[Unknown Location]
"Seems Madara was killed."
An echoing silence decorated the area before someone else spoke.
"It was expected. It was also planned."
"I thought we needed him for the Moon's Eye Plan?"
"I scrapped the plan when the other Madara finally passed away. Plus, we have all the pieces we need in this room."
Another silence spoke across the room, a dark cavern with two entities and ten coffins lined side by side. The first being looked like a shadow stretched across one of the walls, like his skin was dyed black. It had solid yellow eyes and dirty green hair. Every time the being spoke, the energy around him wavered like the illusion of heat on a road in the middle of summer. His partner, the other to speak, has hair split between two colors. Black spiked hair on his right side and flat white hair on his left. His eyes were also mismatched, with a solid white eye on his right side and a solid black eye on his left. He was the physical personification of Yin and Yang, but not in just appearance.
The man's right side radiated a feeling of death whilst his left side felt like the air itself would be given life. It was eerie as it seemed he was looking in death and speaking with lost souls yet was also calming the fear of the very earth around his figure. His very existence gave proof to the equality in existence, yet also the inequality in everyone alive. His name is Itama Senju, and he awakened his power the day he died. His innocence was taken from his mind when his family died around him, but his family wasn't there for him. Sure, they were occupied by others, but he knew deep down that the reason he died was because his brother Hashirama couldn't take the lives of the Uchiha he was fighting. He only found out the reason after he was killed, and his power unleashed. His brother was friends with an Uchiha, and an Uchiha whose father was there when he was killed.
He also knew he couldn't blame his brother for the actions of his friend's father, but it felt like a betrayal. In the end, he only thought of Tobirama as his blood brother, and Hashirama as a traitor. At least Tobirama knew when someone had to be killed for the betterment of society, yet even he caved when Hashirama protected the Uchiha. Now Itama had a new goal. The erasure of the Shinobi way of life by killing every ninja alive. And if he had to sacrifice one of his pawns to make it possible, he would gladly accept the loss. Afterall, to be a Shinobi is to make sacrifices.
"Let's just hope we have no more interruptions," Itama said.
Unfortunately, equality always answers at the worst of times. A figure coalesced from the cave wall directly behind himself. This being is all white, like a direct counterpart to his all-black partner. It also had the same hair and eyes, but that's where the similarities ended. The black being had a deep and emotionless voice, yet the white being had a high pitched and overly friendly voice. Truly, the equality in nature knew no bounds.
"We have a problem!"
Itama could only slouch from his standing position as the white entity failed to elaborate what the problem was, and he knew it'd take some digging to figure it out. His resignation only heightened when said figure crept back through the wall and out of the cave. Another mystery to find out, it seemed.
"Black Zetsu."
The thing in question stopped what it was doing and looked up from its current machinations. Those machinations were sliding its fingers down a long list of potential people to revive from the dead. Ghosts to bring back and haunt the villages they died for. And currently its finger was stopped on one such name, Kawarama Senju.
"Yes?" It asked.
"Please do not attempt to revive my other deceased sibling. I'd hate to have to kill you."
Black Zetsu just slid his finger down another name, stopping on Toka Senju.
"It would be fun," the being started to say, but it was cut off.
"It would not be fun to have my cousin weave an unbreakable genjutsu around us where we'd actually feel the pain inside."
"But it could be a big boon for our cause if she was on our side."
"You'll find, Black Zetsu, that my cousin killed herself for fear of what she would end up becoming. If Hashirama couldn't hold a candle to her, there is nothing we can do to her."
"You act as if we can't subjugate her as she's being revived."
Here, Itama paused, but Black Zetsu took it as if Itama was considering it, so he continued.
"Just imagine what she could do to an entire village. She could even be the host to unleash the Moon's Eye Plan. She'd be the perfect body for mother."
"Black."
Black Zetsu paused as fear washed over his form. It was almost like an aura of death, and he felt it more than saw it as he truly did die. The feeling disappeared as fast as it came, but it heeded the warning. This was also the first time Itama called him by his first name alone.
"My cousin killed herself, but let me tell you what I felt as I held her dead body in my arms."
A cold breath of air was exhaled as Itama paused. The feelings in his mind were still raw as he considered his cousin. More than thrice removed, he grew up with his hand in hers. He had to watch her mourn as they held his funeral. He could feel his heart wrench when he realized he couldn't be there for her in her days where she kept herself locked away. And then her day came, and she ended it all fifteen years later. She was unrivaled in sheer aura and intellect, but it was his own death that kept dragging her down. After all, he was the one who told her to run while he fought against the five Uchiha who hunted them down.
"Zetsu. My cousin didn't need to weave signs to make a genjutsu."
Zetsu, this time, took the time to think about what that would entail, but he came to the wrong conclusion.
"Then we revive her without her mind."
The being jumped a bit, startled from the topic as Itama crushed one of the coffins he was working on. He let out a curse as the decayed wooden box shattered under too much strain. As he was about to apologize for his mistake when he saw something that had Black Zetsu stepping back in horror. The coffin, clearly marked 'Fourth Hokage', was empty. They knew it was his because it was taken from the tomb they saw his body get buried in.
"So that's what my white counterpart meant by there being a problem."
Itama just stared at the wooden remains in shock as his mind reeled at the information. The Fourth Hokage, Konoha's strongest, was alive. He knew it to be true now as the life portion of his power flared and accepted the conclusion.
"This… this is going to be an issue," Itama said through the silence.
Black Zetsu just responded back with a nod of his head, still stricken with fear. It knew, deep down, how bad having the Fourth around would be. He couldn't even stop the shudder of fear that rent through his back as he pondered the man's death. He saw the Shinigami take the man's soul. He saw the hole through his spine as the Kyubi speared him with a claw. He also knew of the story of the Fourth taking down one-thousand stone nin. How the story changed over time because the third Tsuchikage didn't want to admit that the Fourth Hokage took out fifty of his strongest S-rank nin without breaking a sweat.
Now, there was a startling chance his entire world plan would end before it could begin. Now, more than ever, he could see how Itama's power shifted when the world also realized its folly. Yet there was one thing he couldn't figure out, so he asked the only one there with the powers of life and death.
"How could he have…?"
His question was cut short by a quick, "I don't know. Even death, the one thing that claimed him, doesn't know how the man escaped the certainty.
"We need to find out, then! We can't have the Yellow Flash teleporting around and ruining my plans!"
"Our plans, you mean?"
Black Zetsu stepped back again when he felt Itama's power rise.
"Yes," it squeaked out, then responded more clearly, "Yes. Our plans."
"We'll brush this aside for now."
"How can we brush this aside, Itama?! Every ninja alive feared the man, including his own!"
"He is alive, Black, but life and death have assured me of one thing. The current Hokage doesn't know."
"What does that change, Itama? We still have no answer to him."
"It means, Black, that he may not be on Konoha's side, either."
Black Zetsu thought about the reply and really poked around with it before replying.
"Then we shouldn't focus on it for now."
A small clap met its answer and the being scowled, but its finger was still resting on Toka Senju's name, so it tried again.
"Then we should bring Toka Senju to life, if only to keep him at bay."
"We couldn't do it even if I tried. She sealed herself away in death, and I don't know where she is. But even if I did, I still wouldn't do it."
"Why?! I understand she's strong, but we are, too. We can easily subjugate her, can't we?"
Itama just laughed at Black's ignorance. The grating sound unnerved the all-black being, but before he could ask what was so funny about the situation, Itama's next few words shattered his resolve.
"Toka Senju was stronger than Kaguya Otsutsuki."
Black Zetsu found himself speaking before his body gave out.
"You can't be serious."
Then its body collapsed into a seated position on the unforgiving stone floor of the cavern. His answer was just accepting how Itama's power didn't deny his claim. In all his years, Black Zetsu only knew two people stronger than his mother, and it was her two sons. To believe some random shinobi woman could outclass her… Unheard of.
"Okay," it finally muttered after an extended bit of silence. "There's an idea we won't get into."
Itama just gave a grim smile in return. Of all the most powerful people alive and dead, Toka Senju probably stood amongst the top five, just below the somehow alive Minato Namikaze. Black Zetsu's own mother wouldn't even breach the top ten strongest, as Itama knew her family was full of monsters. Black Zetsu himself was just below her other two sons, Hagoromo and Hamura. He was also immortal. As his thoughts drifted to his short life with Toka, the white form of Zetsu checked in again with even worse news.
"Moryo has awakened from his sealed slumber. The demon showed up after Shiroi Uchiha fell unconscious during his fight against Killer-Bee. It seems he was sealed away by your resident Yellow Flash!"
With those more aggravating parting words, the white variant disappeared again when you could genuinely hear death in the cave.
"Well," Itama started. "There's another being as strong as your mother, Black."
Black Zetsu just nodded in defeat. Hatred for Moryo was the same as Chakra for Kaguya. They were both made stronger by the presence of either and it was not good. The being just sighed as it began destroying its plans for the future and began recreating them around the two new surprises. It just couldn't take another surprise like that one. Life just hated him, though.
"And two more things," White Zetsu said after popping up again. "Itachi Uchiha awakened a new white Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan, and Hiruzen Sarutobi has gone missing! Bye again!"
Itama just stared dead at the next coffin he was working on, labelled 'Third Raikage' as Black Zetsu fainted and slammed face first onto the slab of stone he was reading from again. Itama heard as the being's neck snapped from the impact and shared a little of his life essence to heal the downed being's spine back into shape.
"Too much already, and I haven't even eaten yet," He muttered. "Well, at least life won't be boring from here on."
[Root Underground; Final Tunnel]
Hiruzen was whistling a jaunty tune he'd once heard from a band during the Kyubi's defeat festival. It was no secret he liked the tune the first time he'd listened, and he made sure to annoy his ANBU guard with it as a test to see if they'd ever snap. Those men and women were trained well, though, as none of them ever reacted. It was a shame, to be honest. He did like it when people at least acted human, but it was also nice to know his human shields did their best to behave as shields.
He could see the moonlight through the opening of the tunnel he was exiting. It was a beautiful night to finally have the drink he was craving. A subtle blueberry sake as he finalized his preparations to equalize the village's clans. His musings were cut short as a shadow descended before him and stood up. The person behind it was much shorter than Hiruzen himself. The individual had greyish blur hair, but their face was covered by a plain black mask with what seemed to be glass lenses where the eye sockets were. They also had the same root attire as the children he'd slain just moments prior. Seems he'd forgotten one in his scuffle with Obito Uchiha. Speaking of, he could feel some blood leaking from his left hand where he held the eye. And from where the current last root member was staring, they knew what was in Hiruzen's hand.
"Can I help you, young man?" Hiruzen asked in a fatherly manner.
Sometimes, the best gift a child could have was a father figure to look up to. Shame he never realized that when he was younger and fathered his son, Asuma. Then again, his own father, Sasuke, wasn't exactly the ideal father figure, either. The leaf doesn't fall far from the tree.
The small root member spoke beneath his mask, his voice seemingly dull, but Hiruzen could hear some amusement in the boy's tone.
"Danzo sends his regards."
Hiruzen just nodded his head, his short brown goatee waving in the wind of the night as his haori danced around his form.
"Did he now?" He asked.
The root member didn't respond immediately. Instead, he was mesmerized by the eye in Hiruzen's palm.
"Would you like to see it?" He asked, and the rather innocent question snapped the boy from his stupor.
He just shook his head and replied, "Danzo-sama also told me to tell you 'Party tricks are for the weak, Hiruzen.'"
"Ah?" Hiruzen questioned. "Did he tell you this from the grave?"
The boy shook his head again before replying.
"Danzo-sama is very much alive and well."
"Hmm," Hiruzen mumbled. "He was always a tricky man, that friend of mine. I see he can't take his own words to heart."
Here, Hiruzen shifted slightly to look behind himself at what was once an empty corridor.
"And you, old friend? What do you say?"
"It's time for a change in leadership, you old monkey. You've been lenient for too long and changing your ways now is just too late."
Hiruzen just stared into his rival's cold, coal-coloured eyes. He always knew he was soft, but he never took it out on other people. Now with the Uchiha the way they were, he figured a change was imminent. To Danzo, that meant killing the things that bothered you and only them. To Hiruzen, it meant changing the ways of each clan by killing off the leaders and main branches and giving power to the side branches. The side branches of the Nara, Yamanaka, Akamichi, and Inuzuka were the shinobi. The ones who fought for the village. The civilians in those clans held all the money running the forestry businesses across the globe, running the flower shops in each country, running every major food chain, or controlling which dying breed of animal would be revived. The world needed a more militant bone to chew on, and Danzo's methods weren't it. Just look at his arm and run a DNA test on the man. He wouldn't even come back as the son of his mother and father anymore.
"Is my method not the best course of action, you wind bag?"
Danzo just scoffed. Old he may be, but he could walk the other man. He also knew Hiruzen's eyes weren't the same anymore. He wouldn't see chakra lines being drawn around him, caging him like he did to Danzo's shadow clone earlier. Yes, like Hiruzen had said before, the Uzumaki were the strongest clan in the world. The seal they were working on would have increased the size of the earth ten-fold, and they had members across their solar system ready to change the galaxy's shape to fit the new size of the planet. They were just lucky to have a few people who could run faster than the Uzumaki could draw. That clan wasn't full of fighters.
"Hiruzen. Your time ends tonight, and only the Uchiha will suffer for it."
The aged Hokage just pulled his pipe from his coat pocket and put it in his mouth. He lit a fire on his fingertip and took a smooth puff of the pipe. The tobacco calmed the man's rising annoyance.
"Tell me your plan, Danzo, as I empty one last pipe to my own demise."
Danzo just looked on as his own friend seemingly accepted his own death, then shortened his entire plan into one sentence.
"It was always going to be the same plan, Hiruzen."
"I see," Hiruzen said as he took another puff. "Were we always this weak, Danzo?"
A solemn laugh breached the chirping of birds in the night. A real laugh from his long-time friend. As he finally stopped his chuckling, he looked at the first and last friend of his. The God of Shinobi. Someone who ran the village perfectly in his prime. Something he always looked up to, but then the age hit. He created Root, then, to follow the strength and power his old friend held before he lost it all to age.
"I respected you, Hiruzen. I still see the younger you in this dilapidated version. It's time someone like you got to retire. Go see her, you old monkey, and languish in your everlasting retirement."
"Perhaps I will. If I do, if I accept this as my last time walking, will you do one last thing for me?"
Danzo narrowed his eye, thinking about anything Hiruzen would want from him. He motioned for his friend to continue. At least he'd humor the man one last time. Hiruzen just opened his hand and revealed the mangekyo eye. Its blood had coated his hand in a thin crimson layer by then, but he didn't mind. Danzo eyed the organ with curiosity.
"Will you implant this in Kakashi?"
"You trust me with a sharingan eye knowing what I did to my body?"
Hiruzen just smiled thinly and looked down at the orb, then answered.
"This eye belonged to the masked nin you had information on. I believe you were making deals with him."
Danzo tsk'ed in displeasure at being caught, but he noticed Hiruzen didn't seem angry about his accusation. Perhaps he was already resigned to his own demise.
"You managed to kill Madara Uchiha? I find that hard to believe."
He then saw his friend give a small smile, a genuine one, as if he was thinking about a good thing from the past.
"The masked nin, Danzo, was not the Ghost of the Uchiha."
Danzo looked from the hand and into Hiruzen's eyes with alarm.
"You mean there's an Uchiha of the sa…" but Hiruzen cut him off.
"This eye," He paused, contemplating how to finish the sentence. "This eye belonged to someone once precious to Kakashi. The masked man… perhaps he was being manipulated by someone or something else."
"Stop beating around the bush, Hiruzen. Who was he?"
"The masked man was Uchiha Obito, the student of Minato and self-appointed rival of Kakashi. Just tell him… tell Kakashi… tell him we found Obito's body and waited for the right time to give him Obito's remaining eye. I fear he would go catatonic if we told him the truth."
Danzo looked into his friend's eyes with an appreciative glance. Hiruzen always knew Danzo wanted the village to be stronger, more unified. He was also thankful for Hiruzen to trust him with not using the eye himself.
"And what happens if I use the eye for my own gain?" Danzo asked, more in amusement than seriousness.
"I think we both know, Danzo, that I can defeat you and your young subordinate. I'm just passing the torch to someone I trust more than my own mind."
Danzo took the eye from his friend and sealed it away. Perhaps in a vain attempt to keep it healthy for when he decided to give it to the young man Hiruzen thought of as his own grandchild.
"Also, Danzo. Take care of young Naruto. Do not abuse my faith in you."
Danzo just accepted the words. He knew his life in the shadows was over now, and he also knew being in the light meant doing things differently.
"Is that all, old friend?"
Hiruzen took one last puff of his pipe and let it fall to the ground. He just nodded his head and gestured for Danzo to complete his seal.
"Goodbye, old friend."
"Goodbye, Hiruzen. Tell the others we used to hang out with that I'll be there soon."
Hiruzen just nodded as Danzo finished the seal array around his friend.
"Reverse Four Symbols Sealing!"
Danzo watched with a cold sadness weeping through his body as his old rival disappeared into the night, seal array finishing up his task and dropping a scroll onto the ground. Hiruzen would be dead inside, as the seal also had a secret hidden between the lines. A heart-stop seal to make it a painless death. Instant. It was what Hiruzen deserved after all this time.
He leaned down and picked up the scroll as memories of his life played back in his mind. He felt Kagami's eye leak a tear under his bandage, then he stood up and began walking to the exit.
"Walk with me, Kabuto."
Said young man stood from his kneeling position and walked behind the leader of Root. The man, however, didn't see as Kabuto's right hand bolted upward, covered in green chakra. A scalpel to tear through Danzo's heart, but the man just released a burst of killing intent and halted the attack.
"Don't bother. We both know you serve multiple people," as he said this, he raised his output of lethal intent and snuffed out Kabuto's attack. "Pick your battles, boy, then when you figure out which ones you should take on, start walking."
"Yes, Danzo-sama," he replied quickly, then started following close behind.
[Forest of Death; With Fu, Kakashi, Kinoe, and Itachi]
The three other men looked down on the man as he told them all the problem he saw.
"I saw a man with horns walking through the village. I made to follow, but he saw me and flared his power. I felt it for all of a second and I can safely say, we don't stand a chance."
Kakashi was the first to respond.
"You mean the man who followed you here?"
Fuu felt his eyes widen as he quickly turned around toward the man, but his eyes were blackened away by the sight of the void. His body, or what was left of it, was sucked into a small black hole spawned by a single snap of the figure's fingers.
Itachi quickly shielded the others with one of his new powers, Susano'o. A purple barrier shaped like a rib cage blocked the pulling power of the black hole, keeping the other two from falling in.
"Oh?" A sinister voice spoke through the sweating of the now three men. "I'm surprised you can stop it. Now what'll happen if I increase the size?"
As he said it, the sphere grew two-fold and the ribcage of Itachi's armor shattered immediately. As the three men were slowly pulled toward it, Kakashi felt his eye tingle as he heard a voice long thought dead to the world speak through his mind.
"Kamui," he stated.
Before the unknown man's eyes, he watched his attack get sucked through a rift in the air. He raised a white eyebrow in shock as he watched his own attack disappear, but the man's shock turned to a quick burst of fear as the attack connected with his arm and started trying to pull it away. In defense, he snapped his eyes shut and opened them again, revealing red eyes with concentric black rings. But his newfound ability didn't stop the attack and he felt his arm get torn away.
He jumped back when he felt the disconnection of his limb and tried to put distance between himself and his opponent's, but he found himself staring into a hollow white Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan of the person with shoulder length black hair. Those eyes made him feel inferior, but his worries didn't stop there. He felt himself get pulled into an illusion showing his entire life. A low-class member of the Otsutsuki. He grew up shadowed by everyone else around him and was always the one who had to take the lesser missions to extend the life of his clan. All the way up to his current mission, to kidnap Uzumaki Naruto, the grandson of his clan's leader's brother, Aoto Otsutsuki.
As the illusion ended, the man felt a hand pierce his heart and end his life. The first man, the one with spiky white hair, the one who took his arm off, had killed him. A GOD! Yet as he watched his adversaries talk amongst themselves, maybe his words were incorrect. If he was part of a clan of Gods, then what were these people? He wasn't even given a proper burial as the last boy in the group turned his body to wood, and then he became the body of a new tree in the forest he was in.
"Let's go," Kakashi commanded.
Kinoe then said something the other two couldn't believe.
"The Hokage's dead. I can't feel his life anymore."
[Remnants of Uzu]
"The world thinks we died, Jin. The world stormed through us and turned our lives into remnants of the past, yet it's time we returned. Let this be our first breath of new air. Let this be our start before we create a war no one can prepare for. Let it be known, Jin, the Uzumaki do not surrender even in death!"
Those words whispered through the run-down buildings of Uzushiogakure. Like a seal, the words drew themselves across the charred landscape and outlined every vacant cadaver with chalk. Those words brought created life once lost as bodies slowly built from the carbon in the air. Sharp inhales rang through the air in a cacophony of cheers. The war wasn't kind to their home, yet all the withered souls of people and homes and streets were rebuilt by the sounds of thunderous breathing. The spirit that spoke looked on in excitement as his home, his family, started to rise again. It was all thanks to the man and woman standing beside himself. One had the infamous Uzumaki hair and soft green eyes. The other had bright yellow hair and magnificent blue. He could feel the very eyes of reality widen at the power of the woman as she gave part of her own life force to revive the hundred deceased members of her clan, and he could feel the power of the man as the structures of Uzushio towered once again from just a single seal.
Yes, Jun Uzumaki, a founding member of the Uzumaki, could see what the future held with those two at the helm. He could only hope his brother, Jin, was smiling down at it. Unfortunately, only those who died inside the village walls could be revived as those who died outside were swallowed by the whirling tides.
"I don't have enough strength to revive you, father, without using the last bit of my power and dying in the process," the woman said.
Jun just smiled while reminiscing about his time as the leader of Uzushio. He was too peaceful in his rule, hoping for the world to acknowledge his plan of saving the earth from the invaders above, yet no one wanted to believe him. No one wanted to understand the wars of the past from the missing Otsutsuki, but his family recorded every event. The Uzumaki knew of Kaguya and Tenji. They knew of Hagoromo and Hamura, and they knew of ninshu, the belief Hagoromo created to spread power to everyone. The Uzumaki just wanted to extend the feeling to the planet to not only extend its longevity, but to also take it away as a seedbed for the ten-tails. They just wanted to stop another Otsutsuki assault on their planet, yet their actions ended poorly for them. It was his own fault. He was too benevolent for today's society. A few spiritual tears dropped from his eyes as he stood between the two.
"It's okay, Kushina. You've done more than enough," Jun replied. "It's more than time for me to pass on and be with your mother."
The revealed Kushina smiled bitterly, but her companion grabbed her and pulled her into an embrace, her head resting in the crook of his right shoulder as she shed more than a few tears.
"And you, child of the stars. Treat my daughter well and protect this small village. I don't know what your plans are, but just doing this proves you can be trusted."
The blonde man responded in the same tone he used when he told his last Kage 'Send me and I'll finish the war'.
"I will, father."
Jun gave a small smile in return and faded from view, leaving his daughter and her husband to rebuild a once deceased village of protectors.
[Amegakure]
"Nagato, what do we do?"
The man in question had short red hair and purple eyes with concentric rings. He held a strength his two companions didn't have as he stood not only before them, but before three others behind. His name is Nagato Uzumaki, and his old plan of subjugating all nine tailed beasts was halted when a White Zetsu told him of Madara's death and Black Zetsu's betrayal. The man used to be weak, inhabiting a frail body when his power awakened during his fight with Hanzo, when his best friend Yahiko, the man to his right, was nearly killed by a trap set by Danzo Shimura. Now his original plan for piece couldn't be accomplished with the death of his advisor.
"The path to peace can be changed, but the path to pain will always remain. We may not be able to take the beasts, but we can still take the souls. Everything into Ame, or everyone loses the sight of dawn."
His voice used to be gritty, and he used to spit out blood between every syllable. He was dying, but he took a chance like he knew Madara did. He absorbed a White Zetsu body, quickly finding out what the thing was made of. The cells of the strongest Medic/Shinobi in history, Hashirama Senju. The inclusion of those cells mixed with his Uzumaki put him beyond the power of the first Hokage. He could now truly say he is a God.
"Is it really the only way, Nagato?" His best friend questioned. "Can peace only be achieved through violence?"
Nagato just pointed to the area before him before replying.
"Just ask Jiraiya. Our teacher believes I am the child of prophecy, the one to bring peace. He may have thought us dead when we fought Hanzo, but his newest prediction turned out to be wrong in the way of the Fourth Hokage. Now, with him finding us again, it only makes sense he guides us anew. So, trust in our teacher, Yahiko. He never led us astray."
Yahiko just hummed, thoughts of his training going through his mind. His mind made itself up fairly quickly, however.
"Konan and I are with you forever, Nagato."
"Plus," Konan added, "We have two new members of our growing organization to help us. Sasori of the Red Sands and Kakuzu the Immortal."
Both men just nodded. They were tired of the world that nearly cost them their lives.
"Glad to be here," Sasori's young voice broke through.
"You need more strength than you have currently, Nagato, and I've grown tired of this fake peace between the nations," Kakuzu muttered.
All eyes turned toward the older man there. Kakuzu had fought the first Hokage and suffered a great defeat, but in his defeat, he took something long lost to the world. The earth grudge fear, a forbidden jutsu created by someone not of their current world. Their eyes gazed down on the slouching man, taking in the designs on his exposed chest. Five masks looked sewn into his skin, each with their own radiating power.
Four of those masks only had visible eyes that made all parties shutter. One had a pair of Sharingan eyes, and another had the Byakugan. One had what looked like symbols of nature drawn into it, which Jiraiya accurately guessed internally, meant Sage Mode. The last two masks felt the most off as they held two powers no one else knew about. The Ketsuryugan of the Chinoike clan, and finally, a mask with nothing on it.
"With Nagato's power still growing, you'll need me to keep us atop the world."
Nobody questioned his statement, for they all knew of his current power. He did, after-all, beat Nagato in a fair battle. Even his Rinnegan couldn't stand up against the combination of those five bloodline powers, but in time, Kakuzu knew Nagato would stand above him. For now, though, he would watch as this new organization grew.
It's here, the end of chapter 5, where reviews will be most helpful.
This is also the time to ask questions about what you read but be careful. I'm certain most questions will be answered in this story. However, this story ends at chapter 10.
A sequel will begin about two weeks after the end of this one.