Chapter 8 Revelation

Last time on Raikage

As they travel through the forests of Hi no Kuni, everyone in the Konoha group as they remained silent as they ran, since they had much to think about after what they saw and learned yesterday. Even though everyone was thinking about a different event yet all the things had one two things in common, they involved The Raikage and Kumo.

Also Kureani, Choji, Sakura and Lee were all have a sense of déjà vu of last month when they were travelling back to Konoha, after being recued from The Hold by Kumo. In which like before they could only wonder the reaction of the Hokage and the Council, especially certain members like Koharu and Danzo, when they learned what happened in Nami no Kuni and what they had seen yesterday.

And like before it was certain Konoha was going to be in for a big surprise very soon.

- One Day before the Battle of Nami no Kuni -

A day before the Battle for Nami no Kuni (Wave Country), Jiraiya was travelling through the valley that Kumogakure (the Hidden Cloud) was situated in, he was planning on sneaking into the village and gather as much Intel as he possibly could on it. Although he had gathered some interesting information about Kumo's new ANBU divisions like STORM, SHOCK, BOLT and CIND along with some other things.

But still travelling through Kaminari no Kuni (Lightning Country) had not been easy for Jiraiya since on more than one occasion he had been nearly sighted and caught by patrolling Kumo-nins on the boarders Kaminari no Kuni and in Kaminari no Kuni itself. This was something he could not afford to happen, since Konoha needed him for the War. As he travelled on to Kumo he found that he was crossing into less and less patrol squads, which was the opposite of what he had expected to happen since he had expected more and it to be harder when nearing it. It was because of this, that Jiraiya kept his guard up as he got closer, since after the many years of being a Shinobi, Jiraiya had developed a sixth sense of when danger was near and right now his sixth sense was going on full blast warning him of danger, but he continued on.

Soon enough Jiraiya arrived at the spot where the village was situated, but when he got there, he could not believe what he was seeing, instead of seeing the great walls around the village and the village itself along with the mountain that The Raikage tower was built into which he had seen during the few visit he made to the village. All Jiraiya saw was the ruined remains of the wall, along with the ruins of buildings and a massive crater that was in the centre of the village, which covered about a third of the village. But the most shocking thing that Jiraiya saw was that the mountain that The Raikage tower was built into was gone as if it disappeared and all that was left in its place was another large crater.

"What the hell happened here?" thought Jiraiya in disbelief since he could not understand what had happened here.

As Jiraiya looked around he could clearly see that this destruction was not recent as their was no bodies or smoke and the ruin's were old where moss, grass, flowers, weeds and other plants had already grown and covered much of the area in the ruins. As Jiraiya looked around he continued to wonder what had happen here, obliviously there had be some kind of battle here from the Civil War, since judging by how old the ruins were. But still he wondered what could cause such destruction and want kind of Jutsu's could destroy an entire mountain and destroy a third of this village. Not to mention, how could Kumo even exist if the village was destroyed during the Civil War, but he quickly realised that the people and Shinobi's of Kumo had obliviously moved and rebuilt the village in a new location, but the question was where did they move to?

To answer this Jiraiya started to look around the ruins in the hope of finding some kind of clue, that could lead him to the location to where this new Kumo was built and tell him what exactly happened here.

As Jiraiya looked around he soon felt several unknown Chakra signatures nearby and could tell that whoever they were, they were watching him nearby. Jiraiya did nothing at first and pretended to not notice them, since he wanted to know their intentions. He guessed that they were Kumo ANBU-nins and Jiraiya had to admit that the ones who were watching him were very skilled to keep themselves hidden from him for so long. Since he guessed that they had been following him, ever since he entered the valley of the mountain range that the Kumo was built into or maybe longer. The only reason he had been able to notice them was because he was on guard, when he thought it was getting too easy as he got closer to the village. Had he not been on guard and had been lax, he was fairly certain, that they could have sneaked up on him and killed him before he noticed them and do anything to stop them.

After a few minutes and finding nothing of use from the ruins, he decide to end the charade and see if he could get any answers from the Kumo-nins themselves.

"You can come out now I know you are there and have been watching me for a while…..so why don't you come out so that we can talk face to face…all of you", spoke Jiraiya out load so that they could hear him.

"As expected from the famed Toad Sage Jiraiya, and member of the Densetsu no Sannin (Legendary Three Ninja)", spoke a women. Who then appeared on top of the remains of a ruined house along with four other Kumo ANBU-nins who wore standard ANBU outfits and wore Yellow and Black masks showing they were from the SHOCK ANBU division.

The women that had spoken,was a relatively short and petite woman with lightly tanned skin and Black hair and had a slightly curvy body and was the only one that did not wear a mask. She wore sleeveless white haori and a Yellow obi tied around her waist with a Tanto sheathed horizontally behind her lower back hanging by a rope. Underneath it she wore a tradition Ninja outfit that had no sleeves and didn't cover her back. Her hair was worn short with two long braids covered in cloth each ending in a large golden ring.

Jiraiya had to admit that the girl was quite the lovely young thing, although a tad skinny for his taste, but still very lovely and had the situation not been so serious he would written down her description on his notebook and used her as a female character in his next book. As he looked her over Jiraiya also saw a Black and Gold gauntlet on her right arm that has a small chain linking it to a stinger-like blade on her middle finger, which was twice as long as a normal finger length.

"Well, well, well it seems that my reputation among the ladies has preceded me…but I'm afraid you have me at a disadvantage young lady, you know who I' am but I do not know who you are?" asked Jiraiya with what he perceived as a charming smirk.

"My name is Soifon, I' am know as Kumo no Suzumebachi (The Hornet of Cloud) and I' am Commander of Kumo's elite SHOCK division…and you Jiraiya of the Sannin are trespassing here on Kumo territory", spoke Soifon with a deadly tone.

At this Jiraiya grew concerned although he had suspected that they were from the SHOCK division before they even revealed themselves, he had not suspected that the Commander of Kumo's SHOCK division was with them. Since he had heard of Soifon reputation as the Kumo no Suzumebachi from gathering Intel on his way here and from what he had heard she was a deadly enemy for any Shinobi to have, where she could go toe to toe with Kakashi.

"Well now, I'm sorry to intrude on you all like this but I was just in the area and decided to see how Kumo had gotten on since the Civil War ended", joked Jiraiya as he tried to buy time to think what he should do next.

"Well as you can see Jiraiya-san, our village was destroyed from our Civil War and we had to move and rebuild in a new location", replied Soifon with a cold yet neutral tone of voice.

"And would it be out of the question for you to tell me where you have rebuilt your village?" queried Jiraiya, although he already knew the answer.

At this a cold smirked appeared on Soifon face, "I'm afraid that would be impossible Jiraiya-san, since Kumo is a "hidden" Shinobi village and it wouldn't be much of a hidden village if we told everyone now would it?"

At this Jiraiya just sighed as he knew she would say that, but it was still worth a try.

"Now then Jiraiya-san, if you will, will you please come with us, as you are trespassing on our territory, and we must detain you for a short while. So please come with us as there are several questions that we would like to ask you and if you come peacefully you will not be harmed. But if you resist us…well…we cannot be held accountable for what will happen to you", spoke Soifon with the same cold smirk on her as if she was hoping he would resist.

"Well as much as I hate to deny the request of a lovely young lady such as yourself of my company… I must refuse", said Jiraiya with his own smirk as he got into a fight stance.

"I thought you might say that" said Soifon with a another cold smirk as she then snapped her fingers, where as soon as she did fifty more SHOCK-nins appeared in the ruin's around Jiraiya surrounding him on all sides.

When Jiraiya saw this, he was stunned to say the very least, where he began to cruse himself at being duped so easily. He quickly realised that Soifon and her team let him sense them (although made sure it wasn't too easy for him so he wouldn't grow suspicious), so that the rest of her teams could surround him, since he would have been focused on them, in case they attacked him.

"Did you really think that we would just send a single team to deal with a Kage level Shinobi such as yourself Jiraiya-san" spoke Soifon. At which point the SHOCK-nins got ready for battle where several created bows, arrows and Katana's made out of pure Chakra (much to Jiraiya shock), others had steel sword blades and knives come out of their arms and fists or caused metal chains around themselves to reshapes as spears and Katana's. Others took out large and small fans like those used in Suna or had sand circle around them much like the Godaime Kazekage, while most simply took out Kunai's and Katana's and started to channel Lightning Chakra through them.

Even despite the odds that he was up against Jiraiya smirked at the Kumo-nins around him as he was still confidant that he could get out of here. "Well now…I will admit you all played your cards pretty well and if you were dealing with your ordinary run of the mill Shinobi, you would have caught him no question. But I' am not your ordinary run of the mill Shinobi, since you guys are dealing with the great Jiraiya here and now let me show why I' am called the Great Toad Sage", said Jiraiya where he then bit his finger and began to do some hand seals. As Jiraiya did the hand seals, strangely enough none of the Kumo-nins moved to try and stop him, once Jiraiya had finished the seals, he then slammed his hands onto the ground and cried out "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)".

But instead of summoning one of the great Battle Toads like he had wanted, nothing happened there was no smoke and more importantly there was no hundred foot size battle Toad.

Soifon smirked upon seeing Jiraiya's look of shock and confusion, "What's wrong Jiraiya-san were you expecting something to happen?"

"What they hell did you do?" cried Jiraiya in confusion and slight anger as he figured Soifon and her group had something to do with this.

"You seem to keep underestimating us Jiraiya-san, we are fully well aware than even with our great skills and superior numbers. The chances of us defeating you, capturing you or even killing you would be very slim and since we have been aware of you being in Kaminari no Kuni for a while now. We decided to lay a trap for you, I have to admit though tracking you was quite difficult but not surprising considering the reputation of your covert skill, but still we eventually tracked you down and learned that you were heading here, so we laid a trap for you here", said Soifon.

"And how may I ask did you do that", asked Jiraiya as he narrowed his eyes since he was now at a serious disadvantage against them.

"Simple by placing certain seals around certain points in the village, we created a large scale Kyūin (Absorption Seal) around this whole place. It drains Chakra out of anyone who is in the seal and if the person tries to summon Chakra to do a Jutsu then the seal will drain all the Chakra that the person released instantly just like what happened now. This large scale seal was created by our Raikage's Sensei and was designed to help us when dealing with high level Shinobi's such as yourself", spoke Soifon.

"But if that's the case then you should be affected by the seal as well but yet your not", answered Jiraiya who was greatly surprised by Soifon's well executed trap.

"We have seals placed on ourselves that prevent the seal from draining our Chakra (1). Now Jiraiya-san I ask for the last time surrender now peacefully and you will not be harmed, if not the consequence well be unpleasant to say the very least", said Soifon as she was starting to lose her patients with Jiraiya.

"I will admit you have me in a tough spot here…but the Great Jiraiya doesn't surrender to anyone" , said Jiraiya, where he then dropped a large scale Flash smoke bomb on the ground and blinded Soifon and her people for a moment or two and filled the area with smoke.

Once the flash ended and the smoke dissipated, Soifon and the others saw that Jiraiya was gone.

"Quickly all of you spread out and search for him he can't have gone far", ordered Soifon, where she and her people quickly split up and began to search for Jiraiya.

-With Jiraiya-

Jiraiya was currently hiding behind a small ruined wall and trying to think of what he should do now, he knew he had to get out of the ruined village and fast since he stood no chance of coming out the victor in a fight like this. The he figured that the longer he stayed here the more Chakra he would lose as he was familiar with this type of seal which was normally small and placed on high level Shinobi prisoners to keep them from using Chakra and Jutsu's. But the one the SHOCK teams were using was on a much grander scale than those he knew of, since considering what just happened when he tried to summon he couldn't use any of his Jutsu's. As the Chakra he would need to release would be gone the moment he released it. Hence the only chance he had was to run and hide until he was out of the village ruins where hopefully he would be out of the seal's range and he could use his Jutsu's and get away from here and get back to Konoha.

As he was thinking, Jiraiya's Shinobi sense's kicked in and he moved away from the wall he was sitting against. Where a soon as he did a SHOCK-nin came right through the wall and slashed at the empty air that Jiraiya was just occupying moments ago with his Katana.

"Shit!" thought Jiraiya as he had heard of the new Yuki Clan and their Phasing Bloodline that allowed them to pass through solid things like walls. Naturally Jiraiya had thought that they were just a story told to people to make Kumo seem more powerful, but now he clearly saw that they were right and he was wrong.

Just as Jiraiya was about to defend himself against the SHOCK-nin, he sense's quickly told him to move again, where as soon as he did a large arrow made out of Chakra hit the spot on the ground he had just been standing seconds ago and exploded.

When he looked up she saw several SHOCK-nins holding several bows and arrows made out of Chakra and aimed at him, Jiraiya quickly recognised them as members of the Ishida Clan. Since they were able to create weapons out of Chakra, which was the rumoured he had heard about them, but had not believe it until he saw them earlier.

The Ishida SHOCK members quickly fired their arrows at Jiraiya, who had to quickly dodge several of them and then runaway from them. Unfortunately the Ishida SHOCK members were able to control the Chakra arrows they had fired and had them follow Jiraiya around even when he made quick sharp turns behind several ruined walls.

Seeing that there was no way he could lose them, Jiraiya quickly threw Kunai's and Shuriken's at the Chakra arrows, where once they hit them the arrows blew up. But just when Jiraiya thought he was in the clear he suddenly heard someone cry out "Kamaitachi no Jutsu (Sickle Weasel Technique)". Where a powerful gale of Wind hit Jiraiya from behind blasting him several feet away as well as cutting up his clothes causing several cuts on his body, fortunately Jiraiya was able to gather himself in time to avoid the next incoming attack. From a kunoichi, who did a falling axe onto the spot where Jiraiya had landed, when he avoided it he saw a very large crater in the spot he was just on a split second ago.

For the next half hour Jiraiya continually dodged, avoided and ran from the different attacks of Soifon and her SHOCK-nins. By the end of the half hour Jiraiya was fairly torn up and had several large bruises and cuts on his body. Although he had been able to hold his own in one on one fights despite his handicap, he was continually over-whelmed by the SHOCK-nins superior numbers, teamwork (when more than one SHOCK-nin fought Jiraiya), and the fact that they were able to use Jutsu when he could not.

Just as Jiriaya was near the outer ruin wall of the old village, where he thought he be home free, he was the confronted by Soifon, who was blocking his escape out of the village.

"That is far as you go Jiraiya-san", spoke Soifon as she narrowed her eyes and got into a fighting stance.

"Normally I tried to avoid fighting women since I don't enjoy it, but this time I will have to make a exception" said Jiraiya, as he fell into his own fighting stance, since he had to finish this quickly before the rest of Soifon's people arrived to help her.

Jiraiya quickly charged forward with his right fist, but just as he was about to hit her, she disappeared right in front of his eyes, but before he could even wonder what had just happened and where she went. She suddenly reappeared on his right arm (that was still stretched out) in a one finger hand stand and doing a upside down spin kick that connected right to the side of Jiraiya's face and sending him flying through a wall.

Luckily after all the years of being punched by Tsunade with her super strength, Jiraiya had become quite resilient to hard punches and kicks.

But as soon as Jiraiya got back up again, he was on the defences again as Soifon attacked him again with even greater enthusiasm than she had before.

For the next few minutes Soifon and Jiraiya fought in a fierce Taijutsu battle, which was quickly turning against Jiraiya. As he soon realised that Soifon was far superior in Taijutsu than he was, which was proven with all the injuries, bruises and the six broken ribs he had received from fighting her. Soifon's Taijutsu skills were so great, that Jiraiya realised that even Taijutsu experts like Gai and his former student Lee, would have a hard time dealing with Soifon in a Taijutsu battle as her moves were quick, precise and hard.

As Jiraiya fought Soifon, he also tried to make certain to avoid being hit by Soifon bladed point from her gantlet, where the most she got him with it was a few scratches and nicks. Unfortunately that was all that she needed, as the blade of her gantlet was coated with a toxin that would paralyze the nerves in the body so that the muscles could not move in a person's body and within a few minutes of entering the person's body, the toxin would spread to the rest of the victims body and paralyze them.

Soon after Jiraiya started to feel the effects of the toxin as his arms and legs started to feel sluggish and heavy to move where he quickly realised that Soifon blade had poison on it.

When Soifon saw the realisation on Jiraiya's face, she smirked coldly knowing what was happening to him and how he had just realised it, "You have no doubt realised now that the blade on my gantlet was covered in a neurotoxin that effects your nerves so that the muscles cannot contract and are slowing down your body until it is completely paralyzed. Now I will not ask you again Jiraiya-san…surrender you cannot win nor can you escape, since my squads have completely covered this entire valley and in a few minutes time your body will be completely paralyzed and it will knock you unconscious".

"And I told you Girly I never surrender to anyone", said Jiraiya as he wasn't going to let them capture him, after his response Soifon charged forward at him and started to attack him again.

After a few more minutes of fighting Soifon decided it was taking too long and decided to end the battle between the two of them, Soifon quickly jumped away and landed a few distances away from Jiraiya.

Well Jiraiya-san, its time to end this fight", said Soifon, where she then started to release a massive amount of Lightning Chakra an have it wrap around her body. The power she was releasing was so great that Jiraiya had to bring up his arm to block the Wind and dirt blinding him. The power that she released was also so massive that it ripped her haori to shreds, leaving her wearing her tradition Ninja outfit that had no sleeves and didn't cover her back.

"What kind of Jutsu is this?" thought Jiraiya as he could literally feel and see the Chakra surrounding her.

"You should be Honoured Jiraiya-san…your about to be among the few people to see and die by my Shunkō (Flash Cry), a technique that only my former Sensei and myself and know", spoke Soifon where she then charged forward at Jiraiya.

As soon as she did any chance of Jiraiya holding his own went down the drain as he quickly found out that Soifon's Shunkō enhanced her strength and speed exponentially. Where with just a single punch she broke another four of Jiraiya' ribs and sent him fly through four stone walls. Jiraiya quickly tried to get up but Soifon's speed was too great, as she was on him before he could fully get up. Where she then kicked Jiraiya and sent him flying again and into the remains of the ruined outer wall of Kumo, where he made a three foot dent into the ten foot tick wall. After which he then fell to the ground hurting all over as several of his bones were broken, and the toxin from Soifon gantlet blade was also affecting him, where he struggled to move his body as it was nearly completely paralyzed.

As Jiraiya struggled to get up he suddenly felt a massive Chakra spike coming from in front of him, when he looked up he saw that the Lightning Chakra surrounding Soifon, had increased five times in mass.

"I over Jiraiya-san and now I going to finish this, by showing you exactly why my technique is called Shunkō", said Soifon as she gathered all the Lightning Chakra into her right arm and thrust it forward crying out "Shunkō!".

As soon as she did, a loud screeching sound was heard and a massive blast of Lightning Chakra was fired from Soifon and right at Jiraiya, fortunately by sheer willpower Jiraiya was able to move himself away to narrowly avoid the blast. Where it hit the large outer wall and destroyed a large portion of it, once the smoke was clear the arriving SHOCK-nins saw a massive twelve foot wide gap in the outer wall of the former Shinobi village.

Unfortunately for Jiraiya even though he was able to avoid the attack he was still hit by the shockwave, caused by both the blast and the explosion from the attack hitting the wall, and was flung out of the village by it. Where he was sent about a hundred yards away out sides the ruined village and crashing and skidding into the ground tearing it up a bit and further extending his injuries.

After the attacked ended, Soifon was left panting a bit hard as the attacked took a good bit out of her, but she still had enough to spare. After which both she and her teams quickly ran over to Jiraiya and surrounded him, and seemly enough he was still somehow conscious after all his injuries and the toxin.

"It's over Jiraiya-san", spoke Soifon with another smirk, although her smirk quickly left her face when, Jiraiya started to laugh despite how much it hurt him to.

"What is it that you find so funny Jiraiya-san,as your situation is far from being funny in my opinion as you are surrounded, out-numbered, poisoned, badly wounded and can barely move", said Soifon with a frown on her face.

"The reason….hah, hah, hah…I'm laughing….hah, hah, hah…..is that you just helped me escape", said Jiraiya between painful laughter.

"And how did I do that", said Soifon with a frown.

"Simple now that I'm outside the village ruins and outside of the range of the Kyūin I can do THIS", said Jiraiya as quickly swiped some blood from his bleeding mouth onto his thumb. He then used all his remaining strength to quickly do several hand seals.

Quickly realising what he was about to do Soifon cried out "STOP HIM!" but before any of the SHOCK-nins could even move to stop him, Jiraiya finished his hand seals, and slammed his hand onto the ground and cried out "Kuchiyose no Jutsu" and this time it worked. As soon as Jiraiya slammed his hand onto the ground and cried out the Jutau as massive puff of smoked appeared, where Soifon and her SHOCK-nins had to jump away to avoid what they knew would appear.

And as they suspected as the smoked dissipated, a massive Toad appeared, but this was no ordinary Toad this was Gamaken one of the three great Battle Toads.

"Jiraiya what's wrong? Why did you summon me?" asked the great battle Toad until he looked at the corner of his eye and saw Jiraiya laying on his head wounded, bleeding and barely conscious.

"Jiraiya! What happened to you? And who are these people?" asked Genkenas he looked around and saw the SHOCK-nins surrounding him and preparing Jutau's to attack him.

"They're Kumo Ninja's…But there no time to deal with them…you need to get me out of here NOW!" croaked Jiraiya before he passed out due to a combination of pain from his wounds and of the toxin.

"Right!" said Gamaken as he obeyed Jiraiya's orders and reversed summon himself along with the wounded Jiraiya back to Myōbokuzan in a puff of smoke.

When Jiraiya and Gamaken disappeared, instead of being angry and spitting out curse's, Soifon smirked as if she wanted Jiraiya to get away.

"It seems that the plan worked Soifon-senpai (2)", said a Boar masked SHOCK-nin.

"Yes it did….now all we have to do is wait", said Soifon before she turned to face Boar fully.

"Boar! Go to Raven and his STORM-nin platoon in their hidden position and tell him that as I suspected we didn't needed their help".

"Hai!" responded Boar before he ran off.

"The rest of you remove the Kyūin and gather everything up we're moving out and heading back to new Kumo in twenty minutes, so I want all of you ready by them.

With a round of "Hai's" from all the SHOCK-nins around, they then moved out to do what they were ordered to.

As they were doing that smirked again, "Right, According to plan".

- Two Days Later -

After about two days of travelling from Nami no Kuni (Wave Country), Kakashi and the others finally arrived at Konoha, once there they sent word to Tsunade that they needed to have a Meeting of both her and the Council as well as all the Senior Shinobi's.

When they arrived at the Council room they saw Tsunade and the Council members sitting in their elevated Council table that allowed them to look over the rest of the room, while the Senior Shinobi's sat in a row of seats to their left.

"Kakashi!….I glad to see that you and your teams were all able to make it back safely and alive. But still we need to know was your mission a success, were you able to repulse the Kiri invasion force", asked Tsunade, as they needed to know if they should try and set up a defence line to counter the new front from Kiri or not.

"The Kiri invasion force was indeed stopped from taking over Nami no Kuni Hokage-sama", replied Kakashi, which brought a relief look across Tsunade face and excited mummers from the other Council members and Senior Shinobi's. About how Kakashi and his teamed stopped an overwhelming invasion force by themselves. Tsunade was about to ask Kakashi to give them a detail report at how they defeated the Kiri invasion force but before she could Kakashi spoke up again.

"But we were not the ones who stopped the invasion", said Kakashi, which got a confused look from Tsunade, the Council and the Senior Shinobi's. "The invasion was stopped by The Raikage and his forces", finished Kakashi.

"The Raikage?" said Tsunade in disbelief, where Kakashi just replied with a nod.

"But why would The Raikage and his forces come to help protect Nami no Kuni it's not a member of the Heavely Alliance nor is it an ally", said Homura.

"That is no longer the case now", spoke Shino, which got curious looks from the Council and Tsunade, where Kakashi decided to answer their question before they could ask.

"Seemly Nami no Kuni learned about the invasion through their own means before we even found out about it, and seemly sent word to The Raikage and the Heavenly Alliance petitioning to become a member of the Heavenly Alliance, and asking for aid to help save their Country. In which The Raikage seemly agreed to, where he and twenty STORM-nins and his personal bodyguards arrived to help just when we were about to be slaughtered where they single handily turned the tide against the Kiri forces and drove them back", said Kakashi.

"The Raikage was there himself?" asked a shocked Tsunade, since a Kage rarely ever leaves their home village unless for a major battle, a highly dangerous mission or for negotiations with another Shinobi village in neutral territory.

Kakashi just nodded his head again to Tsunade question.

"Kakashi tell use everything that happened in the battle", spoke Tsunade, wanting to know everything that happened there.

But just as Kakashi was about to speak a large puff of Smoke appeared right next to him and once it dissipated a badly wounded Jiraiya appeared in the room. Where much of his clothes were it tatters and covered in dirt and dried blood, his left arm was it a sling he was covered in cuts, he had many bruises on his arms and face and had bandages were wrapped around his abdomen and sides. Altogether Jiraiya looked like he came from a warzone and lost, which was fairly true.

"JIRAIYA!" cried a worried Tsunade when she saw her badly wounded former teammate appear in the room.

"JIRAIYA-SAMA" cried many Shinobi's and Council members in shock when the saw the state the Toad Sage was in.

Kakashi and Yamato quickly grabbed onto Jiraiya sides to keep him steadying as they saw him starting to wobble a bit.

"Don't worry about me everyone I ok", said Jiraiya, although he clearly wasn't.

"Jiraiya! What happened to you?" asked Tsunade as she had to fight the urge to jump over the Council table and go over to Jiraiya and heal him.

"I was ambushed by Kumo Shinobi's when I was gathering information in Kaminari no Kuni about Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance", replied Jiraiya.

"Kumo Shinobi's but how?" asked a shocked Inuzuka Hana.

"Kumo somehow knew that I had entered the Country and laid a trap for me, since they knew where I was heading, despite the low profile I was keeping there and they laid a trap for me and ambushed me", answered Jiraiya.

"But how did they find out?" asked Akimichi Chōza.

"I don't know", admitted Jiraiya.

"How exactly did they ambush you Jiraiya-sama?" asked the ANBU Commander.

For the next half hour Jiraiya went and explained in detail how he discovered that Kumo was destroyed and it people and its Shinobi's rebuilt the village in a new location which Jiraiya had no idea where. After which he then went and explained how he was ambushed by Soifon and her SHOCK-nins and what had happened.

Once Jiraiya had finished explaining what had happened Tsunade's and the Council concerns about Kumo (or to be exact New Kumo) and the Heavenly Alliance grew even more. Considering how close their Shinobi's came to capturing Jiraiya who was one of Konoha's strongest Shinobi and the fact that they were able to ambush him so flawlessly and then take away his Chakra and Jutsu's and then nearly capturing him.

Many of the Senior Shinobi's especially the ANBU Commander had to grudgingly hand it to the Kumo SHOCK division as their ambush of Jiraiya was near perfect, where Jiraiya had only escaped by a shear stroke of luck.

Although others like Danzo and Koharu grew greatly concerned at Kumo's Shinobi's skill level and the large scale version of the Kyuuin, which would be a highly effective tool to use in battle which the Kumo-nins proved against Jiraiya and the fact that they had no idea where this New Kumo was located.

"Jiraiya-sama you mentioned Several Shinobi's with abilities not known to be related to Kumo", spoke Yamanaka Inoichi.

"Yea seemly several different Clans have joined with New Kumo in the last few years", replied Jiraiya.

"Who exactly", asked Koharu, as she wanted to know what they may be up against.

"Well for one thing the Wengi Clan formerly of Suna has joined New Kumo, who as many of you know were known for the ability to use Sabuton (Sand Release), and mimic to a certain extent the Sand manipulating abilities that the Godaime Kazekage Gaara can do", said Jiraiya.

This caused several mummers among the Council members and Senior Shinobi's.

"Another Clan that is now part of New Kumo is the Kisaragi Clan from Wutai Country which existed until Tsuchi no Kuni (Earth Country) conquered it, and as some you know Kisaragi Clan are famed for their multiple Summoning Contracts", spoke Jiraiya.

This caused a murmur of worried whispering among the Council members.

"Also the Tatara Clan who are known for their Kōton (Steel Release) Bloodline and are now among New Kumo's Shinobi ranks", said Jiraiya shocking everyone in the room, (minus Kakashi and his teams as they already knew that the Tatara Clan were with New Kumo, thanks to Gai informing them of his meeting of a member in the Battle for Wave).

"Impossible!... The Tatara Clan vanished decades ago, there no way that they should still exist", said Koharu as she refused that Tatara Clan still existed and were now with Kumo.

"Well it's true, several members of the Clan were among the Shinobi's that ambushed me, and the abilities that those Shinobi's showed matched the abilities that the Tatara Clan were known for", replied Jiraiya.

"Then where have they been all these years, they couldn't have been with Kumo the whole time as we would have found out long ago", said Homura.

"From the rumours I've heard when I was in Kaminari no Kuni, they have been in isolation in the mountain ranges of Kaminari no Kuni ever since the founding of the Shinobi villages. But when the Civil War there started, they were accidently discovered by the Godaime Raikage forces, and when they refused to join him he wiped most of the Clan out and captured a large group of others. So to breed more of the Clan and have them loyal to him, but some survived the attack and joined the rebel factions, where once the Civil War ended they became an official Shinobi Clan of New Kumo", said Jiraiya.

"What Jiraiya-sama says is true since I witness and met a youthful member of the Tatara Clan in the battle of Wave and the story he told me match's what Jiraiya-sama told me", said Gai. Backing what Jiraiya said along with Kiba, Konohamaru, Lee, Moegi and Udon who nodded their heads in agreement with Gai.

This of course did not sit well with the Council as the Tatara Clan were a powerful Clan with a powerful Bloodline that would help make New Kumo even more dangerous and powerful.

"Also there are two other new Clans' with Kumo called the Yuki Clan and the Ishida Clan" said Jiraiya which got a curious look from everyone in the room as no-one had never heard of either Clans.

"Well they can't be very powerful since we never heard of them", scoffed Asai Heita.

"That is where you would be wrong as they are quite powerful, since I've since them in action first hand as members of those Clan's were among the ones who attacked me as well. The Yuki Clan have a special Bloodline which allows them to pass through solid objects and people as if they weren't even there. While the Ishida Clan have the ability to create weapons out of their own Chakra, where the weapons can almost destroy, pierce or slice through any armour or weapon they clash with", answered Jiraiya.

"We can support Jiraiya-sama claims as I and those with me during the battle of Wave met a STORM-nin with the ability that Jiraiya-sama described the Ishida Clan having", spoke Yamato, with Sai, Shino and TenTen's ANBU team members, Tiger, Wolf and Bird backing him up.

"And as troublesome as it is to say, my team and I met a STORM-nin at the battle of Wave that seemed to be able to pass through walls like he was some kind of ghost", spoke Shikiamaru, with Ino and Choji backing him up.

"But if this is true then where did these Clans come from, since Kumo couldn't have been hiding them from everyone as eventually we would have found out long ago and they couldn't have just joined New Kumo from somewhere else as no-one as ever heard of them", spoke Yakumo.

"That because they are a newly founded Clans" answered Jiraiya.

"Impossible!" spoke Hyūga Hanabi (who was in charge of the Hyūga Clan until Hinata's return), "They couldn't be a newly founded Bloodline holding Clan. It would take two to three decades for enough members to be born, even if they used the Clan Restoration Act on the person who had the Bloodline abilities".

"Normally that would be true, but these Clan's are different", replied Jiraiya.

"Different how?" asked Danzo as he narrowed his eyes.

"The Bloodlines that these Clan's have are not natural Bloodlines, they are artificially created Bloodlines, that were created by the Godaime Raikage or that the rumour I heard which considering how they appeared out of nowhere is highly possible", replied Jiraiya.

After this announcement, pandemonium erupted in the Council where people started to shout out.

"IT'S IMPOSSIBLE" shouted one person.

"WE MUST FIND OUT HOW THEY DID IT" shouted another.

"WE MUST SEND INFULTRATION TEAMS AND HAVE THEM STEALTHE INFORMATION ON HOW TO GIVE THOSE BLOODLINES INTO OUR SHINOBI'S" shouted a third person.

After another minute or two of this Tsunade finally had enough of it had shouted "SILENCE!" with a bit of Killing Intent to gain everyone's attention.

After everyone had quietened down, Tsunade then turned to Jiraiya, "Jiraiya! How can this be possible".

"I don't know exactly, but from the rumours I heard when I first heard about the Clans, they were seemly created during the Civil War in Kumogakure and in Kaminari no Kuni, since the Godaime Raikage feared that even if he won the Civil War. Kumo would lose most of it strength if all their Bloodline holding Clans and other Shinobi Clans were wiped out as most of them were against him. So he decided to have his scientist's new create Bloodlines to replace the once that would be wiped out, in which they succeed in created the Reiryoku no Soujuu (Manipulating Spirit Power) Bloodline of the Ishida Clan and the Tsuuka no Iki (The Passing through Spirit) of the Yuki Clan", said Jiraiya.

"Hokage-sama we must do something about this immediately, if we don't Kumo could give these Bloodlines out to all their Shinobi's and their allied Shinobi's, where they would be unstoppable", said Hojo Akira panicky.

"I don't think we have to worry about that, since I also heard that after the Civil War The Rokudaime Raikage had all the information on the experiments destroyed", answered Jiraiya.

"Why would he do that?" asked Amako Taichi

"Supposedly The Raikage did not what people to attempt to continue the Godaime Raikage scientists path in creating Bloodlines by expatriating people. He also supposedly did not what them to use the research to create more people with the Ishida and Yuki as he didn't want people benefiting off the torturing, suffering and murder of innocent people and justifying the Godaime Raikage scientists work", replied Jiriaya. Since he agreed with what The Raikage did and would most likely done the same thing in his position, since the Godaime Raikage scientist work was too eerily familiar with Orochimaru's type of work with experimenting on people for his own gain.

"If he really did such a thing then he is a fool to let his moral ethics stop him from making his village stronger", spoke Danzo. Since the idea of creating new Bloodline's to make a village stronger appealed to him in some way especially if it worked such as the Yuki ability to pass through solid objects which was the perfect ability for any Shinobi as a assassin or infiltrator. Danzo comment although caused Tsunade and several of the Clan heads and the Senior Shinobi to look at him in disgust for even approving in some way on experimenting on people to create new Bloodlines.

"Tsuande! You need to do something about these Clans and their new abilities, since they make this New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance an even greater threat than we originally thought. With this Yuki Clan they could infiltrat nearly any village, fortress, castle or base and assassinate any person or steal any secret information from us or anyone else. The same could be said about this Ishida Clan where they would be an extremely dangerous threat in battle", spoke Koharu as the idea of another village having this kind of power made her very uneasy.

"And what would you have me do Koharu? Assassinate both Clans?" asked Tsunade angrily, "We don't even know where they built their new village and even if we did all we would be doing would be sending vital Shinobi's to their death. Look what happened to Jiraiya! When he entered Kaminari no Kuni, they nearly killed him… and what do you think will happen to any Shinobi teams that we send to try and eliminate those Clans", asked Tsunade openly.

"I tell you what happened they would be slaughtered, since if they were able to track down and ambush a Kage level Shinobi like Jiraiya and could nearly capture and even kill him. Then any Shinobi teams we would send would be killed and New Kumo as well as the Heavenly Alliance would declare War on us. Where we would have two alliances of enemies surrounding us and attacking us and we would certainly be destroyed. That is if New Kumo hopefully does not declare War on us for having Jiraiya spying on them in their home Country", said Tsunade with a sneer.

This of course caused Koharu to frown angrily at Tsunade, at be put down in such away making seem like a fool.

"Then what should we do about New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance", spoke Asai Heita.

"We will come to a decision about them later", spoke Tsunade, after which she then turned to Kakashi.

"Kakashi I want you to tell us all exactly what happened at Nami no Kuni", Kakashi nodded and began to explain what happen in Nami no Kuni.

After about forty minutes Kakashi and the others had explained, how they helped set up the defensives to defend against the invasion and explained when the attack happened. They had temporarily disrupted the Kiri landing forces, and how they were able to ambush the first Wave of Kiri-nins and drove them back with heavy losses. After which he then went on to explain how they engaged the second Wave and held them off until the Kiri-nins fired small explosive gas bombs from their volley guns. To release a poison gas, that prevented them from using their Chakra and weakened their bodies. After which he told them how they were on the verge of collapsing and being slaughtered by the third Wave of Kiri's until The Raikage and his forces arrived. He then went on to explain how The Raikage fought and defeated Raijuta using the Raijin.

This of course caused many angrily outburst among the Senior Shinobi's and Council members, it especially angered Koharu and Homaru as the both found it a insult to Konoha that Kumo had the Rajin of the Nidaime Hokage. Especially since it was KumoShinobi's who killed their Sensei the Nidaime Hokage, Danzo was also angered at the fact that Kumo had a powerful and valuable relic that rightful belong to Konoha. Tsunade herself was also angered since like with Koharu and Homaru she found it insulting that The Raikage would wave around and use her Great Uncles trade mark weapon, when it was The Rokudaime Raikage's village Shinobi's and one of his predecessor Oroku Saki that killed her Great Uncle in the First Great Shinobi World War. Since when Oroku Saki killed her Great Uncle he was then named as the Nidaime Raikage.

But Tsunade quickly put aside her anger and ordered silence in the Council room and had Kakashi continue with his report on the battle.

After which Kakashi then went on to explain the battle and seeing The Raikage and his Shinobi's fight. Yamato, Gai and Shikiamaru and the other also assisted him by telling the Council and the other Senior Shinobi's there, how the other STORM-nins they saw fight and the different abilities they showed there. But once Kakashi told them about how The Raikage had created a technique that allowed him to move with a speed that rivalled the Yondaime Hokage's Hiraishin no Jutsu (The Flying Thunder God Technique) and then explained basic's of how it worked, screaming and shouting of disbelief and anger once again erupted in the Council room again.

After which it took several minutes for Tsunade calm everyone down although she along with everyone else was unsettled by this revelation, since with this revelation, it made The Raikage as dangerous as the Yondaime Hokage if not more in some ways.

Kakashi then went on to explain how The Raikage single handily wiped out the remaining resisting Kiri-nins and how he completely destroyed the entire Kiri invasion fleet. When they heard this, the Council along with nearly everyone that was not in Kakashi teams were completely stunned. Where like with Kakashi and the others when they saw what The Raikage did, they were begining to believe that maybe all the rumours about The Raikage were true. Many at first did not believe it but the other members of the teams backed Kakashi story up, which made them extremely worried at the fact that New Kumo had such a powerful Shinobi as their Kage as his power seemed almost divine like.

Kakashi then finished up the report by telling what happen after The Raikage destroyed the Kiri fleet, including how The Raikage had a ship made entirely out of Tejina wood. Which did not sit well with the Council, since it was a clear show that New Kumo was financially well off if they could afford to make a ship out of Tejina wood.

"Very well Kakashi thank you for your report is there anything else you wish to say?" asked Tsunade.

"No Hokage-sama", lied Kakashi since he had purposely left out the part about the Doujutsu blocking seal from his report. Since he was planning on informing Tsunade and Jiraiya later on in private so to avoid causing a scene and hysteria with the Council and the Senior Shinobi's, since he knew if he told them here and now it would cause panic and the Council might try something foolish. But unfortunately Sasuke did not share Kakashi's hesitation to releasing the information, to the Council or the Senior Shinobi, or more to the point he didn't care about releasing it to them. Since he believed that they should do something about the seal here and now as it was a threat to them, hence he decided to make his voice known.

"I have something to say" spoke Sasuke gaining everyone' attention, "New Kumo or to be more precise The Raikage has created a seal that is able to block the special abilities of Doujutsu's. As it blocks the copying ability and tracking ability of Kakashi's and my Sharingan's as well as our ability to put people under Genjustu when they look into our eyes. It is also able to keep the Hyūga Clan's Byakugan from seeing their Chakra Pathway System preventing them from using their Jūken (Gentle Fist), and they have put the seal on all their Shinobi's as well as to the Shinobi's of the member Shinobi villages of the Heavenly Alliance".

"WWWWHHHHAAATTTTTT?" cried Tsunade in complete shock and disbelief.

After which complete and utter pandemonium erupted, in the Council room just as Kakashi had feared, where he silently cursed Sasuke for telling them.

After fifteen minute of shouting screaming and roaring in the Council room, Tsunade was finally able regain order again in the Council room, although doing so resulted in the Council table being destroyed.

After which Tsunade then turned to Kakashi, "Is what Sasuke said true Kakashi? Has The Raikage really created a seal that can block the abilities of the Sharingan and the Byakugan?"

"Hai" sighed, Kakashi, confirming Tsunade and everyone's worst fears. Where he then informed of the conversation that he and Sasuke had with The Raikage's Bodyguard Okatsu, and telling them how it did indeed block his Sharingan's copying ability. As well as how it blocked Hinata's and Neji's Byakugan, when he asked them if they could see any of the STORM-nins Chakra Pathway System at Nami no Kuni.

"Then we must deal with this threat immediately", spoke Danzo.

"That is enough Danzo be silent", ordered Tsunade.

"No Tsunade I shall not, we must deal with this threat immediately, the Heavenly Alliance now has a seal that can block two of our most powerful bloodlines, if we do nothing they will eventually use that seal to destroy our village or yet they could give this seal to our enemies. We must send in teams to capture some of their Shinobi's and analysis their seal to find a way to negate its effects on the Sharingan and the Byakugan", spoke Danzo. As he was not about to let Tsunade allow a clear threat to their village exist and let the foolish idolism that she inherited from her Sensei Sarutobi to endanger the village he swore to protect no matter what the cost.

"I said no Danzo and that's finally, I will not let your war mongering nor your paranoia endanger this village any further than it is in now, by sending our Shinobi's into infiltrate and capture another village's Shinobi's. If either New Kumo or the Heavenly Alliance caught our Shinobi's trying to capture their Shinobi's to study this seal they will declare War and I will not have you do such a thing. So if you even try and go behind my back and attempt it, I swear I will make you pay dearly for it…..am I Clear?" said Tsunade, as she snarled the last past and leaking a large amount of killing intent with it.

At this narrowed his one visible eye "Very well Hokage-san" spoke Danzo while thinking. "You foolish little girl, your just like that coward Sarutobi, you lack the willingness to do what is necessary to protect Konoha. By ignoring a clear threat to our village, but I will not let your cowardice destroy this village".

Tsunade narrowed her eyes at Danzo, knowing that he would probably try something and planned to have her ANBU watch him and his ROOT-nins, after which she turned to Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya is what Sasuke said true, could the The Raikage really have created a seal that can block the effects of Doujutsu's?" asked Tsunade.

"To be honest hime, I'm not sure I would have to see it to be certain but considering what Kakashi and the Uchiha just told us then it has to be and I have to say if The Raikage really did create this seal then he has to be on the level of the Yondaime in Fūinjutsu. Since to do that would take an extremely skilled and talented master of Fūinjutsu, and the Yondaime surpassed me long ago, even then for The Raikage to do something like that, I dare say he might have surpassed him in away", said Jiraiya. As he had to admit he was extremely impressed with The Raikage Fūinjutsu skill, since he doubted even his former prized student Minato could have created something like that, he also kind of hoped in away he could meet The Raikage in person one day and speak to him.

Jiraiya answer naturally did not go over well with Tsunade and the Council and caused many to worry, after which she then decided to ask him something else.

"Jiraiya what else did you learn about New Kumo?" asked Tsunade as she wanted to know as much as she could about them.

"Other than the new Clans and the fact that the old village was destroyed and they rebuilt the village somewhere else, not much I afraid, since security in Kaminari no Kuni was pretty tight as on more than one occasion I was nearly caught or sighted by patrols there, before I even reached the old village. It was why I even tried to enter Kumo itself as I was getting hardily anything and virtually all my sources there dried up after the Civil War", replied Jiraiya, which disappointed Tsuande and the Council, as they had hope more information about New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance.

"So what else do you know about New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance", asked Homaru

"Heavenly Alliance itself, nothing that we don't know already, but as for New Kumo I know a little about the working system of their new ANBU divisions", answered Jiraiya.

"What exactly did you learn about them", asked Danzo as he was eager for any information of New Kumo new ANBU divisions as they were a clear threat to his ROOT agents.

"Well New Kumo's ANBU divisions are set up in four separate divisions which each have their own reasonability's", said Jiraiya "The First is the division I went up against and that nearly caught me, they are called SHOCK which stands for Strategic, Homeland, Operational, Combat, Korps. They deal with the internal matters of New Kumo as well as some of the outside matters, they also patrol and protect the boarders of New Kumo as well as help protect the boarders of Kaminari no Kuni. They even act as New Kumo's Oinin (Tracker-nin) division where they track down any missing-nins that New Kumo may have. I was also able to learn by sheer luck the names of the division commanders of these ANBU divisions, SHOCK is under the Command of a women named Soifon otherwise known as Kumo no Suzumebachi (Cloud's Hornet). She is a highly skilled Assassin that uses a poison tipped bladed gantlet, she also a master Taijutsu user who could give bushy brows over there a run for their money in a Taijutsu fight", said Jiraiya as he pointed back a Lee and Gai. "She also a highly skilled Lightning user and extremely dangerous, where she could go head to head with Hatake here in a fight, I should know since she the one who did most of the damage to me".

This was of course unsettling to the Council and Tsunade to hear, but they remained silent and let Jiraiya continue.

"The Next division is called BOLT which stands for Bureau Of Logistical Targets, they are basically New Kumo's special ops division, as they handily Assassination missions and infiltration and information gathering missions for New Kumo. They are under the command of Shihōin Yoruichi aka Chisoku no Megami (Speed Mistress), Clan head of the Shihōin Clan one of the founding Clans of Kumo. As many of you are familiar with she is a highly gifted and skilled Shinobi, where like with Tsunade with using her perfect Chakra control to create her super human strength. Yoruichi can use her perfect Chakra control to become super fast hence her nickname Chisoku no Megami (The Speed Mistress), also like Soifon she is on the same level as Kakashi in terms of skill and in some ways more deadlier, as some of you also know she is also a master in Taijutsu as well".

This of course got a nod in agreement to Yoruichi skill level from Gai as he had fought Yoruichi once or twice before on a few missions and knew from experience that she was a deadly enemy to go up agaisnt.

"The third ANBU division is called CIND it stands for Covert, Intelligence Network Division, or even the Central intelligence network division. They deal with gathering Information and Intelligence on all non Alliance members or non Allied Countries to the Heavenly Alliance as well as other organisations that may threaten the Heavenly Alliance. They also deal with Counter Intelligence where if any Shinobi village or Country tried to infiltrate Kumogakure or the Heavenly Alliance they would find them and deal with them, they would even create false leads or false information for them to follow which would eventually lead those Shinobi villages or Countries to dead ends or even misjudged the Heavenly Alliance strength and capability. They also act as New Kumo's Torture and Interrogation division when gathering information from Rogue Ninja's and enemy spies. Their the reason I've been having such a hard time gathering anything about New Kumo or the Heavenly Alliance, the division is lead by a man named Youkai Masato, other than that I don't know a thing about him nor what he looks like", said Jiraiya with a frown. Since Masato was a complete mystery to him like alot of things in New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance and in a way he admired and respected the man. Despite the fact of never meeting him since to be able to keep New Kumo's and the Heavenly Alliance strength so far, secret for so long and to still keep so much of it still secret, from Jiraiya's spy network and other nation's spy networks in a amazing feet in itself.

"Another division I heard about but not technically an ANBU division is the AQUA unit which stands for Aquatic, Quality, Underwater, Applications. As Kureani and several of you already know it is lead by a woman named Sun Li who is also the Commander of New Kumo and Submarine force as well. The unit was created to counter Kiri's SHARK division, where they are said to be able to match them in an underwater fight like the STORM-nins did since they do the same training as the AQUA-nins. Rumour also has it that the unit was founded by several former Kiri-nins, who were once part of SHARK and later on joined New Kumo. AQUA is also said to be responsible for patrolling and protecting the shores of Kaminari no Kuni and protect all Heavenly Alliance members' ships from attacks by enemy Shinobi's, ships and Pirates", said Jiraiya.

This naturally caused several bits of worried murmuring from the Senior Shinobi members as New Kumo had another force that was on par with Kiri's SHARK division.

"The fourth and final ANBU division of New Kumo is one that you would all be very familiar with, the STORM division, which stands for Special, Tactical, Operational, Rapid, Military. They are the best of the best of New Kumo and are its elite strike force, from the Intel I gathered they have a training programme that takes a toil on even highly trained elite Jonin Shinobi's. They answer to The Raikage and The Raikage alone no-one else, as they wouldn't do anything unless he says so, they take on only the most dangerous, important and vital mission for New Kumo or the Heavenly Alliance that other Shinobi's could not. They are specifically created to counter other Special Forces or to be more precise they are created to take out the special ANBU forces of other Shinobi Nations, hence why their training is so hard, since they are the Special Forces of Special Forces. The division is lead by Hayabusa Ryū, Clan head of the famed Hayabusa Clan whom many of you are very familiar with. Although I don't know really much about him, but I do know he is a highly skilled Ninja, Swordsman and Weapons expert, and is considered the greatest Prodigy to be born in the Hayabusa Clan to be born in over a hundred years, you could even say he's the Itachi of the Hayabusa Clan", finished Jiraya.

This news caused a great deal of concern among the Council members and the Senior Shinobi since from Jiraiya's report the STORM-nins were created to wipe out ANBU special ops divisions from other villages. A force like that would worry and Shinobi Nation and worse still it was commanded by the Clan head of the Hayabusa Clan. Since everyone was familiar with the famous Hayabusa Clan, who were said to have some the best Shinobi's in the world. They were all highly skilled fighters and weapons experts and if Ryū was the Hayabusa Clan version of Itachi then that would make him a highly dangerous Shinobi. Due to the Hayabusa Clan would naturally have highly skilled Shinobi's in the Clan, thanks to their Clan secret training, where if Ryū really was the strongest member to be born in a hundred years he would be a serious threat to any skilled Shinobi.

Kakashi and Danzo we especially concerned and worried at this news as they both even shuddered slightly as they both had previous separate experiences with Shinobi's from this Clan over their years. Where Kakashi faced off against a different member of Hayabusa Clan on three separate occasions and each one resulted in him barely surviving the fights, where he either escaped or fought the member off or drew with him. Danzo himself had fought several members of the Hayabusa Clan on several different occasions and like Kakashi he barely survived each one. His last encounter with one was when he fought against Hayabusa Jô (Ryū's Father), where the battle ended with Jô defeating and nearly killing Danzo, where he cut off Danzo right arm before Danzo barely escaped with his life. Altogether if Ryū was indeed as skilled as Jiraiya said, and was in charged of the STORM-nins, then they were a major threat to him and is ROOT as well as Konoha.

"Also during my time there I heard about several other new Shinobi's that Kumo acquired and who have risen to fame there, although I don't known their real names. I do know their aliases, they are Kumo no Aisuryuu (Ice Dragon Of Kumo), who is a young man rumoured to be a member of the Seiwa Clan who is known for their Hyoton (Ice Release) Bloodline".

"That impossible the last known Hyoton user was killed with Momochi Zabuza over ten years ago at Nami no Kuni by Kakashi", said Homura.

"Well I guess there was at lest one other member left since from what I heard he is definitely a Hyoton user, as he used his Hyoton abilities to completely freeze two thirds of the Godaime Raikage and former Daimyo Yoshiaki armada in a single battle during the Civil War", said Jiraiya shocking everyone there.

"I have also heard about two other Shinobi's known as Shinkukiri no Kumo (Cloud's Crimson Mist) and Kumo no Shirotaka (White Falcon of Cloud), both of whom are rumoured to extremely deadly Shinobi's. Unfortunately I don't know anything about their abilities as I wasn't able to find anything about them", said Jiraiya, which greatly annoyed many people as having no information on a possible enemy Shinobi's abilities could get a Shinobi killed.

"Jiraiya-sama were you able to get any information on The Raikage himself, such as his real name or anything else about his powers and abilities", asked Yamanaka Inoichi.

"Unfortunately no I was unable to gather anything like that about The Raikage as other than the stories we heard about him and some of the things he did in the Civil War, I couldn't really find anything about the man. No-one outside of New Kumo's itself known's anything about him and those that do won't say anything about him to anyone, the guy is as big a mystery as ever it as if he popped out of nowhere. But I was able to learn one key thing about him", said Jiraiya, which of coursed gained everyone's attention.

"Which would be?" asked Aburame Shibi

"The Raikage is not a native Shinobi to either Kumogakure or Kaminari no Kuni he is a foreign Shinobi, although I don't know if he was a Ronin Ninja (3) or was a missing-nin from another Shinobi village or Clan, I still know that he is not native to the Country", said Jiraiya shocking everyone in the room. Since for a foreign Shinobi to become the leader of another Shinobi village was unbelievable, especially to become Kage of one of the Great five Shinobi Nations.

"Impossible!" said Koharu, "No Shinobi that isn't native to a village could become its leader".

"Well seemingly this one did", replied Jiraiya.

"But how?" asked Homura.

"Well the man was the one who united the Rebel factions into a united force, and lead them to victory against the Godaime Raikage and former Daimyo Yoshiaki forces in their Civil War, and single handily stopped a invasion, from Kiri and Mizu no Kuni (Water Country) and destroyed an invading fleet and army making him their hero. Not to mention he was able to unite the remaining other factions that were with the Godaime Raikage and former Daimyo Yoshiaki and get them to join his side after the Civil War and created a stable peace in the village and the Country itself. He is also extremely powerful considering what we just heard from Kakashi and his team and he was also the one who gathered the other Shinobi's and non-Shinobi nations to form the Heavenly Alliance. He is even the one who's responsible for making this New Kumo and Heavenly Alliance so powerful and formable so its only natural that they would have him be their Kage regardless of him being a foreigner or not", answered Jiraiya.

The Council of course had to grudgingly agree with Jiraiya's assessment as it did make sense, since people would obliviously wish to have the hero of their Country lead them regardless of him being a native or not to the Country. Not mention consider how powerful he was it made even more sense to have him with their village and lead it.

"But that still does not answer the troublesome question that we have, which is what do we do about New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance, considering what we now know about them", spoke Nara Shikaku.

"The only thing we can do", spoke Tsunade, "We form an alliance with them". This caused a large amount of mutter in the Council room.

"Are you sure that wise Hokage-sama, considering that they have a seal that is specially designed disable our villages strongest Bloodlines and what they did to Jiraiya-sama", spoke Asai Heita.

"The seal is designed to disable all Doujutsu abilities on people not just the Sharingan and the Byakugan. As for what they did to Jiraiya? What can you expect when he was caught spying in their Country," replied Tsunade.

"But can we trust them?" asked Homura.

"They haven't shown any hostile action against us yet", spoke Choza.

"The proverbial word is "yet" as they still could and may decide to wait till the smoke is cleared to when one side loses, and the victors are weakened from winning the War and then attack and destroyed them", spoke Koharu.

"That may be true, but what choice do we have? We're already on the verge of losing this War our funds and supplies are running low, we are out numbered. And even with Suna and the Tsuchigumo Clan (4) with us were still out numbered us badly as Suna has it own fronts to worry about and Tsuchigumo Clan have only a few Shinobi's to send to help us", said Tsuande.

"But what about the Dohatsuten Jutsu (Fury Technique) that the Tsuchigumo Clan former leader En no Gyōja created, that Jutsu that could destroy and entire village, if we were able to get them to use it for us or teach it to our Shinobi's it could turn the tide in favour of us", said Ashikaga Shin.

"The only person that knew how to create the Dohatsuten Jutsu was En no Gyōja himself and he took that secret to the grave and even if another person did know it Tsuchigumo Clan would never tell anyone how to create it. Besides the only reanimate of the Jutsu, was the implant on En no Gyōja Granddaughter back and it was destroyed by the Rokubi no Namekuji (Six-Tailed Slug) Jinchūriki Utakata eight years ago. So it cannot be used", spoke Inoichi.

"This then leaves us with only one option we must seek an alliance with New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance if we hope to survive and win this War. Since if we continue the way we are it is highly likely that Orochimaru and his allies will come out victories in this War. For as the Hokage-sama has stated our supplies are running low and financial structure is weakening as we are losing money with the few mission we are receiving and are able to take. Where if this War continues on, three things are very likely to happen our economy will crash due to the lack of money we are receiving from missions. Food and medical supplies will run out in the village thanks to Orochimaru and his allies attacking our supply ships and cravens and Orochimaru and his allies will overwhelm our weakened forces and allies and destroy us", spoke Shibi and then continued on.

"But if we ally ourselves with New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance, we would gain several powerful allies with large forces at their disposal, since Kumo has always had the second largest military force of Shinobi's in the Elemental Continent with Iwa being the first. Also we would gain the other Shinobi Nations of the Heavenly Alliance as allies, which would turn the tide of superior numbers to our side. Not to mention as well as having the advance technical support of New Kumo and it allies as well as accesses to the trade and financial support from the Heavenly Alliance".

"Shibi-san is correct the best chance we have is having the New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance become our ally where with them on side it might just deter Orochimaru and his allies from continue this War", said Tsunade.

After about an hour of discussing the subject, it was decided that Konoha would send a petition to ask for an Alliance with New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance. After which Tsunade ended the meeting and had Shizune and Sakura take Jiraiya back to the Hospital so that he could be treated and healed.

- A few Days Later in the Hidden ROOT Headquarters-

Danzo stood in the middle of a large underground room with eight of his top infiltration ROOT agents kneeling in front of him. Several more ROOT agents then came out of the Shadows and handed the four ROOT agents in front of Danzo a set of uniforms to wear and then give the other four another set of uniforms to wear.

Once the ROOT agents took the uniforms given to them he turned his head slightly and spoke to the four on his left.

"You know what you must do, you are to sneak into Taki no Kuni (Waterfall Country) and infiltrate one of Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall) bases near its boarder and capture one of their Shinobi's with the Doujutsu blocking seals on them" he spoke.

"Hai" the four said.

After which Danzo then turned his head slightly again and spoke to the four on his right.

"And you four know you are to sneak across Kaminari no Kuni boarder and capture one of patrol squads along its Kaminari no Kuni, in case team one fails or Takigakure does not have the Doujutsu blocking seal on them as we were told. Also do not underestimate the Kumo's SHOCK Shinobi's, for a large group of them nearly capture Jiraiya of the Sannin, and Kumo's Shinobi's strength has only grown in the past few years, you are only to get in and out is that clear", spoke Danzo.

"Hai", spoke the other four.

"Good, now remember, alive if possible dead if necessary", said Danzo.

"Hai" said all eight before they disappeared to do their missions.

After which Danzo then turned to the remaining ROOT agents next to him, you three are to help the research teams in trying to recreate the technique that The Raikage calls the Raipō (Lightning Steps). Sasuke has already explain the basic of how the Technique works from what he was told by one of the Kumo-nins, so hopefully by using this knowledge we can recreate it and use it against our enemies.

The Three ROOT agents all nodded their heads in understanding and then disappeared like the other ROOT agents. Once all the ROOT agents left the room a new voice spoke up.

"You're taking a big risk Danzo", said the voice, where Danzo turned to the direction from where the voice can from and saw Sasuke step out of the shadows of the room.

"It must be done in order for our plans to be realized. For this New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance along with The Raikage himself represents a too large of a threat to be ignored and even if they do ally with us it will be only a matter of time before they eventually turn on us and I shall not let Tsunade and her foolish idolism destroy this village. We need to learn how to negate the Doujutsu blocking seals that The Raikage has created and once we have done that and have gained everything we can from New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance from our Alliance with them. We will strike it and take control of the Heavenly Alliance and seize hold of our destinies with Konoha controlling the Shinobi world as it should be", spoke Danzo.

"Why not wait till have we have been ally with them where it would be easier to analyse the seal and easier to capture one of their Shinobi's", spoke Sasuke.

"No!... they would be watching us to do that, besides this way is lest likely to fail, since team one will be wearing uniforms from Iwa and even if they are captured or sighted capturing one of Taki's Shinobi, Iwa will be blamed for it. The same can be said for team two who are dressed as Oto Shinobi's, where when New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance learn of this they will be more likely to side with us and to make certain of this the two teams will leave clues that will point to Orochimaru and his allies. Since both New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance will believe that it was in retaliation for interfering in the invasion of Nami no Kuni and wanting the Doujutsu blocking seal, so to use it against us in our War with them. Where once New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance are with us, we will have access to their advance technology, weaponry and training and we can use New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance to destroy Orochimaru and his allies for us", spoke Danzo.

"It's still a big risk and they are your plans, not mine. Besides what makes you think that your forces can kill The Raikage when the time is right, when he has the power to kill hundreds of Shinobi's and destroy and entire fleet of ships with a single jutsu", replied Sasuke with a bit of jealousy. As the power he saw The Raikage wield at Nami no Kuni was nothing short of amazing, and it made him angry at how inferior he was compared to The Raikage. This also made Sasuke want to know how The Raikage gained such incredible power, as he could use it to kill his brother Itachi.

"Despite his feared reputation The Raikage is still only a man of flesh and blood and every man has a weakness no matter how powerful he is", answered Danzo.

"Including you?" asked Sasuke with a small cold smirk, Danzo choose to ignore the question and remained silent.

"But still you know that if this plan of yours fails and Tsunade finds out about this she could very well label you a traitor and have you killed for it. If not that she may hand you over to The Raikage to be executed by him in the hope of preventing a War with New Kumo and the Heavenly Alliance", spoke Sasuke.

"Some of the greatest traitors in the world have often been looked as some of the worlds greatest patriot's Sasuke and besides what is War without risk and I have no fear of dying so we will have to wait and see what happens next", said Danzo before he walked away.

After which Sasuke just scoffed "We see soon enough" and then walked away in the opposite direction out of the room so that he could leave and train in the training room.

- One week Later in The Raikage Office-

The Raikage was currently sitting his office reading and laughing at a good comic book called "Tadaaki's World" which was about a young Ninja named Tadaaki. Who is the unluckiest Ninja in the world, where he keeps getting into or causing accidents and getting into trouble and inadvertently causes four princesses, his Kunoichi teammate, a Shrine maiden, a Noble's daughter and a female outlaw to all fall in love with him. After which they travel the world together getting into hair-raising adventures, while at the same time the girls all try and get Tadaaki alone with each of them and seduce him, where the other girls would then try and foil the other attempts to seduce Tadaaki, where they would inadvertently cause Tadaaki to have an accident and get hurt. The Raikage loved his comic book, since he found it to be hilarious and it never failed to make him laugh.

As The Raikage was reading his Comic book, his secretary Ise Nanao entered the office, with a letter in her hand, when she saw The Raikage sitting in his chair with his legs up on his desk reading one of his comic books she frowned.

"Please tell you haven't be sitting there all day reading your comic books instead of doing your paperwork", said the annoyed Nanao.

At this The Raikage looked over to her with a cheesy smile and rubbing the back of his head kind of embarrassed at be caught like this, "Well kind of yea, but look I still got it done" he replied and then pointed to the large tower of paper work in the done box.

At this Nano sighed with annoyance, but she was still grateful that The Rokudaime Raikage wasn't as bad as the Yondaime Raikage since at lest The Rokudaime Raikage got his paperwork all done and didn't smash through windows and walls like the Yondaime Raikage. Since he gave his secretary (Nano predecessor) such a stressful life that the poor woman's hair had turned gray from all the stress she gave him and she was only twenty-seven.

"Fine", sigh Nano, before she then handed The Raikage the letter she came to give him.

"This is a letter from Konoha our decoders have already decoded it".

The Raikage took the letter and began to read it, after a few minutes he finished reading the letter and smiled.

"Is it what you expected?" asked Nano

"Yes it is", replied The Raikage, "Nano, send a reply to Konoha telling them that I will come to Konoha in six days time and contact Mitsuhide-sensei, Saiyuri-sensei, Zhuge Liang-sensei tell them I will need them to accompany me there along with Killer Bee and Yugito, since Fū is in Takigakure with Shibuki and Okatsu is on a Intel gather mission for me. Also inform Anisu I will be leaving him in Charge once I leave".

At this Nano smirked a little, "You know he won't like that".

At that this The Raikage smirked back "Yea I know, but I make it up to him later".

At this Nano smiled a little before she became serious, "Are you sure you want to go there, what if…" said Nano but was stopped when The Raikage raised his hand.

"I will be fine , Konoha isn't that stupid to try something against me, their desperate and they can't afford having us as there enemy, so they won't try anything", replied The Raikage.

"But what abou-" said Nano but was stopped again by The Raikage.

"I will be fine I promise", he said with a smile, where Nano nodded her head and then left the office to do what The Raikage had asked her to do.

Once she left The Raikage turned around to look out the window to see the sun setting, as he always enjoyed watching the sunset and seeing all the different colours you would see when it did. As he looked out he could not help but smile

"All according to plan" he thought.