Third Person's POV;

A man, a woman, a cripple, and a plant man stood on a tower. What normally would begin as a bad joke was the reality in the Land of Rain. Pain, Obito, Konan, and Zetsu were in the highest tower of their capital. Pain's stare was directed outwards of a balcony, down at his village. The village that saw him as God.

“So the nine tails met every Jinchuriki and even stole the seven tails for himself. This might complicate some things”, said Konan.

“No, their actions are insignificant for us. When the time comes near I will go and catch them myself. For now, we need to replace Kakuzu and Hidan, their deaths were unplanned and their position can't stay free”, denied Pain. He was angry that such mortal beings had the audacity to interfere with his plan of peace, but he will prevail, he will win, for he is God.

“Don't disappoint us and do not underestimate the nine tails Jinchuriki, he has shown that he is stronger than what should be possible at this time. The fact that he somehow became a Kage is proving this”, warned Obito.

“Zetsu what about the two candidates?”, asked Pain, not acknowledging Obito's words.

“They agreed to help, but only under Itachi's threat. I will have to keep an eye on them”, reported the plant man dutifully.

“And what about Konoha?”. Was Pain's next question. He oh so wished to go and kill Danzo now, but everything had its time and Danzo's wasn't now.

“War preparations are in full move, recruitment is higher than never and each Genin is now leaving the school with a cursed seal. The death toll is explained by a more dangerous final exam”. This was according to their plans. They needed Konoha and the rest of the world at war, it would make gathering the Jinchuriki easier.

“And Itachi?”, asked Pain. He knew that Itachi had a past with Danzo and that he hated the war-hawk almost as much as Pain did himself.

“He is...grumpy but does nothing. He reasons that Sasuke is too old for Danzo's indoctrination and that's it. I don't think it will pose a problem in the near future”, said Zetsu his opinion. Pain hummed in agreement and then continued to stare out of his balcony. The others saw the dismissal and left.

“Soon the world will see peace”, mumbled the man with a massive god complex.

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Konoha;

“Hokage-sama, the reports about the latest skirmishes in the Land of River. We lost a squad but took three squads from Sunagakure out”, summarized a secretary to Danzo. The heavily bandaged man took the folder and gave his secretary a nod. The woman swiftly left and Danzo was alone with his most trusted ROOT agents.

Everything went according to his plans. He was Hokage, the new Genin were stronger than ever and his ROOT got more new recruits since its foundation. Orphanages all across the Land of Fire were empty thanks to his recruitment.

And Orochimaru's experiments went along as well. His affection on Sasuke could be stirred away by a better solution. Why trying to possess a hate driven child that had no loyalty, if you could make your own loyal soldiers?

The moment Danzo got his hands on Sasuke he milked him like a cow and started to create his loyal army of Sharingan user. At first, Orochimaru wasn't amused, but then made an 180° turn when he got the idea of cloning Sasuke and pumping the clone full with drugs so that it would mature faster.

The last Uchiha wouldn't stay the last for long. In a few months a battalion of new soldiers will be born and then a few years from now Danzo will have his unwavering loyal army of Sharingan user.

The cover missions in the Land of Tea are progressing with high success and in a few months, it will be nothing more than a puppet state to the mighty Konoha. Then they will concentrate more on River. So far they only harassed it a bit, nothing serious. But once Tea was theirs River will fall.

Sound was taking over Rice on the other side. It was slower as it was weaker than Konoha and weakened by the invasion, but there was progress. And progress was everything that they needed.

Then there were reports about the Kazekage. They seriously made their Jinchuriki into a Kage, stupid idiots, he thought. Danzo had every intention of using the split that came from such a move and the next Chunin Exams in Suna will be the perfect opportunity to get rid of this Jinchuriki. Who knows, maybe they could even get their fingers on the one tail.

Now with the loss of the nine tails, and what a fuck up that was, Konoha was weakened. It's true that Konoha never used their Bijuu in its wars but having one and lacking one will make the difference.

The death of Dexter Uzuki was a major setback, at least they also killed Jiraiya.

And then there were reports about Kirigakure. It seems like the rebels won the civil war and a new Kage was chosen. A woman with two bloodlines, now he could get his hands on such a thing....

But Uzushiogakure's involvement was troubling. He knew that they wouldn't ally with Konoha, their Kage somehow knew of Konoha's involvement in its first destruction. But now it was back and stronger than ever. They are strong enough to bring down everyone if they have enough time.

Their alliance with Kirigakure and the new Land of Spring are boosting their ranks in footsoldiers. Danzo wasn't stupid, you couldn't survive as long as he did if you were an idiot, he knew that Spring had technology that could become dangerous. He did send out a ROOT squad to acquire some of it and destroy any production lines.

There were no reports from the moment they stepped on land. Danzo had written them off. If Uzu was involved then Spring had a barrier that would find any and all intruders. Konoha had the same thanks to them.

Which made it obvious how the Uzukage himself managed to invade Konoha and free one of his prisoners. Why he only took Anko was a mystery to him, Guy and Kakashi were stronger and would have helped him against Konoha.

Would have was the right phrase. They were now loyal to him and, sadly, to Orochimaru. Orochimaru's curse seal was such a fine thing, yet also trouble. Each new seal would strengthen Orochimaru's place in Konoha. It was a good thing that the seal also had a loyalty part for him now.

But back to the topic, Uzushiogakure was growing in strength and will be a problem in the future. Orochimaru has told him about his attempt to kill them off with a high lethal virus. That there were no reports about an illness told them that it failed.

Only someone like Tsunade would have been able to counteract the virus fast enough and she wasn't seen in the last years. Maybe she did defect to Uzu? She had a past with them and if the Uzukage told her about Konoha's role in its demise... suffice to say that the female Sannin would be pissed.

Konoha will deal with Uzu in the future, Kiri was still weak from the civil war and not much of a support. For now, they had to focus on Suna. These sand rats dared to betray them. Orochimaru would be taken care of as well, but for now, he had his uses.

These thoughts and more were running through the head of the Hokage. He and the village were preparing for a future filled with war, and in their minds, with a Konoha on the top.

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Sunagakure, Kage office;

A sandstorm was running rampage through Sunagakure, but that did not mean that there was no work to do. Gaara and his siblings were inside his office, speaking about the coming Chunin exams. Gaara was sitting behind his desk. Temari on a couch and Kankurou was leaning against a wall.

“Gaara, here are the registration forms for the coming Chunin exams. Konoha is sending four teams, Uzushiogakure two, Kumogakure five, Iwagakure also four, Kirigakure three and other minor villages one or two. All in all, we will have 30 teams participating, including ours it will be 38”, read Temari from a file in her hands.

“Are you sure you want to allow Konoha to take part?”, asked Kankurou from his leaning position on the wall.

“Yes, it will show that we don't fear them and will represent strength. The opposition would use anything else as a sign of weakness and discredit me further. We can't allow that to happen. Some of our black list ANBU are ready for their mission aren't they?”, said Gaara.

“Yes, those with little Chakra have gotten their backstory and will act as Genin in the exams”, affirmed Temari.

“Remind me why it is such a good idea to cheat during the exams? If one of the other villages gets wind of this”, asked Kankurou displeased, he left the sentence unfinished, but everyone present knew what he meant.

“Because we need to show that we are strong, we need at least one team in the finals and this team has to be strong enough to beat the other Genin”, explained Temari as if Kankurou was stupid.

Their plan was to use young looking unlisted ANBU as fake Genin in the Chunin exams so that the world will see their strength. This was not unheard of between the other villages. It was practiced a few times each decade, mostly when a village needed to look stronger than it was. Of course, the other villages will suspect such a thing and will try to call them on the ploy.

This was why these black list teams were never recorded in any files and are used exclusively for such a thing. Others were deliberately not promoted so that they could stay Genin. Genin did not mean that you have to be weak, there were Genin as strong as Jonin or stronger and Jonin only as strong as Genin. It all depends on their field of expertise.

“Are the stages prepared?”, Gaara then asked, changing the topic back to the preparation.

“Yes, the supplies were placed and our Genin informed of their position. They won't have much trouble with tracking through the dessert”, replied Temari.

“Good, and our normal Genin? How are they?”. There have to be some normal Genin as well, it was unnatural to have so many exceptional teams, so it was the norm to only use one, at most two black list teams for a single exam.

“So so, we do have two that are fairly high for Genin, almost Chunin level. But in comparison with us or what happened in Konoha? They wouldn't last a minute against many of them”. The sigh that followed Temari's evaluation was a one of disbelieve.

“Yeah, those were monster. Lee, Neji, Shikamaru, Sasuke, and then this Dexter, all of them were above the normal Chunin in either strength, skill or battle tactics.

“Dexter was no Genin”, stated Gaara. The other two looked at him in confusion.

“Eh Gaara, if we were in the same exam and Dexter was sure as hell a Genin, at least by Rank”, said Kankurou.

“No, Dexter was merely a clone, at least during the finals. Shukaku was the one who told me. Dexter was no Genin, he was the Uzukage. He is the Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox”, he explained and both of his siblings drew in a sharp breath.

“The fuck? What was the Uzukage doing hiding as a Genin? The guy, and sorry but it's true, wiped the floor with you”, asked Kankurou, his face scrunched in confusion.

“He wanted Shukaku”, Gaara simply said. This was the first time that he told someone about this, he was confident in his sibling's loyalty, of that he was sure now. But the fact that Shukaku wasn't even whispering nor the distinct lack of his Chakra was worrying him.

“What.. what do you mean? If he stole the Shukaku then he would have killed you”, asked Temari. She knew that it was only for the benevolence of the Uzukage that Gaara was alive, but that the monster of a human was stealing his siblings Bijuu, that she didn't know.

“He sucked the Chakra out of Shukaku, I don't know how, only that it burned like fire and turned his arms into cinders”, Gaara explained, remembering the pain and burning of his body.

But he was stronger since then. The control over his Chakra was easier and the ease with which he could manipulate his sand was beyond anything he could do before. In truth, he was thanking the Uzukage for what he had done. He could sleep and was at least twice as strong directly after and many times stronger now.

“The acts of the Uzukage allowed me to become stronger, the pain I felt during the fight is a small price to pay. And I still feel Shukaku, he is just silent”, reassured Gaara. The coming months will be hectic, strenuous and troublesome, but they will also be interesting.

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Iwagakure, Kage office;

Onoki, the fence sitter, one of the oldest Ninja alive was sitting in his chair. A chair that was specially made for easing back pain.

He had a few reports in front of him, some normal village matters others of high importance. For example, the spy report about Konoha gearing up for war. Their sight was clear, Konoha wants revenge on Sunagakure, the question was how Iwa could profit from that?

Suna was barely one of the major five villages, to begin with, it could hold its position by the sheer difficulty of conquering it. And that the people there were more resilient and had to be fierce. Living in a desert made one like that.

It was clear that war will happen and Iwa will use this chance to profit, maybe they can take Fang and Claw? Those villages were always a buffer between Iwa and Suna, but without Suna, they can be easily taken. Their fertile land would do our food production good.

Yes, that would be the best course of action. And with that thought the fence sitter pressed a button and asked his secretary;“Vero, I want to speak with Kitsuchi and Butsuchi”. With that done he leaned backward and rested his agitated back. It seems the future needed to be reminded why he survived so long.