Disclaimer: Don't own. I own the rights to this fic though.

Summary:

Uzumaki Naruto did not come back after the battle in the Valley of the End. He did not make it back to see all of his friends and surrogate family members after the ordeal with a smile, nor did he get to say a word about how hungry he was, how much he wanted ramen, or how much he so wished to train.

Uzumaki Naruto died. He was murdered. At least in the eyes of some.

His sensei, Hatake Kakashi, the son of White Fang, did not make it in time to stop him from battling, nor was he fast enough to get to Konoha to save his student. Instead, he was able to save Uchiha Sasuke, who assed out from fatigued with his battle with Naruto.

Subaku no Temari and Nara Shikamaru did not win in their fight with the Sound Four member Tayuya. Instead of taking her out with her fan, Temari overestimated the distance and sent a barrage of trees crashing down on not only herself, but Shikamaru and Tayuya as well, instead of her original target. As they tried to escape, they all were seemingly crushed under the trees. They were quickly recovered.

Rock Lee and Subaku no Gaara, unaware of the goings on around them, succeeded in defeating the Last Kaguya, Kimimaro. However, it was not because of sheer skill. Even with Lee's superior taijutsu and Gaara's sand, Kimimaro was more than a match for them. In the last seconds of battle, Kimimaro lunged at Gaara and Lee from within the forest of bones he created, planning to kill them. With Gaara nearly out of chakra, he started to couch eratically, and eventually blood, and this event allowed Gaara to use what little chakra he had left, to crush him in a sand like coffin, crushing his most of his bones instantaneously. And yet, he did not die. Kimimaro lived.

Kimimaro and Tayuya have been captured and interrogated for the plans of their master, former shinobi of Konoha, and snake sannin, Orochimaru as soon as they were well enough to be out of the emergency room. Meanwhile, Kakashi arrived with the battered and bloody body of one Uchiha Sasuke in his arms, and the prone, lifeless body as well, via shadow clone.

Uchiha Sasuke is being hed in the emergency room from severe chakra exhaustion.

Naruto was in the morgue.

It's been three weeks since then. His body is gone.

This is where it begins.


"Shizune~! Get me another bottle!" The short, black haired beauty and apprentice of the Godaime Hokage sighed as she walked aaway from the bottle littered office. Papers were everywhere, tables and chairs were reduced to rubble and dust, and several holes were in the walls in the shape of fists. It was the outcome of one thing, and one thing only, and she dared not speak it aloud. This wasn't Senju Tsunade at her worst.

The sounds from within alternated between laughing, growling in anger, crying hysterically, and sobbing pitifully. Somme would say that there was not much difference between the latter two, but Shizune would whole heartedly disagree. She could hear it in her long time friend and master, the difference, the pain.

She struggled not to cry herself; her eyes were still red and her cheeks were still puffed out and frozen from tears not long past, that had drained from her face and left her completely dehydrated. It was just her allergy, she wanted to tell herself. A simple Spring allergen jutsu would cure the problem easily. Again and again, she fought to come up with a different excuse for her and her sensei's sadness; for Tsunade it was her yandere like attitude and drinking problem, and for her... for her, all she had was a lame excuse about pollen. Pathetic, she berated herself all to harshly.

She sat down at her desk that was now at least two hallways from her sensei's after getting the previous forty-eight destroyed by them both. In her hands were a bundle of folders, all packed to the gills with papr and files that threatened to burst from her delicate, yet coarse fingers if she made the slightest wrong move. She had to channel chakra into her hands just to keep it from falling.

Shizune dropped the bundle of folders to her desk and winced when the resounding bang met her ears like a church bell. She smiled bitterly. That was what she got for crying so much.

She sat there limply for a few moments, her eyes staring holes into the folders. She wished she could set them on fire, and throw them out the window, and she damn well could have, but she hadn't been out of the tower in days, and she didn't plan on being out anytime soon either. She was completely disgusted with her village. No, it wasn't her village. It was never her village and she'd been damned if anyone said otherwise!

She put a hand to her forehead tiredly, her bloodshot eyes closing for just a moment. The parties were still raging, and people were still celebrating as if some great war had been won, as if some great foe had recently been defeated.

Well, in a way, in those with eyes for only fear and hate, she supposed that was morbidly correct.

Paperwork and reports upon paperwork and reports flooded in repeatedly about civilians being attacked by several shinobi of the village, namely the rookie nine. It was almost enough to get her to smile the tiniest, tinniest smile to know that they cared so much. She knew that he would be conflicted, the damned idiot, but she also knew that part of him would be extremely joyful, for no other reason than to have such a reaction.

As she went through events passed in her head that had been burned there by sheer shock, she thought of the main culprits of the attacks. They were astonishingly open about it, going as far as to protest to the ANBU that the ones attacked deserved it for 'slurring the fallen' or something along those lines. Anything that had to do with it gave her a humongous headache, so she didn't like to think of it much.

There were three of them. One, that seemingly kind and docile chuunin teacher from the Academy that she respected possibly above everyone of the senior shinobi simply because of his relationship with 'the fallen', Umino Iruka. The man had gone into a complete rage, going as far as beating out mobs of celebrations one by one while breaking arms, legs, and cutting them as well as other body parts. That made her smile; she didn't care if it was sadistic or not, the term 'You reap what you sow' was enough defense in her case.

The other one, a person whom she had not been readily introduced too, nor had enough time to ever meet, but heard much about, was a teenage girl that helped run a ramen stand not too far away from the Hokage Tower. The girl was possibly even more notorious than the Academy teacher, with her sending in victims with concussions and bleeding heads, and some in temporary comas that frankly, she refused to get them out of. She was amazed what one could do with a rolling pin, a pot, and a pan.

At the last, and certainly not least, she thought with an actual laugh, was none other than the heir to the Hyuuga clan. Oh how much wrath she brought upon those who spoke ill of her not so secret love! Even the ANBU had trouble retaining her when some civilian had dared call her love a 'useless, monstrous, piece of trash that deserved death and more'. In the end, they had to rush them to the emergency room because of ruptured arteries, severe blood clots, and unmovable limbs that weren't going to be used for a very long time. And once again, she refused to heal them.

She briefly considered the idea of herself being a closet sadist, similar to that woman Mitarashi Anko for a second or so, but dismissed it. The people deserved what they got, was what she told herself, and that was something she held no doubt about.

"Shizune! Bring *hic* the sake *hic*!" The slurred, sobbing voice of her mentor screamed, enough to echo throughout several hallways and still rebound back into her ears after she had covered them. She furrowed her eyebrows and looked to the left side of her desk at the last bottle of sake they had. Tsunade had emptied all of the bottles in her secret stash and Shizune didn't stop her. Hell, she joined her. But this was the last bottle, and it only had a cup and a half's worth left anyway.

So without a second thought, Shizune popped the cork off, and guzzled it down in a similar fashion to that of Tsunade, which was something that had rubbed off on her over the years.

When the last drop was drained, she slammed it to the table angrily, as she had never been one to hold her liquor, sake, alcohol, or anything else that could get her moderately inebriated. Her eyebrows furrowed into a scowl, her thoughts became angrier, and so did her disposition. It was all accented by her eyes and disgruntled appearance that said that she had not obtained more than nine hours of sleep in the last three weeks, and her rationality was running incredibly thin to go out the window.

With those two sound four, or should she say sound five, the pathetic little bastards, being held captive by Morino Ibiki, Yamanaka Inoichi, and Mitarashi Anko, she had half a mind to go in there herself and stab a chakra scalpel through their eyes with no anesthetic, just to hear them scream. It was all their fault, after all. They had been there to take away the Uchiha, who had left willingly, they had been there to stop the nine from retrieving him, and they had been there to ruin the very single thing that was starting to make her sensei happy again!

And then there was the Uchiha himself. Her eyes widened and she made a back up motion with her hands to no one in particular, but the ANBU in the corners of the room raised an eyebrow. That snobbish little bastard deserve to get tortured or banished at the very least. How she would juts enjoy stomping on him like a little grape- man that would feel invigorating!

It wasn't even that snot nosed, overly pampered punk's fault entirely. Well, maybe it was, but she wouldn't have given a damn if he left anyway. The village didn't need him anymore, they had his genetic sample.

No, if it was anyone's fault-and it was-it would be that stupid little pink haired, tooth pick figured, green eyes of envy, worthless wannabe kunoichi fan-girl Sakura! Yes, this was all her fault, Shizune raged inside her mind, unaware that she was now destroying the edges of her desk with her finger tips even though the wood was splintering fantastically.

If she hadn't have been so utterly useless and naive, so completely devoted to that pampered Uchiha, Naruto-

Naruto. The very name made her want to smile and cry at the same time.

She stopped suddenly, her shoulders drooped. She hated to say it, but, if it was anyones fault-and it was-it was his. He was loyal to a fault and naive as well. He didn't realize when to give up or turn his back, which was why he was the most unpredictable ninja, yet the worst as well.

He'd been the one to promise Sakura to bring back the Uchiha.

He'd been the one to stay and fight when the Uchiha obviously didn't want to stay in the village.

He'd been the one that still loved the village, even though she had no clue how, to the point of stupidity.

And he'd also be the one spinning in the grave right now. As such were her thoughts from the day she saw his lifeless body on a gurney in the hospital, and such would be her thoughts for years to come, especially since they had yet to have a funeral for him.

Her desk, which was not so thoughtfully placed in front of the main doorway to get to the lower floor, thumped shamelessly, causing her to look up from where her eyes began to leak again. It was a visitor, no doubt, probably some idiot civilian who wanted to rent out Naruto's apartment for the sheer sake of destroying it or making money from it. The last one with such intentions, which were actually a couple, were punched and thrown out of the window and into the market district like a couple of rag dolls. That had felt good too, seeing as Tsunade was passed out under her desk, and she was left to do it.

When she looked up, her eyes instantly narrowed at the sight of upstanding silver hair and one eye that was as baggy as hers. "Kakashi." She growled, her voice filled with venom that she surmised was well fitting for the Son of White Fang, who simply looked down shamefully.

The man had made numerous visits to her and Tsunade, almost more than Iruka or Ichiraku Ayame and Ichiraku Teuchi did. While she would never admit it, it was nice to see him actually give a damn about something for once, even if it was too late. But she still whole-heartedly resented the man for being late for something that was even more important than a team mission and being one of the matches to the dynamite for his students death.

When part of her asked to put more salt on the wound, she gladly obliged.

"Hello Shizune. I was wondering if I could speak to Hokage-sama about-" the masked man started, his cheerful voice an obvious and pitiful facade.

"She's busy at the moment Kakashi." Shizune growled again, her eyes still wishing to glare the man into becoming the first living porous human.

"Ah." He stood there for a moment, his one eye darting from her to the folders nervously; the man was hard pressed for something to say before he was kicked out or threatened with a kunai where the sun didn't shine. Shizune noticed this and sighed, her struggle to drop her glower visibly apparent. She reached out and grasped one of the folders and handed it to the man, who took it in earnest.

"This would be?" His former lazy tone of voice was cracked and hoarse, and his throat was dry and sounded like it hurt quite a bit. Good, Shizune smirked. That's what you get you lazy son of a fu-

"The reprimands for the shinobi who attacked the civilians. These are to be delivered to each of them, today." She would have rather burned them, but she had a job to do, a job that paid for more sake. In other words, he was to get it done or get an uppercut through the roof.

"Very well." Kakashi, for once, she noticed, did not use a shunshin, but instead opted to go back the way from whence he came, which perplexed her a little. That is until she remembered Tsunade had place chakra sensors throughout the floor, that were set to go off from any jutsu.

She grit her teeth and rubbed her head before letting it softly drop to the table. Her head snapped up the moment she heard a thumping sound come from within the drawers. She opened them and laughed evilly on the inside when she saw the latest import of sake from Wave Country that she had forgotten about, which was supposedly ten times stronger than conventional sake. And there were three bottles worth.

"Shizune~! Sake now~!" Tsunade whined her voice making the young woman cringe a little as she got up with only one out of the three bottles in hand and walked to the office once more only to stop dead in her tracks.

Wave Country had yet to receive the news. Suna was on the brink of breaking their new treaty, but Wave Country... she gulped at the thought of the repercussions and looked at the bottle in her hand. Perhaps she would be needing all three bottles soon?

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up as she opted to give at least one bottle to her mentor. While she walked to the door she could have sworn she heard the unmistakable sound of someone yelling and screaming, as well as stomping their way on, but cast it aside.

She looked at the door to Tsunade's office and sniffed a little. There was a hole going straight through it, and on it was written, 'Naruto was here' with whisker marks on the sides of the hole. She remembered that day. He'd slammed a rasengan straight through it just for the purpose of a prank, and afterward, Tsunade was so angry that she just burst out laughing.

"Shizune~!"

"I'm coming Tsunade-sama!" She pushed the doors open and was careful not to crush any bottles under her feet whilee made her way to Tsunade, who was lying limp over her desk, drool leaking shamelessly out of her mouth like a faucet.

Shizune set the bottle down and quickly turned to leave so she wouldn't have to listen to her mentors drunken rage at several things ranging from the village, to the high price of sake, gambling, or her old teammate Jiraiya.

And just when she made it to the doorway, the woman uttered in the most pathetic, sad, down trodden, and broken voice she ever heard, "Thank you Shizune. I-I know I-I c-can always c-count on y-you." She felt her heart clench when those words left a void in the air like no other before. This was tearing her up inside, she could tell. And because of that, she was suffering indefinitely.

"Yes... Tsunade-sama." The door suddenly burst open, splinters flying everywhere and embedding themselves in the wall, and the door itself was knocked off it hinges. Tsunade and Shizune both looked at the intruder with anger and shock respectively, both with different reasons.

"Jiraiya what the fuck do you want? I don't have time for you now!" The said man looked infuriated and broken, much like Tsunade herself was, except he had the decency to cover up the stench of vomit and hardcore liquor with cheap cologne. His eyes were nearly blood red and very beady, his hair ragged and looked to be patched like it had been cut or pulled out in numerous places, and his hands were the picture identity of tenderized meat. It was as if he spent an hour trying to turn stone into dust with his bare hands.

"Well? Answer me!" The Godaime Hokage all but screamed. Shizune winced; to say that the two hadn't been on the best of terms recently would be the understatement of the century. Their arguments could be heard throughout the entire village when in the tower, and sometimes it would be taken to the Hokage mansion where explosions would be heard. Many a time inn the past three weeks ANBU units had been sent there just in case, and they made the perfect vent for anger. At least in Shizune's case.

And in the bottom of her heart, Shizune knew that all the arguments, the insults they dished out the past few weeks were true. There was no denying that one bit.

Jiraiya looked to Shizune and nodded briskly, a hoarse grunt coming from his throat like nails on a chalkboard. He swayed for a moment in inebriation before stumbling forward a bit and looking Tsunade right in the eye. She was gripping her table so tight that it began to turn into rough chipped sawdust, and looked like she was going to rip his head off, as such had been there reactions to each other every time they met for the past few days.

"Dear Hokage-sama-chan-hime," Jiraiya started in a voice as slurred as the golden eyed blonde, his voice leaking sarcasm and venom, "I have come to report of something that may just well catch your interest, that you might not run away from like so many other things in the past." His tall form bowed and rose just as quickly, making him shake his head dizzily. "Would you A, like to hear it and deeal with it, or B, crawl into a bottle like you always do and try to run away?"

"You bastard," Tsunade stood up and threw her desk out of the window and stormed toward her former teammate who didn't look the least bit fazed with her fist cocked back. Just as her fist was ready to collide, Jiraiya grabbed it and his entire anngry disposition faded, replaced by a melancholy one. "You of all people have no right whatsoever to say that to me you damn pervert!"

"Forgive me for being... hesitant of your reliability Hokage-sama. I assumed you would care of something that recently came to light. I suppose I was," he hiccuped, "wrong." As the toad sannin turned to walk away Tsunade grabbed him and spun him around so she could `glower at him, her alcohol filled breath meeting his vomit scented one. "What. D. You. Want?"

Jiraiya yanked her hand off of him, mildly surprising her. "If you weren't so damn icaught up in your own problems, maybe you would have had the common sense to check the MORGUE once in a while dammit!"

Shizune felt a sense of dread fill her, and from the look on her mentor's face, she did as well. Jiraiya took a moment to calm down before looking back to Tsunade with a broken look that she herself wore, and turned around, finally walking out.

"It's Naruto. He's gone."

They would never see Tsunade break through the window so fast ever again with such a torn look on her face.


That puts a twist on thing eh?