At the End

Zetsu was on cloud nine as every obstacle standing in his way was now eliminated. He had inherited very little from mother but after generations of manipulating the ninja world he had learned a thing or two. Especially from the Uzumaki, Uchiha, and Senju. Using the power of the eyes he borrowed he opened a dimensional portal south by performing the Yomotsu Hirasaka jutsu.

Performing the Yomotsu Hirasaka jutsu was nothing special when using the eyes he borrowed from the Uzumaki boy Madara left them with. Combining a kekkai technique with his Yomotsu Hirasaka was rather simple with these eyes as well. What was rather hard normally was to get the victim to fall into the trap, but just like with that hateful Hashirama brat, as long as you used a so called loved one as a hostage things tend to go rather easily. Yomotsu Hirasaka was not normally used in the way he performed it today but thanks to the power of the Rinnegan everything had gone even better than the first time.

Zetsu even commended his own intelligence for using the Rinnegan in combination with Yomotsu Hirasaka. The brats known as Senju Tsunade and Ren will be completely eliminated and the Eye of the Moon Plan will proceed as planned. The stage had been completely set with the fall of the Uzumaki and the hateful woman known as Mito Uzumaki.

Zetsu hated that Mito woman with every fiber of his being. While her dreadful little clan was at full strength they sealed so many powerful beings and on one occasion almost himself. That woman's prophecy jutsu was one of the most annoying things to come out of the most recent generation of ninja and so Zetsu schemed their downfall by revealing the power of the Fuinjutsu the Uzumaki wield. Luckily the last prophet remaining was only that annoying toad who could barely see the future and no other prophets would ever appear again. Unfortunately Zetsu could never figure out how the detestable Uzumaki managed to alter time before but even that secret went down with Mito.

As Zetsu stepped out of the portal he created he gazed upon the brat known as Nagato. The incubator for the the Rinnegan was currently nothing more than a wimpy kid calling himself a ninja, were it not for the power of the Rinnegan he would meet a dreadful fate. Zetsu did not abhor the little brat despite his Uzumaki lineage simply because he was likely the easiest ninja to manipulate to his goal in his long lifetime.

Nagato had to watch as two Konoha ninja killed his father and then had their way with his mother before killing her. Then the boy awoke the Rinnegan and reaped vengeance all by himself. No manipulation from Zetsu needed in the least bit. Zetsu didn't even need to change the investigating ninja's findings, the Konoha nin changed the story so that the dead ninja 'accidentally' killed the civilians. As if ninja who invaded civilian homes looting and pillaging had such pure intentions. Zetsu found it laughable that the self righteous Konoha believes itself the most noble of villages, little did they know they managed to create this little monster all on their own.

The hatred within Nagato was very pleasing to Zetsu's eye but there was a mild inconvenience in the brats lying next to the boy. Normally, in his experience, it should be the girl who makes things complicated but in this particular case it was the boy known as Yahiko.

The boy known as Yahiko was a disturbing optimist and spouted non sense about world peace all the time. After spending sometime spying on these orphans Zetsu became unclear if the boy known as Yahiko was an incarnation of Indra and was tempted to kill him several times. Nonetheless that boy would come in handy for controlling the Uzumaki kid so he continued to draw breath. Placing the eyes back into the body they belong in Zetsu was tempted to forsake the original plan and keep the eyes himself so he could be the one to revive his mother but he was conditioned to remain in the shadows from the time of his birth. Zetsu could only wait, plot, and scheme until the day he could be with his mother once again.

Once the eyes had been returned Zetsu fled the area and set off to scour the world for the three tails. All nine tailed beasts were required for the Eye of the Moon plan and the brat known as Ren had one sealed in him. From Zetsu's knowledge the beasts were immortal and as long as the host died the beast themselves would once more appear in the world on their own. The three tails in particular usually appeared in a body of water so Zetsu was determined to learn its location quickly.

Two weeks later.

Jiraiya and Orochimaru were scouting the way south. Jiraiya was more or less lost within his own world. It was harsh to say but if only Ren vanished he would not be so heartbroken. After the two vanished Orochimaru sent a report to Konoha. The news was less than well received.

Konoha not only lost their top medical ninja, they also lost the backbone of their entire logistics division. Not to mention the key to the Konoha and Kiri alliance was nowhere to be found. The warfront repercussions alone were hard to swallow but the social issues of the loss of Tsunade and Ren were a bit tougher to endure.

The Senju bloodline was completely eliminated.

The fact no Senju were left was rather meaningless in the grand scheme of things but it did plummet Konoha's morale to an all time low. The missing three tails also became a point of conflict between Kiri and Konoha as a major war weapon was lost. After confirmation of their death the Senju properties soon came under siege. though luckily there was a will in place.

Whether by design or sheer luck Ren had a will in the case of the fall of him and Tsunade. The will stated that if Tsunade and Ren were ever missing in action or seemingly dead than Kakuzu would be left as the executor of the Senju Estate. His sole designation for the Senju fortune was to retain the lands and shelter all those found to have the Uzumaki bloodline. Apart from sheltering the Uzumaki Kakuzu also had the obligation to assist any orphans in need of funds.

The village elders were none to pleased that the vast Senju wealth was in the hands of an outsider but th3ey could do nothing to stop it. Not because they were hell bent on upholding the legal will but simply because Kakuzu was a kage level ninja they could not afford to offend.

Jiraiya was thinking about the clause about the Uzumaki in particular because of the child with red hair and his buddies laying in ambush for him and Orochimaru.

"You kids should stop now, we mean you no harm."

From the bushes an orange haired kid popped his head up.

"Hey old one eye with the grey hair and lady missing an arm you should leave this area the evil ninja from Konoha are killing everything in sight opld or young, and you don't even want to know what they'd do to you lady."

"Hey you little brat I am the mighty Toad Sage of Mount Myoboku not... did you say lady? BWAHAHAHA Orochimaru he thinks your a lady! HAHAHA."

With a dead pan grin Orochimaru said:

"I'm going to kill them after I kill you."

The words made the orange headed kid tense up and the two kids remaining in the bushes set themselves in a battle stance.

Jiraiya was still choking on his own laughter struggling to breathe but he took note of the children's attentiveness. With some training these group of kids could likely become the next set of Sannin.

"Stop playing with them Orochimaru. Kids the land of Ame has been erased from history your leader Hanzo has died. Have yourself and your parent flee from this land as soon as possible and take of the Ame headbands or you'll be killed in truly gruesome ways."

"WHAT!? Lord Hanzo has died? That's impossible!"

"It's true. We were there when it happened. Now go to your parents and leave this god awful land."

At these words the red haired boy finally jumped down from his ambush point.

"We don't have parents because of Konoha so where do you expect us to go."

The words from the child floored Jiraiya as something he had not even considered. People died almost daily during this war and it rarely mattered if you were a civilian or ninja in certain lands. It struck Jiraiya that these children in front of him were orphans that resulted from the viciousness of the war.

In his heart Jiraiya knew it would be wrong to let these kids continue to operate as they were. Had it been any other set of ninja at this time they would likely kill these kids on sight for wearing the Ame headbands. Not to mention if any rank and file ninja from Konoha or Kiri saw those headbands they would brutalize these children and not just kill them. Tsunade meant a lot to Konoha and Ren meant a lot to Kiri at the moment. With the lack of Hanzo to be the center of their hatred many took it out on the rest of the Ame civilians and ninja. It made no sense but Ren and Tsunade helped a lot of people when alive so their beneficiaries alone were willing to eradicate Ame not to mention the political juggernauts behind them.

"Just kill them Jiraiya it would be a mercy compared to all o their other options living as orphans of Ame."

"No we're taking them back to Konoha."

At these words the kids fully armed themselves and began to surround the two. Nonchalantly Jiraiya continued:

"Did you notice the long haired boys hair color. He's likely an Uzumaki. Should Kakuzu find we eliminated some of his wards we may end up in far more trouble."

" So kill the other two and take that one."

At Orochimarus words the three children charged directly at the two. Then in a flash the three children were knocked out on the ground.

"Why did you not kill the other two?"

"Do you think the red headed kid would not hold a grudge if we kill his remaining family?"

"....Fair enough."

So it came to be that Konoha soon had three new gennin in the form of Uzumaki Yahiko, Uzumaki Nagato, and Uzumaki Konan. The family name was decided by the children when they met Kakuzu after he received the children from Jiraiya. The meeting between Nagato and Kushina was far more emotional than the other two kids expected as Nagato rarely showed much emotion.

Nagatos hatred for Konoha weakened after meeting a living relative like Kushina but he maintained a healthy dose of weariness towards the village and hid the abilities of his eyes from everyone. That's not to say no one noticed the boy had a strange dojutsu. Jiraiya in particular saw the peculiarity of the boys eyes and was convinced he had finally found the child of prophecy. Seeing as his own students were now leading their own teams he opted to take in the Ame orphans as the next Team Jiraiya and trained them by wandering the world to expand their minds.

Orochimaru on his return was far more concerned with recovering his arm and brokered a deal between himself and Danzo to participate in a project to create the next Hanzo. For the next three years the world progress in a way that Ren would find similar but in others completely different. Opportunities he desperately desired would be lost in time and yet so many new opportunities would lie ahead.