Naruto : Hidden Cloud

Sato was excited to fight the third Hokage, but he maintained patience and refrained from immediately jumping into the fight; his character had changed a lot after his training. Most notably, he was more experienced in dealing with Kage-level ninjas.

The one thing to always remember when fighting against an S-class ninja is to constantly remain patient.

"Don't kill us, please! My baby is in the house!"

Suddenly, a woman's cry attracted Sato's attention; she was screaming and yelling, trying to open the door to her shop in which her baby was sleeping.

She must have somehow lost the key after locking the door.

"..."

Looking at this, Sato froze; he had the confidence to transform into Matatabi because this was a shopping district, and families weren't supposed to be here.

But lo and behold, a woman left her baby in her shop.

'She's probably a single mother; maybe the dad died as a ninja. What bad timing...'

Sato wasn't sure what to do; he couldn't stop fighting now. The third Hokage certainly will not stop; in fact, the Hokage was building up his chakra for a powerful attack.

Sato clicked his tongue; he could ignore the two civilians, but that would leave a bad taste in his mouth.

"Konoha citizen."

Sato decided to get her out of here first; his massive voice boomed in the sky, and the woman who was crying almost fell down in fear.

Especially when she saw the monster looking directly at her.

"No, no, don't come over!"

She yelled incoherently, as if Sato was some murderous maniac, which gave him a big headache.

He wanted to get her out of here so he could concentrate on the Hokage trying to kill him; he needed her to cooperate for a few seconds.

Sato huffed, releasing large bursts of air through his snout, his massive head lowered to her level, making the woman almost lose consciousness from fear.

He rolled his eyes internally and without any delay told her to get out of here.

"... leave."

"If you don't want to die, take your baby and leave."

Sato uttered sternly, then broke the locked door with a little tap of his claws, leaving the woman speechless, which suddenly changed to intense gratitude.

"Thank you- thank you, Cat Lord! Thank you!"

The woman started thanking him profusely; she ran inside and got her baby out, then thanked him again with her baby.

Sato's eyes twitched when he saw actual worship in her eyes, and cat lord?! What the hell kind of name was that??

He would have loved to stay and let her know he wasn't a cat lord, but he had more important things to do.

*Boom*

Stopping the third Hokage's extending adamantine stick, for one.

"Grrr, leave now."

Sato growled, the third Hokage's adamantine stick had a lot of power behind it; this was the stick that pushed a giant animal like nine tails out of Konoha. Sato was having trouble stopping it even when using chakra-enhanced strength.

Just when he was wondering how to deflect the attack so it doesn't fall on the two people he just saved, Tsunade ran in from the side and picked both of them up.

She had Naruto in her left hand, the mother and child in her right hand, giving Sato a thankful look she flashed out of the area.

Sato sighed with relief; he knew why Tsunade was thanking him; he had kept his word and tried to avoid bloodshed, unlike her teacher who attacked without hesitation.

'But I can't blame him either; ninjas are told to ignore civilian lives if it's a matter of emergency, and I am an emergency.'

Sato thought carelessly, but even if he was thinking, his actions weren't slow; he put a good amount of chakra behind his paw and swiped down.

*Boom*

The adamantine stick crashed into the ground, creating a large hole and hurting Sato's paw from the kickback.

"Multiple shadow clone jutsu."

The Third Hokage swiftly took back his stick and weaved hand signs; he created four shadow clones, and all four got into a fan shape formation without wasting any time.

'This formation is... holy shit, isn't this the combination ninjutsu attack which destroyed a mini ten tails! He's using this stuff against me; what the hell, old man...'

Sato had no interest in taking this attack head-on; he was a transformed Matatabi, and even the real Matatabi would not be able to take this, much less him.

"Looks like a powerful attack, old man; it would be a shame if it failed to hit me."

Sato smirked; he might be a fake tailed beast, but because of this, he had something which the real one didn't: the ability to use ninjutsu.

*Swish*

The third Hokage's eyes popped; the large tailed beast suddenly vanished from his eyes.

*CRASH*

And appeared on top of the Hokage rock.

"Body flicker jutsu! How?! Isn't he a jinchuriki? Jinchuriki can't use ninjutsu after a full beast transformation, unless it's a seal-less ninjutsu like the rasengan or flying thunder god."

The third Hokage frowned; his title of the strongest Hokage might be fake, but his professor ninjutsu title was real, and he knew a lot about ninjutsu. That's why he was so confused.

He knew how to sense chakra, and he could sense a tailed beast's chakra inside Sato, coupled with his transformation. He assumed Sato must have become the two tails' jinchuriki.

But if that was the case, how was he using any ninjutsu other than the tailed beast ball? It didn't make sense.

'Something isn't right; did Kumo find a way to use ninjutsu with their transformations...? Trouble.'

Hiruzen smiled wryly; he was getting old, and it was getting harder and harder to keep up with the younger generation like Sato.

He no longer wanted to fight against an enemy he didn't know any intelligence about, especially because this fight was in the middle of Konoha.

"Sato-kun, please stop; we can talk about it. It's not necessary to continue our fight."

*Swish*

In response, Sato's massive body vanished from the Hokage rock and appeared before him.

The Third Hokage's eyes shrunk; he instantly used his adamantine stick to block Sato's claw stab.

*DING*

Sato's nails made a shrill sound against the adamantine stick, and the third Hokage was almost thrown back from the sheer force.

"This is... hell stab!"

The third Hokage's eyes widened; he was a man who was alive since the Sengoku era, and he had seen the third Raikage in action. He knew what Hell Stab was like.

Even if Sato wasn't using the thunder armor, that posture and that power he displayed—it was definitely the hell stab, Third Raikage's strongest attack.

'I see; he used his tailed beast's claws with his massive strength to mimic the move.'

"Danzo, you put us in a tough spot. If he can use hell stab freely, I can't beat him without using the ghoul seal. I lost this fight; Konoha lost because of you, Danzo..."

After seeing the hell stab, the Third Hokage decided to give up. Fighting Sato to the end wasn't worth it; he was old, and he would lose his stamina before Sato lost his.

Little did he know that Sato wasn't in good condition either; his limited chakra was running out, and his hand was hurting badly.

Even if he learned the hell stab during his training with the fourth Raikage, his current body was still a transformation jutsu, and his hell stab was blocked by adamantine, the strongest material in this world.

This was like hitting your toe really hard against a table's corner; his fingers were in intense pain.

"Stop, Sato-kun. I admit defeat. Konoha is ready to apologize."

Just when Sato thought he had to fight desperately to survive, the Third Hokage gave up, causing many question marks to appear above Sato's head.

'He gave up just like that...?'

Sato frowned, but he could tell that Hiruzen had genuinely given up; he even canceled Monkey King Enma's summon.

"Hmph, fine then... I accept it. I hope Konoha is sincere about this."

Sato wasn't sure what the deal with the Third Hokage was, so he decided not to think about it and do what Hidden Cloud did best: act like a thug.

*Whoosh*

Sato's body quickly shrunk down to his normal form; he canceled the transformation jutsu, but no smoke was released. This was a sign of his mastery over the jutsu, like Tsunade had.

This once again created the illusion that Sato was, in fact, a jinchuriki of some kind. How else would he have such a large amount of Matatabi's chakra, and such good control?

"Sigh... Konoha is sincere; please tell me what you need."

Hiruzen walked up to Sato and asked with a wry smile.

Sato smiled brightly in response and raised two fingers.

"First, I want the Uchiha. This is good for both of us; I get their support, and Konoha solves its impending civil war."

The Third Hokage's eyes shrunk; their ANBU information was leaked to Hidden Cloud.

'Itachi, you betrayed me as well.'

Hiruzen gritted his teeth but soon sighed and gave up. So be it; now that Hidden Cloud knows about it, they can't do anything to the Uchiha, or they will risk triggering a world war. The Uchiha clan wasn't worth this much effort.

"I agree; Konoha won't interfere. You can take them away."

Sato nodded, then gave the next condition, something which made the Third Hokage's heart almost stop.

"Second and last condition, I want one jutsu from Konoha's book of seals. I have a particular ninjutsu I want from Konoha."