The Reunion

Navi walked into his office with his cold eyes glazed over. Despite his legendarily powerful sensory skills, he hadn't noticed anyone was in his office until he walked in. It had been a long time away. Several thousand years actually, but he had skipped around a bit. Should his old friend be sitting in his desk as expected, a soft sigh would be emitted. 

"Yo."

It had been a long time and Viper likely had many questions. It was hard to tell what the God had observed and what he hadn't probably better to just let him ask whatever questions he wanted. His ears listen as the man casually reaches into his fridge to grab an orange soda.

Upon the man entering the office once more, he would find it actually has a notable change, everything is in perfect condition, the office even looking better than it was when he left, giving no indication any damage ever occurred to it. Several clones are around Viper, each garbed in his newly crafted armor that he is still trying to work in to, and get comfortable. The original sits behind the desk, once a document is stamped it is passed to a clone on his right, this clone brings it to the window where a transformed clone is waiting in the form of a raven, that takes the documents to the necessary location. Viper looks up from the paperwork, only one last document is in his hand which he gives a final stamp upon before sending it away, the clone vanishing in a puff of smoke once all of this is completed, the office literally giving off what could best be described as a comical sparkle of how utterly perfect shape the office is in at this moment.

Viper places his hands upon the desk, his wrists resting upon it as his fingers lace over one another, Viper leaning back in his chair a bit feeling comfortable in this position; as if he never truly gave it up. "It seems you and Echo had quite an incident, I had to do alot of clean up after you two left. I played the entire thing off as an experiment gone wrong with some Ninjutsu that caused the chambers to explode, also confirmed it as but simple sparring with the villagers so both of your standing in the village is still flawless." This is said in a casual tone, as if this much work was easy to do. The man when he opens the fridge finds it fully stocked, Viper making sure the office was perfect in every way possible when he recreated it. Viper continues to speak, "Care to tell me what really happened? You two gave Asgard a run for its money, I could not pinpoint your alls location, some form of space time disturbance kept crashing the monitors when I tried to focus on you two, so whatever you all did it might of broken something." He inquires, wondering what they could of done that was beyond even the eyes of Asgard.

A shallow smile is displayed on Navi's face as he pops off the top of a cold and refreshing orange soda. The office was immaculate, undoubtedly the impressive work of Viper to make it look like hardly anything had happened. Upon hearing Echo's name his eyes darken, the smile on his face quickly fading as he lets Viper finish speaking. 

It seemed he had covered up the incident completely. Secretly he wished the ex-hokage hadn't. The event needed to be exposed for what it truly was, but in this case Viper was simply saving his brother's reputation. 

"...Echo had another anger breakdown with the Kyuubi," he tosses his head back to take a long drink of the soda, letting his thoughts settle for a moment. 

"I could have killed him. I almost had to, but I knew you'd be... cross with me." 

Navi says this somewhat offhandedly, as he could easily kill the man with immense speed and the coupling application of the CFG seal that he placed on him. Of course the seal was meant for battle precautions, and its existence meant that their duo was unmatched and they could instantly be at each other's side. While the seal made the two of them invincible, it also acted as insurance should the Kyuubi be otherwise unstoppable. 

"Instead it broke out into a fight, chaotic as you might imagine, where neither of us win and everything in our path is destroyed." 

Everything in their path was an understatement, especially since they had been responsible for the "super-volcano" that caused near-extinction for the human race. 

"The combination of our attacks tore a hole in space and time, and the two of us had accidentally figured out a way to time travel with the usage of certain techniques." 

Navi took another casual sip, telling the story of how he battled the legendary demon fox in a journey through time with relative apathy. He had even figured out how to travel to specific points in time now that he had learned to calibrate the amount of chakra correctly, an ability that he wasn't sure if even Viper himself possessed. He did need another holder of the "Jigen-Tou" technique to do it though, meaning it did take some setting up to perform. 

"We have a lot to talk about," Navi said, pulling up a chair to sit on the opposite side of the desk. 

"Where do you want to start?"

Viper listens over his words, his good mood however brought down at the mention of Echo having another anger moment, he would of hoped Echo controlled it by now, but it seems either it is to strong or he is slacking. Sadly, Viper cannot keep covering up for him, in a way it is his fault that this is happening for giving the Kyuubi to him in the first place, perhaps modifications to it can be done to help with these outbursts. He listens to Navi go on about the events, his right brow arcing upwards at the mention of time travel, so that is what they used, but how? The only real Space-time technique that his brother knows to his knowledge, is the Jigen-Tou that he invented.

Viper watches as he pulls forth a chair and sits across from him, this feeling strangely nostalgic, but Viper shakes it off. "First off, I'll handle Echo. He should of mastered this beast long ago, he is forcing my hand to the point I will remove it from him, and do what is needed to keep him from destroying my nation." Viper continues upon this however, looking towards his right at a document with the Fire Nation Emblem. "Speaking of my Nation, why is it reestablished? I wanted the world to develop on its own, to see if we made a difference with our actions, and if peace was truly even a possibility." With this Viper's hands uncurl, his right arm moving forward and curling upwards to place his elbow upon the desk, his chin resting upon his palm, awaiting his successor to respond.

It was not surprising that the reforming of the Fire Nation was the first thing the ex-Hokage would bring up. Its existence had been removed for a time during Navi's succession, but was reinstated after the Kage Summit. 

"When you dissolved the Fire Nation war threatened to break out almost immediately. The nations were dragged into further conflict, resulting in several unnecessary deaths. The shinobi world is fragile, and I realized if it is to survive it must be united under a single-banner."

There were few things that the two friends agreed upon, but the forging of the Fire Nation was likely one of them. Viper's  additional mastermind plans might be a bit more radical then Navi would approve of, but his explanations would likely come in time. 

"The Biju of this world must also be eliminated or at least contained. Their existence is an imperfection, and few can control or even contain its power. Echo is one of the most powerful ninja in the world, but even he is vulnerable. The Kyuubi's influence over him makes him a potential catastrophic disaster." 

Navi had more reason then most to hold immense hatred for the Biju. The woman who used to be the love of his life had been consumed by the Nibi's power while in Asgard. The beast itself was now isolated and specially contained by him, but the damage it had done to his psyche remained. Each demon had the power to overwhelm those who attempted to control them, a fact that kept the man ever vigilant of his own circumstance as a jinchuriki. 

It was likely that Viper had watched or at least known about Navi's loss, having complete omnipotence in Asgard. He hadn't mentioned or talked about it with anyone, but his old friend would likely see the coldness and hatred that manifested itself in his dark and sorrowful eyes. 

"Between remaining vigilant of the demons and political strife, I've had my hands somewhat full." 

A pause of silence is marked by a sip of his beverage while he waits for his old mentor's response.

His gaze looks upon Navi as he speaks, taking in every word that brings a mental sigh of a mixture of many emotions, sadness, disappointment, and remorse for the boy, Viper curious if the job of Hokage is starting to overwhelm him stress wise. He speaks about how war still threatens to break out, Viper however turned a blind eye to the world for one crucial reason; if he seen something going wrong he would want to fix it, thus he tried to fully remove himself.

Viper now begins his response after taking the time to think over his words, "sadly I agree." The man says with his tone making his disappointment known, the reason for such soon to be made public. "The disbanding of the Fire Nation was a test, to see how the world could function without a leader, and if I truly made a mark on the world like I thought I did." A sigh escapes his lips, the man continues. "It was selfish, but I had to see for myself if I could even retire and settle down, if what your telling me is true, then this world is not a safe enough place for even my children to be in, the goal I had failed." Viper's form is more relaxed that it is business like, his hand supporting the full weight of his head that lays upon his palm.

"The demons will not be easy to find sadly, even with Asgard I cannot tell where they will pop up, they were mostly set to be sporadic occurrences to test the world and see how it handled them. With this knowledge however, it seems as if this completely failed, and my retirement is still something off in the future sadly." Viper thinks about all the events, he wishes to say that the world needs to be enslaved once more, but this however has a few things behind it. "A question though, how has Tengakure no Sato been? I had my own hand in selecting the Second Tenkage, Shinji Uzumaki. Hopefully my actions ended a good amount of tension between the nations, or are we still in a partial war with them still?" He inquires, he has been away for some time, there is a lot he wishes to hear about, to see if his plans worked out, or failed miserably.

Viper had made his motives and intentions clear, but hadn't quite explained any actions that he planned on taking. This caused Navi to be a bit wary, but he continued to answer each of the questions as Viper brought them up. 

"Fortunately there is no outright war between villages at present. I have had little contact with Shinji or really much of Tengakure at all since the Fire-Sky War. I had received reports of their nation being under harassment by a group of powerful missing ninja which has likely kept them busy, but I've otherwise been somewhat unaware of their situation."

Presence of the Fire Nation kept political conflict between villages much easier to deal with. The potential threats of rogue ninja and demons hung over the lands, but at least internal strife had been kept to a minimum. 

The mention of Viper being brought out of retirement was somewhat unsettling to Navi, especially if his radical ideas of creating a perfect world extended to the absolute protection of his children. They were all ninja after all, they chose the military life style when they enlisted in the dangerous shinobi-world. 

"Speaking of your children, they have been developing quite well," Navi assured, "I'm sure you've been watching their advancement in the Chuunin Exams." 

It was no secret that Samuru was the predicted winner of the tournament. Being God's son certainly granted you potential and opened many doors to success, the boy would almost certainly be the grand champion, an outcome that wouldn't surprise Navi in the slightest.

He hears how the villages have actually been holding up well, perhaps he did pick a good leader for Tengakure no Sato, his actions of making the First Tenkage, or what they believed to be the First Tenkage, Zachariah retire publicly opposed to dropping off the face of the world, helping to gain better relations with the two nations. He however hears about a group of rouges that traverse the world, during his time in power he remembers when he was able to effectively keep every criminal under watch, Konohagakure no Sato did not have a single missing ninja that made it out to the borders alive.

Viper hears about his children, this bringing a light smile to his otherwise casual facial expressions. "I figured that they would do good here, being in Asgard does not give them the experience they need to grow into adults. Perhaps with the world turning out as such, they can get some experience of their own, like we have had. Imagine if we grew up in this era, without war, how different we would be." Viper thinks over this, sighing lightly as it shaped him into something different, along with his brother Echo, living through peaceful times he doubt he would of even wanted the seat of Hokage, Viper imagining where he might of been without the events that occurred.

He however brings the subject back to the state of the world, "Do you have any information about the ninja that attacked Tengakure no Sato? Although they are our allies, I personally would not send help unless we do some investigating first. Zachariah during his time in power went around to the different villages and took them for his own like we did, perhaps Tengakure no Sato is doing the same once again cause they feel threatened by the surrounding power, so they are making enemies by trying to extend their borders?" Viper is still thinking over the events, but gives a thought out hypothesis of what could of occurred, he cannot say he does not hold a bit of resentment towards that of Tengakure no Sato during the war they raged, even if it was the former Tenkage's fault.

Viper lets his thoughts wander throughout his mind, it seems he truly missed a lot Viper finally speaks, "you have answered all of my questions, so it is only fair that I answer some of yours. I know I have not been open with you on my actions, my solo plans have caused more trouble than anything so if you wish to know anything else, then feel free to ask about it, I'm tired of keeping secrets after what I caused." Viper's form losing the smile it had before, this actually fading more during the business talk, his face returning to a more relaxed one that does not really show emotion, these kept in his own mind as he wonders what he is going to do in the future.

It was unfortunate that the conversation topic transitioned to something that Navi knew very little about. Viper had inquired about the identity of the missing ninja harassing Tengakure. 

"All I know is that it is a small group of S-rank missing ninja, nothing more unfortunately. If I pull up their records and listings in the Bingo Book I have names and basic information, but nothing to track them down if that's what you're looking for."

Viper's words echo with the same precautions that Navi himself feels. 

"I distrust the former Sky Nation as much as you, but I doubt that Tengakure has such motives." 

For a moment Navi rethinks what he said before giving off a slight sigh in favor of his more paranoid judgment. 

"I'll have someone look into it, I don't suspect their betrayal but it is always better to be on the safe side. Perhaps we can investigate the rogue ninja in the mean time."

The young Yamaki becomes silent as Viper speaks again, offering to answer any questions he might have. This was a unique opportunity, as the God often remained discrete about his plans, causing some things to go wrong and his subordinates to sometimes clean up the damage caused. The first question that came to mind would be related to the same topic they had just discussed. 

"The same S-rank missing ninja that are harassing Tengakure were also responsible for the destruction of Kirigakure. Normally this international incident would require a full scale investigation and Black Ops teams to hunt down such dangerous assailants. At the time we were still at war however, and many counted this as a convenient tragedy that was lucky to have befallen the Sky Nation and not our own."

A brief pause is noted here, as Viper likely knows where he is going with this. 

"I had the pleasure of meeting the leader of the Volcano Village at the recent Kage Summit. A Jachinist like him tends to stand out, especially when rumors spread of a Jachinist's presence in the same group of powerful criminals. A leader in the Fire Nation spotted with criminals that happened to target our enemies nation during the war." 

Another pause, Navi takes his time to explain how his speculations draw upon this specific conclusion, and the question he plans to follow up with. 

"I want to know if you had connections with these missing ninja and their actions." 

Should his speculation be true, knowledge of this would be their first step to uncovering a lead on where the terrorist group was hiding. Cooperation between the two leaders would be vital for their uncovering of the threats that could harm the people of the Fire Nation.

Viper listens to the information provided, it remains as simply basic information with no leads, up until he mentions Kirigakure no Sato, this moving on to the subject of Osore, a slight smirk forms upon Viper's lips as he thinks over that event, this event Viper has much knowledge about, in fact he orchestrated the entire thing basically, up until Kirigakure no Sato's attack however.

"Volcano, or as it is now known, Funkagakure no Sato, is a.." he pauses to find the right words, "complicated issue. Now your free to think what you will, but I request that you hear me out first." Viper removes his hand from his chin, leaning back in his chair as if about to tell a grand story, his feet positioned under the desk to keep his chair from flipping backwards whilst he reclines, his hands lacing behind his head, he chews upon his bottom lip whilst thinking back to some time ago, when he set these events in motion. "During the war, Volcano was a special unit, the village leader, now Kage Osore Kinzoku, I watched take the village for his own. After this however I met with the man, he lacks any real leadership capabilities from what I seen, but he occupies a spot. The man is a blood lusting cannibal, so during the war I kept that as a secret weapon, the man for the most part at least feared me due to our military might. This faction was made to do the things we couldn't, if it ever came to it, without us taking the fall so to speak."

Viper knows full well this is the part Navi will disagree with, Navi cared greatly for the people, and Viper more for the end product in war, which can be seen as the same thing, he wanted to end the war to make sure the people are safe. "The time did come however, after Primrose was taken by Kirigakure no Sato, I met with Zachariah about the event. He gave me full control over Kirigakure no Sato, to punish as I seen fit. The village itself had caused nothing but trouble during my entire time as Hokage, nearly every Kage turned traitor that we put in power. I thought it best to fully get rid of the village, they were an unstable force that broke away from Sky, yet raged war against both of us. So, I had Osore do the act that needed to be done, the complete destruction of Kirigakure no Sato, in exchange for its place in the big five."

Viper pauses for a moment, allowing Navi to take in his words before he starts once more. "The agreement was, Osore kept away from the other lands, and was to be my tool to destroy evil, with evil. He was granted free reign over his own village, but when he left he could not take any life. Think of this as a way to get what we need done, without getting the blame on our nation." Viper however now directs his words to more about the men causing the trouble, "Now, if what you say is true, and these are the same men that went after Kirigakure no Sato, then they at minimum are enlisted by Osore, or at least were at some point. Volcano I left him full power over, so it is "Gods blindspot" if you will, if your looking for criminals, that would be the place to look."

Viper waits to hear how Navi will respond to this, hopefully he will understand his actions more, as during war this was a highly strategical move, a hidden unit that can fully cause the destruction that you need to get openings, but they take all the blame when it comes time to take it, Osore was the one to take the fall for his actions and plans when it came down to it, so if a plan went wrong, the results were headed to Funkagakure no Sato opposed to being redirected upon the Fire Nation itself, and putting his own ninja at risk.