Chapter 3: An ordinary day in Konoha

So, it is decided, then?" Yugito asked quietly.

The Raikage looked over at the younger woman, knowing why the plan had been formulated. It was a good plan, he admitted to himself, an effective plan. It had elements of brilliance in its daring. But Yugito had allowed personal feelings to influence her judgment. That wasn't so good, as his brother was wont to say. He turned towards the window, and watched the dark night bathing the countryside of Kumogakure in a pale white glow as he considered the ramifications of what they were about to attempt.

"Yes."

Konohagakure no Sato, Kumo Safe house, 2 Days Later,

The two men hunched over the blow-up of the map, flanked by several eight-by-ten photographs.

"This is going to be the hard one," the one on the right said. "This I can't help with."

"What is the problem, Nakamura?" the one on the left asked even though he could see it, but by asking this question he could gauge the skill of his new associate. He had never worked with a rookie before, and as such, he was an unknown quantity, at least in an operational sense.

"He always comes out by the East Gate, here. This street, as you see is a dead end. He has to go straight west or turn north coming out. He has done both. This street here is wide enough to do the job, but this one – too narrow, and it leads straight towards the Uchiha Military Police HQ. Going that way is suicide. That means the only sure spot is right here, but even if we conduct the op, getting out is going to be a bitch. They will have the village in lock down in minutes," Nakamura pointed. "Both these streets are narrow and always have pedestrian traffic on both sides. This building is apartments. These are houses – expensive ones. There is not much pedestrian traffic here, oddly enough. Your guy has to wing this alone, and he's gotta be quick on his feet. Otherwise, he is toast, Shigeo-san."

"How does he get out?" Shigeo asked.

"It is just three streets away from the safe house, and once he gets here; he can use a reverse summoning seal that will be placed here. If he makes it in, he can activate it and teleport himself to Kumo and be home free," Nakamura spoke softly.

"Why not catch him at a different place?" Shigeo asked softly.

Nakamura shook his head, "Too hard. The roads are too crowded in the area, and the ANBU are always on prowl, and it'd be too easy to lose him. You've seen the foot traffic, Shigeo-san, and he never goes exactly the same way twice. If you want my opinion, you should split the operation, do it one part at a time, like Yugito-sama suggested."

The next moment, the table was upturned as Nakamura found his neck under Shigeo's grip, "Don't ever…ever call that whore as Yugito-sama in my presence, you understand?" the man spoke in a guttural tone as his eyes turned bloodshot.

"That whore…how dare they tell me to take my orders from her? She is not even a fucking human being…and yet that overgrown mastodon orders me to take my orders from that wench…I will…," the man ranted as he loosened his grip on Nakamura's neck.

"Hey…hey…calm down, Shigeo-san, okay, relax, take a deep breath," Nakamura tried to calm the man hoping desperately that the irate Jonin wouldn't kill him.

"Listen, and listen well, Nakamura, we'll do it the way I want, not how that wench wants it," Shigeo spoke harshly as the rookie immediately nodded in agreement.

As the older man walked out, he slowly wiped the sweat off his brow. He had to inform Yugito immediately.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the pictures of Hyuuga Hiashi lay beneath his feet, trampled beyond recognition.

Uchiha Military Police Headquarters, Konoha, the following day,

In the halls of the Uchiha Military Police HQ, Sergeant Yashiro Uchiha, the deputy head of the Konoha Military Police, walked down the double line of military policemen, and his long-practiced eyes didn't miss a thing. One man had lint on his green, high-necked chunin vest. Another's shoes needed a little more work, and two needed haircuts; you could barely see their scalps under the quarter-inch hair. All in all, there wasn't much to be displeased with. Everyone would have passed a normal inspection, but this wasn't a normal institution, and normal rules didn't apply. Yashiro was not a screamer. He'd got past that. His remonstrations were more fatherly now. They carried the force of a command from God nevertheless. He finished the inspection and dismissed the guard detail to allow them to move on to their patrols.

Though he didn't know it, he was about to have a very interesting day.

At the same time, in the Kumo Safe House, Konoha,

Shigeo assembled the mercenaries he had hired and assigned them their duties. Although, he and Nakamura were the only illegal agents present in Konoha, they couldn't afford to get reckless. These men were disposable thugs, lured with the task of making some easy money, and as such they had been tasked with creating a diversion, which he would use to accomplish his mission.

"Renji?"

"Yes, Shigeo-san?" Renji Abarai, known as Renji, hadn't stopped going over the maps and photographs of the targets since he had entered the safe house.

One of the most experienced assassins in the nuke-nin world, hiring him hadn't been that easy, but it was worth it. Shigeo planned to use him as the main diversion making aspect of his plan, thereby allowing him to conduct his task. Assassinating a man of Hiashi Hyuuga's caliber wasn't an easy task after all.

"Exactly at twenty past ten, you understand?"

"Hai."

Near the Uchiha Military Police HQ, time 10:00,

The watch in front of the Police HQ changed at ten, and the new guard on station was young Inabi Uchiha, the nephew of Sergeant Yashiro Uchiha. As such, he was rather over enthusiastic in his duty, hoping to one day make a name for himself like his renowned relatives Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Itachi. As such, caught in the trappings of his duty, he remained in the guard house, and didn't notice a man walk past the guard house and enter a café on the opposite side of the street.

It was five past ten, by then.

Fifty feet away, an elderly lady who observed it from a hidden vantage point walked towards the guardhouse and calmly called out Inabi who looked surprised at being called.

"Yes, madam?" Inabi asked in slight curiosity as he greeted the old woman politely.

"Well, young man, I would like to ask how you military police can allow a dangerous criminal like that hoodlum over there to walk scot-free?" she asked in a chiding tone as Inabi's eyes widened.

"What criminal? What do you mean?" the young man asked the old woman who hit him on the head with her handbag.

"That red headed man sitting over there by the window! Honestly, you young boys are all so inept. I am going to complain to Fugaku-kun," she trilled as she waved her hands and pointed towards Renji who was sitting near the window calmly sipping a cup of tea.

Inabi was now scared. If this old bat knew the clan head and complained, then his career would end before it began.

"Please wait here, madam," the young man spoke hastily as he ran inside to call his uncle.

As the young man ran inside, the old woman walked over to a corner and slowly used the Shunshin to leave the area, with a thin smirk adorning her face.

Nii Yugito's mission was going to be handled by an agency of the government of Konohagakure no Sato.

Around the same time, near the east gate of the Hyuuga Mansion,

Meanwhile, near the empty street at the exit near the Hyuuga mansion, Shigeo was waiting impatiently for Hyuuga Hiashi to exit the compound.

He saw that the man was walking alone without any guards from the branch house accompanying him as well.

What luck! We will never get a better chance than this; the Kumo agent spoke to himself and waited patiently for the man to stop speaking with the guards at the gate, and to move a bit further.

After a couple of minutes, the man finished speaking with the guards and moved out.

"About bloody time," Shigeo growled as he finally saw the man walk out. In his hurry and excitement, he didn't notice the one minor thing that could have saved his life. The man he was targeting was wearing a forehead protector, when it was known universally that Hyuuga Hiashi never wore a forehead protector, ever. Because of his misjudgment, things were about to take a very drastic turn in the future.

"Why the hell is he so late?" Shigeo growled as he and his men got ready.

"He is a clan head, boss, sometimes these things happen," one of the men he had hired opined, for which he was rewarded with a glare.

"Let's roll."

It was ten past ten.

In front of the UMP HQ, 10:12,

"Well, where is that old lady?" Yashiro asked in irritation as he was dragged out of his office by his nephew, Inabi.

"She…she's gone…, damn it, the old crone said she knew the captain, she must have gone to complain to the Captain," Inabi swore as the older man raised his eyebrows.

"Well, where is this so called criminal that she wanted off the streets?" Yashiro asked sarcastically, at which Inabi pointed out Renji, who was still sitting in the café drinking tea as if nothing had happened.

As Yashiro looked at the man, his eyes went so wide that his eyebrows rose into his hairline.

"RENJI ABARAI! What the fuck is that asshole doing here? How the hell did he get inside Konoha in the first place?" Yashiro wondered out loud as Inabi loosened the flap of his holster seeing the look on his uncle's face.

"You," he called out to a patrolman who was standing guard at the gate and dragged him aside, "Go and get the entire department outside, now," he ordered as the terrified patrolman ran inside.

"What do you mean by 'the entire department'?" Inabi asked in shock as he eyed his uncle who brought out his fully matured Sharingan. Seriously, was that red haired dude such a big deal? Had the old crone been correct? Was he some sort of super criminal? Inabi would never know the magnitude of his error.

"Everybody, now!" the older man nearly screamed as few passers-by stopped and looked at the old man in surprise. Fortunately, Renji missed that altercation, unfortunately, that would be the cause of his death.

"Inabi, go get Shisui, now! I want him here, ASAP!' Yashiro ordered Inabi who vanished instantly in a Shunshin.

Five minutes later, Renji Abarai found himself surrounded by Uchiha Shisui, Uchiha Yashiro and the entire Uchiha Military Police while the frightened patrons of the café scrambled away.

He looked at the time.

It was twenty past ten. He had caused a diversion all right, only it had not gone in the way he had intended.

At the same time, near the Hyuuga Mansion,

As the Hyuuga clan head walked ahead, suddenly, five flash tags erupted in front of him, blinding him for a scant second. At that moment, an exploding tag went off in front of him and he was blown back, broken and clearly bleeding.

As Shigeo and his men prepared to flee the area, they noticed a commotion at the Hyuuga gate. He nearly had a heart attack when he saw the Hyuuga clan head and a few members of the Hyuuga clan race towards them and the downed man.

Two of them? …what was…?

He didn't have any time to think, as he vanished using the Shunshin leaving his hired thugs to deal with the Hyuugas.

As he reappeared inside the safe house, he was further shocked to his core when he saw Nakamura and Yugito teleport away using the one time reverse summoning seal. Just as she disappeared, Yugito gave him a cheery wave, and that moment, Shigeo realized that he had been screwed; by someone he had considered his inferior.

When Hyuuga Hiashi noticed his twin brother being brought down by an explosion created by what appeared to be a group of assassins, he raced forward abandoning all pretenses.

The ring leader vanished using a Shunshin, but his men were still there, and one of them had withdrawn a sword, and was about to plunge it into Hizashi's bleeding head. He never got the chance. Hiashi's Jyuuken strike blew his heart right out of his body through a spectacular shower of blood, erupting out of his back like a fountain, and it fell on the ground still beating before it stilled while the man crashed down, deader than a stone.

The rest of the thugs went down like moths in a flame against the other Hyuuga clan members, and it was all over, as quickly as it began.

The ANBU squad that teleported in, was treated to a rare sight. The Hyuuga clan head and his men were trying to stabilize a wounded man, who upon inspection was revealed to be his brother. They grimaced. This was going to be a real shit storm.

They began to move out and scanned the area for residual explosives and also any stragglers who might have stayed back to watch the proceedings. And when they did, they found out that the backlash of the explosion had killed some of the civilians who were walking on the other side of the road as well. They swore. This was definitely not a good day. Damn, and the mess-hall had prepared a feast in the honor of the new hokage's arrival as well too, and it would seem that they would miss it. The guy who did this was in for a shitload and half of trouble. Ibiki would tear them a new one over this, in the absence of Kakashi, and the new hokage was due to arrive today...Jesus, and this was not how they intended to make a good impression on her, was it? Yep, things were pretty bad, all right.

However, all of them would soon realize that things were going to be much worse in the next few hours, before they got better.

Half an hour later, UMP HQ, Interrogation Block,

Renji Abarai was brought into the interrogation room, bound hand to foot, and was surrounded by three of the Uchiha clan members who would act as interrogators for this mission. Uchiha Yashiro, Uchiha Shisui and Uchiha Inabi.

"Well, let us start," Inabi, the green horn spoke out as Yashiro scowled at him.

"We wait for the ANBU to arrive, it is standard procedure. Three policemen and an ANBU, besides this scumbag is actually big enough to warrant an ANBU presence," the sergeant scowled as he eyed the prisoner distastefully.

Just then, the doors opened and Fugaku Uchiha, the head of the military police walked in, flanked by an ANBU operative.

"So, what gives, gentlemen?" the captain asked without preamble as he looked at his subordinates. Shisui looked towards Yashiro who nodded and began.

"Sir, guardsman Inabi Uchiha here was accosted by a senior citizen who lodged a complaint against this here individual. Her complaint was rather vociferous, and since the subject was unknown to him, Inabi here, called me in to report. I identified him as Renji Abarai, B-ranked Nuke Nin operating out of Takigakure and the land of Wood. So, we brought him in, and so far he has declined to speak with us, sir," Yashiro made his formal report.

"What did he have on him?" the ANBU asked quietly.

"Well sir, he was loaded with a shitload of explosive tags, so we presume he was here to cause a major terrorist act, upon the orders of his contractors, along with Kunai, Shuriken and some poison gas pellets, you know, the basic shit," the sergeant scowled.

"Alright, Abarai-san, can you please state your objective in coming here, please? This might go a long way in mitigating your sentence," the ANBU operative who was wearing a cat mask spoke curtly.

Renji continued to give him the silent treatment.

The ANBU sighed, "Look pal, I am doing this for your own good, all right. Otherwise, it is the ANBU interrogation cells for you. You better start talking pal, the ANBU are in a shitty mood tonight. There ain't a dude alive who wants to mess with Ibiki Morino today. You would be safer with, say Orochimaru, than with him. I am doing this for your own good, believe it," the man spoke softly as the eyes of the Uchiha's who were watching narrowed in suspicion.

"What do you mean, sir?" Yashiro Uchiha asked quietly. His senses were tingling badly and the old policeman knew that it was not a good sign. He had a hunch that something had gone wrong, and his hunches were usually correct, most of the time.

"Somebody tried to off Hyuuga Hiashi, just some time ago, but they missed and got his twin brother instead, and they messed that up as well, and blew some civilians along the way too. The Hyuuga's took out all the assassins except one dude, who got away. The village is in lock down as of now on orders from the Hokage. The ANBU on patrol are real pissed. You better start praying buddy, because if you don't talk, I got no problems in handing you over to Ibiki, you dig? You know about Ibiki Morino, right?" the ANBU asked quietly as Renji gulped. He knew who Ibiki was all right, he was the boogeyman of the nuke nin operating around Konoha.

"You serious?" Inabi asked with his jaws wide open while even Shisui stared in curiosity at the ANBU. However, the look of stony silence on Fugaku's face confirmed it. It was serious, all right.

Suddenly, Yashiro connected the dots.

"Sir, you might want to call in Ibiki-san, after all. We caught this dude around the time this shit got pulled off. And he was wired to cause some major damage, which would have made a nice diversion for that shit. Maybe he is a part of this shindig, and maybe he was hired to do that very thing, to help those assassins get away," Yashiro spoke rapidly, while Renji began to sweat.

"Wait a minute, is that true, pal? Because if it is, you are in real deep shit sonny, you better tell me something, if you want to save your ass," the ANBU spoke gruffly as he glared at Renji, but Renji still remained silent.

"Well, looks like we might have to call in Ibiki-san, after all," the ANBU rose when Inabi stopped him. Everyone turned to look at the rookie, who signaled them to be silent.

"ANBU-san, you say that the Hyuuga head was attacked, but they missed and got his brother, right? If that is the case, then let us hand this shithead over to the Hyuuga clan. I mean they have got real motive to get the truth out of this guy, it is their clan these assholes hit after all," the youngster spoke softly, while Renji became dead still which did not go unnoticed by the others.

Catching on to his nephew's game, Yashiro retorted, "You outta your mind, boy? The mood they are in currently, those Hyuuga's will eat this punk alive! You want that on your conscience?" he asked in a growl while everybody became silent.

"Yes, I think your idea has merit, Inabi," Fugaku spoke for the first time as the others nodded gingerly as well.

Seeing that, Renji finally broke.

Ten minutes later, the UMP and the ANBU had the address of Shigeo's safe house in their hands.

Another five minutes later, Renji Abarai, nuke nin, was declared officially dead in the records of the Uchiha Military Police.

Konoha Medical Center, One hour after the attack,

Hiashi Hyuuga charged through the entrance of the Shock-Trauma Centre and identified himself at the reception desk, whose occupant directed him to a waiting room where, she said firmly, he would be notified as soon as there was anything to report. The sudden change from action to inaction disoriented Hiashi enormously. He stood at the entrance of the waiting room for some minutes, his mind a total blank as it struggled with the situation.

The Shock-Trauma Centre – dubbed as the first response to all major medical emergencies – had begun at the end of the second war as the dream of a brilliant, aggressive and supremely arrogant medic now known worldwide as Senju Tsunade, the greatest medical ninja of all time. The department had bludgeoned its way forward by cutting a bloody swath through all bureaucratic and political hurdles, sometimes literally, to emerge as the pinnacle of medical expertise in the entire world.

It had blossomed into a dazzling, legendary success. Shock-Trauma was the leading edge of emergency medical technology and the best medic – nin came out of this division. It had already pioneered many techniques for critical care, and in doing so had brutally overthrown many historical precepts of conventional medicine – which had not endeared its founder to her medical brethren.

That would have been true in any field, and Shock-Trauma's founder had not helped the process any by her acerbic and outspoken opinions. Her greatest – but unacknowledged – crime, of course, was being right in nearly all details. And while she had left, dejected, after suffering from the death of her fiancé, in her absence, that department still stood as a monument of testimony to her brilliance in the medical field. Shock-Trauma assignment was the dream of every aspiring medic in the village.

But will they be good enough? Hiashi asked himself.

He lost all track of time, waiting, afraid to look at the time, afraid to speculate on the significance of time's flight. He reflected upon the events remembering that in his arrogance, blinded by his position, he had ignored his brother, who was now battling for his life. He was not ignorant, and he realized that it was he who had been targeted, but it was his brother who had paid the price. His brother had been dealt a raw hand by fate. A few seconds of difference, and it might have been so that he would have switched roles with his brother. That humbled him, making him realize the pain and suffering his brother underwent on a daily basis, and it made him feel helpless and ashamed. For the first time, he cursed the tradition of his own clan which wantonly bifurcated family as if they were mere playthings.

Sarutobi, who watched the clan head from aside, shook his head in sorrow. He had seen such things happen, far too many times, but they hurt all the same.

Soon, the door opened, and a medic came in.

"Hiashi-sama, I am here to tell you the condition of your brother," he spoke as he looked at the distraught Hyuuga clan head.

"Your brother is in critical condition," the man spoke bluntly, seeing no way out of explaining the mess.

Hiashi nearly choked with his next breath.

"We have been working on him for the past five hours. We had to remove the spleen – that's okay, you can live without the spleen," the medic didn't mention that the spleen was an important part of the body's defense against infection, and continued, "The liver had a moderately extensive stellate fracture and damage to the main artery that feeds blood into the organ. We had to remove about a quarter about the liver – again there is no problem with that- and I think we fixed the arterial damage, and I think the repair will hold. The liver is important. It has a great deal to do with blood formation and the body's biochemical balance. You can't live without it. If liver function is maintained…he'll probably make it. As for the rest, the explosion caused many cracks in the bone structures, but they are easy to heal, same thing with the shrapnel, we removed them all, and healed the damage caused by them," the man stopped as he rubbed his forehead.

"It all depends on the liver, if it continues to work, he will survive. We are keeping a very close watch on the blood chemistry, and we'll know more in another ten hours, sir," he finished his report and bowed and left, leaving a thoroughly shaken brother behind.

"Hiashi," a voice came behind him, and the man turned around to see the Sandaime, "Do not worry Hiashi, Tsunade will be arriving in a few hours, and I will ask her to handle this case, personally," the hokage spoke quietly and instantly, the man let out a deep sigh.

If Tsunade were to get involved, then his brother would make it.

"However, I am here for another reason," the Sandaime continued as he looked at the feeling of relief that appeared on the man's face, "We have discovered the hide-out of the assassin who has done this," the hokage concluded.

Hiashi's eyes narrowed, "Hokage-sama, I would like to be involved in this," the head of the Hyuuga clan spoke in a cold tone.

"Of course, I will be conducting the take-down personally," the Sandaime spoke in a genial tone masked by a steely visage, becoming very much 'the professor', as he was known.

Kumo safe house, six hours after the attack,

Within the safe house, Shigeo rapidly analyzed his situation. He had a blown op and was now stranded in enemy territory, without any assistance. The situation was bleak. He rapidly began to salvage around the safe house, to find anything that could aid him. He had to abandon the safe house as soon as possible, because he knew that the Konoha Ninja would find it out within the next few hours. They were annoyingly good at such things.

His eyes burned fiercely as he remembered Yugito's cheery wave…wait, what the hell was she doing here? Shouldn't she be in Kumo?

"Don't ever…ever call that whore as Yugito-sama in my presence, you understand?" the memory of him threatening Nakamura came unbidden in his mind…

NAKAMURA…that son of a bitch had ratted him out!

Shigeo growled and punched out the wall in frustration. Nakamura was a rookie who had been assigned to this mission from Yugito's platoon, because the mission specs had been originally drawn by Yugito, but he had suborned Nakamura forcibly to conduct the mission in his chosen manner, abandoning Yugito's plans, and that rat faced bastard had ratted out on him to her.

She was the one who had sabotaged his mission as a reply to his insubordination! That conniving bitch!

He realized that his career was now over. An illegal identified by an enemy nation would never be accepted back in his home village. If he managed to escape, he would be forced to be a nuke nin, because Kumogakure could not give asylum to a wanted fugitive, and since Kumo and Konoha were not at war publicly, he would not be a prisoner of war, but considered as a nuke nin and methods of dealing with nuke nin were much harsher than with POW's.

Also, revenge against Yugito was out of the question. Even though he was a pathological male chauvinist, subconsciously, even he realized that he would never be a match for the Jinchuuriki of the Nibi no Nekomata.

But I will not forget this, Yugito; you will pay for your treachery.

Meanwhile, outside the safe house, a different scenario was playing out. More than 15 squads of the ANBU were now surrounding the house, with 5 of them maintaining close perimeter watch, while the UMP had cleared out all civilians and set up an external perimeter watch.

This mission had taken a very serious nature indeed, with the hokage himself supervising the take-down aided by the Hyuuga clan head, and the ANBU knew what it meant. Their commander was away on a mission, and therefore the Hokage had stepped in personally. Failure was not an option, not in this case.

"It seems that he is alone, Hokage-sama, the walls are laced with anti-intrusion seals, as well as a proximity alarm seal, and is overlaid with a level seven trap seal," one of the ANBU reported as he bowed down.

"Hmm," the hokage mused as he stroked his beard, "What do you think, Hiashi?" the hokage asked the opinion of the Hyuuga clan head who looked at the building calculatively.

"It would seem that he holds the advantage inside the safe house, we have no idea of what the interior defenses are, or how many people are inside if there is more than one person inside that is, and if they have gone to such lengths to apply basic exterior defenses, then I believe our only option would be to flush him/them out," Hiashi spoke gutturally.

"Yes, I surmised as much," the Sandaime nodded, "Would you do the honors?" the old man asked genially.

"My pleasure," Hiashi nodded as he activated his Byakugan, with veins bulging at the side of his eyes

As soon as the proximity seal on the safe house sensed a Byakugan trying to interfere with the anti –intrusion seal to breach the anti-visual obstruction ward, a number of things happened simultaneously.

Shigeo who was inside the house, instantly became alert as alarms blazed, and realizing that his hide out was blown, he moved to activate the counter measures.

The basic counter measure for a safe house in enemy territory, which when discovered was to destroy it and all sensitive materials inside. As such, he raced to the basement knowing that he had scant seconds before the Konoha ANBU would storm him. It was a drill he had practiced many times.

He took a demolition charge and placed it in the middle of a room, whose walls were plastered with explosive tags. He took the charge and attached it to a random tag, and prepared to set a time delayed seal.

However, he had not anticipated one thing, Yugito.

The resourceful woman, before bugging out of Konoha, had left a farewell present for him, which he hadn't anticipated. She had saturated the sealed chakra within the explosive tags by a liberal dosage of the Nibi no Nekomata's Chakra, and the demolition charge was ten kilograms of TNT. It made for a rather explosive combination. Shigeo, who was unaware of this, rapidly attached the demolition charge to an explosive tag, and activated the time-delayed fusion sequence for detonation, when something caught his notice. He instantly paled as he realized what that meant. Yugito had screwed him one final time, again.

When Shigeo saw the explosive tags turn blue, he knew that he was critically short on time. He rapidly made seals for the Shunshin, praying that he make it before he blew himself up. He made it, although barely.

The ten kilograms of TNT combined with the super charged explosive tags laced with the chakra of the Nibi no Nekomata combusted, and created an explosion that roared out of the basement with a sound like the end of the world, and exploded virulently.

The building exploded like a glass bottle, sending out a hailstorm of shrapnel in all directions. The five ANBU squads maintaining proximity watch were shredded instantly to nothing. Sarutobi leapt into the fray and put forth all his chakra and raised a massive barrier and saved the lives of everybody else.

Once the explosion abated, the eyes of the remaining Konoha ninja turned murderous.

"He is escaping, he is making to the gates, but he seems to be severely injured," Hiashi, whose Byakugan could look from one end of Konoha to another, reported after scanning the entire village in mere seconds.

"To the gates," Sarutobi roared as he vanished in a blazing Shunshin. Nearly, a hundred ninja followed their leader, intent on catching the murderous terrorist.

At the Village gates,

Shigeo knew he was dying. The explosion had incinerated his left arm to ashes, and he was badly burnt. He was having difficulty breathing, and blood raced down his sides, freely splattering the ground.

Despite all this, one name was constantly ringing in his mind.

YUGITO…BETRAYAL…

As he neared the gate, he realized that he would not even make it out of the gate before he perished. He was losing too much blood, and too many of his internal organs had been damaged, to keep his body functioning properly. Suddenly, his peripheral vision caught sight of a blond woman and her entourage at the gate.

Yugito…so you are here to watch me die…bitch…demon whore

With a yell, the dying man roared and charged at the blond woman, who looked surprised and taken aback. However, that did not stop her from retaliating. She drew her hand back and delivered a mighty punch, cleanly detaching his head from his body.

Sarutobi and his men, who were pursuing the enemy ninja stopped to watch the strange scene, mesmerized. The blond woman at the gate had dealt a single punch which had cleanly detached the enemy's head. They all watched as the man's head sailed through the air like a football, passing at least 200 yards from the gate, before falling down to ground, and rolling around until it came to a stop near Sarutobi's feet.

"Well, that was rather anti-climatic," Hiashi spoke curtly with his eye twitching lightly as he eyed the head of the man who had tried to kill his brother roll down near his feet.

"Who the heck is she?" Inabi Uchiha, who was in the pursuit squad, asked with fear laced in his tone. He was not the only one who was scared like that. Most of the people in the pursuit squad were eyeing the blond woman apprehensively, and with no small amount of fear.

"Did you see that?"

"Holy shit man! She punched his head off as if it was made of paper!"

"Damn! That's a real scary chick!"

"I bet she is single!"

The clamor and noises stopped when Sarutobi raised his hand, and after they fell silent, the hokage spoke with a small smile on his face, "It would seem that the new Hokage has arrived in Konoha rather quickly after all."

P.S. 1. Well, first of all, I would like to clear up some misunderstandings. Some of the readers have pointed out that comparing Raiha's power levels to Kakashi is a mistake. People, you must realize this, this is not the Kakashi who appears in the manga and anime after retiring from the ANBU. This is the Kakashi who is still in his prime, the commander of ANBU, Sharingan Kakashi of one thousand techniques, and he is much much stronger than what he appears as in the manga and anime. The ANBU commander is supposed to be the 'XO' of the hokage, the de-facto second in command, which makes him one of the top five ninja in the village after the Hokage.

P.S. 2. Secondly, some raised the thoughts that since Raiha had mastered his abilities he should now be as powerful as the Nidaime. Impossible. People, you must remember this, he was imbued with the abilities of the Nidaime, just like Yamato was with the Mokuton abilities of the Shodai. He is a genetic clone of the Nidaime. Just because he was granted the abilities of the Nidaime, it doesn't mean that he will automatically become a reincarnation of the second hokage itself. He is not the original; he is a copy, an excellent copy, but a copy nonetheless.

P.S. 3. As such, his powers will be far less than that of Senju Tobirama, although he does possess the potential to match him. Just because he was trained by Tsunade and at some point by Jiraiya, coupled with the presence of his latent bloodline doesn't automatically make him a kage level shinobi. Currently, his skill is that of a high level ANBU. He has yet to master the complete repertoire of Senju Tobirama's techniques, which he will, after he moves to Konoha, and he has yet to gain the Raijin. You must remember people, that it was the combination of his techniques and the sword of Raijin which made the Nidaime into such a bad ass. Once Raiha masters those techniques and gains the sword and masters it as well, I will bump him up to Kage-level. After he gains the summons, I will probably bump him to Pein's level. But until then, he will nevertheless remain as a highly skilled ANBU, but he will still be within the top five of the village, power and ability wise.

P.S. 4. Another major point of contention which was mentioned to me was that the age disparity between Tsunade and Raiha was too great for them to be actual grandmother and grandson. People, please, she is the granddaughter of the Shodai, while he is considered to be the great grandson of the Nidaime, which would in reality, make him her grand-nephew or something along similar lines. He just calls her as 'grandmother', that is all.