Part 33 - Results of the Summit

Uzu and Naruto slowly got ready the next day and moved to the living room after taking a shower.

The two of them were just in the middle of eating breakfast, when the door to the apartment opened.

Seeing a familiar smiling face in her line of sight, Uzu couldn't help but smile softly, glad that her most-likely-new-dad was back and seemed unscathed.

Mom should be back as well? Though she probably went to the Hokage tower first, I guess she has a lot of work to do now.

"Hello kids, had some fun~?" Jiraiya asked, a teasing smile covering his face.

Naruto looked at Uzu and they were both slightly red in their faces.

"Haha, I see!" That seemed to be enough for Jiraiya to know exactly what they have been doing whenever they had some alone time.

Uzu just sighed and closed her eyes, slowly sipping on her glass of water.

She listened to Jiraiya and Naruto catch up on what happened in each of their lives. At some point the discussion reached the Five-Kage-Summit.

"I guess after the young Uchiha left that place, he didn't waste time in coming to the summit, together with the other masked man of course. We believe that it might actually be true that the masked man is indeed, Madara Uchiha." Jiraiya said, his voice taking on a serious tone.

"If that man is truly Madara Uchiha, however, then the future looks bleak. The only person that ever beat that man was our first Hokage. But he is long dead. I hope that us three sages and a few other strong ninja can somehow fight him though. It'll be hard and it'll take a lot of effort." Jiraiya said before sighing.

"That wasn't even all. Madara and Sasuke, or rather, the Akatsuki, or what remains of that, have ordered for the last two tailed beasts to be given to them, or they would wage war against us. Obviously, we declined, nothing good would happen if we just gave them what they wanted. Naruto, you need to be prepared. The world desires you to be a weapon. It's cruel and unfair and unjust. But your fate was always to be someone of strength, someone that would bring change. And to bring change, you need power. In whatever way that power may exist." Jiraiya said.

Silence ruled the room for a few minutes as the people present took in the words that were spoken.

"So there'll be a war?" Uzu asked.

"Yeah, the Akatsuki declared war on the world. And the nations have decided to work together to create an allied army of shinobi forces to combat the Akatsuki. The bounty on them was tripled ..." After saying that, Jiraiya looked at Naruto, trying to figure out what he thought about Sasuke's bounty rising even further.

Naruto obviously noticed that as he just nodded and said: "Don't worry. It's fine. I'll try to keep my promise anyway, but I won't force him. I'll try to bring him back one last time. One last time. My friends will help me as well, so it will go well, it must."

Uzu observed their expressions and found Naruto's to show both resignation and resolve, while Jiraiya seemed to be relieved but sad at the same time.

She couldn't truly deduce what they were thinking though.

The three of them ate their breakfast and slowly got ready to get out into the village to help where needed and to, of course, go meet Tsunade in her office.

…

Entering Tsunade's office, the atmosphere instantly changed. It was heavy and dark. But there was no despair, only hope and … determination.

Locking gazes with Tsunade, Uzu noticed that her Mom seemed older, in a way. The stress must be getting to her, Uzu thought. And she was right.

Shouldering the fate of a village on her shoulders and possibly just so much more than that changes a person, definitely, and even if it doesn't change a person, it will slowly destroy them. Who knows whether they would ever recover to be their previous self?

Shouldering the weight of the world on one's shoulders, Uzu didn't dare imagine how that would feel. In her past life, she gave up. Because that was easier. Why would she fight, if it meant nothing? If it would only prolong her suffering?

In this life … things are different.

She'd fight, as long as there was something worth fighting for.

…

"I take it that Jiraiya has filled you two in on what happened?" Tsunade asked.

Receiving nods from both Uzu and Naruto, she continued telling them that there'd most likely be another meeting regarding the two remaining tailed beasts on their side of the war.

It wasn't entirely decided on what was to be done with Naruto yet, but there'd be an answer soon.

Some wanted him to fight, some wanted him to be locked away, some wanted to hide him.

They'd find an answer soon, and Naruto probably would not be able to do anything against that decision, as long as he is a shinobi of Konoha.

…

Eating Ramen with Naruto, Uzu said: "Don't worry, things will be alright. I'll be with you wherever you go, I promise."

Seeing the seriousness in her eyes, Naruto nodded and smiled, taking one of her hands into his.

"Think we can actually fight that Madara guy?" Naruto asked, slurping on his noodles.

That's a good question. Canon was rather …

It is confirmed that Black Zetsu was not seen yet, so something must have happened.

If we can somehow prevent Madara from getting the tailed beasts, we might just have a way easier time at killing him completely. Just in terms of fighting power, we should have a pretty good chance at fighting Obito, the reanimated Madara, Kabuto and probably Sasuke.

It shouldn't be too hard as long as he doesn't have the ten-tails.

If … Black Zetsu does show up, which is rather likely, he may have just hidden somewhere until now, then we need both Sasuke and Naruto to destroy him and possibly reseal Kaguya if she does get unsealed.

(A/N: Actually, not too sure whether both Sasuke and Naruto were needed to seal Black Zetsu away with his mother, but I'm just way too lazy to even google that right now …)

"I think we should have a pretty good chance at beating him and all of his associates." Uzu said, taking a sip of her ramen's broth.

Naruto smiled, and opened his mouth to say something just as he suddenly vanished, leaving only a cloud of smoke behind.

Uzu froze. Eh? Just what happened?

…

A/N: A short, short, short chapter. But it's all I managed to write …

Its quality is trash as well, but here you go. There probably are some people waiting for another chapter after all. So, this is for you?

Things definitely aren't well, but I won't elaborate ^^

Can't say when the next chapter will be finished! u.u