บท 45: Chapter 45

A few days later

''Five hundred innocent civilian lives is a great casualty, Emperor. Really, I am surprised that you haven't turned your attention towards Iwagakure for their actions. You cannot excuse the kind of unneccesary deaths they caused." Gaara stated strongly, facing the Emperor.

Beside him were, Kotaro, Konan, Mei and Heisuke. Nagato was still missing, since there seemed to be other important matters that needed to be dealt with in the Village hidden in Rain. Not to mention he controlled the entire Rain country. Though technically the Rain belonged to the the Imperial Kingdom, Nagato's village was Amegakure but the Emperor had been the one to make arrangements to control the Rain, and put Nagato in charge of it.

They were all here because the news of Iwa's daring assault on the empires people was an assult that couldn't be forgiven. If Onoki was willing to go this far then there had to be some action taken against the Kage for the unprovoked murder of the innocents. The sand Kazekage was disgusted by the blatant disregard for civilian lives and the provoking of war. What would possess a man to blow up five trains carrying inoccent people? He'd killed many people in his past, but he was a crazed person who believed the only way to sustain and prove his existence was through killing others.

Onoki wasn't a mad person. He was a Kage who had the trust of other people. Would he be happy if someone else murdered the civilians of his village for no good reason? Even he would be angry, especially with the number of people that were killed. That number was almost the total of Naruto's special force, and also the Imperial Forces, with four commanders, and the commander in chief being Naruto.

''Targeting civilians to send a message is cowardly, and something that should never be allowed to slip through without proper 'measures'' Mei added, standing with the others. Just because she was the wife of the Emperor didn't mean that she could stand in beside Naruto. Hell no. When they were in this palace, there was only one leader, and that was Naruto. He didn't share his kingship with anyone.

''Heika,'' Kotaro stated - he was one of the generals in the special army Naruto had 'trained' while the Empire was still being built. Aside from him and Heisuke, there were two others who commanded the army within the village. ''Military action to prove our might is needed to show the other nations that we don't hide behind you, but we can also fight.''

The true strength of the Imperial army has never been tested by any serious oppoent or enemy. Yes, they were effiicient in making sure that the village was secure from enemies, but they were never called upon into a battle ground to fight a serious army. Shinobi from the capital were stronger, and fought well in their missions. It was mostly because anyone less than Jonin wasn't recognized as a shinobi in the laws of the country. There were no Genins who did missions outside the village, nor chunin.

As the Emperor put it, ''The Children should be at the academy learning or playing at home rather than beIng in the battle ground.'' This was refered to 'genins.' Of course this led to the rank of genin being scrapped. No, it never existed in the Empire.

''I agree with Kotaro,'' Heisuke said rather firmly. ''Those people were supposed to be safe in our trains. True we cannot always protect them outside the country, but the trains are ours and we must take responsibility for it.''

The Emperor pose wasn't forgotten as Naruto deliberated everything that was said. It wasn't that he hadn't thought of a decision and already knew what he was going to do. These people already knew that a decison has already been made, yet they still came here with their suggestions. Perhaps they just wanted to show him that they were prepared to take extreme actions against anyone who dares disrupt the peace of the Empire.

''There has been a change in the wind currents. Do you feel where the wind is blowing?'' None actually answered the question posed by the Emperor. ''It is neccesary to show our might to these fools, but I do wonder what Hagoromo would do in this kind of situation. Onoki has done wrong, and has to be punished, severely. He was warned after all.''

''Heika...''

''Kotaro, what is the situation the City of Sound?'' Naruto asked, looking at the man who controlled part of the military within the country. More like the Jonin commander.

''We have brought calm, and everything is stable. I have stationed some of my strongest men in the city for now. The people merely await his Majesty's presense to assure them of their safety,'' the man reported.

''Hmm?'' the people awaited him? ''Did these people say they want the Emperor to come down to assure them of their safety or are you saying you think it is best his Majesty descends into the City of Sound to show he is a king who cares for his people?''

Kotaro didn't stutter, nor did he hesitate in his response, ''Both,'' he said firmly. ''I believe it would be both good for you to visit the city and also 'honor' their wish as it would calm things and make them return to the way they were.''

''What more calm is needed? Didn't you just say you brought calm and things were stable in the city?'' the Emperor asked curiously.

Konan saved Kotaro the trouble of answering the question. ''Even in the capital, there is some unrest. The people aren't particularly happy about the deaths of their countrymen. Some are even demanding that the emperor do something about the issue. Naturally, no one will dare come into this palace, but I've had a few guests at the crystal palace. However, it will only be a matter of time before they do something stupid.''

'''If the Emperor is so high and mighty, why doesn't he just go and put the Tsuchikage in his place? Maybe he doesn't care about it. We know that our Emperor isn't an evil man, but his emotional record is not the most reliable.'' Gaara cleared his throat. ''These are just some whispers the Mizukage and I overheard while walking through the streets of the city.''

''Ho? So the ignorant fools have now learned to speak ill of the Emperor.'' Naruto turned his glance towards Mei, but didn't speak to her. Instead, his response was to Konan. ''I was not aware that there was a suggestion box that was placed in the crystal palace made for people to throw in the thoughts on how the Emperor was to act.''

''There is none.''

''Tell the man who deals with them to remind these people that I was not voted to be king and I will act when I feel like it. This democracy they think they are living has given them something to lean on I see. I have been keeping quiet for too long, and now they think that they have a say. Has my quietness brought the illusion that I have weakened?''

''Likely,'' Heisuke responded. ''A lot of people haven't seen your power first hand. The first people to have dwelled in this place are the ones who have seen his Majesty's power. The others have only heard rumors, and now they are starting to doubt those rumors.''

''I see,'' Naruto became quiet for a moment. ''Konan, you will get a report from Shinji about some insolent fools who are having thoughts of rebellion. I want them removed from the capital by the time I get back.''

''There are such people?'' Gaara sounded surprised that even in this place someone could think of rebelling, especially when Naruto didn't actually oppress anyone. Well, if they continued to demand things from him, he was going to grow tired of them and oppress them in a way that no one would be able to save them.

''Yes,'' Naruto said. ''Uchiha Naruto has completed all 'preparations', I'm now able to freely walk out of here as I please. Since you people are insisting, we shall head to Iwagakure and fetch Onoki. Heisuke, have Shinji rush his report, and get Nao. We will depart for Iwa.''

''We're going to fight?''

Naruto shook his head, ''Not in Iwagakure. I will handle things with Onoki. The people won't be satisfied if the Emperor just watches. Besides, I did assure Onoki that I would deal with any attack to my country,'' he seemed to smile for a moment before adding. ''Your battle will be somewhere else. There is another rebellion from our neighbours and it is time we dealt with it.''

''What exactly are you going to do to Iwagakure?'' Although Gaara wanted Onoki to be punished, he didn't want massive destruction to the land. It wouldn't change anything if they also responded by killing innocent people. Personally, he would rather have Onoki brought to them to be a fair judgement over his crimes. The likely sentence in a maximum security prison.

''I'm just going to remove Onoki as Tsuchikage and replace him with Kurotsuchi. With her in charge, we will no longer have Iwagakure as our enemy, or at least most of it.'' Naruto stated standing up. ''Mei, the palace is yours to explore; Konan, request the Kazekage to help you in rooting out insects that think they can become elephants. The rest of you meet me at the City of Sound in an hour.'' He was gone in a swirl of black flames.

''Do you know what he was preparing? He said 'Uchiha Naruto has finished his preprations?'' Gaara asked looking at Konan. But the older woman shook her head, she didn't know, nobody knew.

''Do any of you think that this is the ideal situation he wanted? I could have done without the murders, but if he does kill Onoki, who will complain?'' Konan questioned, looking at Kotaro and Heisuke.

''It isn't the time to second guess his Majesty,'' Shinji stated, announcing his presence. He appeared along with Nao. ''The Emperor 'forgot' to mention some important details about the changes that he has implemented for the kingdom.''

It was obvious that there was no forgetting from the side of the Emperor.

''General Shinji will take over as Commander of all the forces of the country from Nagato. Heisuke will keep his post as Head of the Special Corps, and I keep my post as head of the Imperial Court. However, I will be joined by both the Mizukage and Kazekage. Until Guren gives birth, Konan will remain Prime Minister. However, she will remain as chair of the counci during that time. Once Guren returns, his Majesty will take charge of things.'' Nao stated.

''The preprations his majesty was making will be revealed soon. What I can tell you is that the real purge begins now,'' Shinji said, handing Konan the file he'd been working on. ''Black,'' he called. The messenger of the Emperor appeared in a flash. ''Send the message to the men, and return to me once you're done.''

''Hai,'' the messenger disappeared.

Mei folded her hands across her chest, staring at Shinji. ''You're acting like the boss,'' he was giving instructions like he owned everything. She was the wife of the Emperor and that should make her his second in command.

''Well, when we speak of anything that has to do with military, I am the boss. The only who can give us - Nao, Heisuke, and Kotaro - orders is his Majesty. You're the wife of the Emperor, but that is all you are until you hand over the mantle of Mizukage to someone else. As it stands, Konan-sama is the one in command. She chairs the council and is the prime minister of the country. Basically, she is the Emperor's right hand,'' Shinji responded calmly.

Mei frowned, she was still not given any power in the country, aside being a member of the Judicial system.

''You didn't have to put it in that way, Shinji,'' Nao said. ''Formally, when the Emperor is away you're supposed to be the Empress and lead the country. However, since you're still the Mizukage, it disqualifies you. The judicial system can 'ratify' this law to suit your desires...'' of course, the Emperor wouldn't approve, but it was enough to make the woman smile.

Getting back to the matter at hand, Gaara stared at Shinji and asked. ''What exactly is the real purge? I thought ridding the world of bandit camps was the Empires service to the shinobi world...''

''He doesn't know everything about it,'' Kotaro said. ''In each one of us, the Emperor gives a certain piece of information and keeps the rest to himself. However, there are three other people who know more: Samui, the messenger and Guren. Nonetheless, the Emperor is the one with all the information.''

''We will have a proper meeting once we return with his Majesty. He will explain some things, and I'm sure Guren will be present,'' Shinji stated. ''For now, we have a task to perform, Prime Minister, you know which forces you have the authority to command. Though, if we're going to do by the law, I suggest you take Nao's council before doing anything. But that is up to you. With Nao's absence, you're still have the authority to do what you must.''

Iwa

''The time of reckoning has finally arrived,'' Naruto said, standing just a distance away from Iwa's large gates - he could be clearly seen by the guards at the gate. This was the time for Iwa to be punished for its crimes against the empire, this was the time for the rightous hand of god to slap the village for the unforgivable sins it has committed against his empire.

Standing slightly behind the Emperor were his four generals, two on the left and two on the right, with the Emperor between. They'd just appeared at the location a minute ago and the Emperor was probably waiting for the village to notice his presence before taking action. It couldn't be said that he had come to speak; anyone thinking along those lines needed to take his medication to help stabilize the thinking process.

''Heika, how are you going to procceed with this?'' Heisuke asked, the Emperor hadn't discussed the strategy for dealing with the situation. He had said that he would deal with it himself.

''I would suggest we plan something beforehand - there could be some nasty surprises waiting for us when we enter the village,'' Shinji added, trying to think of what they would do about the situation.

At the Emperor's silence, Heisuke sighed, grumbling slightly, ''Heika, are you thinking of just storming into the village and overpowering them?'' Though it was put as a question, it wasn't a question for Heisuke as he already knew the answer.

''Overpowering them will prove to be the most suitable option for this task. This is an entire village we're talking about. You just need to release all your power to wipe them out - they are never going to give you the time to think of a tactic because of their numbers,'' Nao said.

''They are coming,'' the last member of the group said, sensing hundreds of shinobi rushing toward their location.

''After I have literally crashed into the village, at a given point you four will erect a barrier suitable for holding things in and out,'' Naruto said, not bothering to respond to their thoughts. ''Step back a little, I wish to announce my presence the proper way,'' he then snapped his fingers.

A clone carrying the Truth-seeking balls appeared through a portal. The balls were an annoyance as they were always on stand-by. They had no off switch and it really bothered him as he couldn't go around carrying them at all times. To deal with the problem, he always had a clone carry them, and had the clone sent to his core dimension. When needed, he just had to summon the clone.

The clone puffed away, leaving the truth-seeking balls to enter their usual formation behind the Emperor. Naruto held his right hand palm open in front of him, five of the truth-seeking balls formed a circle just in front of his palm. There was a build up of chakra as the balls began to spin. The rotation became so fast that there was nothing but a blur in front of the Emperor.

''Your Majesty, what are you planning to do?''

Naruto didn't respond, instead, he said something else, ''This distance won't do,'' before flashing straight at the gates. ''This will do,'' he said, it was loud enough for the guards to hear him.

''Bastard! You've got som-'' the guard never got to finish as the Emperor released his jutsu.

''Judgement of the Omnipresent Sage,'' a blast of white energy shot from the front of Naruto, in a blinding flash of light and speed. It happened so fast, no explosion whatsover, but the results were clearly visible for all to see: the blast had cut through the village, from front to back, dividing it in half. Everything that stood in the way of the jutsu had been turned to ashes. If one looked from above, one could see a clear 'stream' that spread about 40m wide.

Naturally, panic invaded the villagers and all hell broke loose.

Naruto didn't wait for an invitation, he flashed into the air before shooting down to the center of the village. The Emperor did what he said he would, he literally crashed down upon the village, straight into the 'road' his jutsu had created.

''Nothing works better than starting things with bang,'' Naruto said as his four generals flashed beside him, all visibly stunned by the jutsu his majesty had just released.

''That was something like a Bijuumuda which blasted straight through the village, creating a path,'' the very path he stood on, Shinji said mildly. ''I must say it is impressive though. What kind of jutsu was it, your Majesty?''

''The Truth-seeking balls are known to negate all forms of ninjutsu,'' they failed in senjutsu though. ''When this thing explodes, it turns everything into ash. I merely tweaked a few things to make use of the Truth-seeking balls' power. That jutsu will turn everything covered in the light into ash, everything, nothing remains.'' It would still fail against natural chakra though.

''A splendid jutsu...'' Kotaro said as the group continued to converse while surrounded by a cloud of dust that Naruto had created in his crash-landing. This coupled with the jutsu the Emperor had just released, didn't make things calm in the village.

Iwagakure

With the peace destroyed, replaced by a tense atmosphere as the civilians waited for the dust to clear just so they could see who it was that had dared scare them like that. Hearts were racing in fearful anticipation as the shadows became visible, but the dust kept them from seeing the clear images of the people, shinobi who had crash landed. It took a few moments for everything to settle down, but when it did, there was a shout that tore through the street.

''Its the Emperor!''

''He has come to do what he did to Konoha!''

Civilians were cowards and a fearful bunch by nature, well most of them anyway. The reaction of abandoning everything to run for their lives was nothing but natural. The Emperor and his generals were not the least surprised to see such cowardice from these people. Who could, except the spineless and weak humans, stand before the sight of the Emperor? A foolish man lacking a third of his brain function. Even enemy shinobi would run away from the sight of the Emperor.

Who could forget what he did to the great village of Konohagakure no Sato? Civilians may be cowards and weak, but they knew that Konoha had been the strongest Hidden village since its founding. Hell, even if Iwagakure was pitted against Kumogakure, it wouldn't win because of Kumo's mass numbers. Konoha was better than the two and had great shinobi amongst its ranks who could compete with their Kage in a fair battle. Even now they still have the twin perfects who could disarm and utterly crush any army they so choose.

Even so, those twin Perfects hadn't even tried attacking the Imperial Rice kingdom, not even Jiraiya, nor Tsunade. They stayed away from watering conflict with the Emperor. They tried making the situation between the Rice and Konoha tolerable and in such a way that the Emperor wouldn't wake up one day and feel like destroying the village, again.

Konoha had no answer to the Emperor's power, not even Kumogakure attempted anything. So they could be excused for running scared when the man crashed down in their mist. With recent events having occured within Empire, it was only logical that he'd come here for one thing and one thing only, retribution.

Within minutes, the steets had already cleared of the civilians and shinobi of Iwagakure had surrounded the five.

Naruto was wearing the usual royal white kimono with all four of his generals standing beside him, now facing the Tsuchikage. They had been quick to mobilize, which meant one thing: they'd been waiting for this day to arrive. They's been making preparations for this day, for the day the Emperor decided to descend down the land for retribution. Wasn't that pretty?

''This is quite the welcome,'' Heisuke said, glancing all sides to look at any who might try anything while his Majesty was still absorbed in his thoughts.

Shinji nodded, ''I only wish that his Majesty would allow us to take part in this party. It seems like it will be fun, given that the Tsuchikage seems more than ready for the challenge.''

''A pity his Majesty won't leave any of the fun,'' Nao said, shaking his head slightly. ''An attack on the Imperial Kingdom is an attack on the Emperor. I could understand why he wishes to do this himself, but there is still plenty of fights we can have.''

''Yes, this is an entire village, after all,'' Kotaro added with a nod.

''It might be so, but his Majesty doesn't have a problem with numbers. Remember the battle in Kirigakure during the civil war? To add to that, he faced Konohagakure on his own,'' though, in that level of power, he was absolute, untouchable. Yes, no one could touch him in that level. The man had been invincible after consumption of the Juubi's power. However, things were a bit different back then.

''His Majesty won't let us get involved, not until he has completed what he wishes,'' Shinji said. ''Danga, why do you think he even bothered taking us to this plaçe if he isn't going to leave the battle to us?'' The barrier wasn't actually needed as the Emperor could simply teleport those he wishes to do battle with to another dimension.

''We have not yet actually seen him battle, but we know that he is indeed powerful. None of us doubt that, but I think his Excellency wishes us to see him in a battle, though, I don't think this will be much of a challenge,'' Heisuke said, before adding. ''This will be good to prove to the Nations that his Majesty is still without a peer in terms of power, nevertheless.''

As his Generals continued their talk like he wasn't present, Naruto stared into the heavens, ignoring everything that was beside him, and around him. What did he want in this corrupted world of shinobi? What was it that he was living for? His grandfather may have been a twisted psycho, but he still had a noble dream - methods were questionable, but the dream was noble nonetheless. Minato had his dream, the Shodai Hokage had his own dream, everyone seems to have a dream, but what about him.

He was Uchiha Naruto, a Sage. He was the only true sage living in this world. Jiraiya was a Sage because of his use of Natural chakra taught him by the Toad Sage. But he wielded everything that made Hagoromo a Sage. Yet, he was still not in the clear about another ''side'' dream. He wanted to end his living in harmony. He had realized it earlier that without showing the world his power, he would never be free from their sight.

Destruction and submission was the only way for them to understand. If words weren't enough for them to understand that he wished no trouble with them, then he would force them to submission. They weren't going to leave him alone until his time expired. The only way to live through it all was for them to be forced to submit. Being nice was only causing him a headache. A more brutal method was needed then.

What about the side dream then? It could start with the destruction that was to follow today. He had no interest in being a peace seeker, but he had every interest in ensuring that the world was stable for him to live without troubles. But the current world wouldn't allow it, hence it needed to be changed.

Onoki growled looking at the destruction the Emperor had brought upon with just one jutsu. How could that man do something like this? The jutsu released had caused much destruction, scared his people, and killed some. He couldn't confirm the number of casualities, but there were dead people, and they had yet to even start fighting.

''You haven't changed at all,'' Onoki started looking down at the Emperor. ''This has become a bad habit for you. You always charge straight into enemy territory, trusting that your power will overwhelm everything. Naturally, this behaviour makes you predictable, and makes it quite easy to prepare a battle strategy.''

He was a little surprised that the man would come here with his subordinates. He hadn't planned for this, but he would have to deal with it. At least the man hadn't brought either Nagato or Sasuke. It would have been troublesome if Naruto had brought Nagato. His forces had tangled with the man, and he knew the man was much more of a threat.

''Disappear,'' Naruto said to his subordinates, who quickly vanished into thin air. ''Don't bother looking for them: they won't get invovled, you only have to worry about me. It wouldn't be fair if you have to worry about them too.''

''Still full of yourself, I see,'' Onoki remarked a bit bitterly. While this was better for him, it still bothered him greatly that the man had the balls to look down on them like this. He was a Kage, and no one dared look down on him like this, yet this man did it without a second thought.

''Why wouldn't I be full of myself, Onoki?'' He was Uchiha Naruto, the man without an equal. ''But let us not get into that. I have to say, I am rather disappointed that you chose to involve civilian life in your battle with me. Those people hadn't done anything, yet you had them killed anyway. What was the thought? A couple of hundreds for my death?''

''I'm not going to get into that kind of conversation with you,'' Onoki said. ''But just for the sake of it: I am not heartless like you. I just did what I thought was necessary and I understand that in the shinobi world, sacrifices have to be made.''

''Who gives you the right to sacrifice other people, Onoki? You went even far by doing that to people of another man's country. What you did was kill my people. Sacrifice is when you come before me and let me kill you easily so that I don't do any harm to your village,'' naturally, he wouldn't accept it even if the man offered, not after what he did.

''Enough of this!''

''You refuse to even reason with me,'' Naruto shook his head disappointedly. ''Fine then, let the retribution games begin...'' He was just going to see what these people had planned for him. The truth seeking balls disappeared as his eyes glowed a bit.

''Shinra Tensei.''

Boom!

A loud explosion rocked through the streets, destroying a few buildings that surrounded Naruto. The explosion had left a sizeable crater down on the ground. The jutsu used had been given enough power to destroy a few things and leave its mark down on the ground, so that they could know that the Emperor had been present in this village. The first mark was just to announce his presence, and this one was to leave his stamp.

Before the dust caused by the explosion could disappeared, hundreds of kunais were flung towards Naruto, a second after he sent forth his Shinra Tensei. The Rinnegan could effectively see that the kunais were marked with explosive tags, and had been thrown after consideration of the five-second time gap between the next jutsu.

The tags went off. Another exposion went off. Difference was that this one was filled with red flames, producing enough heat to force the Hundreds of Iwa forces away from the explosion. Onoki was thankful that civilians had been evacuated from the area as it would have caused great panic. Well, as long as they could hear the fireworks, they would panic, but this way made it easy for them to battle without worrying over them.

When the flames died down, Naruto was competly unharmed, standing in the middle of the crater, hands folded across his chest. ''I see you learned a thing or two from the previous stage. However, you mustn't forget that the Rinnegan isn't the only doujutsu I can use. You can think of ways to maneuver the Rinnegan, but I still have the Sharingan,'' he paused for a moment. ''Shall w... Hmmm?''

the ground beneath him started shaking before four hands bust from the ground, catching both the Emperor's feet. The others didn't waste time before they threw in an attack straight the held down Emperor. They were tempting him to use the Rinnegan's power just so Onoki could hit him with that particle style jutsu. the jutsu that was pushed towards him was an Earth Spikes jutsu: hundreds of spikes were flung from all directions.

If he used the Rinnegan to blow everything away, they would just use the gap between the next jutsu to attack him. He didn't want to give away cheap shots by doing something stupid. When faced with situations like these, he had to think, and that is exactly what he was doing.

To save himself from being pierced by the spikes, Naruto channeled chakra through his held feet. Large wooden roots bust from the ground, all around the Emperor. They formed something like a dome around him. The rain of earth spikes crashed down on Naruto, but could only crumble when hitting the reinforced wooded roots. The roots crumbled down when the flood stopped.

Naruto found himself surrounded by five shinobi, all on the ground, hands touching down. ''Hmm?'' His eyes narrowed down when red marks began spreading around him. He still couldn't move because the hands, that felt like rocks kept their hold on him. Being familiar with fuinjutsu, it didn't take a while for the Sharingan to decipher the fact that he was standing on a land mine.

''Tsk,'' they were prepared. Onoki was floating just above the ground, facing him, waiting for him to use the Rinnegan. It was as if the old man thought the only way to counter his jutsu was through the Rinnegan.

Boom! The very ground Naruto stood on blew up in a screamer for an explosion. The ground had shook when the thing went out in a bang. A large mushroom of debris and flames picked up when the land mine went off. Not a second later, Naruto shot out of the debris: kimono burned from feet up to his waist, but no damage on his body.

Iwa shinobi appeared above him, limiting his options. Though they didn't attack, the Emperor was still forced to hastly land down the ground. The moment he landed, nasty earth hands grabbed his feet, with so much force that he felt his feet grow cold. Marks spread across his body, and even when it had only been or a second or so that his body grew numb, it was still enough for his opponents to act.

Two shinobi flashed both his sides, each grabbed his hands, binding him with shackles. They made their distance with both the Emperor's hands strectched out wide, and feet still held.

Onoki was smirking, ''as you can see, we're prepared to handle you,'' he said. So far, they'd been putting the Emperor on the defense, and it was only a matter of time before they land a fatal hit

''It seems that way,'' Naruto acknowledged. ''They must be ready by now,'' he said. A second later, a red barrier formed around the hundreds of shinobi that had surrounded Naruto. It was only a small number compared to the thousands of shionobi that Iwagakure possessed. But these were the ones who would perish along with their master.

''What is going on?'' Onoki demanded from his man. The barrier was dangerous, he knew it. Touch it and you were going to burn. He had prepared to create something like this as his hunt to capture Naruto continued. But the formation of this barrier was not on his command.

''It is not one of us, Tsuchikage-sama. Comminucation with the 'outside' has also been cut off...''

Onoki gritted his teeth and stared back at the Emperor. ''So you came here with a plan...''

''Iwagakure possesses a lot of shinobi, and even I can't fight all of them equally when they are coordinating their attacks. You've studied my fighting style and know what to expect, so fighting head on would be disastrous for me,'' the Emperor stated. ''These few hundreds will compensate for the few hundreds you killed.''

''Do you think you can kill all of us?''

''It is not a matter of thought, Onoki: I can,'' the Emperor said before a heavy force of unnatural energy crashed down on the barrier, snapping the chains, and shattering the ground the Emperor stood. ''Amaterasu,'' he said as the black flames lit up on the ground, around him. He snapped his fingers and a portal opened up just above him. The clone that always carries his Truth-seeking balls appeared from the portal. It dropped off the balls and disappeared.

Naruto took two steps forward before he blurred out of sight: he appeared directly in front of Onoki. The speed had been so fast that the Kage's subordinates were unable to react in time when the Emperor made his appearance. A black mass formed around the two, enveloping them.

''What the-''

''Shh,'' Naruto whispered. ''I assure you that you want to hear this,'' the Emperor said. Outside the black cacoon, Naruto had left four truth-seeking balls, one for each corner, and all of them were going to set off simultaneously and kill all the men inside the barrier.

Boom! Onoki heard it, and it was rather resounding. It felt like a tailed beast bomb had been set off.

It was only the fact that he didn't sense any Bijuu chakra that he was able to say that it wasn't a Tailed-beast bomb. He knew that no Bijuu existed at this stage as Naruto had somehow made sure that they all disappeared. His men had searched all nations looking for them, but he accepted that they may be no more.

As the caccoon opened up, Onoki could could stare wide eyed as he saw the result of the explosion that was set off by Naruto's truth-seeking balls. None of his forces were alive: there was nothing but a large crater inside the barrier and some residual heat coming from the explosion. How could that have happened? What kind of powers here at work here?

He had gravely underestimated things here. Things have gone awfully wrong, the Emperor didn't try to amuse himself by challenging them to a battle, he didn't try to fight. Perhaps he saw that no one was capable of putting up a fight and the best thing to do was just cause destruction. The Sandaime Tsuchikage cursed his fate.

''You thought that a Bijuumuda had been set off by the explosion, but it wasn't: the explosion was set off by something more powerful than the Tailed-beast bomb,'' Naruto started. ''I did say that these few hundreds would would compensate for the few hundreds you killed. I wanted to leave this village destroyed beyond recognition. However, I'm feeling merciful today, I will do as you did: kill a few hundreds and destroy some things. I will also crush you for the murders."

Onoki wasn't facing the Emperor when he spoke: he was busy trying to feel if there were any suvivors left. But he couldn't sense anything. He couldn't see anything. But he was relieved when the ground began to shook at the far left corner. Around 30 shinobi bust out from the ground. He sighed thankfully. 'They must have buried themseleves deep undeground to avoid the blast,' he thought mildly. This was good.

''I will surely make you pay for this, Uchiha,'' Onoki snapped his head towards Naruto. His body froze when he saw the look on the Emperor's face: it wasn't a blank, impassive expression, or that look of indifference. It was something akin to a powerful man who wasn't happy. He couldn't say the Emperor looked downright pissed, but he could say that he wasn't the least happy.

Naruto tilted his head a little, ''You, Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage, make me pay? For what exactly, Onoki? You provoked me by killing hundreds of civilians and attacked the City of Sound, is it not right that I seek to punish you after I'd warned you off such foolish actions?''

Onoki wasn't going to be drawn into an argument where he would have to defend his choices or justify his actions. ''I never walked into your country, and I didn't cause this much stir,'' he said. ''However, look around you, do you think you will be able to survive if they all attack you second after second?''

Indeed, there were at least around a thousand of strong shinobi gathered around the barrier. It seemed like there was a great spectacle that was being watched by the shinobi forces of Iwagakure: they'd surely turned the field of play into a stadium of some sort. Kurotsuchi was leading the remaining forces, but didn't seem like she was thrilled to get into battle.

''Only that first round was thrown because you did not wish to have all your forces into battle with once, and against a single opponent. Understandble. A wise choice for a Kage,'' Naruto stated, still keeping that unhappy look. ''Though, I would have wiped out all who dared attack me...''

Onoki snorted, recovered his might, and stood still. The ''Unhapppy'' look of the Emperor still unnerved him but he couldn't do much about it. ''I see your arrogance has no limits,'' he said. ''Particle style: Atomic Dismantling jutsu!''

Naruto disappeared from his position, appearing a distance away from the Tsuchikage. His movement was influenced by the desire to disappear from the range of Onoki's attack. This only gave chance for the remaining forces to move into the side of their Kage. ''Your technique requires one to be still for you to completely ensnare the opponent. I am however, not the slowest and my sense of chakra is at the level where I can sense any build up of chakra. I can tell you what you're going to do next by the type of chakra building inside of you,'' he was a Sage, and it was only natural that he knew all nature transformations of chakra. Besides, the part of his self that had been the first human to possess chakra was still living inside of him. It was only the fact most of his being was sealed in the moon that he couldn't completely negate all forms of ninjutsu without the use of Bijuudama's.

Onoki didn't immidietly respond to the statement by the Emperor, he looked at his man and smiled when he saw that a vital part of his plan was still alive. He wouldn't have awaited the emperor without going through everything in order to battle him and come out victorious. ''Like you said, I've studied your fighting style and I know exactly what is needed to fight you. Ninjutsu requires large amounts of chakra to be burned, but you make ninjutsu useless. Taijutsu is a little different. Natural energy is something that we haven't tried though...''

''I didn't think that you had anyone with the capabilities to absorb Natural energy. Normally summons are required for the learning of Senjutsu, but Hashirama didn't possess a summon yet managed to wield Sage chakra. Could you have found a way to tap into nature?'' He could use natural chakra because he was a sage, and a part of the Juubi was in him, so it was only natural for him.

''I won't get into details,'' he wouldn't want to reveal any secrets to the man. ''However, things will go differently from now on...''

A man stepped forward: he was off a big build, showed a lot of muscles, and was wearing black pants that fitted well with his lower body, and a black shirt that showed his bulky chest. The man held his hands together, closed his eyes for concetration. Naruto merely watched in mild curiosity. He was intrigued when overwhelming power surged from the shinobi. A dark brown aura surrounded the man.

''Oh my...'' Naruto trailed off when the black haired man suddenly vanished into thin air. His eyes looked up as the man appeared above him, crashing down with right fist towards him. ''Shin-''

The man suddenly disappeared from his view before he could even finish his jutsu. The man's feet crashed down the ground just in front of him. A right punch connected with his chest with so much force that there was a resounding boom that rocked through the barrier.

''This is going to be interesting,'' Naruto said, his head cocked to the left side. That punch actually made him feel pain. But pain wasn't something that made him worry: he was highly tolerant to the feeling.

Naruto's opponent rushed at his side with so much speed that the Emperor couldn't help but be amazed. Still, he couldn't afford to waste any moves because as the opponent charged, but others were waiting up on him to take advanatage of any chance of momentariliy lapse or the gap between his jutsu when using the Rinnegan. A faster opponent made it rather difficult to use Ninjutsu: at least he didn't have to worry about hand seals as he didn't neccesarily need them to execute his jutsus.

The black haired man seemed to know about the Sharingan's ability to predict moves as he appeared in the front before flashing behind the Emperor, and he again flashed into the right side of the Emperor, slightly above ground, twisted clockwise and launched a kick straight at Naruto's temple. The Emperor caught the kick with both his hands, but the shock and force from the kick managed to push him back slighly: still holding his opponent's foot.

''You're using your hands,'' the man said, looking impassive. As he had noted, the Emperor had relented in using his hands a few moments ago when he first attacked, but now he was forced into bringing them out to play.

''The situation requires that I do so. I never said anything about not raising them: I merely dislike raising them to deal with foolish children,'' as he spoke, black flames formed around his feet, surrounding him: they stayed grounded.

''That means I'm doing something right then...''

Naruto didn't respond as he sensed two shinobi behind him. When his left eyes snapped to the attention, the two were really close to him, both holding swords, trying to take advantage of the fact that both his hands were held up. He twisted around forcefully, still holding the foot of his opponent with both his hands, and sent the man crashing into the other two. The two were sent back as they collided with the heavy man who was flung by the Emperor.

The Emperor was forced to twist back again as another shinobi rushed towards him through the ground. Being faster, he took a few steps forward before slamming his right foot into the man's gut, and sent him crumbling backwards. Not more than a second later, two more flashed just above him. The Emperor didn't do hand seals when he spat out flames, ''Great Fireball no Jutsu!'' the large fireball clashed with the shinobi head on consuming their flesh in one go.

A second didn't pass as his opponent returned to the offense, once again: some invisible punches were sent straight at his back. They had been so fast that it would have required the Truth-seeking balls to block - but Naruto had already sent them away to the clone on his core dimension. The punches crashed onto him like hot wind bullets: they were hot enough to burn through his kimino and leave a mark.

Three more shinobi were upon him again, surrounding all his sides, while holding kunais Naruto's eyes could see were engraved with explosive tags. The Emperor, muttered two words, ''Shinra Tensei,'' the blast sent the men crashing away.

His real opponent was uppon him again, behind him, right foot cleaving through the high air, aim being his head. The Emperor ducked under the kick, but couldn't attack because the moment he ducked under, a clone of Onoki bust out of the ground hands held together. ''Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling Jutsu!'' This had happened within seconds.

It took all of Naruto's might to get away from the path jutsu. He disappeared in a flash of black and appeared a few feet away. His opponent was upon him the second he landed on the ground: Naruto reacted by catching both kicks that were sent his way. ''I was not fast enough,'' he said to himself, while looking at the mark that was leaking some blood on his now bare chest. He looked at his opponent, straight into the eyes, ''Your Intel is lacking. Before I started using ninjutsu to the publick eye, I was hailed, feared even, for my taijutsu. You see, I trained my body in order to compete with any speed, to be able to react in time to follow through the predictions given by the Sharingan.''

''Are you suggesting that you can compete with me?''

''I don't need competition, not from the likes of you,'' the Emperor said with a shrug. ''Amaterasu,'' he set the man ablaze. While the flames surrounded the man, Naruto threw him away.

Naruto looked at the remaining forces, ''I haven't finished all of you,'' he sounded disappointed, somewhat. Sighing, he folded his hands across chest, ''What should I do now? I want to get this over with quickly...''

''Bastard! Don't take us lightly!'' The careless attitude was just annoyng and frustrating to someone who was giving his all. The Iwa shinobi who'd yelled those words rushed quickly at the Emperor holding a sword. He never reached his target though, the eternal black flames were upon him, and unlike how they normally did, they burned his body completly in a matter of seconds.

Naruto did a few hand seals, ''Mokuton: Deep Forest Burst!'' The ground shook within the barrier, and a forest began busting out from the ground all over barrier.

Onoki growled, ''It should be ready,'' he said before going down to stand on the forest Naruto created. He then sped through hand seals. ''Kuchiyose no jutsu!''

A mechanical weapon appeared in a puff of smoke: Naruto frowned slightly - they'd rebuild Karin's weapon. The machine stood like a machine gun, one big chakra cannon launcher. Onoki smirked, ''This is our trump card. What you don't know is that this weapon has been gathering natural energy since you came. No man in my village can absorb natural chakra, but this weapon can.''

This is why he didn't want Karin building weapons. ''To be honest, I'm quite shocked that Karin's weapon could do something like this,'' Naruto said, though you'd be inclined to think otherwise given the smile on his face.

''I will meet you in hell Uchiha!'' Onoki shouted before hitting the red button.

The weapon shot a single beam of white energy towards Naruto, but when it was halfway there, the beam broke off to several beams that all headed toward the Emperor.

'Truth-seeking balls will be useless and I can't summon them in time, no time to summon a perfect Susano'o; no time to perfom any jutsu either,' Naruto though quickly as the beams closed in on him with unbelievable speed. No more thought passed in him because the beams colided with him, resulting in a huge explosion that tore through the forest he had created.

Onoki merely watched the cloud of dust and wooded splinters settled down, waiting to see the results of his trump card. When everything finally cleared, Onoki could only widen his eyes, Naruto was still breathing - much to the shock of the least a thousand shinobi watching from outside the barrier. It wasn't supposed to be. The weapon had enough power to destroy an entire village.

The Emperor was down on his knees on the center of a large crater, kimono burned, chest exposed and leaking blood all over, but the holes in his body quickly filled up, stopping the bleeding. Naruto gave a bloody grin, ''I haven't felt so much pain since my battle with Madara and Sasuke, and haven't seen so much blood coming from my body...'' he said, panting slightly.

Onoki charged at Naruto, ''Particle Style: Atomic Dismantling jutsu...'' Naruto merely raised his right hand, absorbing the jutsu. ''How are you alive!? How can you generate your wounds like you're immortal?!''

Onoki was still mindful to keep his distance when Naruto straightened up, held out his index finger, ''I can also use natural chakra, Onoki.''

Naruto blurred out of sight and appeared just in front of Onoki who was still in shock.

Naruto didn't touch Onoki, but the mere look of his eyes made the Kage freeze, literally. It wasn't because of fear, but something was just holding him back. ''I was going to crush you back at my palace, but I have changed my mind.''

An unbeliavable amount of force crashed down on Onoki, sending him rocketing to the ground. The Tsuchikage let out a sound when his body brutally slammed down the unforgiving ground.

Naruto eyed the weapon for a second, and then it exploded. He turned his attention towards Onoki once more, and began to descend slowly. Once he touched the ground, he begun to slowly walk towards the fallen Tsuchikage. ''A pity your men have to watch you die, but it will be good to have their morale reduced...''

''Bansho Ten'n,'' the Sandaime Tsuchikage was pulled towards Naruto's waiting palm, his neck was grabbed tightly by the Emperor. No time wasted as Naruto slammed the fragile old man down the ground in brutal fashion.

''Urgh!''

Naruto didn't mind the shrill, his snapped his fingers and a portal opened above the Tsuchikage: a chakra rod shot straight at his left shoulder, another followed to the other shoulder. Once again, the Emperor ignored the Tsuchikage's cries of pain. He shot another rod straight at Onko's gut, and lastly shot two more: one pierced through the forehead and another went through the heart.

''This was troubling...'' Naruto merely said as he watched the the Tsuchikage breathe his last breath.

As the barrier began to fade, Naruto looked up at the sky and a few moments later, his men appeared beside him. Not minding anything, Nao spoke, ''This should send a clear message to the other nations who wish to walk in the same path as the Third Tsuchikage.''

''But should Kurotsuchi take charge, we might not have to fight Iwagakure further, unless there is a rebellion,'' Shinji said.

''Your Majesty,'' Heisuke, ''was there another reason for this mission? I'm led to believe that with how you handled things with Kurotsuchi from the beginning, you never planned on fighting this village. You've always wanted Onoki removed from power...''

''Speculations be speculations,'' Naruto simply said. Not minding that he was surrounding more than a thousand of shinobi. ''I've just removed a weak link,'' he said. ''Go, I will follow shortly.''

All did a ''Hai,'' before flashing out of existence.

''I should leave as well,'' Naruto said to himself.

Kurotsuchi caught the eyes of the Emperor for a few moments before speaking through gritted teeth. ''Leave, or I will order all of my men to attack!''

''Kurotsuchi-sama, we cannot allow this man to leave like this! He took our Tsuchikage and killed our comrades, he must not be allowed to leave!'' there were many nods of agreement around the men. Some didn't want to fight so they refused to say anything.

Kurotsuchi gave the man who dared question her orders a stern glare, but for all who dared to look, tears were rolling down her cheeks. ''My grandfather is dead. We've lost hundreds already. Don't you think that is enough? That man hasn't even used his Susano'o! Do you think Iwagakure will survive if he goes all Konoha on us?! I'm thinking of what is best for this village, but if you think i'm wrong, be my guest, be the first to charge and land a hit, then I will follow you, and maybe we will defeat him, and maybe this village will remain standing. However, should you fail, and Iwa suffers more damage, I swear I will mutilate you with my teeth!''

Naturally, the man didn't attack. He took comfort in the numbers, and if that was taken away from him, it was no different than being made to parade through the busy streets while naked.

A more rational mind of an Anbu spoke, ''Allowing him to leave now is the best option. The Third is gone, and engaging him will only lead to more destruction and casualities. We need to regroup. Besides, have you forgotten that innocent civilians are just away from us? And this isn't a battleground, but our beloved village!''

He had to give the Emperor some credit though. Storming into this village may be seen as foollish and actions led by arrogance, but it wasn't like that: the Emperor knew exactly what he was doing. If they'd met outside the village, an even greater battle would have ensured as they would be fighting without care. In here, they had to limit their numbers and remember that they were inside their home: if they caused destruction, they would have to rebuild afterwards.

Fighting here minimized everything. If they'd fought outside, the Emperor would have been forced to bring his own into the battleground. Inside the village, he looked like a fool while everything worked according to plan. They were the fools, and the Emperor was walking away with victory dancing joyfully above his shoulders, while they were left to shoulder their losses.

Later

''Emperor,'' Nao called to the black haired Naruto, who was sitting on a tree branch, overlooking at village down the mountain. He and the others were down on the ground going through a few things. ''What will happen in Iwagakure now? Kurotsuchi won't become our enemy, but you said most of the village won't fight us, back at the capital.''

''Rebellion,'' Shinji said looking up at the green leaves that obstructed his view of the clouds up in the sky. ''That is likely the case, isn't it, your Majesty?''

Naruto gave a small nod, but said nothing further.

''What do you mean by that Shinji? A rebellion will destroy Iwa and I don't think those people would go that far. Aside from their stubbornness, they share another common trait, a love for their village,'' Heisuke countered, thinking that they would not do anything that will provoke a civil war.

Kotaro nodded, agreeing with Heisuke's view. ''A rebellion will cause a civil war that would break Iwagakure apart in a short time. The village may be big, but considering everything, it won't take much for it to break apart.''

''What do you think, Heika? Is this what you wanted?''

Naruto took his time before he responded: he didn't have to hurry anything. Time was on his side. ''Kurotsuchi will not order her forces to attack the Empire: she will try to form an alliance that her grandfather failed to form, in secret though. Since she is going to be installed as the new Tsuchikage, her council will likely try to push her to attack. But she will stand firm and try to reason. There will be divisions amongst her council, just as there is in the forces.''

''Those unsatisfied will likely go against her orders, and there will be little she can do about it because she knows if she does anything, there is likely going to be a fight,'' Nao added.

''Iwa's forces have been trained harder than any of the other villages forces, and won't be easy to do with. I'm saying this because in the coming days, the forces who wish to pick a fight with us will leave Iwagakure, and that woman won't stop them. If she does, a battle with breakout, harming her village.'' Naruto said before adding. ''The assassins who will leave the village will likely run in seperate groups to make it easy to move around. From there, they will likely be attacking all of our allies.''

''Their attacks on us will spike other nations to follow suit. We can expect them to be coming from all directions,'' Heisuke said.

''So our attack has sparked the war to begin...''

''The war begun when Onoki committed genocide on the innocent,'' the Emperor said. ''This is Moyagakure. The leader of this village is responsible for my attack, and their shinobi are the ones who scouted our borders for Iwa's safe passage. They've also recently created a weapon using stolen technology from the Hot Springs. I will disable the weapon and you will fight. Don't kill anyone. Just disable them. The leader must be torn to pieces though.''

''What kind of weapon is it, Heika?''

''Watch me as I attack: they are expecting us and civilians have already been evacuated. After I disable the weapon, you'll be free to rain down the village.''

''Hai!''

Naruto stood up before he vanished, the generals disappeared as well.

Meanwhile

While it wasn't official as of yet, Kurotsuchi was the new Tsuchikage for Iwagakure. It pained her, she wanted nothing more than to cry for her grandfather, but if she did that, the village would be turned into chaos. She didn't want thousands to be marching around the village aimlessly, wondering about their future, thinking illogical thoughts, she wanted the village to be stable. There may be a hole punched through in her heart, but she had to keep all that covered for the sake of 'her' village.

Her grandfather wasn't going to turn up alive any second now. She had already known his death was only imminent when he decided to kill the innocent people of the Rice Kingdom. Karin had only put a stamp in her fears, but the reality of it occuring crushed the little hope she had, the little string she had attached to comfort herself.

Emotionally, Kurotsuchi was flat; Physically, she was drained and probably needed one of the good hour drugs to push some adrenaline through her blood stream and maybe drip in some poison to make her mind rest from the miles it has been doing since the Emperor 'dropped' down on the village.

When faced by arrogant and ignorant - talk about a bad combination - old farts, Kurotsuchi felt like she was pushing a mountain and carrying an earth-size meteorite. Her feet were having troubles even pushing up as her joints were shaking with all the overwhelming load that had been forced upon her young shoulders.

''Why did you allow that man to leave, Kurotsuchi!?''

''That arrogant man was in our front yard. Our shinobi could've caputured him if you hadn't been a coward and allowed him to walk out freely. You may have as well have escourted him out of the village after making a foolish decision like that?!''

''That man was outnumbered massively, and our forces are nothing like the flies he dealt with in Kirigakure during its civil war. We could've aprehended him for the invasion.''

''Lord Tsuchikage was murdered before your very eyes. How will you live with yourself knowing that you GRANDFATHER suffered before your very eyes and you did nothing to save him? He may even be cursing your very name as we speak! You let the enemy get away without attempting to fight! How do you call yourself a leader?!''

''If you had-''

Finally exploding like a hot balloon, Kurotsuchi raised her voice sternly, ''Shut up!''

And then there was silence, but the glares didn't go away.

The 'Fourth' Tsuchikage leaned back to her chair, glancing all her sides while levelling the fools a very nasty look that promised the unspeakable. ''If any of you question my love for my grandfather again, I swear by my dead mother that I will starve you and then burry you, alive!''

No one responded, from the ones all throwing irrational twists in her face.

''Kurotsuchi, why did you allow the Emperor to leave after he invaded our village, killed hundreds of our men and murdered the Tsuchikage?'' Hundreds were not a major loss that dug a deep hole in their shinobi forces, but it was something that shouldn't be taken lightly, especially when it was done in the yard.

''When the Emperor only chose to fight the men my grandfather had, I realized that he was only in the village to do good on the promise he delivered to him through Karin. The Emperor had warned my grandfather that he would come to the village to punish him for the foolish action he took.

I chose not to engage him when I saw that he was done with what he had come to do. If I had chosen to fight him, in our village, with the numbers we have and his destructive power, there wouldn't have been any village standing after the battle. So even if we'd won, there wouldn't have been a village left, and we would have lost most of our men. What would you rather have, a ruin like Konoha with demoralised shinobi or a standing village with the opportunity to fight another day?''

The words sunk in with some force, but they reached were they were supposed to. They had to look at the bigger picture rather than trying to nurse their petty pride by sending the village into collapse. Her grandfather had brought this upon them, even when she had strongly tried to pursuade him otherwise.

''I understand your point of view,'' a more logical mind spoke. ''But what are we going to do about this situation? We can't let this slide not by all chance!''

''You fail to realize something: you fools endorsed the attack on civilians, what did you expect?!'' Kurotsuchi shouted with all her strength, right fist smashing into the table in front of her. ''Tell me?! What did you think was going to happen when you supported the choice to murder innocent people, who were led by that man?! I swear if you give me a 'reasonable' answer like, we didn't expected him to rush over here to exect revenge, I will throw you into a dark cell deep under this tower for instigating the situation we are in right now.''

''You can't blame us for this!''

''I can and I am. You supported the choice to provoke that man, and this is what happens when you provoke him. If you people had just left that man alone, none of this would have happened. But you just couldn't let things be. And now look what has happened?!'' Her stern gaze pierced through their eyes, just as her voice shook things in their minds. ''You screwed up, and now let me fix things my way.'' She stood up to leave for some personal space.

''While she does have a point, we can't exactly let this slide without punishment. Something has to be done before our image is tarnished. How will other villages look at us if one man was able to enter our village, kill hundreds of our man and kill our Tsuchikage?'' One of the councilmen said, earning nods from some.

as Kurotsuchi paced around the Tsuchikage's office, having left the council room, her movements halted in front of the desk her stupid grandfather used to occupy. She was burdened, broken inside, and he wasn't here. They may have had differences lately, but he was her grandfather, she really needed him for moral support. Where was he now that she needed him? He'd 'runaway' into the hands of his enemy, leaving her to fend for herself.

''Stupid, stubborn old man!'' Kurotsuchi yelled to no one in particular. ''I warned you; I told you not to do stupid things but you didn't listen. You went ahead with your crazy ideas, look where it has brought us?!'' Some part of her tormented heart wished the old man could hear her.

''Why won't you answer me dammit?!'' She shouted again.

Kurotsuchi grabbed the chair in front of her, and smashed it at the desk, she did again, and once more again until there was nothing left of the chair. Finally, she slowly crumbled down on her butt. ''Why?''

The question was an echo that sounded deep inside the walls of her heart. No plausible answer came, nothing that was fullfiling slid into her heart, nothing that would make her shattered soul be whole again.

The old man would've been here with her, complaining about back pains, load of work, saying that he was too old for this shit, yet couldn't quit his job and let her do it. Perhaps he just wanted to go out with a bang.

A few drops of of tears fell onto her lap...

Back at Moyagakure

The Emperor landed down in one of the buildings in the village: the Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan observed the layout while he stood still. It almost looked like it was empty. Civilians had been evacuated far away from the village for safety. The fools of this village were willing to turn the village into a battleground. It was quite the feeling that gripped his cold heart. Just knowing that a battlefield had been prepared for his appearance.

''Better get this over wi... Hmm?''

His eyes caught something moving fast, behind him. Even though the Sharingan predicted the path of the thing, he couldn't twist his body fast enough to face it. A red arrow came upon him in an instance: the Emperor tried to sidestep the arrow that was heading straight for his forehead. He wasn't fast enough as the arrow managed to cut bits of his hair just above his left ear before exploding upon the contact.

Naruto appeared unharmed as he landed behind the building he'd been on. As he leaned against the wall, his prior thought was now confirmed: he couldn't just charge straight ahead. He needed to move with speed and elegance or else he would be harmed.

His senses became alert when two more arrows, bigger than him in length, appeared. It didn't take more than half of a second for them to reach his closest proximity. Naruto was forced to jump up the ground, using his Sharingan's predicting ability to move just in time when the arrows were about to hit him. Remarkably, the arrows didn't collide, instead, they changed direction, looking for him, again.

Fortunately enough, Naruto was able to get two firm roots to burst out from the ground. They were able to quickly catch the arrows before they could reach the Emperor. The arrows still detonated in a resounding explosion, nonetheless. The explosion didn't form any flames or a of energy, it created a strong shockwave that had enough force to shatter the glasses on the building and propel the Emperor up in the air.

If Naruto was a fan of cursing, he would've cursed at about now: a couple of black arrows crashed through the windows of the building opposite to the building he'd been leaning on for cover, and were heading straight at him. He couldn't use the same jutsu he used when dealing with Sasuke's arrows because these kind of arrows would explode right on his face: he wasn't positively sure, but wasn't keen on taking the chance either.

His beloved gunbai appeared in front of him in a cloud of smoke. The moment his hand grabbed its handle, the black arrows crashed onto the face of his gunbai. They exploded with enough force to make the Emperor crashed through the five-floor building, and onto the other side. The momentum came to a halt when he hit the wall of another building and managed to land on the ground, unharmed.

''This looks like it is going to be troublesome,'' he managed to crack a smile. ''Well, at least I might enjoy myself... Besides, I've sensed the general location of the weapon...''

Naruto could sense a number of chakra signatures around the ghost village, but no one was making a move towards him. For now, it seemed they were content with watching him dance to the beat of the weapon he could now safely assume was created from watching Sasuke's Susano'o. The arrows shot were the problem and different as they weren't exactly created from chakra.

The Emperor's senses went to work again as another large arrow targeted him. It was flying just above the ground with incredible speed, its overwhelming speed was put into show by the debris that picked up after it had passed. Naruto didn't attempt to block it with his gunbai as it was a little bigger and he wanted to test something.

The royal flicked his gunbai into the air and held out his right hand. He didn't use chakra as he had assumed the arrow was attracted to chakra and contact with the energy made it unstable, hence it exploded each time it contacted him. Chakra wasn't the only thing that set it off though. Because he didn't know everything, he'd decided to test his theory right about now.

Naruto put several layers of wind walls in front of him. The layers weren't exactly as much as 'walls' but a cloud that formed a resistance. Wind already played a part in the movements of the arrow. It was a simple test of aerodynamics that Naruto was trying to pull off. The projectile could move faster, but with enough wind pressure, it would be slowed down. Naruto did exactly that but re-inforcing the wind pressure in front of him. The pressure was enough to slow the arrow, but not completly stop it.

The arrow was grabbed by a large wind hand when it was only inches away from the Emperor. It didn't explode, which is what Naruto wanted to rest. However, judging by what he could feel, the arrow was still pushing towards him as his chakra still attracted it. That meant that as long as he had chakra in him, the thing would continue to hunt him. What made it worse was that he had large amounts of chakra, so it would avoid any other source and head for the one that dwarfs the others.

Naruto jumped back just to be safe: the moment he landed on the ground, several more arrows appeared from above. Before he could even do anything, four more appeared from all sides, leaving him with no escape. In this kind of situation, there was only one thing to do. He held his right hand in a single hand seal before he started rotating, ''Uchiha Flame Rotation!'' The flames started pouring out, it wasn't just red flames, but black flames as well. The flames formed a swirling dome of black and red that produced a high level of intense heat.

The burning of chakra did nothing more than force the arrows to come towards him in even greater speed, but Naruto had counted for that: the flames had enough heat to expell anything. The flames of Amaterasu helped quicken the pace.

When the arrows connected with the dome, they all turned into one large explosion that destroyed parts of the buildings that surrounded the Emperor. The flames had done more to intensify the explosion. When everything cleared, Naruto appeared without too much harm, his Kimono just had some burns a bit.

''I was right choosing to deal with this myself. If I don't step up a bit, I will get more than just burns,'' the Emperor said to himself. ''This is... I lost concetration...'' he said in bit of a curse than anything.

The arrow he'd caught with his wind hand had broken loose and was heading straight at him. He quickly threw the gunbai on his left hand into the air before disappearing in a flash holding its handle. Predictably, the arrow changed paths and swept up to him. Naruto reacted by flashing down the ground using his superior speed. The arrow still followed him though, but it mattered not as the Emperor had bought himself enough time.

''Amaterasu.'' the flames were set ablaze around the arrow, but it didn't explode, as Naruto had predicted, nor did it stop. However, its movements did slow down a bit. This gave him enough time to bat the arrow away from him using his gunbai. Upon crashing into a building, the arrow exploded.

Naruto didn't waste time as he started running deep into the village streets. Gunbai fully gripped, and a serious expression across his face. He didn't run far as an orange arrow zipped past him in blinding speeds, causing him to abruptly hault his movements.

''Hmm?'' His eyes narrowed onto his right shoulder: his Kimono was reddening with his blood, and he felt some tinges of discomfort. ''My blood...'' a smile found its way into his lips. ''Well, lets party then...''

Later

As the sound of raging battles died down, Naruto looked ahead with a blank look on his face. Taking care of the weapon hadn't been very easy as he would have liked, but he wasn't complaining as he did some warm ups, something he hasn't done in quite some time. Looking down the village that had turned into a ring of heavy weights when his generals advanced, the Emperor could say he was pleased with the days work.

More scenes like this were going to fill up the Elemental Nations in the coming weeks, fireworks of all kinds were going to be lit up and he had the front seat to all of it, while Hagoromo watched through a thick glass. It was wonderful feeling that tore through the chest of his, he wanted to laugh and light more fireworks, but he didn't do any of that, even when the little voice in him was urging him to do a victory dance.

''Heika,'' Heisuke started as he and the others flashed behind the Emperor. From anyone looking, it was obvious that they had been in battle. ''The mission was a success, but there were a few things that got out of hand...'' He believed the man had already noticedd as he'd been watching them ever since he blew the 'machine' that was shooting arrows. The report had to be given nonetheless.

''We tore the leader apart, however, there were some casualties during the battle. We tried doing our best, but roughly 72% of the villages forces we engaged are still alive, and half of those may or may not fight again,'' Shinji added after Heisuke.

There was some silence as Naruto kept quiet instead of responding. The men behind him merely continued to kneel, waiting for the Emperor to make his response. Even though they were facing his back, they could safely guess the kind of expression that was on his face. They had seen much of the man in the past years and have learned much about how he behaved.

''I can see that...'' Naruto said in response as the Sharingan glanced in all sides of the burning village. ''It couldn't be helped. The weapon may be been threatening, but the shinobi themselves are a bit disappointing.''

''What kind of a weapon was that Heika?'' It had successfully managed to pierce the Emperor not once, or twice, and it had even managed to break through in incomplete Susano'o. The speed of the arrows had been frightening, but all was handled, but not without a scratch though.

''I don't know the specifications, but it seemed to have been created to distabilize chakra, and the arrows themselves weren't made of chakra. It was able to pass through the Susano'o because it was made of chakra, and upon contact, it distabalizes the chakra. This happens in an instance. I'd assumed it would explode upon contact with anything that is chakra, but I was wrong. The exploding part seemed to have been remotely controlled.

My chakra system is a little different, and since I'm not the kind of person to lose control over my own chakra, I was able to fight off the effects of being pierced. However, it would've been a different story if they had pierced my tenketsu points,'' which given his kind of chakra system, were fewer than the normal shinobi.

The generals took this with some silence, but before any could speak, Naruto stood up. ''I will see you at the capital. I have to make one last stop before I return.'' He disappeared into thin air after saying those words.

''Where do you think his Majesty has gone to see?'' Kotar asked the other three who didn't seem interested in asking the whereabouts of the Emperor.

''Who knows?'' Heisuke said with a shrug while Shinji and Nao gave their own shrugs.