___________ POV Narration___________

"Hmmm... Seems things are pretty lively here." Ken cracked his neck as his wings vanished and he took a step forward, stopping right in front of Tosho.

"... Lord Ken. I believe you may be able to clarify things here..." The First Blade sweated a bit as he looked at his master.

His tone was uncertain now. At that point, he didn't even need to hear Ken's words to know that Saburo had been telling the truth.

Otherwise, Ken would have already long since decapitated the Strawman.

"Well, it seems everything went according to plan..."

Ken then patted the First Blade on the shoulder and smiled underneath his mask.

The First Blade blinked a few times before nodding.

'I guess we'll continue this talk later... Still, to think that he'd do such a thing without- No... I need to get those thoughts out of my head...'

Akira seemed to be a lot less bothered by it, simply shrugging before going off on his own, likely to find some food.

Unlike Tosho, he didn't feel as if he had been betrayed in any way.

He was merely following orders throughout the war, and he also didn't hold any grudges against Saburo, as he assumed the Second Blade had been doing the same.

He had suspected at some point that Saburo wasn't actually betraying them. Especially when seeing that the children could actually defeat him so easily.

He was well aware of the Second Blade's limitations, and he knew that controlling multiple clones was strenuous.

But having spent more time in Saburo's lab, he also knew that the limit of clones he could perfectly control was staggering.

Only a few of the children really had any hopes of fighting him, especially his stronger clones. Only Yue, Tatsukio, and a few others really.

'Welp, at least everything worked out fine...' The Third Blade shrugged as he walked over to the ruins of the Dark Brotherhood Compound, heading straight for the pantry, or what remained of it.

Whilst that was happening, Ken had already turned towards the guests of note. Namely Mifune and the Cloud Duo.

The Samurai General had already walked over to their side, not wanting to involve himself in an internal matter of the Brotherhood any further.

The Blind Leader walked forward to them and greeted them jovially, but not before he waved at Saburo to go and start helping the injured.

The Second Blade nodded and vanished, and around 20 clones appeared on the battlefield and started helping with the many injuries.

10 were focused on the injuries sustained by the children in the Brotherhood, and the other 10 were helping the medics that the Samurai Army had brought.

The Raikage and B were both doing quite well, the Jinchuriki's natural healing was enough for the injuries he had sustained to get better within the next few days.

And the Raikage was really only a bit tired. No one capable of actually injuring him had shown up.

Maybe Han could've stood a chance had Akira not executed him in cold blood, but that was simply fate.

Meanwhile, Mifune had sustained a few burns, they were certainly going to heal, but some were also likely going to scar.

Especially a burn he had sustained from taking a magma punch to the cheek. Alas, Roshi had also lost an arm to injure Mifune like that, so the General deemed it a worthwhile trade.

His beard had been slightly burnt, but he was otherwise fine. Such injuries meant little to a seasoned warrior, nothing that would make him stop fighting.

He was going to be fine after a few weeks of healing.

"Gentlemen... I thank you all for showing up right in the nick of time to help my brotherhood."

The Blind Assassin finally greeted the three with a deep bow. While doing so, he also took off his mask and placed it somewhere within his cloak.

All pretence was lost in front of them, and Ken wasn't about to pretend that they hadn't been crucial to his success.

Had it not been for them, the plan he had chosen to go with wouldn't have worked at all. And, all that he cared for would have died if he had tried to attempt to go through it.

"It is only natural..." Mifune nodded, his eyes glancing to the side for a few seconds, watching the children of the Dark Brotherhood, but likely only staring at the figure of Yue.

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The Bloody Princess hadn't gotten injured much throughout the conflict.

Only a few scrapes and burns. But her body and clothes were still completely covered in blood, and it certainly wasn't hers.

Needless to say, she was living up to her nickname.

Seeing her safe made Mifune feel at ease as well. But he also sighed as his eyes rested back on Ken before they hovered over to the Cloud Duo and back to Ken.

His message was quite clear for the assassin. But Ken wasn't willing to talk about matters later.

"I'm sorry for endangering Yue... I hope you and Yuichi will find it in yourselves to forgive me..." Ken bowed once more toward Mifune, not bothering to hide his connection to the Land of Iron from the Raikage and B.

The Raikage specifically raised an eyebrow, as he recognized the names that Ken had spoken.

Well, it would've been odd if he didn't. Going into the territory of another country and not even knowing the names of its rulers would've made him seem like a joke of a shinobi.

'He endangered Yue, the princess of the Land of Iron?...'

The Raikage's eyes then slanted over to the members of the Dark Brotherhood, before landing on the figure of the Bloody Princess, his eyes narrowed once more as he looked at her blood-soaked blonde hair flutter in the wind.

'Don't tell me...'

The Raikage gave a shaky smile as his mind put the pieces together.

He had his suspicions in the past. Many had their suspicions in fact, there were several reasons why people called her the 'Bloody Princess' after all.

But he didn't expect to get actual confirmation from the lion's mouth.

"I-I see... So you trust the two of them... Well, I will choose to trust your judgement, as you've yet to disappoint us." Mifune looked to the side at the Raikage and B, before sighing.

"As for your apology, I accept it. I think Yuichi may be a bit mad at you for now, but I can handle his tantrums.

He knew what type of life Lady Yue would lead by your side, this is merely one of the risks." Mifune sighed once more as he crossed his arms and shook his head.

Ken nodded and turned his head towards Yue for a second.

"This may be a bit more serious than a few tantrums, Mifune. It would be a shame to lose Yue now, she's very talented, and her talent has yet to even bloom properly."

Mifune blinked a few times when hearing Ken's words.

It was as if he was hearing the words of an old master talking about one of their most treasured students.

'Sometimes it's hard to remember that this man is actually a child... Not that I will ever be treating him as a child, that would be disrespectful to him and his accomplishments.'

The General smiled a bit as he thought of that before he opened his mouth and waved off Ken's concerns.

"I wouldn't worry about that. I will personally resist such a thing, but I doubt it will come to that. Yue herself would protest leaving this place vehemently.

Yuichi may be able to duke it out with me, but he'll fall on his knees the second Yue looks at him with those puppy eyes..."

The General seemed amused just thinking about it, and the Blind Monster also couldn't help but smile as he imagined the scene in his mind.

He then turned to the Cloud Duo, who had been uncharacteristically silent throughout his conversation with Mifune.

"Now then, Lord Raikage, Killer B... It seems I've gone and done it, I owe the two of you a lot."

The Raikage immediately waved his hand dismissively.

"Bah, don't worry about it! You've helped us plenty of times in the past... There are no favours between friends." The Raikage gave the Blind Assassin a wide smile as he spoke.

One that Ken ended up returning.

"Indeed... I feel a bit bad now for always taking payments when helping you though..." Ken sweated a bit as his smile shook slightly.

The Raikage laughed out loud when hearing that.

"HAh! Don't worry about it! I was the one hiring you instead of asking you for help as a friend. I treated things like a transaction, so it is only fair that you saw it as one." The Raikage shook his head as he gave the Blind Assassin a complex gaze.

"I wouldn't say that. You've always made your intentions clear and always worked hard to maintain friendly relations with me and the Brotherhood.

I've done a shoddy job at reciprocating this at times, but I plan to change that from now on."

Ken's answer seemed to be quite pleasing for the Raikage. It was certainly a step forward in their relationship, but that was to be expected.

"I appreciate that... But still, who would've thought that the Bloody Princess was an actual princess...

I had speculated what ties you had with the Land of Iron plenty of times, but could never quite put my finger on it..."

The Cloud Village Leader seemed to glance towards Mifune for a few seconds before turning back to Ken.

"Well, it was a rather closely guarded secret. But I figured that there was no point in keeping it any longer. At least not from you two."

The Blind Monster tilted his head to the side as he spoke. His nostrils then flared a bit, as he turned his head to the side and smiled once more.

"It seems that he's the last one arriving..." The Assassin Leader muttered as he crossed his arms.

"Oh? We're expecting someone else?" The Raikgae and Mifune both looked in the same direction Ken had 'looked' towards. B did the same, although he still wasn't contributing much to the conversation.

In the distance, everyone failed to see anything specific.

B was the first to notice it among the three of them.

"A yellow cloud?" He muttered as he spotted something within the sky above, shrouded by the other clouds in the distance, yet moving towards them all the same.

"Hoh? So it was him?" The Raikage's mood seemed to sour for a few seconds, his smile turning into a scowl as soon as he recognized the technique.

"Hmm?" Mifune didn't recognize it, but he did spot the cloud, which was flying towards them quite quickly.

It eventually reached the cloud right above their heads, and that was when it started to descend.

B and Mifune both jumped backwards a bit, neither of them aware of what exactly was coming.

The Samurai General even had his hand on the hilt of his blade, just in case.

Ken and the Raikage didn't react much though.

They stood completely still as the cloud landed right near them and dispersed in seconds... Revealing a rather familiar figure.

A middle-aged man with a pointy beard, wearing a pair of sandals, a black jumpsuit and an armoured hood with a bandana headband tied around both his forehead and the hood.

Everyone recognized him instantly, even if they didn't know his face, they knew the words on his back...

"The Third Hokage..." B and Mifune muttered at around the same time.

The current God of Shinobi, Hiruzen Sarutobi had made an entrance.

The general sighed and relaxed his guard a bit when he noticed that Ken was completely calm.

"Hoho~ It seems that I've arrived a bit late," Hirzuen muttered as he wiped the dust off his shoulders and looked around the battlefield at the scattered corpses of shinobi.

"I'd say you arrived just in time..." Ken nodded towards the Hoakge.

Inwardly, he felt his mind jumping around in jubilation, as it seemed as if all of the stars were aligning.

'Time to get onto the third phase of the plan...'