"'What do we say about coincidence?'"

"'The universe is rarely so lazy.'"

- Sherlock/Mycroft and whoever wrote BBC's Sherlock

<>

"I'm only going to summon Tōketsu-sama for emergencies," Sakura said, moving her feet, left and right. Now that they had no rush, Sakura was walking instead of running. They'd made the deadline, now they could sort of relax on their way home. Sakura was a whole heck of a lot nicer because this time she wasn't being completely pressed for time and stressed out. "The others, I'm okay with. I'll have to train with them eventually, learn how they work."

"This will be a great advantage to us, Sakura, thank you for doing this," Kakashi said, taking care not to tread on the sticks lying on the floor. He was doing a good job of not asking how his students were doing. If he asked, it would be prying, which they probably wouldn't appreciate. "I'm sure you'll become very strong."

Sakura looked at him, her eyes shining. For the first time... she was receiving praise from Kakashi. Not Sasuke, not Naruto. Kakashi was praising her. "Thank you," She replied coolly.

Sasuke was watching the skies. When he felt Sakura and Kakashi both look at him, he finally looked down. "I wonder... if we can't figure out how we're going to do this with Lady Tōketsu." Their looks of confusion were irritating. "She said Lord First was killed. She said Minato was killed in our first life for the same reason. I wonder if this doesn't pertain to our mission- find out what is wrong in the shinobi system, destroy it and leave only purity, the way it was meant to be. The way Lord First created it to be."

Kakashi noted that the First Hokage seemed to be the only Hokage Sasuke respected enough to call Lord. He even called Lord Tobirama just 'Senju'. Tsunade was called by her name. Minato was either Minato or Uncle Minato. Sasuke never even spoke Hiruzen's name. It made him smile, since, technically, Sasuke was an incarnate of Madara Uchiha as well. Maybe that was it. Or, he'd heard Suigetsu talking, and apparently, Sasuke had met Lord First in person outside of the battlefield.

"I agree," Sakura said. "Tōketsu is knowledgeable, and I'm sure we can find some way to convince her to help us." Sakura seemed to be thinking about it. "Maybe she'll help us on her own, she seemed pretty sympathetic of us."

Kakashi sighed, relaxing his shoulders. "This was a godsend, in other words. We're getting closer to achieving our goal." He felt Sasuke and Sakura looking at him as if he was crazy. "Of course, we do still have a long time to wait. After all, patience is key. However, this small victory makes me feel as if maybe this is possible. Maybe we can help the people, maybe we can eradicate most of the evil in the shinobi government. Maybe we can do better this time."

Sakura nodded. "I get that feeling too."

The two of them turned to Sasuke and found him quietly chuckling. When asked why he gave them a miserable reply. It was ironic, and it made sense, but it was so, so terribly sad that it shut all attempts at conversation away. Sasuke was right to laugh, even though it was so terrible, it was funny. The three of them were quiet again.

"Sakura-channnnnn, Kakashi-aniiiiiii, temeeeeee!" A cheery voice broke into their silence. The three of them whirled around and saw their eccentric blonde friend. "I found you!"

"Naruto?" Sakura sputtered. "What are you doing here?"

"I sent a clone out last night. I have some stuff to talk to you guys about, ya know!" Naruto said excitedly, jumping down to the floor. His team followed him. The four of them stopped moving, standing in a circle. While you guys were going places," he stuck out his tongue here, "I've been getting stuff done. First thing- Itachi-nii-chan realized you were missing on the day after you left." He said to Sasuke, who's eyes widened. "I had to convince him you were okay, or he would've told your parents, and you'd be screwed. You're welcome. He's been keeping an eye on your clone since. If you undo the jutsu, you'll see what I mean." He said, referencing the fact that the clone's memories come back to the original owner. "Second thing- I have been keeping an eye on Danzo and the ROOT, and it appears that they've been looking into us and our families. We need to be more careful. Third- I've been researching into a telepathic communication Sakura-chan's clone was telling me about, and I think I've got something, but we'll need to try it at home." Sakura nodded. "Fourth- speaking of Sakura-chan, I've convinced your parents to let you get into the academy at a normal age, and I've also gotten us a way to meet up without causing suspicion. In other words, Sakura-chan, I told your parents we were going to be best friends. I can slowly bring Sasuke and Kakashi into this, then we'll be all set." The group let out a collective sigh of relief because Sakura couldn't keep sneaking out of her house without being unnoticed. "Oh, and also the village is fine. I haven't burnt it down yet." Naruto paused, breathing heavily at all the words that left his mouth. Then he turned to the group and started walking towards Konoha. They followed him. "So? How was it in Kumo? Did you see Killer Bee?"

Sakura laughed. After that spill of information, only Naruto would be able to be so nonchalant. "Yes, Naruto, we saw Killer Bee. He looked fine." Sakura said, nudging his shoulder. "We also met Nii Yugito, the jinchuriki of the Two Tails."

"Oh! I know her, she's cool!" Naruto said, remembering the time he met all the jinchuriki and their tailed beats. "She had the greatest voice, too. Oh! Two Tails' name is Matatabi, you know."

"Of course you'd know the name of the Two Tails..." Sasuke sighed, shaking his head. "Itachi is going to KILL me when I get home, thanks." He told Naruto sarcastically. Apparently, the boy still didn't quite understand sarcasm, even though technically he'd been alive for more than 21 years.

"He really will. You're welcome," Naruto grinned, nodding.

Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto laughed, and Sasuke scowled. The four of them walked on in silence, biding their time before they had to go back to the village. The silence was comforting; comfort was something they hadn't felt in a long while. The silence was too peaceful to interrupt, so they wandered out of Lightning and back into the places they felt more familiar, the forest.

Before they quite entered the land of fire, they came across an interesting person.

"Sakura, Sasuke, Naruto," Kakashi put a fist into the air to halt the kids' moving. They complied, looking at the ANBU member. He put a finger to his lips, and the three of them started feeling around the place they were in, searching for what Kakashi had seen. Or heard. Or smelled. One never knew with Kakashi.

Sure enough, there were people coming. Naruto panicked, a little, breathing heavily. "Oi, is that who I think it is??"

A small group burst into the clearing, three adults and one child with them. The three adults each had Iwagakure headbands. The child was noticeable because he looked to be only two years older than Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura. The sight of his long blonde hair made all of their eyes go wide, and they realized who it was.

"Deidara! Watch where you're going, you almost killed me." One of the adults complained. Naruto gaped when he recognized Kitsuchi, father of Kurotsuchi and son of the Tsuchikage, speaking to the tiny Deidara. "You need to learn how to control your Explosion Style."

"Yeah, whatever, old man. The only reason I'm even here is because Old Man Tsuchikage said I couldn't join the Academy next term if I didn't come. I didn't want to help on your stupid mission in the first place, un!" Little Deidara said, crossing his arms and pouting childishly.

Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke all gaped. This was the bomb terrorist of the Akatsuki? A snot nosed brat? They wondered when exactly he got into the Akatsuki. Sasuke had fought him before, and had gotten out mostly unscathed, if it wasn't for the extreme chakra exhaustion and the fact that he had to kill Manda to get away. Luckily, Deidara was killed during the battle, so they didn't have to deal with him later on, but now...

The Stone ninja noticed them quickly, Kitsuchi drawing his blade. The other man with red hair glared, and the lone woman brought out three kunai. Deidara just looked at them curiously from behind his entourage.

"Kakashi Hatake, Copy Nin of the Leaf, is it?" Kitsuchi said in a snobbish voice, pointing his blade at the white haired young man. "What are you doing with a bunch of little kids? Are these your genin team, or are Konoha people just naturally short?"

Kakashi ignored the insult. "Kitsuchi Onoki of the Stone. Look, we don't want problems. I can't very well fight you guys with these kids on me. And for your information, they're my charges, not genin. Konoha aren't monsters that start children off in this hopeless ninja world so early." He said pointedly, looking at the seven-year-old, Deidara.

Kitsuchi and the woman scowled threateningly, but the red haired man and Deidara stayed quiet. Naruto then remembered who the red haired man was, things finally clicked in his head. "Hey!" He hissed to Sasuke, nudging the older boy in the shoulder. "That's Roshi! He's the Jinchuriki of the Four Tails!"

Sasuke scowled. "I've had enough Jinchuriki to last me a lifetime... If I ever see another, I'll puke." Naruto rolled his eyes at Sasuke's dramatics. The two of them were silently whispering, but Kakashi's brilliant ears picked it up easily. Sakura understood what was going on, and shifted side to side on her feet.

While this was happening, adults were talking.

"You insulted my village, Hatake, and for that you'll have to pay." Kitsuchi said, getting into a defensive stance.

Kakashi sighed. As much as he had faith in his cute little students, they were still a little bit too little to take care of themselves. They were outnumbered. Then an idea arrived.

"You'd willingly cause an international incident?" Kakashi asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow. Kitsuchi stopped for a minute, a little confused. For all his strength, he was kind of an idiot. "You haven't recognized them?"

"Them... who?" Kitsuchi asked. Han sighed loudly, and the girl on the team rolled her eyes, putting away her kunai.

"The son of the Hokage, and the son of the Uchiha clan leader?" Kakashi said, pointing at the two boys in turn. "Plus, this girl here is equally close with both families." Kakashi shook his head. "I don't know, but I think attacking them warrants the Hidden Leaf Village and their allies to go to war with your village. And how exactly would you explain to your father that you managed to start a Fourth Shinobi World War when your original mission was," Kakashi looked at young Deidara again, "a C rank at best."

Kitsuchi appeared to think it over. Deidara started laughing hysterically at Kitsuchi, grinning excitedly. "They got you pinned, you stupid old man, un!"

"This isn't a JOKE, brat!" Kitsuchi turned around and said, yelling at the kid. "This is a matter of national security! Do you REALIZE what would happen if we have to go to war so soon after the Third Shinobi War?? Do you realize what Da-erm... Tsuchikage-sama would do to me?"

While he was ranting, the Hidden Leaf ninja slipped away, the kids following him. The other two ninja and even Deidara noticed them leaving, but did nothing about it.

They ran away, hearing the howling of Kitsuchi when he noticed they left. They only slowed down when they were sure they were in the Land of Fire. When they slowed down, they started talking.

"Wow, Deidara is young. They would've recruited him young too..." Sakura said, shaking her head. By they, she meant the Akatsuki.

"Deidara told me my older brother was the one who recruited him, so if everything goes as planned, he might not get recruited. Unless someone else goes for him." Sasuke said, jumping from one branch to the next. "You never know."

"We should keep an eye on him." Naruto spoke up. "He seems like a nice kid now, I don't really want him to join the Akatsuki."

"Speaking of them, we still don't know whose side they're on. I'm going to have to look into them, and soon." Kakashi hummed, dropping his pensive gaze to the ground below them. "I wonder how things are going to turn out this time."

"Better." Sasuke stubbornly replied.

"We have to decide whose deaths we're going to prevent now." Sakura pointed out.

Naruto winced, then sighed, seeing what Sakura meant. There were some things that were unavoidable, and as much as he might not like it, there wasn't anything they could do. "We should just save everyone, and handle everything ourselves..." He was still sad about the Third Hokage's death. He wished he could just keep everyone alive, let them have at least one lifetime of peace before they die. They deserved at least that.

"That sounds nice, Naruto." Kakashi said, reaching over and putting a hand on his shoulder. "But I'm afraid this is too delicate a situation for that. There are some things that cannot be stopped."

The four of them traveled in silence, until finally they reached the Uchiha compound, where they were going to drop Sasuke off. They all stood in the back porch, and Sasuke dispelled his clone, so his mother wouldn't find two of him walking around. She didn't know he could make shadow clones. Heck, she probably didn't know he was a prodigy of sorts. Naruto was right, his memories flooded back into him, and he saw Itachi confront his clone, and Naruto step in randomly. Sasuke had no idea how Naruto knew something like this would happen, or how he got there so rapidly, but he was grateful for Naruto being there. If he hadn't, all hell would rain down.

"What are we going to do with Madara Uchiha when we find him?" Sasuke asked quietly. "If he's still alive," Sasuke amended.

"If he's alive still, he's probably an old man by now." Kakashi shrugged, leaning on one of the posts on the porch. "Do we want to kill him?"

Sakura, Naruto and Sasuke sunk into a thoughtful silence. Naruto's brows were furrowed in leftover rage from what Madara did. Sasuke finally opened his mouth.

"I'll take care of it." Sasuke said slowly, crossing his arms over his chest. His left foot tapped rhythmically on the wood of his porch. "He is my ancestor, after all. I think he is my responsibility."

"When do you want to go see him?" Kakashi asked, frowning at the younger boy.

"As soon as possible." Sasuke said, glaring at the trees in his backyard. "He needs to be taken care of as soon as I can."

"He may be an old man, Sasuke, but he is a God of Shinobi. Not to mention, he awakened the Rinnegan on his own, and eventually became the Jinchuriki of the Ten Tails in our time. He is not a man to be taken lightly." Kakashi stopped talking for a minute, and leaned forward. "What- exactly- are you planning on doing with him, anyway?"

Sasuke looked around, and noticed the eyes of all of his teammates on him. They weren't suspicious, just curious. Kakashi and Sakura looked worried, Naruto looked like he had questions. Sasuke shook his head. "That is for me to know, and you to find out."

"In other words, you have no idea, do you?" Naruto piped up sarcastically, the pain in the ass he was.

"None whatsoever." Sasuke nodded, shocking everyone there. Normally he'd fight and bluff to keep up his ego, but he wasn't going to lie about this. Madara ruined their lives as much as he ruined his.

"Okay." Sakura nodded. Kakashi and Naruto followed suit, and the four of them sat down on the porch, watching the sunset. Sasuke's parents and elder brother weren't home yet, they were at a clan meeting, last his clone checked. They wouldn't be back until later that night. They'd tucked Sasuke in, and his clone had slept.

"There's something else we have to discuss," Sakura said, tapping her fingers on the wooden floor. She looked at Naruto. "You looked into it, like I told you to, yes?" Naruto, the only one who knew what Sakura was talking about, nodded. Sakura then turned to the other two people. "We need a way to communicate. Just in case we can't find a way to get together, or one of us is captured, or something. I thought of this earlier, and I had Naruto look into the Akatsuki's communication methods. I think Naruto has learned how we're going to do this."

"I have an idea." Naruto shrugged. The three of them turned to face him. "Oi, it might not work, so don't get too excited." He said nervously. "So, I tried studying like Sakura-chan told me to, but it's never quite come naturally to me, as you guys know. So I sorta almost skimmed the books you gave me, and it gave me this idea."

His three friends looked at him expectantly.

"Well, all beings are connected by chakra, right?" Naruto asked sounding like he was trying to shove them in the right direction so they would just get it and he wouldn't have to explain. "Well, since all four of us now have some kind of chakra from Old Man Sage, we have even more of a connection. Our chakra kinda fits together like a puzzle piece now. I know this cause I tried linking with both Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme earlier. I got a bad headache, though, cause I didn't do it right, 'ttebayo. Oops."

Sakura and Sasuke exchanged glances. That was why they'd almost passed out in the cave earlier. Naruto. Sakura shook her head, sighing. "Learn to think before you do things, Naruto, we got that headache too."

Naruto stuck his tongue out at Sakura. "Whatever. Anyway, I think I have an idea on how to do it. It's like Inoichi-san's jutsu, but limited to the four of us."

Kakashi nodded. "That's good. That would be effective. And it would definitely make our job easier."

Naruto nodded, doing a couple handsigns that Kakashi and Sasuke copied with their Sharingan. (Obito hadn't taken his Sharingan back, even though Kakashi had nearly begged him to, saying it was a gift to Kakashi. So it appeared he was stuck with it for the time being.) Sakura studied the hand signs closely, committing them to her excellent memory. "All right, now, guys, give me your hands." Naruto said, sticking his hand in the middle.

Sakura placed her hand on top of his, and Kakashi did the same. Sasuke stuck his tongue out, disgusted. "Do we really have to do this? It's such basic team stuff."

"We only have to do this once, Sasuke, now stop complaining and get your hand in the middle, ya know." Naruto said impatiently. Sasuke complied, grumbling, and then Naruto's chakra began emanating from his hand. "Alright, now let your chakra flow into mine." The three others did the same, and the chakra mixed together seamlessly, like Naruto said. The chakra hovered over Kakashi's head, forming a sphere. The sphere split four ways, and each pie shaped, dark blue piece of chakra split up, one of each flowing into one of the four donors' heads. They all had to adjust to having a piece of each other's chakra inside them.

Then Naruto grinned.

Alright, let's get down to business, yeah?