20 18.2

Temari wanted to deny all of it. She wanted to deny that Naruto had fallen prey to Gaara's sand, but the truth was right in front of her, as if mocking her for not being able to do anything. She had these strange feelings growing inside her ever since she started meeting Naruto in the week before the exams. Feelings that she couldn't make any sense out of. She didn't meet him just because she wanted to learn his secrets for her village, no. She genuinely enjoyed spending time with him. He had become a sort companion that she never wanted to let go of, but reality struck hard.

"NARUTO!"

Suddenly, a huge amount of smoke appeared before them, causing both of them to gape. The amount of smoke released was large, easily large enough that it could cover the giant tanuki. Only, it wasn't a tanuki that emerged from the smoke.

Naruto barely been able to make a shadow clone in time. However, he did it so fast that he doubted someone could have seen him doing it, even if they were standing in front of him.

He had created the shadow clone with specific orders in mind. As soon as the clone flickered into existence, it vanished from its spot near instantaneously, flash stepping behind a tree. Then, it substituted with the prime, taking his place inside the the coffin. It grinned when he thought what Gaara's reaction would be when he saw that prime had managed to escape. It was its last thought before dispelling into smoke.

Behind a tree, Naruto was preparing his next technique. It was the only one he could think of that could deal with Gaara's current form and hopefully, it would be one of the last he would ever have to use against Gaara.

Cutting his left thumb, he swiped it against his right palm. Boar-dog-bird-monkey-ram. "Kuchiyose no jutsu!"

Before the exam, he had calculated that he required exactly a quarter of his reserves to summon Takeshi. However, after Kurama had increased his reserves, the amount had dropped significantly. The quarter of his previous amount of reserves that he previously required had now become two-thirds of the same quarter, which meant an entire one-sixth of his reserves. Of course, Naruto had roughly estimated this with Kurama's help.

In a huge blast of smoke, Naruto towered above the tree line, easily standing a head above the tanuki on top of Takeshi's head. He had his arms crossed as he looked down on Shukaku's form. It gave him a sense of authority, of power.

Takeshi blinked as he appeared with his arms crossed. He quickly deduced that Naruto had summoned him. "Ah, it seems you require my assistance, Naruto."

Naruto lightly laughed on top of Takeshi's head, "Very acute observation, Takeshi-san."

Takeshi chuckled at his summoner's cheek before turning a serious, yet still a bit amused eye forward. "Ichibi no Shukaku, huh? You sure do have an eye for strong opponents, Naruto. This might turn out to be a good fight after all," Takeshi grinned, his sharp teeth menacingly coming into view as he grasped the katana strapped onto the left side of his waist in anticipation.

Naruto nodded and explained his plan to the boss of the foxes. "Right now, the jinchuriki is in the final state of his transformation, but still in control. Our goal is to influence him enough that he would relish the control over to the tailed beast via falling asleep. Once Shukaku's consciousness is in control, I want you to hold him in one place while I wake up the host. Once Gaara is awake, I will slap a seal onto him that will cut him off from his tailed beast."

Takeshi listened carefully to Naruto's plan, and nodded in agreement. He couldn't help but comment, however, "Fighting an opponent like Shukaku at their strongest? You really know how to bring excitement into a fight, Naruto."

Takeshi was clearly excited to fight. He did not wait for his opponent to make his move. Naruto was glad he had stuck to Takeshi's head using his chakra, otherwise he would have fallen backwards on his butt.

Just as Takeshi came within striking distance, Gaara reacted. Shukaku's arm came forward to grab Takeshi's throat, but he wasn't fast enough. Instead of dodging the arm, Takeshi unsheathed his katana and in one clean stroke, Gaara's entire right arm came straight off.

Temari stared in amazement at what Naruto had managed to pull out of his sleeve this time. It was a humongous, dark blue fox in a white haori, with seven tails swaying behind magnificently. And it was large enough to tower over the tanuki.

"W-What is that?" She uttered in disbelief. Was it one of Naruto's summons?

Sasuke was in a similar state. He was at a loss of words for this….whatever Naruto had managed to pull off. But whatever it was, it was superior to even the tanuki in size. It was clearly very strong. The seven swaying tails had fully thrown him off.

With the exchange of words that followed, Sasuke was able to deduce that this was a summon, which meant that Naruto was the holder of a summoning contract. He couldn't hear what Naruto said, but it was clearly a signal to start fighting.

Both Sasuke and Temari then proceeded to watch, utterly dumbstruck and stupefied, the giant blue fox cleanly cut one of Gaara's arms.

Takeshi skidded away, destroying a group of trees in his wake and not even noticing. His eyes narrowed as he clutched his blade tightly. "His body is denser than I had thought. I nearly lost the grip of my blade," he said as he put the katana back in its sheath. "We'll have to be more careful now. This should be provocation enough for him to let Shukaku out. Get ready, Naruto!"

"Yeah!" Naruto nodded and braced himself. He carefully watched Gaara as he slowly reattached his arm. Once he had done so, he turned his head towards them.

" Interesting," he rumbled, causing both Takeshi and Naruto to tense, "HOW INTERESTING, UZUMAKI NARUTO!"

They watched as Gaara came out of the giant tanuki's head in a ripple, his eyes completely white. Naruto supposed that was because his sight was in the tanuki's eyes. He was slumped, but slowly straightened up. Naruto was further on guard when he saw Gaara smiling a little. He knew what came next, but no matter how many times he saw Gaara smile, it was always unnerving.

" You are strong, Uzumaki," Gaara said, and Naruto could hear anticipation in his voice. "You have matched my every attack with yours, and were able to overpower me, if only for a little while. I HAVEN'T HAD THIS MUCH FUN IN ALL MY LIFE!"

The last shout caused Naruto to feel a bit sad inside. He couldn't help but reflect, that this was how he could have ended up. Gaara had been alienated most of his life. He could see that only Temari had attempted to make Gaara feel as close to family as possible, but he had ruthlessly pushed her away. They say that you can learn a lot about a person from fighting them, and it was true. Naruto had seen how Gaara fought; Gaara only fought for himself. He thought that he had no precious people of his own.

Well, Naruto was about to give him a smackdown for free, in addition to a reality check.

Gaara formed the ram seal. "As my gratitude towards you for keeping me entertained, I'll let you see the full power of the sand incarnation."

" Feigning sleep jutsu!"

For a moment, Gaara remained frozen in that pose, mad eyes glaring into Naruto's prepared ones. And then….he sagged, arms hanging limply as his head fell forward.

"Here we go, Takeshi-san," Naruto whispered to the fox, who hummed low in agreement.

Sasuke shivered with a little fear. This wasn't the first time he had watched his teammate take on a stronger opponent than any of them, while he just cowered in the background. Looking up at Gaara's form, he took back his words. Gaara had a lot more chakra than what he estimated. To have enough chakra to form a construct like that….he doubted even Naruto had that much chakra.

Temari watched fearfully as Naruto tackled Gaara at his strongest. As confident as Naruto seemed, she doubted he could scrape victory when Gaara let Shukaku out to fight. But Naruto looked so sure of his victory, like he knew exactly what to do, that Temari simply had to trust he knew what he was doing. She couldn't bear to loose both Naruto and Gaara in the same day.

" YAHOO! FINALLY, I AM OUT AND FREE!" The one-tailed monster opened its enormous jaw, and the high, crazy voice surprised Naruto a bit. He had been imagining a voice similar to Kurama's.

Shukaku looked in front of him and cheered, coiling in preparation for an attack, "Oh! A guy for me to kill already! And it looks like you're related to that asshole kyuubi! I'll make mincemeat out of you!"

Naruto winced as Kurama roared in rage inside him. He really couldn't be sure if Shukaku was referring to him or Takeshi.

Probably Takeshi. You know, because of his tails.

Takeshi gave a challenging grin full of teeth. "Why don't you put those words to test! Let's see how far you can get!"

Shukaku slapped his large, bloated stomach. "FUUTON: RENKUDAN!"

A bullet of air so compressed and pressurized came shooting towards Takeshi, who surprised both Naruto and Shukaku when he deftly used one of his tails to smack away the air bullet at just the right angle. He just shifted its direction a bit, so instead of damaging the landscape, it went flying into the sky behind him.

" My turn," Takeshi grinned before performing three hand seals, ending on tiger. He took a deep breath, "Katon: Goen no jutsu!" (Fire style: Great Flame technique)

An enormous vortex of rapidly expanding flames expelled from his mouth and rushed towards Shukaku. The heat from the flames was so hot that even Naruto, who was standing behind the wall of fire felt it. The entire land of forest beneath the majestic flame was scorched to ashes. Naruto was willing to bet that the fire was hot enough to turn Shukaku's sand to glass.

Shukaku, as soon as he saw the herculean fire heading towards him, erected a huge wall of sand with his hand. He would have dodged it normally, but because of his huge bulk, he was slow to put himself to motion. It was better to have a hand turned to glass rather than any other part of his body.

The flames hit the wall of sand, and for a full five seconds, Takeshi kept pumping chakra into his fire, making it hotter in each second. When he finally released the jutsu, both Naruto and Takeshi grinned at the results.

Temari gaped in speechlessness as the wall that Shukaku had erected with his hand had completely melted into hot, molten liquid. The amount of firepower that summon seemed to have was completely absurd and ridiculous.

Sasuke was also dumbstruck at the new development. The heat from the summon's fire had been hot enough to be felt way over where they were standing. He had seen what had happened to the forest beneath it, and he almost felt bad for anything standing in front of it.

Shukaku winced as he saw his entire hand was now molten sand, which was slowly melting from the solid shape that he had formed it into. However, before he could do anything about it, he heard another shout.

" FUUTON: KAMIKAZE!" (Wind style: Divine Wind)

A huge amount of wind was expelled from Takeshi's mouth. It had no shape, it simply was wind blowing at great speeds. Since the sand construct was still melting, Shukaku didn't have enough time to detach himself from it. Takeshi took full advantage of it and chose to cool down the molten sand, transforming it into glass. Shukaku looked at his hand in disbelief. His whole right arm, that was still attached to his body, had become solid glass. It was rather surreal to see.

Takeshi laughed, "Make mincemeat out of me?! Take a look at yourself first!"

And with speed that even Naruto did not expect from him, he shot forward in three quick strides. Naruto was stunned just how quickly Takeshi was able move. However, his next choice of attack almost had Naruto jumping in joy.

Takeshi had reared back his fist and punched right at the strange-shaped, wall of glass. Shukaku had no choice but to block the punch with his now, wall of glass, formerly wall of sand. If he could get rid of the glass, he could form a new hand then. Then, he would kill this blasted fox.

The glass shattered like, well, glass. It shattered into pieces; the part of the arm that had become glass was almost up to his shoulder. So almost the entire arm shattered under the tremendous force of Takeshi's punch.

Shukaku was now visibly panicking. He swung his good left arm, claws outstretched to swipe Takeshi's head off, but Takeshi was quick to counter. Takeshi grabbed the left arm with his right, followed by grabbing the swinging tail that came from Shukaku's right. Takeshi held them in a strong grip, not allowing Shukaku any chance to attack.

Well, if you don't count the regenerating arm and the purple ball of no doubt, highly destructive chakra that was forming in front of Shukaku's mouth, aimed right onto Takeshi's alarmed face.

" DO IT NOW, NARUTO! YOU REALLY DON'T WANT TO BE AT THE OTHER END OF THAT THING!"

Takeshi's warning had a high amount of urgency in it, and Naruto did not want to find out what that ball of chakra did, so he didn't hesitate to act. He directed his chakra into his legs and jumped high. With a grunt, he threw the kunai downwards, aiming it so it lodged right in front of an asleep Gaara.

As expected, Gaara's sand came up to catch the kunai, but it was of no consequence. Naruto flashed right in front of Gaara, already in motion of an attack. He caught Gaara's jaw in an earth shattering right hook, which had so much force behind it that it not only sent Gaara leaning towards his own right, but also knocked a tooth out of his mouth.

"WAKE THE FUCK UP!"

The punch sent waves of pain to Gaara's brain, forcing him to wake up. His eyes flew open in agony, just as Naruto sensed the big ball of chakra harmlessly dispelling behind him. Shukaku's yell soon followed, "NO! I JUST CAME OUT!"

Gaara was now wide awake, but Naruto gave him no chance to attack him with his sand. He used his left and to roughly grab Gaara by his throat, bringing his face level to his. His fingertips of the right hand lit up in the Gogyo Fuin (Five Elements seal) for the third time in the day. He slapped them right onto Gaara's exposed stomach, the usage of chakra making his seal visible.

Gaara gasped as all the breath left him, and he momentarily became unconscious. Naruto had successfully managed to cut Shukaku off from Gaara's conscious. The sand form beneath them began to crumble, and just in seconds, the entire body of sand collapsed, making them plummet to earth.

Naruto and Gaara would have hit the ground with bone-breaking force, if Naruto hadn't managed to grab Gaara mid-air and flash to a kunai on the ground. He carefully set Gaara against a tree, and was slightly taken aback when Gaara started to stir.

He himself had needed a day to wake up when Orochimaru had slapped him with the same seal. Perhaps it was that due to Gaara's stronger connection to Shukaku, he already had large amounts of bijuu chakra in his system which helped him wake?

Naruto stood over Gaara as the redhead fully opened his eyes. Looking disoriented for a second, his eyes widened as he saw Naruto standing over him with an expressionless look on his face.

He tried to shift further into the tree. "No, stay away from me!" he cried weakly, far too weak to try and move his body. He watched with pure fear as Naruto knelt down.

Naruto softened the look on his face. "That pain…..of being alone, of your life not meaning anything to anyone…..I know that pain all too well, Gaara."

Gaara whispered in confusion, "H-How?"

Naruto's lips twisted into a sad smile, "Because we are alike. I also house a beast like yours."

Gaara's confused expression twisted into one of shock. "Then, for all those people, why….?"

Naruto put a hand on Gaara's tuft of hair, "Because I found people to care for, to protect…..who loved me and acknowledged my existence. Those people told me as many times I needed to hear….that they loved me. They told me that my purpose in this world was to protect. True power doesn't come from fighting for yourself. It comes when you have someone of your own to protect. Gaara," he ruffled the red hair, "You have people like that too. If you'd just give them a chance, they would accept you. If you want, I'll be your first friend!"

Gaara was unable to answer, just staring at Naruto with wide eyes. Naruto chuckled and removed his hand, standing up. They were here anyways.

Temari and Kankuro appeared just beside Gaara. The difference was that Kankuro was injured, and still on guard when standing in front of Naruto. He looked at Naruto with a wary expression, knowing that he stood no chance against a guy who still didn't look that exhausted after outright crushing Gaara.

Temari on the other hand, just stared at Naruto with wide eyes. He had delivered on his promise. He had stopped Gaara without killing him. And she was grateful to him for that. Naruto looked at her and winked.

"I promised you, didn't I?"

Temari smiled softly and nodded. She was grateful that Gaara hadn't been killed, along with the fact that Gaara hadn't managed to kill Naruto. She didn't know if she could ever repay Naruto for what he had done for her. A hand brushed against her leg, causing her to look down.

"Temari, Kankuro. That's enough, let's go home," Gaara ordered weakly. Kankuro gave a confused look to Temari, who just nodded to comply with the request. He picked Gaara up, supporting him with one hand around his waist and the other holding Gaara's over his shoulder.

"Kankuro," Temari said, causing the puppeteer to look at her, "Take Gaara and move. I'll catch up." She did not once break eye contact with Naruto.

Kankuro gave her a confused look, "But Temari-"

"Go, I said!"

Kankuro looked reluctant to leave her behind, but obeyed her nonetheless. He took to the trees and in a few moments, they were just a dot in the distance. No doubt, Kankuro would wait ahead for her to catch up, but he knew when Temari wanted him to be out of sight, and he wasn't stupid enough to disobey her.

Naruto just kept his hands in his pockets as Temari stepped closer. Somehow, he wasn't surprised at at all when Temari suddenly grabbed him in a tight hug, her hands going around his waist and her head buried in his chest.

"Thank you, thank you," she was sobbing in his chest. Naruto slowly wrapped his own arms around her shoulders. He kissed her head softly, stroking her hair.

"It's okay," he whispered. He really didn't know what else he could do.

Temari tightened her hold on him, "Why would you go so far for him?!"

Naruto breathed deeply, trying to decide what to say. "He and I….we're not much different. We both share a burden, and we both have been alone in our lives. Me not as much as him. I just couldn't bear to look at him like he was. He is what I would have been if I had no people of my own."

"He has people of his own! He has me and Kankuro!"

Naruto nodded sadly, "But he chose to push you away, while I accepted the few people I had in my life. It's still not too late, Temari. Just keep showing him what love truly means, and he will come to you. Give him another chance to accept."

Temari slowly looked up to him with tears glistening in her eyes. Naruto slowly removed his arms from her, stepping back. "You should go now. Konoha shinobi might be here any moment."

Temari pursed her lips, but nodded. She turned away, about to jump to the trees, but she hesitated.

Naruto waited for Temari to jump away, but she looked hesitating. "Temari-"

He never finished his sentence, for a pair of lips came to softly rest on his own. Naruto looked shocked only for a moment, but before he could wrap his arms around her, Temari separated and turned away, taking to the trees.

Naruto's hand came to rub on his lips, feeling the taste of her own. He smiled; there was something else in that kiss. Something that promised a better future.

Still smiling, he turned around, only to freeze on spotting Sasuke, who was carrying Sakura in a piggyback. Sasuke was looking extremely shocked and confused. He did not know what or how to make sense out of this. "What the hell was that?!"

Naruto panicked for a second, but then got a grip and replied, "A kiss, what else could it be?"

He turned around to go and gather his kunai, but Sasuke stopped him again. "No! I-I mean, why did she kiss you?!"

Naruto turned around with a frown, "I don't know what goes on in her head. But what the hell are you doing here? Weren't you supposed to take Sakura and head back to safety?"

This time, Sasuke surprised Naruto by looking abashed of all things. He muttered something unintelligible, causing Naruto to raise an eyebrow. "Sorry, couldn't hear you. Come again?"

"I said I couldn't leave you behind, okay?" Sasuke snapped, a hint of red on his cheeks.

Naruto snorted and walked past the boy, "It's rare to see you worry about someone else. But don't worry about me. As long as you have that kunai with you, I can flash to you anytime."

Naruto suspected Sasuke had taken the kunai not so Naruto could flash to him, but to decipher the secret behind it. Sasuke wasn't an idiot; he obviously had noticed it in his fight with Gaara what he used the kunai for, and he wanted the jutsu for himself.

Too bad for him.

In his notes, Minato had written down that he had taken the jutsu to levels that were seemingly impossible. He had developed it so far that in fact, it almost became a sort of an artificial bloodline. A jutsu that could only be used by someone of his blood, that too counting in all the fuinjutsu processes that involved locking your chakra at each step.

Sasuke mentally flinched at that. He forgot to take into account that Naruto could sense all of his kunai. He had to divert the topic fast before Naruto asks him to give it back.

"Why did you let them go?"

That question caught Naruto's attention as he picked the last of the Hiraishin kunai scattered on the ground. He slowly turned to face Sasuke. He opened his mouth to explain why, but stopped at the sudden rush of chakra in his system, as well as memories. What the hell…..?

Sasuke watched curiously as Naruto's head snapped towards the direction of the stadium, a classic expression of "What the fuck" on his face. "What is it?"

Naruto turned to face Sasuke, a sense of urgency on his face that wasn't there before. "You need to get back to Kakashi, right now." He stepped forward, a hand outstretched, probably to send him to Kakashi.

Sasuke stepped back, "Whoa! You are not sending me back like that! Not until you tell me why!"

Naruto grit his teeth as more memories flowed into his mind. He did not have time for this! "I can't tell you right now because someone close to me is in danger. How about this…..I'll tell you once the invasion is over and you promise me, right now, that you won't tell a soul about this until I tell you so. Deal?"

Sasuke thought over it a bit and said, "Alright, but you better tel-"

He wasn't allowed to finish as Naruto put a hand on his forehead and forcefully sent him back to where Kakashi was. He might have finished the enemies in the stadium by now.

He flashed, and within ten seconds, he had gathered every kunai that had been scattered in the area. After inspecting the clearing for one last time, he flashed again.

Hold on jiji. I'm coming.

Temari and Kankuro were supporting Gaara on each of his sides as they made their way back to Suna. With Gaara's defeat, the invasion was moot.

Naruto made a good point about Gaara, she thought. They allowed Gaara to push them away, and her efforts had been clearly not enough to make him come back to her.

Gaara had pushed them away as well. Their father, in hopes of strengthening Gaara as fast as he could, sent assassins to kill him. While none could get past his sand, Gaara still wanted to be close to them. However, something happened, and suddenly, Gaara became the cold person he was. He cared only about himself. She figured that the amount of killing attempts finally broke him, convincing that no one would care for him, or acknowledge his existence.

Then Naruto came along and unlike anyone they had ever met, proceeded to beat Gaara into the ground until he was willing to hear what Naruto had to say.

Temari knew that Naruto had changed Gaara's outlook on life permanently. She had witnessed hope in Gaara's life for the first time in years. Hope that he could make a life for himself like Naruto had did.

"Temari, Kankuro," a voice snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned her head to face Gaara, who was still not meeting her eyes. Kankuro shot a questioning look at his sister, but his confusion turned to shock when Gaara uttered a single word.

"Sorry."

Both the older siblings were shocked that Gaara apologized to them. For years, Gaara viewed everyone as beneath him. For him to apologize, it meant Naruto's words had had a deep effect on him. Temari smiled; they were in Naruto's debt for this.

"It's ok, little brother."

Kakashi looked tiredly around the stadium. A large number of bodies were littered around almost in every part of the arena, either covered in blood or outright crushed. He blamed Gai for all of this. That man seemed to make everything a competition between them and for some reason that even he doesn't know, Kakashi always indulged in those things.

Gai had made a bet that he could kill more enemies than Kakashi. Kakashi, being the dutiful, eternal that he was, agreed to the bet. After almost an hour of continuous fighting, the enemy had finally stopped coming into the stadium.

Gai was standing on the other side of the arena. He waved energetically at Kakashi. "YO, KAKASHI! HOW MUCH IS YOUR COUNT?"

' Is there an end to his youth,' Kakashi tiredly thought, but answered anyway. "Fifty-seven," he answered in a bored tone. Just as he predicted, Gai shifted to a completely different personality.

"OH KAKASHI! IT SEEMS YOU HAVE WON AGAIN, MY ETERNAL RIVAL!"

It was no secret in Konoha that he and Gai were eternal rivals. Kakashi was thankful for his face mask every time Gai chose to announce their rivalry publicly. That man had no sense of stealth whatsoever. People already questioned if he was mentally fit to be a ninja, it won't do for them to start questioning him as well.

Kakashi mentally sighed. His best friend was a pain in the ass.

Just as he was about to approach Gai, Sasuke suddenly appeared beside him, with Sakura unconscious on his back. Kakashi already had a kunai out ready, but lowered it once he saw who it was. He watched, amused, as Sasuke blinked, no doubt disoriented from the sudden travel and proceeded to curse in a way that Kakashi almost blushed. Though he couldn't hold back the perverted giggle upon seeing his students' position.

"That asshole! I told him not to do that!" Sasuke shouted before spotting Kakashi. He raised an eyebrow in deadpan upon hearing the perverted giggle. "What is it?"

Kakashi was more than happy to point it out, "I wonder what you plan on doing with her Sasuke. Especially you are carrying her when she's unconscious."

Sasuke blinked, not understanding the reference at first. Then he remembered that his sensei was a pervert, and then his face suddenly turned red. "Don't make such useless assumptions, you perverted jerk!"

Kakashi refrained from commenting that this might be proof of a claim Naruto had made some time ago. He might be gay, after all.

He then turned to face the purple barrier in which his leader was trapped. He could only hope that Sandaime would manage to survive against his former student.

Things were not going well for Hiruzen. Orochimaru had been right; he was not as strong as he was ten years ago, let alone his prime. And it showed; his movements were slow, his chakra capacity, even though it hadn't deteriorated with age, he had a limit to what he could exert now. If he exerted more, his chakra coils were in danger of permanent damage. And don't even get him started on his old joints.

He and Orochimaru engaged first in taijutsu, which rapidly progressed into ninjutsu. At one point, Hiruzen had even managed to corner his student again. With a smirk he had thought, 'Looks like I still got it.'

Got it, his ass.

Orochimaru had blocked his attacks by pulling up coffins of all things. From then on, it was no longer funny. In fact, Hiruzen was outraged that Orochimaru had the nerve and spine to do such a vile thing.

Orochimaru had defiled the graves of both of his senseis. Hiruzen had watched with horror filled eyes as Orochimaru opened the graves to allow the now resurrected Shodai and Nidaime hokage to walk out. And they looked terrible. Both of their skin was deathly pale, as it was rightly so. Orochimaru had forcefully called the dead into the land of the living.

Hiruzen had to stop himself from facepalming when the former hokages finally opened their mouths to speak. Even though Hiruzen knew that Hashirama-sensei was a peculiar man, with his unusually boisterous and seemingly idiotic nature, it was Tobirama-sensei who knew Hiruzen the best. It was scary how easily he could read his student. Hiruzen even suspected that Tobirama knew that he was a closet pervert, but he didn't really know, for the man never called him out on it. Only Hashirama knew of that fact, and even he had found out by accident.

But enough of that.

The first words that Hashirama-sensei had spoken were: "Is that you, Sarutobi? It has been a long time."

Hiruzen had cringed how much dead he had sounded. But somehow, that same tone from Tobirama didn't surprise him at all. In fact, it was all he could do from facepalming. "You have gotten old, Saru."

That man was always blunt like that. Turns out, it was an extremely vile jutsu that had been created by Tobirama. Edo tensei was a jutsu that binds the soul of a deceased person to a living vessel, restoring the deceased as they were when they were alive in order to do their summoner's bidding. It was the ultimate insult one can give to the dead. Why Tobirama-sensei created this, he would never know. And how Orochimaru got a hold of this, that also he would never know. Ultimately, Hiruzen had no choice but to fight his former senseis.

As the fight between them progressed, Hiruzen noted that while his opponents were certainly strong, they were nowhere near the level they were when they were alive. They were merely puppets that Orochimaru was controlling Hiruzen would know; he was their prized student, after all.

But even then, Hiruzen slowly found himself on the losing side of the battle as his age and lack of training in a long time slowly took a toll on him. Even after summoning Enma, who became an indestructible adamantine staff, he was put on the ropes by the Shodai's mastery of mokuton and Nidaime's mastery of suiton. Even if they were puppets, their teamwork was strong enough that Hiruzen was hard pressed to just dodge those attacks. And if things weren't bad enough already, both the bodies of the former Hokages were seemingly indestructible. Any damage dealt to them was recovered from within seconds.

' This is bad. At this rate, I really would be killed. I cannot afford to let them escape this barrier. Konoha would never recover from being destroyed by its own creators,' Hiruzen thought as he dodged Tobirama's attacks and used his staff to strike Hashirama in the face. He put some distance between him and both the Hokages with a large scale katon jutsu.

He then suddenly remembered what happened before they started fighting. 'Of course! How could I have forgotten that? Naruto gave me a scroll, saying that it had some reinforcements. I really could use a soldier pill right now.'

He set Enma loose on the Hokages, while he untied the scroll. As soon as he saw the slightly changed, but still recognizable prisoner containment seal, he was confused. Why would Naruto want to give him such a scroll right now?

But he had not time to think over it as Enma came skidding back on his feet. "Whatever you are doing, hurry up Sarutobi!" Enma shouted in his gruff voice.

Hiruzen wasted no more time and spread the scroll on the ground, pushing chakra into it, choosing to trust Naruto. And boy, Naruto knew exactly well what reinforcements are.

Hiruzen stared dumbfounded at the army of blondes, no doubt shadow clones that Naruto created. He knew Naruto had a ridiculous amount of chakra, but this? This was a whole new level of absurd.

He would have to re-evaluate the blonde, if he survived.

Orochimaru was flabbergasted as to how did the old fool manage to pull this in the middle of the battle. Then he noticed the scroll in his hand.

' A prisoner containment scroll modified to seal shadow clones. And the look on his face means someone gave it to him. I don't need to be a genius to figure out who. But no matter; a hundred shadow clones against two hokages are nothing. They will only buy the old fool some time.'

Sadly, Orochimaru was only partially correct. The entire roof became a field for chaos within seconds. The changes that the first Hokage had made to the roof with his entire mokuton only added to the clones' advantage as they took extreme pleasure in causing as much chaos as possible, with flash step and Hiraishin. Hiruzen grabbed this opportunity to rest and chuckled. This certainly was useful.

But he could see that having shadow clones as back had its downfalls as well. The hokages proved how formidable they were, for the clones started dispelling only two minutes after they were summoned. Hiruzen knew that this was bad, and there was no way he would be escaping today with his life. He sighed sadly as he thought about his life until today. He had made countless decisions, and just as many mistakes. He regretted what he was about to do, but there was no other option. And he was in no way, calling Naruto to fight with him. Just as he was about to initiate the sequence for the jutsu that would seal the dead away, a clone flashed beside him. With so many flashes going around, Hiruzen wasn't even surprised.

"This backup is going to get destroyed in just ten seconds," he said testily, watching with growing nervousness as only twenty of them remained now.

Hiruzen nodded gravely, "When you dispel, pass on my thanks to Naruto. I regret that I won't be escaping alive today."

The clone looked at him with a surprised face. Another peculiar thing that Hiruzen had discovered was that each of Naruto's clones had a different personality. One was happy to the point of being goofy, one was lazy, one was an angry one and there was one that was exactly like Naruto, which was the one thing that he found weird. Considering shadow clones are meant to be the user's exact copies, finding an exact copy among Naruto's different ones was certainly a new experience.

This one seemed prone to be surprised every now and then. He wanted to say something, but words seemed to fail him as he could only close and open his mouth repeatedly. He then sighed, and Hiruzen found his worry growing as a determined look came onto his face. "If you say that you have no choice, then I'm afraid I have no choice as well."

The last clone besides the one was dispelled, and Hiruzen dropped into a stance again, holding Enma. This was his final stand, and he would be dammed if he let Orochimaru win!

Just as he was about to commence his attack, he saw the last clone beside him making a half ram seal, dispelling a second later. What was he up to?

He suddenly got a very bad feeling in his stomach. Surely he was not going to….

His worst fears were confirmed when in a flash of blue, the prime himself arrived. With a cocky smirk on his face, no less.

"Am I late or what?"

The ANBU standing outside were dumbstruck upon seeing Uzumaki Naruto. It was one thing to see his performance in the matches against two very formidable genin, it was a whole another thing to see him face off against Orochimaru of the Sannin. Naruto could easily take out an A-rank jonin with what he did in the matches, and the ANBU were willing to bet that what they saw was not even half of what Naruto was truly capable of. But Orochimaru was no ordinary A-rank opponent. A high S-rank shinobi trained personally by the Sandaime hokage, he was no joke of an opponent at all.

To say the atmosphere was tense was the understatement of the decade.

"What is he doing?!" An ANBU barely kept from shouting.

The captain narrowed his eyes behind his mask and replied, "There is no doubt that Uzumaki Naruto and the Sandaime share a close bond. The reinforcements he provided him were the proof of that, if you can even call them that. In addition to that, Naruto had successfully anticipated a personal attack on Hokage-sama and prepared accordingly. Now that I think about it, it doesn't surprise me that he was alerted of the battle due to the memories of the numerous Kage Bunshin. One of them must have sent a message to him to personally come here."

"But he still is just a genin standing in a field of Kage-level shinobi. He would-"

"I think that it is well established by now that Uzumaki Naruto is not an ordinary shinobi at all," the captain calmly refuted. Turning back to the fight, he said in almost a whisper, "We just have to trust him."

Naruto carefully eyed Orochimaru as he slowly shifted into a stance. This was his second time battling the Sannin, and this time, he won't be pulling anything against him. He could not afford to. However, he had to know something first.

"Why did you do it?"

Orochimaru was also, not quite surprised by Naruto's appearance. His shadow clones must have relayed everything that happened. He used his control on the Edo Tensei to pull back the two Hokage for now. Who knows, he might learn something interesting. "Why did I do what?"

Naruto's eyes narrowed in anger. "Don't play games with me. Why did you defile the graves of the previous hokage? You could have easily matched hokage-sama, even beaten him, considering he's far from his prime."

Orochimaru chuckled, amused by the anger in front of him. "I only found it fitting, and a little ironic that the people responsible for the birth of this village will also be responsible for its death, along with the Ichibi."

Naruto felt rage building within him but he ruthlessly pushed it back. Now was not the time to lose his mind. "I've already received memories of my clones. They did keep you a bit busy, but in the end, they are just clones who can get dispelled in just one hit. So I'll ask you this: What makes you think we'll just let you do what you want?"

Orochimaru felt a bit of anxiousness creep into him, like something bad was going to happen. Nonetheless, he didn't let this show on his face, keeping up his amused façade. "You really think you have what it takes to stop me? Edo Tensei has no exploitable weakness as far as anyone knows! I am the only one who knows how to use it in the first place!"

Naruto smirked, despite the situation he was in. "Be that as it may, you've already lost, Orochimaru of the Sannin. I've already sent the Ichibi running with its tail between his legs."

This fact surprised both Orochimaru and Hiruzen. Hiruzen asked him with shock, "The Ichibi has been defeated?"

Naruto gave him a side glance, "Of course. I wouldn't be here if he wasn't."

Orochimaru found himself growing annoyed. Using Gaara as his weapon was a major part of his plan. To think Naruto managed to defeat him and still have energy left to fight him…

' He is quickly becoming a pain. He not only manages to defeat Gaara, thereby foiling my invasion by a good margin, but he even gave the old fool some reinforcements that I didn't even know of. If I don't take care of him now, he'll become a full blown annoyance for me in the future,' the snake summoner thought with a frown. Time to end this battle.

"Be that as it may," he mocked the young Uzumaki, "You can't hope to match the might of the Hokages just yet! Maybe in the future, but only if you live through today." With that, he commanded

Naruto chuckled as he pulled out his own scroll, "You should know better than that, you reptilian psychopath. Every jutsu has a weakness." He released the contents of the scroll, and Orochimaru had to fight a groan of annoyance upon seeing a very familiar sight.

A hundred, grinning clones once again stood between the two sides of the battlefield. The Hokages halted a bit to reconsider on how to deal with this setback, but Orochimaru forced them to keep going.

"It's just the matter of finding it." With that, all the clones once again engaged the two Kages with glee, using the advantages their predecessors set for them before they ran out.

Naruto then turned to Hiruzen with a serious look on his face. "Jiji, tell me what you know about this Edo Tensei. My clones weren't able to tell me much. I'll need everything you know to devise a counter against it."

Hiruzen took a moment to study Naruto. With his eyes narrowed and his hair flowing in the wind, Hiruzen was once again reminded of Minato. Cold and calculative in battle, Minato had rarely lost against someone and at his strongest, even Jiraiya had admitted that he could not defeat Minato. To think that his son would grow so powerful as to assist the Hokage in one of his battles, right after defeating a tailed beast. It would be injustice if he were to be promoted to chunin.

"Very well." And while the clones did their best to keep the Kages and Orochimaru busy, Hiruzen told what he had studied from the forbidden scroll and witnessed firsthand. Just as all the clones were once again demolished, Naruto had everything he needed to know. He was now looking at Orochimaru with a predatory smile which was frankly, a bit unnerving.

"It's a summoning jutsu? You don't say….."

Before he could act on his plan, he and Hiruzen were surprised when suddenly, Tobirama decided to speak. "Whatever you have planned, don't waste time in executing it!"

Hiruzen blinked a few times, "Nidaime-sama, I thought you were under control."

He dodged and blocked the dead Hokage's attacks while exchanging words. "He only can control my actions, but not my personality! Even though we are compelled to obey his orders, that doesn't mean we can't think and talk for ourselves!"

"And why the hell would you decide to train a student such as that?"

Hiruzen sighed as Hashirama, who had decided to engage Naruto, himself jumped into the conversation. As always, he was highly eccentric.

Naruto called out to his jiji, "Just keep him busy, jiji! I have a way to stop them from attacking!"

Hiruzen grit his teeth and snapped back, "What do you think I have been doing all this while?!"

Naruto turned back to his fight. He was exchanging blows with the Shodai, more like dodging and flipping, was evaluating his position in this fight. 'With all the Kage Bunshin gone, my chakra capacity is roughly a bit more than a third of my actual reserves. Jiji told me that on top of having monstrous reserves of chakra, both the Senju brothers have an unlimited supply of it in their current state. But they are not fighting at full strength, which means we still have a chance.'

Naruto substituted with a clone seamlessly in the middle of his fighting. However, Hashirama had decades of battle experience. It was foolish to hope that it could have fooled him. As soon as he detected the switch, he immediately dispelled the clone and turned his attention back to the original, only to find a ball of wind racing towards him.

' Fuuton: Kaze gyorai no jutsu!'

Naruto watched as the legendary kage simply backflipped to dodge the highly explosive jutsu. However, he failed to take notice of the seal on the sleeve of his left hand. Just as Hashirama completed his flip, Naruto was no longer in his vision. He let his instincts take over as he turned around to kick Naruto away, but he suddenly found he couldn't move. Combined with his awkward position of a leg high in the air, he toppled face first into the tiles of the roof. Curiously enough, there was a large, goofy smile on his face.

"Ho! You managed to paralyze me, young leafling?"

Naruto was lightly panting as he gazed down at Hashirama, "A modified Uzumaki paralysis seal. Complete lockdown of motor functions and cannot be overloaded with chakra, which I'm sure you have no small amount of."

Surprisingly, Hashirama outright laughed. To be honest, Naruto did not know what to make of the first hokage. While he had his own vision of the Shodai Hokage, he had never imagined him to be a goofy idiot. And he was pretty sure he wasn't the only one who thought so when the aforementioned kage was alive. It was completely undignified for someone who is called the god of shinobi.

Hashirama joyfully replied, "Not every day I meet someone of your age who can catch me off-guard like this! The will of fire burns brightly in you, I see!"

Naruto bowed, "Thank you for your compliment, Shodai-sama. But the fight is not over yet." He made a shadow clone, who took up guard beside a curious Hashirama. "Just be ready for it when it happens."

If he wasn't bound, Hashirama would have given a thumbs up with a large grin. Seeing he was bound, he just grinned, not even knowing what Naruto was talking about. "Will do!"

With that, Naruto turned his sights onto the jackpot, Orochimaru. Without any further thought, he flash stepped, barreling his right fist right into Orochimaru's jaw.

Orochimaru was thoroughly enjoying himself. He had sent the Shodai to dispose of the meddlesome Uzumaki, while he teamed up with Tobirama to take Hiruzen down. It was actually quite amusing to hear the legendary water user curse at him, while attacking his own successor. He was about to use an opening Tobirama had created to stab his sensei with the famed sword of Kusanagi, when he was suddenly punched in the face so hard he swore his teeth might have loosened a bit. He went flying back, though he managed a flip in the air and land gracefully on his feet. He looked up and grit his teeth in annoyance. Naruto was standing right before him, kunai held in reverse grip and wind chakra flowing through them.

"How are you standing before me? You should have been killed by the Shodai!"

Naruto smirked, "I don't see why you need to know." He then disappeared in a flash step, and Orochimaru blocked the swipe at his throat at the last second. Both settled in a furious bout of taijutsu, each trying to overpower the other. Orochimaru knew not to underestimate Naruto in anyway, while Naruto knew that he needed to end this as quickly as possible. He delivered a series of punches that were blocked, but pushed Orochimaru back enough for Naruto to execute a move of his own. He front flipped with legs split at 180 degree angle; Orochimaru blocked the first leg with both of his hands, but the second leg came crashing down on his head painfully, causing him to kiss the roof.

Orochimaru groaned as he rubbed his head to quell the pain. If he hadn't been suffering blows like that from Tsunade a long time ago, he would have been seeing stars. While Naruto didn't have Tsunade's monstrous strength, the speed he used to augment his attacks made them no less formidable. His eyes opened wide in alarm as he suddenly saw that Naruto was nowhere in sight. All of a sudden, he was forced to weave in between four shadow clones that had suddenly appeared from nowhere.

One swipe of his sword took care of the first, the second was kicked out of existence, the third managed to poke a pressure point on his arm that made it go numb, but he was managed as well. The last one attempted an upward slash, only to see the he would be stabbed before he could slash the Sannin. So using his slower perception, he let go of the Hiraishin kunai just as he was stabbed in the back. It was almost like slow motion for Orochimaru as he watched the kunai spin upwards. His own free hand reached up in slow motion to grab the kunai before it was too late.

Oh, too late.

Naruto suddenly appeared mid-air, in perfect position, grasping the kunai by its handle and delivering a direct, blazing palm thrust on Orochimaru's back. The attack was way too fast for Orochimaru to counter and was therefore, bashed into the roof once again. Naruto flashed to the kunai a few meters away. As Orochimaru slowly recovered from the attack, Naruto took a glance to see how jiji was doing.

Not good. He will have to be extremely quick.

Hiruzen was heavily panting. He was running low on chakra, and even Tobirama could see that. So exhausted he was, that coupled with his old age, he was starting to get dizzy. He tripped on one of the uprooted tiles and fell back, simply unable to continue anymore. He could do nothing but watch as Tobirama picked up a stray kunai and rushed towards him. Hiruzen closed his eyes as he waited for the end. Rather sad that he would die by his sensei's hand rather than an enemy's. For all his speed, it seemed Naruto was a bit late.

' Sorry Naruto, but this is the end.'

Seconds passed, and Hiruzen was confused. He should have been stabbed in the heart by now by his sensei. Opening one eye, he saw that Tobirama's hand had stopped an inch from his heart. Tobirama himself was looking surprised as to what just happened. He slowly reeled back, clenching and opening his fist to confirm for himself if this was really happening.

"It seems that I have gained back the control of my body," he analyzed before looking over to where his brother was. A clone over there was pressing a hand to Hashirama's back, releasing some sort of paralyzing seal. Hashirama grinned as he shot up to his feet, testing the movement of his limbs.

"So this is what he was talking about! I have to say, I never predicted this!"

Tobirama turned back to see just what had happened that they were out of Orochimaru's control, only to see a deep gash on Orochimaru's right side, with blood flowing from it like waterfall. The Sannin was pressing the wound as tight as he could to slow the blood flow down. Just a second later, his mouth opened widely and another Orochimaru crawled out of it, without any injuries. He had a snarl on his face, but the damage was already done.

"I can't believe you just did that…"

Naruto just grinned at his victory. "Looks like you just weren't fast enough."

"What just happened here?" Tobirama questioned with authority.

Naruto grinned as he recounted what happened moments before.

Thirty seconds back

Orochimaru stood up as he leveled a death glare at Naruto. The boy had landed way too many hits. There was no doubt that he was skilled and talented, but this was frankly ludicrous. Even he couldn't match Sarutobi-sensei when he was that young. But then again, he didn't know the Hiraishin. 'He teleported to the kunai in the air! I should never have let my guard down after dismissing those clones!'

" You efforts are admirable," he rasped out, "But ultimately useless! This is a jutsu that not even the Yondaime could have found the weakness to. All you are trying to do is delay the inevi-"

He never got the chance to finish his monologue as Naruto suddenly appeared in front of him. He placed one hand on his stomach, the right, while the other holding the kunai went right into Orochimaru's side, drawing a surprised grunt from then man. One moment he was standing in front of Orochimaru, the next moment, no, instant, he was burying a kunai into him.

' Hiraishin no jutsu! He must have marked me in that attack!' Orochimaru thought as he released a breath in pain as the kunai went deeper.

" Even the Yondaime? Puh-lease," Naruto mocked, "He would have ended this fight ages ago." Orochimaru felt a burst of chakra down where Naruto's palm was and looked down, his face morphing into horror as he realized what had happened.

" A Contract Seal? What are you-" Before he could finish his sentence, Naruto slashed the kunai sideways, right out of the screaming sannin's body and drawing a huge amount of blood, along with some chunks as well. He then flashed back before Orochimaru could retaliate.

Flashback over

Naruto grinned as he neared the end of his explanation, "Jiji told me that you summoned the hokages from the dead. The fact was further cemented when I learned the full name of this jutsu. Kuchiyose: Edo tensei is a jutsu that puts the summoned soul in a contract with the summoner to do their bidding. So I simply cancelled that contract with a contract seal, which removes any form of direct control a summoner has over any summon."

Tobirama smirked as a pleased grunt escaped his throat, "To know the Hiraishin and fuinjutsu at such a young age and apply it in combat. It's good to know that the future of the leaf is in hands such as these. What is your name?"

Naruto straightened up while keeping Orochimaru in sight, "Uzumaki Naruto, Nidaime-sama."

"Who taught you the Hiraishin?"

"I learned it from my father's notes, Nidaime-sama."

Tobirama raised an eyebrow, "I see."

Then he turned towards Orochimaru with a menacing expression. Both he and Hashirama started walking towards the now nervous man, cracking their knuckles. "So you were going to use us to destroy the village we built? You have some nerve….."

Tobirama added as well, "Don't think you can escape! We are no longer under your control!"

Both of them rushed at Orochimaru, who knew that there was no way he could do anything. The Kages were out of his control by a contract seal, which meant that he could not even cancel the jutsu. Which left only one option.

"Lower the barrier! We are leaving!"

" Hai Orochimaru-sama!"

The barrier was lowered, and Orochimaru turned to escape when suddenly, Naruto flashed in front of him and kicked him right in the face. He went tumbling back on the roof, coming to a harsh stop. He immediately got back up, but there was no way he was able to counter what came next in time.

' Katon: Ryuka no jutsu!'

Orochimaru had no time to mold enough chakra for a counter, so he just brought his hands forward in a cross position. He screamed in pain as the concentrated fire utterly burnt his arm, even from the inside. Only when the fire stopped was he able to jump back. Only years of building up his pain tolerance allowed him to not pass out right on the roof.

' My arms!' He mentally raged. They were burnt right to the inside and even trying to move his little finger send painful jolts up his arms. And he won't be able to change his body for almost four months. 'I'll get you for this, Uzumaki Naruto!'

The Sannin fled the battlefield, arms and pride injured and objective failed. He had never foreseen that he would be defeated by a mere genin, much less the hokage. The only comfort that he could take that Uzumaki Naruto was no mere genin, and even that wasn't much comforting. Down the road, Orochimaru would have to watch out for him.

"And there he goes again," Naruto muttered as he saw Orochimaru vanish into the ground.

"I'm surprised that someone managed to get their hands on that jutsu," Tobirama commented while looking at Naruto with his hands folded. He looked every bit the hokage he was known to be.

Hashirama on the other hand…

"Tobirama, I told you that it wasn't a great jutsu," he said with a hand running down his face.

Tobirama turned an annoyed face to his older brother, "Will you be quiet, Anija? I'm trying to talk to this genin!"

"But I-"

"Shut! Up!"

It was almost comical how quickly the god of shinobi could fall into depression. As soon as Tobirama asked oh-so-politely for his elder brother to shut up, a cloud of rain appeared above Hashirama's head.

Naruto chose to ignore the bickering of the brothers and went to check up on the old hokage, who was now sitting up and watching the bickering with a nostalgic smile. Naruto couldn't think of anything to say, so he just sat down beside him. "Were they always like that?"

Hiruzen chuckled, "Always. Their antics never failed to amuse me. But that is what them so great."

Naruto tilted his head, "What do you mean?"

Hiruzen gave a cryptic smile, "You'll understand in time."

Naruto huffed, muttering about old men and their elusive ways of talking. Hiruzen chuckled and patted Naruto on his back, "I have to say, you sure do live up to your title, the most unpredictable ninja of Konoha. I expected some extra weapons or, considering it was your clone who gave it to me, some really good fuinjutsu traps. Boy, you almost gave me a heart attack when I saw the hundred Kage Bunshin standing like some sort of army."

Naruto chuckled and rubbed his head, "What can I say, I didn't know what kind of attack you would be involved in, so I just did the first thing that came to mind."

Hiruzen laughed and said, "It was excellent, and worth seeing the look of bafflement on my former student's face. But seriously Naruto, I have to commend you. You not only displayed the true characteristics of a shinobi in battle, but you were smart enough to figure out a to counter the Edo Tensei in just minutes, while even I couldn't!"

Naruto blushed a little at the praise and was about to say something when an incredulous voice interrupted their conversation. "Did you say, a hundred shadow clones?"

Both of them turned to see Hashirama with a look of wonder on his face as he approached with his brother. Naruto nodded, "Hai, Shodai-sama."

Hashirama gave a sly look to Tobirama, "That's way more than you were able to do, Tobirama. And he is still just a child."

Tobirama grit his teeth, restraining himself from whacking the idiot across the head. Cooling down a bit, he turned to Naruto, "You said you were from the Uzumaki clan, did you not? I don't see any red hair, so the blonde must come from your father. And while I knew that Uzumaki possessed chakra reserves large enough to best even the Senju, even the strongest Uzumaki could only make fifty at best."

Naruto slowly nodded. It was a fair assessment, "If it helps you any, I am the jinchuriki of the Kyuubi."

Both of the previous Hokages were surprised, but not that much. "Then it's understandable. After all, only the Uzumaki had life force and chakra strong enough to jail the demon," Tobirama mused to himself. then suddenly remembering something, he turned to the aged Hokage.

"What are you doing holding that hat in your old age, Sarutobi? Shouldn't you have found a successor by now?"

Hiruzen cringed at the reminder of the death of his successor, "I did, sensei. But he died shortly after taking the hat. Kyuubi killed him, but he was able to-"

"-Seal it into Naruto here before he died," Hashirama finished with a frown. "I don't know what to say about this. On one hand, the Yondaime did a great deed by sacrificing himself to save the village, but on the other hand, he passed a great burden onto you, Naruto."

Hiruzen looked at Naruto, who frowned in thought. After a moment of thought, he said. "Well, he couldn't ask anyone else in Konoha to give their child if he wasn't willing to do it himself."

Understanding immediately lit up in their eyes, "The Yondaime was your father, wasn't he?"

Naruto gave a proud smile and a nod, "That he was. He was also your true successor, Nidaime-sama."

Tobirama raised an eyebrow in question, "Oh? How so?"

Naruto explained, "He took your jutsu, the Hiraishin, to levels that even you wouldn't have been able to! He was known as Konoha's Yellow flash!"

Hiruzen reprimanded Naruto for speaking to his sensei like that, "Naruto!"

Naruto just gave a shrug, "Just stating the facts, hokage-sama."

Surprisingly, Tobirama wasn't insulted at all at Naruto's praise of his father. In fact, he chuckled, "He did that? Good for him then, for I always knew that that jutsu could be refined to become better. If he was able to improve it to such a level, then I hope you surpass him as well. It is the inevitable duty of the future generation to surpass the old one."

Hiruzen was smiling like it was the best day of his life. Chatting with his senseis right now felt like the old, peaceful days when he was still training under them. But as much as he enjoyed it, there was work to be done. For one, how to release the jutsu of Orochimaru. Since Naruto negated the control from him, they became nothing more than zombies in the living world.

"As much as I enjoy talking with you like the old days, please tell me you have a way of releasing this jutsu, sensei."

Tobirama scoffed, "Of course I do! The mere fact that you doubt me is insulting! I had thought of the possibility that a revived soul might escape the control of the summoner, so I created a contingency plan. Anija, follow my hand signs."

Hashirama, who was gazing at his village with a sad smile, turned and nodded. With one last look, he walked back to his brother. Just before he started to follow the signs, he turned to Naruto and said, "Naruto, in our short fight, I have seen the great potential that you hold. See to it that you don't waste it, and give a shot at the seat of the Hokage if you want to! You know, change the world, bring peace to it! That was my dream when I was Hokage! You have my full blessings!"

Naruto bowed deep, "Thank you, Shodai-sama." Then he grinned cockily and said, "And I already have my eyes on the hat, Shodai-sama! No one can snatch the position of the Rokudaime from me!"

Hashirama laughed at the enthusiasm, while Tobirama smiled at it. Naruto reminded him just how his elder brother used to be when they were children. Optimistic at every turn, but serious when needed. "Good to know, Naruto. We will be watching, and we look forward to see how you fare."

Naruto brightened up like a sun on hearing that. Even though he didn't outright say it, Tobirama had given his blessings to him as well. Even Hiruzen took an opportunity ask a question that he had wanted the answers to for a long time.

"Hashirama-sensei, Tobirama-sensei, will you please tell me how you managed your paperwork when you became Hokage?"

His questions triggered reactions that were completely astonishing. He had expected them to look a little in pain about the paperwork, but instead they just gave him pitiful looks. As if paperwork was the least of their problems during their reign as Hokage.

"You really haven't figured out after all this time?" Hashirama asked a bit incredulous. Hope blossomed in Hiruzen.

"That means you know how to tackle it, sensei?" Hashirama smiled and was about to tell him when….

"Don't tell him, Anija! If he couldn't figure it out on his own, then he's a failure as my student and Hokage!"

That had the effect of sending Hiruzen into a bout of depression that Hashirama was so familiar with. Hashirama flinched as he saw his student with a rain cloud on his head. 'Is this how it feels to see me do that?'

Sensei was still so cruel…..

"Don't worry, Hokage-sama. If you want, I can tell it to you," Naruto offered. Hiruzen looked up with a gape.

"How do you know about it?!"

Tobirama butted in with his usual snide remark, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself if you can't figure out an answer that a genin like Naruto can!"

Naruto chuckled sheepishly as he rubbed his head. Just as the two brothers started the hand signs, Naruto remembered something he always wanted to know…

"Shodai-sama!" Hashirama paused and looked at Naruto with raised eyebrows. Shooting a quick apologetic look to the annoyed Nidaime, he said, "Do you mind if I ask you a question about your mokuton?"

Hashirama grinned and dropped his hands to his hips, as if he was proud of speaking that subject. "Sure! I can take a question before going!"

"While your mokuton is highly regarded throughout the shinobi world as a legendary bloodline, how is it that only you possess it and not any of your descendants?"

Hashirama became unusually serious all of a sudden, prompting Naruto to think that he might have overstepped his boundaries. Even Hiruzen looked a bit alarmed at how personal the question was, while Nidaime was eerily calm. All of a sudden, Hashirama opened his eyes and with all seriousness, he exclaimed….

"I don't know!"

This time, Naruto really did faceplant as Hashirama started laughing like the goof he was. Hiruzen chuckled as well, while Tobirama finally couldn't hold it anymore and whacked his brother across the head, hard.

"Let's go already!"

With that, they finally began the hand signs. After a total of twenty four hand signs that Naruto carefully memorized for the future, the souls finally left and returned to where they belonged.

"What a day!" Naruto exclaimed with a big grin.

Hiruzen sighed and took out a notepad to write one last thing in it. He out it back before Naruto noticed it. Naruto turned to him and asked with hopeful eyes. "So, do I qualify for chunin, jiji?"

Hiruzen outright laughed at the adorable childlike look Naruto got in his eyes. It was rare to see it nowadays. "Patience is a virtue, Naruto."

He could finally relax. The invasion was over, and Konoha had survived.