54

Chapter 53: No Such Thing as True Peace

Naruto's new house was cooler than he first thought after he was introduced to the room that was actually carved into the mountain his house sat on the side of. It was large enough to serve an active purpose, such as a dojo of sorts for training, though it had served as Hamako's workshop prior to Naruto's return. Luckily she was neat enough with her research that there was plenty of space left for Naruto to train, not that he needed all that room anyway for what he was doing.

Mostly because all he seemed to be doing was swinging his sword repeatedly at air as if he were waging an invisible war with the ghosts haunting his house.

"I love watching you revert back to your old crazy sealed self as much as anyone…" Jiraiya commented dryly from the sidelines as he watched Naruto continue swinging his sword with his Sharingan active, "…But you've been doing this for two hours and other than looking moderately insane I don't think you've gained much from it. What are you doing?"

"The same thing I was trying to do while we were training with the toads." Naruto informed Jiraiya as he kept swinging away, "I'm trying to see the fucking rip in time/space that's supposed to happen when I swing this sword but nothing works. I even used the Sharingan in Sage Mode and I've got nothing out of it."

"Are you sure you didn't misread what you found on that tablet?" Jiraiya asked, only to get Naruto to stop swinging his sword and turn his head towards his sensei mechanically to give him the dullest stare he could possibly muster, "What's with that look?"

"Even if I did misread it…" Naruto said slowly and deliberately to accentuate the fact that his clone most certainly did not misread a thing, "The tablet is right here in Konoha. I can go back and look it over whenever I want to. And that damn tablet said that this sword cuts through space/time with every swing whether I try or not. It hasn't done anything cool without me trying to do something cool since the day I picked it up so obviously just cutting the tear in space/time doesn't do anything and I can't channel my wind chakra into it. Maybe if I see it I can do something with it?"

Jiraiya raised an eyebrow, "You mean you don't know?"

Shaking his head, Naruto sheathed the sword, "The tablet wasn't very plentiful with details on the sword other than the fact that it had Madara Uchiha's chakra trapped in it to give it the weird abilities that it has, more like the chakra bends the sword's potential towards the conditions of the user, but that's just the released form. I can't just will myself to notice tears in space and time. When I stab and cut stuff with this thing nothing special happens."

"Other than the dismemberment and impalement of course." Jiraiya chimed in wryly.

"Of course." Naruto said with a shrug of the shoulders, "It's a sword Ero-kyofu, not a hickory stick… though I'm pretty sure if I hit someone with one of those it would hurt too." Naruto looked around at the room that looked like a very well and even cave with pillars and low lights in the ceiling giving the place a dingy feel, "This house just keeps getting cooler and cooler. This room makes me feel like I'm in basic training all over again, just without the feeling of getting beaten up by someone way stronger than you."

A deadpan look came across Jiraiya's face, "Yeah you would wouldn't you?"

"Don't make me kick your ass all over the cave just like I did after my training was finished. You don't have Fukasaku-jiji or Shima-baa to cover your backside this time." Naruto threatened lightly. Both he and Jiraiya smirked at the possible challenge and the one-armed sage even looked like he was prepared for combat before both of them frowned and Naruto's trick contact lens hid his Sharingan from view once more, "Nah, we probably shouldn't… I'm not sure how much punishment this room can take. I know it's sturdy as hell, but there's got to be a limit."

He wasn't sure if he could damage how deeply rooted into the side of the mountain his house was and he didn't want to test it even though he was certain that it was at least as good as the evacuation shelters within the Hokage Monument. The room they were in was for light training only.

Jiraiya settled down from nearly coming to blows with his godson with the looks of a pout on his face, "Yeah… if we kicked it into high gear enough to make it fun we would probably mess each other up too badly, and Tsunade-hime would kick my ass to the border if I injured you before the big meeting today." With that over with and done, Jiraiya and Naruto filed out of the training room back to the main part of the house halls, "Where'd your little servant girl go?"

"You can call her by her name you know." Naruto muttered with a tick mark on his head before he stood in front of the large window in his living room and looked out onto the village, "Hamako-chan has errands to run. She does tons of things all over the village to take up her time. She works at the Academy helping Iruka-sensei, she's Tsunade-baachan's aide sometimes to help out Shizune-neechan, and she does other stuff that she doesn't even tell me about… because I keep forgetting to ask about all of the stuff she does. If I really wanted to know where she was I would just use my communication tattoo and talk to her."

As Naruto opened the window and stepped out onto the ledge, Jiraiya scratched his head curiously, "So that's why she was out and about so much when you were gone? Well I'll be damned… someone keeps busy." Naruto hopped up onto the safety railing in a crouch at that point, "So you're going to head out now?"

"No reason not to. Later Ero-kyofu." Naruto said giving a partial wave to Jiraiya before hopping off of the ledge and using his Haretsu Seigan (Burst Limit) to casually hop his way down to the ground safely, eventually obscuring himself from Jiraiya's view in the trees

"Bring back something alcoholic gaki!" Jiraiya yelled out the window as he was sure that Naruto heard him unless he was actually trying to rush to Tsunade's office. After a few moments of getting no reply he let out a sigh and grumbled miserably, "He didn't hear me…"

"Grab the scroll in the pantry dumbass! We stole like six full cases of sake from Gamabunta's storage before we left the mountain!"

Hearing Naruto's voice boom over a rather far sounding distance, Jiraiya perked back up curiously, "Huh… I guess he did hear me." A grin then formed on his face, "Well seeing as I have no relevant purpose to serve during the meeting time I believe it's high time I get drunk on super-strong sake and pass out somewhere strange!" With a devious chuckle he slammed the window shut and headed towards the kitchen to find his choice drink.

XxX

(Hokage Tower – Tsunade's Office)

Apparently Tsunade had no problems with Naruto's favorite entrance to her office being open as he jumped right through the open window right over her head and landed in front of her desk before turning around to face her, "I'm ready to roll Tsunade-sama." Naruto said, operational mode turned on for the sake of the meeting.

"Down boy." Tsunade joked with a small grin on her face as she shut the window to the office, "Did you have fun showing off just now? You look like you had that move planned out for a while."

A small smile appeared on Naruto's lips at the Hokage's prodding, "No way, showing off is totally unprofessional. Besides, someone else would've needed to see me and pay attention to me for it to be showing off. Nobody saw me jump into here but you."

"I actually saw it too Naruto." The attention of both Naruto and Tsunade turned to the corner of the office where Tenzo stood leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. Instead of wearing his ANBU armor the way he had been the last time Naruto saw him he was wearing the normal shinobi outfit for Konoha forces above the level of chunin; long-sleeved black shirt, black pants, and the flak jacket, "So it kind of counts as you showing off."

"Mokuton no Tenzo (Tenzo of the Wood Release). It's been a while hasn't it?" Naruto said as the man walked over from his spot on the wall and shook Naruto's hand, "Good to see you're still doing alright." Being stuck with the man for months at a time during their mission together made Naruto see Tenzo as something of a friend. He was generally good natured if not a little stiff, but dealing with Sai made dealing with Tenzo seem like working with the friendliest guy ever.

"I haven't been straying too far from Konoha on missions these days so I've been keeping safe. And because I'm technically not an ANBU on this mission I'm not using my ANBU codename, so call me Yamato instead." He requested of Naruto, getting a curious look from the young man but a nod nonetheless.

'But I knew Yugao's real name without even asking for it… she just went ahead and told me after we worked together for several months, you're still all secretive about it.' Naruto thought dryly of his last mission with Tenzo/Yamato when he worked with the purple-haired lady ANBU Yugao Uzuki during the raids on Otogakure bases, "Okay, sure. So are we all set to go?" Tsunade told Jiraiya to inform him to be there by noon, well it was twenty minutes until noon.

Tsunade nodded and stood up from her seat at her desk, grabbing the robes and hat meant to be worn by the Hokage as she put them on, "Let's get this show on the road." She said once the hat was situated on her head, "Alright brat you're not just here to look pretty, you're going to have to listen closely and learn something here if you really want to take this job from me eventually."

"I know, I know." Naruto said as he and Yamato started leading the way outside of her office towards the meeting room, "So no Tsuchikage?" The man didn't seem like one for meetings from what he had seen of him at Suna's chunin exam.

A frown came upon Tsunade's face as she was led through the halls, "He never sent a message back, that old lawn gnome doesn't think that Iwa has any stake in this besides the pair of jinchuuriki that they lost and can no longer recover the biju for. And since there's no real chance of any benefit from actively trying to engage Akatsuki and because he's certain Akatsuki won't do anything else now that the jinchuuriki from their village are taken he isn't going to come out here. He wants to keep the status quo."

Both Naruto and Yamato both frowned. The 'status quo' was a precarious balance of power that only shifted when a few sides of the major players of the shinobi world overstepped a bound, thus leading to war. Naruto personally didn't have any experience with this but Yamato did.

Conservative figures that understood the way things worked out seemed to like this way of operating because it was usually clear when war was brewing. It gave villages time to prepare before something happened to ignite the powder keg, the winners of the war would see a major boon of business if they were able to get through in well enough fashion, and war was almost like a seasonal rain in the grand scheme of things with the peace operating much of the rest of the time. This was how the first two world wars waged internationally began between the villages, the third one came by way of a combination of the aforementioned periods of build-up and the exuberant searching of Sunagakure for their Sandaime Kazekage after his disappearance.

'Too bad that great way of working things won't exist at all if all of the biju are captured.' Naruto thought to himself sarcastically as they eventually came to the meeting room doors. The two random Konoha ninja guarding the door moved aside and allowed Tsunade and her two escorts entrance to the large room that had been specially set up with one very large table for the four separate village leaders and their bodyguards.

Tsunade took her seat at the farthest chair back in the room with Naruto and Yamato on both sides of her, and as the time ticked down to noon the first of the foreign village leaders entered through the doors. The Raikage was the first to arrive, led into the room by Shi and Darui and followed by even more ninja. Naruto raised an eyebrow at that before realizing that Tsunade probably didn't say how many people any of the other kage-level shinobi could bring for security. There were five more that followed him in, but only one of them actually caught Naruto's attention in any significant manner.

"Yugi-chan?" Naruto said to himself quietly once he caught his glimpse of said girl bringing up the rear of the Raikage's entourage. As the Kumo group finished entering the room Yugito managed a healthy smile and wave Naruto's way that managed to get a smile out of Darui and a roll of the eyes and a scoff out of Shi… who then caught an elbow to the ribs from Darui who said 'sorry', though unapologetically.

After taking a moment to glare at Shi for his unneeded wordless interjection expressing his dislike of how Kumo's jinchuuriki liked Konoha's jinchuuriki, Yugito turned her attention back towards Naruto. Her eyes softened on her fellow demon container when she saw him smiling back at her, "We can talk later." She mouthed to him silently, getting a grin and a nod from Naruto as the Raikage took his own seat.

The next to enter was the group from Kirigakure. The Mizukage gracefully made her way to her own seat as she was followed by Ao and her own entire Kiri contingent numbering seven strong. Without a word, but with a pleasant smile on her face underneath her hat she took a seat. Tsunade was rather pleasantly pleased to get the chance to speak with a fellow female kage in person and from just her entering the room and the way she carried herself it was evident that the woman had no lack of faith in her strength.

As far as Naruto could see, Mei was the same as she was when he had first met her. Trying to look the woman in the eyes forced a feeling of trepidation to settle under him. Most lesser people that tried to make eye contact with her probably either found themselves unable to do so, allured by her pretty features or intimidated by the power just radiating from the shine of her eyes. A combination of both would probably be the safest bet though.

Soon thereafter, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro made their arrival and despite the fact that they were rather happy to see their Konoha-born friend Naruto in attendance there was a time and a place for socializing and this was not the time, there would be plenty of that later.

"I'm glad to see that everyone who responded positively to my request for a meeting arrived safely." Tsunade said in an amicable greeting, "I hope your stay in our village has been and will be pleasant, but I believe it's time to get down to business." She looked around the room and brought up something else, "While I left no directions on how many were allowed to be brought along for security purposes I would like to request that only two of your selected bodyguards remain inside the room for the meeting. They can remain just outside and the door will stay locked, but this is a rather privileged conversation."

The mustache of the Raikage wrinkled momentarily before he barked out his order, "Darui stay here. Yugito will stay as well since this meeting partly revolves around something involving her in the first place." The head of A gestured towards the door and his other underlings began to head towards the door.

"Ao and Tsurugi." Mei said calmly, the rest of her group then headed towards the door as well. Ao stayed by her side and another man moved to her other one. Tsurugi was a man wearing the Kiri hitae-ate; he had long dark hair, a beard, a scar over his left eye, and wore clothing that looked similar to Ao's only Tsurugi wore a flak jacket.

Because Gaara only had two with him anyway there was nothing for him to say other than to begin the meeting when the door shut once again, "Well I'd like to say first off that it's actually quite pleasant to meet another fellow jinchuuriki in Yugito-san." He said with the smallest of smiles.

"You as well Kazekage-sama." Yugito said with a slight bow.

"Yes, well anyway…" A said, getting the attention to direct towards him, "I guess it was high time something needed to be done about these terrorists Akatsuki. Uzumaki's intervention in Kumo in keeping Yugito out of their clutches was a wake-up call. They've infiltrated our village to reach Yugito and we still don't know how."

Tsunade frowned and nodded, "Yes, they've done the same here in the past just before I took the title of Hokage, but we believe this could be due to the fact that in the past members such as Itachi Uchiha and Orochimaru were among their ranks, former Konoha shinobi." 'Someone else as well, but we can ease into that bit of information…' She persisted with her original point however, "With that in mind they could have obtained entry to our village that way. I can't explain how your village was breached though."

Gaara pressed his hands together in thought as he attempted to speculate, "Akasuna no Sasori had his own network of spies and sleeper agents hypnotized to only react to Sasori's presence himself… we didn't discover this until after his demise when their brainwashing wore off and agents were found all over our village. He was a missing ninja for around twenty years prior to his death so it wouldn't be that farfetched to assume that he had sleeper agents in most if not all of the shinobi villages giving information to Akatsuki."

The thought of any of his ninja having been possible spies for Akatsuki made A's blood boil, but another subject came to mind, "The thought of a group of criminals with the strength to defeat and apprehend jinchuuriki from right under their village's nose was a hard thing to take seriously until it almost actually happened. Who are they all?"

Tsunade's eyes turned towards Naruto, "Naruto if you wouldn't mind. You've fought the most of them so your input could be used here."

In response to his leader's command, Naruto rubbed his nose and prepared to speak up, "Out of all of the members so far I've fought… each one of them except for one that I still don't know anything about, not even his name or appearance." He started listing names off on his fingers, "You already talked about Sasori, I fought his partner Deidara as well and killed him, I fought Kakuzu and killed him, I fought Hidan and we still have his head in interrogation."

Hearing that, A let out a laugh and all of the others in the room not from Konoha looked at Naruto in a confused manner. Once Naruto's expression didn't change in response to the others, A stopped laughing.

"Seriously…" Naruto said in a dry tone, "His head's in interrogation right now. All he does is curse at everyone and we can't pry into his brain with any ninjutsu. But aside from him there was Kisame who is dead, Itachi Uchiha who I defeated a while back… and then there's the leader and his partner."

Mei listened closely to the entire rundown of Akatsuki's ranks and decided to speak at that point, "All of those ninja are some of the most infamous names in history… who could possibly lead a group like that?"

"A man that can take down Hanzo apparently… and Jiraiya and Naruto as well, at the same time." Tsunade said with a serious look on her face. A shocked reaction swept through the room at that fact. Yugito and Temari had known of Naruto's defeat due to the missing in action notice that had gone out shortly after the botched infiltration of Amegakure, but they hadn't known exactly what had happened. Someone could defeat Naruto and Jiraiya at once, and that was disconcerting news to say the least, because Naruto himself was supposed to be something of an army killer and Jiraiya was a well-known juggernaut.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the reminder of the most crushing defeat of his life, "One of them is named Konan, a kunoichi from Ame with the ability to fight using paper as her primary weapon. The leader himself is named Pein, at least that's what he calls himself, and I don't know what his powers really are. I didn't fight him long enough to get a good look at all. And every single shinobi in Amegakure follow them like 'God' and his 'angel'."

"Thank you Naruto." Tsunade said, placing a hand on his shoulder to get him to step down before she started to talk again, "Naruto didn't fight Pein long enough to take anything from the battle but Jiraiya did. Pein has six separate bodies with their own abilities that range from summoning, to the ability to negate and absorb chakra, to control over gravity and who knows what else? He did learn one thing of importance though. The bodies are all reanimated and under the control of the real Pein who isn't one of the six that would be in actual combat. He controls the bodies from a separate location during any conflict."

Hearing Tsunade's rundown of Pein, Naruto felt a growling inside of his head from his tenant and picked up on what the Kyuubi's issue was on hearing about Pein, "Tell them about the other thing that I know you were told about too. Pein has a doujutsu called the Rinnegan."

A pin probably could have been heard dropping in the room after that revelation. Gaara and Kankuro had heard part of this from Naruto before but he had conveniently left that little aspect out of the short explanation he gave them during his stopover in Sunagakure. Eyes turned to Tsunade once more to confirm whether this was true or if Naruto needed his head checked after taking one too many heavy blows in his lifetime. Unfortunately for them this was not to be as the blonde female Hoakge nodded to back up Naruto's comment.

Mei wasn't a fool, none of the leaders in the room were, and their escorts in attendance knew their history well enough to grasp why this was a big deal as well, especially the jinchuuriki of the meeting. She was the first to speak on it however, "The leader of Akatsuki has the most powerful doujutsu in existence… the eyes of the Rikudou Sennin."

"The eyes of the 'God of the Shinobi World'…" A muttered under his breath, adjusting his hat to hide his view from the others, "…Son of a bitch. So we're fighting the descendant of the greatest man that ever lived, the savior of the world himself. That's fantastic." He said sarcastically.

"He's no savior, he's not all-powerful, and he's no 'God'." Naruto said a sharp growl in his voice as he started to feel just as angry as the Kyuubi in his head seemed to be getting at the moment, "He's just another megalomaniac with a pretty eye-pattern mutation." After saying that, Naruto figured he was really starting to inherit the Kyuubi's outright dislike of any and all doujutsu kekkei genkai… despite the fact that there was a Sharingan planted in his right eye. What kind of hypocrite did that make him?

Temari hadn't remembered seeing Naruto get upset before and it was a new experience. He tried keeping his cool, but the tightness of his taped fists expressed suppressed rage, 'Are you really that angry at this Pein person?' Then again she was more than certain that he left out most of the serious portions of the beating he had taken in Ame when they last spoke of it.

On the other hand, Yugito looked at Naruto in concern after his slighting comment on Pein. The thought of the Rinnegan made even the usually docile Nibi in her body stir attentively so she could only imagine how Naruto's own inner manifestation of anger and hate was dealing with the thought of the eyes, especially since Naruto had apparently fought against the Rinnegan before and had failed. He wasn't shaking in fear, it was anger, "You really want to fight him again don't you?" She said softly as if she was on his wavelength while she thought something else, 'I don't like the idea of that at all.'

Naruto's blue eyes panned towards Yugito's dark ones before he addressed her, "If I do; great, if I don't have to; great. Either way as long as he gets dealt with it's fine… but since you asked me, yes. I'm nobody's stepping stone to 'world peace'." Naruto said 'world peace' in a scathing, mocking manner because he knew of Pein's endgame.

Tsunade decided to take the aim of the meeting into a different direction, "And that's not even the most startling part of all of this." She said, getting Naruto to calm down now that the attention was back off of him and Pein wasn't the main subject any longer, "You people are aware of who Madara Uchiha is are you not?"

XxX

(Amegakure no Sato – Pein's Tower)

Konan stood silently in front of a shadowy astral projection of Pein as the legendary Rinnegan eyes looked right at her, "Konan, it is time. Let me speak to my people about what is to come." He said in his usual stoically confident manner, "Let them see and hear God."

"As you wish." Was the reserved reply from the blue-haired woman as she made a small set of hand-seals and the projection of Pein disappeared from her sight.

It reappeared outside of the tower above it, this time twenty feet higher than the projection inside. The attention of everyone in the village was taken by the all encompassing sight of the Deva Path of Pein's concealed silhouette above their village.

"I know that you are all hurting." Pein said to begin his speech in a loud voice that could be heard even outside of the village, "The destruction caused by the Kyuubi jinchuuriki has taken some time to fix, and the loss of life occurred during the same event still leaves scars in the hearts of many of you. But it was a pain that you all needed to experience… now that you have felt that power it should be clearer than ever that a force such as the biju needs to be kept in the hand of those that will ensure peace. Our hands."

A cheer among the more battle-hardened members of Ame's shinobi force went up at the concept of finally having the power to mold things in the ninja world after years of just existing and surviving through the wars and battles of the other villages. Those that weren't ninja cheered at the thought of having battle no longer touch them ever again due to Pein's 'peace'.

"It is time for the world to change, time for the power-hungry and short-sighted fools of the Five Great Shinobi Nations to take consequence for their past actions, and if it is necessary they will feel the wrath of God firsthand." Pein's ripple-patterned eyes narrowed over the village, getting another loud cheer from his people, "The suffering I have received in life has turned me into a being of divine power, and if that is the case then this village is full of the chosen! No other village could possibly show the rest of the world the true pain that comes from war and conflict, and thus this will be the village that will lead the world into the new age of true peace!" Another thunderous roar of approval went up from the Amegakure populace in response.

As Pein's speech continued, Konan stood right at the exit of the upper levels of the tower to listen to the speech and to take in the response from the villagers.

The eyes of Pein closed as he continued speaking, "I would be remiss to lie to you and say that it will be easy. I must be honest to my people. Many of you may die in our endeavor, such a thing will happen in any struggle. But you are the driving force behind the future, and nothing worth doing is ever easy. I can assure you all that peace for the entire world is well worth the effort and sacrifice. We will not be alone. The world will see the power of God, and they will either tremble as our enemies or they will bow and assert a place as our allies."

Pein left his people with one last comment, "Help me bring about a utopia. Together, Amegakure will lead the way."

With that his appearance faded from view and raucous cries of approval went up all over the village, even in the outlying areas surrounding the village. And Konan merely walked back inside of the tower as something of a celebration broke out in the streets below, "War was just declared once again and this is how it occurs… with thunderous applause." She said almost in disbelief.

XxX

(Konohagakure no Sato)

As Tayuya walked up the stairs of her apartment building holding a few bags of groceries she let out a yawn, "Fuck I'm bored…" She muttered. Having just completed a shift of patrolling the village to keep it under guard, she was heading home to get some rest. Normally she wouldn't have been requested for that job, but today was the special meeting with the other foreign village leaders.

She reached the top of the stairs and let out a sigh, "Things were much more fun around here when I lived next door to Uzumaki." A laugh of remembrance then came from the girl, "At least the landlord finally got the security seals off of the place… it was funny seeing the prick get shocked when he tried to inspect the place though." Her smile then dropped when she saw someone sitting out in front of her door with her knees pulled to her chest, "Pinky… I don't see you around my place very often."

Sakura lifted her head up high enough to lock eyes with Tayuya's. The news of what had occurred to Sasuke was still rather fresh having only really happened the day before. Tayuya was honestly surprised that she was willing to even leave her house so soon afterwards, "Can we talk? Please?"

'Oh no…' Tayuya thought with a frown on her face, 'Don't tell me she's going to come in and get all weepy and emotional on me. Ugh… why Kami why?' Still though, Sakura was a friend of hers and if nothing else Tayuya had learned enough that friends helped friends during her time in Konoha, thus she pulled Sakura up to her feet and unlocked her apartment door, "Yeah, yeah, sure. Come on in." She said in a defeated voice.

Not even considering turning the invitation down, Sakura did just as Tayuya asked and sat down at a table in Tayuya's kitchen as the former Oto-ninja started putting her things away, "I just bought this shit so don't think I'm going to offer you anything to eat or drink. You're shit out of luck today if you thought that I would."

Sakura just stayed silent while Tayuya set her groceries away. Not wanting to pry, or even really talk about Sakura's feeling in the first place, Tayuya just let her be and let the silence between them stand.

Finally Sakura spoke up as Tayuya was stocking things into her refrigerator, "Are you happy that Sasuke-kun is dead? He was the entire reason that you wound up caught in the first place."

"No." Tayuya said, not turning to face Sakura before correcting her, "Uzumaki is the entire reason I'm here in the first place. I could have beaten the lazy-ass Nara kid and his Akimichi buddy and moved along. I never really liked the prick though, but then again I never really liked anyone I was forced to work with in Otogakure. Heh, I barely like the friends I even have now." She joked before getting serious again, "And I won't lie and say that the bastard stopping my heart with electricity made me like him either. I'm not petty enough to think that a random death would make me satisfied though."

"I really thought I could do it you know?" Sakura said lowly, "I thought I could find a way to bring him back to the village, but he wasn't willing to even listen at all. And when it came to it, I couldn't stop him either. I'm sorry because you got hurt when I was too weak to do anything."

Tayuya let out a groan, "Enough with the apologies Sugar Princess… I already forgave you after I finished healing. If he didn't want to go then I don't think either of us really could have stopped him even if you had fought perfectly. Orochi-pedo probably worked that jerk to the bone training his body up and pumping him full of drugs to get him to the way he wanted to be to take him over. Why did you care so much about bringing him back anyway?"

"I was in love with him… at least I think I was." Sakura tried to explain before shaking her head, "I don't really know and I guess I never will now."

It still wasn't very clear as far as Tayuya was concerned, "Yeah, but why?" She asked in a more urging manner, "The guy didn't give you the time of day. I heard that he never said any more than ten words to any girl in this village a day, even you and he was on your squad. I hated my team but at least we spoke. And the lack of interest never turned you off of him?"

Things started to feel akin to an inquisition for Sakura, something she wasn't entirely good with, thus she turned it onto Tayuya, "Oh, and what about you and Naruto? I know you care about him, so why do you feel that way?" She said, hoping that Tayuya would deny it and begin an argument the way she expected she would.

All that happened was Tayuya giving her a small smile and sitting down across from the table with Sakura. She didn't seem to take offense to it at all, she actually seemed happy to talk about it, "Do you think that I have a problem with admitting that I'm into that idiot? Not even a bit. I've had more than three years to come to terms with it."

Well despite being rather brash and violent most of the time Tayuya was at the very least comfortable with herself and who she was. It was kind of a stretch to believe that she'd be in some sort of denial or have some sort of embarrassment about who she had a crush on… plus there was also the fact that she had no trouble mentioning the fact that they had sex in passing, "So, why do you like Naruto that way. He beat you up twice and almost killed you before didn't he? Shouldn't you hate him?"

"It's a part of the job Pinky and we were on opposite sides." Tayuya said dismissively as she pulled at her shirt to show Sakura a scar on his shoulder, "I'm part of the reason he has that nice little scar on his eye and he cut me pretty badly on my shoulder where I still have a mark. But when he captured me he went out of his way to make me feel comfortable, to talk to me and keep me company. When the backlash of losing the cursed seal hit me he was there to try and make me feel better. He was the one that got me out of lockup by putting his name on the line to vouch for me and he helped me get used to Konoha. Yeah, I gave him information on Orochi-pedo to spite the bastard, but Uzumaki didn't treat me like a means to an end, and he didn't just abandon me after he got the information from me."

By this time and even at the time of her arrival in the village Naruto and Tayuya were actually pretty well-known figures in Konoha because Naruto was a jinchuuriki and Tayuya was a defector from Otogakure, thus it was also fairly well known exactly how close the two were… and because Anko had become a friend and training partner of Tayuya's as well as having a big mouth everyone found out when they hooked up the first time as well.

Tayuya pointed directly at Sakura, getting her full attention and getting her to stop musing over Naruto and Tayuya's relationship, "I can even tell you the exact moment where I knew it happened…" Sakura looked at Tayuya hopefully, making Tayuya grin at her toothily for what she was about to say, "But I'll be damned if I'm just going to tell you something personal like that!"

Sakura's head dropped on the table before snapping up suddenly, "You won't tell me this, but more people know about the fact that you two had sex than people know that Asuma-sensei is the father of Kurenai-sensei's baby?"

"I didn't put that out there…" Tayuya said, crossing her arms and turning away, "…That mouthy bitch Anko did. Me and Uzumaki got her back though." She turned one eye back towards Sakura at that point though, "So do you hate him?"

"Do I hate Naruto?" Sakura asked, trying to confirm Tayuya's question, "No… I don't hate Naruto. He's stronger than I am because he can actually do what he has to do as a ninja. I would have to be ungrateful to be that way. He's the entire reason that I got training in the first place from Tsunade-shishou, and right after Sasuke escaped he warned me that he would kill him if he ever got the chance in the future. Besides, he apologized to me for it. Why me?"

"Who else would he have said it to?" Tayuya said with a raised eyebrow, "He sure as hell wasn't going to pray to the Uchiha prick for forgiveness for killing him, and it didn't matter to anyone else the way that it did to you. Do you really want my advice?"

Sakura let off a shrug. She probably would have voiced a no, but she was sort of envious of Tayuya. She seemed to be more thoroughly at ease with herself than Sakura ever was and she hadn't really changed her base personality ever. She knew how to do her job like an experienced vet from the day they had met when Sakura was still a rookie, she didn't need direction in her training because she already had her focus and had gotten stronger by seeking things out herself. Tayuya was tough, it was as simple as that.

"Fine, I'll take the silence as a yes." Tayuya said dryly, "Move on for fuck's sake. Don't dwell on this Uchiha stuff for too long or it's going to crush you… just like it did to your teacher back when her loved ones died. If you stick to the past and what could've been then you won't be able to shape what will be, and then where'll that leave you?" She then waved Sakura off, "Now get the fuck out of my house so I can take a shower and get some sleep."

A tick mark formed on Sakura's head as her eyebrow twitched, "You're such a caring person aren't you Tayuya?"

Smirking in response to Sakura's upset expression, Tayuya answered her, "I don't get paid enough to really care that much."

XxX

(Hokage Tower – Outside the Meeting Room)

"I don't see why we can't be in there too…" Shi complained quietly as the hall was filled with other shinobi from Kumo and Kiri, "What does the Hokage think will happen if we're all in there, a massive fight between everyone?"

Another Kumo ninja spoke up, "Do you really think that isn't so impossible? You know how hotheaded Raikage-sama can be, and Mabui isn't here to keep him kind of in check. You're just pissed off because we're in Konoha."

A laugh came from a third member of the Kumo party, "No, Shi's mad because Yugito likes the Uzumaki kid that's still in there."

"You guys suck." Shi said turning away from his group, "It's not like Kumo and Konoha are friends. We all know about the fighting we've done. I don't trust that guy getting so close to Yugito, even if they're both jinchuuriki."

"And you having a crush on Yugito has nothing to do with it?"

"I didn't say it didn't." Shi said with surprising honesty, "But it isn't the big reason." He then turned towards the large doors, "Right now I just want to know what they're talking about in there."

XxX

(Inside the Meeting Room)

A's hands were gripping the table tightly enough that he was leaving indentions of his fingertips in it, "So you're telling me one of the men that founded this village in the first place is the person that funds Akatsuki… and masterminded it." They were all just lucky that due to Tsunade's own formidable strength and temper the tables were metal.

"That's what Itachi told Naruto during their fight." Tsunade said calmly, having had more time to mull it around in her head and get somewhat used to the idea, "It was something Itachi wanted Sasuke to hear before their battle began, but Naruto was more or less the third-wheel in the conversation so he picked it up."

Darui just had one cocked eyebrow as he listened to everything so far and only had one thing to say, "Is there something in the water around here that makes strong people in this village crazy? Because when it comes to nuke-nin you guys really don't half-ass it… Kami."

A shook his head, "Basically half of Akatsuki came from Konoha, and we believe that Kirigakure was the area of Akatsuki's formation years prior to this… this is just great. And apparently Madara Uchiha is immortal with the strongest Sharingan possible to obtain." He then slammed his fist onto the table, "Then I suggest we march on Amegakure and end this right now. Send in a force to defeat this Pein and Konan and keep the Ame shinobi around them occupied while we do so."

Mei seemed to be thinking this over, "An attack directly on the village. Do you believe it would be so easy?" It was a possible way to handle the situation. Rather brutish in her opinion actually, but it was still something that always had to be kept in mind in case no other options could be determined.

A frown came over Tsunade's face at the concept of invading Amegakure. She had been alive long enough to know just how harshly the Ame forces would respond to such back when Hanzo was in control, "Naruto what do you think? You were the last one there besides Jiraiya and he isn't here."

At the beckoning of Tsunade, Naruto tried to dredge up everything he had gotten out of his infiltration of Ame, "A direct attack even with all four of us wouldn't be easy. I'm not even sure how possible it would be. Amegakure itself is surrounded by water two miles out from land, and that land had villages surrounding it on all sides with tons of shinobi stationed there too. No matter what it would turn into a siege because they would see us coming the second we entered the country. It's locked down tight."

Yugito heard him clearly, "So you're saying we couldn't do it? Not even with all of us attacking together?"

Temari crossed her arms over her chest from her place at Gaara's side, "That's kind of hard to believe Naruto-kun. We would outnumber them four-to-one."

"It would be a siege." Naruto said, explaining himself and his reasoning, "It doesn't really matter how many of us there are because first of all we'd have to fight our way across the landscape to get there and they'd heckle us all the way, we'd have to clear out the outlying villages which could take weeks or months depending on how set on keeping us out they are and if they have any long-range way to pick us off from the real village. Every village has a siege strategy to keep any number of attackers out, and Ame is a cusp 'Great 5 Village'."

That sounded more than reasonable enough for Gaara who personally knew firsthand that Suna was at the bottom of the pecking order of the five villages. The only thing that had kept Ame from taking Suna's spot in the past was the isolationist attitude that the last leader of the village Hanzo held, "If Ame truly is surrounded by water then the only real force that could be assured a real chance to cross the waters to get to the main village would be spearheaded by Kirigakure. Ame's entire ninja population could then focus on defending against just them. Once they rebuke a few advances against attackers it would turn into a battle of attrition that would end up hurting both sides equally."

"We have three jinchuuriki though, not even counting Kazekage-dono." A said, trying to stress that a direct attack could defeat them. He wouldn't let Kirabi leave Kumo to fight a battle on Akatsuki's turf, but none of them knew that yet, "I do not believe that an attack would take that long that it would degenerate into an all-out siege."

'Danzo-jiji didn't think that attacking in Hayashi no Kuni (Land of Woods) would end up being a battle of attrition either, but that campaign took an entire year for us to complete.' Naruto thought, contradicting A's point in his own mind, 'The stronghold there is nothing compared to an actual hidden village like Ame. It's going to turn into a slugfest that we're all going to suffer from.'

Mei interjected with a frown, "Raikage-dono, I think it's been proven at this point that a jinchuuriki doesn't necessarily assure one of a victory. Five of the nine existing have fallen, and you've even said yourself that Yugito-san here would have been taken without the combined efforts of her own resistance and Uzumaki-san."

"An attack on Ame is worst-case scenario completely." Tsunade chimed in with her own experience on the matter, "They will have home field advantage in the purest form. Ambushes in the streets and alleys, house-to-house fighting in the sturdy skyscrapers that seem to make up the entire village… even the civilians would attempt to fight back, and that's even if we get to the main village itself. I've seen it firsthand, and if these people actually believe in Pein as a true God then it could only get worse."

Kankuro's brow furrowed in thought at that point, "Well… if we take out Pein to finish off the real power of Akatsuki then won't that just start a war with Ame once it happens?"

A scoffed before coming up with his own argument against Kankuro's suggestion, "If we keep together and show a united front then Ame wouldn't move on one village without stirring up trouble with the rest of us. Madara Uchiha seems like the real issue to take care of as far as I'm concerned, not so much this Pein character despite his Rinnegan. As long as he doesn't move on a jinchuuriki directly then we shouldn't worry with fighting him until we have to. Many leaders have absurd dreams like this Pein person, and goals of this magnitude can be stopped with a setback. With more pressure we can probably get Akatsuki to cease and desist." He then turned his eyes to Naruto after hearing him say something too quiet to make out, yet loud enough for Tsunade and no one else to hear clearly, "What was you said that Uzumaki? Speak up a bit."

Tsunade nodded her consent for him to repeat himself, thus Naruto did so, "I don't think a guy like that would just stop once we put the pressure on him, I think it would make him shove back harder. Pein really believes all of his own crap, and he's got everybody in Ame taking it to heart too."

Gaara looked over at his friend and fellow jinchuuriki. Despite not being a village leader he had the most run-ins with Akatsuki out of anyone alive. His input was very important, "Why would you say that this man's ambition can't be broken without taking him down directly?"

"According to Konan they were broken by their pain years ago." Naruto looked at his hands and remembered his battle, "The people in Ame threw themselves at me. I killed so many of them, and they knew that they were going to die. They were just trying to slow me down for Konan to get a shot in on me. I think while Pein's the one we can put a face to unlike Madara who's still skulking through the shadows with whatever he's doing, Pein's the most dangerous man in the world because he really thinks he's God, he has the power to back most of his talk up... and he believes he can really get away with anything that he tries."

XxX

(Sunagakure no Sato)

The entire village was abuzz as every active ninja frantically moved about the town. Civilians were being quickly ushered indoors, shops were urged to close up until further notice, and most of the rooftops were filled with Suna shinobi all looking up into the air seemingly ready for combat against a small figure alone in the air, "It's just one man."

"Baki!" One man shouted over to the Suna jounin that had been left in charge, "What do we do? He's just hanging up there in the air. If Gaara was here he could reach him just like that."

By now it was known that the intruder was a member of Akatsuki, yet he hadn't done anything. Still whatever the man in the sky's intentions were it was not in the village's best interest, and anyone in league with Akatsuki had to be brought down.

Baki immediately barked his order to all within earshot, "I want all ranged wind specialists front and center! Anyone with an attack that can reach that bastard fire at will and bring him down!"

XxX

(Skies Above Suna)

"It's time for the shinobi world to wake up and face my reality." The Deva Path of Pein said to himself. The other bodies were nowhere around him because there was simply no need for subtlety or restraint in this instance. This was purely to send a message to the entire world. Their eyes would be firmly on this location after this one moment, "Even the might of one of the Five Great Shinobi Villages cannot measure up to the power of God."

The figure of the Deva Path hovered high above Suna. He was well aware that his presence was noticed and that the forces below were mobilizing for his neutralization. It was just too bad for them that they simply would not get the chance to do so.

"Though my lifespan will shorten… it is a small price to pay for the world to experience a hint of my pain." The Deva Path said as its hands extended down taking aim at the village as a whole, "It is a necessary sacrifice." If Konan were there she would have told him, no she probably would have begged him to refrain from performing his forthcoming jutsu, but he wouldn't have listened to her anyway.

As far as he was concerned it was something far overdue that needed to occur.

"Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!"

There was no village defense in place that could stop the direct destruction wrought in a mere matter of seconds as Suna seemed to be smashed under the pressure of gravity itself.

Power of a God indeed… at the very least it was truly the power of an S-rank shinobi.

Amid the rubble and carnage of the village that used to stand proudly in the middle of the desert, it actually began to rain. A rare rain, almost as if the land itself was weeping over the damage that had just taken place, "This is only the beginning…"

XxX

(Kaze no Kuni – A Distance Away From Sunagakure)

Dust, sand and debris billowed up towards the sky from Suna over the domed structure that concealed the entrance to the hidden village. From the sands a man with a large venus flytrap surrounding his body and wearing Akatsuki's black cloak with red clouds rose up from the sands of the desert as he took in the sights from a distance.

"Leader-sama went a little too far this time didn't he?" The white side of Zetsu said as the black and white sides both frowned deeply, "Went too far? That's putting it mildly. Tobi's going to be totally pissed when we tell him what just happened." The black half commented as the speck in the sky that was Pein's Deva Path flew off to leave and return to Ame.

"…The world's about to get really screwed up isn't it?" Zetsu began to sink back into the ground as the white half asked the black half the question that one could take as rhetorical. However the black half answered it regardless, "Gee did the smoking pit of rubble that used to be Suna give you that idea or what?"