For all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding their victory, the truth was that the Village Hidden in Legends was severely weakened by the attack. They, however, had no intention of letting the rest of the world know that once anger at Sacrifice settled down and the old rivalries surfaced, so they adopted the strategy of not slowing down the number of missions they were taking and resuming business as normal as soon as possible. At least until the next Great God-on-Earth could be chosen (and the lack of consensus on that was increasingly becoming a problem in of itself), they should keep doing what they had been doing beforehand.

For Band 7, that meant training with the Guide. A little more than before, actually, as this time he was more eager to show Naruto how to use the Darkness Purview and give Sakura advice he could on expanding her knowledge of the Health and Justice Purviews, as well as finding more uses for Arete.

While on an intellectual level he knew that this made sense, Sasuke was a little miffed that sensei had moved his priority to expanding their strength, especially after Naruto had accomplished what he couldn't.

The story of how Hekau had hoped to use its Titan Lord in the attack, but that the Village was saved from that monstrosity by Fuu and Sasuke (no one would accept that Naruto had actually done something so impressive, while the Seelie King wouldn't let anyone not know what his Village's special protege had accomplished), had spread, and it cut him like a knife every time he had to correct people about it.

It wasn't character that provoked him to honesty. It was that lying about an accomplishment would honestly be worse than hearing how the dead last had surpassed him on that day. Itachi wouldn't be defeated by boasts, but he also wouldn't be a defeated by a washout who did well in school then fell apart when it really counted. He needed to get stronger. He couldn't let those two surpass him.

This particular moment, where Naruto insisted on learning the Fire Purview because of how cool Sasuke's sword had looked (the boy worded it as if he would inevitably make it look cooler, which would have once annoyed the last Amatsukami but now only reminded him of his own failures), and was failing spectacularly as Kakashi humored him more out of personal amusement than a serious desire to improve the boy's skills, just exacerbated everything that he was feeling.

Tsumire, that eternal hanger-on that he couldn't seem to get rid of, wasn't helping.

"He doesn't look impressive at all," she noted, watching from the other side of a fence and commenting so that only Sasuke could hear her, "yet he did so much back then." Sasuke grunted in response. "Oh, don't be like that, you saved my life, that's hardly something to sneeze at. I'm sure that you could easily get stronger than this kid, if you had the right opportunities."

"What would a civilian like you know about opportunities for Scions to get stronger?" Sasuke laughed at her.

"Enough to know that the Academy here made you think you were the strongest and he was the weakest, until reality bit you in the face," she noted. He started to walk away. "I'm just saying," she tried to get him to listen, "that there's a good chance that that Naruto boy's teacher will the next Great God-on-Earth. Maybe you need another teacher as well."

He didn't respond to her, but the thought did give him pause. Naruto was getting stronger with the help of others, it was true. He thought that he didn't need others, but maybe that was why he was falling behind? She was right, after all. Naruto had apparently spent a month with Jiraiya, and now Jiraiya was one of the two people that had the Village in political deadlock.

A part of him wanted to use his technical position as Head of Clan Amatsukami to cast a vote for Danzo just out of spite, but that would not only be petty but a waste of time. The choice for Great God-on-Earth wasn't formally decided by election, but perceived consensus, with the King of the Land of Heroes just appointing someone if it went on for too long, and his status as a Clan Head wasn't meaningful considering…the state of Clan Amatsukami.

He needed a mentor, someone to guide him in a way that Kakashi wasn't. Naruto had already gotten in good with Jiraiya, and from what he heard his own personality was probably incompatible with the old man's anyway, and Danzo was largely unreachable. Outside of them, who would be worthwhile to seek help from?

--

When Itachi had left the Village, he had had the foresight to take a few of his old family's Birthrights. He felt a little bad about it, as he was effectively desecrating their legacy after killing them, but there were too many practical concerns to let such sentimentality get in his way. If he let sentimentality overwhelm practical concerns, he wouldn't have done it in the first place.

Regardless, one of the more useful ones was a bird perch that made training the Animal (Dove) Purview easier and allowed him access to Hachiman's doves. It was one of these very birds that let them know the Maelstrom in the Underwold had come, that the Gatekeepers would be in a different state, able to be extracted out of order, and that they could try to snatch those nearby. It had come later than expected, unfortunately. Crom Cruach and Apophis had left the country. However, Mikaboshi was still there.

Itachi just had to make certain that when Kisame went for the boy, he himself managed their failure in a way that made it look they had tried. Presenting themselves as well-wishers and philanthropists hoping to support the re-building Village in its time of need, the two had no problem entering the place, not even in their Daybreak robes. It was a little embarrassing on the Village Hidden in Legends' part, actually.

--

Everyone who was paying attention to the politics of Legends these days was under a massive misconception. They thought that the elites whose opinions mattered were deadlocked between making Danzo the Great God-on-Earth and Jiraiya the Great God-on-Earth, with neither side able to break through to the other's camp. The reality was that Danzo had made too many enemies over the years, and that more than enough of the Village was willing to put Jiraiya in place to overcome the Deva man's support base, but that Jiraiya himself really didn't want to.

Stopping Danzo from getting the position was the only reason he hadn't outright refused, but in truth he had desperately hoped that the events of the battle would be enough to push one of the Upper Demigods into the status of Minor God so that he could nominate whoever it was instead of himself. Now that it was clear that that wasn't going to happen, he was just about to resign himself to abandoning his lifelong personal quest and taking up a life of paperwork and responsibility when another option occurred to him.

Summoning a few Clan Heads and Mortal Council members that he knew weren't on Danzo's side but a little unsure about Jiraiya also, he asked them a simple question. "How long would you give me to convince Tsunade to come back and take the job?"

--

Naruto was in a very short funk that had nothing to do with the state of the Village surrounding him or any interpersonal angst. No, it was a matter of having spent an entire mission trying to figure out what was under Kakashi's mask and only learning that he wore two masks. Sure, he stopped those two guys who were convinced that a bunch of Scions had ruined his past true love or whatever from kidnapping a girl, but his own personal objective had just gone unfulfilled. What was that all about?

And now Kakashi planned to spend the afternoon working on Sakura's Wits Knacks, so he didn't get to do anything cool. Oh, he could train on his own, and was in fact supposed to, but he wanted to learn a bit. So when the Pervy Sage dropped by, he was a bit excited.

"Hey, kid, would you like to go on a trip with me? I need to meet someone."

"Why do you want me to come along?"

"Well, she doesn't particularly like me, but you have Charisma Knacks, so you might help her listen."

Somehow, he sensed that there was a lot being unsaid, but Naruto only responded, "I'd like to, but I really need to work on my training here. I think I might be getting the Earth Purview down!"

Jiraiya rubbed his chin for a bit. "What if I helped you learn a new Purview, one practically no-one in the Village knows?"

"I thought Unique Purviews were impossible to study," Naruto responded.

"I'm not talking about Asha. I'm talking about Stars. It doesn't even have an animal scroll in the Library."

Just as Naruto was about to shout about what he could possibly do with a bunch of twinkling little stars, he remembered that that time Jiraiya had him stuck helplessly watching Fuu from…outside of time? Had been a Stars Boon. Maybe he could try it?

"Okay, Pervy Sage, I'm listening."

--

"Don't think. Know."

That was the entirety of the Wits Knack catalogue, from Epic Wits to Ultimate Wits, distilled into a single sentence. Even though Sakura had developed Epic Wits before even graduating from the Academy, understanding this whenever she tried to expand this particular ability proved frustrating. It covered one's ability to feel, react, and immediately process things on an intuitive level. In short, practically every mental capability that didn't involve deep thought.

So how did one come to understand it without thinking about it, the way would come to understand literally everything else? Apparently, by letting one's Guide throw things at them while blindfolded.

She caught quite a few of them, actually (she did already have Epic Wits and Rabbit Reflexes down, after all), but it wasn't good enough for him. Not when she kept getting rotten tomato juice all over her good shirt on the third or fourth try. She had to do better, or he wouldn't stop laughing. It was not at all a fair proposal.

"Gai can use his Wits Knacks to literally spin around and catch projectiles coming for him at a practically 360 degree angle. I myself can catch far more than this. Really, do you know how difficult it's going to be wash that out later?" Guide Kakashi admonished her, pointing out her vegetable-smeared smock.

While she knew full well that he was trying to rile her up (being unable to match two different Upper Demigods was hardly a reasonable critique), a blood vessel still swelled as she prepared to unleash an unholy tirade against him for his complete lack of consideration before she felt something.

Her arms, fueled by the exact same Wits Knack training she had just been undergoing, reacted before she noticed the absurdly vicious squirrels running toward her, smacking them to the side and keeping herself safe. "What in the Underworld? Kakashi, if this is another one of your-"

"This wasn't me," he responded in a completely serious tone. "Something has the animals riled up." He drew his knives. "Sakura, stay out of harm's way until I figure out what's going on. This could be dangerous."

She had no intention of disobeying him out of any false sense of bravado, but she did hide in the nearby tree, checking for any attack squirrels, and watch rather than try to get out of there.

--

If allowing the two of them to freely walk in there was an embarrassment to the Village Hidden in Legends, then how little effort it took to get information on who Naruto was and where he was likely to train was an even more humiliating travesty. Itachi was certain that such standards would never have been allowed when he was still with the Intelligence Division.

Kisame merely found that observation amusing, and called on the Lore of Beasts to rile up all of the animals surrounding them.

Comparing Demon and Scion power levels was so odd. On one hand, no Animal Purview user could call on nearly as many creatures at once as he could with a simple Evocation, among the first the House of Devourer's taught its members, while the feats Itachi had seen from the greatest of Demons seemed to pale in comparison to what Minor Gods or even Upper Demigods could do.

A wasteful observation, he supposed, as the beasts scouring the training grounds didn't find anything bright and orange, though their supernaturally induced aggression probably attracted a Scion or two to their location. A proper interrogation after a satisfying battle was more their style anyways.

--

"So, are you all packed?" Jiaraiya asked an exhausted Naruto.

"I guess, how long is this trip going to be anyways? And did you let Kakashi know?"

He had a month to find Tsunade before they forced him to be the Great God-on-Earth, and he had completely forgotten about asking the kid's current Guide for permission to take his student, but didn't think it diplomatic to bring either factoid up.

"Shouldn't be more than a week, and Kakashi is fully aware of what I'm doing," he lied. "Now let's go, we don't to waste time, especially if you want to spend that time learning about, well, time."

--

It did not take long for Kakashi to find what was getting the animals so aggressive; two men in black cloaks covered in red clouds were standing in the middle of a field, one chanting some sort of Evocation. This one had sharp fangs and discolored skin, his cheekbones narrowed unnaturally. Something had been done to him, probably by himself, and he was getting all of the squirrels angry. That wouldn't do at all.

When Kakashi drew his knives to confront the pair, the one angering all of the animals shouted out "Lore of Wilds: Command the Wild," and Kakashi now found himself dodging out of the way of several sharpened tree branches that apparently hungered for his blood and thorny flower stems that tried to wrap around his legs. So, this one could rile up plants just as well as animals, that was fun.

It sounded like a Demon, and racking his brain for anyone who matched the description of what he could determine thus far he was left guessing that this was Kisame, the wielder of Wildhunger, and supposedly the greatest of the Seven Earthbound Sword Wielders. Considering how close Kakashi had come to dying to the last person to wield one of those things, this did not bode well.

HIs partner continued to keep his own face covered, not interfering with the fight except to ask, "we are looking for Mikaboshi's Gatekeeper. Could you please give us directions and not waste time on a pointless fight?"

That voice sounded familiar, though Kakashi was far too busy keeping the local plant life from ripping into him to put too much thought into the matter.

Striking his knives against each other to generate sparks, Kakashi shouted "Fire Purview: Bolster Flame" and let the expanded orange bits turn into flames that sort-of-kind-of gave him a little bit of relief. Unfortunately, the fires were small, the plants were fully alive and wet, and their unnatural aggression was enough to overcome their natural aversion to flame. Only a few fell dead, but that was enough for him to jump away from them and toward his two opponents.

"I hate to jump in," Kakashi smiled at them, "Chaos Purview: Recurring Distraction!"

He had no intentions of going in against that Demon with no advantage whatsoever, especially considering that he had no idea what his ally could do, and so, hoping that the distraction of thinking about that stupid one-liner would throw him off enough to get the advantage, he leapt forward…

"Moon Purview: Eclipse Halo."

The unidentified one surrounded himself in an aura of black, except for the glowing white circle that resembled what little of the moon one could see during an eclipse, the light of which drew Kakashi's eyes before he could think to do otherwise…immediately driven blind, what advantage he might have given himself over Kisame was immediately withdrawn. Everything was blackness.

Luckily, he wasn't entirely dependent on his eyes; with lesser opponents, they might have been shocked by little it accomplished. With these ones, this meant he couldn't waste time trying to fight in melee blind and instead went to drain all of his Ichor. "Fire Purview: Inferno! Chaos Purview: Crawling Chaos!"

He felt the fire burst into life in front of him, far faster and at much greater size (but also draining so much of his Ichor as fuel) than Bolster Flame could create, and he was sure that Kisame was targeted with a sudden shift in perception that should not only make him unable to perceive the world correctly but extend that confusion to those surrounding him, but he could only guess whether or not it accomplished anything…it apparently didn't, if the bite of the blade that not only gripped his flesh but started biting into it like it had an animal's teeth was any indication.

Sakura stared at Kakashi as the two took him down, utterly terrified. She was barely managing to evade the aggressive animal and plant life surrounding her, what could she do about these two? Get help, she screamed to herself internally. Call the forces of Legends. A branch covered in thorns wrapped itself around her leg, drawing blood as it tightened. Rather than cut through it, she screamed.

"Intruders! Intruders! They're attacking the Village! Intrud-" a strange knife, it looked like one of the 'Japanese' ones that Sasuke sometimes trained with, rammed into her stomach. Those two had noticed her, she was so dead…a second knife was blocked by a leg in a garish green outfit kicking it away.

"Who are you to threaten the Village Hidden in Legends!" Maito "John Henry" Gai shouted at the two.

Neither Asuma nor Kurenai were particularly concerned about watching Gai's latest attempt to challenge Kakashi to whatever competition he had made up on the spot this time, but it turned out for the best. Now they were in the right spot to deal with the latest apparent threat to the Village, and just in time considering Kakashi's state.

"Sky Purview: Sky's Freedom," Asuma shouted before leaping into the air with a burst of wind while Kurenai channeled her own Ichor and intoned "Guardian Purview: Unseen Shield," feeling the energy surrounding her and protecting all she cared about. "Magic Purview: Transform Person," she then intoned, trying to call on the sympathetic links she held with all of her companions so that they could benefit from the effect she had placed on herself, though, in spite of her efforts, apparently only Asuma got the effects. This did get one of the enemy's attentions, however.

"A Magician? Kisame, this can be a problem."

As he looked toward her, a bleeding out Kakashi shouted out, "He has an Upper Demigod mastery of the Moon Purview, don't look at him!"

Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai all looked away before he shouted "Moon Purview: Eclipse Halo." Their felt their eyes drawn toward him, but knew that it would be foolish to look his way as they felt so, which of course raised the question of how they were supposed to fight someone who they couldn't look toward.

"Okay, everyone, keep your eyes on their feet and let your ears, nose, and intuition do the perceiving!" Gai shouted, which prompted Kurenai to respond to him that not all of them had spent so much time expanding their Perception Knacks.

Gai answered by charging forward himself, staring at the two men's feet as he listened for the subtle whistle of the wind, the shift in smell, that would give away their movements, successfully dodging all of Kisame's sword swings and noting that the other was using a lengthened bit of clay, that he barely had to try in order to barely dodge it…"Tsukumo-Gami Purview: Impressed Spirit," the apparent Scion muttered, transforming the 'length of clay' into a lengthened metal blade that was even longer, long enough to ram into his side.

Ignoring the pain as he attempted to retreat, he managed one last kick into Kisame's face before he managed to process the implications of what he just heard.

"A Rogue Scion, skilled in the Moon Purview, able to use Tsukumo-Gami…".

"Yes, I'm Itachi "Tsuki-Yomi" Amastukami, the same one who massacred his own Clan, but that's irrelevant right now. Where is Naruto "Izanami?"

Asuma, using Itachi's voice as a guide, tried to visualize where it should land as he shouted "Sky Purview: Levin Fury!" And tried to force a lightning bolt on this clear day. It worked, the cackling electricity careened down to where the two had been, but it had no effect other than to elicit the sounds of some creature eating the electric energy he had just summoned.

"Thank you for that, Wildhunger hasn't had such raw energy for a while now."

Realizing that this fight was going nowhere, Gai pulled back to regroup and strategize, calling out, "we will never let you know where Naruto is!"

Itachi stared at them blankly. "So you do know, then?" He looked toward their clothing. "Tsukumo-Gami Purview: Awaken Spirit. Tsukumo-Gami Purview: Fool Spirit."

The three standing Scions prepared to attack, while Kakashi tried to stand up, as Kisame expended more Faith Energy into increasing the aggression of the plant life surrounding them to slow the group down as Itachi shouted, imitating Gai's voice, "now, remind me of what I last heard about Naruto!"

As Asuma swooped down to stab at the pair, he made the mistake of looking into Itachi's Halo and finding himself blinded.

The others rushed forward as Itachi listened to some conversation they couldn't hear and then told Kisame, "he isn't here. They were coming here to let Kakashi know that Naruto had gone on a trip with his informal teacher. They recently left. Let's go."

"I want revenge on the one who kicked me," Kisame whined, more disappointed than frustrated, "and the fighting barely got started."

"Remember the mission. Psychopomp Purview: Come Along. Psychopomp Purview: Rainbow Bridge."

Multiple glowing lights, all in different colors, surrounded the pair. Even with the Eclipse Halo vanishing, the Scions attacking them struck just after the coalescing lights sucked them into apparent non-existence.

"What happened? Where are they?" Kurenai shouted.

"He used Rainbow Bridge, it's a technique that allows the user to change their location to more-or-less everywhere. I've been studying it recently, but there's really no telling where they went," Asuma, the most knowledgeable in Psychopomp among them, replied.

"Gai, he spoke to your clothing," Kakashi sputtered out, "what have you heard?"

"Naruto agreed to help Jiraiya out with a mission. I was heading out here to let you know, and also to challenge you to-I guess this isn't the time."

--

Naruto was excited to start his training as they checked into the nearby hotel, but Jiraiya had other plans.

"Well, sure, we're going to get to that, but first I have to figure out where the woman we're looking for is. She has a tendency to vanish."

"What! You didn't tell me that!"

"Well, I'm telling you now. But don't worry, if there's anything you should have learned about me by now, it's how dependable I am."

"Pervy Sage, I have literally learned the exact opposite about you at every opportunity."

"What? Is that any way to talk about one of the Sankami?" Noticing that this drew a blank from Naruto, he slapped his forehead. "What are they teaching you in the Academy these days? The Sankami, famous heroic Scions, saved the Village Hidden in Legends in the last war, faced down Hanzo the Salamander, the most powerful Deviant to have ever been Soul-Scarred, in a battle so legendary it brought all three of them from Demigod to Minor God at the same time?" Naruto looked even more lost. "One of them trained the man who served as Great God-on-Earth between Guide Sarutobi's tenures," he continued, hoping at least one of his accomplishments would make an impression.

"You trained the Great God-on-Earth? Like I'm going to be one day?"

"Yeah, I did," Jiraiya bragged, basking in having finally earned some adulation from the boy.

"He's the one who sealed Mikaboshi in me," the boy suddenly grew somber. "Hey, that reminds me, Pervy Sage, when I talked to Mikaboshi, before he stopped sending so much Darkness through me that it blocked the other Purviews, he said that he knew who my father was, and claimed that you did too."

Jiraiya's heart stopped for a second. "What? What did he say, exactly?"

"Well, not much, just that I knew nothing and to ask you about it when I had the chance. He thought it would be amusing."

The Titan Lord conspired against him. It was a shockingly petty act for such a being, but it also meant that he was seeking vengeance against him. It also meant that maybe it was finally time…he looked down at the boy, so earnest, so happy.

This was the type of person he wanted by his side convincing Tsunade to give up on drinking and gambling her problems away and coming back to the Village. He…couldn't do it. He couldn't risk the boy being angry at him, being bitter at the world that rejected him, that knew who he was and did nothing. He knew deep down that it was cowardice that motivated him, but he could still tell himself the mission had to succeed, didn't he?

"I can think of a few people you look similar to, I guess," Jiraiya lied through his teeth, "maybe I did know your father, but I didn't know it was yours. Sorry, kid." Patting the head of the now crestfallen boy, he continued, "if I think of something, I'll let you know. Now, stay here while I do some research."

--

There was a local bar where one could pay to spend some quality time with its prettiest waitresses. The owners thought that men would appreciate some quality conversation while they drank, and Jiraiya was more than happy to partake. They might have the information he needed…and the fact that said conversations were with beautiful women pretending to be attracted him was a minor side bonus, but just a minor one, of course. Beautiful enough that he didn't the confluence of rainbow-colored lights swirling in a mass for a second or two before two figures appeared in its center, though those figures certainly noticed him.

"I'm not sure if we can take him on," Itachi noted.

"One-on-one, certainly not, but with the both of us," Kisame licked his lips in anticipation. "Besides, we just need the Gatekeeper, and I don't see him traveling with our dear Sankami."

And so the two left the old Minor God alone for a while, as they looked for their intended quarry.

--

Sakura was utterly petrified. All of those Upper Demigods, and they couldn't do a thing to those two. She herself had stood there uselessly, but refused to really let it get to her; after all, what could even the most competent of Heroes have done in such a scenario? Shaken, she found herself running into Sasuke.

"Oh, Sasuke, have you heard about what happened to Kakashi?"

"No," he said, clearly uninterested yet not brushing her off.

Taking that as a sign to continue, she went on, "he was attacked by these two strangers, both of them really powerful. One was even a Rogue Scion, I think they said his name was 'Itachi,' and…"

she couldn't properly continue as Sasuke grabbed her shoulders, his expression now desperate, and asked her, "please, tell me everything."

The fact that this scenario matched up exactly with far too many of her fantasies to let her brain work properly was convenient for neither of them.

"Sakura, I mean this in the most polite way I can say it," the boy she had had a crush on for countless years seethed, "please stop looking at me like that and take this seriously. Tell me where Itachi is."

"He was…I think he said that he was looking for Naruto, and that one Maito Gai person said that Naruto was traveling with someone. So, they think he headed for the next town, but the search party that they're trying to assemble is getting delayed."

"Sakura, I will ask you this once, and only once. There is no penalty for refusing. Do you want to come with me to find this guy, on my own terms? Answer in the next five seconds or I'm leaving you."

Sakura wanted to come because she wanted to fight beside him, yes, as she had for quite some time. But she also wanted to come because Naruto was her bandmate, as was Sasuke, and it was important for her to be part of this. Nodding, he nodded back and then gestured for her to follow before going to find out where Naruto had likely gone.

--

Naruto was currently sitting in his hotel room, grumbling about how bored he was. Was Pervy Sage actually planning on teaching him anything? Ignoring the rumbling in his stomach, he stretched just as someone knocked on the door.

"Well, it's about time you got back, Pervy Sage, do you have any idea how little there is to do in here-"

Naruto had never seen the man on the other side of the door before in his life. The unnatural aura surrounding said man, even more than the grayish skin and filed teeth revealed by his smile, convinced the Gatekeeper to run.

--

Techniques used:

Lore of Beasts: Command the Beast-Pure Form: gives an order that all animals able to understand will be compelled to follow. Tormented Form: makes all nearby animals overly aggressive

Lore of Wilds: Command the Wild-Pure Form: makes nearby plant-life move in a chosen direction. Tormented Form-makes nearby plant life capable of violent action

Moon Purview: Eclipse Halo-creates a halo of light, resembling the moon during an eclipse, that blinds anyone looking directly at it

Fire Purview: Inferno-creates a massive flame fueled by the user's continuous Ichor investment

Chaos Purview: Crawling Chaos-similar to Paralyzing Confusion, except that it spreads to nearby victims

Magic Purview: Transform Person-applies any supernatural alterations one has made to themselves to another person

Tsukumo-Gami Purview: Impressed Spirit-after establishing a good relationship with an object's spirit, one may transform artistic representations of the object into the object itself

Tsukumo-Gami Purview: Fool Spirit-compel a spirit to believe a specific lie

Psychopomp Purview: Rainbow Bridge-teleports to a known location