The lost soul..

Yoshihiro smirked as he watched Hinata settle into the seemingly traditional Hyuuga Taijutsu stance. He did notice some slight differences between her stance and the normal Hyuuga stance, having fought dozens of Hyuuga during the war. Bastards had been a real pain in the ass and had devastated many many squads during the opening days of the conflict.

The Tsuchikage smirked as the girl's steady pale gaze settled onto his own eyes. Oh he knew what she was trying to do. She was trying to read him, toy with his mind as most Hyuuga's did before and during the fight. Hit your confidence before they take you down completely and permanently.

Hinata however found herself very surprised. The only thing she could see within the man before her was confidence and a strange sort of contentedness in his eyes. Always, no matter who her opponents were, in a life or death situation there was always the tiniest hint of fear. But in this one he showed no such thing. She could even say that he was exited about this. It was quite disconcerting to see such a thing.

Yoshihiro's smirk widened as he watched the girl tense a little more. Of course he felt fear, every warrior did, it was human nature no matter who you were. There would always be that tiny little fear in the back of your mind, but his years in the war had served him well. When they had discovered the Hyuuga's ability to read someone so well, almost all ninja were required to take a crash course on masking their emotions and feelings from them. It hadn't made any huge impact against the stronger of the Hyuuga but it did increase the survival rate of their nins.

After the war was over he had continued to study how to mask his emotions. One of the best was to put up a front, you use one two three, dozens maybe even hundreds of different emotions to mask the one you do not want any to see. He was one of the few remaining ninja in Iwa alive who still knew how to do it. Shame really. It was a useful tool even against Non-Hyuuga.

Before any words could be said Yoshihiro dashed forward, rushing the girl as he let out a battle cry, his hammer held in a ready position as he leaped high into the air, raising the heavy weapon over his head as he fell towards her. Swinging his hammer to bring it down on her head.

Before it made contact, the clan head leaped back, avoiding the weapon as it hit the floor before she rushed forward, delivering three quick strikes to Yoshihiro's chest armor making the man stumble back.

As she moved to deliver the fourth strike Yoshihiro caught her wrist, smirking before he tossed her over his shoulder, intending to slam her into the floor, only to have Hinata right herself in mid air so she landed on her feet.

She caught Yoshihiro's slightly surprised gaze before she leaped up, delivering a solid knee strike to the mans face, she cursed as she forgot to add chakra to that attack but made up for it as she delivered four more strikes to the mans chest. He should be having some trouble breathing at this point.

Landing on her feet she turned and watched as Yoshihiro struggled to stand. Coughing up blood the old man gripped his chest as he stood. "Damn...how the hell could a kid like you be this strong? Even I cant be this old."

Hinata again settled herself in her Taijutsu stance. "I'm afraid you are...now...you are in my field of Divination!" She exclaimed before the veins around her eyes bulged as she activated the legendary Byakugan bloodline. Moving at incredible speeds she was upon the older man before he even knew it.

"Two palms!" She cried out striking him twice in the chest.

"Four palms" Four more strikes to the upper arm

"Eight palms" eight strikes to the lower arms and hands

"Sixteen palms" sixteen strikes to the hips and knees.

"Thirty two palms" Thirty two strikes to the stomach and pelvic area.

"Sixty four palms" Sixty two strikes to the chest.

"One hundred twenty eight Palms!" She yelled as she prepared to deliver the final Kata which would hit each and every one of the Tenketsu of his chakra system throughout his body.

As she did so however she missed the old mans smirk. Something she immediately regretted as the Tsuchikage suddenly lashed out with his hammer, too quickly for her to react as he delivered three quick strikes to her left arm. Shattering nearly every bone through the length of her limb.

Screaming in raw pain as the burning agony raced up and down her arm, Hinata still had enough sense of mind to leap back, away from the older man and nearer to Shino who was now trying to stand back up seeing as how his teammate and fellow clan head was now in as much trouble as he was.

"Wha-how?" She gasped out as best she could as she struggled not to throw up from the sheer pain in her arm as blood began to seep through the white cloth of her battle robe.

"How I wasn't affected by your Hakke?" Yoshihiro completed for her as he smirked. "Simple. Don't you remember at the very start of our fight, when you rescued the bug user over there? My armor glowed green girlie."

He smiled. "That was me activating the special seals this armor has. I designed it myself. We Shimazu have always been prided as armor and weapon makers. "Using some special chakra techniques and some seals of our own design, I made this armor to protect, at least partially from all chakra absorbing and chakra based techniques. It would take a decent amount of chakra for a non elemental chakra to affect me through this armor. Your clan Taijutsu uses so little chakra I can barely feel it on my skin."

"Do you-mean-to tell me that-you haven't been affected by any of my attacks from the start?" Hinata gasped out, breathing heavily.

"That's right I wanted to get you overconfident, sure of your victory in order to give me the chance to get a quick strike that would make this a relatively easy for me."

"But..the blood."

"Ahh this?" Yoshihiro said reaching into his mouth pulling out a small plastic object, clearly torn open and clearly having held blood at one point. "Great for making the enemy think your down and out."

Hinata's eyes narrowed in anger. Fooled by such a simple trick. She should have focused more, seen the state of his lungs and heart before she attacked. But indeed she had let down her guard and now she was paying for it.

Shino stood up, biting back a groan of pain as he felt his broken ribs scrape against each other. N nauseating feeling churned his stomach and fire spread across his chest. He would have to be careful. If one of those ribs punctured a lung the chances were very slim that he would be able to get to a competent medic in time, especially here in the field.

Yoshihiro's smirk widened as he watched Shino struggle to get to the girls side. "Heh. You two sure could be great. With a bit more experience you could have beaten me. But you were still wet behind the ears." He hefted his hammer, and rushed them.

Shino formed his Kikaichu into wings again before he lifted Hinata up to the sky.

Stopping mid charge Yoshihiro looked up as Shino spun around before he threw Hinata towards him. The girl, in mid accent had tied some ninja wire around her to keep her broken arm from moving as it pinned it to her body.

Yoshihiro's stance tightened, preparing for whatever attack she could deliver.

At the last possible second Hinata started spinning rapidly in mid air. Yoshihiro's eyes widened in momentary shock before he grabbed the earth in front of him and with a heave pulled it upwards, forming a foot thick earth wall.

"KAITEN!" The young girl yelled as the spinning vortex of chakra formed around her, smashing against the earth wall, creating a mass dust cloud. Yoshihiro's form could be seen as he leapt up, over the debris. His hammer strapped to his back the man formed his hand seals. Holding out his two hands as if he was gripping a large ball. Slowly stones and pieces of rock gathered there in a tight ball before flames consumed it, dancing across the hard shell.

"Insei no Hametsu!" He yelled before he threw the fireball down towards his previous position. Creating yet another explosion which shook the area around them with its intensity. A small crash was heard before Hinata flew out of the dust cloud, her clothes singed and burnt in several places, a nasty gash across her forehead as she skidded across the floor.

Yoshihiro smirked but it quickly died as he heard a faint buzzing sound. Craning his neck behind him, he caught sight of Shino as the younger ninja dived towards him in a free fall. The Kikaichu forming on his arms forming the praying mantis like limbs again.

Yoshihiro cursed, there was no way he would be able to dodge in mid air.

Shino fought his way through the haze of pain and the burning in his chest as he plunged the two blade like extensions into Yoshihiro's back, going completely through and through, puncturing the older mans left lung and his stomach. His Kikaichu crawled all over the mans armor like ants on a lion as they worked to eat up his chakra as quickly as possible.

Shino would have sighed in relief if only he hadn't caught Yoshihiro's smirk. He went to pull back but before he could the older man delivered a brutal elbow into the younger boys chest.

If Shino thought he had felt pain before it was absolutely nothing compared to the agony he felt flaring across his body now. The pain was dizzying. His vision swam before he felt another impact, barely registered in his pain clouded mind. As his Kikaichu dispersed and he began his freefall back down towards the earth he saw the Yoshihiro he had just stabbed crumble to dust.

'Another...mud clone.' He thought before he hit the floor headfirst with a sickening 'Crack'

"Shino!" Hinata gasped worriedly as she struggled to stand. Another crack to her right drew her attention back to the dust cloud as it began to settle, revealing an earth dome as it slowly crumbled revealing the real Yoshihiro and at once Hinata realized what had happened.

He had formed the first earth wall to stop her attack, then he had formed a clone to leap out, knowing that Shino was still hovering above them. Then when the clone had used that explosive attack, he had formed the dome in order to protect himself from his own attack and stay in the dust cloud She hadn't noticed because the Kaiten had momentarily blinded her, as well as the follow up attack he had delivered with the clone.

"You two are really very good." Yoshihiro said as he walked out of the crumbling dome. Looking at Hinata's angry face he sighed. "Don't get mad kid, like I said I'm just more experienced than you and with that comes a few more tricks up my sleeve than what you got."

Hinata glared heatedly at him. Yoshihiro moved to shift his hammer back into a fighting stance when he suddenly turned and caught a Kunai between his fingers. Looking to the rooftops, both Hinata and Yoshihiro caught sight of Lee and Tenten.

Yoshihiro looked at the kunai in his hand before he tossed it back to Tenten. "Not bad...but like these two your still wet behind the ears."

Tenten caught the Kunai before she and Lee leapt down, placing themselves between Hinata and Shino.

Yoshihiro moved to settle himself back into his fighting stance when there was an explosion that rocked the second wall of the city they were currently laying siege to.

"That would be the rest of the Iwa nins arriving now." Yoshihiro spoke before he looked to the four Konoha nins. "I suggest you pull your men back. There's been enough fighting and death for one day." The older man strapped his hammer onto his back before he turned and began leaving the courtyard.

"Wait!" Tenten called behind him. "What is this? You're just gonna walk away? That simple?"

Yoshihiro craned his neck back to look at her from the corner of his eyes before he snorted. "Wet behind the ears..." He sighed before he yelled loud enough for her to hear. "Go home kids...tomorrows another day."

"Wai-" Tenten called but was cut off as Lee placed his hand on her shoulder to hold her back. She watched him shake his head before he moved to pick up Shino. She looked back to Yoshihiro's retreating form before she sheathed her weapons and went to help the injured Hinata.

Later that night: Sakai, Iwa encampment:

The merry cheering of dozens of Iwa nins could be heard as they all gathered around several Bonfires around the main courtyard of the city. Music was playing from the side, to which some of the Ninja and Kunoichi danced too.

Yoshihiro sat cross legged a few feet away from the fire as his men laughed, ate and drank around him in celebration of their victory. While the casualties to the resident militia had been relatively high, as well as the casualties to the miniscule nin force of the city they had managed to deal a heavy blow to the Konoha nins, in morale at least. Two of their commanding officers were utterly defeated by him, single handedly and had been forced to retreat with the arrival of the main Iwa forces. Indeed morale in his camp had skyrocketed.

"My lord!" A voice drew him away from his musings. Looking off to his right he found a somewhat tipsy ninja as he raised his wine jug up high. "A TOAST!" He yelled over the crowd. "To Yoshihiro-sama! The greatest Tsuchikage to ever lead us into battle!" Cheers of agreement were heard before the music and dance began anew as well as the celebration.

Yoshihiro chuckled lightly at the younger mans praise before he drank from his own bottle. Still he was no fool. Those kids were good, but like he had said, they were wet behind the ears. The boy, Naruto would soon send other, more experienced ninja against him. And they would not be so easy to defeat they may even force him to use his clans' special ability.

He was brought out of his thoughts as a somewhat panicked voice reached his ears. Looking to his left he found a young chuunin, probably no older than fifteen running through the crowd towards him.

As he reached him Yoshihiro held up a hand. "Calm down boy, catch your breath and tell me what's wrong?" He said before he took a quick drink.

The young man took a deep breath and calmed himself as best he could before he spoke. "Yoshihiro sama, at the gates, seven rouge nins have come stating that they wish to meet you in private."

"Its probably one of those Konoha fools trying to play a trick on us." One of the chuunin spoke up before he bowed to Yoshihiro. "Milord, allow me to kill them now so they trouble you no longer." The man said with a humble lowering of his head.

Yoshihiro waved his hand as he stood. "No no, I'll go see what they want. Besides, if its a fight they want well...I really wouldn't want to disappoint them."

"But my lord!" Some of the men cried in protest.

"Bah, I'm not that old yet kids." He said, waving his hand in dismissal of their worries before he made his way to the gate.

When he arrived he found seven ninjas each in brown hooded cloaks along with four large wolf like dogs, bowing as several of his Iwa Anbu stood around them.

His heavy footsteps rang methodically throughout the courtyard before he stopped in front of the seven nins. "Speak." He commanded.

The one in the front unrolled a scroll before him. His men tensed and gripped their weapons, expecting some form of trap. When the scroll unrolled however there was just the seal of the Kazekage at the bottom of the unrolled scroll.

Yoshihiro looked at the unrolled scroll at his feet and looked to the bowed now identified Suna nin. "What's this?"

A strong sure female voice rang out from the one that had unrolled the scroll. "The Kazekage has sent us to provide assistance to you. We are all of Jounin rank and are competent in field combat, stealth, and scouting. We are willing to serve you loyally until the duration of this mission in exchange for your silence of our participation in this battle."

Yoshihiro smirked. "So Suna doesn't wanna put its foot down, lest it step in a great pile of crap eh?"

Silence.

Yoshihiro chuckled, amused by these "old" tactics before he stepped forward. Pulling back their hoods it revealed a girl with pink hair, a kid with some red markings on his cheeks, another girl with similar markings, a pale blond haired girl with blue eyes, a large boy with swirls on his cheeks, a scared regular looking kid and finally a blond girl with four pig tails. Looking over each of the nins a smirk grew on his lips before a low chuckle escaped his lips. Eventually his chuckled turned into roars of uproarious laughter.

The young group of Suna nins each glanced at each other somewhat nervously before his laughter died down. Smirking down on them, he rolled up the scroll before holding it up for them to see. Then with a small flare of chakra the scroll was consumed in flames before he threw it down to the floor. The smirk still firmly on his lips as he looked each of them over one more time. "Welcome to Sakai, brats." He chuckled again before he turned and left.

Three days later: Konohagakure no Sato:

Naruto sat in his office, Guan and Ginchiko standing before him. They were giving their monthly report over the economic, military, and political situations in Kiri. So far everything was going as it usually did, except for a few minor economic drawbacks nothing was out of the ordinary.

Naruto placed the file down onto the desk as he looked at Ginchiko and Guan. The two had not changed much over the years. Ginchiko's short cropped hair had grown out some, now reaching her shoulders but apart from that little else had changed. The same with Guan, the mans long beard had grown longer as well as a few battle scars that adorned his uncovered right arm.

Naruto did have to admit however, that these two had become some of his more valuable generals in times of war. They had proved themselves time and time again, saving others like Kakashi and even Jiraiya himself on one occasion.

He nodded to the pair. "Very well, you may stay in Konoha today, tomorrow you may return to Kiri at your leisure, once you arrive you are to..."

The door to his office burst open, revealing a chuunin messenger who bowed as he quickly handed him a sealed scroll.

Naruto broke the wax seal over the scroll and unrolled it, allowing his eyes to travel over the contents within. They narrowed in annoyance and anger before he set the scroll down. A slightly contemplative look entered his eyes before he looked to the messenger. "Bring me Hatake Kakashi."

The man bowed before he hastily left the room.

Naruto then looked to Guan and Ginchiko. "There has been...a slight change of plan."