Rei alongside the Shadow Corps promptly returned to the Village on the Other Side after they were sufficiently assured no clue of their brief visit was left behind.

Three hours later, Rei was finally notified that Ringo also returned from her own mission he assigned her in Konoha. She tiredly walked into the living room of his mansion where he was patiently waiting for her. Seeing her haggard state, Rei stood up and hurriedly walked closer, hugging her while letting her lean on him to give her at least some relief. ​​

"I see you had fun." He quipped, making Ringo groan in irritation.

"As if. Sneaking into the most guarded archives of both Konoha and ROOT in the timespan of three hours right after the massacre of the Uchiha clan was discovered?" Ringo huffed into his shoulder, her embrace possessively tightening. "Sure, the personnel in both the Hokage Tower and the ROOT headquarters could be seen as almost nonexistent compared to what is there normally because of the massacre. BUT! Everywhere else ninjas swarmed the village. Honestly, an hour after the discovery, every able chunin and above in the village was called to duty and the civilians were ordered to stay inside! Getting through the village without being spotted was a veritable nightmare! And I am not even talking about the protective seals I had to get through..." Ringo's shoulders sagged.

"Well, you ARE the best assassin in the world. Who else could I rely on than you to infiltrate and steal from one of the most guarded places in existence?" Rei flippantly stated, caressing Ringo's back.

His tone might have been joking but both he and Ringo knew he fully meant every word. The Kage Towers in their respective villages had tons of active and passive protections. Sneaking there was a clear suicide too, considering the numerous seals, both hidden and otherwise, and the fact they are in the middle of a village full of trained killers. After all, at no time and under no circumstances are there less than five ANBU operatives inside. Kyuubi could rampage through the village and these five ANBU would STILL not leave the Hokage Tower. That's also not counting all the otherwise ranked ninjas normally present in the tower.

Rei could really only shake his head in exasperation when he remembered the first episode of Naruto and how easily the protagonist sneaked in and out of the Hokage Tower with the Forbidden Scroll. Really... only once somebody gets a reality check about how tightly these places are guarded can a person understand how impossible such a thing is. Either Naruto was severely underestimated by everybody or his sight in the Hokage office was a quite common occurrence and nobody paid it any attention.

"Yes, yes, I am the best." Ringo admitted with an amused but tired eye roll, "Anyway, I did get what you wanted. The copy of the order to Itachi Uchiha to cause the Uchiha Massacre is in my back pocket while I already gave other copied paperwork to Konan." She said, only slightly widening her smile as she felt Rei's hand slip into her back pocket and brush her backside while he withdrew the paperwork.

"Okay," Rei pecked Ringo's lips, "You should go and take a long nap while I and Konan sort the situation with the Uchiha clan and their welcome to our village."

"Mmm, that actually sounds quite nice." Ringo sleepily agreed, her eyelids involuntarily closing by themselves. "I really do not envy you though. Persuading them to move here and be loyal to our village will surely be a right pain in the arse."

With one last kiss, they separated.

...

Rei and Konan decided it would be wisest to wake only a few important hand-picked members of what remained of the Uchiha clan to negotiate terms and inform them of their situation so they then can gradually persuade the rest. Waking up all of them at once would cause total mayhem since there were hundreds of them if one counted civilians.

As for choosing who to awaken from the stasis for the negotiation, that didn't pose a problem thanks to the previous months of spying via Konan's kekkei genkai. Since Rei knew the Uchiha Massacre would be happening sometime after or around Naruto's seventh birthday, he made sure that Konan set up her surveillance of the Uchiha Compound at least a year prior to that. In the end, one simply didn't go and meddle in such an important historical milestone happening in the middle of a village full of trained assassins without being sufficiently prepared and well informed.

It took some time identifying who is and who is not alive since Itachi and Obito did manage to get to some people but ultimately Konan was able to choose the individuals that should be most effective in persuading their clansmen. That's why on the couch in the living room of Rei's mansion now sat Rei and Konan on one side and three unconscious people were slumped on the other.

The first was an old balding man of eighty-nine with many wrinkles, Isamu Uchiha. He was kind of an obvious choice since Konan reported he was the mildest of the Uchiha Elders. The guy was one of the very few people alive who were old enough to remember things like Uchiha Madara, Hashirama Senju, the creation of Konoha, all three ninja wars, and so on, and on. Rei would like to believe with that age came wisdom since the guy was the only one from the Uchiha Elder Council who opposed the plans for rebellion. Well, he was the only Elder left alive too, thanks to that. Then again, the man managed to garner quite a lot of respect from his clansmen during his long life, and having him persuade the remaining ninja population of his clan would go a long way to seamlessly integrating the Uchiha clan to the Village on the Other Side. Frankly, Rei was putting quite a lot of faith in the man cooperating for the good of his clan. After all, the Uchiha clan didn't have much of a choice anymore.

The second person was Mariko Uchiha who was a thirty-something civilian. She was picked because apparently, she owned a clothing business, and literally every Uchiha knew her and bought their clothes from her shop. She was well known and well regarded among both the civilian and ninja parts of the clan... which was quite rare considering how arrogant and prick-like the Uchiha clan's ninjas usually were. While Rei didn't strictly need Uchiha civilians, he couldn't just throw them away like used trash, now, could he? Mariko seemed like a good choice for a representative of civilians and Rei was sure she could persuade the civilian side while also getting some ninjas more open to the integration.

And lastly, the third person was... Izumi Uchiha.

Honestly, she was there simply because Rei wanted her to be present. The girl was thirteen and already had Mangekyo Sharingan. It was a sad truth that could prove very beneficial in the long run so Rei saw no reason not to use it to his benefit. Oh, she was no Itachi Uchiha, that was for sure, but she was the most valuable 'thing' Rei collected on his little expedition to Konoha.

"Okay, then, let's wake them up." Konan said and the sealing tags that kept the three unconscious instantly detached themselves from their foreheads, causing them to stir.

Isamu was up and about in a split of a second, a true testament to his instincts and a small show of a reason why exactly he managed to outlive all of his peers. Mariko was quite slow but even she got wary and woke up fast when she found herself in an unfamiliar room. Only Izumi showed a bit more childish side when she mumbled about requesting 'five more minutes' but was promptly woken up by Isamu who ruthlessly poked her ribs, causing her eyes to go wide as she gasped in pain and slouched forward.

Rei watched in amusement the antics of his involuntary guests, his smile widening when three uneasy and questioning pairs of eyes finally landed on him. It was time to show them why following him was their only chance at surviving.

Naturally, he just had to start cheerfully!

"Hi, there! Didn't expect to wake up again, did ya?"