Quick Note: I cut this chappie down as much as I could without deleting anything important and it's still 28 pages. Pay close attention to the clues in this one.

Hope to see you all in 2025.

Enjoy as you will and have a safe holiday season!

~Siva'a

~III~

Previously on No More

It was early morning on the Harbor pier. The normally horrid temperatures of the average summer day were still several hours off. The morning's waves were choppy to accompany the equally brisk morning breeze.

All in all, it was pleasant despite the miserable hour of the day.

Shizuka, her face stern with just a touch of melancholy, stood wrapped in a heavy travel cloak to ward off the early morning gusts heavily laden with sea salt, her arms holding the fabric tightly wrapped around her shoulders. Glancing at her you would think the morning was fresh anew instead of her having stood stock still on the pier for hours on end as she watched all four of the Uzushio-flagged vessels set sail into the dark unknown. It took over an hour just for the last one to finally clear its mooring.

The last one also happened to be the sole focus of her silent pre-dawn vigil.

Even now it had not yet cleared the breakwater and she could see the blond crown of her betrothed at the stern of the behemoth taking him away to his almost assured death. What else awaited him in Konoha, the largest shinobi village filled with hateful people just waiting to end his life?

He was staring back at her in return and she could almost – almost – take it to mean that he cared about her as well. That he would miss her even if the words never left his lips.

Ignoring his many affirmations that all would be well, she firmly believed this was the last time they would see each other and she wanted to remember as much of him as she could. It was a small gesture, she knew, but it was heartfelt.

What an unusual sentiment.

Over the past year, something odd happened. Somewhere along the way the icy wall surrounding her heart began to thaw with the Uzumaki-style warmth oozing from her future husband. The whole clan exuded it, but women weren't expected to look forward to an arranged marriage. Shizuka knew this having spent many, many evenings soaking in the onsen with Nadeshiko's warrior women swapping tall tales or the occasional lonely memory. While some eventually grew to find love, most did not.

This was just a sad fact of shinobi life even more so on her small tropical island.

She found it shocking how many Nadeshiko marriages ended hrough some infidelity or another. Those endings, especially when your bride is a highly skilled assassin, tended to be on the slightly more permanent side of things.

The Garden of the Unnamed, a rather sizable cemetery full of unmarked graves, spoke to that.

Shizuka, however, found herself looking forward to their brief afternoon lunches and quiet times. They were filled with gentle touches and soft conversation that made her soul tingle. Despite her best efforts to keep a polite distance when he made it clear there would be no unsanctioned affection prior to their marriage day, his kindness and patience and honest nature pulled her irrevocably into his orbit as the days flew by. The more she tried to pull away, the stronger his pull grew on her once broken heart.

The emerald-eyed princess found herself blinking away unshed tears as her blond halo drifted further and further out to sea. At that moment, her mind revisited the past year plus and wondered just where had all the days gone?

She missed those smugly-knowing eyes of his already and the ache in her chest pulsed again and again at the image in her mind's eye.

An ingrained image of bright sparkling eyes that matched the deep blue sea.

Golden hair so bright it stood out against the hazy morning like a miniature sun.

Again, despite her best efforts, it nearly broke her will, her knees wobbling for the barest moment. Her body shivered in delectable memory of his warmth, her back tingling at the tender caress of his strong arms. She missed him and he hadn't even left the harbor!

The whole sappy affair sickened her kunoichi sensibilities.

To come so close at being happy a second time only to lose it due to some spoiled girl half a continent away…

"Shizuka-sama."

Tokiwa's voice seemed less harsh today yet it still snapped her eyes away from the Kraken, the royal family's vessel carrying her future husband away. She was spiraling again.

"I know," the Princess' reply came heavy in the chilled air.

She paused even as the chakra enhancing her vision could no longer make out the individual features of his slightly aged and now chiseled face. It was a handsome face that projected strength. Long gone were the baby fat cheeks that made him cute. Long gone was the annoying smile he falsely projected to the world hoping they would underestimate and accept him.

Still, she stayed until the final ship cleared the harbor and headed out to sea, her heart breaking anew at the almost certain loss of her second true love knowing nothing good awaited him in Konoha.

Konoha.

It was a bitter pill on her tongue.

She turned away with one final, lingering gaze to return to the royal plateau above. It was her prison in more ways than one now, the once gleaming sunshine of her day fading with the departure of the man she refused to acknowledge with three bittersweet words. Even as he watched her from the brow of the ship, she could not utter them. With a heavy heart, she glided away believing her mourning period could begin once official word reached them upon his murder at the hands of liars and thieves. It would also begin her oath of vengeance against the people responsible, even if it came at the cost of a single assassination per person in Konoha.

She could not see the long journey through as none of his current wives or hopefuls were allowed to go with him. That act alone admitted that even he knew there was little hope of survival in this madness. His choices and contingencies all but proved it.

She could not go with him despite arguing, fighting, and, in the end, pleading that her place was to die with him so they could grace the Pure Lands together. Alas, he would not let her.

She could not go.

She could not arrive with the ships that hit landfall into Degarashi Port. She could be be there to watch them offload safely.

She could not witness the long parade of Hatchling warriors as they stormed the piers of Degarashi, their heavy footsteps shaking the port town as rank after rank of heavily armored warriors formed up to protect the royal palanquin. Five abreast and nearly four-hundred rows deep they shook the earth, a snaking column of death making no effort to soften its step. A great winding beast, dust rising up in their wake as it parted the great port slithering along a path to the north and west.

She could not watch the literal army two thousand strong with banners proudly flying as they marched through the city, out through its arched entryway, and into the countryside as the column snaked its way to heart of the Land of Fire.

She could not watch, however, the two spies bearing Leaf Hitai-ate did and one turned to the other after verifying the royal conveyance when it passed beneath their rooftop vantage point.

"Send a message to the Hokage," the fresh Chūnin hissed in an effort to limit the sound of his nervous voice. Both shinobi knew nothing could hear them above the synchronized thunder of hundreds of feet pounding the earth yet they did so anyway as a mark of professionalism.

'Those were a lot of heavily armored fighters below.'

He turned to the second ninja crouched down upon their partially hidden rooftop once his partner knelt with a tiny roll of parchment in hand, a fine-tipped brush held at the ready.

"Tell him, 'A storm has landed on the coast and his headed inland."

The lookout paused long enough to verify the message was properly coded in the week's cipher, the fresh ink blotted dry with sand before it was properly rolled and attached to a falcon patiently waiting in their portable roost.

Confident that the word "storm" conveyed a sizeable force but one that Konoha could weather without assistance, the lookout turned back to the street below to verify their estimate of the enemy force marching towards Hi no Kuni, hundreds upon hundreds of deep blue and gold sashimono banners sticking up between the shoulder blades of the warriors bearing them proudly. Both were confident that the Leaf would prevail in finding justice for the fallen Fourth.

The end was certainly near for the charlatans, at least in their eyes.

It was too bad from their vantage point within Degarashi that they could not see the remaining two-thousand soldiers of the advanced force seamlessly joining the first batch two days later. This doubling of swords happened on the second day once the Uzu main body guarding the Daimyo cleared the city proper, another whole day before they reached the Hi no Kuni border.

Now four thousand strong, the Uzumaki war machine shook the ground and scattered animals for miles with their steps making no effort to hide their presence along their march.

The days of the Uzumaki hiding in fear were over.

.

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~III~

Chapter: 61 - A Feast Fit for Crows

~III~

A Hidden Camp Somewhere in the Land of Hot Springs

Crimson eyes swirled aimlessly; the owner's gaze locked onto the dying embers of their tiny camp built for one.

The sole occupant sitting atop a fallen log sat motionless, the stick in their right hand meant to stir the embers of the dying campfire now held lightly and unmoving. The dark cloak hung more like a tattered drape across too lean shoulders, a wide brimmed straw hat low enough on the figure's brow to hide their face in shadow.

It was a figure lost in reflection.

How long had it been? How long since he'd spoken to another not in anger nor in frustration as he chased a coward across the nations? How long since he'd had a decent night's sleep or slept in a warm bed?

How long since he was able to see without needing his family's eyes to clear away the blurry fog that was his vision now? How long before he lost what little light he had left?

Too long.

Even as Itachi stirred to lazily poked at the smoldering branches of his campfire, there was a mind-numbing realization that his entire world was now torn asunder. Scholars called it a revelation, one of those "ah-ha!" moments that made you stop and really think about the choices you'd made in life.

It made you wonder if it was all worth it.

He was having one of those moments now as his entire world slowly crumbled into darkness.

Everything was so clear back when the deal was made with that bastard. Everything seemed plain as day when he struck that deal with Danzo for his sibling's safety. Kill the family. Make Sasuke hate him enough to want to kill him in return. Die a martyr to redeem the memory of his clan. It was supposed to be so simple.

Why wasn't it as simple as it seemed back then?

Where was it that things got all twisted around and he wandered off the scripted path?

Before the question bubbled up in the back of his tortured mind, he knew the answer to it. As they say, the enemy always gets a vote in the plan and Sasuke, his man-made mortal enemy, chose an option Itachi saw as impossible given his own perspective – at the time. How ironic was it that Sasuke chose to make a deal with another devil to kill his own personal demon?

And now Itachi spent his miserable evenings lamenting the loss of his current prey's trail. Even worse was the fact that his emergency Pocky stash was running horrifically scarce.

Confirming his worst fears with a quick glance at the custom-built scroll sorting his supply by flavors, he was down to two strawberry and his ultimate final stash of macha green tea Pocky, a super rare edition only found in Tea Country.

He hoped the twenty-five boxes he finagled in that last resort town would last long enough to kill that rotten snake but the chances were growing thin on the vine as of late.

His red eyes swirled in irritation.

First, he'd lost sight of that damnable Snake and now this... logistical tragedy! Seeing as vengeance was all that was left for him, Itachi resolved to correct this heinous deficiency at his next opportunity. Perhaps he'd swing by Degarashi before resuming the hunt for his prey.

Orochimaru.

The stick in his hand, the one he'd been using to gently stir the embers of his dying fire, snapped cleanly in the tightening of his grip drawing Itachi's mind back to the here and now. With a sigh, the broken branch sailed out of the one-tent camp and into a nearby bush as he prepared to rise and find another, his palms slapping loudly atop his knees.

"Hey! Watch where you're throwing things!"

Itachi blinked rapidly once, as his hunched body froze in place. His head turned slowly to focus on the now jostling shrubbery, the whirling tomoes of his Sharingan focusing intently on the shadowy foliage hiding someone capable enough to sneak up on him unannounced.

Sure, he was deep in the middle of a Pocky crisis, but still… He should have picked up a flicker of their chakra at least.

Considering most of those capable of the act that he was aware of would never give away the element of surprise, he reasoned this "new" person was either short on experience or intent to assassinate him.

He fondly hoped it was the latter since he really wasn't in the mood for a scuffle.

The sooner he could get back to rectifying his glaring supply shortage, the better.

Though his face showed utter calm, his mind was spinning just like his eyes. A threat? A message? Just to be sure, his body tensed and chakra began to mold in his hara, the core of his chakra network.

"Way to go, Sissy."

Itachi blinked again in surprise at the second voice, this time fully rising to stand with his feet positioned easily to either open or close the distance to his would-be threat.

"Show yourself."

A brief pulse of killing intent accompanied the monotone not-request.

What stepped rather loudly from the covering bush were two young girls he originally took to be in their middle teens. Twins if their matching hair, face, and body types were any indication. Both were lean with well-corded muscle in their uncovered abdomens and lower legs. Then he paid closer attention to the lean cheeks and high cheekbones framed by matching bob-cuts framing those faces, hair almost dark enough to pass for black in the dim morning light.

He noticed the odd style of clothing, the oddly styled chest wraps and mid-length skirts that doubled as some exotic pleated skort, but did not linger. Women tended to become violent if they thought you were perving on them.

'Ah, it makes sense now.'

"Please pass on to Keina-sama that I am not ready to join her just yet. I have one more task to complete before I can."

He expected a lot of things from the twins she'd used as messengers many times during his stint with ANBU. Laughter, tinkling-bubbly laughter, was not one of them.

"Oh, *giggle-snort, Keina-sama will not be-"

"-extending an invitation any time soon, Kinslayer."

Itachi tried not to flinch at the hateful term. It was bad enough that the twins had this nasty habit of finishing each other's thoughts aloud but he never though Keina would have slapped such a hateful moniker onto him, not for the reasons he'd chosen to do what he did to the Uchiha Clan.

To this day, he felt that violently putting down a potential coup was the right thing to do. Why else would he sacrifice his entire world to do so?

"No, she will never invite a blood traitor into the ranks-"

"-of a clan she's working so hard to rebuild."

And just like that his loyalty to Konoha took the final hope of his remaining days from him and the realization burned his guts like acid.

The one on the left pulled a brown courier pouch around to the front of her body and retrieved a small scroll from it before tossing it onto the ground within easy walking distance of the disgraced former heir.

"Walker-sama believes that even you-"

"-are entitled to closure."

The small camp was incredibly quiet as Itachi pondered the meaning behind the scroll. For the entire time that he stared at the item, neither side moved nor spoke.

Originally, Itachi would have opened it without pause. Now, and given what the messengers thought of him with regard to certain familial relations… not so much.

A clone shimmered into existence retrieving the object before stepping out of the campfire light to open it. When it walked back into the light it was to set a mason jar filled with what looked like green tea on the ground.

Itachi's breath hitched as he saw two floating orbs in that liquid, the red coloring in them fading ever so slowly over time as the bigger than normal eyeballs shrunk at a matching pace.

As sharp as a crack of thunder, Itachi's anger boiled to the surface as it dawned on him that he truly had nothing left, not even his badly desired vengeance with Orochimaru, the former having met his end at the hands of the Uzumaki.

"Why?!" It was an angry hiss of air more than words.

Red eyes swirled once more as he lifted his gaze to bore into the messengers of such horrid news.

"He was mine to kill!"

Itachi's hands crackled into fists of impotent rage as he took a hasty step towards them.

"So true and we'd planned to let you have him,-"

The last loyal Uchiha paused to hear them out.

"-yet you took too long in your vengeance allowing him to find our Walker-sama-"

"-and kill one of his beloveds," they finished together.

Oh. Well, that jolted the anger right out of him. That definitely was a shinobi of another color.

The two females stepped backwards once, their bodies fading slightly into the dim light surrounding his hidden rest stop.

"Heed the words of Keina-sama-"

'-and know that you are no longer welcome among our family."

And with that, both girls took another step backwards before their chakra faded completely from his senses.

He stood dumbfounded for several minutes as the conversation played over and over and over again in his mind.

I mean, what could you say to something like that? In the end, nothing. Nothing worth hearing anyway and, with that final reveal admitted to and accepted for what it was, what else did it leave?

Itachi grunted once to himself, a cross between surprise and resignation. This was how it was to end for the great and powerful Uchiha Itachi?

The great Kinslayer.

By now the Twins would be long gone. Even if they were not, what could he say to persuade them to offer him another chance? Nothing came to mind so he allowed the full weight of his isolation to bear down on his much too lean shoulders.

For his part, Itachi returned to the rotting log that had been his perch for the last four hours and wept silently into the bitter sunrise knowing that he was truly alone with nowhere to turn to for help or comfort. He couldn't even go back to Akatsuki knowing for sure they'd string him up and pluck out his eyes as spares for that bastard Madara.

As he stared mournfully at the jar just meters away from his right foot, he wept knowing he'd finally failed everything and everyone he'd ever loved.

.

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~III~

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The Eternal Gate Guards, Konohagakure

"So… what are you gonna do?"

Silence.

"It's not like we can keep putting this off."

More silence.

"We need to give them an answer by the end of this month, Izu!"

Izumo turned to his ever-present partner trying to hold back his fifth sigh of the morning. The sun was still trying to clear the tree line so it could burn off the morning mist and he'd heard the same question multiple times before their first hour of watch was ended.

"I told you already, 'Tetsu."

Both were standing near the small table that held the visitor's log and other minor accoutrements of their station. Neither seemed likely to slack just yet owing to the morning being the busiest time for merchants and the like.

Not that they really could anymore given the Hokage's ire at everyone and everything over the last few weeks. It seemed more than likely you'd spend the week locked in the brig for dereliction than just get yelled at like the good 'ole days.

Something had him fit to be tied and everyone treaded lightly if they even thought he was around. The walls seemed to have eyes everywhere lately…

Kotetsu's shoulders shrugged in nervous agitation. Again.

"I know, but… but… I can't see a way out of this. I'm starting to think-."

"Don't finish that. Don't. You. Dare!" Izumo's brows narrowed, his growling voice drawing his spiky-haired friend's attention to the wagging finger in his face. "We don't know how this will all end so stop working yourself up into a lather over it."

Izumo, the more reserved of the two, watched as his gate watch partner twitched and fidgeted, his hands alternating between patting the air and wringing themselves dry.

"I know, I know…" Kotetsu's spiky hair seemed almost alive with agitation as he paced in small circles.

… thrumm… thrumm… thrumm…

While Kotetsu continued to pace, Izumo's brows knitted together again over the deep and repetitive sound coming from the eastern tree line.

"Tetsu," he muttered trying to get the nervous nin to pipe down.

Nothing, then, "TETSU!"

"Huh? What!? Can't you see I'm having a quiet meltdown like you wanted?"

"Yeah, I can. Now, sit still and SHUT UP FOR A MINUTE!"

Kotetsu blinked twice and opened his mouth to snark back when he finally heard whatever his best friend was staring off in the distance at.

Thrumm… Thrumm… THRUMM… THRUMM…

"Is that them?" Kotetsu croaked not liking at all how that sounded so much more than two thousand pairs of feet.

Izumo shot a quick glance to the top of the wall only to get a returned negative shake of the head from the high lookouts. With that, he signed for a pair of the ANBU on station to relay a message to the Hokage before turning back to face the trees.

All they could do now was wait.

THRUMM… THRUMM… THRUMM…

And wait they did while the sound of feet pounding the earth grew louder and louder. Both could feel the ground pulse and shake with each booming report.

For almost thirty minutes they waited, during which time they were greeted by the Hokage, his advisors, the Council, and over fifty ANBU. Izumo could see the almost one hundred and fifty Jounin, Konoha's entire non-ANBU cadre of elites, lining the top of the walls in anticipation.

For some reason, he had a feeling they would not be nearly enough.

THRUMM… THRUMM… THRUMM… THRUMM!… THRUMM!… THRUMM!…

When they saw the first ranks break the cover of trees, before splitting into left and right flanks, the Godaime smirked beneath his mask and began thinking how cute their little display of strength was when compared to the looming walls of the Hidden Leaf.

He stopped smirking when their formation took up nearly the entire tree break Konoha kept clear to prevent enemies from approaching unseen. By this time tents were going up, banners were being placed, and their troops were still marching into the clearing.

What he once believed to be two thousand soldiers was clearly much more than that. A rough count of heads and banners showed roughly twice that amount, give or take.

Kakashi didn't need to turn around to see how nervous everyone was; he could hear the near constant shuffling of of the Council even over the pounding of sandaled feet.

Shikaku's unnecessary "Troublesome" turned out to be the understatement of the year.

Then he saw the official party break off from the impromptu camp to approach the gate and it took everything Kakashi had not to scream, "Screw this!" and bar the gates.

.

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~III~

POV: Kakashi Hatake, Godaime Hokage

Kakashi wanted to curse and spit but that would require lowering his facemask.

Not gonna happen.

Oh, the short imposter in robes didn't worry him. The six former members of the Komodo Squad framing his left and right would be a bit to handle but, eventually, he was pretty sure they could be delayed and dealt with long enough to let them kill off the imposter.

Kakashi wasn't even all that worried about the seemingly endless march of heavy-amor soldiers forming up outside their walls. Diplomatic rules would keep them outside too long to be of any use and their forces could – he was pretty sure despite the losses – fend off the siege so long as the seals kept the walls sturdy.

He was certain Konoha could outlast them despite being heavily out-kunai'd, as it were. Maybe. Probably.

No, it was the tall Uzumaki walking just behind and to the left of the phony Uzumaki. A man he believed to be long dead as a result of the invasion that wiped Uzushio from the map. A man so feared among the elemental nations, he'd earned the moniker, "The Uzu Wraith."

He was pretty sure that Iwa still frightened their academy students with horror stories of the man fading in and out of thunderstorms to claim souls and eat the faces of children that refused to eat their vegetables. Bullies that harmed small animals would find their houses without power and this ghoul waiting for you in the bathroom to cut out your spleen with a curling iron.

Saito-effing-Uzumaki.

Worse still, the man looked like he hadn't aged since the fall of Uzushio. Tall. Broad-shouldered. Same damned scar trailing from the one side of his forehead, along the bridge of his nose, to his right cheek. Yup. Saito-effing-Uzumaki alright.

Taking a deep breath, the slightly less sure Kage figured it was time for some damage control.

"We don't have enough room to host your entire escort." His single eyed crinkled up into an upside-down "U."

"They'll be fine where they are," the younger Uzumaki responded with a careless shrug. "It's not like anything will stop them if they need to get to me."

His supremely confident comment wiped the crinkle smile from Kakashi's face. Deciding to be the bigger man he let it pass in the spirit of moving things along. He also decided the continued shuffling of feet behind him was as equally unimportant as it was annoying.

"We took the liberty of signing you and your twenty escorts in." Kakashi's smile began to return as the much smaller group nodded along in gratitude.

Perhaps this wouldn't be as frustrating as he once believed.

"There are rooms reserved for you at-," he began only to be interrupted by a crisp:

"No need."

Blink. Blink. "Excuse me?" He paused as his uncovered eye switched from the shorter red-blond-hybrid to the snowy elder.

He tried not to remark to himself on how the pale strands of red in his beard and hair reminded him of bloody streaks, like some day-walker having just fed on innocent virgins.

"I said that there will be no need. We will be returning to our encampment at the end of each day."

There were murmurs behind Kakashi questioning whether the delegation trusted Konoha and how much of an insult this was to their hospitality. It all faded to stoned silence when he raised one hand to still the mob.

"That… is your choice… after all." Kakashi tried to keep his face plain despite how much this would offset his plans. No matter. There were always options to take and backup plans to adjust.

"If you need anything, anything at all during your week's stay-"

"Two days," the same vampire responded.

"-two day stay then," here Kakashi took a hefty, steadying breath to stop the pulsing vein in his forehead, "…don't hesitate to ask."

By this point he was done and didn't bother providing an escort of sufficient rank. He assumed they knew where to go, turned on a heel, and stomped away in a huff.

Damn the politics.

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~III~

POV: Naruto, Banme Uzukage

Even after the Hokage's "assistance," it took another hour to fully settle things at the gate. Naruto would be allowed into the village with no more than twenty people at a time, and that included his Dōji caretakers. That was easy enough and required little to no clarification on their part.

It was working their way through the denials of the Council's assistance and dealmaking that took soo long, persistent bunch of vultures.

Naruto had his hands full with his own people and really didn't want to add Konoha scavengers to the mix.

With the loss of his long-time caretaker, Koi-chan, two more rushed to fill the void. Naruto hadn't bothered to learn their names and spoke even less to them, much to the shame of those that knew what transpired with the Snake Sannin.

That only made things worse with the Hatchlings feeling as if they'd failed their Walker. It was a vicious spiral from then on.

Many thought he was afraid to get close and they would have been correct if only not for the reasons they assumed.

With the two replacements, there also came Saito-jiji who would serve as his mentor on this trip. His six Guardians filled out the inner circle having left the remaining Sirens, Yugao-nee, and Haku-chan at home.

Oh boy, were they mad at that decision but it needed to be done for their own safety, at least this time around.

The remaining eleven spots were filled by a Hatchling Captain, two Sergeants, and eight guards from the Bloody Talon, the Hatchling's equivalent to Keina-raised ANBU-grade fighters; while they had shinobi training, they were closer to samurai.

He wasn't worried though since there were five hundred more of the elite force just outside the gate with the remaining several thousand being standard assault troops formed out of B, A, and borderline S-ranked Hatchlings itching to burn Konoha to the ground. Naruto chuckled hoping that the Hatchling mob would make a suitable deterrent.

He hoped.

Shrugging off the smaller concerns, the official party made a bee-line for the Market District of the village striding right past the rapidly falling faces of Konoha's Council who'd been hoping to begin alliance talks with the Uzu contingent, especially given the remarkable turnaround Kumo's economy was making following their new trade agreement with the imposter. If those cloud humpers could profit at obscene rates, then Konoha deserved its fair piece of the profit pie.

Ten seconds after said contingent entered the gates the very same Council found themselves standing alone with their mouths flapping open in the wind.

A tumbleweed rolled comically by to complete the picture.

Instead, Naruto marched his way to a certain flower shop in the hopes of a friendly discussion about the coming day's events. What he found was Inoichi, Inoichi's wife, and his future bride waiting on the stoop of their store in formal kimonos of royal purple trimmed in glittering gold. Ino stood slightly in front of her parents, her hair coiled atop her head and pinned with two mother of pearl hairpins a hand-span in length.

"Greetings, Lord Uzumaki."

The tightening of Naruto's face was noticeable and, despite her brief shuffle of feet when she caught his reaction, the girl stood firm.

'So, this is how she wishes to play it?' Naruto stepped two paces forward and squared his shoulders.

"If you want to treat this like an alliance negotiation, so be it."

He noticed – with some regret – that she only seemed to tighten her jawline in response. Though her hands stayed clasped together, her spine seemed to stiffen a touch.

"Terms?" he asked in an almost unenthusiastic monotone.

"First-born to be a resident of Konoha. Service as a shinobi will be their choice." Her chin seemed to raise just a hair more.

"Acceptable." His own hands linked at his waist as his own shoulders squared up to match. "Understand that this removes them from the main branch royalty consideration."

She seemed to blink in confusion but pressed on. "They will be a Yamanaka heir or heiress so I believe we'll be fine. It is unlikely that they'll benefit from Uzumaki bloodline specialties-"

"Uzumaki, Senju, or Namikaze," he corrected with almost clinical precision bringing her up short. It also seemed to slowly register with her parents standing behind her, their eyes widening just a bit.

"Did you say… Senju?"

She almost seemed incredulous so he took one more step forward and lifted his left palm. A soft green glow encased his hand and, as if by magic, a flower sprouted from his palm to blossom into a fully grown rose. Despite herself, Ino joined her parents in an enormous gasp as they recognized the lightly speckled galaxy rose in its breathtaking hues of Indigo, royal purple, and midnight-nearly black-blue mixed near the flower's core.

It was a rarity found only in the Land of Flowers and they sold for a small fortune in the Capital of Hi no Kuni.

The silent whisper of "Mokuton" from her father wasn't missed by anyone in the growing crowd gathering for entry into the flower shop that was uncharacteristically closed for the "negotiations" currently transpiring.

Not for the first time, the young heiress wondered if she were following the correct path in this whole affair, her resolve weaking as evident by the slight slumping of her shoulders. Doubt was beginning to rear its ugly head, that is until a gentle squeeze on her right shoulder – the one closest to her father – seemed to stiffen her spine enough to carry on.

'Daddy wouldn't steer her wrong.'

In the end, it took a gentle nudge by her mother but Ino stepped forward to take the rose. Instead of gripping the flower, she instead grabbed his wrist with her left hand as her right reached up and withdrew one of her hair needles causing part of her coif to dangle along the right side of her neck.

The immediate rasping of steel violently ejecting itself from a sheath – multiplied by at least a factor of ten - froze everyone in place, the needle hovering halfway to the still open palm.

Naruto knew he could extract himself easily and escape harm. He also knew that, if he did so, his guards would cut down the entire Yamanaka Clan unless he intervened so his unfettered right hand shot into the air, fingers pointing to the clouds indicating for his very attentive force to pause seeing that half were already within striking distance.

For several nervous seconds, frantic breathing was all anyone heard before (quite reluctantly) many swords – every sword within reach – returned to their homes and Naruto nodded his head once granting permission for Ino to continue.

"Overreacting much?" Ino joked though you could hear the warble in her throat as her laugh died on suddenly very dry lips. Her eyes tried to find any sign of humor in the dark blue pools in front of her.

Instead, his bone-dry voice made her heart jump into her own throat with a frightening response.

"Would you ever try to stab the Daimyo of Hi no Kuni with a hair pin?"

"Of course not!" she blurted out. "I am not keen on suicide by samurai any time soon!" Her laugh came out a little more forced even as several in the crowd nervously joined her. Many could see the oddly-skinned guards still gripping the pommels of their swords hard enough to make the leather wraps creak. Loudly.

"Then why should you expect any less from my guards seeing as you're about to stab their Daimyo?"

All the nervous laughter died out as if someone turned off a water spigot.

"Well," he urged with a single dip of his head. "You committed to this silliness, so go on. Get it over with."

For all her bravado, Ino truly hadn't looked at the situation in that sort of light. It was… Naruto. Never once had she considered Naruto more than her knuckleheaded teammate. He was her forever love and (hopefully) husband-to-be.

A Daimyo?! A royal man of power? Certainly not, especially considering his clan was long dead and it would take several generations to even begin to revive it (A/N: Ino does not know about the Kumo prisoners). However, looking around the small plaza formed by nosy Konoha citizens as she stood in the middle of it grasping Naruto's calloused hands…

She was suddenly very aware of the many, many swords angled in her direction despite having been returned to their guard.

One hand nervously gripped the hair pin to keep it from sliding from her all too sweaty palm. Her lips chose that moment to remind her that they felt extra dry and her tongue reflexively sought to moisten them.

"Well…?"

It took all of her concentration to re-lock her gaze with his instead of watching the very angry warriors glaring at her with enough killing intent to make her skin crawl and tingle like pins and needles. It took another heartbeat or four to rebuild her flagging courage.

She took two more breaths to ease the pounding in her chest searching for any hint of warmth or humor in his eyes.

Nothing.

'In for a Ryo…'

She then calmly stabbed his palm once hard enough to break skin and draw blood much to the hissing ire of his lead Guardian who had to be held back by another soldier. She hadn't even seen the two move if her flinch was any indication.

"If he contracts so much as a cold between now and tomorrow," the curvy yet diminutive warrior hissed aloud through the white face mask covering her mouth and chin, "I will return and slaughter your entire clan before taking my own life in dishonor."

Ino could not help but think on how much the woman's mask resembled an angry skull with red demonic eyes.

Despite placing a calming hand on the Hatchling's shoulder, the damage had been done and Naruto saw the women he'd be marrying tomorrow swallow heavily in response, her face paling to a stark ghost-like complexion. He looked pointedly at the parents sweating nervously on the porch before speaking.

"If this is such an unwelcome ordeal, we can always call things off."

Instead of answering, they both turned to Ino to provide the response.

"A-Are you insane? The Daimyo's fifth cousin four times removed or something is going to be there. My family would never live down the shame in the royal court!"

His snort of derision made her cheeks flush a little bit despite herself. "You were more than happy to stab one Daimyo. Why should you fear another?"

No one spoke as the threat of the still hissing Captain echoed through many a shocked face once again.

"Looks like we'll see you at the shrine tomorrow then." He took back his no longer bleeding hand to hide the fact that it was healing slower than normal and turned to leave.

"Wait!"

Naruto paused.

"Aren't you staying for dinner?" She watched him lift his left hand to look at the red smears on his palm and Ino almost regretted agreeing with her parents to make sure he hadn't sent a clone in his place. "There are other things we should…" she was struggling now… "w-we need to talk about."

Rather than turn, Naruto closed his fist and began to walk away. "We can talk after the wedding, if there is time."

Despite Ino's confusion at his cryptic response, she could not bring herself to call out to him again. Instead, she watched him fade into the growing crowd and, for the first time in her life, began to doubt the accuracy her father's advice.

.

.

~III~

Fushimi Inari-Taisha Shrine, Konohagakure the Following (Late) Morning

He survived the night with no additional drama nor signs of sudden bouts of illness.

Hell, it was more troublesome getting dressed with the help of his attendants and female Guardians.

Still worth it if he was being entirely honest. The rack on Kaen…

That was then. This was now.

Though the hour was dragging on towards noon, the air was just transitioning from that cool late morning feeling into the muggy uncomfortableness of midday. The breeze was nice though, he had to admit. That was a Kami-send given the layers upon layers of silk he was wrapped in like a swaddling infant.

Only the best for the Daimyo, even a slightly newer one.

Never having attended such a lavish Konoha event being the village pariah, Naruto was woefully unprepared for the heavy amount of ceremony clogging up the morning schedule.

The official betrothal happened just inside the first Torii in a small building to the left of the sandstone-paved path leading to the shrine still some hundred meters away. The Miko proudly escorting them called this the Sand, or "worshipper's path." Most know it as the "approach" to the main shrine.

The official betrothal was short, sweet, and to the point. Typically, it was an exchange of gifts and-or money between the two families. Inoichi kept it perfunctory and business-like punctuating the act with the signing of an actual betrothal contract and the passing of traditional shugi-bukuro (an envelope created by sadists and tied with a knot he'd have to cut open with a kunai later).

The whole event was sealed with a sterile sake sharing ceremony before proceeding to the open-aired water purification station. Here Naruto politely rolled his eyes as Umi dipped the ladle pouring copious amounts of the cold liquid over his entire arm multiple times, at least two other guardians standing over the limb waiting for it to turn a color other than blue and fall off or shrivel up.

Only after all three were sure nothing horrid happened to Umi's arm was he allowed to do the same ten minutes later.

From there, the entire group gaggled through the second Torii and into the main courtyard leading to a four-enclosure worship hall, none of the pavilions enclosed by walls. Oddly enough, they skipped several sections of what he understood to be a longer morning skipping to the outfitting in traditional attire followed by a walkthrough and what would be expected.

That left our protagonist sitting in his current predicament searching for the meaning of life in a plastic branch representing the real leafy green thing.

He sighed softly.

Naruto knew that today was going to be a very, very, very long and highly scripted day. It was to be expected and he would be expected to perform his part. It was her day, after all.

It would probably have been an easier pill to swallow if he hadn't been kept up until the early hours of the day listening to all of the Komodo Squad rant and rave about beheading the mind walkers as part of fitting retribution for their arrogance.

Half of his entire guard detail had to be sworn to secrecy before they could rile up the entire camp. All of them had to be sworn to compliance under pain of banishment to the grotto for three years, it was that serious.

Still, they grumbled and hissed even as they moved about the tent.

"…"

Yeah, they were still on that, "she stabbed you and we need to murder them all" kick.

"…"

Naruto was just happy that they all loved him as much as they did and, as he sat quietly in the open-aired pavilion thinking over the events of the last six hours, he was praying to Inari that the day would not end in too much bloodshed.

Hopefully there would be no bloodshed.

…

Maybe he'd pray twice, just in case.

For now, he was grateful for the moment of silence before the actual ceremony. Glancing up from the traditional (plastic) Sakaki Branch cradled in his palms, Naruto took note of the open-aired pagoda located just west of the main ceremony chamber. The morning – now long past – had been cool and filled with birds rising for the day.

Since there were no walls to speak of, he could see the crowds beginning to gather in the uncovered courtyard bracketed on four corners by grey-stoned lion-dog statues and decided he needed something less volatile to focus one. His eyes turned back the leafy green branch one of the shrine Mikos gifted him during the rehearsals.

It was supposed to bring luck, an offering to the deity whose shrine they were about to "borrow." It was supposed to represent a tree on the border between deities and man. Did he believe that the oval-shaped leaves bridge that gap to divinity?

No. He knew better.

Inari himself made it all painfully clear so the religious mumbo jumbo, to him, was pointless. The Kamis did what they wanted and cared little for the pain of a mortal existence.

Instead, he was trying very hard not to wrinkle his traditional kimono, his montsuki, spending his time seated on a raised cube of cushiony fabric that reminded him of a footrest. The upper half, including the gold-trimmed Haori, was a deep royal blue bearing the Uzumaki crest - the mon – in gold thread on each shoulder and in the middle of his back. The lower half, the billowy hakama trousers, were black with silver pin striping making them seem almost gray. The wide undersash (called a Datejime) matched the trousers. Beyond all that, he couldn't be bothered to care about the rest, being either gold or silver depending on how much his royal status was to be highlighted.

He knew Ino would be garbed in the traditional Shiromuku, the white wedding attire of a Shinto bride, and hoped there would be good pictures to salvage from this mess. If only…

His mind snapped back to the present when a soft gong at the entrance to the rest of the hall caught his attention ending his mind's rambling on.

It was time.

.

.

~III~

Konoha, Torture and Interrogation Department

Ibiki signed the bottom of his letter then sealed it using his personal hanko stamp. Setting the document face-up in the exact center of his desk, the large man rose, adjusted his trench but did not close it up, neatly pushed in his chair, then turned off the lights as he exited the moderately-sized room.

The light was a necessity this far into the Torture and Interrogation facility given the lack of windows. Being over fifty meters below the surface made windows an impossible luxury.

Closing the reinforced metal door with a soft click, the bear of a man's heavy palm thumped into the solid-sounding metal slab before he pushed the exact amount of chakra needed to engage the locking seal.

Anything greater or less than required would have incinerated everything in the hallway leading up to the only other exit.

The door to his receptionist's office.

One last tug on the handle to verify it was secure, then the two-meter shinobi did an about-face before striding the five-meter length of the hall into a slightly larger reception room where his rumbling rockslide of a voice announced his arrival.

"Yoko-san, you have the rest of the day off." He never glanced her way as he closed the double doors leading to his office. He would not need to. Like every other professional on his staff, he understood implicitly that she heard his direction and would comply.

Instead, he turned to face the ten Squad Leaders standing at parade rest in his reception room before growling out, "You know what to do."

To a man and woman, they all nodded once before vanishing in individual flickers that left nothing behind. They simply vanished like the shadows that they were.

Ibiki didn't need to comment on their professionalism. He trained them himself and was aware of both their skill and loyalty.

He would need both today to tie up one final loose end. One last task before he could rest in peace.

'Guide my hand one last time, Sandaime-sama.'

Ibiki strode from the room with purpose, his shinobi receptionist waiting the polite three minutes before engaging the out of office security seals and flickering out themself.

Exactly seven minutes and twenty-one seconds later, Ibiki was standing outside the office of the current Hokage imposter, waiting to be let in. Waiting, and waiting, and waiting some more.

Today was going to be the longest day of his life but Ibiki was a patient man.

Somewhere to his right as he stood glaring at the two-man security detail barring the door, an intercom buzzer sounded and the mechanically-muted voice of the Godaime directed his gatekeeper to, "Send him in."

Ibiki did not wait further, his feet gliding silently on the office carpet as one of the porcelain-faced sentries opened the right side of the double doors to let him in.

Ibiki noticed the other glance down to check his wristwatch, probably checking to see how much time was left before shift change.

Without a facial twitch, Ibiki snorted internally.

Yeah, he was looking forward to today being over as well.

.

.

~III~

Konoha West Gate, Commerce Entrance

Izumo snapped at his manic partner for what felt like the thirtieth time that morning. Normally his antsy partner never really bothered him but being moved to the western foot gate only made the growing swelter of the day more unbearable.

Oh, he knew why they were really moved; the Godaime was still unsure of their loyalty so, as punishment, they were moved someplace "out of the way," as it were. Here there was little either could do to make things worse while every other shinobi in the village focused on the problem at hand-literally on the opposite side of the village.

The problem at hand appeared to be just over four-thousand enemy combatants camped out on their doorstep and even with the Fire Daimyo's contingent of seven hundred fifty samurai marching to close the southern flank, Konoha was going to be in tight straights if things in Konoha went south.

Every shinobi in the village knew the Daimyo's forces would not be enough if something like that happened.

In other words, if Kakashi insulted a foreign military power sufficiently enough to come to blows at what was supposed to be a joyous event.

Problem was that given Kakashi's crappy personality, it was almost a foregone conclusion.

That's why, with Kotetsu ramping up to yet another major gripe session over being shafted with "farmer gate duty," Izumo turned to berate his whining gate partner and failed to see the matte-black rod punch through his Chūnin flak vest shattering his rib cage and perforating the thick muscles of his heart.

His chattering partner failed to notice something was wrong until he heard Izumo's body hit the ground. By then it was too late as another rod tore through his esophagus pinning him to the ancient wall that protected his home.

Then all hell broke loose as the dual squad of ANBU rushed down from the top of the same wall to meet the figure draped in black with red clouds dotting his cloak.

.

.

~III~

Inari-Taisha Shrine

The extremely beautiful hatchling female glided silently through the only enclosed building on temple grounds, the reception hall reserved for dignitaries. Her glorious red-orange-and-gold-streaked hair was tied in the traditional high topknot, its luxurious length meticulously braided with silk-enclosed wire for today's events. Her battle kimono flowed around her ankles, the black leather forming the wide obi at her waist covered in seals that deflected sharp-edged blades, kept the garment closed snugly around her curvy form.

Sumira, despite the onerous detail to guard the reception area with the rest of her squad, was proud for the position. Kaen-sama chose her – chose all of them – to protect Walker-sama so it didn't matter to her where they ended up. If he hadn't already chosen Kaen, she'd be battling it out right now in the Grotto for her shot. Walker-sama was owed no less for saving their entire Sect from the shame of that traitorous cur-

Thump.

She paused at the unfamiliar sound, sharp eyes flickering to the far corner of the space. The large but rather plain building was reserved for the Yamanaka as a paid service by the Clan Head, or so they'd been told but it was supposed to be a simple one-story square of raised stone, no basement.

THUMP-Bump.

There it was again.

This time all four pairs of eyes locked briefly prior to snapping to the far corner where the traditional barrels of Sake were stacked neatly. Most were white with colorful kanji alongside the village's symbol for the Will of Fire. The top three were wooden, the dark ink standing out on the glossy planks bound by heavily-corded rope.

BUMP!

Sumira decided enough was enough.

With a wave of her hand, two of the other squad members began shifting barrels out of the way until only three remained. Once clear, all three took up positions as Sumira silently counted down from five, the fingers of her right hand closing one finger at a time in a fist.

At zero, the three remaining barrels were whisked away to reveal a pull ring attached to a trap door in the floor.

At that exact moment another THUMP forced the hatch up to an almost vertical degree to reveal an equally surprised white-haired male. Said male was rapidly blinking his eyes trying to adjust to the difference in light from the dark hole he'd been hiding in and the open room he now found himself in. Then everything froze for a second.

Then the Crimson Squad of the Fire Sect recognized the scraggly-haired senior citizen and snarled at the same time.

When Gekido Terumi's eyes finally adjusted and he could focus on the healthy hips and chest less than two feet from where he half-rose from the hidden compartment he was hiding in, his eyesight cleared enough to recognize the fisted knuckles that impacted right between his eyes.

Smack!... Schuff-Thump-Tumble-CRUNCH!

Sumira paused long enough to verify that the old lecher was not moving before turning to her nearest squad member.

"Inform Walker-sama and find me a Shadow messenger!"

It wasn't until one of her squad cleared the room that she noticed the now unconscious Terumi dirtbag was dressed like one of the shrine ushers. Crumpled under his body was simple wooden fan and pleated cap that would be tied under his chin-if it hadn't been flattened under the old codger's body.

Reaching into the folds of her kimono, Sumira pulled out a stack of chakra suppression seals and smiled maliciously.

It made sense now why Walker-sama gave them to her owing to his divine right to his position. It was clear that he foresaw this heretic and provided the necessary tools to bring him to justice.

Hopping down into the hole, she began reinforcing her arm with chakra to make sure each seal slapped to his body would leave a bruise long after the seals were removed.

If ever.

.

.

~III~

Office of the Godaime

"I told you not to show up if you were going to be a pain in my ass, 'Biki."

The T head grimaced at the annoying nickname leftover from his academy days and instead focused on the man standing in front of the office's wraparound windows watching the streets below with his hands clasped behind his back.

He also made note that the arrogant S.O.B. wasn't wearing the Sandaime's robes of office.

Good.

He might feel a touch guilty if they were destroyed today despite being so for a good cause.

Despite himself, the gruff man answered his voice sounding like he gargled twice daily with gravel.

"You're going to need my help clearing up this mess before the day is out."

Kakashi snorted once clearly tickled at the comment. "Perhaps."

He'd purposely let the man stand outside for fifteen minutes as if confirming that he did not in fact need the grizzled war veteran's assistance.

Kakashi almost giggled a second time.

"You might-."

His no doubt glorious deliverance of wisdom upon the sadist that was still the best information gatherer in the elemental nations was rudely interrupted by his office door banging open without his express permission. He always thought the old Sandaime was too forgiving of those types of interruptions and made a very frank point to punish such impoliteness.

Kakashi turned and unleashed a withering blast of Killing Intent in that direction, enough that the very air shimmered and thrummed like a desert mirage, the floorboards at his feet spiderweb cracking in his outrage.

The Chūnin messenger, to his credit, only went down to one knee as his teeth clenched hard enough Ibiki could hear the enamel crack.

Kakashi, the rat bastage, kept him there for a full thirty seconds before growling out, "This better be 'or else' good."

"West…. G-G-Gate… under…a-t-tack… red… clouds!" was all the young shinobi sputtered before he blacked out. His limp body thumped heavily to the polished wooden boards as if to punctuate his message.

Kakashi blinked once before softly muttering, "damn."

Ibiki snorted loudly. "Nice going, Hokage-sama. Hope the poor bastard didn't have more vital information to pass."

Kakashi cut his eye to the gruff veteran standing between the portraits of the third and fourth Hokage portraits before barking out an order to his hidden guard to reinforce the gate and sound the general alarm.

Surprisingly, the Godaime did not move to don his robes or head to the gate himself, which Ibiki found extremely odd. Instead, the insufferable nin turned to once again gaze out of the office's panoramic windows. Still, he wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth.

When Kakashi fully turned back to the window, his face turning to the west, a thick, leather-clad forearm locked around his throat from the left side of his body as a shooting pain pierced his lower back just above his right kidney drawing out a hissing grunt.

He'd been stabbed despite not detecting the tiniest bit of murderous chakra from his leather-clad department head. Too bad it wasn't the initial wound that was the problem. No, adrenaline and a little chakra flooding to the wound would slow down the bleed out and dull the pain as all ANBU were trained to do.

It still hurt like hell but he'd be able to survive this once he broke the amateur chokehold.

Then Kakashi's lone eye bulged as a dull burning sensation began to spread out from where Ibiki was beginning to slowly twist the blade back and forth.

Poison.

Kakashi pushed as much chakra to his left arm as he could and threw it backwards into the ribcage of his attacker while twisting his body to the left – away from the stab wound.

He was rewarded with a low grunt and a weakened grip on his throat allowing the one-eyed man to stumble forward, the blade jerking roughly from his flesh.

'No time to heal it properly.' Kakashi's right palm burst into flame as he reached back to sear the flesh shut. It would tear open if he wasn't careful but it should keep him from bleeding out before killing this fucking traitor!

"Guards!"

Ibiki seemed to smile at the call but said nothing. More importantly, no one answered him.

Then the light came on for Kakashi.

"When?"

Ibiki grunted out a rough laugh. "When you were chastising your staff for doing their job." He refused to tell the smug prick that he'd swapped out the entire watch team with his own people. Really wasn't a need to at this point.

There wasn't a shinobi loyal to the Hokage in the entire building by now.

Furthermore, he'd activated the privacy seal Sandaime-sama set up for their more clandestine debriefings while Kakashi was pushing enough Killing Intent to murder a cow.

Ibiki was internally pleased at how things were working out.

The frown on Kakashi's face told a different story as the cloth wrinkled noticeably. Instead, he drew a kunai of his own a dropped into a shaky fighting stance, the poison in his system making his vision blur for a moment.

"What… what do you think you're accomplishing, moron?" He needed to stall for help to arrive, or find a way out. His chakra felt a bit sluggish.

"Me?" Ibiki's voice sounded almost innocent. "I'm just cleaning up this mess you've made."

Kakashi snarled and ripped off his Hitai, snapping open his other eye only to blink stupidly for several seconds.

Ibiki's face broke out into a feral snarl, his own dark orbs locking onto the matching pair of dark pupils rapidly-blinking in the face of the current Hokage.

'Good. It's working.'

His knees flexed as chakra surged along his spine.

'I should have between three to five minutes.'

Then he charged.

.

.

~III~

Inari-Taisha Shrine

It was incredibly difficult to keep the smile off his face as he stepped into the ceremonial pavilion. Difficult but not impossible considering the news he'd just received.

Later for that. Now he had to concentrate.

The ceremonial hall was neatly arranged with simple chairs for family members of the bride and groom. To the left, dozens of platinum blond heads neatly filled the appointed rows. At the very front sat Inoichi and his beloved wife, the latter beaming in joy for her little girl.

Naruto expected to see nothing but empty rows to his right and was openly shocked to see Chouza and his family-including his beefy son Chouji-pleasantly smiling back at him. It was a big enough deal that he pointedly made his way to stand before the jovial clan head to exaggerate the nod of his head in respect. It made for some embarrassed bowing from the pleasantly plump family but he sorted it out soon enough with a polite offer to join him at his table during the reception.

Focus.

He returned to his designated spot, one of two cushioned folding chairs placed between the two familial seating areas.

Taking the chair closest to the Akimichi, he waited.

And waited.

Then waited some more.

People were beginning to fidget nervously, mostly the shrine's staff as they began to glance frantically between the increasingly angry groom and the growing snicker on the face of the father of the bride.

Then Naruto's eyes narrowed as he noticed Inoichi's gleeful mood and the last few pieces fell into place.

"You were never going to let me marry her, were you?"

Inoichi, to his credit, calmly rose then forcefully exhaled as if he needed to release a lot of pent-up stress.

"Of course not! Are you insane? Why would I let my precious daughter marry a soon-to-be dead man?"

At this, the former interrogator did laugh. Loud and long, he let it all flow.

"Wanna hear something really funny?"

He cackled briefly like it was some hilarious inside joke. "I'm not even under that stupid seal's affects! Our family's techniques protect us from that idiotic mess Danzo left behind." His forced humor evaporated like chakra smoke leaving behind the disapproving father figure. "I just don't think you're good enough for my baby girl."

Inoichi looked very disappointed when he didn't get the outraged outburst they all were expecting at this point.

"Still holding that grudge against my mother for beating your scrawny ass?"

Naruto smirked as the taller man's brow began to twitch uncontrollably, his eyes panning across the room to see the Akimichi Family's looks of horror and disgust being directed his way.

"You're more trouble than she ever was and it's about time some-"

"DADDY!"

Inoichi's spine went rigid, his eyes growing round enough to fall out of his head as it whipped around to catch sight of his daughter storming into the ceremonial hall. She was halfway into her wedding garb, the white under-kimono fluttering about her body. The outer robe was missing but her white Zori sandals were pat-pat-patting on the wooden floorboards with each annoyed step. Her normally free-flowing hair was tightly wound and bound, the ceremonial headband resting flat atop her heavily lacquered hairdo to help keep it all in place.

"Princess?! What are you doing out here?"

Naruto blinked noting the genuinely surprised inflection from the man before Ino verbally laid into him.

"What kind of crazy is cousin Rini spouting about the wedding being off!?"

Every head in the hall snapped to Inoichi for an answer and you could literally hear the metaphorical record player screeching to a halt in the back of your mind.

It was perfectly silent when Inoichi's palm slapped loudly to his own face.

.

.

~III~

Office of the Hokage

Kakashi was stalling and Ibiki knew it.

He just didn't care.

The lean man was beginning to stagger a bit. It would have been unnoticeable to most fresh Jounin and below but Ibiki was no boot soldier. He'd been reading body language for his entire career and knew the signs.

Huffed breathing.

Dilated eyes.

Nervous twitching in his quads as the bastard fought to stand steady.

The way he briefly flexed his fingers to ease the pins-and-needles feeling in his hands.

By now, the poison coating his first strike was doing its job so Ibiki decided he no longer needed it, chucking the bloody and now slippery weapon across the room to stab the spine of one of Kakashi's author-signed Icha Icha Paradise collection.

It only took a few seconds of Kakashi trying to escape the chakra sealed office to find out that he was locked inside with the scarred madman. Ibiki figured he'd humor the idiot for a minute to let it sink in and stopped charging at him to watch. He knew how much time he had to work with and the more Kakashi ran, the more the poison worked its way through his system.

"Let's wraps this up, shall we?" he prodded.

Kakashi only growled in return.

"Don't be that way Crack-ashi." Ibiki's grin looked anything but cordial. "I want to get a corner piece before they're all gone."

Instead of just lunging, Ibiki internally molded enough chakra to blur from his position to corner his prey.

Kakashi's hand shot up, a kunai gleaming in the office light with the clear hope that Ibiki would impale himself on it. To his disappointment, the dark blur shifted to Kakashi's right just enough to slip by his aim.

Ibiki tilted his head enough to the left to get within arm's reach and bury his ham-sized fist squarely into the Hokage's solar plexus. He enjoyed watching Kakashi nearly fold over his forearm, the popping sound of bones like music to his ears.

The larger man caught the flexing of Kakashi's arm indicating a change in the man's grip. Withdrawing his right arm and rotating his shoulder back and away, Ibiki pulled back enough to miss the now reverse-gripped jab to his side. At the same time, his left fist shot up from his waist to slip under Kakashi's still-extended arm (checking the downward motion) and cracking against the masked man's chin.

The rest of the combo sequence, aided by Kakashi's drugged and sluggish reflexes temporarily deprived of chakra, flowed like clockwork.

Right hand slapped the kunai out of Kakashi's hand, the sound of his wrist snapping under the chakra-enhanced blow coming crisp and clean to his ears.

A snap kick to the gut bent the Hokage over again so he could lean over the man's back and wrap his arms around his waist. With an evil smile, Ibiki lifted him up high enough so that Kakashi appeared to be sitting on his shoulders with his legs resting against his back.

Only to slam the Hokage backwards onto his desk of authority hard enough to shatter it into pieces.

"By the way, Hokage-sama."

The hateful drawl in Ibiki's voice oozed over Kakashi like stagnant swamp water as the scarred interrogator stepped forward to tower over the groaning man.

"I QUIT!"

.

.

~III~

Konoha Proper, Somewhere Near the Market District

Another dead body smashed through a newly-abandoned storefront, the crisp sound of glass imploding into a thousand tiny bells. It would not be the only one that morning nor would it be the last.

One had to only look in the direction from which this stranger had come - from the west.

Acrid smoke filled the air in columns like beads in a curtain. The dotted the village from the Market District to the Western Gate like bread crumbs, each bringing with it the foul smell of acrid meat cooking.

The dark-clad figure responsible for such wanton mayhem never paused in his advance from the western gate, a trail of broken bodies and buildings bearing testament to the carnage in his wake.

Konoha's alarm claxon, which sounded like wooden planks being slammed together, kept blaring its impotent cry the entire time. For Nagato, it meant very little. The shinobi responding to delay him made up Konoha's rapid response amounting to little more than Chūnin with a death wish.

He tore through them like rice paper without altering his calm, methodical pace. Nagato rent earth and flesh alike. What did not break, burned and tore as the earth heaved its guts into the air. At least until he reached what he believed was the exact center of the village.

Most would attribute his stopping being caused by the ring of close to one hundred Shinobi blocking all street exits from the market plaza.

The figure lifted his head just enough for two glowing purple orbs to peak out from under his straw hat and pan across the stern faces glaring back at him. Young. Old. ANBU. As the figure slowly pivoted in a complete circle, he briefly locked eyes with many of the angry shinobi brandishing weapons of all shapes and sizes.

"Throw down your weapons and submit!"

The figure did not respond, did not even turn to meet the voice shouting ridiculous orders out to him.

"This is your final warning!"

He did snort in brief humor once at that one.

Then, with a pulse of chakra that blew dust out in a perfect circle, he shot straight up into the air.

He had a message to deliver after all.

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~III~

A Few Moments Before

Two things were happening while Nagato Uzumaki was taking an arial view of the village in two different parts of the village.

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.

In the Hokage Tower, Ibiki had just enough time to cross his arms blocking the surprisingly quick foot of his downed opponent. The crossed forearm block prevented serious injury even if it did force him back one and a half steps.

"Resignation… accepted, moron."

Ibiki glanced up from his arms to lock glares with Hatake just as the wounded shinobi rose shakily to his feet and was rewarded with the sight of one rapidly flickering eye as it shifted from red to black and back to red again.

'Well, the prodigy strikes again, I see.' Ibiki had to sigh at the fact that the dosing chosen for this fight was not enough to fully suppress his target's chakra control but could only blame himself for playing with his food. As Kakashi reached back with his good arm, his left arm, to retrieve a fresh kunai, Ibiki swept his cloak aside wide enough to reach behind his back with both hands and retrieve his prized knuckle dusters, the pointed tips gleaming wickedly in Kakashi's usual office "mood lighting."

He wasn't particularly concerned for what was about to happen as he settled into a stance Kakashi recognized all too well. They'd both served during the last great war and Ibiki knew that the lazy genius picked up some of the Kusa Bushwhacker Taijutsu style just as he knew the lazy bastard never bothered to master it. No, Kakashi was more known for his Ninjutsu not his Taijutsu.

Taijutsu took actual physical effort and Kakashi was a notoriously lazy bastard.

Though he was trying to recover what was lost over the years, Kakashi still hadn't crested that vaunted S-Rank dividing line.

No, Ibiki Morino, being a man known for meticulous detail in his preparation, was confident that what remained of his poison would force Crack-kashi to face him weapon-to-weapon, an area where he knew he held the advantage.

As he adjusted his footing into an advanced stance, Ibiki-unlike his current opponent-refused to slack off after Kusa was subdued. In fact, he actively sought out as much of the close-quarters fighting style that made Kusa so lethal in both the tall grass of their home nation as they were in the clumped trees of the Land of Fire. The basic and intermediate secrets the war-smashed village was forced to surrender in reparations only made him more lethal, especially given his normal working environment where he routinely subdued prisoners more than happy to escape at the cost of his life.

Admittedly, it was Ibiki's own fault since he'd made the offer of freedom (if they could kill him) after telling them that their execution was scheduled later that same day. He might have also convinced the obviously disbelieving torture victim by tossing a couple quality kunai onto the metal interrogation table and ordering the interrogation room door to be left open as incentive. In getting ready for today, he'd only picked up the pace of his training and nothing gets you geared up more than desperate people trying to slice your neck open.

Kakashi, idiot that he was, never even asked how Ibiki kept T&I's lockup soo clean of riff-raff and Ibiki never offered to share.

No, Ibiki had lots of motivation not to slack off unlike the lazy prodigy. Oddly enough, it only drove him onward to the point that he funded his own S-Ranked missions to obtain copies of the advanced scrolls. Those successes further drove him to master the fighting style and incorporate it into his own violent and bloody nin-taijutsu techniques.

No, Ibiki was not worried in the slightest as he charged the wounded Godaime.

The seals in his coat would do the trick of confusing whatever prediction ability his crappy eye gave the lazy bastard. It had better – Ibiki paid a pretty penny for those seals from the same weaponsmith supporting the Yondaime back in the day.

No, Ibiki, if anything grew more confident by the minute.

Not one for prolonged dialogue, metal-covered fists clashed with razor-honed kunai. Sparks flew to the tune of clanging chakra metal, the bursts of light reflecting in dark pupils as the time delay between clashes shrank with each pass.

Kakashi grunted as his chakra surged in uneven bursts along his left arm, his non-dominant arm, drawing his upper body off-balance when he couldn't match the strength to his wobbly legs.

Ibiki's right hand came up across his body, the spikes between his middle two knuckles trapping the sharp edge with a subtle twist of his wrist. Almost immediately, as Kakashi's left arm was forced wide, Ibiki's left slithered out like a cobra strike driving the sharp edges of its mated weapon into the joint between the Hokage's clavicle and shoulder with a satisfying crunch.

For the next several minutes, all Kakashi knew was blood and pain as blow after blow from the S-Ranked lead interrogator landed, each strike crushing bone and spilling blood in aggravated spurts.

Ibiki felt the strong pulse of chakra from the Market District and paused to glance in that direction, ignoring the THUD of his opponent falling bonelessly to the floor. Pushing chakra to his eyes, he could just make out the black cloaked figure rising into the air.

"Welp," he grunted out, "looks like it's time to wrap this up."

He reached down to grab by the back of his shirt the dazed and crippled man he hated more than anyone else on the planet. With an almost casual display of strength, Ibiki lifted Kakashi from the floor and dragged him to the enormous office windows before slamming his bloody body face-first to the pane.

"At least we'll get front-row seats to watch the end together."

For the first time that morning, Ibiki gave a peaceful smile as he watched the Akatsuki leader's ascension. The information he'd received months ago said this was a village-ender technique, one he should watch from a safe distance.

Too bad that didn't meet his personal goals this time.

Instead, he watched the figure peak, felt the enormous chakra pressure build up, then watched as the Market Center disappeared in a massive explosion of pure force. Buildings crumbled and exploded into massive chunks of earth, stone, and glass as the explosion tuned into a wave then an avalanche of debris and death.

The avalanche turned into a tsunami and swept outward from the center of the village in all directions, the noise surging into a roaring beast seeking to swallow everything before it.

Ibiki felt more than saw Kakashi's body twitch, a weak groan escaping his lips as he was forced to stare at his own death approaching in Sharingan-enhanced high definition.

Ibiki's response was to casually slap the back of the man's head, a terse, "Shaddup, you're ruining the show," his final attempt at sadistic levity.

As the wall of death bulldozed its way towards the tower, Ibiki looked skyward once more and whispered, "I did it, old man. Please forgive me."

He knew that Sandaime-sama would have found another way, but that was not Ibiki.

Then he knew no more as destruction embraced him.

.

.

At the same time, Naruto was looking inordinately pleased with himself. He was enjoying watching Inoichi get torn apart by his overbearing daughter after learning about his ongoing plot of treachery and betrayal. Apparently, the man staged members of his own extended family to kidnap his daughter to a secure location while he handed Naruto over to the Akatsuki even if he hadn't publicly admitted it yet.

Ino did not appear to be pleased with the discovery of her father lying to her and was making her displeasure widely known to all and sundry.

"But.. Princess, this is for your own good!" Inoichi's voice sounded pained.

"My own good?!"

"Yes, don't you-"

"I TRUSTED YOU!"

Naruto winced at that one. The old, "I trusted you" blow was often regarded, by those who mean well, as below the belt. Not that the rotten bastard didn't deserve it.

Pulse.

His eyes flickered to the center of the village. He also noticed that Inoichi's wife twitched violently and glanced in the same direction almost as if transfixed.

Glancing back towards the bickering family and seeing them not dying down anytime soon, he motioned for three of his Guardians to help the Akimichi's out of the shrine. They were on the edge of the village proper but he wanted to be sure that they were safe.

Once done, he rose slowly from his seat drawing all eyes towards himself, he easy-going smile making the elder Yamanaka a touch cautious.

"We don't have much more time, I'm afraid."

"Stay out of this Uzumaki!" Inoichi's voice was tense. Nervous.

"Oh, I would love to but your village's attempt to sell me out to mercenaries has gone completely sideways from the sounds of it."

Inoichi blinked in confusion even as his daughter turned to face Naruto with a similar look, hers displaying a bit more horror and disbelief.

"What is he talking about, daddy?"

"Nothing, Ino. He's grasping for straws."

She wasn't buying it this time. "You never call me Ino unless you're trying to hide something from me." Her voice was soft and level, something that forced a noticeable twitch from the elder shinobi.

"Honey, we can discuss this later at-"

Ino snatched her arm from his grasp as he tried to herd her towards his mother and out of the temple chamber.

"You knew all along, didn't you?"

Her voice was so fragile, like stained glass. Tears were forming in her eyes, one trailing down the soft curve of her cheek dragging dark lines from her makeup.

Naruto could literally watch her heart breaking in real time.

Stepping forward, he gently took her hands into his own. Ino's head snapped to him and he could see the confusion and pain and sadness overwhelming her. Her entire world was crumbling and she was having a difficult time processing in real time. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to explain it all.

So, he wrapped her in his arms for what would assuredly be the last time, one hand gently pushing the back of her head as he leaned forward enough to rest her chin on his shoulder. It was just enough to let the damn burst.

She wailed, gasping, gulping sobs as her body shuddered. It started small but built up rapidly as emotion took over reason. He could feel her tiny fists clenching the back of his Haori as he began to hum.

It wasn't much. In fact, he doubted anyone left in the shrine would recognize it other than his remaining Guardians but it was important to him.

It was an Uzumaki lullaby. The same one his mother would sing to him as he lay upon her lap while she faded from his mindspace. It was meant to call wandering Uzumaki home though he never knew the words, but he figured this was as good as any a time for it.

The notes ebbed and surged like the rising and falling tide of Uzu. It was a warm sound, a soothing call to the soul.

Even as the raging roar of Nagato's technique peaked drawing panicked eyes towards the center of town and the rumbling wall of destruction headed their way like some monstrous locomotive.

And still he hummed. He hummed and held her as she poured out her tender heart in body shuddering wails and sobs.

He hummed for the two of them as people screamed, and panicked, then ran often trampling each other in their utter terror. All around them was chaos as frightened people searched for a place to run and hide from death.

Yet in the stillness of the bubble he'd created surrounded by his loving Guardians, he hummed as darkness claimed them all and the world fell silent to the crushing stillness of the earth, once shattered, now settling in peace once again.

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~III~

A/N: It's been a minute, no?

I hope you are all doing well out there. Happy holidays and a safe close out to the year.

No before you start taking out your torches and pitchforks, if you're a true follower of this story then you already know that I left plenty of hints and clues as to what's going on in this chapter. If you're wigging out over the ending, then I suggest you go back (after a stiff drink or two) and reread it. If that still doesn't calm you down, I recommend going back to some of the "Aw, Hell No!" moments in this story and refresh on that sneaky ninja stuff.

Merry Xmas all!

~Siva'a