Who is he!??

Megumi watched the fights between the two sides and wondered what Hagoromo wanted to achieve from this miniature 'war'.

'Rura what do you think he wants to achieve?'

'I dunno. Maybe world domination like Madara?'

'But why attack Konoha in such a risky way?'

'Risky? How's this risky?'

'He's going to lose so many shinobi over this, and I'm sure, he still won't be able to take Konoha down with just this much.'

'Maybe he has a hidden trump card or something?'

'Hidden card…'

"Stop thinking so much." Hashirama reprimanded a shocked Megumi who wondered how Hashirama knew he was thinking about the fight.

"It's written all over your face. If you want to do something, do it. What are you wondering so much about? Why are you scared?"

"...aren't you going to fight to defend Konoha?" Megumi changed the topic cleverly.

"No. I'm sure they've got it covered."

Hagoromo swung his spear down, still aiming for the crowd of shinobi from both sides that had now gathered behind Minato and Itachi to protect themselves from Hagoromo's ceaseless and ruthless usage of his spear that did not distinguish friend from foe.

Itachi stepped up to reflect the spear using his Yata mirror as he simultaneously attempted to use his blade of Totsuka to pierce Hagoromo and seal him away inside a genjutsu.

But Hagoromo dodged the blade and kept Itachi engaged as Minato took a short rest to reengage the chakra in his body to use the Hiraishin Jutsu.

Not one to allow his juniors to take his burdens for long, Minato rushed back into the fight as Hagoromo found a way to slip past Itachi and attack the crowd again.

Itachi's eyes began to bleed as he kept extending the usage of his Susanoo but Hagoromo didn't care about the apparent tiredness of his enemies he fought with just as much fervor as when he had first begun.

Hagoromo ducked with his large wind clone under Itachi's Totsuka blade as he rose up to slam his spear at the crowd that Minato appeared at just the right time to block.

Clashing against the wind spear and teleporting it once again Minato strained his body to redirect the spear slash as he began to think of ways to somehow stop Hagoromo.

"Are you already getting tired already?" Hagoromo asked smirking while looking down at Minato and Itachi.

"Don't worry, I'm just about done with the work I had to do here." Hagoromo laughed as a stream of blood leaked out of his mouth as well.

Minato's eyes narrowed as he realized that time seemed to be catching up with Hagoromo.

'Whatever kinjutsu he used to heal himself must be wearing out.' Minato thought.

On the other side of the village.

Three dozen shinobi arrived at the barrier that was separating the civilians from the shinobi war.

Looking at the peaceful civilians that had no clue that death was so close to them the shinobi all rejoiced since this meant it was going to become easier to ill the civilians for them.

The commander of the troop however felt slightly unnerved as he looked at the family of four that was looking straight at him through the barrier that was supposed to block any sounds and not allow the people inside to be able to hear them.

Yet, the commander only truly felt horror when he saw the little boy in the family of four look right beside him instead of directly at him.

'Why are you looking beside m-'

*COUGH* *COUGH*

Before the shinobi could complete his thought a white needle-like hard material pierced his head, killing him instantly.

Before the rest of the shinobi could react to the presence of the large white-haired man who appeared beside them all, white needles shot out from his hair and killed them all instantly.

The white-haired shinobi then looked at Megumi and nodded.

'Who's this kid? And how did he spot me through my invisibility jutsu so easily?' The white-haired shinobi wondered.

Megumi waved his hand at the shinobi but got a smack on the head from Mito who started to scold him as he squatted on the ground while holding his head and looking up at her with injustice.

"Why my head!?" Megumi whispered not to disturb the people around them and let them see the pile of dead bodies just outside the barrier.

"Then don't treat people dying like it's a game!" Mito whispered back.

"I did not! I was just happy to see my ido-" Megumi wisely shut his mouth when Sakura and Mito both glared at him.

"Why are you glaring!? Aren't the two of you the biggest perverts here?! One writes about it and the other does the writing in prac-"

*BAM*

Knocking Megumi out, Sakura and Mito smiled smugly as Hashirama stared at the clouds.

'Ah.. what a beautiful and fantastic day. Truly peaceful. I wish all days were like this.'

Jiraya smiled at the funny family and then pulled out a scroll from the commander's shinobi tools pouch.

Unfurling the scroll on the ground, Jiraya poured chakra into it, causing the scroll to shoot an explosive firework into the sky.

On the main battlefield, Minato's eyes quivered as did the eyes of the other shinobi when they saw the firework exploding high in the sky.

It obviously was a signal of some kind and definitely did not bring good news since it was from the enemy.

Hagoromo finally laughed as the signal arrived and dissipated his large Susanoo wind clone.

"This was a battle well fought. I commend you to be able to last this long against me." Hagoromo laughed and vanished from where he was standing.

Meanwhile, as everyone stood in shocked silence at Hagoromo's sudden retreat, Obito slapped a seal on the floor and poured chakra into it.

The seal expanded in the form of a three-tomoe Sharingan as the curse seals on all the shinobi that were alive responded by deactivating and then moving back to their sealed state.

Finally pulling off the vanishing act one last time, Obito grumbled and vanished along with all the shinobi that were still alive.

A strange silence enveloped the battlefield as Kushina rushed towards Minato.

"The barrier never broke!" Kushina said with worry.

"Then why did they release a signal?" Minato asked confused.

"...I don't know.", Kushina said, fearful that all the civilians had been killed.

Tsunade on the other hand was more casual about it since she knew the worst people to fight against on this battlefield were all located where the civilians were.

She could already imagine Megumi activating the seal that sent the signal.

'Tsk. I didn't get the Samehada.' Tsunade clicked her tongue and looked disappointedly from where Kisame had vanished from.

'How did they escape so easily anyway?'

Shisui on the other hand was feeling quite disappointed with himself since it was because of his laxness that all the enemies escaped.

All of Konoha's shinobi grew shell-shocked at the suddenly emptied battlefield as they looked underneath and around them only to find the blood that painted the walls and the streets instead of any actual shinobi.

Suddenly there was an explosion of smoke in the center of the battlefield sending all the shinobi on guard, waiting for it to clear to see how they had to respond to the situation at hand.

The smoke cleared as a white-haired man became visible to everyone holding a strange pose as he dramatically announced his name.

"Worry not!!! For the Great Sannin is here!!! Jiraya!!!"

"..."

Minato and Tsunade grew tense but the rest of the shinobi grew confused at Jiraya's sudden arrival.

"Sensei…" Minato spoke with caution.

"Aren't you glad that I am here!!? My young disciple!?" Jiraya exclaimed much to Minato's relief as he looked at Kushina and nodded for her to go check on the barrier.

But Jiraya's next words sent a pause to them all.

"Don't worry, it was me who sent the signal! I killed all the shinobi trying to disturb the village New Year ceremony."

Itachi froze as his Susanoo dissipated and he collapsed into Kakashi's arms.

A few of the female shinobi grew excited at this happening as Jiraya himself opened his journal to write about it.

Looking at all the attention they were receiving, Kakashi deadpanned and dropped Itachi and let him fall to the ground.

Understanding that there was nothing to worry about anymore, Minato gave the shinobi a final order. "Now that the fight is over! I request all of you who can help clean the village, help!! We don't want to drown in the blood of our enemies after all!"

"YAAAAAAAAAIAIIIEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!" The shinobi cheered out loud as the ones that could use water jutsus began to wash the village, while the ones that could use fire and earth jutsu either cremated the dead shinobi or buried them.

While Minato himself helped around a little and then once the other clan heads left the village center, he himself left for the Hokage office.

"*BANG*"

A slam was heard from inside the office as the head of the Kurama clan shouted, "How can you say that we did nothing!"

"What did you do then!?"

"Whatever we could do in a war that lasted forty minutes!"

"..."

Minato opened the door and entered inside causing everyone to grow quiet.

"I don't want to listen to everyone shouting at each other for the foreseeable future. We've just been through a war and no matter the words I spoke outside, we all know the situation hasn't changed much."

A tense silence gripped the room as Minato continued to speak.

"So, given how little we know about our enemy, I hope all of us can cooperate and arrive at a solution that benefits everyone. This is a time of war, not of relaxation."

"I'd given very specific orders to the Shionibi clans, so anyone that has a problem with what the other clan did has a problem with me. So if you have any speak, or else zip it."

Seeing no one speak, Minato nodded and took his seat at the head table.

"If I may ask, what is the plan after this Lord Hokage?" Hiashi Hyuga asked Minato with slight reverence.

"For now it is to gather more information about-"

It was at this moment that Jiraya entered the meeting room through the window. And before anyone could cide him for his manners, he spoke.

"Information? I think I can help you all on that front."

"What have you been doing all this time Jiraya?" Tsunade asked with a dangerous look in her eyes, her hands cocked and ready to shoot if Jiraya gave the wrong answer.

"Haha~ Tsunade I was gathering information! Seriously this time!! Don't worry it is definitely not as you think!!!"

"..." Tsunade slowly lowered her hand as Jiraya *coughed* twice and spoke once again.

"As I said earlier, I was gathering information on the group called Akatsuki."

"Akatsuki?" Fugaku questioned since he'd heard about this in his own investigation.

"We already know about the Akatsuki Jiraya sensei. Fugaku helped us gain quite a bit of information about them."

"But I bet you don't have information about the old man you fought do you?" Jiraya asked with a smirk.

Minato quickly shut up and waited for Jiraya to finish.

"In the Akatsuki, I was specifically tailing the old man through out my time since he was rather mysterious even in the Akatsuki."

"Mysterious?"

"They don't even know his name yet." Jiraya explained with a shake of his head.

"How did they let him join!?"

"Because he is strong. Insanely so." Jiraya said with a serious expression on his face.

"How did the villages miss someone so strong? Surely such an old man would've been popular during the Warring Era? Like Hashirama and Madara?" Hiashi questioned.

"I don't think he was." Jiraya stated.

"Do you know who he is? Who is he?"

"I don't think we can figure that out. No matter the place I search in, no matter the village or clan, he just doesn't exist in history." Jiraya said with a shake of his head and continued, "It's as if he popped out of nowhere a decade ago."

"WHAT!? IMPOSSIBLE!!!??"

OMAKE

"How did the villages miss someone so strong? Surely such a man would've been popular during the Warring Era?" Hiashi questioned.