Night of the kyuubi attack...
Kushina Uzumaki stared down at her newborn son, so small and innocent as he lay naked in his stone manger, blissfully unaware of the sacrifices being forced upon him. He would be hated, of that she was sure, she knew first hand the distrust that jinchuriki's faced from those they safeguarded from the monsters sealed into their bodies, the simple fear of it escaping is what drove away those they would otherwise call friend. But he, Naruto, her little sun, her darling boy, her world, her baby would be Hated. Konoha knew the wrath of the king of the Bijuu, how could they ever forget the devastation that the lord of demons wrought upon them at this very moment, even two generations of Hokage along with the support of the three legendary Sannin could barely hold it back from what little remained of the city of Konohagakure, the village hidden in the leaves, the first hidden village, the strongest of the villages with the Hokage at the helm as the mightiest of them all, now in ruins.
Kushina could feel the arms of her Husband wrap around her, a man who now cared little for anything outside of safety of the village, and she knew her time was up, she was soon to die. Killed by the very beast she had long imprisoned, she could almost laugh at the poetic justice, but now wasn't the time for laughter or poetry. Kushina steeled her resolve, and refused to look away from the face of her child. Kushina Uzumaki regretted many things, marrying Minato, running from her home of Uzugakure when it needed her, leaving her family behind to be slaughtered, But as she lived and breathed she would never regret giving birth to Naruto.
Kushina felt it the moment her husbands body was pierced by the massive claw of the Kyuubi, but she didn't care, just as she knew he wasn't trying to protect her, simply using her body as a secondary shield should his own fail, she didn't care about that either. No, all she cared about was the fact that her boy, moments before, had opened his eyes, shinning pools of glittering, glistening, amethyst that shone with the unbridled happiness as the boy saw his mother for the first time, the wide toothless smile on his face matched by the ruby lips of his mother as tears poured from her own amethysian gemstones as he reached up with his chubby little arms. She felt many things for Naruto at that moment; Pride for the intelligence of boy she brought into the world, recognizing his mother on sight, Joy at how beautiful and healthy he was, the love of a mother, the sorrow that she would never watch him grow or hear him call her mama, pain for the burden placed on him by her inability to cage the Kyuubi, but regret?
No. Even as she felt the claw begin to pierce her back, she felt no regret for what she was about to do to protect her son, her little sun, her darling boy, her world, her light. Even as she felt the imminent demise of her own flickering flame of her mortality, she would not turn away from the smiling face of her light, his eyes glowing and his hair shining like blood in the candle light.
That is...Until Minato was suddenly yanked away before the claw could go more than an few millimeters into her back, throwing Kushina in the opposite direction and leaving her back sliced from center to shoulder as she was flung into the air, screaming for her son.
***][***
Eighteen years later...
Kotetsu Hagane and his partner Izumo Kamizuki frowned up at the night sky as thunder tore though the silence of the evening.
"It seems that rain is in our future, Kotetsu." Izumo muttered to his friend as it began to drizzle. Kotetsu snorted in irritation.
"What gave you that idea dumbass, the thunder or the rain itself?" He grumbled as he made his way to the guards post to wait out the storm, or his shift, what ever came first. Izumo flashed his best friend a dirty look before following his lead and entered the small building, where they began to play cards with the other guards, periodically looking over the edge of the wall at the road.
It was a little while later during their ninth hand Izumo looked through the window and nearly jumped out of his skin. He leapt from his seat, startling the other guards, and had to force himself not to fire off a jutsu.
"Hey man what's wrong?" Kotetsu inquired, placing his hand on his friend's shoulder. Izumo said nothing as he his features turned from surprise to the stone cold face of a shinobi and pointed out into the pounding rain.
The other guards followed his hand to see far out in the darkness, a little ways beyond the edge of where the glow of the floodlights met the ebon curtain of night, stood the silhouette of a person standing unmoving and slouched to the one side, its right shoulder dipped low, arm hanging limply as the left shoulder rose high in the air. the shadowy mass that was its head was held upwards and its left arm ended in a tapered right angle where the hand should have been, like a man wielding a kunai in the reversed grip.
The majority of the guard, including Izumo and Kotetsu, leapt from the walls while the rest rushed to man the wall. As they neared the figure the smell of blood permeated even over the rain and the group slowed down, caution setting in.
"Step out into the light!" Izumo demanded over the pounding rain, whatever the figure said was drowned out by thunder and in that brief moment all the group saw was that the figure was a man covered in blood and they where immediately on guard, blades where drawn by those below and the groaning of several longbows could be heard as those above responded to the actions of their fellows, seals ingrained into the wood of their bows to allow flight even in the roughest of conditions.
"Last chance, step out into the light and state your intention or we will be forced to put you down!" Izumo roared, wielding his massive kunai blades as his partner brandished his chosen weapon. The figure began to slowly stumble forward, one leg responding slower than the other. As the man grew nearer Izumo could hear his labored breathing and the smell of blood grew stronger.
The first thing to enter the light was a foot, bereft of shoes with grime and mud clinging to his bare skin. the light traveled up his legs, covered in scratches and clothed in the tattered remains of what seemed to be orange pants, now improvised shorts. The mans torso was bare and his skin, what little that wasn't covered in scars or fresh wounds, was deathly pale.
And when the figure emerged fully into the light, blood soaked and mud caked, the ninja known was Izumo and Kotetsu gaped at a face they haven't seen in five years, not since they saw him and the Toad sage off as they began their training trip.
The face that they saw was obviously older, the once rounded face of the youth had become the chiseled featured of a man. A lonely violet eye stared out into the world, defiance bleeding away into hope even as its twin sat dead in its socket, a great scar spanning the chasm as his dead eye stared out, its milky depth blind to the world. the wound looked old, unlike the state of his arm. It hung limply from his shoulders, held their by scraps of skin and small wire-like projections that connected the sliced off limb to its shoulder. Though half blind, horribly wounded, and near dead from blood loss, that did not stop him from clutching a kunai tightly in his hand. If nothing else that pure determination itself gave them all the proof they needed as to the identity of the one before them.
Red hair and all, after being missing for two years, Naruto Uzumaki had returned...
***][***
Tsunade Senju, fifth Hokage to the village hidden in the leaves, She-who-dances-in-the-amongst-the-leaves, Slug Sannin, last of her line, did not care about what people thought of her or her titles as she plowed straight through the doors of Shodai memorial, her hair flying free of their confines and wild in appearance, a fuzzy pink bathrobe that did nothing to hide her sinfully small kimono-like-sleepwear; barely aware of the fantasies she was creating for the surrounding populace of men, and some women. At the moment she didn't care for any titles save one, she now inhabited the title of Baa-Chan; one she has longed to hear for over two years, ever since a lone Jiraiya returned to the village with no Naruto in tow.
She only stopped long enough to demand the number of the operating room in which the surgeons fought to save the life of her beloved proxy-child. The receptionist had barely uttered the room number before the Hokage was gone again, rushing down the hallway on her way to save Naruto's life. Without hesitation she barreled passed the double doors of the room to find a blood soaked Sakura Haruno as she struggled to repair the damage to Naruto's arm, tears flowing freely down her carven face as she pumped her chakra into her technique. Ino stood off to the side scanning his body for any further wounds, if the creasing of her brow and the deep frown was anything to go by she did not like the results.
"What'd we got?" Tsunade demanded as she stood into the room. She was answered by Ino.
"Severe internal hemorrhaging and organ failure, severed arm, and several lacerations to the body to start with." She said as she watched the diagnostic jutsu roll off problem after problem."Subject's lungs have been punctured by blunt force trauma to the ribs, pushing back them into the lungs. Subject's Spinal column has suffered and is in danger of death by exsanguination. Also Subject's-" Ino was interrupted by an enraged Sakura.
"Call him by his name bitch, he's not just some random asshole off the street! He's Naruto! and if you call him 'Subject' like he's some damn experiment one more time I swear I'll-" This time she was interrupted.
"SAKURA!" Tsunade roared, getting the girl to cease her rant and look at her master."Stop this nonsense. Ino is just following procedure, we cant afford to allow our emotions to enter into this! I understand how you feel, he's like a son to me, but I will remove you from this room if you continue to act like that. Is that what you want, to have the best Medics in the world stop mid surgery just to remove one of their own from the operating room?" She accused, not even stopping in her preparations until the very end to glare at Sakura, who slumped in defeat and mumbled an apology Ino before she went back to work. Tsunade turned back to Ino.
"Continue." She said.
"Subje-Naruto's" Ino amended, earning a thankful glance from Sakura," Tissue shows alarming levels of scar tissue, the majority centered around the Back, neck, wrist, ankles, and torso; 53%, 7%, and 37% but..." Ino hesitated, prompting both Tsunade and Sakura to look up from their work."But what?" They questioned simultaneously, ignoring the fact.
"You don't wanna know." Ino swallowed heavily whilst wiping her eyes, trying to push the information's repercussions to the back of her mind.
"Where is the final 3% located Tokubetsu Jonin Yamanaka?" Ino flinched at the way Tsunade used her rank, She knew that Tsunade meant that as an order from the Hokage and therefor she couldn't not answer the question.
"The final three percent of scar tissue is located-" Ino looked away from the prone body of Naruto Uzumaki, unable to look upon him in fear of what she was about to reveal."In and around the anal cavity." She couldn't see the way Tsunade's eyes widened and her mouth gaped as her head whipped around to send a horrified look towards her Proxy-child. Sakura's head was on a swivel as she looked between her Sensei and her teammate.
"In the anal cavity? Lady Tsunade, what does that mean? Ino?" She questioned, in the back of her mind she already knew what it meant but she refused to accept it. Ino looked back towards her best friend as she hovered over the table.
"It means he-" She began but Tsunade beat her to the finish.
"He was raped." She said robotically, she had cut off her emotions in order to remain functioning long enough to save her boy."Not once or twice, but many times over the course of a short period of time." Sakura didn't have the strength of her friend or the switch of her teacher that allowed her to turn her emotions on and off and so she would've collapsed had it not been the swift, strong hand of Tsunade that caught her as her legs gave out. Sakura looked up into the eyes of her stone faced master.
"You can shutdown later we have work to do." Tsunade finished, talking to both of them at once but looking at Sakura, who nodded before she straightened. And while they had been working frantically during the entire exchange they tripled their efforts to save the life of their Precious person.