The lost soul..

"Alright Liang what is this about?" Came the voice of Yue Ying, wife of the Godaime Raikage as she entered his library where he still sat reading over yet another scroll. She swore he just did it to appear more educated than what he already was. He had probably read all the books in here three times each.

"You will see soon enough my dear." He replied calmly, though she could practically feel the smirk on his lips.

"Zhuge Masong Liang." She growled his full name through her clenched teeth. She loved her husband to death but the man could be so infuriating at times. "I was in the middle of enjoying lunch with my students, who I have not seen for over three months when your messenger arrived. Now, dear husband…I want an explanation.

He held his hand up, and then began counting down.

Five…four…three…two…one.

He looked at her, a sly smirk tugging at his lips as he spoke one simple word. "Duck."

Her instincts kicked in and she did just that, barely avoiding one of the Kumo chuunins as the man was quite literally thrown through the wall behind her, where he landed at the foot of Liang's desk.

"I told you I'll see him now." Came a pissed off female voice from the hall. One which both Ying and Liang recognized with ease.

Liang cleared his throat and rolled up the scroll, setting it aside. "I would welcome you into my home, but I believe you have more than adequately done so yourself already. Isn't that right? Tsunade of the Sannin."

As the dust settled it revealed none other than the legendary medic as she stepped into the newly made door, two other women following shortly behind her.

Liang allowed his eyes to travel to Shizune, and then they finally settled on Akina, only his wife noticed the slow, dangerous smirk that crossed his features.

Fire country territory: Leaf war encampment:

Naruto sat at the head of a rectangular table, Ibiki was sitting to his right, with eight other empty seats along the length of it.

To Ibiki, the silence was heavy. It wasn't because he was frightened of Naruto…well…much anyway, but because he could tell the boy was very very angry. More so than any other time he had seen him.

So, being the interrogator, Ibiki decided to do what he did best…interrogate.

"Naruto-sama." He paused as he watched Naruto turn towards him. "You seem agitated."

"And even if I am Ibiki…what in the world would make you believe I would share the reasons for my agitation with you?"

Ibiki paused, that was blunt, evasive. Whatever was bothering him was not just professional, it was personal.

"Because I am the only one who has bothered to ask."

"Hn…" Naruto conceded that point.

Ibiki watched him for any kind of reaction, a twitch of a finger, flashing eyes, growls…anything. But nothing came from him.

Naruto however, allowed his mind to wander. He remembered, back on the marshes of the Moroko plains, it would be four years ago in three weeks since that time. Ohh yes, he remembered that day well.

The day of his very first battle.

It was cold. He could hear the sounds of battle ahead as his men, a contingent of thirty Anbu followed silently behind him, the mask shining in the dimlight that broke through the gray clouds overhead as they let the rain fall heavily on them.

He could see the battle taking place long before any of the others. The sickly green waters of the marsh sloshing at their feet as the thin fog settled around them, the rotting trees and groaning wood, providing little cover from the shuriken and kunai being thrown by both sides as they clashed. The blood mixed freely with the water at their feet, turning it into a brownish quagmire instead.

He could see several of the Ame and Taki ninja beginning to flee, believing the battle to be lost.

However, two remained, only two. They stood amidst the center of the chaos. The first was a large man, wielding an even larger Naginata pole-arm. The second was a young woman, possibly no older than seventeen wielding two chain whips.

The older man swung his weapon in a wide arc, sending a wind blade into the crowd, and then blocked the strikes from those near him.

The girl behind him was twirling the chains in her hands, the bare edges of it slitting throats and slashing arteries with pin point precision. Soon however, they were pushed back against eachother, back to back as the Kusa-nins circled them.

The larger man looked over his shoulder at her. "Yoshino-dono." He spoke calmly. "This battle is lost, make your escape. I will hold them here."

The younger woman snorted as she smiled in resignation. "It is no use, Kenpachi-sama. We're surrounded." She spoke simply. However, the sound of breaking wood, before a tree branch fell, brought their attention upwards, to the sight of a masked Konoha Anbu

"Ninja of Taki and Ame, Konoha…at your service."

As the words were spoken, Konoha ninja seemed to appear from the mist all around them, leaping through the humid air as kunai and shuriken rained down on the Kusa ninja from every direction. The confusion and chaos escalated, men died and screamed.

It was quick but none-the-less brutal, the Kusa ninja which had numbered about two hundred, left, their numbers barely reaching seventy.

It was only a few moments later that Naruto was approached as he wiped his sword clean from the blood.

The young woman with black hair approached him first, bowing and smiling gratefully. "You saved us…you have my gratitude."

"Your gratitude is unnecessary…" Was his drawl as he sheathed his sword with a swift firm snap. "It was my mission to assist you and I shall do so."

A large hand rested itself on his shoulder and he looked up, not surprised to find the large bearded man standing there with a smirk on his features. "Come, you and all of your ninja are invited to our celebration tonight."

Naruto listened as some of his more inexperienced Anbu cheered along with the Ame and Kusa-nins, while others, more experienced kept their countenance, but the slight uplifting of their shoulders told him that they too were happy about this. He nodded slowly and followed the ninja back to their camp.

That evening as promised, The Ame-Taki alliance held a banquet to honor them and his Konoha ninja for having saved their lives. It was a setting few would ever look upon, ninja from three different villages, sitting down, eating and drinking together.

Naruto, Yoshino and Kenpachi had a separate table a bit further away from the rest of the crowd.

Kenpaci patted Naruto's shoulder amiably. "We would have died without your help my friend. Again I thank you."

Naruto nodded, and soon their food arrived with their drinks. Naruto unclasped his mask, revealing his face to the two ninja, revealing his age.

They'd suspected, his body being the first thing to have alerted them.

But to see the truth of his age with their own eyes sent them into a brief silence nevertheless.

Eventually it was Yoshino who began the conversation again. "So, Naruto was it?" At his nod she smiled and continued. "You look so young, how old are you exactly?"

"I will be 10 in four months and three days." He replied evenly as he parted his chopsticks with a crack.

If Kenpachi or Yoshino were surprised by this, they hid it well. They both knew that Konoha had strong ninja but to have a boy at the age of nine already leading his own division of Anbu was practically unheard of.

They exchanged a few more pleasantries, asking him about Konoha, where he in turn asked them about Ame and Taki. They didn't discuss the war however, for now, at this moment, it was a momentary time of peace, a place to escape the bloody fate that awaited them the next day and perhaps, Naruto unconsciously understood that

The calm yet jovial atmosphere was broken by the sound of music. The three leaders looked back to where the rest of the ninja and kunoichi were seated and found many of them beginning to stand and dance together to the music. Weather they were leafs, rain or waterfall ninja didn't matter, it was truly a fascinating sight.

Yoshino smiled and looked over to Naruto before she stood, walked around the table and grasped his hand, startling the young boy.

"Dance with me." Was her simple sentence.

He looked to Kenpachi but the man only smiled and laughed jovially…

Flashback end:

Naruto was brought out from his musings as the rest of his commanders entered the open roof tent they were in. Ibiki looked to them but then heard a soft whisper escape the blonds lips. "They betrayed me." It was so low he probably didn't even realize he said it out loud, but Ibiki had to keep his jaw from dropping in surprise.

Before he could dwell on it, the others sat down and Naruto spoke. "I see you're all here." He straightened his posture. "I believe that I have a strategy that will work." He began but was cut off by Gai.

"YOSH, OUR YOUTHFUL LEADER HAS ALLREADY COME UP WITH A BRILLIANT STRATEGY TO DEFEAT OUR OPPONENTS! TELL US NARUTO-SAMA! WHAT IS YOUR MAGNIFICENT STRATEGY! SHARE WITH US THE BRILIANCE THAT IS—"

He was [promptly cut off as Tayuya's flute sailed through the air nailing him on his right temple with enough force to send him toppling over in a daze.

"FOR THE LOVE OF GOD JUST SHUT UP, YOU MONSTER EYEBROWED FUCK!" She screeched as Gai continued to have swirly eyes, laying on the ground with a rather large bump on his head.

Naruto blinked. "If you are quite finished." He said, gesturing for her to sit back down. She did so, with Gai appearing in his seat seemingly unharmed and much more calm than usual. "Now my plan is simple. You five." He gestured to the five sound ninja. "Along with myself and the relief force that will arrive from Kiri tomorrow will lead the main unit to meet this coalition.

"What about us?" Anko said grinning. "What kind of blood spilling job you got lined up for me huh?"

"You three and your respective squads." He gestured to Ibiki, Gai and Anko. "Will be having a much more…" He paused for a moment. "Deceiving role."

Zhuge Liang stood, grabbing a large, white feathered fan from its place on the wall. It had a gold handle, and the feathers were nearly two feet long, where or how he had gotten them no one really knew.

Tsunade stepped forward, he smirked in her direction, a smirk that was not lost on her. It read.

'Just watch.'

He walked passed her, catching both Shizune and Akina off guard as he stood infront of the blond girl.

She looked up into his eyes, pale blue meeting, blank pools of obsidian, never noticing the handseals he formed behind his feathered fan until…

"GogyoKain!" He yelled suddenly, the blond girl tried to jump back but before she even made it two inches off the ground his hand slammed into her stomach, five small flames sinking into her flesh, destroying the five element seal placed on her by Jiraiya. She gasped in shock, and with a brief flare of chakra she collapsed clutching her stomach and breathing heavily.

"Wha-what…"

"Sleep." She heard his calm voice, before she felt her eyelids go heavy and she fell forward. He and caught her before she fell.

"What did you…" Shizune too began but was interrupted by the Raikage as he addressed his wife.

"Yue Ying, if you would please take the young lady to one of the spare rooms to rest." He drawled.

She growled and stalked over, hefting the girl onto her shoulder. Kicking him in the shin with enough force to make him grunt sending a message which clearly read 'If you don't give me an explanation as soon as this is over you are so sleeping on the couch for the next month.'Before stalking out the door.

He cleared his throat, hiding his slight discomfort, an angry wife was not something he wanted to deal with. Ever.

Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "Shizune, go with her."

The black haired assistant jumped slightly, but quickly nodded as she turned and followed at a brisk pace.

Linag turned back and settled his eyes on Tsunade. The two had met some time ago. While he was still a gennin and she had just achieved her jounin rank, along with her two other teammates, Jiraiya and Orochimaru. His team had been caught in a border skirmish along the pass which connected Konoha and Iwa and she and her team had arrived in time to help them.

Years later, when he had achieved the title of Raikage they had met again. This time, when his scouts had found Jiraiya's half dead body floating in the river. When asked what happened, he only said one thing "Orochimaru."

It didn't take long for him to decipher what had happened. Orochimaru had betrayed the village, since he highly doubted that anything short of twenty Anbu platoons could take down two of the legendary Sannin while fighting alongside one another.

He had sent word to Konoha, telling them that Jiraiya was in Kumo and Tsunade was the first to arrive, it is rumored that she ran two days straight without pause, and arrived in Kumo at the dawn of the third day, healing his injuries and stabilizing his condition, before collapsing from chakra exhaustion.

He had visited them during their brief stay here, hoping to finally seal a peace agreement with the leaf village and had finally achieved one years later, with them acting as envoys. Only to have the alliance fall and break apart because many of his former high ranking retainers wished for the Hyuuga eyes.

It was at that moment, that he swore to never allow himself to be caught off guard by anyone again. And he had succeeded, pouring himself into the studies of strategy, psychology, diplomacy, politics and even astrology and was now regarded as one of the most intelligent and powerful ninja Kumo had ever produced, some, more avid supporters of his, claimed that he could even predict the future through the use of magic.

Utter nonsense of course.

He did predict the future, though hardly by magic, but instead by education. He analyzed the situation and prepared for every single viable outcome as much as he could. Then, judging by the personalities, and behavioral patterns of the individuals involved, made his predictions. When an answer eluded him, that was when he turned to the stars, though that was very rare and its effectiveness or lack thereof to date had not yet been proven it was still something to think over.

"Zhuge." Tsunade greeted seriously.

He bowed his head, the small smirk tugging at his lips again. "Tsunade." He greeted back before gesturing to one of the seats infront of his desk. "Please have a seat. We have much to discuss."

She nodded, and sat down, as he walked over and also sat down, setting his feathered fan down on the desk he calmly began drinking his tea. "Now…you may ask what you wish."

She leaned back on her chair, already having known his elusive mind games as he practiced with both her and Jiraiya when they were messengers between Kumo and Konoha. "First off, how did you know about Akina's condition."

He reached into one of the desk drawers and pulled out a small file. Placing it on the desk and sliding it over to her where she carefully took it and began to examine it. "You should know that your sensei could never hide something from me forever Tsunade." He stated before sipping his tea again. "Though I do admit, even I had almost missed this. In fact if it wasn't for that civil war young Naruto caused, I may have never even found out."

He heard her sharp intake of breath. "But…but this says that she's…"

"His sister." He interrupted finishing his tea as he set the cup down. "Even I was somewhat surprised by that. But it was not all that unbelievable."

"I have to tell…" She began but was again cut off by the Raikage.

"You will do nothing." His voice was soft, but held a firmness to it which made Tsunade pause. He leaned forward, staring her straight in the eye. "We do not tell her, not yet. She will find out soon enough on her own."

"Still…this news…if she finds out on her own it could prove very damaging Zhuge. Naruto killed the people to believed to be her parents, finding out not only that her parents were never really her parents to begin with, but also finding out that she's the sister of the man who murdered them is not a blow I would deal anyone."

He nodded. "You're right…however…she has had much to deal with, for now, we will simply inform her of her status as a Jinchuriki."

Tsunade nodded, slowly, though it was a bit hesitant before she looked at him. "So tell me…what will you do about Naruto? You obviously have a plan."

Zhuge nodded. "Yes I do…it all depends on Naruto's next course of action however." He stood. "Now Tsunade-sama, I suggest you go rest, you have no doubt had a long journey." She nodded, stood and bowed.

Before she fully exited the room, another messenger entered, ran up to the Raikage and whispered in his ear.

Zhuge's eyes widened slightly, the only thing that betrayed his shock. "I see. Thank you." The messenger bowed before leaving.

Zhuge walked over to his desk and gripped his feathered fan, before walking to the balcony. "It appears my next course of action has been decided for me." He stated simply as he placed a small note on the foot of a hawk, before releasing it to the sky.

Two days later; IwagakureTsuchikage residence.

"Good. All of our preparations have been made to march then." Yoshihiro Shimazu's gruff, but calm voice could be heard as he read over the list of provisions, medical equipment and supplies Iwa had gathered in preparation for their campaign against Konoha.

"Yes uncle." Toyohisa replied as he bowed his head.

Yoshihiro let a smirk grace his features, one that was anticipating the battle to come. "Alright, let's get ready then, in four days time, we'll march onto Konoha." His declaration was met with cheers from the ninja as each were eager to avenge their loss at the hands of Konoha's accursed Yondaime.

However, their cheers were brought to an abrupt end as a chuunin scout barreled into the door. "MY LORD!" He yelled before he fell to his hands and knees at Yoshihiro's feet, breathing heavily as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Calm down boy what is it?"

"Ku-Kumo has attacked us my lord! They're burning the villages headed straight for us!

"What's that?" Came Toyohisa's outraged question question as murmurs broke throughout the ninja. Yoshihiro however, remained calm in the face of this, before he grinned and let out a bellowing laughter.

'So Zhuge Liang…you seek to make this war a bit more interesting too eh? Hehehehehe I can't wait, Sleeping Dragon…I can't wait.'

Naruto stood at the edge of a cliff, overlooking fire country, in the far distance he could see the faint smoke. That's where the enemy was…

'Kenpachi…Yoshino…' He thought as his eyes narrowed. 'You two seek to stand against me now…' He unsheathed his blade, watching as the pale moonlight reflected off the edge. 'And thus…provide my first true obstacle in my path to conquest…However…I have come too far… to fall by the likes of you. I will win, you will not stop me…none of you can stop me.'

Kusa-Ame-Taki encampment.

Yoshino stared at the night sky, a somber, almost pained expression on her face, as she gripped a buterfly pendant around her neck. Kenpachi stood behind her, an equally somber expression clouding his features.

'Naruto…'