Chapter 51: Potential

Standing in her now destroyed office, Tsunade stared out over the village that was only just beginning to recover from the Sky Nation. The attack had caught them all off guard, but the Konoha Shinobi had managed to adapt well enough.

Loss of life had been kept to a minimum, excluding the kidnapped citizens that had been used to launch the attack in the first place. Property damage on the other hand, had been pretty devastating. A fifth of the village had been reduced to smoldering rubble and was going to need to be rebuilt.

A portion of the village would have to be sectioned off for any who had lost their homes in the attack… That, however, would all have to wait for now. There were still a number of things that took priority.

Obito had seen fit to oversee the attack on Konoha himself and Suna had just suffered through an attack of their own, the details of which she would learn once Naruto returned. The timing had been too perfect for this not to be the work of the Akatsuki.

"Oi, old hag," A grating feminine voice called out. "You've been staring out over this shitty village for five minutes now. How much longer are we going to have to wait?"

"Hey, you mind shutting up?" A male voice asked. "Have you forgotten what happened the last time you mouthed off to the Hokage?"

"Don't even bring that shit up! Ugh, it still feels like I haven't washed my hair enough." The girl muttered.

"If you don't want a repeat, then you better shut your mouth," The male snapped.

"What did you say?!"

"Everyone," A new male voice chimed in. "Shut up, or I'll kill you!"

The room immediately quieted down with the threat. Turning around, Tsunade was greeted to the sight of a group of five Shinobi standing among the rubble, all dressed in Anbu attire with their masks firmly secured to their faces.

"Thank you, Kimimaro," Tsunade said, nodding to the Shinobi standing at the head of the group, before turning to the rest of the group. "Fortunately for you, I have need of your abilities. I can't afford to send you on some low ranking mission right now… But once the situation has been dealt with, sending you on a 'crappy' mission will become a very real possibility."

"Great," Kidomaru muttered under his breath.

"How may we be of service, Hokage-sama?" Sakon asked diplomatically, stepping forward.

"Konoha has been attacked by an old enemy that was once thought to be extinct. They used a weapon that had the potential to destroy a major section of Konoha. I need you six to find their location."

Pausing for a moment, Tsunade briefly regarded the group, before flicking a Kunai towards Kimimaro who caught it with a practiced ease. "Once you find their base, plant that Kunai in a secure location and reinforcements will arrive."

"Naruto-sama," Kimimaro realized as he secured the Kunai in one of the many pouches of his uniform.

Tsunade nodded.

"Hold the fuck on for just a minute," Tayuya interrupted. "Are you telling me that this super important mission boils down to simply transporting a Kunai for the blonde boy wonder to use? We're not even going to see any action? What the shit is that?"

The other three former Sound Shinobi could only sigh while one of Kimimaro's arms began to click menacingly.

"There is a high chance that if the Sky Nations base hasn't been destroyed, they will attempt to fire their weapon again. Your ability to use the Four Violet Flames Formation together should be able to shield you," Tsunade explained, diffusing the situation. "Barring that, it should buy your group enough time to move out of the way."

"What the fuck do you mean by should?" Tayuya asked.

"Tayuya," Tsunade said sweetly, tightly clenching her fist. "The Sky Shinobi were fond of using explosives. I'm sure that a significant portion of the sewer system will need to be replaced. Perhaps I should have you look and see what's damaged… After all, you're just the right size to fit in the pipes."

Sakon snickered softly at Tayuya's immediate silence.

"Follow the path that the Sky Shinobi's weapon formed. If you see anything of interest, mark its location down. Unfortunately there isn't much information that was kept on them since their assumed destruction," Tsunade continued. "That is all I have to say. Dismissed."

The former Sound Shinobi dispersed, leaving Tsunade alone in her ruined office. She could see now why Orochimaru had liked to rule through fear, especially when dealing with Tayuya.

There had been a few moments when she had considered doing away with the Orochimaru's former subordinates, either through permanent imprisonment or death, but as much as she hated to admit it, they had their uses.

Their ability to use a bastardized form of Sage mode through their modified Curse Marks made them somewhat valuable. Kimimaro's loyalty to Naruto and his insistence on being useful also helped.

Sighing to herself, Tsunade turned her mind to other issues that needed to be addressed. A Hokage's work was never done. She could only hope that Naruto was having an easier time with things in Suna."

"Hey there. Sorry that I was late, there was… SHIT!" I cursed as I ducked under a Kunai which promptly impaled the wall behind me.

Taking stock of my surroundings, I found myself in a nearly empty hospital waiting room with Kakashi and Baki, who appeared to be the attacker, standing at the other end. One of my Kunai had been left on the table.

As it turned out, suddenly appearing in a foreign nation after they went through… whatever it was they just went through… wasn't exactly a great idea, but in my defense, all I knew was that something had happened and that no one had died… No one that I knew, at least.

I had only come here for two reasons, really. To find out what had happened in Suna and to bring everyone back.

"Huh, you're finally here," Kakashi drawled. "What took you so long?"

"That's a bit of a long story. Short version… Konoha was just invaded, I came as soon as everything was over," I explained. "What happened here?"

"An attempted coup," Kakashi shrugged nonchalantly. "We took care of it."

"That would do it," I nodded sagely, only to end up sighing. This all felt too normal, when had discussing invasions and Coups become a common occurrence?

"Probably around the time when you went to Taki in order to retrieve Fu."

'It was a rhetorical question.'

"Konoha was attacked?" Baki asked, his uncovered eye widening. "And at the same time as the coup?! The timing seems a little too convenient."

"That's because it was all planned," I replied. "There was a masked Akatsuki member there that managed to keep me busy for a time. I'm guessing that the Akatsuki had a hand in this attempted coup as well… Where's Gaara, he really should be hearing this too."

"Unfortunately, Kazekage-sama is currently meeting with his council," Baki explained. "Rest assured that I will personally relay everything that's discussed here to Gaara-sama."

"Things are especially tense," Kakashi added in a hum. "One of those that orchestrated the attack was a trusted member of Suna's council, he even attacked the Kazekage and managed to kill a few of Suna's Jonin before he was taken down… He was a man by the name of Yura."

Understandably, Baki hadn't looked too pleased with the knowledge of Yura's betrayal being spread, but, ultimately, he didn't voice his displeasure.

Word of the Coup would spread one way or another, especially since it happened during the Chunin exams. It would look better for Suna if they were the ones that spread the story instead of attempting to cover it up.

Yura's betrayal confirmed that the Akatsuki had a hand in this. The only question now was, how had the Akatsuki activated him? As far as I knew, Sasori himself needed to undo the seal in Yura's mind and Sasori was long dead.

"Who were the others involved in the attack?" I asked.

Baki stood stone faced for several moments, seemingly unwilling to explain further, before relenting.

"We currently assume that Fugi was the ringleader behind the attack. He hadn't been pleased when Gaara was elected as the Kazekage. He had help from a pair of Shinobi. Hoichi who was skilled in Fuinjutsu and attempted to remove Gaara's Biju. There was also Mukade, head of the puppet corps."

That was quite a bit to unpack. Hearing that someone attempted to rip Shukaku out of Gaara had been a little worrisome. Having a seal stressed like that could lead to it rapidly degrading, but that shouldn't be too big of an issue so long as Shukaku remembered the threat that the Akatsuki posed.

"He does," Kurama replied. "Even Shukaku, with his annoying personality, wouldn't take the Jubi's resurrection lightly."

That was a bit of a relief. At least I didn't have to worry about Shukaku acting up. Now all that remained was to figure out how Yura was activated.

Konoha had sent the remains of the third Kazekage along with Sasori's puppet army and his weird flesh tube body to Suna after the attack in the Land of Iron. Learning a Shinobi's secrets through studying their corpse was a favorite pastime of pretty much every village, Sasori was no exception to this rule, regardless of how strange his body had been.

Sasori had been able to use the third Kazekage's techniques through puppeting his body. It was a bit of a stretch, but it was possible that someone had somehow learned of Sasori's sleeper agents through studying his remains and the leftover Chakra that clung to his body.

"Outside of Yura, did any of those three ever study Sasori's remains?" I asked.

"That… Isn't a question I am able to answer," Baki replied stiffly.

I nodded, having expected as much. It probably wasn't that Baki was refusing to answer and more like he genuinely didn't know who would have been in charge of studying Sasori's body. In most cases, a Medical Shinobi would be the one to dissect a body, but Sasori had been more puppet than flesh.

Since Mukade was the head of the puppet corps, it was likely that he was involved in Sasori's autopsy. If someone else had helped with the autopsy, it was entirely possible that they were involved with the Coup as well.

"Perhaps you could explain what happened back in Konoha," Kakashi suggested. "And we can get back on the topic of the failed Coup a bit later."

I suppose that was fair. "You heard about those villagers that had disappeared, right? Well, we found them," I explained, before pausing for a moment. "Actually, it would be more accurate to say that they found us."

Sakura let out a tired sigh as she sat down next to her teammates, glad to be able to rest, even if it was the uncomfortable room that Suna had assigned them the night before the second stage of the Chunin exams.

It had been well and truly a long day for her. At Temari's insistence, she had been the medic that handled Kankuro's surgery. Unlike the others which were afforded rest the moment the Coup ended, Sakura had been busy helping to heal those that had been injured in the attack.

She took comfort in reminding herself that her day could have been worse. A number of Shinobi had ended up dying, including a few of Suna's Genin who had simply gotten caught in an attack while trying to help.

Then there was Gai's team which, while not suffering any real injury, had to deal with something that Sakura was glad she had never experienced and hopefully wouldn't ever have to.

They had ended up facing one of the Shinobi behind the attack who had formed a barrier around himself to prevent any interference. They had just managed to remove the barrier mere moments before the Chakra network the man had attached himself to went haywire.

The man had ended up exploding, coating the entire area in his remains, forcing the team to take several dozen much needed showers.

Having seen the disgusted and finished look on Tenten's face the moment they returned, Sakura felt bad for the team… And a little worse when she quietly laughed at Kakashi using a Water Style technique to wash them down.

"Sakura," Fu said sulkily, far from her usual cheerful self. "They won't let me out of here."

Sakura raised a tired eyebrow. "Who won't?"

"Both Sensei and Sasuke," Fu moaned, cuddling a pillow to her chest.

Turning towards Sasuke, Sakura waited for him to explain his side of the story.

"She wants to go meet and hang out with the Kazekage as they're both Jinchuriki," Sasuke explained, barely paying any attention.

Ah. Sakura could see how that could be an issue, especially with everything that was going on. Gaara was busy handling a delicate situation and Fu's boisterous nature would interfere with that.

"Well, you won't be able to meet with the Kazekage right now, but what about Kumo's Jinchuriki? That Yugito lady," Sakura suggested, perking Fu up immediately. "You've mentioned her a few times when you went to Kumo. I'm sure she'll be happy to see you again."

An excited grin came to Fu's face as she bounded out of the chair. "Yeah, it's been ages since I talked to Yugito. Thanks Sakura."

"No prob…" Sakura paused as Fu's iron-like grip latched down on her and Sasuke's wrists.

"I'll introduce you guys," Fu announced, pulling the duo to their feet. "Come, let's go!"

Sakura could only sigh as she was dragged out of their room, through the hallways of the building. Back when Fu had first been added to Team 7, Sakura had been excited to have another girl on the team.

She had thought that they would be able to relate better to each other. Outside of missions, they would even be able to do a bunch of things she had once done with Ino, like going shopping. How mistaken she had been. Fu was almost exactly like how Naruto had been prior to the Chunin exams, easily excited and always eager to train.

It must be a Jinchuriki thing.

The team suddenly came to a stop just outside of one of the rooms.

"Yugito," Fu called out as she all but kicked the door open, revealing the Kumo team who appeared to be ready to attack alongside Yugito who appeared to be exasperated.

"Fu," Yugito exhaled. "Aren't you supposed to be waiting with your team?"

"I am," Fu said, pulling her teammates into the room with her. "They never said that we had to stay in our rooms. Just not leave the building."

"Um, who are they?" Karui asked.

"Fu, the Nanabi Jinchuriki," Samui explained. "Alongside Team 7."

"Team 7!" Karui repeated, giving a closer look to the team. "I thought that they would be older."

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. "You've heard of us?"

"Of course we have," Karui replied. "Naruto-sensei mentioned you a few times."

"Wait a minute," Sakura began. "Sensei?"

Naruto had never mentioned that he was teaching a team.

"Not official," Samui deadpanned. "Naruto was helping their teacher train them."

That made a little more sense. Naruto was a Konoha Shinobi after all. It would be strange if he had become the leader of a Genin team while in Kumo… Then again, that wouldn't be the strangest thing for him to do. He had after all done something that was generally thought to be impossible when he befriended the Kyuubi.

"It's nice to meet you. I hope we can all get along," Omoi said with a small smile on his face.

"The same for you," Sakura hummed.

"Because if we don't, that's surely going to cause a rift between one of our teams with Naruto," Omoi continued. "He'll be forced to choose which team he likes better, that could lead to him choosing one nation over the other. If that happens…"

Karui wrapped her hand around Omoi's mouth, muffling him. "Haha, sorry about that. Omoi has the craziest ideas sometimes" She apologized before shooting a harsh glare at her flailing teammate and tightened her grip. "Hey, we just met them. Keep your mouth shut and follow my lead."

"It's alright," Sakura replied, glancing towards Fu who was animatedly chatting with Yugito, she smiled. "I know how some teammates can be."

"Your third teammate doesn't look like a Genin," Sasuke said.

"I'm not," Samui replied disinterestedly, her tone fairly cold. "I am a Jonin that was assigned by Raikage-sama to assist in the event of an attack."

For a moment, Sakura considered voicing how she felt that gave their team an unfair advantage, but immediately disposed of that thought, chalking it up to a long and stressful day.

Besides, Sakura had seen Sasuke fight fully fledged Jonin to a standstill alongside Fu, who had enough firepower to level a village. One Jonin participating in the Chunin exams didn't make much of a difference to her team

Fairness was less of a suggestion and more of a joke when it came to Shinobi.

"Karui," Samui said, turning towards the Kunoichi in question. "You should let go of Omoi."

"Huh," Karui muttered and looked down at Omoi who was beginning to grow limp. "Ah, crap. Not again. Come on, Omoi, you can't have passed out already. It's barely been a minute."

"I'm fine," Omoi said, standing up with no apparent issue. "I thought that you would release me sooner if it looked like I was going to pass out. Apparently it worked."

Sakura deadpanned, watching as the duo began to bicker. There was something incredibly familiar with this picture, but she just couldn't put the pieces together.

From the looks of it, Sasuke also saw a passing familiarity with the Kumo duo in front of them, she'd have to ask him about it once they were back in their own room.

The familiar hallway of Tsunade's lab greeted me after I flashed to her marker. Turning to the side, I saw her necklace resting on a table.

The lab had been oddly busy upon my arrival. It appeared that Tsunade had made a few more clones and they were all busy working on something. Sealing Scrolls were packed neatly in the corner of each room as the clones carefully dismantled the delicate instruments within.

"You sure took your time," Tsunade hummed, casually stepping through the chaos. "It's already night outside."

"Yeah, sorry about that," I replied. "Suna's a nightmare right now. Gaara's stuck in a council meeting, discussing their future now that one of their members betrayed him and I had to brief Baki on what happened here… You'll learn all about it once your clone upstairs dispels"

"A council member betrayed Gaara. Let me guess… Yura?" Tsunade smirked, already knowing that she was right.

"Among a few others, yes," I nodded, before looking around. "So why are your clones packing everything up... And why did you take your necklace off?"

"It's simple. I'm moving my lab to a safer location," Tsunade explained. "It seems that somewhere between the chaos of the invasion and you going to Suna, someone managed to break in and steal something that appeared to be incredibly valuable."

I chuckled at that.

So either Zetsu or Obito managed to steal Shisui's Mangekyou Sharingan. Tsunade still hadn't told me exactly what she'd done to it, but I knew that Obito was going to have a terrible day when he decided to implant it… Assuming he survived.

"And your necklace?"

"That would be because it resonates with my grandfather's Chakra," Tsunade replied.

"Wait, you…" I began.

"The Seal's ready," Tsunade interrupted. "You yourself said as much."

This did feel a little rushed, but I could see where Tsunade was coming from. With Shisui's Mangekyou stolen, this would be the perfect opportunity to apply the Seal. Fu was back in Konoha, so I didn't have to worry about leaving the village defenseless if this Seal put me out of commission for a while.

"So, where are we doing this?"

I sat shirtless on the floor of an empty room with my legs folded and my palms placed flat against the ground. Tsunade and one of my clones were carefully examining the Seal array that had been mapped out on the floor, ensuring that there weren't any mistakes.

Orochimaru truly had been a genius when he developed his Curse Mark. Luckily he was satisfied with its results and never took it to its fullest potential. If he had, he would have been a far greater threat.

"It all looks about right," Tsunade hummed, stepping outside of the array.

"It's ready, boss," My clone reassured me.

Closing my eyes, I took a slow breath and pulsed my Chakra. The Sealing array suddenly came to life, crawling along the floor and up my arms, before settling over my heart, right where the Eighth Gate sat.

I opened my eyes once the Sealing died down. The Eighth Gate hadn't been accidentally forced open, so that was a good sign. A dull throb began to pulse through my body, originating from my Chakra network, slowly growing worse with time. It wasn't the worst pain I'd ever felt, but it was incredibly distracting.

"How're you feeling?" Tsunade asked. She looked mostly unbothered, but there was a hint of worry in her eyes.

Now that the Seal had begun to do its job, there would be no stopping it. If something went wrong, we were just going to have to wait.

"Uncomfortable," I replied, before forcing a smile. "The version 2 Chakra cloak was far worse."

"That should subside fairly soon," Tsunade said. "Your body is far more accepting of Hashirama's cells and you should have a similar compatibility with Sasuke's cells as well."

Time seemed to stretch on, before, finally, the pain began to subside. Letting out a relieved sigh, I stretched as I stood up.

Nearly two whole years of Tsunade working on this and an uncountable amount of hours of studying Fuinjutsu and modifying Orochimaru's Curse Mark… all culminating in an uncomfortable ten minutes. It was a little anticlimactic, but boring was good, right? It meant that nothing had gone wrong.

Looking at my hand, I briefly clenched it. My Chakra felt a little aggravated, but I didn't feel any real difference.

"Your Chakra is aggravated due to it no longer perfectly matching your body," Kurama explained. "Given a little time, it'll reabsorb into your body and change into something that's more suited for you now. I believe that is the issue that Tsunade had with her Chakra when she altered her body."

'Is there any way to speed it up?'

"Probably… None that I feel like thinking of right now."

Stepping forward, Tsunade's hands lit up in a green glow as she placed them against my back. "Your body's accepted the cultivated cells," She hummed. Stepping around me, she tapped the Seal that was slowly fading. "It seems the Seal was a complete success."

"So that's really it?" I muttered, still not quite believing that it had worked so well.

"What were you expecting? To writhe in pain on the ground for several hours?" Tsunade asked, raising an eyebrow. Seeing that I chose not to answer, she smiled prettily and patted me on my cheek. "Whatever am I going to do with you?"

"I… Could think of a few ideas."

Tsunade chuckled softly, pulling away.

"Hm,"Kurama hummed. "So this is what happens when the Ashura transmigrant merges their Chakra with Indra's."

'Wait, what are you seeing that I'm not?'

"Turn your senses inward and look deeply into your Chakra."

Following his instruction, I began to feel out my Chakra, sensing the far more potent Chakra that my body was now producing.

"Look deeper."

Pushing the limits of my senses, I was about to ask what Kurama was sensing, before I found it. A singular point of incredibly potent Chakra with Natural Energy flowing into it, similar to a seed being watered.

Naturally awakening the Rinnegan would be a tough order for me. I wasn't even sure if I could even unlock the Sharingan. That, however, didn't matter right now. It seemed that I had the potential for something just as good if not better.

'Is that…' I trailed off.

"If Indra with Ashura's Chakra can awaken the Rinnegan, Six Paths Sage Mode can bloom when Ashura's gains a portion of Indra's Chakra."

That's chapter 51.

Tsunade makes use of an old team, the teams sent to Suna have been brought back to Konoha and Naruto now has the potential to unlock six paths sage mode.

The whole process of Naruto merging his body with Sasuke's and Hashirama's cells might have been a bit anticlimactic, but that's what happens when things go right.

Anyways, I'm up to chapter 58 on the spooky P word website.

P
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I go by the name of ThatKircguy. Just copy the name and paste it in the Patty Rio On search bar. It'd help me out immensely, but don't worry if that's not your style. I will be uploading weekly, so it's not going to be stuck there permanently.

Also, I post my original stuff there as well. It's nothing much, just two short stories for now, but I'll post more as I write them.

The next chapter will be posted on the 20th of December.
See you all then dudes and dudettes.
Have an awesome day/night.