Chapter 1: The Land of Waves

Madara was lying, clinging to the last breaths of his life on the battlefield of the 4th great shinobi war, when he saw a familiar figure sit down next to his dying form.

"Hashirama, is that you?" Madara asked. The man simply stared at him, not knowing what to say. How could he? After everything he had done, the reasons for his plans, and the long years they had known each other, Madara imagined that Hashirama was in quite a conflict as to what to say to his once best friend.

"Yes," said Hashirama, simply.

There was a long silence as Madara mustered up the strength to say what would be his last words on the mortal plane.

"I guess neither you nor I were able to achieve what we wanted."

Hashirama looked at him, a solemn expression on his face, and decided to speak again.

"It's never that easy. Our job is merely to do what we can do while we're alive." There was a pause as Hashirama tried to think of what words he needed to say.

"And bequeath the rest of it for future generations to accomplish."

Despite his wishes, a raspy chuckle escaped Madara's mouth. After a few moments of silence, Madara finally knew what to say

"You are so naive, just as you usually are. And you have always been the optimist. Although, perhaps that's the proper way to be. The dream that I had has been squashed, but your dream is still relevant now. And it continues to live on." A smile finally came onto Hashirama's face as he spoke again.

"We were both too hasty. We didn't need to achieve our dreams in our own lifetimes. It was far too necessary to cultivate those who would come after us, to those who we could entrust our dreams. Peace is far too grandiose a goal to be achieved by simply one existence."

Once again, a chuckle escaped Madara's mouth, as he realized the truth of the situation, of his ways.

"Which means I was already on the path to failure. I always hated having someone behind me." The smile that was on Hashirama's face softened even further.

"You once told me, when we were kids, that we were shinobi. Meaning we never knew when we might die. So in order to stop all of this bloodshed, we needed to show the world all sides of ourselves. To sit at a table, and drink together, like war buddies. Well, now that the both of us are about to die, we have a chance to drink together, like old war buddies."

After his speech, Hashirama looked at Madara intently for an answer. After a while, Madara spoke.

"Like old war buddies eh? I suppose that could be okay." After a while of comfortable silence, he looked over to Hashirama and spoke his last words.

"Bye."

Finally, Madara let go, and everything went black.

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Madara had been ready to let go of the world, feeling that his death was far too pleasant for everything that he had done. After all, he had let himself be manipulated by Zetsu, let his body be taken over by Kaguya. He had let himself be deluded by thoughts of grandeur, a near-perfect path to peace. In the end, it was all a farce.

After all, he did mean what he said to Hashirama. He was a failure. He would've always been a failure.

It was for these many reasons that he was absolutely staggered when he found himself waking up in a comfortable wooden hut, to the smell of cooking in the kitchen, and a tiny, twin-sized bed under himself.

Madara honestly didn't know where he was, or why he was there. In fact, he had no idea if he even wanted to live anymore, much less if he even wanted to. But, before he could even think about what to do, Madara saw someone walk out of the kitchen.

"Oh, you're finally awake? God, you've been out of it for nearly 3 weeks!" The woman's face started to look a little uncomfortable as she spoke the next words. "I didn't think that you'd actually make it." Madara finally sat up and spoke.

"Neither did I."

There was a slight silence as the people in the room tried to think of what to say, and in that silence, Madara started to take in the woman's appearance. She looked a lot like an Uchiha, with pitch black eyes, and black hair running down to her mid-back. Her skin, however, was a little too tan to be an Uchiha. She had a stained white cooking apron, an Uchiha blue skirt, and a pink shirt underneath the apron. Before Madara could look any further the woman spoke again.

"What's your name?" Madara froze.

What would be his name? He couldn't go around calling himself Madara Uchiha, Madara Uchiha was dead! The 4th great shinobi war ended with his passing!

"Uhh, are you like an ANBU?" Madara blinked.

"What?" asked Madara. The girl was confused.

"An ANBU. They're like the hidden villages' secret service. ANBU aren't supposed to tell people their identity." she said. Internally, Madara was sighing with relief. The ANBU! Yes! Madara only had a passing knowledge of what the ANBU truly was because he had encountered a few of them right before his first death, but he hadn't a clue what they actually did. Madara looked up from his musings only to see a smile on her face.

"Ever since Naruto's previous visit to our village, I've been learning a little about customs in Konoha. I've even thought about going there to visit him, but I don't really have the time," she said. Madara was surprised to hear her explanation for her knowledge.

"Naruto? As in Naruto Uzumaki?" The woman seemed surprised as well.

"Oh, do you know Naruto? So you're from Konoha, are you?" Despite himself, a chuckle once again escaped Madara's mouth.

"I have, passing knowledge of his exploits," he said. The woman smiled at that.

"Yes, it seems like everyone nowadays has passing knowledge of him," she said. "Anyway, we're getting off-topic. I know that you can't tell me you're name, but I still need to call you something. So, what do I call you?"

Madara, once again, froze at that statement. He didn't honestly want to call himself Madara. Madara was a name he felt like he had so many years ago, the name of a failure, the name of a man who had let himself drown in dreams of grandeur and falsified peace.

"I don't know," he said. The woman's smile softened a little.

"Well, until you decide to tell me it, I'll just call you Mr. ANBU." The woman was about to leave the bedroom until she stopped at the door. "My father is currently out fishing with my son, so he might come in and check in on you. If they do, tell them that Tsunami brought you in." The girl known as Tsunami turned to look at him. "That's my name, Tsunami."

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Jiraya put his sealing scroll out of his back, and put it on the ground of his camp sight, making sure that by rolling it out, he didn't hit Naruto's head, and wake him up. He put some chakra into the Kanji that said Map, and in a puff of smoke, out came a map, the route that they had taken on their 3-year training trip.

They had at first, gone Northeast, from Konoha into the Land of Lightning, then taking a boat into the Mountain's graveyard. Then, in order to avoid a suspected Akatsuki hideout and Land of Earth, they had gone back into the Land of Fire, and then southeast towards Capital River in the Land of Rivers. Afterward, they had gone straight south towards the Sand peninsula in the Land of Wind. Right after this, they had taken a boat to the Land of Tea. But once Jiraiya had set course back to Konoha, Naruto asked to take a detour to the Land of Waves, since he insisted that had friends there. Jiraiya didn't see any reason to deny Naruto's wish to see his supposed friends, so after some explanation, Naruto and Jiraiya detoured toward the Land of Waves. Not that Naruto actually knew that.

Jiraiya was currently in a boat going towards the mainland of the Land of Waves. Behind him was his scroll and Naruto, who was sleeping after a long day of using the Rasengan to power up the boat. Jiraya decided that the best idea was to simply row until Naruto woke up to power the boat again. As Jiraiya looked up, he was surprised to see the faint outline of multiple houses in the distance.

Well, it seems like he didn't need Naruto after all. The Land of Waves is finally here.

"Oi, Naruto! Time for you to wake up, for god's sake!" Jiraiya yelled.

"Huh? Wa? Pervy Sage…" a yawn then escaped Naruto's mouth, "What the hell are you…" Naruto then looked at the increasingly familiar scenery of the Land of Waves. "Holy crap! We're actually here! Why didn't you tell me that Pervy Sage?" Jiraiya couldn't help but smirk.

"Just get yourself ready, we need to find out where your 'friends' are." Naruto scowled at those words.

"Hey! Tsunami, Inari, and Tazuna all know me! They even named a bridge after me, it's called the Great Naruto Bridge!" Jiraiya couldn't help but snort.

"Yeah, sure, Great Naruto Bridge. That's just about the stupidest name I've ever heard!" Naruto scowled at that, and Jiraiya smirked.

In all seriousness, Jiraiya thought that the name was rather uncreative, but he also believed that it was just the kind of name that Naruto would inspire. Before Jiraiya could think more on this though, Naruto's enthusiastic voice perked up.

"Oi, Pervy Sage, we're finally here, can we finally get to Tazuna's house!" Jiraiya thought about it at first, until he saw a thorn in Naruto's overly simplistic plan.

"Do you even know where this Tazuna's house is?" Naruto's face drooped a little, and his voice dropped immediately.

"Uhh, no." Jiraiya nodded his head immediately and came up with a rudimentary plan.

"Okay. We'll have to ask nearly everyone we can, the Land of Waves is a country for a reason after all. And you can't just scream at their faces like you usually do, a lot of these people don't know you like I do. We have to…" But before Jiraiya could finish, he heard a yell near the shore.

"Hey, Naruto, Is that you? I know that you might not recognize me, but I saw you on the bridge when you first came here! I bet you Tazuna and Inari and waiting for you!"

Jiraya turned back, only to see a random fisherman waving at the two of them. The Toad sage sighed as he turned back to see the grin on Naruto's face.

"Okay, Okay, you win, now just let me get to the shore." Jiraiya and Naruto then got out of the boat and found themselves on the beach just outside of the Land of Waves. Naruto waved at the man and started to speak.

"Hey, so what's your name?" The man walked up to them and started to speak.

"Aoba. Tazuna and Inari and fishing are just half of a mile away from here. They'd love to see you!"

Jiraiya walked behind Naruto and Aoba and talked with each other about their experiences in the Land of Waves. After 5 minutes or so, they came across a grandfather and child duo, who were fishing on a dock. Jiraiya squinted his eyes in order to get a better look at them. Jiraiya saw a 12-year-old child with a blue striped white bucket hat, white shirt, and blue pants. Next to him, was an old man with half-moon spectacles, a straw hat, a black shirt, and shorts.

Aoba decided that now was the time to get their attention.

"Tazuna! Inari! Guess who's back!"

Tazuna evidently didn't hear them, but Inari immediately turned to the noise in order to give an answer.

"Uncle Aoba! What is i…" but before he could say anything, his eyes landed on Naruto, who grinned at him.

"Inari! It's been a really long time hasn't it!"

Jiraiya watched as Inari jumped off of the port with no regard for his own safety and ran towards Naruto in speeds that he had only ever seen in a Jounin. As Naruto braced for the impact, Inari tackled him into a hug and started babbling incoherently, evidently not knowing what to say. As he looked on at this display of affection, the toad sannin couldn't help but smile. He wouldn't tell the boy in a million years, but he hadn't doubted Naruto when he told him that the entire village knew who he was. Naruto was just that kind of person, he made an impact wherever he went.

When Jiraiya had gotten out of his thoughts, he looked up to an old man walking toward them, a smile on his face. Jiraiya walked up to the man and decided to make an introduction.

"If that little bundle is Inari, then you must be Tazuna, right?" asked Jiraiya, as he put out a hand. Tazuna clasped it and gave a firm shake before speaking again.

"Ya, that's me. And you are?"

"I'm Naruto's current teacher. Jiraiya. We just came back from a training trip, and we thought we'd stop by on our way back to Konoha." Tazuna smiled.

"Yes, yes, Naruto is welcome anytime here. He's the reason why that bounty hunter turned on Gato." Jiraiya raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Well, you'll need to tell me all about this." Tazuna's smile grew even wider.

"Sure, Sure, I'll tell on our way to the house."

Just after prying Inari off of Naruto and saying their goodbyes to Aoba, the rest of the group walked over to Tazuna's house, Naruto telling Inari about his exploits during the training trip, and Jiraiya listening to Tazuna's retelling of Team Seven's C turned A-rank mission to liberate Wave Country. Jiraiya's pride in the boy only grew with each passing minute as he heard Naruto's contributions to the thing. The boy had gone up against Zabuza Momochi, and A-rank Nuke-nin as a fresh out of the academy genin. Maybe he'd severely underestimated the kid. Then again, had learned the Rasengan in 2 weeks, whereas it took him 3 months.

By the time they'd gotten to the quaint shack that Tazuna called home, the man had finished the story, and Jiraiya really had nothing almost to say.

"Right when I think that the kid had shown me everything, he surprises me yet again." Tazuna chuckled.

"I don't know all that much about the kid, but that was one thing about I set straight by the time he left my home," said the man gruffly. Before they could say more, Inari butted in between, pulling Naruto by his hand and pulling him into their house.

"Come on in! I'll show you my room, it looks a lot better than the last time you were here!" screamed Inari, excitement in his voice. Jiraiya couldn't help but chuckle. Tazuna looked over to Jiraya with the kind of gentle smile you only reserved for a time of peace.

"Have you dealt with children before?" Jiraiya shrugged noncommittally.

"I trained a few kids back in the 2nd Great Shinobi War." Jiraiya's gentle smile then became a little sadder. "They're dead though." Tazuna blinked before the same sad smile bled onto his face.

"I'm sorry," said Tazuna. It was less a statement than a whisper, but Jiraiya could feel the understanding in his voice. Not pity, understanding. This man had lost as well. Before he could sort out his thoughts, he heard the loud voice of the 12-year-old Inari from where he assumed to be his room.

"Hey! Who the hell are you?"

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After Tsunami had left, Madara had tried to distract himself, to think about practically anything other than the thoughts that plagued his mind. The Uchiha had examined the room he was in, to try and figure out anything about the Woman that had so graciously brought him into his house, other than the fact that she had a living father and child. Madara had scanned the room in order to try and figure out where he was.

The twin bed that he was previously on was in the left corner of the room relative to the door, with the right corner housing a dresser drawer with a mirror on top of it. Right next to the drawer was a bookshelf. In the middle of the bed and the dresser drawer was a window, showing a view of the sea. All in all, it was a rather normal room, something you would expect for a child. This is probably her child's room.

Madara got up to the dresser drawer to get a good look at what her actually looked like. He had nothing on, except for the pair of black pants that he had died in, and Hashirama's face that was on his chest had dissipated, leaving a blank chest. Great, he didn't have the Rinnegan. Though he did suppose he deserved that one. Just to check, he activated his eyes, and saw the 3-Tomoe Sharingan staring back at him. Pushing more chakra into his eyes, he saw his eyes spinning at near imperceptible speed until, from his pupil out, the eyes shifted into their Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan state. So he was about as strong as when he fought Hashirama. That was, something at least. It was at that moment, when he heard the door of the house open, and looked to stare at the door, only to see not only Tsunami's chakra in the kitchen, but 4 chakra sources at the door.

2 of them had civilian levels of chakra, one of them clearly a child by the size of his coils. But the other 2 were shinobi, clearly of some renown. The first one was at least 6 foot, with his coils developed to at least Kage Level. His chakra was also refined, meaning that he wasn't born with the coils, but developed them. He was clearly a great Shinobi, though nowhere near his skill if he asked himself. The other one was a completely different story.

His coils were blinding, his wild and unrefined chakra clearly having surpassed Kage Level a while back. He was at least 5'7 and male, going by the pure outline of his physical body. Madara frowned, deactivating his eyes in order to try and find out who this mystery person was before he had to meet him. It wouldn't do to have no information on a person, especially in the shinobi world, when you could die at any moment.

Madara frowned as he considered the boy's developed yet unrefined chakra. The boy was clearly a jinchuriki, his raw power clearly surpassing that of the 6-tails. That left 3 people to go through.

From what Madara could remember, the 7 tails jinchuuriki was a green haired, female child, so that immediately ruled his out. The 8-tails was a fairly tall man, surpassing 6 foot in height, which only left one person out.

Madara stiffened as the door swung open, a 12 year old child with a bucket hat looking at him confused suspicion, and the hero of the 4th Great Shinobi War, Naruto Uzumaki, the 9-tails Jinchuriki staring at him.

But instead of the customary reactions of shock, or horror, or anger, the boy's face tilted sideways and his left eyebrow raised up, in likewise confusion.

What in hell was going on?

The boy yelled at him with some level of childlike brashness.

"Hey, who the hell are you?"

Even though Madara was calm on the outside, inside he was trying to remember what Tsunami had told him to say. That's when he remembered it. In his most calm voice, he spoke.

"Tsunami brought me in."

Dinner was a largely quite affair for Madara, as while he was quietly eating the Shrimp Udon that the black haired girl had cooked, The white haired Kage-Level Shinobi, a man he had come to know as Jiraiya, Tsunami's father, a fisherman named Tazuna, and Naruto Uzumaki had been boisterously speaking about Naruto's 3 year training trip.

Something that Madara had been very confused about.

Just before he had come to dinner, the kid had screamed at him for sleeping in what was supposedly his room. Right after that, in a puff of smoke, Jiraiya appeared, lazing on the door frame, sizing up himself. Madara on the other hand, simply raised his eyebrows, neglecting to size him up, as he had already. After all 4 of the houses' temporary inhabitants' confusion at my existence, along with Tazuna's suspicion at my naked upper body, Tsunami rushed in from the kitchen, evidently trying to save me from the situation that I had placed myself in. She had then herded us into the dining table to eat.

Which was where Madara was now.

The black haired Uchiha was now listening to a supposed 3-year training trip that Naruto had gone on. At first, I thought that this was code for the 4th Great Shinobi War. Madara had almost immediately squashed that though, since the 4th Great Shinobi War had lasted all of 2 days, certainly not 3 years. When Madara had actually listened in on what the boy had learned on this so-called trip, he was appalled.

3 whole years, and the pervert had taught him how to control and A-Rank technique. It would've been impressive, for just any shinobi to do that in a month, but he had seen Naruto Uzumaki create variations of the Rasengan on the fly. Hell, it had been a variation of the Rasengan that had led to his downfall. Maybe I should learn that Jutsu, now that I don't have the Woodstyle in my arsenal.

Madara had been even more confused about Naruto's reaction to the his existence. Sure, the 4th Great Shinobi war had been 2 days long, but it was 2 days of nonstop fighting. 48 straight hours of death and destruction. He would've thought the boy would've thrown him glances every once in a while, telegraphing his anger. But the glances he threw were ones of confusion.

On top of that was the Jiraiya, Naruto's perverted teacher, a clearly accomplished and Kage-level shinobi. However if he was one, then where the hell had he gone when the war started. Hell the Kakashi brat only been A-rank, and even he was in the front lines of the war. Where the hell had this man been?

But what Madara had been confused about most of was the 9-tails. It was clear to the man, that the training trip had been mostly about controlling the 9-tails' chakra. Which didn't make any sense to the man, sense Naruto had mastered it's chakra far before the 4th Great Shinobi War had even started.

It was within these musings that Tsunami had seen fit to bring me into the conversation as well.

"So, you're from Konoha right? You know, since you said you knew who Naruto was." Jiraiya's face whipped around along with Naruto, who unlike Jiraiya, wasn't hiding his surprise.

Madara, in his calmest voice, spoke again. "As i said before, I have passing knowledge of his exploits." Jiraiya merely raised his eyebrow while Naruto widened his eyes and grinned.

"See that, Pervy Sage, I'm already famous, even with non Shinobi!" The aforementioned Pervy Sage's eyebrow twitched.

"And how do you know that he isn't a shinobi huh?!" he screamed. Tsunami blinked.

"Neither of you know who he is? He told me he was from Konoha, shouldn't you know?"

Even though Madara seemed calm on the outside, inside, he was groaning. He had just woken up, he really didn't have a good explanation for his re-existence. In the end, he had to come up with something on the spot, as Jiraiya and Naruto and both widened their eyes and whipped their heads back at him.

"My father was born in Konoha, but my mother was born outside of the village," said Madara, counting every word to make sure everything made sense. However, they died at the tail end of the 2nd Great Shinobi War. I've just been wandering the world and trying to stay alive."

While Naruto's suspicion decreases, Jiraiya's concealed shock turns into a blank, assessing stare, one of which Madara didn't back down from. He was Madara Uchiha, no matter what connotation that name had, throwing it away didn't mean becoming weak. After a few seconds, the white haired man broke contact and went back to eating his conversation with Naruto and Tazuna, breaking the silence. Madara decides the best course of action, was to just finish his food, and excuse himself from the table. After he finished his food, not too slow as to land into Jiraiya's assessing glances, but not too fast as to seem desperate to leave, Madara excuses himself from the table and goes outside.

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Jiraiya opened the glass sliding door to the warm breeze of the sea-spray. The shinobi walked outside with purpose, walking down the wooden planks with a purpose, thinking about the black haired man who had simply appeared from thin air, materializing like a shunshin into the fabric of reality.

For one, the man was clearly of Kage level strength. Now, Jiraiya wasn't the best sensor, but once you get past Jounin level in strength, you start to gain at least basic chakra sensing abilities.

And the man that was sitting a mere foot away from me had chakra levels surpassing his own, not by a lot, but enough to interest him. Even so, a man with that much chakra that wasn't either an Uzumaki or a Senju was far more impressive than one might think. How had a man of this caliber escaped his spy network?

On top of that, Jiraiya could swear he had seen the man somewhere, swear that he had seen the man's face at one point. It was frustrating to think about, no matter how hard he thought about it, the man's identity seemed to be just out of his grasp.

It was within his thoughts that Jiraiya had seen the man, long dark hair and all, sitting on the docks, seemingly deep in thought. Jiraiya spent a few seconds thinking about what to ask the man, before he finally thought of it.

"So, what were your parents like?" The man came out of his thoughts and looked at him with a blank expression, though Jiraiya could see suspicion in the man's eyes.

"I was an orphan for most of my life," Jiraiya said. "I was born near the Black River, and my mother ran away from home to Konoha while she was pregnant. She died giving birth to me. It's why I became a ninja."

The man looked Jiraiya with his face still relatively blank.

"So?" asked the man.

Jiraiya was calm on the outside, but inside, he was grasping for straws. He'd only asked because that was the only thing the man would outwardly show.

Now, Jiraiya was the spymaster of Konoha, and had been at the job ever since the end of the 2nd Great Shinobi War. He had mastered the art of conversation, and had picked up nearly every underhanded tactic in the book. For nearly every single infiltration mission, appealing to someone's trauma was good on getting any reaction, even if they didn't outright speak. Jiraiya would usually answer depending on the person's reaction, and get them to strike up a conversation. However, there was one major gamble to this tactic.

If the other person didn't make a reaction, Jiraiya was in their hands. And the man hadn't done a thing. This meant either one of 3 things.

One, the man in front of him didn't want the world to know who he was. On the other hand, it could also mean that the man was lying about the entire thing. Or, the worst case scenario, both.

Jiraiya sure hoped that it wasn't the third. But before the silence was about to get awkward, Jiraiya had found the perfect thing to say.

"I just wanted to know your story. One orphan to another." The man stared at him calculatingly, as if he was staring past his eyes, and into his Yin Chakra, the very essence of his soul. Suddenly, he spoke.

"Do you believe that people deserve redemption?" The question had taken him off guard. Jiraiya blinked at the man, as he stared into the endless, black, with stars dotting the sky, not that he even looked like he was in the present moment.

Jiraiya had seen the horrors of the Second Great Shinobi War, and the Third, and he had killed countless warriors on the battlefield. It was in war that he had earned the title of the Legendary Sannin and the title of S-rank. He had risen into the ranks of the few shinobi in the world, those beings in the elemental nations that were recognized as Army-Killers.

Needless to say, he had seen a lot. But even after everything he had seen, the question stumped him. The Shinobi world may be full of grays, but the conflicts that made up the world were simple. Kill or be Killed. Meaning he had no idea if anyone in the Shinobi world were even good in the first place, him included.

He supposed, that it depended on the shinobi themselves.

"That depends on the shinobi in question." he said. The black haired man snorted, a look of tiredness in his eyes.

"Say the man in question, was just about the most horrible man you'd ever met. Perhaps he was a good man once, but he'd let dreams of glory delude him. And he had killed thousands in his dream of perfection. In the end he let himself loathing, without a purpose. Does this man deserve peace."

Jiraiya wanted to narrow his eyes at the man. It was very obvious to the man that this story was the story of his own life. The story of a great shinobi who at drowned in his own reputation of strength. A man who had the audacity to take on the world, simply because he was strong. However, Jiraiya couldn't connect the man on the docks right now with the man in the stories. One seemed like an arrogant bastard, this man seemed like a broken, lost man. In then end, Jiraiya thought that since the man was speaking anyway, he would confront this head on.

"This is your life, isn't it?" The man, once again, stared right through his soul and spoke again.

"Yes," he said. Jiraiya spoke again.

"You asked me if I believe that people deserve redemption, and I told you that it depends on the person. But, I think I have a better answer now." Jiraya looked up at the stars, thinking about his answer for a few seconds before finally speaking. "The elemental nations is full of gray morality, and as such, there aren't much people who are truly bad, save for a few. In a world world like this, if we truly pretend like a person's actions condemn them wherever they go, then we'd all be in hell. Every last Shinobi. Jiraiya, confident in his answer, stared straight back at the black-haired man. "Those who truly believe in, want and strive for redemption deserve it."

By the end of his monologue, the man was staring right back at him, his face swimming well hidden emotions. Jiraiya caught the man's face contract in emotions such as grief, guilt, sadness and finally, resolve.

"You're leaving for Konoha, aren't you? After everything that you've done, surely you aren't thinking for going somewhere else?" Jiraiya nodded at the man's statement.

"Yes, we leave for Konoha tomorrow evening," Jiraiya said. What the man said next caught him off guard.

"May come there with you?" Jiraiya blinked at the man's request.

"Ya sure, anyone can come live there if the pass the background check," he said.

"You misunderstand me. I want to know if I can join the Shinobi forces." This request threw the man even more off guard.

"We can't just bring anyone to Konoha, we need to know if you're strong enough, or if you could bring something to Konoha. On top of that, we don't even know your name!" Jiraiya said. The man looked at him calmly and simply asked a question.

"Do you have a kunai on you?" Jiraiya took a kunai out to give it to the man while putting his left hand in the half ram seal, just in case he decides to attack. The man looked down and rolled his eyes, before bunching his waist length hair into a pony tail. Before long, most of his hair was on the floor, with a mere fraction of it on his hair.

The man then stared right at Jiraiya with all of the conflicting emotions he had seen swimming on his face gone. The man before him had a resolved, self-assured look on his face, as if he would take on the world if he needed to.

"Saisei," said the man, right before Jiraiya heard the telltale sign of a the Sharingan activating. Saisei stared at him, blood red eyes and 3 tomoe swirling dangerously, like a tiger ready for anything. Jiraiya felt like he couldn't do anything other than stare, his calm front melting away like butter.

"My name is Saisei Uchiha. And as for what I can offer Konoha, other than my strength that is, I know quite a bit about a certain criminal organization known as the Akatsuki."

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