***EDIT: Going through these chapters one by one… I know they're mainly small edits not TOO significant but please bear with me! I needed to do this and even with these edits there are holes and discrepancies and I'm sorry about that :( I really need a beta reader lol… But either way here's the edit of Chapter one

*Don't Own Naruto*

Like every other day at almost any time, the Hokage of Konoha was sitting at his desk lost in thought and a plethora of papers. His Hokage hat precariously wobbled by his elbow, gradually losing its territory as more papers invaded the oak surface. The wrinkled man sighed, rubbing at his temples and the hat tumbled to the floor with the movement. He ignored its demise.

A sigh slipped past an old wizened man's lips as he furiously read and stamped several inane documents. His ceremonial robes, red and white, hung heavily on his weakening shoulders, as did the burdens of his position.

Sure, one would think that in a time of peace, the Hokage's workload would decrease, yet the opposite happened. Despite being the military leader of Konohagakure, the villagers all seemed to think that, now he wasn't worried about keeping them all from slaughter, he had to take care of their business deals, their property disputes, their civilian matters. These aspects of Konoha politics should have been given to the civilian council, not to him. He was shinobi. And now he had to divine what his work was before doing it while sending the rest towards the council as well. If they wanted him to deal with it, make it a mission for his ninja.

Another shaky breath slithered through his dry lips. Damnit, he had better things to worry about than these trivial matters. Like, in a theoretical instance, a girl he treated like a granddaughter being attacked in broad daylight and having to—probably—kill said assailant to save herself. Oh wait, that really did happen, and that was the uncomplicated part, somehow.

No, the real pain in the ass came from the fact that the child was the container of the most powerful bijuu of the elemental nations and that her memory of the event was severely lacking. That, combined with the people's fear of a possibly unstable seal as well as the…condition of the corpse, led to one hell of a debate on what to do with the jinchuuriki.

Normally he could simply tell off the civilian council and take control as Konoha's militaristic dictator that he was, but Naruto was a civilian. The victim was a civilian. The entire incident would be civilian-jurisdiction if not for the fact that Naruto was the object of an ANBU mission, and this severely cut into his powers to interfere.

The old man's eyes slowly dragged his vision across his desk, panning past the impossibly huge piles of mission reports, mission assignments, wrongly placed civilian matters, and other documents the Hokage had to deal with. When his eyes stopped, they rested on the image of a single file on the corner of his desk, subconsciously left bereft of any messy papers around it. He slowly, painstakingly, picked the folder up.

Date: May 19th

Time: 16:34

Report: Inoshishi

Doing daily rounds, checking up on the Target as Leader ordered. When arrived at the house, Target missing. No sign of break-in or struggle, Target must have left by own free will. Checked usual places: Hokage Monument, Ichiraku's, playground, Hokage Tower. Target wasn't found. Spike of unusual presence, can't be completely sure as to call it chakra. Followed it to District Four and down an alley. By now, presence was gone, however when arrived, witnessed Target sleeping in the middle of the victim's scene. Target had minor injuries and no blood anywhere on her person other than victim's. When approached, Target woke up and panicked and passing out. Opinion: someone killed victim and placed unsuspecting Target at the scene to incriminate the girl.

The Hokage skipped the rest of the lengthy file: the medical report, the psychiatric diagnosis, the investigation, the offered punishments. He knew every word and every symbol in the report, and there was no need to waste his time once again looking through the details. Was it Naruto who killed the attacker? He himself didn't think so, but that didn't stop the others from believing it.

Luckily, most of the clan council was on his side on the matter of one Uzumaki Naruto, but still, all of the civilian council as well as a sprinkling of shinobi believed the jinchuuriki to be the murderer. Or more specifically, the beast she jailed inside her not that they were willing to see the difference.

The Hokage clenched his hands, crushing a few innocent papers within the manila folder he'd have get copies of and sign again. He was positive the cheerful blonde wasn't the perpetrator, but nobody saw anyone other than her and the victim enter and nobody could testify as to whether or not Naruto had killed the man or was simply a witness to the murder.

Sarutobi knew he wasn't supposed to show favorites, especially in his line of work where such favorites could be targeted for leverage, but the silly airheaded girl was always an exception, and this time would be no different. He had his best working on clearing the girl's name before she was exiled or killed by the foolish civilians.

"Hokage-sama, I brought him."

Sarutobi sighed out, "Alright, send him in."

The ANBU, his mask vaguely resembling that of a beaver, nodded before briefly leaving the spacious office. When he returned, a tall man followed him in. His silvery-gold hair, which was oddly let loose to fall to the middle of his back, and icy blue eyes identified him as a Yamanaka. It was the bright purple nail polish painted sloppily on his left hand, however, the identified him as Yamanaka Inoichi, the clan head.

"Hokage-sama," Inoichi greeted. As he flourished his hand to begin a bow, Sarutobi snorted and waved it off.

"Come now, Inoichi-kun, I'm far too tired for formalities." And indeed the old man looked it. With eye sockets sunken from hours of missed sleep, the God of Shinobi seemed as if he could sleep for three days straight.

A slight nod and an almost imperceptible smile. "Then let's get straight to it, Hokage-sama.

"It's been a week since you've asked for my expertise, and two weeks even since the incident occurred and so far she still can't recall anything after turning into the alley. When I took her to the fourth district, she could easily point out where she stole the money and even the exact route she took to the alley, but then a blank. It's possible she blocked the event from her mind, or it's even possible that a justu wiped it." Inoichi then paused, gazing at his superior through the corner of his eye. "It would be promising to find out what happened if I could look through her memories but," he ran a hand through his hair, "you specifically asked me not to. I may be one of the best even without it, but my clan jutsu is all that I believe may help now. As it is, Naruto may never remember." Sarutobi didn't miss the mumbled "Though that might be a good thing."

Once again: sigh. He wanted, needed, confirmation that the girl wasn't the killer, but the Hokage didn't want to trespass into Naruto's personal secrets or invade her mind, he knew himself that it was the greatest intrusion of one's privacy. Or at least, that's what he wished the main reason for his restriction was. But the shinobi life wasn't built on altruism, and leaving bases uncovered could easily get one killed. No, the true reason the Hokage had asked for Inoichi's withholding of particular techniques was because no one in the village could be certain as to how it would affect the seal within the girl's mind.

"Are you certain of this?" A nod was his only answer. "And what of Naruto's mental state? Has she made any progress there?"

"Well…" the clan leader started before drifting off momentarily. A sharp look from the village leader put him right back to business. "She talks now, regularly even, though not as boisterously as before. Just last night she and my daughter," he peeked at his nails, "had quite a fun time talking about their excitement for the shinobi academy in a few months."

Sarutobi chuckled at the full-grown man, trying to look at his messy nails bashfully instead of proudly, and failing miserably. "What about her other habits?"

"She's still claustrophobic and retains some signs of mental scarring; sometimes she just stares off into space and gets lost in herself in the middle of doing things, but she's getting better at an amazing pace."

Idly humming in thought, Sarutobi bent over and retrieved his hat from the floor, finally acknowledging its absence. Naruto's mentality seemed to be reverting back to a stable state, well at least. Though who knows what kind of damage the accusations against her would cause. They could possibly open up her old wounds just in time to tear open fresh ones.

He needed a way to get the council off his back on this subject and put Naruto on the right path for the future. The only problem was that he couldn't see any plausible way out. Yet, at least.

Inoichi composedly waited for his leader to take respite from his thoughts, only moving to look through the window at Konoha's profile in the setting sun. It was such a nice view, a serene view. No wonder he'd always see the Hokage staring out at it. The pink-golden glow shimmied across the buildings and treetops, the bustle of village life filtered through the window to create a comfortable buzz in the back of your senses. Every once in awhile, a shadow would dart from one rooftop to another before quickly disappearing. Tranquil and soothing.

"Hiruzen," a crotchety voice bumbled across the room. Both occupants looked towards the door to find the councilmen duo, none other than Homura and Koharu. Homura took the small silence of the two occupants as his invitation to continue, "We can only hold the other councilmen off for so long, Hiruzen. They're demanding 'retribution' or some nonsense like that." Homura's jaw clenched after the words left his mouth, obviously nonplussed about the current predicament himself.

"Shikaku has already attempted to sate their proposals without letting it get out of hand," Koharu picked up, staring seriously into her old teammates eyes, "but none of them are biting."

The Hokage unhurriedly placed his hat back atop his balding head and scowled before dismissing the younger shinobi of the room. Inoichi gladly left after bowing to his leader, happy to be returning to his home, wife, and daughter. When the door closed behind the man,, Sarutobi began to speak, "Is there no way to get them off Naruto's back?" A shake of the head. "No evidence or witness accounts that could even begin to prove her innocence?" The old man knew the answer, just as he did merely thirty minutes ago, but still couldn't help but feel disheartened at the repetitive shake of Koharu's head.

The two council members shuffled their way across the room towards the black armchairs situated in front of the desk. A strained silence trailed their movements, only the usual hum of civilian activity outside making noise. Sarutobi opened his mouth abruptly before clamping it shut again, ignoring the looks he got from the pair sitting in front of him. He hadn't felt this helpless since Minato had disappeared to seal off the Kyuubi. It didn't help that his helplessness was a byproduct of that night, a consequence of his inability to perform the Shikki Fuujin in his successor's stead.

The silence dragged on farther and farther as the Hokage refused to utter a sound.

"Hiruzen," Koharu croaked with a particular softness in her tone, attempting to find eye contact with her old teammate. He deftly dodged the action by turning his gaze downward. "Hiruzen." He still refused her gaze.

"Sarutobi!" Homura barked out on the woman's behalf. A sharp flash of chakra aided in breaking the leader of his stupor and facilitated Koharu's plea. The two soon found themselves staring into a diminished man's eyes. Diminished due to sorrow, regret, age, and burden. Diminished due to the knowledge that, despite his lofty position, he could in no way help the defenseless girl who served as a beacon to all his shortcomings in the past decade. Koharu and Homura could only flinch at his visage. Despite being on his team for years, then his advisor for many more, they had never seen his eyes so sunken.

Sarutobi let out a muted sob before angrily swiping his hand through the papers resting on his desk. They fell like confetti to the ground. His past time teammates openly gawked at his uncharacteristic behavior, at his moment of weakness in front of them with whom he had once trusted his life every day. He now was trusting them with his whole self, not as a leader or fellow shinobi, but as a fellow human,, intentionally or not. But Sarutobi couldn't find it in himself to care. All the black, inky letters of the papers read the same way to him as they flitted to the ground… Lock her in the containment unit… She belongs as a weapon to be tightly controlled… Make a public execution of the murderer… Punish the demon… Kill the demon… Kill it.

"I'm too tired for this…" he whispered hoarsely into the office's silence. "I'm too…old for this." He barely wheezed these words out of his mouth. "How can I be a proper leader for this village when I can't even save a little girl from a crime I know she didn't commit?"

"Hiruzen, it's not your fault, they-"

"How could I let my people's fear and uncertainty lead them to such cruel ignorance?"

"Sarutobi, you know that-"

"Silence!" the Hokage growled, small amounts of his deadly chakra permeating the air. "I will not allow Uzumaki Naruto to fall victim to foolish misconceptions! If they wish to kill that child, Koharu, Homura, they will have to pry her from my cold fingers first. Naruto did not kill Hatsuki Shimon and-!"

"Of course she didn't kill that man, Hokage-sama. I did."

The unstable Hokage, as well as the two stupefied councilors, whipped their heads around to look at the speaker. A tall ninja with a porcelain ANBU mask stood tensely within the doorway, cold black holes where eye sockets were supposed to be bore directly into the Hokage's skin.

***EDIT: As always thanks for reading and please Review!