Naruto put away the Uchiha clones in a pocket dimension while adding another DNA sample to each capsule. There was a thousand capsules and only about one hundred of them already had Uchiha clones in them, so it did not take all that long to collect his Uchiha dummies and leave the rest of his DNA samples with his shadow clones.

It was as Naruto was checking on Obito (who was developing much slower than the Uchiha dummies because Naruto needed his body for a more important reason) that Mugetsu spoke, "How can you be so nonchalant about this? As a matter-of-fact, it would not be strange at all if you started panicking. At least, you should've asked what I meant by what I said."

Noticing the Jūbi's disbelief, Naruto chuckled.

"How could I not already know what happened back there? That egg, whatever it was, changed me. What is there to be confused about? Even if I do not care all that much about my status as a human, am I still supposed to react excessively to the extent of panic? The answer is that I did not feel particularly shocked by the fact that an unusual thing had happened with that egg over there. As for whether or not I'm human, I do not think it matters that much," Naruto explained with a shrug as he gestured at the egg that sat at one corner of the lab on a cushion that had been designed to keep the egg nourished with chakra (because Naruto was not entirely sure what exactly would mean for the egg that had exhausted its own chakra reserves by giving it to him).

Mugetsu made another sound of incredulity, but did not seem to have any intention of arguing any further.

"Do you have any clue what kind of egg this is?" Naruto asked.

The egg was black with dancing gold flame-like patterns on its surface. It had been massive, so large that it was almost as tall as himself and wide enough that even three clones standing astride could only barely encircle it with their arms. However, that was only how it was like when Naruto first found it. Though it had been majestic and filled with strength that knew no bounds and transcended space and time, it had shrunk significantly. It was much smaller now, a size which could be cradled in his arms, and the egg, though still beautiful, no longer demanded awe and respect. Feeling strangely attached to the egg, almost like what a parent would feel for their child, Naruto had not been able to leave it behind.

"Perhaps it might be a mythical creature at the pinnacle of its kind. A future boss summons at the time before it has hatched or grown. It might be something else, though. I am not sure if even a future boss summons would have such intense power even as an egg. However, there was an unmistakable aura emanating from it. The creature within that egg is undoubtedly a future 'king'," Mugetsu informed him, sounding thoughtful.

"You might have just found yourself quite the interesting thing," Kurama spoke up. "That egg you have there will hatch something that is, at the bare minimum, on the same level as us bijū and, if I'm not wrong, might even grow to be as strong as number ten over there. Raise it well."

Naruto felt shocked at this seemingly absurd claim.

"A random egg that I found abandoned in the ancient ruins of a forgotten civilisation just so happened to belong to some powerful being at the peak of mythical creatures? What ridiculous sort of plot is this? This sounds quite dangerous if I must say so myself. Isn't it suspicious? What if it ends up being hostile if and when it finally hatches and causes the end of the world again? Our Mugetsu here had gone crazy and let others control him to do that the last time around," he asked dubiously.

"Why would it? That part where it gave you its chakra was practically it naming you its lifelong companion. It would be your partner and might even listen to your commands. Either way, that young one can only be an ally," Matatabi piped up.

Before Naruto could respond, Kurama queried, "I was under the impression that only contracts would enable such a thing? Contract beasts are rare even in summon worlds. Only the mythical true royal bloodlines could become contracted beasts. They would not be summoned by their race's contracted summoner. Only by that sole individual that they have acknowledged will they allow themselves to be called upon freely. Those creatures have never descended upon us before and many of them would make the Jūbi look like an ordinary beast in comparison. That is what is said in legends, at least. For number ten to be able to compare with the weakest of them would require us to absorb the Mugetsu of this timeline just like I absorbed my own counterpart. For the egg of such a being to be in that ruins, I would first have to wonder just how that illustrious history of this world has been forgotten."

"And you never saw fit to tell me about these things?" Naruto exclaimed in shock.

"We thought it was just a matter of time until you would find out by yourself. After all, once grown, you would probably qualify for a royal of whatever summon you would have obtained by then to deem you worthy. However, a thing like a lifelong contract was impossible. It's not that I look down on you, but it was simply not possible. Not only would no true royal dare to bind their lives to that of a human, but also the fact that a lifelong partner is usually not human in the first place. They would bond with those of their own race or with others because of the fact that a human simply lives a much shorter life and has too small a capacity for chakra. For a situation like you to occur is unprecedented. Those mythical creatures do not have chakra bodies like us bijū. They are actually living, breathing creatures. That is because their bodies are special. You have seen how they condense chakra within them in that egg. In your case, that unique chakra of the mythical creatures had changed the innate nature of chakra and the qualities of your body. Rather than something as mild as not being human, it is simply more akin to you no longer being of this world. That also means you can release that chakra you've been sealing off up to now," Mugetsu sighed.

"That's right. I had been surprised by that egg's chakra, but I actually had even more chakra in me than two of those eggs combined. Just how bright will I look to a dōjutsu user when I unseal it at long last? I think it even grew a little in this time," Naruto murmured in realisation.

Mugetsu stared at him oddly.

"Not even an Uzumaki could have contained as much chakra as a bijū, now that I think about it. The strangest part of you has to be your absurd chakra. In chakra capacity alone, you probably surpass me by now. Even before, your body had contained your chakra which had the ability to rival Kurama's and could even utilise all of his strength without looking strained. What are you exactly, Naruto? Now, you can walk around telling everyone that you are a humanoid bijū and they would have no choice but to believe you," the Jūbi muttered.

Naruto shrugged helplessly. "I don't know the answer to that question either. Anyway, it isn't a problem to restrain all my chakra within me without letting any leak out. At that point it'll probably look like my whole body is flooded with chakra though. It's no longer restricted within my chakra pathways thanks to what the egg did before. However, how do I explain why I look like a bijū to a Hyūga when they do notice that? More importantly, the intensity would probably blind them before anything else. I'll need a new fūinjutsu matrix for that now."

He sighed at the thought of such a troublesome task. It was one thing to create a seal, matrix or array that he wanted to make for any reason as long as it interested him. It was different from a seal that he had to make whether he wanted to or not. Be it a necessity for his current needs or a task given to him by another, it was simply a chore to make such a boring yet complex seal.

"That can wait," he decided.

It was a perfect example of procrastination and Sakura would definitely throttle him if she had heard him say something so... Shikamaru, but he could not be bothered by that. If it was a dull task then it would be a dull task. Being yelled at or threatened to certain doom did not stop it from being troublesome. Besides, it was not like Sakura would find out.

Hopefully.

"Continue that train of thought and it would end up being a foreshadow," Kurama commented dryly.

Indeed, Naruto felt that should do it as soon as possible.

He definitely did not consider camping in the Workshop to hide from Sakura's wrath should she ever find out.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Kakashi had finished admiring the book of dog drawings and felt a need to share the fantastic artwork with a fellow dog lover. He managed to track down every last dog in the book and had been amazed to discover that the book that his mysterious benefactor (indeed, for the one who allowed him to rediscover the joys of dogs was a being deserving of such a title in his opinion) had given him had included every single canine companion of the Inuzuka clan.

This was amazing, considering how the Inuzuka clan treated their dogs as family and would never allow outsiders to take their dogs away from them. Had it been an Inuzuka that had given him the book? Even a member of the clan would not be able to get all those dogs to himself! There was no way that the clan head Tsume would ever let someone take her own dogs away from her, after all. That person had to have stolen the entire kennel.

Kakashi would never know how right he was. Naruto had indeed stolen the entire kennel and even gathered every single pup in there before bringing them to Kaien. The Inuzuka clan had panicked at the mysterious disappearance of all the dogs in the compound and had even ended up out of commission for the whole week Naruto had borrowed them for. It had been passed off as not epidemic that caused their dogs to fall ill and the Inuzuka clan spent this whole time flipping over every stone in the village in a mad search for their missing dogs. The rest of the village thought that the Inuzuka clan members themselves too had fallen ill.

Kakashi headed to Yūgao's house and asked as soon as she opened her door, "Yo. Does Sōjirō-san like dogs?"

The woman who also held the ANBU codename Neko felt a little lost as she stared at her former ANBU captain who had, in his service, held the codename Inu.

"Dogs?" she echoed, a little lost.

Kakashi nodded his head a little sheepishly.

Uzuki Yūgao gained a understanding look that Kakashi was unable to decipher the reason for.

"Well, Inu-taichō," the purple-haired young woman said slowly and deliberately with a knowing smile, "as far as I know, he doesn't hate dogs. In fact, I think you'd find that our kōhai might like them more than one would think."

Kakashi felt confused by what Yūgao was trying to imply, failing miserably in understanding the hidden meaning behind her words. Even so, the answer was satisfactory. Kakashi smiled under his mask and nodded gratefully.

"Thanks, Neko," he spoke brightly as he left in a shunshin to ask around for confirmation.

Somehow, what Neko said felt a bit dubious.

The next people that Kakashi asked ended up giving him similar responses. Be it Itachi, Anko, the rest of the ANBU, the Hokage or even that little old lady who lived next door (Kakashi lives in the civilian district, though only Naruto knew that). He felt a little suspicious at the looks that he was getting, but that was the answer he had wanted to hear anyway, so he did not contest it.

As such, Kakashi went back into his apartment to get changed (it had been his self-proclaimed eternal rival Guy's suggestion). The only man in the entire village with a bowl-cut at the present moment had cried when Kakashi asked him the question (actually, there probably wasn't a single person who knew Sōjirō that Kakashi did not ask). Guy had only just started blustering about being youthful, youthfully settling down and losing a rival to the inevitability of youth when Kakashi finally gave up on listening any longer (he felt like his ears would start bleeding if Might Guy had said 'youth' just one more time). He had no idea why he took Guy's advice, but he had already gone back to his apartment when he finally realised that he had no reason to do so.

That was what brought us to where Kakashi was now.

He had changed and was standing in front of Sōjirō's door in the ANBU complex. For some reason, Sōjirō could never be bothered to get himself an apartment. When Sōjirō had to, he would crash at Kakashi's place instead. If not, the now-ANBU captain would just stay in his allocated room in the complex. Sōjirō had the funds to easily obtain whatever housing caught his eye, but he had never been interested even when the Hokage had offered to find a place for him. The Sandaime had felt concerned that Sōjirō did not feel a sense of belonging towards Konohagakure no Sato, but Kakashi's later admission that Sōjirō would sometimes stay in his apartment instead had assuaged his worries for some reason that Kakashi could not fathom. Did it mean that much to the Hokage that the two of them were friends?

Before Kakashi could knock on the door, Sōjirō opened the door with a puzzled look on his face at the sight of the silver-haired ANBU retiree.

"What are you doing here? You never visit," the redhead remarked, his eyebrows furrowed and his head tilted to the side.

Sōjirō immediately reported this occurrence to Naruto, who responded that he knew nothing about Kakashi's visit and asked the blood clone to keep him updated.

"Umm..." Kakashi coughed slightly, his ears tinting red as he mumbled, "I heard from the others that you liked dogs too, so...."

Naruto, who was listening in on the conversation from Sasori's Workshop, nearly fell backwards in surprise. He felt rather amazed by this turn of events. How much did his prank affect Kakashi? He had never expected much out of it. At most, he presumed, Kakashi would gain a new hobby. He never thought that the man would start looking for fellow hobbyists amongst his friends. Besides, when exactly did he even hint to the rest of his acquaintances that he liked dogs...?

Naruto and, by extension, Sōjirō felt even more confused than Kakashi had been earlier. That was because he did not recall having demonstrated a love for dogs. It was definite that he found them adorable (Matatabi did not even bother to argue with him on that), but it was not something that he had displayed publicly. Where exactly did that lot even dig that bit of information out from? His theft of the Inuzuka dogs had never come to see the light of day, right...? Besides, he had been in his original appearance when he had entered the Inuzuka compound to borrow their entire kennel. No one could have known about it besides Kaien.

Kaien was not the type to spill about these things either. In the first place, he did not even have anyone to gossip to. If he had something to tell someone, then it would most likely be to Naruto. He never bothered to ask about where Naruto obtained the many things that he would bring, either. As such, there was no reason for anyone to know about that incident.

Nothing had given away that Naruto liked dogs so how in the world did the people Kakashi had spoken to know?

"Uh... was I wrong?" Kakashi asked awkwardly.

"No, it's true. I like dogs," Sōjirō replied despite Naruto's internal conflict.

Kakashi brightened, a smile lighting up his face.

"Great!" he exclaimed. "I came here to share something amazing with you, Sōjirō-san."

"So Inu-chan likes dogs?" Sōjirō changed the topic as he pretended to think out loud.

"Doesn't Kitsune-kun like foxes?" Kakashi shot back, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.

Sōjirō laughed unabashed. "As a matter of fact, I do."

The jōnin scowled at his junior. He had watched the entire process from the time that a clueless redhead had stumbled into Konoha completely by chance. Kakashi had seen the teenager grow as he progressed from an ordinary civilian to an excellent shinobi. He had been there when the Uzumaki had participated in the test, passing it with flying colours before immediately joining the elite squadron that Kakashi had led. Sōjirō had come a long way from where he had been four years ago and was now ANBU captain. This might have been why Kakashi felt less depressed whenever Sōjirō was around (though he would never admit that he did not even feel depressed whenever Sōjirō was near, not even to himself). Perhaps the reason was something else (since it did not make any sense in the first place because watching someone grow up was not supposed to cause one to feel like all worries were washed away whenever one was in their presence after all), but Kakashi refused to hear any of it. Even the Hokage had glanced at him pityingly when this had happened with a strange sigh that Kakashi could not help but feel irked by.

It was a phenomenon that shared a fair bit of similarity to how Sasuke had once decided that Naruto, who made him feel things other than old anger and betrayal towards his traitorous brother, was a friend he would be able to kill without hesitation as long as it was necessary for his path towards his revenge. However, he had not been able to do it in the end and had even discovered that these bonds of friendship he shared with Naruto ran deeper than that. It took him almost killing Naruto (well honestly speaking said blond would have been able to escape certain death then, even if he would not have been able to win against Sasuke without harming him while still being able to drag him back, as long as he tried that is) to realise that he felt a brotherly affection for Naruto which probably ran even deeper than his previously abandoned love and respect for his brother. However, Naruto would never know about this. Sasuke preferred it that way, too. Naruto could continue to believe that Itachi would always rank higher than himself in Sasuke's mind and the Uchiha would not bother to stop him.

Kakashi, on the other hand, was unlikely to experience a similar awakening and would probably continue living in denial.

Kakashi told Sōjirō about the day when he first 'met' his so-called benefactor. Naruto could not help but snicker from within Sasori's Workshop at the mention of his prank. He felt confused at first when Kakashi mentioned a benefactor but soon started laughing at how Kakashi described the incident. He had left out what it was that Naruto had stolen from him and only talked about how he had searched high and low for it before noticing the book.

"Look at this one! She's a spaniel and her name is Tetsu. She's about a year old and belongs to the Inuzuka clan. Isn't she adorable? She's the sweetest little thing, isn't she? The painting had been done when she was still a pup, but she's still fluffy and cute even now!" Kakashi started to fawn over the picture.

Naruto took one last glance at Kakashi through Sōjirō's eyes, shook his head and cut his open connection with his blood clone, leaving Sōjirō to handle the newly self-discovered dog fanatic alone. He liked dogs too, but it was too much to expect him to stay to listen to Kakashi rant on about what it was about each dog that made it unique, wonderful and beautiful. It was almost as bad as one of Guy's youth tirades. It was better since it was less nauseating, but he could not deny that he did not care enough for him to listen to the entire explanation of every single picture Kaien had drawn in that book. It was his first time encountering a person that stalked dogs. Of course he had to take responsibility for starting this ridiculous craze - Kaien's artworks were too fantastic to be real and often made the most mundane things so radiant as he highlighted the most beautiful parts of whatever he depicted in his art.

It was almost like he was seeing the world through Kaien's eyes and it just made it seem almost as though everything was... brighter in Naruto's presence. It was not like Naruto had never seen saw the artworks Kaien made alone, but they always seemed bland. It was just different. It was like something was missing. This was completely in contrast with the stunning masterpieces that Kaien would conjure up one after another when Naruto was there. Did the world just seem that dull and lifeless without companionship? Naruto has always had bijū sealed within him so he was unsure what it meant to be truly lonely in any sense apart from the desire for human contact. Kurama had always been there, but it was not the same as how it was like to have people that he could call friends. Perhaps it was similar. If it was the same, then Naruto genuinely felt bad for leaving Kaien alone for such long stretches of time.

Perhaps he should try to get Kaien acquainted with Ino? He had always thought that Sai and Ino had something a little more than friendship between them. When he thought of Ino, he also thought about the two other girls of the other genin teams from Konoha who participated in that Chūnin Examination. Hinata was scary, so he did not want to think about her, but Tenten always had the biggest crush on Neji. It was obvious to everyone else that she liked him, but the Hyūga in question had never realised it up till the very end. Not too long after Neji had sacrificed his own life to save Hinata's, Tenten had done the same for the future of the shinobi world. He knew that she had not wanted to live in a world without Neji, but Naruto had never been close to either of them. In the first place, he knew close to nothing about love himself. He was probably the worst matchmaker in the world. Perhaps he should stay out of Kaien's love life too. As such, he had made a loop and ended up right where he had started.

Maybe he should opt to rescue someone else from the emptiness of life as a ROOT operative instead, but he had never known anyone from ROOT other than Sai so that was another dead end. Well, that was unless he picked up another lonely soul. However, he would not know just who he should pick. There were just too many hapless children trapped in that organisation and he currently did not have any ability which would enable him to secretly convert the whole batch of new recruits without Danzō noticing. If he picked one and left the rest to their dreadful fate, he would just feel guilty. Even so, the most important reason as to why he had not already found a playmate for Kaien was probably just the fact that he could not bring himself to trust someone he didn't already know. There was no assurance that this child would not betray him should there be a clash of ideologies. Besides, as long as Naruto's enemies could offer more benefits, there would be a possibility of being stabbed in the back. Though he could also indoctrinate a sense of loyalty towards himself into the child, that was just too much trouble and caused more problems than it did benefits.

Naruto had never realised that people simply tended to gravitate towards him and trust him unconditionally. He did not even notice his own charisma and ability to speak, nor did he notice just how much loyalty the ones by his side had for him. He trusted them and knew them well, understanding almost every facet of each individual's respective personality, but it simply never occurred to him that they would place such great faith in him. It was a problem that lied in his upbringing (or lack thereof). He would never have expected for himself, whose childhood was spent isolated from society, to be able to attract others. This was even despite him obtaining many allies and turning people who were once hostile to him in a previous life into his close friends.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Dressed entirely in black with a face mask not unlike Kakashi's hiding his features from view (it had concealment seals on it that prevented his face from being seen through the fabric by dōjutsu), Naruto once again entered the Uchiha compound uninvited and unseen. He even had an army of invisible shadow clones around him. They were here on a mission and enough have been deployed to match every member of the Uchiha clan with a team of five Naruto clones.

"Scatter," Naruto whispered, his quiet words drifting briefly in the air for a moment even after every clone made its way to its respective Uchiha in a systematic manner.

With that settled, Naruto headed back into the Workshop while suppressing a groan.

He still had a false-ordinary chakra system disguise-type array to make. He would have used the Kage Henge no Jutsu which could even disguise one's chakra flow as someone else's, but that was not a good solution. His chakra just went too deep. A Hyūga would be blinded if they just glanced at him and, if one stared too long, they might lose themselves within the endless depths of his chakra since they could not perceive his. This was due to both the quantity and quality of his chakra and was not so easily fixed. That was why he decided to use a similar fūinjutsu system like the one he had invented as what he had previously termed the immortality formula. He now spotted some places where the array could be fixed where the matrices were flawed and had sent an invisible shadow clone over to handle that while informing Sasori that Naruto had almost completed his request.

That was why Sasori was currently sitting at one of the tables he used for operations and curiously staring at a pair of black eyeballs that had been suspended within the fluid. Strangely, they were smooth and perfectly spherical. Had Sasori not recognised those eyes, there would have been no difficulty in him regarding them as glass marbles. They did not have any visible blood vessels, smooth and perfect as they were on the surface. The original nerve endings that had been visible on the other end were missing too. This was Naruto's conclusion when he had researched intensively into how to completely prevent tissue rejection from the recipient of the transplanted organs. It was to remove any distinctive traces of DNA from it. Yet this was impossible. When one removed all DNA traces from organs and replaced the DNA with that of a target, it would still function, but it would defeat the purpose since that would mean that whatever distinct traits he intended to transplant would vanish. In other words, he might as well just clone that particular missing body part and replace it. In such a case, it was to simply prevent rejection.

Then there came the important question of just how one was going to do that. The answer was simple. It was to just add a command to what was already there. It was to make this newly added tissue integrate with what was already present. As such, he had attempted this. To be able to edit DNA and add something that never existed before meant for him to understand the code behind the structure of DNA. Pursuit of such proportions would have been but mere wishful thinking for anyone else. Just how did one even decipher the makings of nature to see how creation worked? Anyone else could only deem such a task impossible and consider him to be making a futile attempt to play God.

The issue here was that Naruto actually did it. He managed to learn the code behind the complex molecular structures of DNA. Upon this success, he had been able to reconstruct the essence of the Uchiha bloodline and fix the inherent issues that he could find within. The greatest and also the one most deeply entangled with the lineage of the Uchiha clan was, in fact, the one that was known as the Curse of Hatred. It was, originally, a tiny flaw in the whole grand scheme of things, a trait which made Indra prone to short, erratic bursts of anger. It could not be denied that this caused strain to the relationship between the brothers, but it had been far from detrimental. It was only when Zetsu had taken advantage of the time when Indra had been in the process of conducting a delicate ritual that would allow his dōjutsu to become a bloodline to be passed down to his descendants forevermore that it all went wrong.

Zetsu had turned the blessing that Indra had intended for his descendants to become a curse that they could not escape from, chains that were formed within the deepest parts of their being. No one would be exempt from this no matter how peaceful of a personality they had. It would claw at them until it eventually broke them. However, though they became even stronger for it if they overcame this crisis, most would succumb to its lull and soon lose themselves to the all-consuming hatred.

The blessing-turned-curse had continued to persist within this world like a disease that no one could cure had been plaguing the Uchiha from the start of their existence. Naruto felt a sense of responsibility to fix this. Since he had discovered the source of the dreadful affliction that was the bane of all Uchiha, he felt that he was required to do it. For Sasuke, his brother in everything but blood, and for himself, who had dearly wished to have been able to call upon the aid of the Uchiha clan during the war of the previous timeline.

As such, Naruto had expended every possible effort and was ultimately successful in purifying the bloodline. He had also added the trait that would prevent tissue rejection and encourage the body to accept the new organ into itself as long as it had the support of sufficient chakra. The latter had caused identifying qualities of the previous owner of the eyes which were only specifically suited for the original owner such as nerves and blood vessels to dissolve. These would grow back with the help of chakra when implanted in their new owner.

This, combined with the fūinjutsu array on that very (experimental) operation table, would aid the body to accept the transplanted organ and accept the new DNA signature while integrating the two differing signatures. This would allow more efficient use of the implanted organ to avoid inconveniences thereafter. Beyond just that, it would also enable the unproblematical addition of an inherent bloodline to one's own. This function had so many possibilities still left untapped due to lack of necessity.

"That is the clone that you spoke of?" Sasori asked as his eyes shifted to a capsule that contained green fluid in which one muscular and tanned male with long dark brown hair floated within the liquid all around him like a halo.

As soon as Sasori's eyes landed on the figure of this man, a greedy light filled them while some magnetising force kept his eyes glued on that lifeless body within the fluid. It was curled in upon itself as it had been since it was still a developing fetus, but that did not conceal what power this body contained. Its eyes were shut tightly, having never opened during the entirety of its short existence. Even so, the body gave off a powerful aura that made it seem like it was the Shodai Hokage himself reincarnated. It also emanated the distinct sensation of the famed Mokuton. There was no doubt that when this body was used as the base, whatever it was Sasori could make would be amazing.

"That's right. It might even be a little stronger than he was in his prime. The body is in its most optimal state right now. In other words, it could be said to be at the point of maturity of shinobi, within that short period during which a shinobi would shine most dazzlingly. Where else would you be able to find a perfect specimen that fits your needs as thoroughly as this? It's fresh - you can even start while it is in a state of being alive - and it's powerful, at the peak of its existence. This period often only lasts for less than five years for most shinobi. During this time, such an overqualified individual would be practically untouchable. Only I can obtain such a flawless body for you. This is before I've even started on the fact that Senju Hashirama was never a shinobi within this era in the first place. Even if another followed the exact method that I used, replicating my results will be nigh impossible. Aren't you grateful to the great me for my benevolence in accepting a homeless shinobi like you?" Naruto boasted pompously without shame while holding his arms open, only the amused glint in his eyes giving away the fact that he did not mean it seriously.

Honestly, Sasori did not look offended at all. He smiled slightly as he watched Naruto for a short moment before a quiet laugh escaped him. The smile widened a little more as he noticed when Naruto's head tilted to the side in question.

"Indeed. Thank you," Sasori whispered, looking so happy that Naruto felt more than just a little puzzled.

Was Sasori that excited to receive his gift? Sure, Naruto had put in effort into the clone of Hashirama. He even personally trained the body's Mokuton and had put in efforts to make sure that even the muscles of the body would be at least up to the standard of the real Hashirama. However, he did not think that this would warrant such joy. Was it that big of a deal to get Hashirama's fleshly body? Naruto could not help but wonder this as he... hold on.

Naruto's eyes widened as he suddenly had no idea what to do.

Sasori was crying.

He was still smiling, but he was crying.

Was this what they termed as tears of joy? Even though Sasori still looked happy, he had started to sob. He did not look upset, but his shoulders still shook as tears fell from his eyes.

"Sasori...?" Naruto said hesitantly, reaching out to place a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm very grateful. Thank you, Naruto. I do not regret meeting you. I will make the best puppet out of him so that you won't be disappointed. If you want..." Sasori hesitated to ask but, at this point, Naruto could guess what he wanted to request but did not dare to voice.

"I will help. Together, we will make the best puppet to ever exist. It will be like Hashirama has come back to life. We will scare that Uchiha Obito's pants right off," Naruto replied with a reassuring smile.

Sasori grinned through his tears, suddenly less mature than he usually portrayed himself. This was when Naruto remembered with a start that Sasori was only seventeen. There was nothing wrong even if he was a little too emotional. Yet he did not have to wonder about this anymore since the redhead's next sentence answered all his questions.

"This is my first gift from anyone. Not even my obaa-san would give me presents."

This depressing statement silenced Naruto.

"Oh," he said simply.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Naruto appeared in the middle of the Uchiha compound in stealth mode and his scouts (all of which were shadow clones) gathered before him.

"Report to me the name, age and their status," Naruto commanded.

"Uchiha Aiko, five, innocent."

With that said, four of the five clones assigned to said Uchiha were dispelled

"Uchiha Tarō, forty, guilty."

The five clones poofed from existence.

"Uchiha Mikami, thirty, innocent."

Four clones disappeared, leaving one.

"Uchiha Hattori, seventy, innocent."

One clone remained after the rest of them vanished.

This continued until every Uchiha had been named. The cloned copies of those who were deemed guilty were transferred to a separate seal while Naruto started to release dummies of the rest into the world from their storage in his pocket dimension whenever a name was declared innocent. In the end, he had a little more than half the population of able shinobi of the Uchiha clan left and almost every elderly and child. It was a little surprising to Naruto. He had been expecting more. Otherwise, why will the Hokage call for the elimination of the Uchiha clan?

'Ah, so it was never the Hokage from the start. It was just Danzō's machinations,' Naruto thought with a long sigh.

Why did he not realise it sooner? It should have been obvious. Such an extreme choice of action was simply not Hiruzen's style at all. Danzō was possibly the only one who would even consider elimination if it came to the Uchiha clan which was a founding clan. Due to the significance of the Uchiha family, no one would have dared to think of destroying them without even trying to change their mindset.

Each shadow clone used the Yamanaka clan's famous technique, the Shintenshin no Jutsu, taking control of the bodies of the Uchiha clan member that they had observed all this time. Having watched them for a few months, there was nothing about their targets that they did not already know. Naruto used a massive seal array that he had set up earlier to swap the Uchiha with their respective dummies, putting the innocent Uchiha to sleep, and using his transport-version Hiraishin no Jutsu to bring all the unresponsive bodies away as he teleported away from the scene. No one was any the wiser about the fact that every single innocent had been evacuated from the clan compound.

With one task complete, Naruto set off in the tracks of one Uchiha Itachi.

He had another task to complete before his mission would be considered to be completed.

ʕ•ﻌ•ʔ

Naruto was trailing closely behind Itachi when said Uchiha departed from his clan compound towards the Hokage office.

He had already set up the seals which would activate and affect Itachi when they got there. In his hands was a scroll that gave details for a infiltration mission and not too far away from here, Kitsune stood prepared to help by placing the transmission seal on Itachi later on. Once it was established in Itachi's mind that there was an order to infiltrate Akatsuki and he read the scroll, he would head to Naruto's blood clone Sōjirō. There, he would be able to receive the seals through which he can communicate with Konoha and report his findings.

Naruto was just following and waiting for the right time to deliver the scroll. Itachi was going towards the Hokage's office, but Danzō would only meet Itachi outside the actual office under privacy seals. Sarutobi Hiruzen himself was still slumped over the pile of paperwork on his desk and unaware of the storm brewing just outside his door. His was also unaware of the fact that he had been used by Naruto, cast out like bait to lure in one Uchiha Itachi to participate in a plan yet unknown by the rest of the world.

It went without a hitch, everything going as planned. Danzō gave Itachi the mission to eradicate his clan as Naruto predicted, Itachi told the Sandaime about the mission that he had chosen to undertake and about what he had planned to do. He told Hiruzen that he would take all responsibility, just as Itachi had done before in a previous lifetime. Itachi and Hiruzen both fell under the illusion cast by the array that Naruto had installed secretly before.

When Itachi finally walked out, mission scroll in hand, the place he headed towards was Sōjirō's hiding spot. He accepted the communications seal from his ANBU team captain silently. His expression was grave, he did not show any discomfort.

"Itachi, I will remember your sacrifice for the sake of Konoha," Kitsune spoke solemnly.

Itachi's eyes widened in surprise.

"I'm... not exactly doing this for such a selfless reason," Itachi immediately rebutted.

Kitsune smiled, taking off his mask.

"For Uchiha Sasuke, correct? Your precious little otōtō?" he asked gently.

Itachi hesitated for a moment before nodding.

"That's right, taichō," he admitted.

Naruto smirked as he noticed Itachi's lapse in concentration and took advantage of this as he swiftly got behind the Uchiha and knocked him out cold. His blood clone caught Itachi when he fell forward without even noticing it himself as he fell unconscious. Naruto then used Hiraishin no Jutsu on both himself and his clone, taking them to the surgical room in his laboratory of a secret base that he shared with his two fellow time travellers and causing Sakura to lose her balance in surprise at his abrupt intrusion.

He made the blood clone set Itachi down on his operation table as he carefully retrieved the jar containing Sasuke's eyes that had already been altered before. Naruto had helped by unlocking the Mangekyō Sharingan in the carbon copy of Sasuke's eyes (though in actuality, Sasuke had been using Itachi's eyes before they travelled back anyway). Though physical items did not make the journey, it seemed physical changes affected the younger bodies that they had been transported back to. However, these eyes were formed using Sasuke's DNA signature and could only resemble the exact pair that he had been born with.

It was not that hard to surgically remove Itachi's eyes and the altered eyes were, in fact, even easier to implant since there was no need to connect the nerve endings. One short burst of chakra later, the new eyes completely fused with Itachi's body. Naruto activated the array on the table next, causing the genetic data in Itachi's body to be updated by that of the eyes that had been implanted into him. This also served to synchronise the information in the two respective DNAs, allowing the new eyes to truly be integrated into Itachi's body's system.

Noticing a terminal illness that affected the teenage Uchiha which Itachi had only recently started to show symptoms of, he also casually fixed that problem. Since the issue had caused damage to the lungs and originated there, the following process was simple since all Naruto had to do was restore them to their optimal state. Thus Naruto had painlessly cured Itachi's lung cancer and done a major surgery which involved replacing his eyes within under an hour. It was also completely non-invasive, causing no side effects and no lasting negative consequences.

Then Naruto had his blood clone bring Itachi back to the area where the concealment seal matrix had been set up and he had ambushed the Uchiha before.

When Itachi woke up, it was without even the slightest idea what had just happened to him. He did feel as though his body felt a lot lighter and that it was much easier to breathe, but he could not seem to figure out why this was so. It was also deserving of mention that Itachi was not able to realise that he had even lost consciousness and thought he had only zoned out thinking about his brother. He had awoken in a standing position as well (thanks to the quick wit of Sōjirō), so there simply was no way Itachi would be able to guess at such a possibility. No one else could be able to just abduct an observant person like Itachi without him even noticing when he was taken or returned, after all.

With Sōjirō continuing to smile at him as though nothing had happened, Itachi had no reason to be suspicious in the first place.

As such Itachi set off without a single clue as to just what extent the plan that he had become a chess piece in would be able to influence their world in times to come. He hardened his heart and strengthened his resolve, inhaling deeply and then exhaling a slightly shaky breath. He closed his eyes and tightened his grip on the tanto sheathed at his waist.

He darted across the roof tiles as swiftly as wind while his form seemed to blend with the night.

Soon came the first ominous thud as a spray of crimson blood spurted from a motionless body when it slid off a sharp metallic blade.

Overlooking the Uchiha compound from the distance was the familiar form of Naruto.

The blond closed his eyes briefly.

His part was done, his mission complete.

Moreover...

"It has begun," Naruto murmured.

...their plan had finally been initiated.