The Devil of the Mist and Dragon of the North

Kakashi and along with his fellow jounins and ANBU sped up across the roofs. They were all quickly picking up the pace to avoid the worst case scenario that's already ringing on his mind. The image he saw during the Chunin Exams were still fresh.

Soon, one of the ANBU that was running beside him made another concerning report.

"Kakashi-san, we just received a report that the two intruders had made contact with your students. It seems that the foreigner immediately retaliated after he saw Naruto and Sasuke being pinned by the missing-nins. He is currently fighting the Mist-nin."

"Continue." He clicked his tongue and nodded at the ANBU.

"The five ANBU operatives guarding the foreigner also made contact with Uchiha Itachi, separating the two missing-nins. That's the last radio contact they sent."

"Where were they? Lead-" Kakashi asked.

Then all of them felt a dreadful wave of bloodlust that stopped them in their tracks.

Kurenai was in cold sweat. Asuma's mouth was even shivering that his lips failed to hold his cigarrete and fell. Kakashi don't even have to use his sharingan to see the use of chakra at a distance. The ANBU agents were breathing hard as they felt it also.

The bloodlust he felt during the chunin exam was like a beast that's trying to protect its litter. Now it felt like just someone with the goal, to kill.

And it's getting worse.

"W-what a terrifying bloodlust… Kakashi!" Gai said with wide open eyes and yelled at his rival. Thankfully, that broke the stalemate.

"Yes, I know. That's even far worse than what I felt way back." He nodded and turned to the ANBU agents. He doesn't need their directions anymore. "Help evacuate the civilians and establish a danger zone with the current location of the fight as the epicenter. Me and the other jounins will hold them until reinforcement arrives."

"Acknowledge." The ANBU captain nodded and disappeared with his team.

"LET'S GO!!!" Gai immediately run with extreme speed towards the source of the bloodlust earlier.

They ran through the top of the buildings, making them see the scared civilians running away below, on the streets. They are still at a distance away from the conflict but the effects were already spreading. Most shinobi, even the elite of the elite, would never let out such bloodlust as it is not in their way of fighting. They would rather hide it to make the enemy get a false idea and would let their guard down.

And then, as soon as their feet landed on the ground, they felt the ground shaking tremor.

"Wha-what the fuck?! Now an earthquake?!" Asuma frown in worry.

The people below them however, felt stronger shaking and panicked. Screams for help and confusions were flooding the streets below. The main problem is that it isn't just a once. But a repeating occurrence. It's as if that someone was beating the ground with great strength. And all of them could feel that all of it came from the same source.

"Shit, let's continue! It's already happening!" Kakashi furrowed his brows and led the dash.

"Kakashi, what in the world is happening?!" Kurenai asked loudly, running on tandem with other jounins.

"You mentioned that Naruto-kun had an uncle, is he that foreigner that was mentioned fighting the two Akatsuki in the report?!" Asuma also asked.

"Yes, but it's too late to stop it now. We just have to help end it if possible before a more extensive damage will be added to the village repairs."

They continued their pace until they saw two shinobi that were struggling in fighting a person in black cloack. On the same roofs were bodies of three shinobi also. Kakashi immediately recognized the person that was fighting the ANBU.

"Itachi! Kurenai, Asuma check those three ANBU, me and Gai will hold Itachi!" Kakashi said.

"Finally! We will fight together again, my rival!" Gai tried to cover his fear with enthusiasm.

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Itachi could feel the impact and the effects of the fight between Kisame and someone who have the same face as the Fourth Hokage, at a distance. Itachi still couldn't believe the possibility that they are the same person as one of the witnesses of the Kyuubi's rampage. But after seeing how the man in question displayed a jutsu that was eerily similar to the Hiraishin no Jutsu, the signature jutsu of the Yondaime, he had to confirm it with the help of the ANBU operatives that was seemed to be guarding the man.

He captured one of the ANBU earlier and interrogated her with a genjutsu. He got nothing except that they were tasked to protect him from public eyes and disallow any meeting of him and the Iwa representatives. Itachi remembered that the Iwa were the village that had known grudge over the Yondaime. And that clicked altogether.

So he decided to interrogate the other four by crippling them with kagebunshin jutsu. He successfully caught two of them and started his questions by breaking their masks, strangling and forcing them to look at his eyes.

"Who was the man you were guarding?" inside the genjutsu, he tortured the two like the previous one and asked.

"A… a foreigner… named Harissen… Conrad… "

"From which country?"

"It was… not disclose… to us…"

After getting more vague information that just gave him more questions in mind, he threw the two away and targeted the last two Konoha ANBU. Itachi was about to cast another genjutsu to his next victim when he was almost struck by an attack from behind.

"Konoha Gouriki Senpuu!" a man with strange hairstyle in green clothes missed him and instead hit the roof of the building. It destroyed the thick roof creating a large hole.

Then Itachi sensed another jutsu coming on his blindspot and dodged.

"Raiton: Chidori!"

However, Kakashi struck the empty air.

"Tsk. He dodged it" Itachi recognized the first attacker as Gai, Kakashi's known companion in the past. Kurenai and Asuma soon joined them along with new set of ANBU.

Then all of them heard the loud echoing voices.

"STRUN BAH QO!"

This made them turn to the source of these shout. And noticed the changing sky above them. The calm clouds on the sky were broken, then swirled quickly until it became dark in seconds, covering all of Konoha. Thunders rumbled, lightning cracked then heavy rain fell.

Itachi had never seen such jutsu that could could change the weather in seconds. And was this even a jutsu? He turned to Kakashi with a questioning look.

"I have a lot of questions Kakashi-san."

The sudden words of Itachi caused Kakashi's focus to hastily go back to the missing-nin. He prepared for any counter against the fellow sharingan user in front of him.

He was about to send Kurenai and Asuma to help Naruto when he was interrupted and found himself crucified on a world of black and white. He can't even move his body.

"This is the world of the 'Grasping Moon'. All of Space. All of Time. Every matter. Everything is under my control." There are hundreds of Itachi that surrounded Kakashi, armed with blades.

"Now for seventy two hours… you will be continuously stabbed by this katanas until I get the answer I was looking for."

Genjutsu! Kakashi opened his eyes in surprise and in frustration for falling into this.

"Now… who is that man named Harissen Conrad?"

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In the building far from the center of the village, the Iwa Delegates already started their talks with the Kage of Konoha. The place was on high security alert and full of ANBU on guard. The Hidden Stone Village sent four represantives and several teams of their own ANBU as escorts. These people were known to those in politics on Konoha. They were the same people who attended the peace conference in the past that ended the war.

But the talks were becoming stale as minutes go by, and Hiruzen Sarutobi had to end it.

"As we have said previously Hokage-sama, we the Iwagakure have neither the intentions to harm Konoha nor participate in the Sunagakure and Otogakure's invasion."

"Then how would you explain an undercover Iwa Jounins that infiltrated as genins that we found during the exam and the disastrous event? Most especially, the granddaughter of your Kage, herself?" Sarutobi already had an idea why they sent an infiltration team. He was just making a base for bargaining chips to use later.

The Iwa Representatives were still on denial for already a couple of hours since they started their talks. And Sarutobi could sense the crumbling resistance to their questions. But he felt that the reason is not because of the hostages but something else. He is trying to gauge the possible reason by trying them to slip.

"We-"

"We have our own trusted informations about your jounins and new promising genins. And none of those we have caught were using correct identities and ranks. We are not stupid. And for the future security of our village, we need your true reasons why you sent a team to infiltrate Konoha." Danzo was now growling at the obvious failed tries to find alibi by the Iwa Delegates.

All of them glared at Danzo for the unspoken threat. The silence seems to keep forever, until one of them sighed and replied.

"Fine. But we have our own questions that needs answering after, because it will related to this topic. An exchange of information perhaps."

"Hm." Sarutobi sat back to his chair while Danzo just stared in waiting. Only two of them were present as Konoha representatives to meet with the Iwa delegates.

"We are aware about your recent incursions to the Earth Country. All of the tracks and evidence that we found, point towards Konoha. And for the future security of our village and nation, we need your true reasons on why you sent a team to infiltrate our country." A woman in her twenties, who introduced herself as Haruki the current head of Matsuka Clan, asked.

Sarutobi almost smirked at that return of words. Luckily, he was able to suppress that and took a glimpse at Danzo who showed indifference.

"Such baseless accusations." Danzo said showing no care to their words.

"It is not baseless, do you think we are stupid to send our... jounins, promising genins and the most important person for our Kage to Konoha just because of some baseless accusations? Its true that they all were sent to infiltrate. For three reasons that we are confident that you know of." It was the man named Gouda Kamizuru who growled at Danzo this time.

"May we know then, what are those reasons?" Sarutobi asked.

"First, is why did Konoha sent several team of ANBU to our lands and grabbed several people?" Another woman asked, she was the one who broke the increasing hostility earlier, Sena of the Urusha Clan.

"Second, who were those people that they took? What are the reasons that they were taken by force by Konoha-nin?" she added.

"Lastly…" she paused and continued with venom in her voice. "…in the previous war, we have encountered one of the best and the most dangerous Shinobi we had ever faced. He alone, repelled thousands of our Shinobi. My mother, older sister, and brother was slain by that man. And several years later, it was reported that he died from combat. But... things aren't what it seems."

The delaegate now leaned forward.

"We had encountered this individual, not on foreign lands but worse, on our very soil." She was now crunching the ends of the table with her fingers that it left marks. "I don't know what in the world is happening but just like you Danzo-sama, we are concerned for the security of our village. Just hearing the rumors of this devil treading our lands after decades of his death, already sent our entire village into mass panic."

Sarutobi of course knew about such battle. It was one of the greatest achievement by Konoha during that war on the hands of Minato Namikaze. And what the Iwa representative had said is not an exaggeration.

"But before we could capture and interrogate this man, he was captured by several teams of ANBU from... Konoha." She leaned back to her seat as if she is now finished releasing her pent up anger. "What do you think would be our correct response after that?"

"…" Danzo once again, showed now indifference. Sarutobi just waited.

"Infiltrate the said village and gather information about the possible reasons of this event." She continued. "Now that this issue is cleared up, we will go back to your promised answer-"

"We haven't agreed to anything." Danzo asserted his dominance again on this talk. "Your precious jounins and your kage's relative is still on our hands. Do you think we are that weak to be so threatened into answering your questions? You are here to retrieve them. Depending on your way of answering our requests, you may get them back alive… or in pieces."

The Iwa delegates was about to burst into countering such threat and stood when they were all stopped by Sena Urusha's hand, who was still on her seat.

"You mistake me Danzo-sama. We had never threatened you… or your village. Just as you said, we are here to retrieve them. A ransom was also prepared just in case you may ask for them." She waved her hand off when she saw that her fellow Iwa went back to their seats. "But as I have mentioned earlier, we are here also to protect our village. We don't want to return empty handed just after risking the lives of our shinobi. We only need a single information that needs some confirmation on your side."

"The life of Tsuchikage's granddaughter is cheap if we could protect the village in exchange." She implied what she wanted. This was not sent unheard by her fellow Iwa who was shocked at such words.

"Sena! You dare!" Haruki glared at her.

Danzo also glared at the Sena. The hostility between the two sides just kept on increasing that Sarutobi had to sigh in frustration at the stalemate of the talks. He is starting to regret taking advantage of the situation earlier.

Before meeting with the delegation, Sarutobi had a quick meeting with the elders and Danzo. And it was agreed there that if needed, they would explain the existence of Minato's brother to their former enemies. They can't risk neither a war nor a cold war with Iwagakure, especially when they are still recuperating from an invasion. Danzo himself gave no argument and agreed with the decision.

Of course, they couldn't just give that information free of charge.

An alliance and exchange of information is what Sarutobi was truly aiming for. Judging from Iwagakure's obsession in knowing more about Harissen, he could probably get even more benefits from an exchange with them. But from the way Danzo acted, Sarutobi could only guess that his friend still doesn't want to use it as first bet on the table.

He knew Danzo as someone who would try to go around the bush and dangle the bait to their enemies and allies alike while taking everything in exchange. Sarutobi is starting to get tired of that and Konoha needed new allies. The advantage Konoha had against Iwa is that they fear Minato's brother and they don't know about him. Although a lot of them still have grievances against Yondaime, they would likely prefer a peaceful solution than hostilities again. He had to thank Minato for that, in planting such terrifying image on the Iwa.

The worse case scenario is that they will ask for the dead body of Minato's brother. Sarutobi also has a very interesting way of going around such request if it did happen. Not that Konoha could possibly even cater that request, which made Sarutobi almost laugh again.

They were all silenced when a staggering wave of goosebumping bloodlust struck all of them. This caused every hairs of their body to stand to their ends. They were not all shinobis for show and all turned to the possible source which they had sensed. Danzo himself struggled to hide his panic state when he recognized the possible owner of this bloodlust.

Then several Konoha ANBU entered the room with haste.

"We apologies for interrupting the meeting Hokage-sama but we have a dire situation."

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"STRUN BAH QO!"

All of them flinched at a new different loud shout from what they had heard earlier.

It was two shouts that blasted through the skies. The atmosphere rumbled loudly and darkened. Black clouds quickly gathered above Konoha. Then a heavy rainstorm fell. A storm was brewed in seconds. Every drops were so heavy in its weight, that it could be felt as it fell on the protective sphere by Naruto and his companions.

"W-was that a jutsu?" Iruka, and along with his two former students, were shocked to see Naruto's uncle cast a jutsu that somehow changed the weather.

Even Kisame was not smiling anymore even if the rainstorm was his advantage.

If he could summon a storm, what in the world is he?

"You must be quite in a pinch boy if you decided to summon me." The old man spoke in Tamrielic language which was unknown to everyone here except Conrad whom he was teasing with. "And seeing also that you summoned two of your fellows, this must be a very dire situation for a Dragonborn to do this. But I don't see you using the full blessing of Akatosh or summoned the other two in this enjoyment. Why is that?"

"Shut up old man. We have someone to kill." Conrad sighed and spoke in same foreign language. Hakon the One Eye was one of the most powerful champions that he chose to summon from Sovngarde. He don't have time to explain his reasons and answer to the old warrior and just pointed at Kisame.

"Him huh?" the warrior just kept looking at Kisame as if sizing him up. "He feels to be some kind of mortal, blue skin… hmmm a Dunmer… or an Orc?"

"Thank you for that" Kisame looked at the sky and caught the raindrops with his open palms. He smugly taunted Conrad. "Unfortunately for you, rain is my home territory."

"Don't worry, this downpour is not for you." Conrad in his humanoid dragon form, glowed. "It's for the possible fires later."

The Mist-nin shrugged off the counter.

"I can hardly wait." Kisame flicked Samehada, making the sword display its hissing mouth on its end. "And seeing that you're a jinchuuriki also, your powerful chakra is going to be good delicious treat for Sameha-"

Without waiting, the Hakon shouted, but this time with much more intensity.

"WULD NAH KEST!"

Within the safety of the sphere, they saw how the ghost warrior jumped with great speed towards Kisame. The mist swordsman awaited him with great anticipation. As soon as the warrior landed, Kisame went in with the trap and summoned a water prison jutsu he had used earlier.

But to his surprise, it failed to contain the old warrior and almost lost his head again. The two handed axe barely cut his neck. It seems like the ghastly being cannot be contained by a prison jutsu as the warrior's body just passed through with no resistance.

He quickly made handsigns and spewed a heavy cold mist from his mouth. Then within this mist, he summoned several clones just to even the fight. The old ghost in armor was as dangerous as his previous enemy. But he heard another shout.

"TIID KLO!"

The world obeyed once again and bowed to will of the dragonborn.

Everything slowed down. For Conrad, it felt like time had stopped but the slow drop of rain proves the the effects of his favorite shout, Time Slow. Then casted the Detect Life Spell to see through the mist and marked all of the clones. He wasn't going to make another mistake.

He ran towards along the slow moving world. Using his new dragonic legs and wings, he flew towards the unmoving prey. Then as he moved, he aimed at several directions and casts several ice shards and lightning bolts which stayed frozen on their casted locations due to the Time Slow.

Then upon arriving in these clones's locations, he struck them one by one without any resistance. In this frozen world, Conrad found out that the neither among the clones nor the original that he had thought, was the real one. As he felt that the Time Slow was about to end, he looked at the sword once again that was floating on the slowing world.

There you are.

Time immediately returned, and not one clones was left standing. Kisame used the mist to quickly hide earlier on Samehada's mouth and substitute himself with another clone. But the only thing that Kisame saw was how his clones were all destroyed in seconds just after they were summoned. And another instantaneous appearance of the previous enemy. The mist seemed to have not affected his enemy as Kisame felt that his clones were all struck down without being blinded. Although the old warrior Hakon was caught by the Mist.

"There you are." Conrad sneered at the fallen sword after emerging and destroying all of the clones in split second in front of it.

Shit, how did he sense me? My chakra was hidden and at the same level as Samehada!

The scale sword immediately leapt away and quickly, Kisame got out from its mouth once again. But before he could even get into safe distance and cast a jutsu, he was struck by several ice shards and lightning bolts. His body was helpless before the frostbite and lightning damage.

Fuck! Where in the world did that came from?

He sensed no shinobi or chakra being cast nearby. What he didn't know was this were the previous spells that were conjured by Conrad. He shot them to the different directions where he expected Kisame would probably flee. Seeing that his prey was caught in his trap, Conrad pursued them with his wings.

But the most shocking to Kisame is that Samehada was also struck by the same damage. His beloved sword was known to absorb and eat chakra that it was practically nearly invincible against jutsus.

He can hear Samehada's screams of pain. Kisame gritted his teeth and endured the strange jutsus, then cast his own.

"Doton," he landed and touched the ground. "Dochou Senkou!"

The wet ground of the street suddenly turned into fluid. The area that was affected was wide enough to swallow every buildings, several hundred meters away, with Kisame at the center. Many of those quickly sank under ground like prey of a quicksand. This included many ice and fire summons of Conrad that surrounded them on the roofs and streets.

The dragonborn instantly understood the other purpose of this spell. He cursed that he had to wait for several seconds again for the next use of Thu'um. His claws caught empty air and mud by the time his attack landed. Kisame already disappeared under the sea of fluid soil.

"Wha-" the three inside the protective sphere that watched the battle from a distance, felt the ground turned into a ocean of mud under them. Which threatens to swallow them whole. Thankfully the two spectral summons of Conrad used their own wings to grab them out of danger after disabling the ward sphere. The other daedra summons however was not fortunate and lost themselves under the liquidized earth.

Conrad opened then soared with his four wings and grabbed Hakon who just got out of the mist. He took a quick glimpse at his nephews and his companions before going back to his enemy.

"This is a troubling foe indeed Conrad boy," Hakon said in Tamrielic as he was holding unto Conrad's claws.

Truly this type of spell was quite impressive and unheard of. Conrad made a mental note to study their spells and these Akaviri mages later. They could practically level towns and cities with no problems.

The mud ocean continued to swallow everything until theres nothing left standing. It now looked like a huge lake of mud in the middle of this city had just appeared.

"LAAS YAH NIR" a whisper came from the dragonborn. A thu'um that is not a shout but a silent command to reveal the life forces nearby. Conrad decided to use the Aura Shout.

This time, he had to check if he could sense the enemy, better on this one than his Detect life spell. On his dragonic eyes, he saw every living things; worms, insects, and every living organism below him in varying vabrant colors. Those under the ocean of mud.

And he finally found what he is searching, but… there are now several dozens of them under the mud.