into the ground and return to him.

The problem was that once Kyuubi's chakra left the beast's body and was cycled through the seal tree's roots, it could only return to the Kyuubi if the tree was destroyed, but that meant that the combination would go back to Kyuubi, making it even more of a dangerous tailed beast.

The seal master rubbed his forehead with both of his hands, trying to push away the impending headache that wanted to come. He then dropped his hands and asked, "When you said 'this sort of thing happens', what did you mean?"

Kushina flipped her hair proudly and pouted. "As hard to believe as this may sound, I too once fell under a Mangekyo sharingan sleep illusion." It was easier to refer to herself in the first person than in the third.

'So that's the name…' he thought before he rolled his eyes sarcastically and said, "No…" just to humour her.

Kushina nodded insistently. "Yes, I know what you're thinking. 'How could your badass mom fall under a sharingan genjutsu?'"

He decided to humour her again by gasping and clasping his hands over his mouth like she had read his mind. "That is what I was thinking. How did you do that?"

She tapped the side of her head with her long, purple-painted pointer finger. "A mother knows." She then leaned in and said, "My best friend, Mikoto, once had the Mangekyo and she used that damn illusion on me when we sparred back when we were jounin. I was asleep for three days before I could break out."

"So, I can only break the illusion by myself? Not even she could break the jutsu?"

"Yes. You can break the jutsu, but with the help of a Mangekyo user it would be faster, say maybe in a few days. Damn, Mikoto was still salty. I called Fugaku a fat bastard. It was true!" she exclaimed and crossed her arms like a pouting child. "I regret nothing."

Naruto snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Hey, hey, please I need you to focus." Even though his first impression of his 'mother' was that she had a large, all-encompassing heart and his second opinion was that she had an almost uncontrollable rage, his close to third, maybe even his fifth, opinion of her was that she was easily distracted, especially by a sour memory. This wasn't even the first time he had to bring her out of her mental daze; thank goodness he didn't inherit that from her…

Or did he…

"Honey, honey, snap out of it."

"Hm?" he hummed in question and palmed his face in frustration. "Apparently, I did."

"What was that?"

"Nothing. What were you saying about breaking the illusion?"

"Oh yes, I had to do something that would force myself awake. It took me three days to figure that out and a week of effort but I found out what I needed to do." She stood up, and Naruto followed suit and dusted down her light green and white casual dress. She spoke as she grabbed hold of his hand and pointed at the sun. They both looked up and Naruto's jaw fell when he saw that the flaming ball of fire wasn't a flaming ball of fire but rather a single flaming red, motionless Mangekyo eye. "I had to destroy that eye."

His eyebrows furrowed and he looked at her incredulously, having to look down slightly because he was a whole head taller than her. "It took you three days to figure that out?"

She punched his belly; he doubled over onto his knees at the strength of the blow and groaned. "Don't talk to your mother like she's stupid!" her red hair flared wildly and split apart into nine separate 'tails'. She grabbed hold of his neck and lifted him clear off his feet, her purple eyes dark with suppressed power and downright outrage. "You dare insult me?!" her voice was deep with demonic rage.

Naruto hacked and clawed weakly at her hands, solidly wrapped around his throat like a vice. "Ack! Mom…! I-I'm choking…" his blue eyes began rolling back into his sockets.

Her fiery purple eyes flickered back to her usual compassionate ones and she hastily dropped him, apologising profusely as the boy massaged his aching neck and painfully dragged in deep breaths. She gently massaged his back, whispering soothing words as the boy tried not to die. "That's it…breathe…breathe…" She was acting like she wasn't the one who would have killed him if she kept her hands on his neck for a few seconds longer.

If not for the deep-seated fear of attack Naruto would have pushed his mother away, though he did stagger to his feet and limp away from her, the woman smiled serenely as she followed after him, her hands clasped behind her as she skipped after him. "Stay back…"

She scoffed and clamped a hand on his shoulder. "Oh, stop being so dramatic honey, it didn't hurt that much." Naruto's face turned red, just barely holding in the yell he wanted to let loose on her.

"How-how…" he swallowed thickly. "How do I get up there?" he shakily pointed at the eye.

"That's the spirit; I knew you were like me…or like her…you know what I mean." She swiftly ignored his offended hiss and idly kicked away a stone. "You need to somehow cooperate with Kyuubi to do that and before you can even do that, you need to beat him into submission."

Naruto did a double take. "I need to beat—"

"AAAARRRRGGGGHHHH!"

"—Kyuubi…" The ground shook and the 'sun' darkened ominously and the feral roar of the strongest tailed beast resonated through the air and pierced their ears, sending shivers down their spines at the sheer magnitude and bloodlust saturated in the single animalistic thunder.

Naturally, the weakest any person can ever be was when they were asleep. This goes beyond talking about the body being partly unknowing of its immediate and remote environment but it also concerns the mind.

The brain was resting and processing all that had occurred during that day, organising items stored in the long-term memory. Dreams were simply re-enactments of subconscious memories. The brain focused ninety-seven percent of its resources on keeping the body alive while asleep by commanding the heart to beat and the various organs to process whatever needed to be processed, it didn't have the time or the energy to spare to fight mental attacks, unlike when the person was awake. This was why shinobi were trained to sleep lightly, so that every little, seemingly insignificant sound would wake them up. They were again trained to stay awake for as long as possible, but the number one cause of shinobi deaths was still lack of sleep, so sleeping was an inevitable part of being a human being, shinobi or not.

People like Naruto, that is to say, jinchuriki, were always in a constant battle to wrestle dominance of their minds away from their beasts, whether the beasts themselves intended to dominate or not. Take Kyuubi for instance; Kurama was in a perfectly friendly relationship with Naruto, the tailed beast's frequent fear was his holder's death, not because he would die as well, albeit he would reform a few years later, but that he genuinely intended to see the boy live a safe and happy life.

The fact remained that even though Kyuubi had control of his chakra, said chakra would still vigorously attack Naruto's psyche while he slept. The death reaper seal helped the battle for total control in Naruto's favour, but it only provided a buffer zone that briefly hid Naruto from the tailed beast chakra, until the zone weakened, just when Naruto was to wake up. The only known way to stop these mental attacks was for the jinchuriki to attain perfect control over his beast's chakra, through a mindscape battle.

Back to the situation at hand, Naruto had been put under an Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan-Induced Sleep, this was the world's known strongest sleep-related genjutsu, and thus placed Naruto on a whole new level of weakness.

He had been stripped of all of his seals and his equipment, but the fact remained that this was still a dream, not simplya mindscape projection, and most importantly it was Naruto's dream.

This was what Kushina hurriedly informed Naruto as they struggled to stay on the ground with each booming step from the nine-tailed fox. The beast was still yet to make an appearance, but the fox's presence was felt.

"This is your dream Naruto; you are the king of your mind, remember that." the grassy plane around them quivered and shook with each tremor, there were no trees or shrubs for miles around. Naruto was frantically looking around, all too familiar with this side of Kyuubi. He gulped and nervously flexed his hands, turning from left to right on his feet. His head snapped back to Kushina and he stumbled back a step, out of surprise, when she was not there, though her voice echoed around him. "Good luck, Naruto. I believe in you."

That was when, many miles ahead of him, Kyuubi's magnificent nine tails shot out of the ground, swaying hypnotically with the gentle wind flowing through the dreamscape, before the tailed beast's head erupted out of the ground, destroying the earth and raining fire from the sky.

Kurama levelled his eyes with Naruto and grinned.

"You." Swimming under the heat of insanity and rage, the beast's eyes glinted with malicious intent at the speck of sand standing far below it, several miles away.

Naruto almost smiled. He shifted into the first stance of his fighting style. "This time, don't hold back."

Kurama bellowed out a vicious laugh, opening its maw wide and channelling chakra to the growing sphere of miasma before its jagged teeth.

OOOOOOOOOOOOO

Wave Country

They needed to make sure that no one found out about what happened to Naruto, and now apparently Daku. The citizens of Wave country were aware that their leader had returned, and a few were itching to see him because they had various appointments with him, but were being barred from the Leaders Tower, strangely enough.

A temporary leader needed to be decided quickly, to take up the mantle of Wave leader and keep up appearances until Naruto took back his title.

Since Daku was MIA, as both he and his master were going to be affected by the genjutsu, the person next in line was to be selected as interim leader.

That person was either Mole or Frog

Frog since he was the closest to the office of the Wave leader, a well-known confidante of the blonde seal master and a capable ninja in his own right.

Mole because she was the Deputy DARK Commander, directly under Daku, as well as the captain of Naruto's guard.

Understandably it was Mole who took the esteemed mantle instead of Frog; she was the strongest in the country at the time and she commanded plenty of respect among the populace, whether Hoshi or Wave.

Em, or Mole, sat down on Naruto's seat, her expression straight and not betraying the bundle of nerves rolling in her. She set her hands on his desk and laced them together, placing them under her chin as she looked at the occupants of the room; Frog, Zabuza, Haku, the Demon Brothers, Temari, Naruto's guards, and the Hoshi clan head, Kyra Hoshi.

Temari had rushed back to Wave to investigate why Itachi had been called back while the clan head had been summoned because he was to be included in deliberations concerning their leader.

"Our priority in this situation, just like in any similar situation in the past, is that the people should not find out about Lord Naruto's condition," she said and her words reverberated through the deathly silent room. The standing occupants nodded curtly. The new leader continued, "His hospital room is to be guarded twenty-four-seven. Raven, you're in charge of the team, go." The guards saluted and marched out of the room. "Haku, I want you to call back all of the hunter ninjas outside of the island and distribute them to the guard towers. Zabuza, I want you to assist him and make sure that the security seals on each jinchuriki allied to the Wave are still secure, as a side mission I want you to make sure that each barrier seal on each alliance village is intact, starting here."

Zabuza was not the best with seals, he left that for Naruto and Haku, but he was a whiz at memorising. He had been made to memorise the proper stack of seals to make up a barrier seal and the security seal. Both seals were level nine and complex enough to set a normal man's head on fire from simply trying to understand it but Zabuza wasn't trying to understand them, he was just memorising them. The barrier seal had been explained on many occasions; an all-elemental defence and detection seal that can repel and contain any attack known to man, including nature chakra attacks, as long as the chakra battery, supplied straight from a room under the leader's tower, was fully operational.

The security seal was a failsafe seal Naruto placed on the allied tailed beast holders, that is the one, six, seven and lastly nine, the three tails hadn't yet reformed. The seal was made up of a chakra control destruction seal, a sharingan destruction seal, an alarm seal, a reverse summoning seal that would bring the jinchuriki to a seal-reinforced room in their respective villages, and lastly, a watered-down version of the chakra high that would activate if the Jinchuriki's chakra was drained.

Naruto was nothing if not careful.

It wasn't too late for Zabuza to learn fuinjutsu, all it took was taking the teaching class and in a few years of frequent study he would be a level three, but the man was not that patient. He abided by commands from his superior, Naruto, and thankfully the boy hadn't forced him to learn seals.

Zabuza sighed at all the missions he had been placed on but still saluted, albeit grudgingly, and left with Haku.

"Frog, you are now Commander of DARK for now, but you are still to work with me in this office. Alongside both of those functions, the four major construction jobs are to be supervised by you, like you have been doing before." Frog nodded and accepted the armband of DARK commander from Mole, who exchanged grim nods with him, and he saluted crisply and marched out. The four major construction jobs Mole had mentioned were buildings that were still ongoing; the first was the Wave Country Chunin Exams Stadium, a massive structure made from solid stone and iron, each block supported by seals. It was being built in Outer Wave, on a plane of free land a little bit away from the walls of Wave Central. Frog predicted that work there would be finished in another month if they moved at their current pace.

The second building was thirteen smaller buildings, guard posts, being constructed off the island on the semi-circle of land that used to be Fire Country but had been bought by Naruto's parents, and so they were his land now. The rest of the land that was too far from Wave was sold back to the daimyo and the money was circled back into Wave's treasury The land stretched on for about ten miles until the trees got denser and the bushes got thicker, a clear sign that they were now in Fire country.

The guard posts were essentially finished being constructed but they still needed to be painted and shrouded in a Fuin-Genjutsu, as per Naruto's order. These buildings were where the hunter ninjas reported to when they were in too much of a rush to enter Wave; it was also where the guard ninjas and guard rotation were stationed, just within the detection barrier of Wave. There were thirteen buildings because of the sheer size of the land outside of the island country, there was at least three miles of space between each guard post.

The third building being done was an upgrade for the DARK operatives' headquarters. Sleeping quarters were being built in the building and the mess hall was being expanded, with the recent increase in operatives that month. Serious renovations were being done to fully accommodate each ninja and various rooms stretched underground to train the operatives or develop them, in non-physical aspects of being a shinobi. Thankfully the builders that began the initial construction of the HQ were smart enough to keep space for expansion both above and underground.

The last major construction job, as other jobs were being done but those were mostly by the citizens and towards their farms and businesses, was again merely a chain of buildings being built outside of Wave Central since there was an overabundance of free land outside of the massive inner walls of the country. Not to say that there wasn't an abundance of free space inside the walls but rather the Wave leader had decided, for the sake of order and organisation in his country, that buildings within the walls should be for businesses, schools and government organisations closely linked with his office that could only be maintained from a reachable distance, more because of convenience like schools and DARK HQ, while Outer Wave was for farmlands, fish markets, training grounds, clan compounds, housing units for those that prefer living close to the sea, farmers market, for those that can't transport their wares into Wave Central, and units for social gathering.

The building Naruto was constructing was among the last classifications. He was building a recreational facility for children, teenagers and the elderly. There were already buildings for those inside the inner walls but a few parents had petitioned for the buildings because of their affinity for living near water. They still had to go to school in inner Wave, which was becoming more and more like a city, but the blonde leader had conceded to their pleading.

Mole looked at the last person in the room, a tall man with shoulder-length white hair tied into a ponytail. He was in a royal purple cloak with a slit down the sides to show that he was in black ninja pants and black sandals; this was probably his combat uniform. He stood at attention with his hands behind his back and his chin up proudly and waited for the leader to assign him his role.

"Lord Kyra, I do not want your clan mates to discover about Lord Naruto's situation. I'm sure you know why."

The man silently grits his teeth but nods. "Understood."

"And," she continued, raising a finger for his attention as he prepared to leave the room, "as the Chief of Police, I want police patrols to increase around the island, Inner and Outer Wave. I have a feeling that whatever took out our lord will soon attack and I want this country to be completely protected, barrier seal or not." He nodded and waited for more commands. "I will leave the details to you."

"I will do all in my power to keep Wave safe, Lady Em."

"I trust you too." She motioned for him to leave and raised an eyebrow when he stayed in place. "Is there something wrong?"

"I wish to know when the new equipment Lord Naruto commissioned to be created will arrive so I can begin instructing my men on how they are to be used."

Mole shifted a few documents around her desk until she found what she was looking for. "Lord Kitsuen," the Hidden Smoke leader, "has said that they will come tomorrow. First thing in the morning." She hummed and flipped to the next page, where a diagram of what Naruto had ordered from the mechanic and engineer blessed the allied village; a baton. This one was similar to the one Daku used to fight with only a small difference; this one was made from a light metal. Seal augmentation was becoming a norm for the members of the allied village, so predictably the baton was speckled with seals. The functions were listed out in another letter but overall, what it could do was fully incapacitate a person with a single tap, with only a few conditions, again listed somewhere else. The weapons were to be distributed among the police force of the other villages, and notthe shinobi force. She handed the picture to the man while saying. "They will arrive on the train at the crack of dawn tomorrow."

"Thank you, Lady Em," he said humbly and bowed deeply.

She nodded and he left the room. The woman rolled her neck and prepared herself for the next part of what she was to do.

Naruto had detailed the protocol of what was to happen if he was out of action; the first being that knowledge of his inaction was to be hidden, so panic wouldn't take over Wave, the next was to call back about half of the ninjas back to the village. This was because of the current situation with many people being after his head and willing to go through people just to fish him out; as soon as everything was resolved then he would reduce the urgency and only call back much less than half of his forces.

The leader pressed the intercom buzzer on her desk and immediately the civilian secretary popped her head in. Mole tossed the scroll to the secretary, and after reading through it, the civilian nodded and went to perform what had been written. Next, Mole was to make sure that things went on as normal, which could be checked off her list for now.

She heard a low, polite cough and Mole blushed with embarrassment when she remembered that Temari was still in the office. "I'm sorry Lady Temari; I just have a lot on my mind." Mole scratched the back of her neck and chuckled airily. "I wonder how the Master does it."

The blonde Suna Kunoichi waved flippantly. "What do you want me to do?"

Mole drummed her fingers on her desk and said, "Can you please take over training Lord Naruto's genin team?" She tapped her fingers on the table and her body erupted into chakra smoke. When it cleared it revealed a detailed illusionary disguise of Naruto in fine quality. "Can you…also, judge my disguise?"

Authors note

What do you think of Naruto/Daku being put to sleep? Or Mole being the interim Wave leader?

Understandably, since Daku has been operating as a separate entity from Naruto since Chapter 2, some of you will forget that he came from Naruto's chakra. He is sentient, semi-independent, and loyal to a fault to Naruto, but that also makes him a direct link to Naruto; Madara's sharingan caught Daku in the illusion, which scrambled Daku's chakra, which I previously established as Naruto's chakra, meaning the illusion inevitably affected Naruto.

What do you think of the story so far?

Please drop a review, would you so kindly, stay safe wherever you are in the world, I will see you on the flip side.

Foy.