62

Orochimaru could not keep the smile off his face as he stood within the forest and stared at the gates of Konoha, which were less than one hundred meters away.

By this point in time, almost all of Konoha's elite ninja were outside of its walls. A good portion were battling against Iwagakure. The rest were battling against Kumo, including the brat known as Naruto Uzumaki.

The elation in his heart at this moment was unlike anything he had ever felt. Finally, after all this time, after retching and clawing and fighting to attain the greatest powers, he would be able to tie up one of the last few loose ends he had. That crotchety old man was going to regret betraying him.

A shadow suddenly appeared beside him, breaking him from his musings.

His Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan eyes spun in lazy circles as he turned to face the young man. Kabuto bowed to his head.

"Lord Orochimaru, all of our sleepers agents are in place and awaiting for my command. Shall I give the order?"

"Go ahead," Orochimaru said in a voice that seeped amusement.

Nodding once, Kabuto made a single hand seal and a surge of chakra encapsulated him. Nothing seemed to happen. However, the young man soon let the seal go and nodded his head.

"It's done. I imagine Konoha is about to break into chaos very soon," Kabuto announced.

"Good. This is excellent."

Still smiling, Orochimaru turned to face the groups of ninja surrounding him. There were about one hundred in total. However, this small force was all he needed now. Konoha's most powerful ninja save a handful were currently dealing with the separate forces of Kumo and Iwa. It was unlikely that there were more than a handful of Jonin and Chunin left within the entire village.

"Ishidate, Karenbana, Kongo…" Orochimaru smiled. "Take your forces in and kill anything that moves."

The three ninja smiled. "With pleasure."

Orochimaru stood in place, Kabuto beside him, as the one hundred strong force rushed toward the village of Konoha. Many of them scaled the walls, though he could see a few traveling toward the gates. Once they got inside, their job would be to wreak havoc.

"Are you sure one hundred ninja is enough to defeat Konoha?" asked Kabuto.

"Maybe not in normal circumstances." Orochimaru chuckled. "However, the vast majority of Konoha's forces are away dealing with Iwa and Kumo. According to your report, there are, at most, twenty Jonin and about thirty Chunin. The rest are just genin. All of the ninja I have brought are either Chunin or Jonin. They may still outnumber us, but our forces are not weaker than theirs." He shrugged. "Besides, should I find myself in need of more forces, I can always unleash my trump card."

Kabuto nodded. "What would you have me do?"

"Hmm…" Tapping his chin, Orochimaru thought for a moment. "Why don't you stay here and enjoy the show?"

Kabuto did not seem appealed by the prospect of sitting this battle out, which caused Orochimaru to chuckle. He did so love teasing his subordinates. However, as fun as this was, he actually had somewhere to be.

There was an old friend he wanted to meet. It would be a shame if they couldn't talk properly.

XoX

Tsunade was first alerted to the trouble when several massive explosions ripped through the village. She had been doing her paperwork when it happened. When the explosions occurred, she whipped her entire chair around and stared through the rattling window to find massive plumes of fire and smoke rising in the air. Her eyes widened. The place where the explosions had occurred had been Konoha's underground bunkers where civilians were supposed to head to in the event of battle breaking out in Konoha!

Before she could even get her head on straight, the door opened and a Chunin rushed into the room.

"Lady Tsunade! We're under attack!" he shouted.

"By who?!" asked Tsunade as she stood from her seat.

"Our own forces!"

"WHAT?!"

Tsunade couldn't make heads or tails of what this man was saying, and so she quickly decided to figure out what the problem was for herself.

She exited the Hokage Tower and stepped onto the streets. Her senses were almost immediately assaulted with signs of battle. The scent of blood hung heavily in the air, making her nose wrinkle. Everywhere she looked, there were corpses or ninja fighting. Loud clanging rang in her ears as metal struck metal. Ninja shouted out jutsu and launched fire from their mouths, created walls of earth, and spat bullets of water. A cacophony of murderous intent caused the hairs on her arms to prickle.

Those are Konoha headbands!

Perhaps even more shocking than the battle itself was the fact that the people fighting each other were Konoha ninja! Her pupils dilated as she stared at the situation in shock. However, she was not the Hokage for nothing.

"Head over to the hospital and order Shizune to ready a squad of medical ninja! After that, find Inoichi Yamanaka and tell him to find me!" she whirled on the Chunin by her side, who hurriedly nodded and rushed to follow her orders.

Tsunade did not know what was going on, but she knew she had to do something.

Without knowing why her own ninja were attacking, Tsunade couldn't outright kill them. Remembering what Inoichi had discovered on the corpse, she had a hunch they might have been sleeper agents, but she couldn't say that with any certainty. That being the case, her best option was to subdue them.

Acting quickly, Tsunade rushed toward the nearest group of battling ninja. There were two genin fighting against each other. One of them was shouting at the other, asking the young girl why she had betrayed him as tears sprang to his eyes. The girl didn't respond with words. She attacked him and forced him back.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes and pushed forward.

It happened before the boy could blink; Tsunade appeared behind the girl and touched the back of her neck, sending a burst of chakra through her body. The girl jolted. Then her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed like a puppet without chakra strings. Tsunade eyed the girl, and then looked at the boy.

"Get her to the hospital now," Tsunade ordered.

The boy seemed unable to say anything, but he did give her a dumb nod. Tsunade didn't wait to see if he would do as she ordered. She leapt onto the roof, found another group of battling ninja, and raced toward them.

Tsunade had no idea how long she performed these actions. She found ninja fighting, knocked out the one that seemed to be a sleeper agent, and ordered the other to deliver their traitorous comrade to the hospital. It was just after she had finished knocking out the nth Konoha ninja that someone appeared before her.

"Lady Tsunade!"

Inoichi knelt before Tsunade as he appeared on the roof she was standing on, his expression grave.

"It seems several sleeper agents have somehow awakened and are wreaking havoc on our forces," Tsunade said without hesitation.

"I know." Inoichi nodded. "I was forced to fight against several of them on the way here."

"Can you undo whatever happened to them?"

Inoichi hesitated. "That would depend on whether or not they were originally loyal to Konoha. I can't do anything for someone who was always a sleeper agent."

Tsunade accepted that with a nod. "Do what you can. I'm going to continue doing what I can."

"Yes, Lady Tsunade."

As Inoichi disappeared, Tsunade went back to searching for battling Konoha ninja and knocking out the ones that had seemingly turned traitor. She also found Konoha ninja who weren't battling each other and ordered them to help evacuate the panicking civilians. There were many running around and screaming. Since the underground bunkers were gone, she told them to direct everyone to the hidden rooms inside of the Hokage Monument.

Just when Tsunade thought she was getting a handle on the situation, another problem occurred, which she discovered while running along one of the roofs. She chanced a glance at the ground and found several ninja wearing Otogakure headbands. They were attacking fleeing civilians. Several of her people were mercilessly cut down in the blink of an eye.

This is…!

Tsunade howled within her mind as she leapt from the roof and flew toward the ground. Her target didn't even realize she was there. She descended fast and threw a violent punch at his head, which exploded in a spray of gore on contact. There were two other Oto ninja present with this one. They stared at her in shock, but neither of them were fast enough to deal with her. She caved in the chest of one with a single finger flick. Then she killed the other by rabbit punching him in the neck, crushing his esophagus.

Realizing who was behind this, Tsunade raged as she searched for the only man who could have possibly perpetuated this attack on her home. While searching for him, she found three ninja who appeared better than the rest. There was a tall man with an orange wig of spiky hair, a young girl with a childlike appearance, and a brutish-looking man with a large and muscular body. They seemed to be coordinating the Oto ninja.

I don't know who they are, but they're dead.

Tsunade quickly determined that the one in the orange wig was the leader. He had more chakra than the other two, and they seemed to defer to him.

She landed on the ground several feet away and slammed her fist into the road, splitting it apart with ease. As the earth shook and a massive chasm formed, quickly traveling toward the group, the three ninja were forced to split up.

Using that moment, Tsunade dashed forward at speeds that even a Jonin like Maito Gai would have had trouble keeping up with unless he opened the Eight Gates. She reached the orange-haired man before he could figure out what was happening. With her hands now glowing a bright green, Tsunade tapped his body several times. While nothing seemed to happen on the outside, when she swung past him, the man's body crumpled to the ground and didn't get up. It was easy to see that he was not breathing.

"ISHIDATE!" the girl shouted. "Damn you!"

The childlike girl lunged at Tsunade, a crazed look in her eyes. However, Tsunade was not in the mood to play with her. As her body seemingly broke into flower petals, Tsunade expelled the chakra from the genjutsu, spun around, and punched the girl in the nose. A loud bang issued from the point of impact. It was easy to tell from the way the girl's face yielded that she was dead. Seconds after the punch connected, the girl's body flew forward and slammed a wall, which crumpled and buried the body under several tons of rubble.

After staring at what happened to his two companions in horror, the big man tried to run, turning around and fleeing as fast as his legs would carry him. Tsunade wouldn't let that happen. She darted forward faster than he could, leapt into the air, and crushed his skull with a spinning heel drop.

As she removed her heel from the dead man's caved in skull, several more massive explosions caused her to look up. Her eyes widened as numerous giant snakes appeared within Konoha and began going on a rampage.

Glaring at the snakes as a red film hovered over her eyes, Tsunade could only grit her teeth as she began going through the hand seals necessary for the summoning jutsu. However, before she could even complete them, her danger sense, which had been honed by war, warned her that something was coming.

She stopped her hand seals and leapt backward as several snakes tried to bite her. Grimacing, she stomped her foot on the snakes, killing them with ease.

Mocking applause filled the air. Tsunade turned around to see the figure of a man who she'd recognize no matter how much she wished she could forget. His pale skin was nearly translucent and dark hair hung from his head. A robe had been thrown over his body, tied together with a purple rope.

Tsunade sucked in a breath when she saw the man's eyes. They were not the snake-like yellow orbs she remembered. They looked like a black three-sided fuma shuriken within a red star surrounded by darkness.

"Hello, Tsunade," the man said with am amicable but sarcastic smile.

She growled and spit out the man's name. "Orochimaru…"

"Ku ku ku." The sound of his laughter grated on her ears, causing her to gnash her teeth together. Matters were only worsened by the smug look on his face. "You shouldn't frown like that, Tsunade. You'll get wrinkles."

Tsunade would have liked nothing more than to pound this man into oblivion. There were a few reasons she hadn't.

First and foremost was that it looked like he had some strange variation of the Sharingan. Having read the diary written by her grandfather, she knew this was likely the Mangekyo Sharingan, an infamously powerful variant of the original that could only be acquired when an Uchiha underwent great emotional trauma. The easiest way to acquire it was killing the person you loved most. Itachi Uchiha had this doujutsu. He'd used it to put Kakashi in a coma at one point.

The second reason was that she didn't have any information that could prove useful in fighting him. When they had last fought, their battle had been a stalemate. And that had been when Orochimaru's arms were ruined. Now he was healthy and had a Mangekyo Sharingan. How much more powerful was he now?

"So you've finally decided to annihilate Konoha, huh? Are you satisfied, you bastard?" she asked.

"Ku ku ku. I am almost satisfied." Orochimaru's smile widened. "One could say I'm about halfway to being satisfied. To be honest, I don't particularly care if Konoha is wiped from the face of the map. There are only a few things here I want to take care of."

Tsunade slid her feet apart. "And what is that?"

"Oh, just cleaning up some loose ends… I guess you could say. By the way, did you know that you're looking in the wrong direction?"

"What?"

Tsunade was almost shocked when Orochimaru suddenly morphed into a flight of crows. However, she wasn't an experienced kage-level ninja for nothing. The moment she realized she'd been placed under a genjutsu, she broke it with her perfect chakra control and leapt away from where she was standing.

A snake burst from the ground, which she swiftly pulverized with a powerful punch.

"Sen'ei Tajashu."

Leaping into the air, Tsunade managed to avoid the swarm of large snakes that attacked. They tried to entangle her within their coiling grip. She wouldn't let them. After landing on the ground, she stomped her heel hard, causing a massive slab to suddenly explode outward. The snakes slammed into it. She then kicked the slab toward Orochimaru, or where he'd been seconds ago.

As her danger senses alerted her to trouble, Tsunade turned around as Orochimaru lunged at her with the Kusanagi in his hand. The double-bladed longsword flew millimeters by her face. Tsunade was forced to jerk her head back as several strands of hair were cut.

Knowing better than to let the poisoned blade cut her, she quickly retreated a step, back pedaling as her opponent chased after her. She grimaced as he stayed on her tail. Tsunade liked to think she was a good taijutsu expert, but she had no proficiency with weapons, putting her at a disadvantage in a battle such as this.

"What is the matter, Tsunade?" Orochimaru asked. "Are you having trouble? Why aren't you looking at me?"

Damn bastard…

Tsunade had done her best to avoid making eye contact with Orochimaru. She knew perfectly what would happen if they made eye contact. There was no way she would allow herself to fall into a genjutsu.

However, as the fight continued, Tsunade also realized that she was at a great disadvantage. Thanks to the Sharingan, Orochimaru could predict all of her moves even without eye contact. Already several knicks and cuts had appeared on her skin. The slow burn of poison had already entered her blood, and while she was healing it, that pain was also distracting her. Even worse, the longer she let this go on, the more damage would be done to her village. She needed to finish this now!

Stomping her foot on the ground, Tsunade caused the entire village to shake. As several chasms spread from underneath her foot, Orochimaru leapt back to avoid falling, and Tsunade used that time to go through the hand seals necessary for her technique.

"Sozo Saisei (Creation Rebirth)!"

Releasing a massive volume of chakra that she had stored on her forehead all at once, Tsunade allowed her body's cell division to become forcibly stimulated by proteins, reconstructing all the organs and tissues that made up her body. This caused numerous lines to spread across her body.

"Oh? What an interesting technique you have there," Orochimaru said with an amused gleam in his Sharingan eyes. "Yes, very interesting. So interesting, in fact, that I'd like to see how you deal with this. Amaterasu!"

A massive black flame erupted from Orochimaru's eye, bursting forth like a torrential storm. It traveled toward Tsunade at a relentless pace, burning everything in its path. She looked at the flames traveling toward her.

And then she punched it.

Her hand quickly caught fire. Her skin boiled, charred, cracked, and flaked. The fatty oils in her arms and hand burned, hissing and sizzling. Then the flames vanished and her hand quickly regenerated.

"How intriguing. A complete regeneration technique," Orochimaru said. However, before he could say anything else, Tsunade rushed up and punched him in the jaw. There was a loud cracking sound as his jaw shattered. His body spun around, hit the ground, and then tumbled back.

Tsunade knew better than to give Orochimaru time to recover. She rushed forward, leapt into the air, and descended upon him.

Orochimaru grinned as his body became encased in a large skeleton covered in armor. The rib cage quickly formed around him. It was an ethereal purple color and looked like the skeleton of some ancient warrior. That said, it looked incomplete.

Flying straight at her foe, Tsunade slammed her fist against the rib cage of the purple skeleton warrior, cracking it. She slammed her fist into it again. This time, it shattered.

Orochimaru leapt back as he realized her attacks really were quite ferocious. He went through several hand seals, but Tsunade was in front of him before he could finish. His face practically caved in when she punched him. The powerful impact created a sonic boom that echoed across Konoha as he went flying.

Somehow or other, Orochimaru was able to land on his feet, skidding across the dirt as he wove through several hand seals. Tsunade was charging toward him like a rampaging bull.

"Kuchiyose: Rashomon (Summoning Jutsu: Rashomon)!"

Orochimaru slammed his hand into the ground, from which a seal spread out. Then, an ominous, menacing gate rose from the ground. The gate was surrounded by strange outcroppings and several chains, while the gate itself looked like the smiling face of a hideous ogre with a large nose and saw-like teeth.

Tsunade narrowed her eyes as she slammed into the gate. She launched a powerful punch that caused the entire gate to get blown off its hinges. It crumbled under the impact.

"I see your strength hasn't diminished at all," Orochimaru mused.

"That isn't the only thing that hasn't diminished!" Tsunade roared as she tried to punch Orochimaru, but the man proved slippery. Like a snake, he contorted his body around her attacks, and then he launched his own counterattacks. Tsunade took his punches head on like they were nothing before delivering a solid blow to his gut. The snake sannin was lifted off the ground as blood flew from his mouth.

Hitting the ground, Orochimaru rolled for several meters before stopping and didn't get back up. Tsunade frowned as she walked up to him. There was no way that attack had killed this bastard. She knew him well enough to know that. Just as she thought this, the moment she reached his "corpse," the Orochimaru on the ground turned into mud.

"A mud clone," she murmured.

Slamming her fist onto the ground, Tsunade released a powerful burst of chakra that made it split apart. A figure darted out of the ground. This figure extended their hands, unleashing a horde of snakes that tried to attack Tsunade. However, she swept out her leg in an arcing kick that had enough force to destroy all the snakes with nothing but air pressure.

Orochimaru landed on the ground several meters away. Despite the battle having gone on for several minutes, he didn't appear to be even winded.

"It really is a shame." He shook his head. "Despite all that vaunted strength and intelligence, you aren't very good at using either of them. I guess Jiraiya was right when he called you a neanderthal."

"Shut up!" Tsunade snarled. "You have no right to speak of him!"

"No right? Now I'm hurt." Orochimaru placed a hand against his chest, his tone mockingly sad. "Jiraiya was my friend too, you know. His passing was such a shame. I would have liked to see him one last time… if for no other reason than to gloat at him."

Tsunade gritted her teeth against the flood of emotions rushing through her. She needed to remain calm. She couldn't let Orochimaru play his mind games. Letting him get into her head was as good as game over.

"By the way…" he began again. "This is also an illusion."

"What?"

In that moment, just as Tsunade registered the man's words, a sharp pain erupted from her back and came out her chest. She looked down at the sword sticking out of her chest. Then she craned her neck around to find Orochimaru standing behind her.

"Bastard…"

With her Sozo Saisei still active, Tsunade didn't let the stab wound slow her down. She spun around and launched a powerful kick. Orochimaru couldn't dodge in time and received the kick straight to the face—or so it appeared, until the person she kicked turned into a bunch of slithering snakes.

Grunting, Tsunade pushed the Kusanagi out of her back. Then she stepped on it. The blade shattered like it was made of brittle glass.

"And that was my favorite weapon too," Orochimaru complained as he suddenly appeared behind her.

Roaring, Tsunade tried to attack him again, but the man proved every bit as wily as she remembered. He slipped around her attacks, his body bending at angles that shouldn't have been possible. It was like he had no spine.

The longer the battle kept up, the weaker Tsunade began to feel, which she knew was a sign that her Sozo Saisei was almost out of chakra. That was the weakness of this technique. It offered her a limited form of immortality, healing all of her wounds with a speed that made it basically regeneration. At the same time, this great power only lasted until the chakra she had stored in her forehead was used up. Once it was finished, she would suffer serious repercussions.

Trying to end it quickly, Tsunade increased the ferocity of her attacks. However, no matter how much she tried, Orochimaru just proved too slippery. That Sharingan allowed him to keep one step ahead of her.

There was no great final attack when the end came. The seals on her body slowly disappeared, and Tsunade, now out of chakra, stumbled onto her hands and knees. Even her genjutsu had come undone.

"Wow, Tsunade. You look so… old. I guess you can cover up your age with a genjutsu, but that's about it, huh?" Orochimaru mocked.

Tsunade gritted her teeth as she struggled to stand up. "S-shut up…"

"Now, now. There is no need for such foul language."

A pair of shinobi sandals appeared in her vision. Tsunade blinked, then groaned as a hand grabbed a fistful of her fingers and hauled her up. Bringing her face close to his, Orochimaru stared into her eyes.

"I know you're worried, but try not to be. This will be over with quickly." As Tsunade struggled against the hand, Orochimaru muttered the last words she would hear. "Tsukuyomi."

XoX

Danzo knew when the attack on Konoha happened that Orochimaru had come for him. That was why, as Konoha's citizens were being slaughtered, Danzo gathered his shinobi, his ROOT, and waited for the man to arrive in the lower levels far beneath the village.

It was hard to tell what was happening above him. He only knew what his shinobi had informed him of when the attack started, so he wasn't sure how many villagers had died, but it wasn't like that mattered overly much. So long as Konoha's roots remained strong, Konoha would remain strong.

Just then, a shinobi appeared before him and knelt down. "He's here."

"I see." Danzo took a deep breath. "Kill him."

"As you command," the ninja said, and then disappeared.

XoX

Orochimaru could not help but chuckle as he strolled through Konoha's underground. Several ninja wearing the standard cloak and mask of the Konohagakure Anbu appeared before him to attack, but he dispatched them all. Black flames blasted from his eye and washed through the tunnels, taking out ninja wholesale. Without even glancing at the charred corpses, he continued on.

These tunnels all looked the same, and anyone who had never explored them would have undoubtedly gotten lost, but Orochimaru knew these tunnels quite well. He took seemingly random turns, traveled down flights of stairs, and went through numerous doors.

The members of ROOT blocked his path at every turn.

He had to hand it to Danzo: His men were quite talented. They relied on all sorts of nasty tricks, from ambushes to the use of poisons and poisonous animals. It was too bad none of them were strong enough to properly ambush him. Poisons also didn't work. He'd genetically modified his body to be immune to almost all poisons. Only Sasori of the Red Sand had a chance of creating a poison that could harm him, and that man was dead.

During his travel through the tunnels, several thousand bugs suddenly appeared around him.

"Oh?" Orochimaru eyed the bugs as they tried to assault him. He erected a barrier using Amaterasu's flames, which burned all the bugs around him to cinders. "It looks like there is an Aburame here."

He quickly located the Aburame, who was hiding in an alcove above his head. Orochimaru launched several black flames at the man. The Aburame leapt off the alcove as it was burned to a crisp. He landed on the ground some distance away, and Orochimaru elected to try and burn him again. However, the Aburame proved adept at evading his attacks by replacing himself with a bug clone.

"Such talent," Orochimaru sighed enviably as he summoned his Kusanagi to his hand. Spinning around, he slashed the Aburame, who had tried to sneak up behind him, from his left shoulder to his right hip. As the dead ninja crumpled to the ground, a smile split Orochimaru's face. "It is unfortunate that you'll never meet your full potential."

Orochimaru then turned his head and channeled chakra to his eyes. A loud scream suddenly erupted somewhere to his left, and another man wearing the garb of an Anbu fell to the ground, writhing in agony, even though nothing seemed to be wrong.

"A Yamanaka?" Orochimaru wandered over to the writhing man and put him out of his misery. "My, Danzo has found some interesting pawns."

Moving through the tunnels again, Orochimaru eventually found Danzo waiting for him in a large room. A glance around the room revealed it to be fairly barren. This place had likely been selected as their battleground because the old man knew there was going to be no escape.

"Ku ku ku. It has been a long time, Danzo. You're looking… old."

Danzo was a deceptively frail-looking old man who stood with a cane in one hand. He had black, shaggy hair, and his right eye was bandaged. Orochimaru eyed the x-shaped scar on his chin. The white shirt he wore was partially hidden underneath his black robe, which also covered his feet. The robe concealed his right arm.

"I knew letting you live was a mistake," Danzo said as he stood in the center of the room. "You have always been a danger to Konoha."

Orochimaru could not stop his smile from widening. "Aren't you the one who cultivated this danger? Not only did you let me live, but you made deals with me in exchange for me helping you implant those many Sharingan you have in your possession. I even went a step further and grated Senju cells into your arm as well. Really, you should be thanking me."

Danzo pushed the robe covering his shoulder off and removed his arm, which was covered not only in bandages but also in three golden braces. The man began slowly removing the braces one by one. Orochimaru did not stop him.

"It seems pointless to try and fight you while sealed like this," Danzo muttered as one of the braces fell to the ground. "Therefore, I'll be going all out from the beginning."

"Good. Very good." Orochimaru smiled approvingly. "I hope you can entertain me."

The man finally removed all three braces, then undid the bandages, revealing that his arm was pale and withered. Not just that. Grafted into the arm were ten Sharingan, and up near the shoulder was bulging area of skin that vaguely resembled a human face.

"I wonder… do you really think you can defeat me with those eyes?" asked Orochimaru as his own Sharingan began spinning. "I gave you those eyes, after all."

"And I'll show you my gratitude by killing you," Danzo said.

Orochimaru chuckled several times as he slid his feet across the floor. This was sure to be an interesting battle.

XoX

After reaching the Second Division army, Naruto had Darui inform the Kumo ninja about what happened and give them their orders. While many of the Kumo ninja had been shocked to learn that their Raikage was being manipulated by a genjutsu, even more had been ashamed. Quite a few of them had actually cried. It was kind of creepy. Immediately after letting everyone know the truth, Darui had taken the Kumo army and gone to meet up with the First Division, who they would aid in repelling Iwagakure.

Yugito stayed behind.

Once Kumo's army left, Kakashi immediately ordered everyone to pack up and make for Konoha. A lot of his fellow ninja were shocked by how the copy ninja was rushing them. However, they didn't ask questions as everyone sealed up their camping equipment and began the march back to Konoha.

Naruto walked at the head of their procession alongside Yugito and Akane. With them were the members of Teams 8 and 10. However, they were a little further back and talking amongst themselves.

"Kakashi," Naruto said suddenly. "Is there any way we can move faster?"

Turning his head, Kakashi presented Naruto with a frown, though it was hard to tell because of the facemask. "Why? Is something the matter?"

"I guess not." Naruto frowned and shook his head. "I just… have a really bad feeling. That's all."

"Hmm…" Kakashi seemed to consider Naruto for a moment, and then looked ahead of them. "To be honest, I've been having a similar feeling myself."

"You have?" Naruto looked surprised.

Kakashi nodded. "You remember how the Raikage theorized that the person who placed the genjutsu on him was Orochimaru, right? He's not a man who does things on a whim. Why place the Raikage, Yugito, and Kirabi under a genjutsu? Why did he manipulate Kumo into attacking Konoha? A man like Orochimaru does not do anything without a reason, so what was the reason for this?"

As they walked through the forest of Hi no Kuni, Naruto contemplated what Kakashi was telling him. It didn't take long for him to arrive at a conclusion.

"Konoha is currently lacking in manpower…" Naruto whispered in shock.

"That's right." Kakashi nodded. "At the moment, almost all of our Chunin and Jonin have left the village to fight against either Iwa or Kumo, which means there are currently only a few ninja Chunin or higher left in the village. If Orochimaru did indeed manipulate the other two villages into attacking us, then I can only assume he did so in order to launch his own attack on Konoha while it was weak."

"Then we have to hurry!" Naruto shouted.

"You are correct." Nodding, Kakashi looked back at all the ninja following behind them. There were around 500, and he couldn't even see them all because of the trees blocking his way. "However, it is impossible for an army of five hundred ninja to move that quickly. Therefore, Naruto, I want you to gather a small team of ninja and head to the village as quickly as you can."

"Right!" Naruto said with a nod.

Because he wanted to reach Konoha quickly, Naruto chose Sakura and Team 8 to travel with him, Akane, and Yugito back to Konoha ahead of the Second Division army. Team 8 was made up of Hinata, Shino, and Kiba along with their Jonin leader Kurenai. As a team that specialized in tracking, they were a fair bit faster than Team 10, which specialized in capture and interrogation.

With Team 8 in tow, Naruto quickly did his best to blitz through the forest. However, even though Team 8 had more stamina than Team 10, and they were faster, the squadron still had trouble keeping up with Naruto's hellacious pace. So did Sakura.

The only ones who could keep up with him were Yugito and Akane. As a jinchurikki and a powerful being of mass destruction, the two women had the same insane stamina as him.

"Naruto… can't we… slow down a little…?" Sakura asked, rasping as the group darted through the trees. While Sakura was barely managing to keep up with him, Shino, Kiba, Hinata, and Kurenai were lagging behind. "I don't think… we can keep this up…!"

Naruto glanced back at the others to see what she meant, and when he noticed how far behind the other four were, he sighed and agreed to stop.

"We'll take a one hour break," he determined. "However, we can't afford to waste anymore time than that."

Sakura gave him a tumultuous smile as though lamenting how they'd only been given one hour to rest. That said, she plopped herself on the ground without a second thought and quickly brought a flask of water to her parched mouth.

When the others caught up, Naruto told them the same thing. They would have one hour. While Kiba had loudly complained about how one hour was not nearly enough, Naruto silenced him with a swift glare.

With only one hour to rest, the group quickly sat down and did whatever they could to replenish their energy, eating rations, drinking water, and resting their weary legs. They had been running nonstop for several hours, at a pace that was essentially an all-out sprint. Even though they were Chunin, none of them had the stamina for that kind of torment. Even Kurenai, a Jonin, was sweating profusely as she sat with her back against a tree.

"That damn Naruto," Kiba grumbled. "Why is he having us push ourselves so hard?"

"You know why." Kurenai admonished the boy with a stern look. "While there's no evidence, given the situation and everything that has happened, there's a strong possibility that Konoha may be under attack right now."

"I know that." Kiba scowled. "But even if we head there as quickly as we can, what good could we do if all of us are exhausted? All I'm saying is that we should be in peak physical condition on the off chance that Konoha really is in danger."

"I agree," Shino said, his sunglasses glinting in the light. "Let us say that we did proceed to Konoha with all due haste, only to arrive and discover that Konoha is under siege. We would not be able to defend the village if we are tired."

"T-that is true," Hinata added. "However, I think Naruto-kun is thinking about what would happen if we are too late."

"Probably, but I still say we need to be at least rested enough to battle," Shino said.

"Well, I don't disagree, but…"

"I think we all need to remember that Naruto is grown up now," Sakura said. "He's doing his best to become a good shinobi who puts his village first. Right now, there is a chance that village is under threat, so of course he's going to become a little, um, taciturn."

"Whatever you say, Sakura," Kiba muttered as Akamaru barked several times.

Naruto listened to the conversation happening several meters behind him. He sighed as he leaned against a tree, his arms crossed as he stared through the trees like he could see Konoha from there. He couldn't. Konoha was still nearly a hundred kilometers out, but he gazed in the direction of the village anyway.

Standing beside him were Akane and Yugito. Both of them were silent as they glanced him in what he guessed was concern. Perhaps they understood how he felt and were being respectful by not trying to engage him in conversation.

Once the one hour period was up, the group moved off again. Their pace was no less furious than the previous one that Naruto had set. Perhaps because they were moving so fast, the group needed to take one more break before they reached Konoha, and when they finally did arrive, the group of ninja could only stare in horror at what they saw.

"This is…"

"Oh, no…"

Smoke could be seen rising from behind Konoha's wall, large billowing clouds in numerous locations. Anyone with half a brain could tell this was from a fire.

Naruto did not wait for the others as he rushed up toward the gate. He ignored their shouts, broke onto the main road, and gawked at the now destroyed gates of Konoha. It looked like someone or something had smashed its way through. The gates were not just destroyed. The wall around where the gates were also completely gone. It looked like someone had used a summon to wreck the gate.

Stepping past the entrance, Naruto could not stop the blood that drained from his face. Everywhere he looked were scenes of incredible violence. Corpses littered the streets. Some of them were ninja, but there were also a lot of civilians. A young man in his early 20s lay staring sightlessly at the sky. A young mother and her child were sprawled across the ground, the mother hugging the child to her chest. It looked like she had tried to protect her son. Both were dead.

The other Konoha ninja plus Akane and Yugito stepped past the gate as well. The looks on their faces were almost the same as his. Kiba had paled, Hinata was staring in wide-eyed horror, and Kurenai was gaping at the pointless destruction. The only one whose expression Naruto couldn't see was Shino, but he didn't doubt that the Aburame had a similar expression to his friends.

"Thi… this is horrible," Sakura muttered as he looked at the village with wide eyes. No one said anything, but everyone agreed.

"I sense combat still going on in certain areas." Akane cocked her head to the side as though listening to something. "It seems whoever is attacking is still fighting."

"Let's split up," Naruto said at last. "Help everyone you can and bring the injured to the hospital. Sakura, I want you to find Shizune and help her in any way you can."

"R-right…"

"You all know what to do," Naruto said to everyone. "Our village needs us, so let's do what we can!"

No one said anything, but everyone agreed with him, and so it wasn't long after he finished speaking that they split up. Sakura disappeared on her own, Team 8 vanished together after taking to the roofs, and Akane said she'd do what she could to help out before also running off. The only one who stayed with him was Yugito, and that's because she was a Kumo ninja. He didn't think Konoha was aware that they were no longer fighting.

"Let's go," Naruto said.

"I'm right behind you," Yugito told him.

The two of them rushed through the village with the same speed as the others. Naruto used his enhanced hearing to track down the sounds of combat, then he and Yugito would fight against whatever enemies they came upon.

"Over there!" Yugito pointed at something to his left.

Naruto turned his head. A young genin was running through the streets as several ninja from another village chased after him. Naruto didn't recognize him, but this genin couldn't have been much older than Konohamaru.

The ninja chasing after the genin wore black face masks that covered everything except their eyes. A silver headband flashed with the color of a musical note on their heads. The scarf wrapped around their necks was made in a camouflage pattern. Meanwhile, they wore light gray tunics, black long-sleeved shirts and pants, and shinobi sandals. An obi was tied around their waste.

Oto ninja.

Narrowing his eyes, Naruto tapped his foot against the ground and suddenly disappeared. He reappeared between the three ninja and the genin they were hounding. The three ninja abruptly stopped upon seeing his appearance. Yugito, who had taken off her headband at his suggestion, appeared near the young boy.

"Who the hell are you?" asked one of the ninja.

Naruto didn't answer. He suddenly disappeared in a burst of speed as he dashed across the ground. A swirling blue ball of chakra appeared in his left hand, which he thrust out the moment he reached the ninja.

"Rasengan!"

A loud tearing sound echoed all around them as his jutsu tore through the clothes and flesh of the person before him. The Oto ninja let out an agonized scream, but that was quickly cut off when the man was blasted away. He struck the ground, rolled, and then came to a stop.

"Y-you bastard!" one of the Oto ninja shouted as she turned toward Naruto to attack. The flash of a kunai appeared in her hand as she tried to impale him.

Naruto wove around the kunai, took a step forward, and slammed a fist into her throat. As the kunoichi gagged, he spun around and made a slashing motion at the ninja to his right. The man who had been getting ready to attack him suddenly froze. Not even a second later, blood spurted from his chest as the wind blade tore into him. By this point, the woman had recovered, but Naruto rotated on his left foot, raised his right foot, and launched a powerful kick into the woman's neck. There was a loud cracking noise that issued from her neck. The kunoichi fell forward, hitting the ground with her knees, and then pitching forward to lie on her face.

With the three ninja dead, Naruto turned to the petrified genin.

"Are you okay, kid?" he asked.

The genin's eyes widened. "You're Naruto!"

Naruto nodded but didn't pay attention to the hero worship in the kid's voice. "Where is your team?"

Immediately after Naruto mentioned the boy's team, the genin became silent. He looked down at the ground. Several sniffles issued from his mouth as tears began leaking out of his eyes. Naruto glanced down at the boy's hands, which were clenched into fists.

"I see." He tried not to let his own emotions boil over and placed his hands on the genin's shoulder. "In that case, I'd like you to head to the hospital. Do not try to fight anyone. If you see anymore Oto ninja, just run." Naruto created a clone. "This guy will escort you."

The genin nodded and left with the clone. Naruto watched them go before he turned his attention back toward the village. There was still a lot of fighting in the area. He could hear the sounds of metal clashing against metal, explosions ringing in the air, and jutsu names being called out. There was also that summons on the other side of the village that he would have to deal with.

"What should we do?" asked Yugito in a somber voice.

Naruto took a deep breath and made a single hand seal. "We do whatever we can to repel these people and save whoever we are able to. Taju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)."

The moment the jutsu name left his lips, the area around them exploded, and several thousand Narutos suddenly appeared around them. They were everywhere. On the ground, on the walls, and on the roofs of buildings. Yugito eyed the numerous clones that Naruto had created, though they did not remain for long. The clones quickly dispersed, vanishing into the distance.

"Shadow Clones are weak and will be dispelled with just one solid hit," Naruto began explaining. "However, even if all they can do is act as a shield, I think it's better than nothing."

"You are right." Yugito nodded her agreement.

"Come on," Naruto said softly. "Let's head over to that giant snake and take him out."

Yugito nodded again, and the two of them were soon racing down the street. While their goal was the snake summons that was wreaking havoc on the village, that didn't mean they went straight there. The pair came across numerous ninja who were fighting. Each time this happened, Naruto or Yugito would use their incredible speed and strength to destroy the Oto ninja attacking and disappear before the Konoha ninja could thank them.

Along the way to the snake, they found numerous corpses littering the ground—and only a few of them were ninja. Most of them were civilians. This led Naruto to realizing that these ninja somehow attacked before Konoha could realize what was happening. He wondered how such a thing was possible. Konoha had a barrier that should have alerted them to any foreign chakra signatures entering their village.

"How should we do this?" asked Yugito as the pair reached the snake summon.

Naruto took a deep breath, and then he smiled, though there was no humor in it. "Just watch for now. I'll take this thing out."

Perhaps Yugito sensed the frustration in Naruto's voice. She didn't argue with him and stepped back. Turning his attention from her to the snake, Naruto bent his knees, channeled his chakra, and burst forward like a cannon being fired off. He practically soared through the air as he reached the snake in record time. Flipping around, Naruto delivered a crushing blow to the snake's side. His attack was so powerful that the massive creature fell to the ground while releasing an ear splitting shriek.

Landing on a roof several meters away, Naruto jumped into the air and created a shadow clone. As he and the clone descended to the ground, Naruto created a rasengan in one hand and had the clone infuse its chakra into the technique. The small sphere about the size of his palm soon grew increasingly large, until it was about twice the size of his head. Then he finished his fall and stuck out his hand.

"Oodoma Rasengan!"

The Oodama Rasengan was just a bigger, more powerful rasengan. It used the same concept as the original technique, but with more chakra.

When Naruto slammed the giant ball against the snake's hide, the energy within the swirling nebulus of chakra was immediately released. An explosion went up. The force was such that Naruto was pushed back into the air, but he used it to flip around several times and land on the nearest roof. Meanwhile, the snake that he had slammed his technique into had a huge chunk of its body gouged out. Blood, bones, and organs poured from the now open wound. The snake, clearly dead, writhed several times before going completely still. It didn't get summoned back to its own domain.

Naruto stared at the dead snake for several seconds, his breathing heavy. Gentle footsteps came up behind him during that time.

"What should we do now?" asked Yugito.

"Let's help whoever we can," Naruto said, closing his eyes.

"Okay."

Naruto opened his eyes and glanced at Yugito. Now wasn't the time to mourn or feel angry. Konoha needed him. He nodded to his companion, and the two of them took off into the village.

XoX

Driving off all of Oto's forces was not that difficult; there were only a few hundred of them. The main problem, Naruto discovered, was that some of their own Konoha ninja had betrayed them. Whether that was because they had always been traitors or were brainwashed, he didn't know. All he knew was that several of their own forces had tried to stab him when his back was turned.

After the battle ended, Naruto hooked up with Sakura and Shizune, who had gathered all of their medical ninja and were doing what they could to heal everyone. Inoichi was also with them. He had been trying to determine what had caused their own ninja to turn traitor. As of yet, he had no conclusive theories.

With the battle over, Naruto created several thousand clones and had them work alongside the ninja who had survived. Their goal was to search for survivors who'd been injured. They also needed to create a list of casualties.

Tsunade was also missing in action. Neither Shizune, Inoichi, or anyone else knew where she was. All they knew was that she'd gone to help drive off Otogakure and never returned.

With all these problems piled on top of each other, there was no one present who could handle the job of directing their forces. That was why Naruto found himself sitting in the Hokage's office, listening to reports, giving orders, and directing their forces. He was currently the highest ranking ninja present.

Two hours had passed since the battle ended. Naruto was looking at a report. They'd finally gained an estimate of their casualties during this battle. 562 civilians had lost their lives, while 1,236 genin-level ninja had also perished. That was a huge number. Their genin forces had been practically cut in half. This also wasn't counting the number of ninja who'd turned traitor.

Naruto set the sheet of information down and rubbed his forehead, wondering if his current headache was something Tsunade had to deal with daily.

The number of turncoat ninja was about 56. While that didn't seem like a high number, the fact that 56 ninja had turned on them was significant in and of itself. How could so many of their own forces be traitors? Were there any more?

Naruto remembered the ninja he'd tailed, the one who'd met up with someone else. He didn't think these two incidents were unrelated.

Just then, the door opened and Akane walked in. She looked the same as always. Her clothing was unruffled, her hair didn't have a single strand out of place, and the only difference between now and her usual appearance was her demeanor. She wore a somber expression.

"Akane…" Naruto heaved a tired sigh. "Is something up?"

Nodding just once, Akane said, "They've found Tsunade, but…" she trailed off, shook her head, and then continued. "It isn't good."

Standing to his feet, Naruto created a clone to take over his work and walked up to the redhead. He gazed into her eyes for a moment. Then, making a gesture, he said, "Lead the way please."

Taking him by the hand, Akane led him out of the Hokage's office.

The damage done to Konoha was mostly cosmetic, which Naruto had noticed more clearly after sitting behind the Hokage's desk. Outside of the area where the snake summons had wreaked havoc, most of the city was still intact, and none of the buildings would need more than a few basic repairs. That would have been a silver lining, but the number of dead far outweighed this small miracle.

Akane brought Naruto to the hospital. It was a frantic mess inside. All of the nurses, doctors, and medical ninja were rushing around trying to heal patients. Even the waiting room was being used. According to a report, the number of injured far outstripped the number of beds available.

As he walked through the waiting room, Naruto saw all kinds of injuries. Some people were holding their bleeding faces, a number of children had their heads wrapped in blood stained bandages, and quite a few people were screaming out as the doctors and nurses tried to fix broken bones or stitch up huge gashes on their bodies. It was enough to make him sick.

His hand tightly clenched Akane's. If the bijuu minded his actions, she didn't say anything, allowing him to fiercely hold her hand as she led him into a hallway.

They soon stopped at a door far from everywhere else. Naruto already knew what lay beyond this door. After taking a breath to steady himself, he pushed the door open.

What lay on the other side was a clean room with a large bed resting against the far wall. An IV stood next to the bed.

Several people were already present when he entered, Shizune and Sakura, who looked at him the moment he and Akane stepped inside. As he glanced passed them and at the bed, Naruto thought his heart might freeze. Lying on the bed was Tsunade. However, he hardly recognized her. The woman who normally looked like she was in her mid-twenties now looked old and decrepit, her body covered in numerous wrinkles, and her cheeks sunken and hollow. Her eyes were closed. She was also breathing. However, this fragile and ancient appearance left him stunned.

"A young genin found her like this and managed to drag her here," Shizune said when Naruto didn't say anything. "She was apparently buried under a collapsed building."

"Do we know what happened?" asked Naruto finally.

Shizune shook her head. "We don't know what happened, but I do have several ideas on how she ended up in this state."

"Let's hear it then."

Taking a deep breath, Shizune centered herself before explaining. "I believe she confronted Orochimaru. Notice how the diamond-shaped symbol on her forehead is gone? That symbol is the Byakugo no In, a powerful seal which is reputed to be the pinnacle of chakra control. By storing a vast amount of chakra over an extended period of time into her forehead, Tsunade was able to create this seal. With it, Tsunade is able to perform techniques without any wasted energy, and when released, the stored chakra is unleashed into their body. This greatly amplifies the power of Tsunade's techniques."

Naruto absorbed the knowledge Shizune was telling him with a nod, but he wasn't one hundred percent sure he understood it all. He wouldn't call himself a slouch when it came to ninjutsu. That said, the nuances of many of the more complicated jutsu escaped him.

"After releasing this seal, I believe Tsunade used Sozo Saisei, a technique in which the body's cell division is forcibly stimulated by proteins. It grants her a limited form of immortality, allowing her body to reconstruct any organs and damaged tissue at a rate so fast it could be called a form of regeneration." Shizune took a shuddering breath. "However, it isn't true regeneration. What this technique does is hasten the creation of new cells through division. It's a powerful technique but not without its drawbacks."

"What do you mean?" asked Naruto.

"A body's cells can only be split a certain number of times in one's lifetime," Sakura said. "By speeding up this process, Tsunade is basically shortening her own natural lifespan."

"So this state she's in was self-inflicted?" Naruto glanced at Shizune.

"Partly," Shizune admitted. "I believe when she fought against Orochimaru, she was forced to unleash her full strength and lost."

"Do we know for sure if it was Orochimaru she fought?" asked Naruto.

"Who else could it be?" Shizune answered his question with one of her own, to which he could only nod. It was true. There weren't that many people who could force Tsunade to this state. Of them, Orochimaru was the most likely candidate.

"Will she wake up?" asked Naruto.

At his next question, Shizune and Sakura glanced at each other and remained silent, as though unsure of how to answer. Naruto frowned at them.

"She should… eventually," Shizune said, choosing each word with care. "However, we have no idea how long that might take, and we don't really know what happened to her. From the residual chakra in her body, it looks like she was placed under a powerful genjutsu, but we can't figure out anything more than that."

Naruto didn't like the sound of that. He spoke to the pair of medical ninja for a little bit longer, asking them to take care of Tsunade, and then he left with Akane in tow.

As he was heading back to the Hokage's office to relieve his Shadow Clone, Naruto paused when he caught sight of Yugito surrounded by a group of genin. He didn't know what was going on at first. However, as he got closer, his ears twitched as he heard the group speak.

"What the hell are you doing here?!"

"You damn bitch! This is all your fault!"

"Kumo betrayed Konoha!"

"Go back to where you came from!"

Twitching several times as he listened to these ignorant fools, Naruto was five seconds from going over there and beating the snot out of those genin, all of whom were adults that never managed to pass the Chunin Exams. However, before he could even take a single step forward, Yugito bowed her head.

"You are right," she said. "Because we allowed ourselves to be manipulated by Orochimaru, Konoha was left vulnerable. Words cannot express how sorry I am."

"Er…"

The genin didn't seem to know how they should respond. They glanced at each other, their expressions unsure. It seemed they couldn't deal with someone who was admitting to her faults and apologizing.

"J-just don't let it happen again…" one of them said before the group marched off.

Seeing them disappear into the village, Naruto and Akane wandered over to Yugito, who was watching the group leave with a complicated expression on her face.

"You handled yourself pretty well," Akane said. "Had it been me, I would have killed them."

Yugito glanced at Akane, then at Naruto, before looking back at where the genin had vanished. Her shoulders sagged as though a weight was pushing down on them. She sighed.

"They aren't wrong," she said in a soft, quiet voice. "This really is Kumo's fault. We allowed that man to sneak into our village, cast a genjutsu over us, and force us to attack Konoha. We should have been more vigilant."

Naruto understood where she was coming from, and a part of him couldn't necessarily disagree. There was some truth to her words. At the same time…

"There's no way you could have known what Orochimaru was plotting," Naruto said. "That man has been a thorn in Konoha's side for so long, and honestly, if we blamed you for what happened, then we would have to blame ourselves for all the times he duped us. This isn't the first time one of Orochimaru's plots dealt a great deal of damage to Konoha."

Yugito didn't speak for the longest time, but she eventually nodded, even though it didn't look like she completely agreed with him. The expression on her face was still layered with guilt.

"I suppose you have a point."

"I do have a point, and now that it has been made—" Naruto grabbed Yugito's hand and began pulling her and Akane behind him "—I'm hungry. I don't know about you, but I could really go for some ramen right about now. So how about you two join me?"

"Weren't you going to the Hokage's office?" asked an amused Akane.

"Bah! I have a clone working on the paperwork and whatnot," Naruto said. "I'm sure everything will be fine."

"Well, if you say so…" Yugito glanced at Akane uncertainly. The redhead only shrugged and smiled.

"I do say so," Naruto said in response to them both. "Now come on."

XoX

Konoha's Second Division returned less than a day after Naruto and his small squadron did. Already knowing that everyone needed to be informed of the situation, he called a meeting with the members of the Second Division's squad leaders. Aside from Kakashi, that meant Kurenai, Asuma, Aoba, and 38 other Jonin he didn't know the names of.

They were currently crowding inside of the Hokage's office. Naruto, having been acting as the provisional Hokage until Tsunade woke up, sat behind the desk.

At the beginning of this meeting, it had been clear that all of them were incredibly confused as to why Naruto was sitting behind the Hokage's desk. However, as he explained the situation to them, the confused expressions were replaced with shock, and then anger.

"So we were once again attacked by that damn Orochimaru!" one of the Jonin scowled and clenched her fists. He vaguely recognized the woman's wild hair and triangle shaped markings on her face. She was Kiba's mom. What was her name? Tsume?

"It's obvious now that Orochimaru instigated Iwa and Kumo into attacking us so we'd have no choice but to meet their attacks with our own forces," Kakashi said. "I have to admit, it was a cunning plan. He forced us to meet two separate armies, not only dividing our forces, but forcing us to leave only a token force in Konoha, and then he attacked with only a small force of his own and dealt a lot of damage."

"Speaking of damage, I received a report from Inoichi a little while ago," Naruto said. "It seems a man named Danzo was killed during the attack. From what Inoichi has told me, this Danzo was in charge of a defunct Anbu unit called Root. According to the report, Danzo was found underneath Konoha alongside nearly two hundred ninja." The ninja present began murmuring. "I believe the reason Orochimaru attacked Konoha was actually to dispose of Danzo."

"But why would he do that?" asked Kurenai.

Asuma, who looked more than anything like he wanted to smoke, sighed. "Because Danzo and Orochimaru have had dealings in the past. I heard it from my old man. It seems the two of them had been involved in the kidnapping and experimenting on several Konoha citizens. However, at some point, Danzo felt like Orochimaru was becoming too dangerous and tried to have him killed. I believe Orochimaru decided to kill Danzo in order to tie up this loose end."

Naruto actually had not known anything about this, but it didn't really matter in the end. This was just an interesting bit of extra information.

"What we need to do now is consider how to proceed from here," Naruto said. "Tsunade is in a coma right now, which means someone needs to take over her position until she wakes up. I can't do that. I don't have the credentials or ability to lead."

"You seem to be doing a pretty good job so far," Asuma said.

"Don't be ridiculous." Shaking his head, Naruto cast the man an irritable glare. "It has only been a single day, and all I've done are read reports and direct relief efforts to help Konoha. Once this is done, we'll need someone who is capable of doing administrative work and directing our forces. I'm not capable of doing that… which is why I'd like to elect Kakashi to become the provisional Hokage until Tsunade wakes up."

Everyone glanced at Kakashi who, suddenly put in the spotlight, could only cast Naruto a mild glare. It seemed he also didn't want to be Hokage. However, now that Naruto had mentioned it, the other ninja seemed more receptive to the idea.

"Kakashi is currently the strongest ninja in our village," Asuma said.

"And he has the most experience," Kurenai added fuel to the fire.

At her words, more and more people began speaking about how talented Kakashi was, and how he'd probably make a great provisional Hokage. The man could only look on helplessly as people kept adding their support.

"Fine. Fine." He sighed. "I'll agree to become the Hokage—at least until Lady Tsunade wakes back up." He cast a mild glare at Naruto, who could only smile. "That said, I'm curious to know why you decided to so quickly replace yourself with me. Don't give me that lie about me being a better choice than you. I might have more experience, but I know you're perfectly capable of acting as our leader."

Naruto nodded as Kakashi spoke. It seemed the man had seen through him.

"This is the second time that Orochimaru has damaged Konoha in an attack," Naruto said. "While this attack seemed less designed to destroy us and more to accomplish his own objectives, it does not change the fact that our village has suffered greatly. During the attack on the Chunin Exams, we were too busy rebuilding to do anything about it. However, this time, we cannot allow him to get away with this and not retaliate."

Naruto stood up, placed his hands on the Hokage's desk, and leaned over to pierce everyone with the most fierce look he could muster.

"That is why I'm going to put together a team made up of myself, Akane, Yugito Nii, and a few other ninja of my choosing, and then I'm going to locate Orochimaru and kill him."