Naruto, Shikamaru, Akane, Fuu and Shino were all standing before Tsunade in the kages office. They were all summoned here earlier for something important.

Tsunade looked at them all smiling, her eyes then went to the 4 ninja behind them, Anko, Ibiki, Hayate and Genma, who were also here for a promotion themselves since they proved they were all worthy of it.

"Shikamaru Nara step forward" said Tsunade, while behind her, Shikaku smiled at hearing this.

He stepped forward and stood at attention as he stared at his new kage.

"Shikamaru Nara for an exceptional show of strength, leadership and planning during the invasion and showing that you can lead squads to victory, I hereby promote you to chunin" she said.

Shikaku then stepped forward and presented him with his vest.

"Mmm troublesome, this means I'll have even less time to sleep and watch clouds.." he complained.

Sweatdrops were heard and felt around the whole rook.

"We aren't kids anymore Shika, we have to take this seriously and we have to protect our village" said Naruto.

"Hmm.. I guess your right... I accept the promotion Hokage-sama" he said sounding even more serious than usual.

Smiling she gestured to the vest, which his father was holding. He walked up and took it, before putting it on and waiting for her to dismiss him.

"From this day forth you are now a chunin and will be held with the responsibilities of one, you will also get a pay increase like all chunin and get more access to the restricted section in the ninja library, but you will have to answer calls at any time we need you and be ready to lead a squad" said Tsunade.

"Hai I understand Hokage-sama" he said.

"Your dismissed, get back in line with everyone else" she said.

Taking a couple steps back, he stood near Naruto and Fuu who were the closest to him.

"Fuu" said Tsunade with a warmer smile.

Smiling happily, she stepped forward and stood infront of her hokages desk.

"You did an excellent job in the arena and showed everyone how strong you are in it, you also helped fight off enemy ninja during the invasion and protect civilians. Plus lead other less experienced genin and protected them in all of the chaos" said Tsunade. "Because of that, I hereby promote you to chunin".

Fuu smiled proudly and walked forward taking the vest from her "thank you Hokage-Sama and I promise not to disappoint you" she said.

"Just call me Tsunade unless we are in a professional meeting with foreign diplomats, also all the same responsibilities I told Shikamaru apply to you as well" she said.

"Hai" she said before walking back in line and had a large smile on her face.

"Akane Uzumaki" said Tsunade.

Smiling, she walked forward and stood before her Hokage.

"For doing an excellent show in the arena and keeping a cool head along with pulling back when you knew you were beat, also for fighting during the invasion, I hereby promote you to chunin" she said.

Akane walked forward and took the vest and smiled "thank you Tsunsde and I promise to not disappoint you and bring honor to both Konoha and my clan" she said.

"I'm sure you will" she said as she watched her walk back

"Shino Aburame" said Tsunade.

He walked forward with his usual stoic face hidden behind his glasses and collar of his coat, but anyone who knew him could tell he was happy, but wasn't expressing it openly.

"You may not have participated in the chunin exams, but during the invasion, you showed great skill and helped rescue lots of citizens and even take out a few ninja, you also remained calm during it all and put the safety of everyone and the village before anything else. Because of this I hereby promote you to chunin" she said.

"Thank you Hokage-Sama, that is most logical, why? Because we Aburames are always calme and collected no matter the situation and we love this village" said Shinso before he bowed and took the vest before walking away.

"Now.. Naruto Uzumaki Senju" Tsunade said with evident happiness given she couldn't stop smiling.

Naruto walked forward and stood at attention before her and was having a hard time hiding his own smile.

"For amazing work on helping the village gather information that helped us prepare and protect the village, then doing an amazing job in the chunin exams along with taking down the Jinchuriki of Suna, along with summoning Gamabunta to help defend the village against Orochimarus summons. You also even summoned a bunch of clones that ran around the village saving lots of civilians and helping in the effort of protecting the village and finally.. you risked your life to enter the barrier that Orochimaru created to give me, Jiraiya and Sarutobi sensei a chance to turn the tide of battle and kill him along with ending the battle" she said with a smile. "Because of all of this I hereby give you the rank of Tokubetsu Jōnin".

This made Narutos eyes widen along with the others in the room, since they weren't expecting that.

"I'm sure you weren't expecting that, but given everything you did, myself, your grandfather and the Shinobi council all agreed that rank would suit you and once you gain enough experience along with more experience leading squads then you will be promoted to Jonin" said Tsunade with a smile as she grabbed a green flak jacket and held it out for him.

Naruto smiled warmly and reached out and took it in his hands "Thank you Bachan, I promise to do my best to make you and my parents proud" he said.

"I know you will and I'm sure they already are... now Ibiki, Anko, Hayate and Genma, step forward" she said.

Naruto stepped back as the 4 Tokubetsu Jonin stepped forward before their new Hokage.

"All 4 of you have done very well and in the last couple years, you all have shown nothing but loyalty and the reason why your proud Konoha ninja, especially after the invasion... because of this I hereby promote all 4 of you to Jonin" Tsunade said.

All 4 of them were shocked at this, with Anko actually letting out a tear of happiness while Genma and Hayate smiled very happily. Lastly Ibiki let out a tiny smile as he finally got promoted after being stuck as a Tokubetsu Jōnin for over 10 years.

"Just like I told all my new chunin and Tokubetsu, you four will have increased responsibilities with your ranks and you'll all be expected to do more missions and down the line hopefully train the next generation of Genin" said Tsunade.

"Hai Hokage-sama!" They all said.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Suna had managed to get a ceasefire with the Leaf, but if their scout reports were to be believed, they'd need much more than that. Convincing Konoha of their sincerity in drawing up a new treaty was paramount, especially considering the latest disaster that they currently found themselves in.

The piles of reports on the table in front of him showed Baki that Suna was in a desperate position. The failed invasion of Konoha had cost Suna a a massive chunk of it's best chunin and jonin which lead to their borders now being extremely vulnerable, not even taking into account the finances they practically flushed down the toilet. The finances of Suna were already in the garbage but now, it was so bad that they will have to grovel to the Daimyo for money, plus they were already weakened by the fiscal neglect of the Wind Daimyo, Suna now stood as the weakest of the Big Five by an uncomfortable amount.

Not only all of this, but it seemed that the Kazekage gave a large supply of Sunas stored food to Orochimaru, which meant, now they will have a food shortage on their hands if they don't fix this as soon as possible, Bakis eyes then went to the next report. The reports from scout teams made Baki cringe and grit his teeth in anger at how his village was tricked by that damned snake.

Iwa was currently probing along the Wind/Earth border which was only seperated by the minor nations of Claw, Fang and Rain with none of these 3 likiny Suna nor Iwa, but theu did tolerate Iwa more than Suna. This was not a promising sign, given the bloody history between the two powers. Historically, Iwa was the reason Suna had allied with Konoha in the first place.

A new thought struck him as he glanced over the scout report once more. His eyes narrowed in thought. Perhaps Suna's position wasn't as hopeless as he thought.

No matter the current political relationship, Konoha simply could not allow Iwa to get a foothold into Sunas territory, because this would eliminate Suna as a barrier to Iwa. If Iwa were to conquer Suna, then they would be practically at Konoha's doorstep, and given the history between those two countries, it made the Suna/Iwa relationship look like an arranged playdate between fiesty children.

Not only did they have to deal with all of that, but now they had a new nightmare that made some of the elders and members of the council have a panic attack.

Naruto Uzumaki Senju.

He was son to both Minato Senju, the hier of the Senju clan and son to Jiraiya of the sannin and Tsunade Senju, the granddaughter of the first Hokage and Mito Uzumaki. He was also son to Kushina Uzumaki, the Red Death and last member of the royal family before Naruto was born.

The boy inherited both the Senju clan and Uzumaki clan with him being the last member of the Royal family, allowing him to control chakra chains and summon the legendary dragon summons and wield the Shinigamis blade.

Not only did have all of this... but his father made him a Jinchuriki of the 9 tailed fox and the boy has Mokuton to top it all off.

Because of all of this, which lead them to the current scenario they are in.

"WHAT!?!" Screamed Temari glaring at the elders of the council, especially Baki who suggested it.

"Temari... we need you to marry the Uzumaki boy... we need to reestablish an alliance with Konoha. We have lost to many ninja and Konoha holds a large number prisoner, with our failed invasion of Konoha and now have Iwa pressing on our borders from the north and not enough ninja to defend it. Plus now Konoha is in the works with establishing an alliance with Kumo... we need this alliance to work or else it could mean the end of Suna" said a council member.

Temari gritted her teeth, she of course knew her duty, but she didn't like it... even if she had to admit, Naruto wasn't the worse choice they could've chosen for her... it could've been that Uchiha...

"Ok but why me!? And why can't we just rewrite the alliance!" She said.

"Your the daughter of the late Kazekage.. also a alliance on paper could only do so much, an alliance of blood is much stronger and could lead to a bond between our villages which allows our village to finally climb out of the hole we have been in for a long time" said Baki. "Also... that boy holds massive political sway... he's the heir to the Senju clan and prince to the Uzumaki clan, plus him being the last member of the royal family. Also from what we have heard, he's very close with the Daimyo and his granddaughter".

"So what I'm supposed to share him ontop of marrying him?" She said with a glare that if Baki wasn't an veteran ninja with over a decade of combat experience, he would've died from it.

"...yes... he's placed under the clan restoration act and has to take a total of 8 wives minimum to ensure both the Uzumaki and Senju clan don't die out. He also appears to he close to his teammate who's a Uzumaki and his other that's the 7 tails Jinchuriki..." said Baki before he became more serious.

"Temari... if we don't do this, then that boy or kami forbid his children can simply bulldoze a country, he already took down Garra with the help of his summon, imagine what he could do once he reaches his prime... and most Uzumakis live prolonged lives... with some living up to 300...".

After Baki said all of that, Temari had to gulp in fear... Naruto truly could destroy a village with his summons or with the 9 tails... but once he gets older and kami forbid he's on his father's level or worse... Hashiramas level...

Temari felt a cold chill run down her spine at that thought... that boy could easily destroy her village if he wanted too.. plus Konoha still had 2 of the sannin protecting it.

Gritting her teeth and taking a deep breath of air to calm herself down, she looked at the council members "fine..." she seethed out through gritted teeth "I will do this to protect my village...".

Baki felt bad for her, but this was one of the best ways to help protect the village and ensure they don't get destroyed by Konoha or worse Iwa.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

3 days passed since then and in Konoha, the repairs have been going well after they hired all the foreign construction workers they needed, plus having the genin of the village help protect the workers along with help them fix the buildings.

But thankfully the Konoha 15, plus 1 finally got a break, especially the newly appointed chunin and Tokubetsu Jōnin who have been out of the village patrolling the borders and inside for the forest for any enemy ninja or traps.

Most of them were sitting near a building they were ordered to fix, while the other members were off in the village doing something else.

"Man... doing all this work is hard.. I didn't even get a chance to fix my make up or nails" said Ino in a depressed tone as she looked over at a certain red head, who was sitting on a roof with 3 girls near him, with them all leaning against him as they all ate.

They were Naruto, Akane, Fuu and Tayua who were all eating the lunch that Shizune made them after returning from the patrol, while Tayua left the interrogation and torture department. While she was a spy for Jiraiya, they still had to make sure that she had no lingering loyalties to Orochimaru or was worse a sleeper agent. But thankfully she proved that she wasn't any of those and they released her, but told her she will be monitored for at least a year to make sure.

Naruto just returned last night from a patrol mission near Taki, where he was assigned to a squad of chunin with a jonin leading them given they heard that Iwa was sending more squads to probe the border.

"So Fuu, Akane how was both of your missions near the Land Of Hot Springs?" He said.

"Good.. though I wish we got to use one of those natural ones... I heard they are even better than the ones we have" groaned out Akane.

"Hehe, don't worry I'm sure you'll be able to once we aren't in a state of war anymore" said Naruto as he took a bite of his rice.

"It's still hard to believe we technically are in war right now" said Fuu "I mean, I was expecting that it'd be all combat missions and everything".

"Well considering we still don't have a massive amount combat experience, it's understandable that they aren't giving us combat missions yet" said Naruto.

"Well I think it's fucking stupid, you fucking destroyed that phyco and now your a Tokubetsu Jōnin, yet they are treating you like a genin" said Tayuya.

"Like I said, we are still green all things considered" said Naruto with a sigh.

"I have to agree with Naruto-sama, given you are all green, the village won't send you on any seriously dangerous missions for at least the first month" said Yugao appearing ontop of the water tower.

"Oh Yugao I see that your done" said Naruto.

"Mhm, we finished moving the rest of our stuff in the other house you have on your property and my retirement from the Anbu has been finalized" she said with a small smile.

"That's good to hear and I hope you two enjoy your new home at the compound" he said.

"I'm sure we will Naruto-sama, though this is a bit embarrassing to admit, but me and Hayate are planning to have a kid in the next year or two, along with getting married before then" she said.

"That's perfectly fine Yugao, just make sure you invite me to the wedding and tell me when it's confirmed your pregnant so we can plan around that so you don't work to much" he said.

She smiled at hearing that and bowed lightly "Hai Naruto-sama".

As they were talking about that, everyone saw the looks that Akane, Fuu and even Tayua were giving him.

It was the 'I want a baby too' look.

A distance away from them was Sasuke and Sakura who were eating their lunch, Sasuke wanted to eat alone but the howler monkey had to follow him.

His anger began to build as he remembered how humiliated he was during the chunin exams when Naruto destroyed him even in his curse marked state.

"I will kill you dobe" he growled out.

Back with the others, Naruto asked Choji a question about his training, when a Anbu appeared near them.

"Uzumaki San, Hokage-sama requests your presence as soon as possible" said the turtle masked Anbu.

"Ok, tell Bachan I'll be there in a minute max" he said.

The anbu nodded his head and left in a body flicker.

"Ok guys I gotta get going, all of you keep doing what your all doing... and also" he said before his eyes went to the 3 girls near him.

"What's up Naruto?" Said Akane.

A blush appeared on his face, before he hardened his resolve and took a step forward and kissed her forehead, then Fuu's and lastly more of a chaste one on Tayua's.

"I'll talk to you 3 later" he said before body flickering away.

The 3 woman sat there frozen like a statue at what he just did, before a blush formed on Akanes and Fuu's face, with it quickly matching Akanes hair color.

"That.. cheeky motherfucker.." said Tayuya as she tried to smile her blush away.

___

Appearing in Tsunades office, he looked at her and around the office. It was exactly the same as always, but now the smell of smoke was almost completely gone and the Hokages desk had a couple more pictures on it.

"Ah Naruto thank you for showing up, we have something very important to discuss before the council meeting" she said.

"What is it?" He said confused.

She took a deep breath and held out a scroll for him.

Walking forward, he took it from her and began to read it.

It took him a minute before he put it down and looked at her "so they want me to marry Temari in order to cement an alliance between our two villages and prevent a war against Iwa and possibly us" he said.

"More or less, they are also offering to trade prisoners with us, but they want the Kazekages children as well, their forces are most likely stretched to the breaking point, so they are desperate" said Tsunade.

"So if this alliance goes through, not only will we get our prisoners back, but then our western border will be permanently secured" he said as he then looked at a map of the world showing the big 5 and all the smaller nations. "Though we will have to get permission for both of us to move forces freely between the Land Of Rivers or somehow get Hanzo to agree to allow us to do the same".

"That actually brings up something else... Hanzo wishes to set up a meeting between each other to set up a possible alliance" said Tsuande.

Now that really caught Narutos attention, that would trap Iwa in its territory and it'd make it so that they could only attack Konoha directly through the Land Of Grass or Suna through the Lands Of Fang and Claw unless they want to attack Taki or Ame.

"I don't need to say that this doesn't scream trap" he said since it sounded almost to good.

"I'd be disappointed if you didn't think that as well" said Tsunade "but from the scroll he sent us, he's told us that I can bring 3 guards plus you and we shall be meeting at a Fort near the border of Konoha and Ame".

"When will be leaving for this meeting?" He asked.

"In two weeks, so it'll be enough that we can talk to Suna about this" she said "but what do you think about it?.

Naruto was silent about it.. he did indeed have mixed feelings about doing this, sure he was in a possible arranged marriage with Kayo-chan who also finally finished moving all her stuff in the main clan house in his home.

"......I will say the same thing I said to the Daimyo, I am fine with her living here but I don't want to force her to be with me, because of that how about we have it so we are engaged for 3 years to see if we are compatible together and who knows, maybe something will happen" he said.

Tsunade stroked her chin for a moment as she thought about that, she didn't see any reason why it wouldn't work and she could just tell Suna that if the engagement doesn't work, then they will still keep the alliance.

"Very well and I'm sure the council and hopefully the Suna council will agree to this.. now come let's go" she said as she stood up and walked to the door.

Naruto followed right behind her while silently grumbling about the amount of political influence he has since lots of powerful people want him to marry so they can get influence over his clans and a possible future Hokage.

___

Chapter 40. Akatsuki. Is available on patreon.