Naruto's revenge

Naruto sat on the carpeted floor and relaxed, entering his meditation trance. He quickly made his way to the Kyuubi.

"So, gaki, you found your parents' home, finally?"

"Yes. How did you know?"

"Hey, I have been at work trying to access your sense without creating conflicts. So far, I've managed hearing, touch, smell, and vision. You have been neglecting your training, gaki. Smell has improved, but your hearing is pitiful. Your vision, on the other hand, is better than mine during the day, but suffers immensely in the dark. Colours are really nice! I've begun adding ultra-violet and infra-red to your visual range. Do not be surprised to know where the sun is even if it is cloudy, or to be able to follow the thermal signatures of your targets shortly. I do wonder what it is with all that dead stuff you carry on your body?"

"Dead stuff? Oh! You mean clothes! They are good to keep me warm, and people raise their noses on a nude person."

"They should raise their noses on their body smell! Quite a few need to visit the onsen more often! As for cold... well, I admit that is valid, given your lack of body hair... But it does impede the use of whatever hair you do have to sense the wind. It would impede your detection of an incoming shuriken, or of a kunai, or, worse, of an air jutsu. Luckily, you do have a sixth sense about danger."

"What if I used a Genjutsu to hide my nudity during battle?"

"It might help, except in cold weather. Cold can numb your senses."

"True. Anyway, I came here to talk revenge. We got a lot to plan."

"We do. I suggest you start small."

"Small? I wanted to blow the village up! Is that small enough?"

"Actually, you should use the goal of revenge to practice your jutsu and affine your control over your chakra. It is good, but not good enough. Prank them to... well I was going to say hell and back, but there would not be a 'back' from that place. I should know! It took me long enough to make my way out of Lucifer's grip, and I had an advantage, being demonic! I know Hell's ins and outs like the tip of my nose!"

"Anyway, why not use a bit of my visit to teach me some more about another of your senses? I think hearing would be a nice addition to smell..."

"I was going to add taste, as it is a close associate to smell. You know, being able to not only smell poisons but taste them before even taking your first bite might be useful."

"How can I taste something without putting it in my mouth?"

"Your tongue is the precursor to smell, gaki. It is still how snakes smell things: by tasting the air. You can do the same. Quite a few poisons leave around molecules that are better tasted than smelled."

"Oh! Okay. How will I learn this?"

"Same as you learned to smell, gaki. By going into the woods and letting your tongue hang out!"

"Hey, my tongue can not ‘hang out' like yours!"

"But you still can open your mouth, right? So, instead of breathing by the nose, breath by the mouth. You will learn quickly to taste what your nose can not smell!"

"Okay."

"Why not start right in the room you are? There are enough mushrooms, spores, and other sources of stimulation to get you going. And some are poisonous too!"

Naruto began exploring the library, breathing by his mouth as had suggested the Kitsune. In the beginning, nothing stood out, but, gradually, the air took a taste that evoked rust. Then, below the rust taste, came out another: copper and, more subtle, copper cyanide. Naruto finally saw the greenish copper plates that had writings on them. For some reason, probably the Kyuubi's knowledge percolating to him, he knew this substance was highly poisonous and would need to be handled with gloves.

As he continued exploring the library, he found a humid area that had mushrooms on the walls. As it was quite far from the library, he was about to leave it be until he realized the water was leaking from the ceiling, percolating through the volcanic rock. Volcanic rock?! Where was he? Naruto sent a flame to clean the wall surface so he could touch it safely. Once the steam had cleared, he put his ear to the wall and listened carefully. He heard the powerful rumble of running water, bubbles, and ground cracking. He was under a volcano! The thing is, the only known volcano in the area was the one where he had set his hideaway! So he had to be under the caldera. Could he have walked to it under ground? He needed counsel, and the only counsel he had was the Kyuubi, so he sat and took his favourite relaxation position, the blue lotus.

"Kyuubi! I need counsel!"

"Back already, gaki?"

"Yes. I think I am under the caldera of the volcano in the forest of death. How can I check this?"

"Too bad you can not feel the magnetic field of the planet, like I can. It is not that foxes usually can, but I am a Kitsune and we spend a lot of time in the underworld, where the only way to know where we are is through the planet's magnetic field."

"It is an interesting titbit, but it does not help me... much."

"The Uzumaki have the contract with the Dragons, another aspect of being of the Imperial line. I suggest you call the Dragons to figure this out."

"Are you nuts? Dragons are huge! If I called one, I would end up crushed! And how do you call a Dragon without a name? I doubt that ‘Hey! You! Yes, you, Dragon!' would be well received."

"Go back to the library index, dimwit, and ask for the Dragon contract. I am sure it is stored somewhere. Just ask the library to point you to your family contracts. As for size, the size depends on how much chakra you put in the call. What you need is a lesser Dragon, so put as little chakra as you can into the call. Why do you think we worked so hard so you learned not to throw everything at everything? It is so you can adjust output to need!"

Naruto returned to consciousness and took off at a run toward the index room. An hour of continuous run later he emerged to the big circular room he knew was the index chamber.

"I need my family's summons contracts!" he asked out loud.

Immediately, two arrows appeared on the floor. Two? Why two? Realizing he had not been specific enough he repeated his request.

"I need the dragon summons contract!"

The left-most arrow disappeared, and only one arrow subsisted. He began following its indications and quickly found himself in front of a door marked with the spiral of the Uzumaki clan. Opening it, Naruto found a huge room and an arrow telling him to walk to a specific rack of rolls. Once in front of the rack he noticed a green and a red arrow, the green marking a specific layer of scrolls, and the red marking a specific row of scrolls. Naruto was not as dim-witted as the Kyuubi kept claiming and figured the intersection indicated which scroll to pull out. The scroll removed, Naruto noticed the tube flashing, indicating where to return the scroll when he was done with it.

He returned to the circular table, and using a scroll holder, Naruto inserted it under the transparent plate of the translating table. Applying what he had learned from the instruction set, Naruto began rotating the table surface until he finally began understanding what he was reading. Carefully reading the instructions, he mentally repeated the gestures required to invoke a summons. The contract also explained in what order to call the dragons, so Naruto looked for the smallest he could find in the list.

"Kuchyose no jutsu: Kiriki Dragon!" clamoured Naruto, pushing as little chakra as he could while slamming his bloodied hand on the ground.

"Who are you? You have not signed our contract!" Kiriki exclaimed as he appeared in a puff, about the same height as Naruto.

"To your knowledge, which is outdated, but mom did. The before - last name on the contract scroll is hers."

"Your mom? Oh, you mean the one that lay your egg. Where is she?"

"She is dead. She has been dead for a bit more than five years. I am Namikaze – Uzumaki Naruto, her son and heir. I just signed the contract before calling you. Look!"

"This is highly irregular! I should ask dad, the Dragon King, to confirm the validity of the contract. Usually, the bearer is here to validate the change of charge."

"We are in a library! A big dragon could set the entire place on fire!"

"Hey, we are able to adjust our size to the context! I doubt any human construct could survive to dad, given he is bigger than a mountain! Not even his summoner!"

"Oh. That information is not in the contract pamphlet, you know. I will add it later on. Anyway, call in your dad, since it is needed, but please inform him he has to shrink up a lot!"

"Before I do, I smell something like your mom had... in you?"

"Oh, the nine-tailed Kitsune. He (or she? I have not had the occasion to look between the legs!) explained to me the existence of summons and that my family had contracts. I was looking for yours specifically, under the recommendation of Kyuubi."

"I see... Talk to dad about this; we have contacts with other summons, and some need to be informed of this change of summoner. Anyway..."

As soon as Kiriki Dragon focussed, another, much bigger puff of smoke occurred and a much bigger Dragon appeared.

"Yes, son? What is the problem? I see no fighting?"

"Hey Dad, this Dragonling says he has our contract. However the passage did not follow procedure!"

"Oh? And who are you?"

"Uzumaki - Namikaze Naruto, heir of the Uzumaki and Namikaze clan. Mom is dead, and so is Dad, have been for five years in fact. I just found the contract and filled it in for the Dragons. I still have to find dad's contract."

"The Toads were wondering why their summoner had not called for a while. I will send one of my minions to inform them. Expect a visit from Gamabunta, the Toad King. Son, there is one thing you seem to ignore about contracts: had the Dragonling not been allowed, his blood signature would not have held to the scroll. Since it did, he is legitimate."

"Okay dad. Should we expect him to follow the procedure? After all he used so little chakra I barely heard the invocation!"

Mirza looked at Naruto with his two reddish and facetted eyes and turned to his son, stating "No. He can call all of us. He has enough chakra in him to call our entire clan. That he managed to whisper to you speaks of remarkable control. Son, since you saw for yourself the Uzumaki Dragonling, you will visit Mount Myoboku and tell my vassal, Gamabunta, of the demise of his summoner and who replaces him."

"Before you leave, is there such a thing as a fox summon?"

"Yes, the Kyuubi. Just, there is no contract involved in the sense we negotiated with the Ninja. It is a demonic contract, totally different from ours. You could probably summon Kyuubi... if you learned how, and that information is not on scrolls. Only Kyuubi can tell you how... and me, but we have an understanding, we Dragons and the Kitsune community. They keep their depredation to a minimum and we Dragons do not visit their hatchery for lunch!"

"I may have to ask you for help. I feel that Manda, the snake summon, helped Orochimaru in his attempt to gain control over Kyuubi. I think this is a violation of the accords between the Kitsune and the Summon communities."

"If you can prove it, Manda will be disposed of. Manda has been a thorn in my side for way too long."

With a puff, Mirza vanished.

"You should get going, Kiriki. Your dad does not seem to accept excuses for procrastinating children."

"Yes. I better. See you later, Naruto."

"Bye."

Barely had Mirza left that Naruto remembered why he had wanted to summon a dragon. Damn it! Well, let the Summons community solve some of their issues. He would come back to the question later. Revenge, here comes Naruto! Konohagakure better hold to its jewels, better believe it! Naruto was on the warpath.

---

The Council room in the Hokage tower was in a sombre mood. Not only had the civilians proven without a doubt they had betrayed the Ninja forces, but they had shown that over half of the same ninjas had betrayed the founders and had sided with the civilians. Konohagakure had been severely weakened, weakened to the point that, if it became known, it would fall prey to Iwagakure. The Hokage was furious. If only he could be sure all traitors had been weeded out. But he still needed Danzo and his Root Anbu, and he knew for certain that Danzo was only waiting for the occasion to dispose of him without being accused of high treason by the Fire Lord. And he had a bad feeling about the clans, especially the main police force, the Uchiha. After all, Madara had been of this clan and had been the leader until he vanished after losing to the other founder of Konoha, Senju Hashirama for control of the village. He could no longer have his teams search for Naruto actively, as they were too spread out. He had students of the academy, last year, man the gates and do patrols near the palisade and on top of it; and, shame of shames, he had the Root Anbu do missions, the ugliest, the dirtiest, the bloodiest, the suicide missions, but he had to, and it sickened him.

Danzo left the meeting smirking openly at his face. Hiruzen almost let a shuriken go at the treasonous bastard's back, and his killing intent spiked enough to cower everyone in the room. If only...

"He is bugged, Hiruzen. I had a flea lodge itself in his hair. We will know what he plans shortly. He is being followed openly and covertly. He is bound to see the ones I have decided to sacrifice for our need, but busy as he will be checking for the visible threats, he will miss the hidden ones."

"Thanks, Aburame Shibi. How is Shino doing?"

"The little bugger (oh, the irony!) is a little pest. He has his own colony now, and seems to be gaining more and more control over its components. He will be a good shinobi when he graduates."

"Good. Have you had a chance to talk to Uchiha Fugaku?"

"No. He keeps evading me. Notice he did not show up at the assembly. It smells fishy. And his oldest, Itachi, makes my bugs shiver. That one is planning something. What? When? Where? I have no idea. He is even more twisted than Fugaku. The only thing I can say is these two do not see eye to eye. They give me the impression of wanting the same goal, but at the opposite end of the stick. They are in competition for something and will resort to any dirty trick to get it."

"As if we needed internal divisions... From what I hear, you have not succeeded in bugging them?"

"No. As you know, our bug control is via chakra strings. They see it with their Sharingan. It makes tying a chakra string to the bug impossible."

"How is the recovery of the civilians going?"

"What an euphemism! The children are being seen by my clan, the mind-walker clan," Yamanaka Inoichi told the Hokage. "The entire clan is doing the clean-up. And that the minds of the children were severely twisted by their parents. They believed it was a god-given right to abuse Uzumaki Naruto, their duty, even. Their parents taught them torture techniques specifically targeting the boy. That Naruto survived is a miracle in and of itself. We literally bleach their memories. They lose their identity but not their techniques. Unfortunately, the torture techniques are so ingrained they can not be removed. They would be good at interrogation later in life, if, and only if, we can manage to control them and bring them to realize that these techniques are not to be used for pleasure. Some of them are so sick in the head they torture anything, even animals and plants."

"If you can not recover them and bring them back to humanity, kill them."

Inoichi looked at the Hokage wide eyed. Things must really have gone too far for Hiruzen to order this.

"As you order, Sandaime Hokage. These children will be unfit to leave the village for a year or more, especially those that were in the Academy. They combined the torture techniques with the assassination techniques taught there and are particularly vicious. Even Ibiki puked at the viciousness of the torture techniques practiced on animals. It is lucky Naruto always outsmarted them or he would have lost his dangling bits slowly and painfully. The boys were taught to envy Naruto's bits, the females to see them as an aberration. The civilians wanted to finish the line by any means necessary while actually not killing him, but the children were not so subtle."

"Ibiki?"

"I am sorry, Hiruzen, but I must confirm what Inoichi says. The adults were proud of the lessons they had taught to their children. What Inoichi did not tell you is that the civilians had the hardiest train on their siblings. Over a third of the children that died in the last five years were killed by their brothers and sisters because their parents found something wrong with them and turned their older siblings on them. Sick, I know, very sick, all this because of the hatred of a Jinchuriki. Some flatly call us demon-lovers. I wonder if the repeated reports Jaraya gave us over the years on civil wars pitting civilians and shinobi was not caused by the same hate targeting the Jinchuriki of those hidden villages."

Hiruzen felt sick to his stomach and almost returned his meagre breakfast on the carpet.

"That is a good insight, Ibiki. I will bring it up to the Fire Lord. Water country is beginning another civil war, and, like the previous ones elsewhere, we still have not found out what is the cause. Maybe the Fire Daimyo, Toyotomi Hideyori, has some information he would be willing to share. I hope he will come with his son, Sugo."

"Sandaime, you should go..."

"I can not. The village is too vulnerable. Maybe Sugo, being only a year younger than Naruto, might have some insights as to how Naruto thinks."

"That is unlikely, Hiruzen. Naruto has been fighting to survive from the moment he was born; Sugo, on the other hand, has had a protected life. Do not forget the doctors tried to kill him in the hospital at barely a day old, and have systematically refused to treat him humanely, going so far as to do surgery in cold blood to make him cry. It was only the intervention of some clan members that prevented them from skinning him alive! If Naruto hates the village, it deserves his hate, every drop of it. I, for one, will not hold it against him if he exacts vengeance on the culprits."

"Why was I not told of this?"

"Sandaime Hokage," began Hyuga Hiashi in an icy voice that had tiny flecks of snow falling in the Council Chambers, "you wiped these comments as unimportant. We tried repeatedly, every clan head, except for the Uchiha, and you always told us something to the effect you had transferred the case and information to Uchiha Fugaku and dismissed it. Nothing was ever done. You, Hokage, did not want to hear or see. Now, I will tell you this: Konoha has lost a lot of its lustre for all the clans resident in its walls due to its unwillingness to protect a child, a citizen of the village, and a citizen of Fire country. I will be even more blunt: I am ashamed of the village and of you!"

"Sometimes, Hokage, I wonder if you have not been mind-controlled by Fugaku. His eyes are weapons and, for someone to be safe, one must be on guard all the time, and you trust too easily that your law will be followed. We know it is forbidden to use the Sharingan against another clan of the village, as is the Byakugan, and all other Dojutsu that allow mind control. But we also know what happens to laws when people twist them. Just remember what Naruto suffered because of your law concerning him," Aburame Shibi said rather strongly, surprising the Sandaime Hokage, whom had almost forgotten his presence because of how quiet the man usually was. Shibi intentionally removed his dark glasses to look directly into Hiruzen's face, making the Hokage highly uncomfortable because of his facetted eyes.

Hyuga and Uchiha clans Dojutsu have nothing on our eyes thought Aburame Shibi, keeping his smirk hidden by the hide collar of his coat. He continued, fixing the Hokage.

"If I did not think it impossible, I would say you fell victim to Uchiha Fugaku and his control of everything obsession. He tries repeatedly to invade our clan lands to install bugs... forgetting in his arrogance that we are the ultimate bug users! He tried it on us, but the hypnotic power of the Sharingan falls on blind eyes for Hyuga and on multi-facetted eyes for the Aburame clan. He must be pretty frustrated as he can not blackmail us with bedchamber smut. The Inuzuka have also developed a counter with their need to control fleas. After all their dogs are prone to getting infested."

Inuzuka Tsume scratched the ears of her Ninken and nodded to the Aburame clan leader. She then added another comment. "Sandaime Hokage, I wrote to you repeatedly asking for permission to take in Uzumaki Naruto, and got nowhere fast. The last reply by your own hand was to forget it, not to say it in its real words in polite society."

"What? I never even got the letters!"

"I suspect the Civilian Council usurped even your seal, Hiruzen. You are, in their eyes, merely a paper-pusher," replied Aburame Shibi. "I might add that the amount of paperwork you receive is to make sure you are too busy to see what is going on behind your back."

"At least we got rid of the civilians..."

"Not so sure there, Sandaime Hokage. I did a count of those captured and I made a stunning discovery. Less than 10% of the total adult civilian population got captured and reached my chambers for questioning. The rest vanished, leaving their children behind, in a bid to stop us from pursuing them by bogging us down with caring for the children," said Ibiki. "And it worked. Also, I noticed that the Root Anbu were ignoring calls for assistance, so I nabbed Danzo. He laughed at your naivety and told me flat out he wanted Naruto in his private army and that the Root Anbu were to capture him and bring him to their training centre. He is now short a head, and told us where they are located after I skinned him from the cock to the feet and the neck. That guy was tough; he may have put a seal on his operatives' tongue to prevent them from talking but he forgot to put one on his own. Hiruzen, so far, 5% of the so-called loyal Anbu are Root operatives. I had a list drawn up and all showed the shameful mark. I am not assured we got all, given that Root start their training before the Shinobi Academy and hide themselves within the civilians; all we do know, from Danzo, is that by the time they reach the Genin stage, they get the seal on their tongue and by Chunin, they get marked with the Root symbol. I started the cleanup. So far, we lost 30% of our Genin, 20% of our Chunin, and 10% of our Jonin, And I'm not finished. One thing is clear: all of the Root are of civilian origin. I'm going to check all known Anbu later today. Do not be surprised if 5% or more are Root. It represents the proportion of civilians in Anbu. By the way, I took the liberty of having every Anbu on guard today strip and found two Root operatives directly in your staff. No wonder your seal got compromised. They are dead."

Hiruzen sat frozen, hands shaking lightly. If their enemies found out they were dead.

"What do you suggest, Ibiki?"

"We go in lock-down. The hell with missions outside the village. Do not forget the Daimyo' wife resides in the village, with her damn cat, Tora, where we are to keep her safe from assassination attempts. Our defence perimeter is way too big for our forces. We build a quarter by quarter defence system which allows us to pull back while practising the scorched earth policy should we be attacked. The Yamanaka clan digs into the minds of every civilian child for the Root conditioning and destroys it. I so miss the Namikaze sealing techniques."

"Ibiki, the sealing techniques were brought in by Uzumaki Kushina from Whirlpool," noted Aburame Shibi, "a village we betrayed by order of the civilian council. The day Naruto learns of our collective betrayal is the day this village disappears."

Shivers went down the spine of every member of the Shinobi Council.

"Will of fire my ass." Shibi mumbled.

---

Uchiha Fugaku was reading a scroll on a newly found jutsu when, suddenly, it dissolved, leaving him empty-handed.

"What the fuck?!" the Uchiha house head exclaimed.

Barely had he closed his mouth that his son Suishi ran into his office without bothering to knock.

"Dad! Every scroll in my office vanished right in front of my eyes!"

Fugaku had been too busy swearing to look around his office. His son's comments made him swing on his heels as he scanned his office. Not a scrap of scroll, paper, or, for that matter, any written-on surface was visible. The office looked like it had been stripped! He ran to his locked safe, and, after fifteen hand signs, opened it, to find everything gone: S-class jutsu reserved for his personal use, clan jutsu, inventory of jutsu, and even every ryo, be they gold, silver, or paper! Right now, if things had spread to the bank, the Uchiha clan owned its pants, and then, maybe not!

"Suishi, go check on the library!"

The young man took a run to the library, but he had a bad feeling about things. Everywhere where there used to be scrolls, be they free-hanging, behind glass plates, or on tables, was empty of the contents that had been there since the foundation of the village! Other members of the clan were yelling reports to him as he ran like a madman to reach the vault deep under the compound.

Once down the stairs, as the elevator had stopped working, he ran along the hall leading to the library, only to be met by a frantic librarian well before he reached its entrance.

"Suishi! Suishi! Everything is gone! Everything! There is not a scrap of scroll anywhere!" she hollered as he came into view.

"Let me see!"

She and the library users parted, and let the main branch member run into the library. It was as was described. The only thing left was scroll mites and dust slowly coming to rest on every horizontal surface!

"Oh Kami!"

Suishi did not stay long, he had a report to make.

"How far does it go?"

"The paper-makers report that the batch of scrolls they were making vanished off from inside the vats. Right now, we can not write on anything... Not even lead or gold. The moment we set a brush on a surface to write, it vanishes. We better not insist, Suishi, or we'll dig ourselves into a hole!"

"Could it be the ink?"

"We can not test it. We have nothing to write with except that damned ink. And it could be the act of writing itself that triggers the result. If so, it is one heck of a powerful jutsu! We will be back to the cavemen in short order without the ability to write!"

The librarian's suggestion made Suishi sweat profusely.

"Use that period to clear the dust out of here. Hopefully, we will get to the bottom of this! I have to go to Fugaku and report. He will not be pleased."

And Fugaku was not, far from it. If words could have made the world disappear, his would have succeeded. He told Suishi to come with him to the Hokage tower. He needed assistance, and his first-hand account of the state of the Uchiha library would weigh a lot in gaining that help. The two took off from the Uchiha complex to the Hokage tower at a high speed, quickly covering the huge distance as if the hounds of Hades were biting at their trousers. Jumping from the nearest roof to the veranda that encircled the tower, they jumped into the Hokage office through the window. Finding it empty, they made their way to the Council chambers as the Sandaime was bringing the assembly to an end.

"Uchiha Fugaku! What miracle has you grace us with your presence at a Council meeting? It has been years!" said the Sandaime Hokage, taking in the troubled face of the Uchiha clan head.

"Nothing funny! Every single scroll, written on or not, has vanished from our clan compound! Everything! And so has every ryo. Anything that has been engraved, everything that has been written. I even saw the bronze bell of alarm is gone! Street names, house names, even funeral urns, and tombstones! It is as if we never existed! Graffiti-laden pillars have vanished as well, making some homes unsafe to live in. The Temple collapsed! Luckily, the monks were out for their lunch and no one was killed. Our jutsu library only contains dusty shelves and scroll mites!"

The other clan heads looked at each other, appalled.

"Naruto!" whispered Aburame Shibi.

"What of Naruto?" asked Uchiha Fugaku. "We have not seen the devil spawn in a week and good riddance!"

"What do you know of seals, Fugaku?"

"That they are used to protect, hide, and store. That they are used to create explosive tags..."

"No, where do these seals come from, Fugaku?"

"Err... I have no idea..."

"The seals we use so extensively across Elemental Nations all come from one source and only one source: Whirlpool."

"But Whirlpool is destroyed!"

"And where does Naruto come from?"

"He was born here, in Konohagakure."

"Dad," Suishi said in a low voice, "What is the family name of Naruto?"

"Uzumaki, so?"

"And who led the Whirlpool hidden village before it was destroyed?"

"Uzumaki... Oh Kami!"

"Ah, the proverbial 5 watt light brightens up!" Aburame Shibi said.

"Naruto took everything from us? How? Why?"

"I can not answer the how, Fugaku, but as to the why... Who was guarding his mother during the Kyuubi attack? More specifically, which clan?"

Fugaku fell on his ass as he realized the reason his clan was being wiped out of the history of the Elemental Nations. But how could a new born baby know, much less remember, that he had killed his mother while his dad was off to recapture the Kyuubi? After all, Minato had died at the task!!

"Do you have anything to say, Fugaku?" asked the Hokage, looking down on the clan head, still laying on the floor in shock. "You should have known the Uzumaki have a long memory, and an even longer claw. Naruto learned of your clan's betrayal somehow. He learned he lost his dad to Madara and his failed attempt at controlling the Kyuubi. What else he has learned for your clan to earn his ire I have no idea, but I somehow remember you were in charge of the close protection of the Yondaime Hokage family, including Uzumaki Kushina. We never did understand how she died since the Kyuubi was never that close to her and, in the aftermath of the partial destruction of Konoha, we were too busy rebuilding to attach much importance to autopsies. She was another casualty, nothing else. Now, that I think back on things, I regret we were expedite."

If they learn it was Madara, we are doomed, thought Fugaku.

---

Madara... Well, Madara was not enjoying his day. He had been talking to a meeting of Akatsuki operatives when, suddenly, his eyes began to burn. At first, he thought it was the smoke from all those fires that lit the huge room, but as time passed, the pain worsened and worsened. What was wrong with his eyes? His eyes! Right now, the periphery was darkening! But that was impossible with the Eternal Mangekyo! Madara was trying to hide his distress but one of the Akatsuki operatives asked him why he was bleeding tears of blood. His claims of it being nothing important fell on deaf ears.

As the abashed spectators watched, mouth open, the deterioration process accelerated, until the eyes literally popped open and a dark, foul-smelling liquid leaked from the now blackened eye cavities. Madara knew things were bad, as now blind, he could still hear the awed whispers of the spectators.

Unfortunately for Madara, things did not stop there. The rotting continued to spread, rapidly covering his entire face, then his head, and then down. Unable to hold it anymore, Madara began to yell in excruciating pain, until his vocal cords rotted as well. He fell on the ground, unable to stand anymore as his inner ears rotted and exploded outward. Then his body convulsed ever more violently, and the bones appeared under the rotting meat. The smell was atrocious, and no Akatsuki operative even tried to help him by killing him to reduce his pain. They were too curious to see the natural development of the curse.

Had they known that this curse was the effect of the seal recall effected by Naruto, they would have been far too worried to be curious, as all had Uzumaki seals on them either hidden or visible. And, had Fugaku learned of Madara's fate, he might have considered Seppuku rather than plan revenge on Naruto.