NARUTO 11

The moonlight shone down on the desert village's empty streets. It was surprisingly chilly at night, considering how hot the day was.

There weren't a whole lot of people who moved about in the middle of the night in the ninja village of Suna, only those on official business were out and about after curfew. But those individuals stayed far away from one building in particular. They often looked at it in fear as they ran past, eager to get away and perform their duties elsewhere.

Anywhere else.

In one of the windows of that very tall building that instilled so much fear, a young redheaded child sat on the window ledge staring out at the moon high in the sky with a very blank expression.

He had been mostly alone as long as he could remember. Even his older brother and sister were prohibited by their father from getting too close to him. Whenever someone got close, his sand killed them.

Ever since he could remember, he could control the sand around him. He could make it hover, form into shapes, and have the shapes dance around in the air to keep him entertained. It was his favorite toy.

But when someone tried to get close to him, especially when they were nice, his sand reacted angrily and tried to kill them. He couldn't control it when that happened, so he was always alone, despite how nice his sand was the rest of the time.

He didn't like the smell when that happened, or the yelling that followed. But he was starting to get used to it, despite still hating it.

He didn't understand what was happening when he was much younger. But now he did. And he was still helpless to change anything, even though he understood what was happening.

He couldn't stop his sand from killing. He couldn't stop the fearful eyes from looking at him like they did.

He didn't like being all alone because of his sand, but there was nothing he could do about it. At least he still had his sand to accompany him. It was the only thing that never left him.

"You don't have that vibe that says you're afraid of me, or want to hurt me. Who are you?" Gaara suddenly asked, turning around so Carl could see his pale green eyes. Gaara's eyes were surrounding by a circle of black, caused by his extreme insomnia. Because whenever Gaara slept, the one tail demon sand raccoon, Shukaku, was able to take control of his body and rampage around.

Shukaku was also the reason that Gaara's sand went out of control and tried to kill anyone close to him. The seal that acted as the prison for the one tailed beast wasn't very good, allowing the sand raccoon to act through Gaara, to a limited extent, and based on circumstances.

"I'm actually here to help you. My name is Carl." Carl stepped out of the shadows. He was in his nine year old Hyuga form, about the same age as the redhead. Carl smiled warmly at the redheaded kid in front of him, the red tattoo of the symbol for 'love' on his forehead. "And I wouldn't mind being your friend, either."

Gaara flinched a bit at Carl's declaration before glaring at him a bit while inspecting him intensely.

Gaara was a few inches shorter than Carl and dressed in loose desert clothes. Carl himself was wearing a dark green kimono style shirt and black trousers along with the black sandals. He stood casually, with his hands stretched behind his head.

"How could you possibly help me? I have to be alone, it's the only way. Getting close to a monster means you die. I am a monster." Gaara almost seemed to be talking to himself at that point, looking down at the floor with a face of despair.

Carl tsked to himself inside, seeing that Gaara had already been royally messed up. He felt a bit guilty that he hadn't come earlier to help this kid who, in the original story, would have been saved by Naruto and become one of his staunchest friends.

"…and I can only find the meaning of my existence in killing." Gaara clutched his head in pain as he spoke in a monotone, the anguish clear in his voice despite the dead tone he was speaking in.

He didn't sound like he really believed, so that was something. He was evidently repeating a mix of what he heard people say about him, and what Shukaku whispered in his mind. Carl was more determined than ever to fix this boy now, instead of a few years later.

'Looks like Gaara has already gone through some of the bullshit his father forced on him to try to turn him into a weapon.' Carl sighed as he saw the sand around Gaara reacting to his troubled emotions, rising up to attack. Seal script written in black ink radiated from Carl's feet and surrounded Gaara. The sand suddenly fell inert, leaving Gaara standing there with a blank look on his face, stunned at the sudden end of the mental pain and yelling from the one tail.

"Sleep, Gaara. Everything will be better when you wake." Carl said in a kindly voice. Gaara fell unconscious, but Carl caught him before he hit the floor with his telekinesis. His seal had not only put Gaara to sleep, but the Shukaku inside him as well, so that it wouldn't take over and run rampant while Carl was trying to help Gaara.

He stripped off the young boy's shirt and channeled some chakra through his hands and into Gaara's body so that the seal that Suna had used to imprison the one tail inside him would be revealed. Carl spent a few moments inspecting the seal. A frown tugged the corners of his mouth downward at the sight of the absolutely shoddy work they had done.

'There really are no Seal Masters in this world.' Carl sighed in realization. Naruko's seal had been created by the Shinigami in exchange for her father's soul. Which meant it was a master class work of art in compared to this…bullshit, on Gaara. 'Well, time to fix this.'

Carl had already set up an SEP field and protective wards around where Gaara was, so he opened up his Warehouse portal before carrying Gaara through to a large enough workspace inside the cave home he made in his dinosaur continent. He pulled out an ink pot and brush and finished drawing the already prepared seals on the floor around Gaara's form. Many of the seals he could use in combat were easy enough to make without ink and brush. But the more complex ones for doing big things required the more traditional methods.

Or at least they were easier to do the traditional way, rather than spending the mental energy to keep the incredibly complex seals in mind while tracing the chakra energy in the world around him, all while keeping from making a single mistake. It was easier to ink everything in, and double check, before activating the seal and hoping for the best.

In order to fix Gaara's seal without releasing the one tail, Carl had to create a sort of program in seals that would act on modifying and fortifying Gaara's seal to make a buffer that would hold the One Tail while it was being transferred between seals.

Afterwards Gaara would still have access to his amazing sand controlling abilities that being Shukaku's container afforded him, but he would be the one in charge. Shukaku would no longer be able to whisper his words of madness in Gaara's mind, and he wouldn't be able to take control when Gaara slept, either.

Carl had also added the modifications to the seal that Shukaku's demon chakra would slowly seep into Gaara's chakra coils in a way that would help build Gaara's physique and chakra reserves, while the regeneration seals that he added to Gaara's seal would keep him healthy and healing from the regular influx of corrosive demon chakra. A similar schema was present in Naruko's seal.

A few moments later, Carl had double and triple checked that his seal based program written out on the floor in a large circle around where Gaara lay was correct. With an application of chakra, the seals activated. All the seal script that Carl had written glowed with the influx of chakra, then the writing began shrinking and crawling across the floor towards Gaara's form, infusing into the prison seal on Gaara's stomach.

Several minutes later, the modification was complete. The One Tail had been transferred from the old seal to the new. Carl spent some time inspecting the seal, making sure the job was done right. He was finally satisfied with his work, and put Gaara's shirt back on him before carrying him back out to his room.

Looking around at Gaara's room that didn't have a bed, since Suna didn't want to encourage him to sleep, Carl shook his head in disappointment. There wasn't even any decorations, either.

That was no way to live. Carl spent some time remodeling a bit, adding a bed and several other things that young ninja boys might like. He then warded Gaara's room to make it a bit more secure for him to rest in without being disturbed by anyone.

He left a letter for Gaara to explain to him what he'd done to his seal so that he would know he could live normally now, instead of like a monster. He assumed that Gaara would need some time to come to terms with his new reality.

Carl made sure to let Gaara know that he would come back regularly to check in on his new friend. That they were friends, and that life would only get better for Gaara from here on out.

He spent a moment looking down at the kid before departing. He really liked the friendship that developed between Naruto and Gaara in the show. He'd have to introduce Gaara and his siblings to his friends some time.

Definitely before the chuunin exam. In the meantime, he would come back regularly to help out on sot that Gaara could change from a psychopathic killer in training into a regular ninja boy.

Sure, they both trained to kill. But one was well adjusted and could have a decent life with friends and family. The other would always be suffering alone. And that sometimes made all the difference.

Carl teleported away to his next destination.

XX

The city he was looking at was full of amusing distractions for a festival. Slam a mallet down hard enough to ring a bell would win a prize. Throwing enough rings around a vertical pole, throwing darts to pop a balloon, skeeball, raffles, goldfish scooping, and many more games were available.

He had played some of those kinds of games at carnivals in his original life, and he always lost. But here and now, with the kinds of skills ninja had, he was surprised the vendors could make any money. Maybe they relied on the hope that ninja and samurai had better things to do than cleaning out a vendor of all their stuffed toys?

Just out of amusement, Carl paid for a game of goldfish scooping and won a nice big fat goldfish. He didn't even cheat by infusing his chakra into the paper scoop. Honest!

Carl lifted up the gold and white splotched fish in a clear bag to his eye level. The thing had what looked like bubbles of skin obscuring his face, and he had a fat body and hunched back. The dumb thing just hovered in front of him, looking stupid.

"What's wrong with your face? You're kind of an ugly thing, aren't you?" Carl muttered at the fish, who simply stared blankly back, mouth opening and closing rhythmically; before the fish turned away and pooped, indicating his opinion of Carl's words. "Hey, you're the ugly one who has to swim in his own feces. Idiot."

Carl put the bag of poopy goldfish in his sleeve temporarily so it was out of sight before having the Yamato beam it away. He figured he would take pity on the fish and give the ugly little Ranchu goldfish a home somewhere.

Walking around the festival, Carl idly bought himself some roasted nuts and wasabi peas to snack on as he made his way to his destination. He had to occasionally dodge some little kids that weren't paying attention to where they were running with their parents in chase.

In front of him stood a two story, average looking building that was his destination. He made his way inside, easily casting a spell to get the bouncers to ignore a nine year old entering their den of gambling. In between the many adults standing around the room, he saw several tables with card games and other gambling games in progress. The groups of adults seated at the tables were concentrating fiercely on the hands they were dealt. The rest of the crowd stood around, cheerfully chatting, drinking, or waiting for a seat to open up so they could play some hands.

The people who were just there to enjoy a good show gossiped with each other, commenting on the chances of the various gamblers to actually win or lose.

There was one lady seated at a gambling table to his right that his attention was drawn to. Her blonde hair was tied up into two ponytails that fell over her green coat. One hand elegantly held her cards that she was intently staring at, while the other held a sake saucer, absentmindedly bringing it up to her lips to sip. Her signature green coat was draped over her grey kimono shirt, and she was sporting Capri pants and high heels.

Just behind her stood a worried looking black haired lady in a black kimono with white trim; just a hint of the mesh armor shirt she was wearing peeked out from the overlapping folds of her kimono. The cute little pig she carried while she was exhorting her blonde companion to ease up on the gambling and drinking was wearing a pearl necklace and a red coat that set the little miss piglet off from the rest of the herd, so to speak.

Carl spent a moment considering Tsunade, the blonde woman, and Shizune, the black haired woman, before deciding how best to approach the two. Tsunade was a legendary medical ninja and Shizune was her apprentice.

Years ago Tsunade had been teammates with Jiraiya and Orochimaru. After their fight with Hanzo the Salamander, who was a legendary ninja and leader of the hidden village of rain, Ame, Tsunade and her teammates earned the title of Sannin, indicating that their great skill and strength stood out from among the common ninja.

She had been through some tough times in her life. Her little brother, her last family member, was killed on a mission. Her fiancé bled to death in her arms during the war, despite her legendary medical skills. And now she suffered from hemophobia and was wandering the country gambling, drinking, and generally just wallowing in her misery.

In the original story, after the chuunin exams where Orochimaru orchestrated the invasion of Konoha and killed the third Hokage, who was her Jonin sensei; Naruto and Jiraiya, but mostly Naruto, was able to convince Tsunade to reevaluate her life and have hope for the future again. Tsunade then returned to the village and became the fifth Hokage.

That was just one example of Naruto's ability to do what many people called the Talk no Jutsu, which could turn enemies into friends and give hope to the hopeless.

But since Carl was in some undefined fanfiction version of the Naruto universe, he had no idea if Naruko would even get the same chance to interact with the blonde medic, or if she would have the same ability to change Tsunade's life around in three years like Naruto did. So he was here to try to liven up the life of a character he liked.

Carl gently pushed his way through the crowd of adults until he was standing next to Shizune. He smiled up at the black haired medic ninja, and was pleased to see her smile back. Her pig, Tonton, oinked at him inquiringly.

"Well, hello there, little miss." Carl greeted Tonton. "My name is Carl. It's a pleasure to meet you."

Tonton oinked, which translated as, "What do you want, kid?"

"A perceptive little miss, aren't you? But you haven't introduced yourself yet, I don't know what to call you while we talk." Carl felt it was much better to act like he didn't already know her name. For all he knew, in this alternate universe, he really didn't know her name. He was amused to see Shizune roll her eyes at Carl, thinking he really didn't understand the pig. Ah, if she only knew the power of Jump Chain perks.

Tonton oinked again, which translated as, "My name is Tonton, now stop stalling and tell me why you're here and what you want from my friends!"

Carl smiled at the possessive and protective little pig. As far as he knew from the show, this little pig had no ninja skills. But, who knows? Maybe spending so much time with the two medical ninja had taught her some interesting skills. He also noticed that while Tsunade seemed to be completely focused on her gambling and drinking, she was actually quite alert and paying attention to the conversation.

"Well, I came to talk to your friends with an offer to come visit my new village for a bit. I was hoping that they could spend some time teaching some of my people some of their skills, and in return I'd teach them some skills they could learn nowhere else. And to sweeten the deal, I've brought some Death." Carl paused and smirked to see all three of them tense before he continued talking. "…by Chocolate!" He pulled out three boxes of utterly decadent chocolate cake and held them out temptingly.

The three females, two human and one porcine, almost comically sweat dropped at his about face pronouncement. By this time, Tsunade had spun around on her chair to face him and the card game was paused while the other participants watched eagerly. They were well aware of Tsunade's reputation and standing, and what she usually did to strange ninja that came and bothered her while she was gambling with demands and attempts at bribery or assassination.

"Listen, Hyuga brat." Tsunade started to say before Carl nudged the lids on the boxes to open, causing her eyes to zero in on where the deliciously chocolate smell drifted out from. "Just because you've got some absolutely delicious smelling chocolate is no reason for me to…"

Carl smirked as Tsunade's words drifted off, as she swallowed the drool that was threatening to overrun her mouth.

"Well, why don't you go ahead and run a diagnostic jutsu to make sure I didn't add anything to these three marvels of chocolate engineering, and then give it a taste." Carl suggested in the seductive voice of a tempting devil who wanted to give them free chocolate.

"Lady Tsunade, I'll…take one for the team to make sure this is safe." Shizune offered while she looked hungrily at the cakes.

Tonton oinked her agreement with Shizune.

"No! No, as your master, it is my duty to make sure the cake is delicious. I mean! To make sure it's safe for you." Tsunade's hands glowed blue while she waved her hands over the three cakes. No matter how seductive the chocolate, if it was truly not safe, she would react violently.

Even more violently, actually, for being teased with chocolate.

"I respect you greatly, Lady Tsunade. But you will not take my cake from me." Shizune said with a very firm tone of voice, followed by an emphatic oink of agreement from Tonton.

Once Tsunade was satisfied it was safe, she snatched up one of the cakes out of Carl's hands, Shizune grabbed one of the others, and Carl set the last one on the table for Tonton, who jumped out of Shizune's arms to the table. All three lost themselves in the cake for some time, using the fork he had provided to deliver the chocolaty goodness to their mouths.

Even Tonton used her fork, which just showed she was a pig of good breeding and manners.

Carl could see that even the surrounding men were quite interested in the cake. Whether it was to satisfy their own sweet tooth, or at the thought of bringing such a delectable treat home to their significant other who would, ideally, reward them for their good deed.

"The Silver Flight Trading Consortium has just opened up business in Konoha, and is looking to expand soon to a location near you. This cake and many other delectable treats are going to be on sale soon. Please keep us in mind when looking to satisfy your sweet tooth." Carl amusedly offered to the crowd. No use wasting an advertising opportunity like seeing the legendary Sannin Tsunade being overtaken by the delicious cake.

Carl saw that Tsunade had a scowl on her face at the mention of Konoha. He rolled his eyes at the stubborn woman. She was so determined to wallow in her grief and depression, it was a bit sad and frustrating.

"So, brat. You want me to go back to Konoha?" Tsunade had wiped the scowl off her face, but he could see she wasn't happy at being lured back to her home.

"Nope." Carl replied with a cheeky smile. If she was determined to call him a brat, then he would play up to her expectations. It was amusing to act like a kid when he didn't have to. "My new village is called New Uzushio."

Tsunade's eyes widened when he mentioned the name of the town. She obviously knew the history of the village and her ancestors.

"While my primary home as a member of the Hyuga clan is at Konoha, I saw a need for some people to have a new, safer home. Like these two Uzumaki ladies, a mother and daughter, that were being abused in Kusa village. They have the healing chakra of their clan, and they were being bitten to death by those bastard ninja in return for barely any shelter or refuge."

He could see the anger and professional disdain present in Tsunade and Shizune's eyes. They were aware of what overuse of that ability could lead to, and as medics themselves they had nothing but disdain and hate for anyone abusing someone with so much potential for medical ninjutsu.

"So, you want us to go to this village you set up and help them learn healing jutsu?" Tsunade asked for clarification.

"If you're interested." Carl shrugged. While he was hoping to help the two ladies in front of him, and their pig too, they weren't critical to his success in the Scenarios he had to complete for this world. So if they were too much hassle he would let it go. And showing that it wasn't really that critical and important to him would show them that he wasn't at their mercy in negotiations.

"Now what kind of attitude is that to have when you're asking someone a favor, brat?" Tsunade didn't have any problems calling him out on his laid back attitude. She was used to dealing with people being respectful when they begged for her favors, so his "don't care" attitude kind of pissed her off.

"Well, if you've already forgotten, I'm not begging a favor. I'm offering equivalent exchange in techniques and knowledge for your services. If you're not interested in learning things you've never dreamed of, in exchange for teaching some newbie medics, then I'm not going to twist your arm." Carl shot back, amused to see the irritated emotions play out on Tsunade's face while Shizune and Tonton looked on in worry.

Seeing their faces reminded Carl that he didn't want people to gossip just yet, so he activated a memory adjustment spell for the bystanders. After they left, the crowd would forget what exactly they were talking about, except for the Silver Flight Trading Consortium and Death by Chocolate Cake.

"Like you could twist my arm, brat." Tsunade shot back, her pride offended. One of her techniques that she took great pride in was the super strength that she had. As far as Carl knew, it had something to do with the perfect chakra control and medical skills she had. Since it was a personal technique, it wasn't in the Uchiha Jutsu Archive, so he didn't know more than guess work at this point, based on the show.

"Miss Tsunade, I am more than capable of twisting your arm if I wanted." Carl immediately shot back. He was really getting into the spirit of the conversation and having fun pushing Tsunade's buttons. And he wasn't going to let her continue thinking she was above him just because he came to talk to her in his 9 year old form. He was in reality many years older than her, despite his current form.

"Hah! I'd like to see you try, brat!" Tsunade laughed out.

"Lady Tsunade, maybe you shouldn't…" Shizune tried to interrupt, but was ignored by both Carl and Tsunade.

"Shall we take this outside, then?" Carl's amused smirk seemed to tick off Tsunade even more.

"Let's do this, brat. I'll only use one finger, to make it fair." Tsunade bragged as she strode towards the door.

"Well, if you only use one finger, I'm afraid it won't be remotely fair for you. But, if you want to handicap yourself so much that I automatically win, be my guest." Carl shot back as he walked right next to Tsunade with big, exaggerated steps, leaving Shizune and Tonton to bring up the rear, sighing in exasperation at her mentor.

Soon enough Carl and Tsunade were in an open square, facing off against each other. The sounds of the Fair still going on in the distance kept the standoff from being totally silent as Carl stared at Tsunade.

"Are you sure about this, brat? I'll give you one chance to give up before I beat you within an inch of your life." Tsunade bragged.

"Well, since I'm not into S&M, I'll have to pass on that offer." Carl grinned back, amused to see a faint blush grow on Tsunade and Shizune's faces at his innuendo.

Without another word, Tsunade dashed towards him, her right finger held up, ready to smash him. Carl moved at the last minute, dodging the downward thrust of Tsunade's finger to dash several yards away. Behind him, he watched as Tsunade's finger hit the ground where he was standing before and with a huge bang, a crater several feet in radius was smashed into being from Tsunade's finger poke.

Carl's smile grew even bigger at the sight, since he now knew how Tsunade's strength technique worked. Just having that knowledge made him feel a bit smug inside, even though he wasn't going to use her technique against her. He wanted to play with her and become her friend, not become an asshole jutsu thief. He couldn't help seeing through the technique though, thanks to his perks.

A moment later, Tsunade had spotted him and dashed towards him again, finger once more poised. This time Carl didn't dodge. While her finger was aimed right at his chest, he stepped forward, grabbing her wrist, and twisting while stepping to her side, tripping her as he went.

A moment later, Shizune and Tonton were gaping open mouthed in surprise to see Tsunade on her knees with her right arm twisted behind her back; Carl firmly held her arm behind her back, controlling her so she couldn't burst out.

"And that is how I would twist your arm, Tsunade." Carl said as he kept them in place with his strength to make sure she knew it wasn't a fluke that he had won. After a moment of futile struggle, she gave up.

"Fine, you win this round, brat." Carl released her arm and backed away quickly, in case she was the kind to retaliate to salve her pride. He had already made that mistake once in his original life, and got elbowed in the balls by the angry woman for his slow reaction. Not something he wanted to repeat.

Tsunade wasn't one of those kinds of people, thankfully.

"Damn, brat, how did you get so strong, when you're so small?"

"And that wasn't even my final form." Carl giggled, thinking of that cartoon Dragonball in conjunction with his T-Rex and Dragon alternate bodies.

"What do you mean, not your final form?" Shizune asked as she was jogging up to join them before Tsunade could ask the same question.

"Er…inside joke. I'll tell you sometime later." Carl scratched his chin in amusement at the idea of introducing internet memes to the two medics. "So, you up for a trip to New Uzushio to meet my people there?"

"Fine, we'll go see this village you set up." Tsunade allowed after seeing the imploring look that Shizune and Tonton were giving here. "And you definitely owe us more cake." She added threateningly.

"Fine, cake for the addicts." Carl rolled his eyes but agreed. "And maybe after some time I can introduce you to some of my friends in Konoha too." Carl saw that Tsunade was about to say something negative, so he cut her off. "No pressure, Tsunade. I understand that you've got issues with Konoha. Besides, soon enough they will likely be making trips to New Uzushio, so you don't have to go anywhere near Konoha if you don't want. But you will meet them there."

"Fine." Tsunade frowned while staring off in the distance as she dealt with the bad memories that mention of going to Konoha brought to her.

"So, do you need to pack anything?" Carl asked.

"No, we have everything with us." Shizune answered when she saw that Tsunade was still lost in her thoughts.

"Okay. Let's travel the quick way, then." Carl smiled at his three new recruits, though they didn't know it yet. "Yamato, four to beam to New Uzushio."

And before the two ladies and one pig could say a word, they vanished from the small town in a flash of white light.

XX

Later on that evening, Tsunade and Shizune were sitting on their balcony that had a pretty decent view of New Uzushio. Since it was night time, they saw a view of the various night lights and street lamps shining on the village that started at the ocean docks and stretched up to the hills they were at the foot of. They could hear the ocean breakers, but the moon wasn't out so it was pretty dark. The only thing shining in the night was New Uzushio.

"We're staying, aren't we Lady Tsunade?" Shizune asked from the other side of the table.

Tsunade took another sip of sake from her saucer while looking over the reborn village of her Grandmother's youth. She didn't immediately answer Shizune as she thought over the tour of the place and the technology, skills, and wonders she had seen. The people they had been introduced to amazed her, especially the Silver Dragons. Dragons!

Dragons that could shape shift to look like humans. It was unbelievable.

"Yes…Yes, we are." Tsunade finally answered. She looked back into their luxurious suite that had private rooms, baths, studies, kitchens, and all other amenities available in space expansion so that a massive suite only took up a small apartment space. Tonton was asleep on her bed already, it having been a busy and confusing day for a pig. She silently snorted to herself at the thought of Shizune's silly little pet. It had been a busy and confusing day for a human, let alone a pig.

"I still have a hard time fully believing his story, you know? It's just so…strange. And amazing." Shizune softly spoke after she had a sip of sake herself. She didn't usually indulge, Lady Tsunade drank enough for three or four of them, but tonight she felt the need for a bit of a buzz.

"If it's true then the damn brat is older than I am, at least mentally." Tsunade sourly commented, causing Shizune to start giggling.

Tsunade was thinking of how her regeneration jutsu was aging her prematurely, even if it did keep her alive and combat ready whenever she was injured. She now had to constantly keep up an illusion henge to keep her looks young and beautiful. And there was Carl with centuries of memories and looking like a nine year old. Or whatever age he wanted. So unfair.

She didn't know what to think about Carl's "magical contract" for secrecy. The idea of magic wasn't so strange, once it was explained in context of how chakra was made; magic being abilities that used the mental aspects of chakra. But it was so strange to think of a world where people only had access to their mental energies, another world where they only had access to their physical energies, and no one in those worlds had chakra coils. All her medical knowledge and jutsu would be useless in those places with no chakra.

And that was an offense to her competency!

It had been many years since she felt anything as passionately as she had in her youth, but she still had a great passion for the medical profession. So the idea of travelling to different worlds, learning and growing as a medic, a ninja, a wizard, or a cultivator was incredibly enticing.

Leave all the baggage of her past behind and sink herself into a new life.

It was something that she was more than tempted by.

But then the little brat had explained a few different possible methods he could utilize so she could have her brother Nawaki and her lover Dan Kato restored to her. And her first reaction hadn't been to jump on the offer, but to shamefully think about what her brother and lover would think of what she made of her life and whether she wanted to face them again or not.

It had been a shameful awakening, like a barrel full of cold water, waking her up from her daze.

She had been sunk in a drunken stupor of booze and gambling for so many years, trying to deaden the pain and sense of loss; the sense of hopelessness. She had wasted so much of her life, how could she possibly face them again? How could they accept what she had become?

Was it even possible…? Could she…? Would they…?

But if she didn't make the choice to attempt to have them come back, it would make all her grieving, and drinking, and yearning for them absolutely pointless. So, she knew she would ask Carl, that damned cocky little brat, to bring her family back to her. She would even beg him to do it, and she didn't beg anyone.

It was just…so difficult. Emotions weren't like ninja missions. You couldn't just punch them into submission. It was so annoying!

Tsunade finally took another long sip of sake and settled down her emotions. She wouldn't delay or keep putting it off. Tomorrow she would ask Carl to bring back her family, and see what developed. Hopefully, she wouldn't be made a fool of for this.

"I'm going to bed." Tsunade announced as she left the rest of her sake on the table.

Shizune froze and stared open mouthed and wide eyed as Lady Tsunade walked back into her room. Lady Tsunade never left her booze behind until she finished it off or was passed out! This was great! Wonderful! Sublime!

Shizune couldn't stop giggling to herself as she cleaned up the table. She was so glad that Carl had showed up and shook up their world. She just hoped the changes in her mentor would turn out to be permanent. That would be so wonderful.

Shizune went to bed with a smile on her face.

XX

"Alright, you stinky brat. I'm in." Tsunade unceremoniously announced to Carl when she joined him at the breakfast table the next morning, eying the stacks of eggs, potatoes, onions, peppers, fried meat, and bread. It was a strange breakfast, in her opinion. "I hope you can back up your words and bring them back. If not…" She left the threat open ended.

"Sounds good." Carl was pleased at the powerful medic's announcement and had a small smile on his face as he buttered his toast. He took a bite and chewed while contemplating Tsunade, Shizune, and Tonton, their expressions, emotions, and state of mind. He didn't use anything too invasive, like mind reading. Just his perk powers of observation.

While the trio ate their breakfast, Carl thought about how this moment was a fork in the road for someone like Tsunade. In the show, Naruto convinced her to come back to Konoha and become the fifth Hokage, despite how disillusioned she was with life. He gave her a hope for the future, one last gamble with her life and emotions.

So Carl was aware that while he wouldn't be the one she emotionally leaned on if he brought her brother and lover back, her ability to enjoy life, to hope, dream, and have love were dependent on his abilities. If he failed at his task, she would likely shut down her heart and emotions and go back to her drinking and gambling until her death. She would never afterwards pull herself out of the mire.

It was a good thing, then, that he had already tested out the process of bringing someone back from the dead with the Summoning: Impure World Reincarnation. Otherwise he might hesitate at his moment.

XX

Over a week ago Carl found himself standing on the balcony of his home in New Uzushio, fiddling with three vials of DNA samples in his hands. He had just finished his training in the summons realm with the Snake Clan.

Throughout the year he had been there, he had spent a lot of time doing chores, training, and practice missions with his snake partner Dakir. He liked her attitude a lot. She was outgoing and excited at the opportunity to be his partner; and not at all a cold personality, like he would have expected from a reptile and his previous encounter with Manda.

The White Snake Sage had guided their training sessions, having a much smaller snake demonstrate for them how the moves should be done and critiquing his and Dakir's performance of said skills.

It hadn't been very difficult for Carl to pick up the Snake clan's martial arts due to his perks. But working together with Dakir to meld their combat skills together so they could complement each other in combat practice took quite a bit longer. Dakir didn't have his learning perks, so it took her lots of repetition and exercise to get the moves down properly. And the White Snake Sage wasn't about to start teaching him the more advanced moves or Senjutsu skills until he and Dakir could work as a well oiled team in combat together with the more simple moves.

So it had taken a while of daily combat training and practice missions before they had gotten to the point where Carl finished all that they could teach him. But once he finally got his Senjutsu lessons, he picked those up as fast as any other skill he had encountered.

And now, as he was fiddling with the DNA samples in his hands, he was thinking about what he wanted to do in this world besides finish up the scenarios. Even though it was some strange branch world where Naruto was born a girl, most of the people were still the same people, with similar backstories and lives.

He thought back over the past year of the academy and training with his orphan friend Naruko. Even though he had brought her in to his family life and clan, it didn't mean she automatically lost that desire for her parents. If anything, seeing him, Hinata, and Hanabi interacting with their parents intensified her desire to know her own parents.

And that brought him to the DNA samples that he was fiddling with, labeled Minato Namikaze, Kushina Uzumaki, and Hizashi Hyuga. Not only did he want to restore their parents back to them, he was interested in having strong ninja around to join him in the jumps.

Hizashi was Carl's own uncle. If Naruko deserved to have her parents brought back, then naturally his own cousin Neji also deserved it too. Especially since Neji had been so much better in this life and avoided all that fate crap that made him such an emo in the original story. And Hizashi was rumored to have been stronger than his own father in this life, so he was quite skilled. He might be a bit behind because of the years spent dead, but Carl was sure he would catch up soon.

Minato Namikaze was the fourth Hokage, the famed Yellow Flash. He had a jutsu called the Hiraishin which allowed him to teleport to any marked location. He used it in the Third Shinobi World War by throwing a large number of marked kunai into the battle field, then flashing from marker to marker, killing the members of the enemy army. He single handedly routed the army of Iwa, which earned him a "Flee on Sight" designation in the Bingo Book for his dangerous jutsu.

Kushina Uzumaki was the previous Jinchuriki of the nine tailed fox, before Naruko, and earned the nickname the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero for her fiery temperament as a kid. She had great skill in the Sealing Arts, incredibly strong life force and vitality as a member of the Uzumaki clan, and had a special skill in being able to materialize Adamantine Sealing Chains that could bind even the nine tailed fox or create a barrier that even S-class ninja couldn't penetrate.

"Eh, you're over thinking things, Carl." Carl muttered to himself with a smile as he looked over the bustling activity of his new village. "Don't worry too much about the shock resurrecting dead people will give the rest of the world. If people act too negatively, we'll just put a sort of notice-me-not field / fidelius on them that will have people ignore their resurrected identity unless they are given the 'key' to understanding who they are and what happened."

He was only in this world for ten years, so even if he made the elemental nations and the five ninja villages completely chaotic from his actions, it didn't matter. He was strong enough to weather the storm anyway.

With that decision out of the way, he grabbed up the Yamato and immediately entered his Time Pearl. Cloning the bodies for all the ninja he decided to resurrect would go quick in time dilation.

A short time later, in real time, he reappeared on his balcony and made his way to an expanded work room with enough space to do the forbidden jutsu. He wasn't sure what would happen if he tried the jutsu in time compression, so he left the time pearl before using it. He spent some time drawing the necessary seals on the laid out scrolls.

Normally with the Summoning: Impure World Resurrection jutsu, he would require a body of some person, usually a ninja, to be the body sacrifice for the jutsu. After the activation of the Seal and needed Ritual, the person being sacrificed would have their vitality stolen, and their body remade into a sort of zombie with the soul of the one summoned inside them.

Because of the incompatibility between a different person's remade body and the soul, they would have a drop in chakra and abilities, as well as having a hard time being completely there, mentally. The jutsu wasn't a permanent resurrection.

After the Yamato VI got a hold of the details of the summoning ritual, it crunched the numbers on the variables and so Carl made a number of changes to the original ritual. For one thing, supplying a clone of the person being summoned would decrease the incompatibility issue between body and soul to zero. For another thing, creating more anchors for the soul and vitality support to the body through Yin-Yang release would ensure that the person summoned didn't come back as a zombie-like creation, but as a normal, living person.

So with the Yamato set up nearby and instrumentation to make all kinds of recordings of the event, Carl got started with the summoning ritual. He placed the clone of his uncle in front of him, and pulled out one of the many scrolls he had already made for the ritual. Unrolling the large scrolls with script covering it onto the ground, after positioning them properly, he sent his chakra through the seals.

The seal script did its cool crawling on the ground thing to surround his uncle's cloned body in complex patterns. Once in place, the seal script lit up. Chakra visibly flowed out of the ritual seal script and into the clone body. A transparent body of his uncle appeared above where the body was laying, his uncle's soul. It looked around confusedly, before sinking into the clone body.

Eventually, the chakra from the seal script stopped flowing and his uncle took a deep breath, before sitting up in shock. Thankfully the ritual wasn't affected by a presence or lack of clothes, so Carl had made sure his uncle was dressed as he remembered him being, in a white full body kimono with a black belt and black jacket.

'Huh, looks like this will move up my time table for changing the seals that the Hyuga clan use to protect the Byakugan.' Carl thought as he looked at his uncle's clear and unmarked forehead. He had been planning on making the change for his clan when he graduated from the academy. But, now that he thought about it, he was already technically ANBU, so he was already an official ninja of Konoha. It was time to stop dawdling on the issues of his clan and fix it.

"What…Where am I?" Hizashi muttered, before his eyes fell on Carl. Carl saw the recognition bloom in Hizashi's eyes.

"Hello, Uncle Hizashi. And welcome back to the land of the living." Carl was mentally looking over the results of his scans. He was also scanning his uncle with his various abilities and wasn't seeing any problems with his new body. "Looks like everything was a success."

"Carl…?" Hizashi asked, and received a nod of agreement. "How am I alive? The last thing I remember is…" Hizashi cut off, not wanting to mention to his nephew his last memories of knocking out his twin brother, who was Carl's father, and then willfully going to his death.

"Yeah. The Kumo kidnapping affair." Carl agreed. "I've…got a lot to tell you uncle." He moved to help his uncle stand, but Hizashi easily got up on his own. Looks like the body compatibility was working. "But before I get into the story, uncle, I've got a couple more people to retrieve before I go tell the story. I'd rather not have to tell it three different times. Why don't you have a seat over there, eat some snacks, and you can watch proceedings?"

Carl indicated a table that had four chairs and a number of snacks and drinks on it.

"I…" Hizashi looked back and forth from the table to his nephew that had obviously grown older since he had died. It looked like it was about five to six years since he died. "Fine. But I expect you to tell me everything, later." Hizashi finally finished sternly, which Carl rolled his eyes to.

"Of course, uncle." It was kind of funny to Carl that even now his uncle was trying to use some amount of relational authority as the adult. He enjoyed being in a family, but constantly being turned back into a kid sometimes did get old, especially when he was in work mode, like now, and they tried to exert their authority over him when he had things to do. He would humor Uncle Hizashi, though, a bit.

While his uncle sat himself at the table, Carl brought out the next clone body, that of a pale skinned redheaded woman. She was dressed in a green sleeveless dress with a white shirt underneath.

Carl could see by the expression on his face that Hizashi recognized the clone body, which made sense since they were contemporaries. He sent a reassuring look his uncle's way at Hizashi's questioning look.

Once she was in place, Carl pulled out another few scrolls and repeated the performance. The ritual went the same as for his uncle, except that it took a lot more Yang chakra infusion to fortify Kushina's body. Carl figured that was caused because of the immense life force and chakra reserves that the Uzumaki clan had as part of their bloodline.

"Naruko!" Kushina yelled while sitting up abruptly the moment the ritual completed. The next moment she looked down at her body and patted her chest and stomach in disbelief at seeing them undamaged.

If this reality was anything like the canon version, both her and Minato had stepped between the nine tail fox and used their own bodies to prevent the fox's claw from killing Naruko before the ritual to seal the fox inside her was complete.

The parents sacrificing for their children...it was…something.

Carl sometimes thought about what it would be like to have his own children, what he would do for them. What kinds of shenanigans a kid of his blood would get up to, and how he would punish them.

But he couldn't possibly find that out yet. The Jump Chain had a hold of him.

He would wait. He was sure it was worth it.

It also looked like, based on Hizashi and Kushina's immediate responses after the ritual restoring them to a mortal body that they didn't have any memories of where they were in the afterlife, or what they did there. They were waking up as if the moment before they had just died.

"Hey, there, Kushina Uzumaki. Naruko is just fine. You saved her." Carl soothingly said, but kept his distance. Kushina was still a very capable kunoichi, so he didn't want to chance anything wrong happening.

"Where's my baby?" Kushina demanded, jumping up and rushing Carl, grabbing him by the shoulders. Carl knew how desperate she was, and how confused. So he allowed her to grab him. The stronger her sense of belonging in this world, the better she would re-integrate!

When it looked like Hizashi might intervene to prevent Kushina from hurting his nephew, Carl sent the ANBU hand sign to stand down. He didn't think his uncle was in ANBU back in the day, but there were plenty of hand signs in common between the normal ninja forces and ANBU. But he was surprised to immediately see the acknowledgement sign from Hizashi.

"Everything is okay, Naruko's fine." Carl affirmed while patting Kushina's hands reassuringly where they gripped him quite tightly. For anyone else it would probably be painful. "She's not here at the moment, but you can see her soon."

"I want to see her now!" Kushina relaxed a bit at the news that her baby was safe, but was still adamant at seeing her new born baby immediately. Carl began guiding her over to the table to sit with Hizashi.

"I promise I'll tell you all I know about your daughter, but I've got one more ritual to go through before I tell everyone the story, so why don't you relax here for now, next to my uncle, Hizashi Hyuga." Carl soothingly said to the newly resurrected mother bear. Well, it was two rituals. But he could fudge things a bit, under the circumstances.

"Oh, hello Hizashi! I didn't see you there!" Kushina loudly announced, causing Carl to grin and Hizashi to have a faint smile on his face as he greeted her back with a nod. The two old friends began to converse, leaving Carl to do this thing, after he's recovered his energy.

"So, why don't you have a bite to eat, or something to drink for now. I've got one more person to retrieve before we have a conversation." Carl smiled up at the redheaded woman, who looked like she wanted to demand answers immediately, but after looking around, first at Hizashi, and then at the room, and then Carl, she eventually acceded and sat down without a word. She was promised answers, and she would get them, but for now, she decided to observe what was happening.

Seeing that Kushina finally calmed down and would wait for a bit, Carl made his way back to the center of the room. He had saved Minato Namikaze's resurrection for last because his resurrection would be a bit more complicated than the other two.

When Minato died, his soul was taken by the Shinigami and swallowed into his stomach. It had to do with the Dead Demon Seal that Minato used to seal the nine tailed fox into Naruko. The Shinigami did the sealing for Minato, in exchange for his soul, that is.

So Carl wouldn't be able to easily retrieve Minato's soul from the Pure World, where the dead went to, without first releasing him from the Shinigami's stomach.

Carl pulled out a mask from his storage that looked like it was made from white porcelain. It was a nasty looking bugger, called the Shinigami Mask, or Death God Mask. He had retrieved it and the other 26 masks from the Uzumaki clan's Mask Storage Temple on the outskirts of Konoha.

Each of the masks were an interesting relic that connected to the spirit world of this universe. Whoever wore the mask would be possessed by the spirit of whatever it was connected to. In the case of the Death God Mask, he would be possessed by the spirit of the Shinigami.

Carl handled the ugly mask with care. It was colored white for most of it; but the top of it was colored black as if to simulate hair. There were two six inch horns sticking up out of the top of the head of the mask. It had two ears, a nose, and black eyes, except for the pupils which were a pinpoint of white amidst the black. The mouth was wide open in a grotesque grin filled with sharp pointed teeth, the corners of the mouth were raised unnaturally high past what would be the cheek bones on a human, almost reaching the outer corner of its eyes.

Even with all he had been through on the Jump Chain, Carl still felt a bit of a chill shudder through him while holding and looking at the mask. Without any other word, he put the mask on. An icy chill flowed through his body.

Behind his body a nearly 15 foot tall slightly translucent apparition appeared. It was the Shinigami, and it had a face almost exactly like the mask. It was dressed in white robes with the Uchiha symbol of a circular fan with the top half red and the bottom half white on the sleeves. Or rather, it should be said that the Uchiha borrowed the Shinigami's symbol to represent their clan.

The Shinigami's white hair hung down on either side of its grisly smiling face, its robes were opened to show its chest. And it had an unsheathed tanto in its mouth.

Carl ignored the cries of shock that Kushina and Hizashi were giving at the spectacle. He had something to do. Even though the Shinigami's apparition was standing behind Carl, he could clearly see it with his Byakugan.

He reached up with his right hand and the Shinigami's hand followed along in the same path. Gripping his hand next to his face like he was holding a tanto, he watched the Shinigami follow his motions.

He opened his mouth wide and the teeth of the Shinigami let go of the blade in its mouth. Carl then positioned his hand above his stomach so that the Shinigami had the blade in its hand pointed at its own stomach.

Carl pushed his hand towards his body. The Shinigami drove his tanto into its stomach. Carl felt an invisible blade drive into his own stomach. Blood began leaking out and down his robes.

He drew his right hand along his stomach, and ignored the pain of his own gut being cut open as he watched the Shinigami cut its own stomach open. The moment Carl took his hand away from his stomach, he saw the Shinigami pull its tanto out of its stomach. Five blue colored balls with tails streaked out of the cut in the Shinigami's stomach.

He knew that one of those blue colored balls was Minato's soul. Now that he was free from his imprisonment in the Shinigami's stomach, Carl could resurrect him. But, he needed to clean up and heal himself first.

With his left hand he took off the Death God Mask and quickly put it away in his storage space. The figure of the Shinigami disappeared from behind Carl.

Looking down, he saw his guts were sliced pretty good, his intestines were cut in half, hanging slightly out of his stomach, and blood was gushing out. Despite a normal knife not being able to cut him so well, he had been spiritually connected to the Death God, so it bypassed a lot of his defenses. But it didn't negate his regenerative powers, so he could see everything already stitching itself back together.

"Why did you do that!? You foolish boy!"

Carl finally actually heard and listened to the shrieking of the woman as she finally approached him to check his wound, now that the Shinigami was gone.

"Carl, why would you kill yourself like that? A stomach wound is..." Hizashi was right next to Kushina in examining him, anguish in his voice at watching what his nephew had done.

"Uh…I'll be fine." Carl awkwardly stated. Maybe he shouldn't have done that in front of an audience? Next time he'd know better. "See, already healing up."

And it was true, his intestines were already rejoining into a whole, his stomach muscles were knitting together, and his skin was drawing close on its own as he healed back up. It did leave a scar behind, though.

'Guess some things will still leave their mark.' Carl thought as he cleaned up the blood and repaired his clothes.

"What possessed you to do such a stupid, stupid thing!" Kushina almost yelled.

"The Shinigami?" Carl stated with a smile, which disappeared when he saw they either didn't get the joke or didn't think it was funny. "Listen, I'm fine. I knew I would be, what with my natural regeneration." Nothing was natural about it, he worked hard to get those skills!

"Listen, I had to do that to resurrect the next man to join our party." Carl patiently explained. "Otherwise he would be stuck in the Shinigami's stomach for all time. So, please, sit back down and I'll get the last of us to join us and then I'll explain what all is going on, okay?"

Kushina and Hizashi exchanged uneasy glances.

"You're not going to do anything like that again, right Carl?" Hizashi questioned. "You're only going to do what you did to bring Kushina back to life?"

"Yes, promise." Carl lied. He would definitely do something like letting the Shinigami cut his stomach open again if he felt it was necessary. But he wasn't about to tell his uncle that. "I'm just going to be raising a man that needs to join our discussions. You both know him."

And without anymore ceremony, Carl had the Yamato bring out the Minato clone.

"Minato!" Kushina yelled, immediately running to the body that was lying on the ground and shaking its shoulder.

"He's not alive, yet." Carl explained while trying not to roll his eyes as the excitable woman. "I'll need you to step back while I perform the summoning resurrection."

Kushina looked wide eyed at Carl for a moment.

"So, you did something to bring me back to life?" Kushina finally asked.

"Yes." Carl nodded affirmatively.

"And Hizashi?" Kushina asked.

"Yes, Uncle Hizashi was also dead for about six years." Carl said, and winced when he realized he slipped.

"Six years!" Kushina yelled. "How long have I been dead?"

"Nine." Carl sighed as he gave in and answered her desperate question.

"My baby…" Kushina cried some tears at the thought that she had left her baby alone for over nine years.

"It's a hard thing, but you can meet her soon and be a part of her life now." Carl promised as he moved to her side and urged her to stand up so he could move her away from Minato's clone. "Now, I need to raise your husband so he can join us in discussion about what has been happening the past nine years, and what to do about it from now on."

"Fine." Kushina said as she moved back to the table she and Hizashi had been sitting on before. "Come on, what are you waiting for?"

Carl shared an eye roll with his uncle. Unreasonable women…

Without further ado, he pulled out another set of scrolls that he had prepared for the summoning of souls ritual jutsu. He laid it on the ground, and applied his chakra.

No matter how many times he saw it, it was still a magical thing to see the seal script crawl along the ground and do its thing. The amount of time spent pumping in vitality chakra into Minato's body wasn't as long as Kushina's, but longer than Hizashi's.

"Naruko!" Shortly afterwards Minato sat up with a gasp, looking around frantically before looking down at his chest, whole and unpierced by the Kyubi, just as Kushina had done.

"Minato!" Kushina called out as she rushed to his side.

"Kushina?" Minato looked at his wife with love and confusion. "What's going on?"

Carl stepped back and sat at the table as the husband and wife reassured themselves that they were alive and kissed a bit, getting the initial rush out of their system. As long as they didn't try to go further than kissing, it should be fine. Their need for answers would no doubt delay any…deeper displays of affection until later.

"So, Carl." Hizashi eyed him from his seat next to him as Carl sat down. "It looks like you've been keeping a lot of secrets while growing up."

"Well, up until you did your noble sacrifice thing, I really wasn't." Carl grinned back at his uncle, amused to see the Hyuga stoicism back in place to cover up his own awkwardness. "It wasn't until you were gone that I started awakening memories from my past lives and learning oh so much."

"Is that how you could bring us back to life?" Minato interrupted as he and Kushina sat down next to each other at the other two sides of the square table. "Not to mention being able to free me from the Shinigami, which I thought was impossible. Thank you, by the way."

"And don't think you're going to get away from that stupid decision anytime soon, either, Minato." Kushina smacked him on the arm to show her displeasure for his suicidal action that would have kept them separated for eternity in the next life. Carl was quite happy that Minato was there to take the scoldings, so she wouldn't focus on him.

"Yes, well." Minato rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "I was pressed for time and had no time to think up a better plan in the midst of the Kyubi's rampage."

"And that's the only reason I'm even forgiving you, Minato." Kushina firmly stated as she grabbed some of the trail mix that was set out. "This mix with chocolate in it is so good." She moaned as she threw a handful in her mouth.

"If you think those are good, wait until you try the Death by Chocolate cake." Carl chuckled. "Anyway, yes. The reason I was able to bring you three back is because of the memories and abilities that have been awakening in me from the time I was four to when I was eight. I'll fill you in on that later, but first, I would like you all to sign these confidentiality contracts. They ensure you can't go talking about my secrets unless I give permission. Once you sign those, I'll tell you my story and about what's been happening in Konoha since you died. And once we get through that, then we can decide where to go from there."

It didn't take any more persuasion that for Carl to convince the three ninja to sign the secrecy contracts. They felt they owed Carl a great deal for bringing them back, and keeping his secrets was a good start.

"Okay, so my tale starts with…" Once they had signed, Carl began regaling the three ninja with the basics of what he thought was important about him, and then began telling them about Konoha in the past nine years.

It took several hours to get through everything, especially when Kushina and Minato heard about how poorly Naruko had been treated, how the civilian council, Danzo, and the Hokage's advisors had worked to make Naruko's life miserable. They did not take those revelations well.

But when Carl got to the point of his family basically bringing her in to their family when she was six and giving her a home, he couldn't stop Kushina from hugging him and crying on him if he wanted to. Minato patted him on the back, half in commiseration for having a crying female hug him, and half in appreciation for what they did for Naruko.

"That's my girl! Like mother like daughter!" Kushina was sadistically gleeful when he got to the part of his tale where Naruko was getting back at those who were mean to her by pranking them relentlessly.

When he got to the part of the tale where he had enslaved Danzo Shimura, Homura Mitokado, and Koharu Utatane, he saw that he had to back up and tell some more details, since all three adults were horrified that he would do something like that.

"Okay, sorry." Carl grinned sheepishly at them. "I forgot to give more details than just what I've done. It's some required parts of the story in order so you would know just why I would do that to those three "distinguished elders"." Carl added in the air quotes.

And then he told them about how the entire Uchiha clan had been massacred at Danzo's instigation and how he tried to steal all the eyes from the corpses so he could implant them into his right arm that had been genetically modified by Orochimaru to have a the wood release DNA of the first Hokage, Hashirama Senju.

He told them how he had discovered that the Uchiha were subtly assassinating and destroying the other clans that made up Konoha so that they could be the only clan left and be in charge. He told them how his friend Yakumo Kurama's clan had been poisoned, and a demon had been called forth to possess her.

He told them of the various ways that Danzo, Homura, Koharu, and the civilian council had grabbed power in the aftermath of the Kyubi attack. How after the Uchiha massacre, the civilian council got control of the Academy and ruined the curriculum in order to allow their rabid fan girls to stalk Sasuke and try to entice him to marry so they could move up in the world.

He told them how Danzo had kept ROOT going, despite being ordered to disband, how he trained and killed so many young kids. How Danzo had been conspiring with Orochimaru, the traitor and missing nin. How many enemies and horrors they had been perpetrating.

Once he was done with the tale, the three could only sit in shock at all that had happened in the wake of their deaths.

And once he saw the fire in Minato's and Kushina's eyes, Carl knew that unless he used force or mind altering spells, he was going to have a hard time convincing them to sneak back into Konoha and lay low for a few years while he dealt with some of the threats out there like Madara or Black Zetsu.

Nope, those were the burning eyes of parents who were going to get revenge for the injustice their kid suffered, and the burning eyes of a Hokage who was determined to set things right.

Carl internally shrugged and adjusted his plans accordingly. At the very least, the next several years were bound to be entertaining while Minato and Kushina went on a rampage.