A/N Hiya everyone I wanted to apologise for not updating in a timely manner. Life and my desire to right this story was no where near stable enough to write this. It isn't now but I wanted to get something even if it was a small connecting chapter to move on to bigger things. There was other things as well that prevented me writing this but I will discuss them at the bottom so you may enjoy the story.

It is rare for me to get a message via a hawk from my pa, it is even rarer when the message isn't asking me to return to Konoha and it's unheard of for it to be a message to the Daimyo.

But I know my duty as a member of the Guardian Shinobi Twelve.

So here I am walking through the extravagant palace to my only master. The Daimyo himself. Wondering what this message could even possibly be. People bowed or showed some form of respect as I went, even a few nobles, and whilst I still showed respect it was obvious my mind wasn't there.

Instinctually I noted the positions of all the shinobi and samurai that were on guard around the palace. Even if I ignored them as I moved through the crimson halls lined with gold. Finally after moving for what felt forever but was truly only a few minutes I arrived at the private quarters of the Daimyo.

Silently for the hundredth cursing that cigarettes are not permitted within his presence, I took one long breath and knocked on the door 5 times to signal guardian presence. As I heard the door unlock I pushed the two ornate doors open.

"My lord, Daimyo I come bearing a message from the hokage." The man seemed as surprised as I was. His normal jovial attitude turned serious for a second before rapidly switching back. Handing him the missive which had a broken seal. As protocol dictates.

"It seems a new nation has been discovered and they want to begin relations. Although the hokage notes how dangerous he thinks they are." The Daimyo answered my unasked question. The moment he finished it became clear why it was sent through me. To minimise the risk of interception.

The Daimyo spoke again, giving me orders to follow. This week was about to get a lot more stressful.

In a large cave within fire country

I stood in front of an army of sky nation's most elite shinobi we all assembled for one purpose to remove a great nation once and for all. To destroy the undefeated Leaf village. Although I suppose I can't pretend that this will be our glory alone considering I could see the grass and rain shinobi intermingling with our proud forces.

Whilst it is annoying to admit the weakness of one's village

With Nox

I've been in this village a couple days now, the place will be hard to occupy by force. Even if the Fire Lord bows to me, a puppet regime will need to be put in place. Should I pick an academy student now? No. They have a different role.

Then it seems I must complete the first part of the plan. As I finished my thought a sense of foreboding flooded over me, the same as when a great battle was about to be fought. Can the republic know of our location? Impossible we should still have years at the least. So what is it?

Ignoring the feeling for a second I walked out of the hotel room. Apparently embassies or official delegation buildings didn't exist in this land so we were expected to deal with our own lodgings. An insult which nearly led to lightsabers being drawn. So here we are in a run down hotel since we have none of this land's currency except what the two civilians we rescued gave as thanks.

*beep* *beep*

My holocom going off was a surprise. Activating it I saw Xalek already kneeling.

"My emperor, I have news to report." Giving my permission the Khaleesh turned darth continued.

"It seems the area in which you described the manufactorium to be is cloaked against our sensors. Additionally a significantly smaller cloaked presence is moving in from the south towards the fire capital."

Now that was interesting. If I let this attack , for that is all it can be, launch. I can come in and save the fire nation. But we don't have that level of resources. I could not help but that will achieve nothing.

"Inform the Grand Moff of these developments. Have him position forces including a harrower into position to defend the capital. I will be on the ground myself. Let's show this world that if you're going to cloak you have to do it on a smaller scale."

I only don't have the resources if I want to do this traditionally and since when have I been one for tradition.

Thinking to myself a better plan came to me.

"Xalek, I want you personally and 90% of our sith to carry out these next set of orders. You are only to use lightning or primitive steel blades…"

Once Xalek heard my order his eyes momentarily flashed open before nodding and ended the call, whilst I got up and left my room. Seeing that all my eradicators were lined up ready for me I marched straight to the hokage tower.

Minato Pov

The paperwork was surprisingly light today allowing me to spend more time with Kushina even if it was still in the office.

Looking at her once more I couldn't help but smile seeing how lucky I was that she chose me. Noticing her hand rub her protruding stomach, my smile grew tenfold. How lucky am I going to be?

Sadly as always my happiness is cut short by a knock on the office door. "Lord Hokage the Sith Emperor wishes to see you." Now that was unexpected, looking briefly out my window I noticed the sun just about peak over the horizon. What would he wish to speak to me about so early?

Giving the signal for him to be allowed in, I motioned for my anbu to be alert. Not that they need the order of course.

The door opened and the emperor walked in tilting his body so that his long shoulder pauldrons fit. If he was a shinobi that alone would get him killed.

"Ah Emperor Nox, may I ask what the purpose of your visit is?" I asked whilst staring into the black abyss that is his skull helmet. Now that I think about it I have never seen his face how strange for a ruler not to show it.

"I came for two reasons, Lord Hokage, firstly to inform you of some developments my people have picked up on and secondly to alert you of my moves going forward."

Well this is unexpected, what are these developments he speaks of? More importantly, why would he feel the need to inform me?

"For context my people are able to see life signs across the entire planet." That is an incredibly useful and more importantly dangerous ability. If it were true, but what reason does he have to lie?

"We have detected a large group of life signatures in the north east but more worryingly we noticed the decrease of the signatures of those already present." My body instinctively tensed as I heard this news. An invasion from the north east that means Kumo. Why would they launch an attack now?

Why attack the villages? Civilians tend to be avoided in shinobi wars. Are they trying to cripple the fire nation's economy? Maybe but there are far better ways to do it. Moreover this isn't the Raikage's style. He would hunt down military posts first.

Signalling to anbu to summon shikaku. I couldn't stop my eyes from staring at the deep abyss that his mask calls for eyes only to see the slightest glow of scarlet red. I could almost feel the happiness and smugness the emperor was reeling off, so much so that my body involuntary tensed. Why would he be happy about this situation? Did he have a hand in it?

"I see and what are your 'moves going forward'?" I asked, burying my suspicion for the moment.

"My moves are simply to finalise my alliance with the land of fire then return back to my empire. To do this I wish to speak with you then go to your… Daimyo was it?" Normally I would be fine with a potential ally going to see the Daimyo. But the Sith Emperor is far from a normal ally and if my suspicions are correct and if he did have a hand in the invasion. Well, killing the Daimyo would make life easier since it could cause a power vacuum with the potential of a civil war. Easily making the invasion a success.

Putting only a little more thought into the situation I came up with the solution. "I will accompany you to the Daimyo and with his presence we can iron out the details of this alliance." Now if he does try something I will be able to stop him. For some kami reason a chill ran down my spine as I finished speaking.

"I wouldn't have it any other way lord hokage." The emperor didn't even hide his happiness at hearing my statement. Does he have anything to do with the attacks? Surely not he was only just discovered, the uchiha confirmed as much.

Before my musings could continue any longer three drawn out knocks rung from the office door. Calling for them to enter, one shikaku nara walked into the room. Good we can begin the war meeting. "Well I thank you, Emperor Nox, for meeting me. We will leave at first light tomorrow if that isn't an issue for you." The emperor confirmed it was not and strode out of the office room not caring if he walked into anyone. Kami he's going to be troublesome.

Kushina Pov

Meetings were never my thing and normally I could skip these tedious discussions but Minato liked to have me with him when it came to war meetings. If only to act as a reassurance.

So I only partly paid attention to the meeting itself and instead could only wonder.

Wonder what was causing Minato to panic, to doubt? He hid it well but I knew the signs and if the looks that shikaku was giving me was any indicator then he knew as well. Was he scared of the sith emperor? I can't entirely blame him. After the encounter with the fox he became something far more… monstrous than just an emperor. But should I tell Minato what the fox said?

Should I even trust the fox? Mito always said never to trust the fox if it was somehow able to communicate with me. But the raw hatred and the slightest ounces of fear within the fox's words was undeniable. The emperor said his people were on the run, just like I was. If I. If I listen to the fox then that would lead to war with the sith empire. It would lead to their extinction. Simply because of fear. Fear. The emotion that tore my homeland apart before burning the remains in the crucible of genocide.

But Minato wouldn't listen to the fox nor go that far right? No he wouldn't.

Ashara pov

It was rare to see Xalek genuinely confused about an order. Not to say he was disobedient for his loyalty will never be in question. But he always understood a fraction of what his master planned. So the very fact that he came to me in order to understand our emperor's goal was a shock to be sure.

Alerting me of his sacred orders he pushed his question. Why does the emperor wish for him to use primitive swords? There was only one reason for that. Only one nefarious reason. So the plan to wrestle control from the inhabitants from this world has begun.

Realising the machinations at work the apprentice of the emperor left the room to begin his crusade. If only Xalek realised his 'god' was a normal man then maybe he could form a life of his own.

Still I have other duties I must attend and if Xalek was content with being a zealot then that was his choice. Choice, even amongst the more narrow minded of Sith there was individuality, there was unique people. When was the last time the Jedi ever tried to be answer was obvious but disappointing. The schisms. The very thing that led to the creation of the sith order. The very reason the wars began. All because the Jedi couldn't accept that people were unique.

Now that very refusal to accept that a different ideology exists is putting an entire people. My people. At risk of extinction. Sure the empire had a lot of issues, but Acina, Marr and Nox were some of the greatest reformers the galaxy has seen. After all what other nation has changed fundamentally as much as the Sith Empire under their leadership. None and certainly not the tolerant Republic.

I only wanted peace. Yet here I am on a primitive world aiding in the destruction of a civilization just so the one I adopted can prosper. I am no better than the Jedi that helped with the purge. Am I?

A/N hiya again hope you enjoyed this chapter. I will happily admit if there was any chapter that I would rewrite this would be it. So much of it felt wrong but I couldn't think of any other way to convey it, and since it was all important to the future story I couldn't simply remove it.

As for another reason I didn't upload sooner. I physically couldn't I had this chapter kinda finished a while ago but couldn't upload to the site. The reason why is I simply forgot my password. Yeah. I'm a dumbass...

Any I regrettably can't make any promises on when the next chapter is out but I will strive to get it out as soon as possible.