A/N: This is my response to the Missing Hokage Challenge issued by Perfect Lionheart. I'm rather a big fan of the challenge, and so I thought I might give it a shot. So, here I go.

The Missing Hokage

The Bellmaker

"Ugh..." As his eyes flickered open and the world swam into focus, Naruto became aware of three things almost immediately. First and foremost, he was in quite a lot of pain. Second, there was a comfortable warmth on his right arm. And third, someone was talking nearby.

"She hasn't returned to the compound since he was brought in. And your medics have been preventing me from bringing her home. You WILL open this door, and I WILL take my daughter."

""She's been by his side since he was brought in. I think it's cute. She's asleep, now, and he's been in a coma since they found him, so shhh." She hushed whoever she was talking to as the door opened quietly. "However," she continued, speaking in a low tone, "I cannot allow you to remove her. She is helping in Naruto's recovery. As I'm sure you know, having a familiar presence can aid in recovering from a coma, after all."

"Fine." The man's voice was colder than any Naruto could remember. Naruto closed his eyes almost all the way, curious as to who was talking to Shizune, but afraid that he'd get someone in trouble if he were already awake. It took all of his restraint to avoid giving himself away when Hinata's father walked into the room. Hiashi, that's his name, he remembered, and lay there quietly.

Shizune had walked over to the foot of his bed, and was checking Naruto's chart.

"So...how is he?" Hiashi asked quietly, looking down on Naruto.

Shizune's eyebrows shot up, but after a brief curious glance at the Hyuuga clan head, answered his question. "Well, he's doing much better. When they brought him in, he was missing a lung and twenty percent of his chest. Tsunade-sama and I spent thirteen hours rebuilding him, but there's not much more we can do, right now. He'll have a nasty scar there, if he ever wakes up..." The pain in her voice in those last five words made Naruto want to hop up out of bed and say, 'See, I'm fine!' but he maintained his act, eyes almost shut, breathing even and deep, until the two left the room, closing the door behind them.

He breathed deeply, wincing at the pain in his chest. He suddenly remembered that warmth on his arm, and, turning his head, was surprised to find Hinata using him as a pillow, clutching his arm as her head rested on his shoulder. That...can't be comfortable. He thought, as she was sitting in a chair and sleeping slumped over onto him. He gently untangled his arm from her grasp and sat up, bracing his arms back against the bed as the world spun. When his vision cleared, he swung his legs out of the bed and stood up. The bandaged boy cast a glance back at Hinata, remembering what Shizune had said. Suddenly, it sunk in just how close she had been, and he flushed a deep red.

Putting the thought out of his mind, he eased open the window and slipped outside. He was hungry, and there was no way he was going to eat hospital food!

"What do you mean, Danzo?" Tsunade snarled, glaring at the scarred man with an intensity that was actually peeling the paint from the wall behind him.

The disfigured council member was unfazed. "As I said. Clearly the boy is the one at fault here. The Uchiha was attacked, and simply defended himself against a dangerous attacker, who assaulted him without cause. It is apparent to me, that the boy is growing unstable, as evidenced by this assault on an abducted teammate. As such, I am proposing banishment."

One of the civilian council members spoke up. "The proposal is the banishment of Shinobi of the Leaf Uzumaki Naruto. All in favour?" The proposal immediately became official with the proper phraseology, and all of the civilians' hands went up, along with the three ex-shinobi who advised the Hokage. "All against?" The clan heads - all of them, Tsunade noticed - indicated their opposition to the banishment. "It is decided. Shinobi Uzumaki Naruto is to have seven days to put his affairs in order, before he is banished from Konoha, under pain of death."

Tsunade blinked. She had automatically voted against the movement, but the rapidity of the act had caught completely flat-footed. "Wait! Damn you, you can't do that! As Hokage, Shinobi affairs are my sole responsibility! This lies beyond your-"

"No, actually, it doesn't, Hokage-sama. The Daimyo has granted the council the final voice in the matter of dealing with this particular dangerous and unstable ninja. For your sake," Danzo said this last condescendingly, as though granting a great favour at little cost, "we aren't ordering his execution. However, the verdict stands. He has one week."

Inuzuka Tsume had been growling at the crippled man since he had begun talking, but it was Aburame Shibi who spoke first, much to everyone's surprise. "I must lodge a formal protest to this decision. The ninja in question has demonstrated his loyalty time and time again. And the most glaring error in your argument is the fact that the Uchiha is a traitor and defector, who was being extracted by accomplices, not kidnapped. Uzumaki-san was trying to bring his target to justice. The use of lethal force is authorized and, in some cases, encouraged under these circumstances."

Immediately after this calm declaration, the council degenerated into a shouting match, the civilians defending their precious Uchiha, many of the clan heads insulting him, the civilian council, the council's parentage, and worse.

Hiashi and Shibi had already left. ANBU were physically restraining Tsume from leaping onto one of the civilians and tearing out his throat with her teeth, after a particularly acidic comment on her clan's...habits, and Tsunade...was no-where to be seen. More disturbing than that, however, was the fact that there was no trail of destruction, no shattered wall, nothing. The only mark of her passage that remained was the shattered arm of the Hokage's chair in the council room.

The first council meeting after the defection of 'The Last Loyal Uchiha' had to be broken up by ANBU. Three of the shinobi were suspended, including Tsume, and four civilians were heavily fined for their parts in the debacle.

"Naruto! It's been awhile! What'll you have?" Ichiraku Teuchi was glad that the small boy was back. It wasn't like Naruto to just disappear like that.

"A shrimp ramen, please." The orange-clad boy requested, somewhat subdued. The old man knew Naruto's moods, and his ramen preferences, and shrimp was his 'deep thinking' ramen. Something happened while he was gone, and he needed to think it over.

"Coming right up." Teuchi nodded and got right to work,.

"So, Naruto..." That would be his daughter, Ayame. Teuchi nodded to himself. She always worried about the boy when he was gone. And just disappearing like he did... "Where have you been? It's not like you to just disappear for ten days."

The blond boy froze. "Ten days?!"

"Yeah. Didn't you know?" The blond shifted a bit, causing his unzipped jacket he wore to open slightly, giving Ayame an excellent view of his bandage-wrapped body. She gasped, and was around the counter before Naruto had any idea what happened. "What happened to you?!" She had opened his jacket and was examining the bandaged injuries.

"Uhm...well...there was a mission, and..." he shrugged, and wouldn't look her in the eye. "I got hurt." He brightened immediately, though, "But I'm fine now! Really!" He went to rub the back of his head, but winced at the movement. He still didn't have full range of motion.

"No you're not. Dad! He's taking his ramen with him. And throw in a couple miso, too, you know how he eats." Teuchi had anticipated this, though, and the ramen was already ready to go.

"On the house." He said, gruffly, "And don't come back until they actually say you can leave the hospital, this time. You won't heal, this way."

Naruto laughed nervously, not very surprised that he had been caught. "Eh-heheh. Sorry." He almost went to rub the back of his head again, but caught himself just in time.

"Now, are we going?" Ayame asked, scooping up the the ramen from the counter. "Oh, don't look so surprised. You think I'd let you carry this all yourself?"

With a sigh, Naruto hopped off of the stool. "Alright." He immediately decided that if he had a captive audience, well, then he'd better make use of it! "So! Let me tell you about the time that I saved a real honest-to-goodness princess!"

A/N: Well, slightly shorter than i was hoping for a chapter to this story, but still one of my longer ones! That in itself makes up for it, I suppose. Well, it looks like this is going to be my main project for a while, if my muse continues with its unnatural focus. This doesn't mean that I'm abandoning anything, it just means that I'm going to be working on this more than my other stuff, so updates on the others are going to be even more delayed. Sorry!

As for pairings, well, I dunno yet. It all depends on story flow, and character interaction. I'm just as curious as any of you might be.