Naruto smiled briefly at the former Hokage as the group of shinobi moved out. The old man stood proudly next to his guards who were made up of the remaining Anbu, Shizune standing next to him, a lone tear rolling down her face. He knew that the young woman had begged Tsunade to let her accompany them, but the sannin had refused, saying that Hiruzen would need her and her medical skills, if it came to the worst.

Turning around, Naruto sighed heavily as the leaders of the group began to accelerate. A quick smile towards Temari and they jumped away as well, tension rising with every meter they travelled.

"Get a message out to every genin and ever jonin sensei that is in the village. I want them to assemble at training ground three, tomorrow at sunrise." The third Hokage ordered Shizune after the war party had left their sight. The black haired woman nodded, as she turned around and made her way to the Hokage's office to get started on the messages. Hiruzen meanwhile left the gates, wandering through the streets as he made his way towards the only place that could calm him down in situations like this.

He was surprised to see his grandson there, when he entered the clearing. Silently making his way towards the memorial stone the former Hokage put his hand around Konohamaru's shoulders. The boy jumped slightly, too deep in thought to have noticed the man approaching.

"It's just me Konohamaru." The boy relaxed as he heard the familiar voice.

"Do you think they are watching?" He asked, his eyes never leaving the red monument in front of them.

"Yes." The Hokage almost whispered.

"I just hope that they will be happy with the decision we made and that they will welcome us with open arms when the time comes to join them." He continued after a moment.

"That sounds good." The boy replied, kneeling down and placing the sole blue flower on the stone tablet in the ground.

"Blue was her favourite colour. I never got to ask why, but she would always wear something blue, even if it was only the bracelet Hanabi had made for her." He stated, not really talking to his grandfather but glad that he was there to listen. After a deep sigh the boy turned to leave.

"I will leave you with your memories." He said, only getting a nod from Hiruzen as he walked off.

"That boy is growing too fast." The old man muttered under his breath as he knelt down, bowing towards the red stone. Touching his head to the ground he remained in this position, meditating on the things that would be happening.

"It seems that we are the first." Sasuke stated, as they arrived at the edge of the desert, looking over the wast stretches of sand.

"Think again." Tsunade counseled. Naruto smiled as the air around a certain part of the desert began to shimmer and Jiraiya stepped out of it.

"Welcome to the end." The sannin exclaimed, smiling, although his words held a deadly edge that didn't go unnoticed by the shinobi in front of him. After a quick embrace for his former teammate, the white haired man led them through the shimmering air and into the 'war city' as he liked to call it.

"You are actually the first of the major parties to arrive. Other than ourselves Mikoto and her squad are here, as well as a two man team from Suna and from Kumo." He informed them. It was logical that they would be among the first, since they still had almost three days until the fight was scheduled to begin. Naruto still didn't feel comfortable treating this fight as something that was scheduled.

"Anything out of the ordinary?" Tsunade asked, as they walked through the four tents that had been set up around a small fire.

"Apart from the fact that we almost attacked each other, everything seems to be as it should, no traps or anything like that." A woman with purple face paint stated. Her head was covered entirely by the customary white cloth that was standard in Sunagakure, hiding away all of her hair and part of her forehead. The markings remembered Naruto and Temari of Kankuro, Temari's brother. Everyone laughed at her joke, although it was more forced than not, since they all were extremely tense.

"Maki, meet the delegation from Konoha: Our Kage Tsunade Senju, Kakashi Hatake, Kurenai Hatake, Sasuke Uchiha, Haku Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze, Temari Sabaku, Iruka Umino, Anko Mitarashi, Asuma Sarutobi." Jiraiya introduced, each of them nodding when their name was called.

"Nice to meet you, I know most of you from our bingo book, I am quite happy that we are on the same side in this." The girl joked again, drawing a round of smiles, although no one laughed.

"I see the Konoha delegation has arrived." A voice came from behind them." They turned around and smiled at the two shinobi from Kumogakure.

"These two are Omoi and Samui." The white haired sannin proceeded to introduce them to the two shinobi as well. Naruto had almost stopped listening, when he heard something that caught his interest.

"... I don't know where Baki is at the moment, but he should be back in a few minutes." Omoi had told Jiraiya in passing. He knew the name from Temari's tales about her time in Sunagakure. He had been something of a mentor to the girl and her older brother as he had mostly been the one to teach them the first few steps of the shinobi arts, as well as watch over them whenever their father was away, which happened quite often, due to the nature of his position. Looking next to him, at his girlfriend he saw that she had also caught the name as she was turning her head, trying to see if she could spot him coming.

A small smile played on Naruto's lips, as he saw the joy in her eyes seeing her old sensei approaching the camp.

"Hello Baki." Jiraiya called out, as the sand shinobi joined the group around the campfire. A quick round of introductions followed as usual. After hearing Temari's name, the old man quickly looked around, apparently only now recognizing the girl. He waited politely for the white haired sannin to finish, before he stood once again, making his way around the fire to sit down next to Temari and Naruto.

"Wow, you have grown so much." He almost whispered, as he embraced the girl.

"Time flies, if you are engaged." Temari stated, smiling.

"Yeah I heard about it, sorry I couldn't be there when you went to Konoha. But congratulations, you look happy enough." He apologized.

"We are happy. I couldn't have found a better man, if I had searched for one." Temari replied, putting an arm around Naruto, pulling him away from his conversation with Anko and Asuma.

"Hey.. " He started, trailing off as Temari silenced him with a finger. Turning around to face Baki the blonde boy put an arm around Temari's waist.

"Hello Baki, nice to meet you. I am Naruto Uzumaki." He introduced himself again, holding out his free hand. The man shook his hand with the right corner of his mouth going up, although Naruto could not tell if his whole mouth was smiling since he was only able to see the right part of his face.

"And here I thought you were a Hatake, or was it a Namikaze?" He replied, a small laugh escaping the man's mouth at his own joke.

"Well, legally I am adopted by Kakashi Hatake so my name is Hatake, but my parents were Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki." Naruto replied, dryly. Temari sensing the tension that was building, was relieved when she saw Mikoto arrive with her squad, excusing themselves and dragging Naruto towards the Uchiha Matriarch.

It was in the night after they had arrived, that the delegation of Sunagakure made it to their camp. Temari ran out to greet them, throwing her arms around Gaara, Kankuro and her father in turn. Neither Naruto nor his fiancee slept that night, as they spent the dark hours talking with Temari's family, catching up with them about anything that they hadn't written in the numerous letters that had been exchanged between them.

The dreaded day came faster than any of them had liked. After the first evening, they were constantly tense and on the lookout for any signs of the approaching Akatsuki force, only briefly broken by the other village's parties arriving.

When everyone was gathered there was still one more day until the date Madara had set.

In the evening of that day Tsunade was furious when she saw that the combined forces of the other villages barely surpassed Konoha's commitment in numbers.

"Why the fuck did you even come here if you were only bringing so few shinobi?" She had roared. The explanation given by the other Kages had made sense, but was also a testament of how strong their opponent was going to be. Apparently every village had lost at least one of their Jinchuriki, sending their strongest shinobi to recover them, only for them to vanish, most likely having been killed.

After Tsunade had calmed down enough to resume the meeting, they had gone of their strategy. The remaining Jinchuriki would face Madara, as well as Temari, because Naruto insisted on fighting besides her, stating that they had trained together for three years under Jiraiya, Tsunade and her teammate would take on Orochimaru, since they knew more about him than any other person present, while Itachi would go to aid them, when the battle started. Kisame would face off against the Mizukage Mei Terumi, as well as her two bodyguards Ao and Choujuurou, they had also requested that A join them, because of his excellent lightning control which could counter Kisame's water style. The group around the Tsuchikage Onoki was supposed to take on Zetsu, since his abilities were relatively unknown, but what was known indicated that he had an affinity for earth, which Onoki could negate using his dust release. The four new members that Itachi had reported would face four allround teams, since their abilities were completely unknown. These teams would consist of Kakashi, Kurenai, Omoi, Iruka and Anko in one team, Mikotos squad in the second, another team was made up of Sasuke, Haku, Maki, Kankuro and Baki and the last team consisting of Rasa, Asuma, Samui, C and Mabui.

Standing at the edge of the desert the group was tense, weapons at the ready as they waited for the sun to rise announcing the planned arrival of their enemy. No one had slept last night, each of the shinobi dealing with the tension in a different way. Naruto had cradled Temari against his chest, as she silently cried, both finding comfort in the other. Kakashi and Kurenai had sat together, meditating, their hands linked. The shinobi from Sunagakure spent the night, taking turns throwing kunai at a tree. Mikoto, Sasuke and Haku used their sleeplessness to talk about what the girl had seen and felt in the time she had been dead. Tsunade and Jiraiya were probably the only ones that slept the night through, although they both had wild nightmares, only calming down when Jiraiya's arms had found Tsunade next to him and the two snuggled into the other. The rest spent the night talking around the big fire in their camp, knowing that they were way too tense to find any sleep.

The sun's first rays were breaking over the horizon, as Ao tensed, raising his hand warning them of the arriving party. They knew about the implanted Byakugan, he possessed so they were using him to scout the area. The shinobi that appeared opposite of them, were all clad in the black and red shrouds of the Akatsuki, Madara donning his familiar mask. The other known members of the group showed their faces, not having to hide their identity, while the four new members were wearing coloured masks, similar to the Anbu masks of Konoha, but with much more prominent colours, they were purple, yellow, white and red. Their hair was hidden under a black cloth, similar to Baki's head gear, obviously to disguise their identity.

Ao lowered his hand again, as Madara raised his and the group stopped.

The two sides stared at each other for a few moments, no one moving the slightest, before a crow cried out and all hell broke loose.