Through My Lying Eyes

34 - Declaration

(The next day)

Gaara took a seat next to the other remaining kage since he was the last one to arrive to the kage meeting. "Sorry I'm late, but can we begin now?" Gaara said. He was accompanied by his siblings, Kankuro and Temari.

"Don't sweat it, and yes we can." A said. He was joined with Darui and Samui. "Does anyone have any news about who or what destroyed Iwa?" He asked.

"We've got nothing so far, and we've even searched Iwa again for any clues, but we still couldn't find anything." Mei said. Her guards were Ao and Chojuro.

"Same here, due to the fires, everything that was in the tsuchikage's tower was destroyed. So we can't even know if he knew the person involved." Tsunade added. With her, was Kakashi and Sasuke.

"Dammit!" A shouted, clearly infuriated. "Calm down raikage-dono. I understand, but please just keep listening." The samurai in front of the kage named Mifune said.

"Now listen." He started. "It's obvious that the thing responsible is strong enough to easily take out an entire village in a single night. So in order to defeat this thing, we all needed to make an alliance, and that's what we did last time. Now, the shinobi alliance is official, with a new headband to represent the new faction we have created." Mifune said as he held up a headband with the kanji for shinobi carved out.

"Isn't that cute." A voice was heard. The kage looked around and saw that above them on a ledge, was a figure wearing an orange mask and an akatsuki robe. "The Akatsuki? They went quiet, so I thought they were wiped out, I guess not." A said.

"You would be right to think that, actually. They are all dead, all at the hands of one man." The masked man said. All of the kage except for Mei had a feeling who wiped them out, but they all hoped that he wouldn't say.

"One man? And who are you anyway?" Mei asked, shocked.

"I used to go by Tobi, but you can call Uchiha Madara." Madara said. The kage started to get nervous. "As for who took out the Akatsuki, that would he the same person who wiped out Iwa." Now most of the kage were confused, the had a feeling Naruto beat the Akatsuki, but he wouldn't destroy Iwa, right?

"Uzumaki Naruto." Madara said, making those who thought him dead aggravated. "That's impossible! He died a few years ago!" Sasuke said, anger clearly evident in his voice.

"Oh how gullible you are, Sasuke. Raikage, why don't you enlighten them." He said making all eyes fall on him. Speaking of eyes, Sasuke had his sharingan active, and Kakashi was about to pull up his headband in case he needed to step in to stop his student.

'Well, the cats already out of the bag, so I might as well.' He thought to himself as he turned to face the others. "He asked me help fake his own death. I respected him enough to help him in his time of need. Although, I didn't know he was the one who destroyed Iwa. I knew he didn't like them, but he must've had a reason to."

Sasuke didn't know what to say, many emotions were in his mind now. Anger, relief, sadness, he didn't know what to feel right now. Kakashi on the other hand was both relieved and confused, his student was alive after all, but he wanted to know why he left. That was when he looked at his hokage, who should've looked more shocked than she does now.

"Are you not happy lady Tsunade?" Kakashi asked. She didn't answer for a few seconds. "I already knew he was alive, he used to visit me every so often, in fact. But hearing that he was the one that...oh god."

"Like raikage-dono said, he must've had a reason, he wouldn't do something like that for no reason." Gaara said.

"Whatever that reason was, he left your little alliance severely crippled, leaving you wide open for me to declare that the fourth shinobi world war begins now. Gather up all of your forces, I don't care, they're all going to be dead by the end of this anyway. But for now, you have something important to talk about right?" Madara said before he was absorbed into his own eye, disappearing from the area.

"The fourth shinobi war." Kakashi said in disbelief. "Don't let his declaration deture you, we have an alliance now, we have to make a plan. You can learn more of your comrade later." Mifune said, trying to calm everyone down. Sasuke knew he was right, Tsunade said she knew he was alive, so he'll ask her when they got back home.

-After the planning session-

"Does everyone understand their roles?" Mifune asked. Everyone nodded their heads. "Good, then that concludes this five kage summit. You can stay and discuss with each other the Naruto situation, buy without anyone knowing why he destroyed Iwa, I have no reason to be here." Mifune said, standing up, gathering his things, and leaving the kage.

"I just...I just want to know why, why did he leave, why did he destroy Iwa...just...why." Sasuke said, he didn't know what to think anymore. Tsunade looked at him. "Would you all like to know at least why he left?" She asked. Sasuke looked at her in shock. "You...you know?"

"Before he and Jiraiya left on the training trip, Jiraiya had a talk with me. He explained that the day of Naruto's tenth birthday, his girlfriend at the time, one Hyuga Hinata, had died in his arms due to some drunk villagers. He lashed out and even killed some villagers, but he and the hokage stopped him. They sealed half of his chakra and memories away, but the seal broke halfway through their trip."

"Wait, you said Hinata, right? Kakashi, didn't Naruto also say her name, the first day we trained together, at the stone?" Sasuke asked his sensei. "You're right, I guess that seal was weaker than I thought."

"No, the seal my sensei used was the yang-lock, which is S-rank. Naruto's mind was just strong enough for some memories to slip through. In fact, the seal would normally be active until he dies, but he was only sealed for about 6 years instead." Tsunade said, leaving everyone in amazement.

"I guess now the only question is why did he destroy Iwa." A said. "But like I said, he must have a reason."

"Whatever it was, it was enough to make him snap. He wouldn't kill for no reason, let alone a whole village." Gaara said. Sasuke looked at him. "Did...did you know too?" He asked while pointing at him.

"Even after my biju was extracted, he still considered me his brother. He saw all jinchuriki as family, actually."

"That's good to know, at least he didn't completely disappear. Now I just want to know where he is. He probably still doesn't want to come back to konoha, so I won't force him." Sasuke said.

"Listen Sasuke, he might not even want to see anyone right now. Especially if he was the one who destroyed Iwa. Let's leave him alone for now, don't push your luck for now." Kakashi said. A stayed quiet through this conversation, he had a feeling of where he might be, but he wasn't 100% sure or not.

"I know, for now I'll focus on this war, but I WILL find Naruto afterwards, and I WILL prove his innocence!" Sasuke declared. Kakashi eye-smiled and the meeting was over.