Disclaimer: It's called fanfiction for a reason, people. You know what I'm talking about. Fan—written by fans. Fiction—not actually real. WOAH. Novel concept, ne?

Misplaced Blame

A thick silence permeated the room after Shizune left. The gathered shinobi slowly formed small groups around the room and several quiet conversations picked up. Iruka had taken Tsunade's place on Naruto's bed when she and Jiraiya got up to go talk quietly by the wall. Naruto sat quietly in the chunin's lap, his small hands grasping the man's vest with surprising strength. Iruka was murmuring soft assurances to him, while Naruto remained mostly unresponsive while staring into space with sad looking cerulean eyes. Sasuke and Neji had gone off and filled a corner of the room with a concentrated aura of pure, noble-prided doom. Kiba was standing a little off to the side of them, and he leaned against the wall while putting off his own (much less fearsome) aura of doom. The jounin had claimed their own corner of the small hospital room and were talking in low, quiet voices. Kakashi stood a little apart from them, as if he was torn between staying and marveling at the fact that Gai could, in fact, be quiet—or going over and joining the two sanin by the adjacent wall. Shikamaru had claimed a spot right next to the solitary window in the room, and he was looking over his shoulder at the grey sky with a cold, troubled look on his face. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, and Tenten were idling near the remaining wall; they were looking torn between plotting how they would catch and castrate those four men or going and comforting Naruto. Chouji, Shino, and Lee were standing in the middle of the room generating a general air of distress.

By the time Shizune came back, Kakashi had decided to join the two sanin and was participating in their discussion. Hinata had broken off from the other girls and had gone to comfort Naruto while Tenten, Ino, and Sakura plotted things that made the few males who could hear shiver almost undetectably. Naruto had gone from staring into to space to doing his best to cling to Hinata and Iruka at the same time. Kiba had increased the space between himself and the Noble Corner of Fury, which had become even more fearsome than before; killing intent filled the air all around them, creating an almost tangible wall of anger. Shizune might have been mildly amused by this whole scene, if she weren't so shaken by what she had found.

Everyone looked over at the door when they heard it slam open. Shizune stood in the doorway, panting slightly and covered in dust. Her short black hair was in disarray and her clothes were wrinkled. A small stack of thick folders was clutched tightly in her hand, and a thin binder was tucked under her arm.

"Tsu-Tsunade…" Shizune stuttered, her eyes wide and her face white. Tsunade stepped away from Jiraiya and Kakashi, approaching Shizune with quick, confident steps. She took the files from Shizune's trembling fingers and sent her apprentice a worried glance.

"What is it, Shizune? Did you get all the information I asked for? And why are there—" Tsunade quickly counted, "—six folders here? What's that binder for?"

Shizune took in a deep breath and said, "I found folders on three of the four men, and an incident report of that night as well as Naruto's medical report from the incident, but Tsunade…there's some other information I found when I was getting what you asked for. I think that you should read some of those folders outside first before you share them with…" Shizune glanced around the room, "…unclassified personnel." Tsunade raised one golden eyebrow at her apprentice before following her out into the hall, Jiraiya trailing behind her.

Those left behind in Naruto's hospital room were left fairly dumbfounded, and remained in relative silence for many minutes. They soon started to shift uneasily and look around at each other uncomfortably, but fortunately (or unfortunately) they were all saved from the awkward silence by the sweet voice of their beautiful, young hokage.

"WHAT???!!" Tsunade bellowed. The force of her voice seemed to shake the very foundations of the hospital itself, and those with more sensitive hearing (i.e. most of the ninja) clapped their hands over their ears in pain. "WHAT IN THE HELL IS THIS??!!!"

After Tsunade's initial deafening outburst, some loud voices could be heard from the hallway but none of them were loud enough for the shinobi to hear the words clearly. After a minute the voices died down to serious murmurs, and several minutes later Tsunade stomped back into the room with Jiraiya and Shizune trailing behind her, white-faced and weary-looking.

"There are several pieces of information I've just been made aware of that I feel should be brought to light. Some apply more to certain people than others. But know that what I'm about to tell you is the truth to the best of my knowledge. The information I've obtained from these files is classified, and available only to the hokage and the select few people who the hokage allows temporary access. Shizune was given a temporary pass seal to obtain the files I requested, and the seal disintegrated once it was used. This information is totally unobtainable by any enemies or traitors. It is impossible that any of this information was tampered with," Tsunade said in a flat, serious tone. Her eyes were narrow and blazing, and it was clear to everyone that she was barely keeping herself controlled.

"I won't read these files to you directly, as that would take too long and the wording is a bit too complex for some of you to understand." With that, Tsunade took a deep breath, let it out, and began.

"Six years ago Naruto was viciously attacked by four men on the tenth of October. He received multiple lacerations, bruises, broken bones and chemical burns. He almost died, but was rescued by an ANBU on patrol. The ANBU's codename was Kitsune." Kakashi's eyes widened at this.

"The Fox? But he's…wait, you mean…Tsunade-sama, how is that possible?" Kakashi asked in horror.

"He was once loyal to this village, you know," Jiraiya said in lieu of a proper answer, but it seemed enough to temporarily calm the shocked jounin.

"Who is this Fox you're talking about, Tsunade-sama?" Sakura asked with a curious frown. The Godaime merely sighed.

"He's a former ANBU," Tsunade replied. Seeing Sakura about to say something else, she added, "We'll reveal his identity to you all after I've finished telling you what happened. Otherwise I'd never get to finish." Tsunade's answer made most of the ninja more nervous rather than calming them, but a few of them motioned for her to continue. Naruto, meanwhile, had a worried frown on his face.

"Kitsune quickly killed three of the men, but the fourth—who clearly had training, at least elite jounin to ANBU level—had fled before Kitsune arrived. Kitsune quickly brought Naruto to the hospital where he was treated for his wounds. The fourth man remains unidentified, but we suspect he is no longer in the village." Silence followed Tsunade's words.

Then, surprisingly, it was Shikamaru who asked, "So who was this Kitsune guy?" Tsunade sighed, and glanced at Sasuke.

"ANBU member Kitsune was actually…Uchiha Itachi."

The resulting reaction was instantaneous. "That can't be right," Sasuke said furiously. "Something must have been changed."

"I already told you that's impossible. These reports are—"

"Then the original information must have been wrong! There's no way that man would ever—"

"Sasuke-san," a small voice interrupted. "Itachi-san was the one who rescued me." All heads turned to look at Naruto. "He made me promise not to tell anyone who he was, but you guys already know." Naruto looked at Sasuke, a cutely confused look on his face. "Why do you think it wasn't Itachi-san?" Sasuke expression hardened. He didn't respond.

"Naruto," Tsunade said quietly. "It's because he thinks that Itachi is a bad person. It is widely believed that Uchiha Itachi was the one who committed the genocide of almost the entire Uchiha clan."

"'Believed'?" Sasuke said bitterly. He looked at Tsunade angrily, the tomoe in his Sharingan eyes spinning wildly. "There's no question about it! He killed my family!"

A loud crack filled the room when Tsunade, the Godaime Hokage, gave Uchiha Sasuke a mighty slap across the face. Everyone froze in shock. Sasuke merely stood there, stunned, his face turned to the side from the blow. "Tell me, why do you think he killed your family?"

"Because I saw it!" Sasuke spat, turning his head to glare at her. The shinobi in the room watched the exchange in varying degrees and mixtures of surprise, horror, and pity. Naruto looked like he had just been told his older brother was a murderer—which, in a way, he had.

"So you saw it all with your own eyes? You witnessed every blow and death and did nothing to stop it?" Tsunade said—it sounded almost like a challenge. Like she was goading him on; however, there was no mirth in her eyes. Only sadness, pity, and bitterness.

"Of course not! He made me watch it all with his damn Mangekyou Sharingan!" he revealed, not caring who heard. "I was forced to watch my family die over and over again for days!"

"How are you sure what Itachi showed you is real?" Sasuke froze. "Did the Itachi you knew really seem the type to do something like that? When you've interacted with him since, did he truly seem like such a different person from who you knew? Do you have any idea at all why Itachi would do such a thing?" Sasuke's eyes seemed to grow wider with every word, until Tsunade's last sentence made them narrow into slits.

"He told me himself. He said it was 'to test his capacity'." Sasuke seemed to be completely disregarding the fact that he was revealing one of his deepest secrets to a room full of comrades-that-weren't-quite-friends and near-strangers. It was as if he felt the need to justify himself, to prove that his quest for vengeance was not an empty effort.

"Do you really think Itachi would have killed your entire clan for that? Even the civilians who couldn't handle a kitchen knife to save their lives? Would he kill the month-old infants who couldn't even talk, and the children incapable of using chakra? Do you think someone like Itachi would sink so low?" Sasuke's eyes were wide again. "Why would he limit himself to just the Uchiha clan? Why not go after the Hyuuga, or the ANBU? The Hokage himself? And as good as Itachi is, do you think he was really skilled enough to take down the entire Uchiha clan completely unscathed? The Uchiha were proud of their skills, and they were Konoha's police force; our greatest weapon. Could one person, even a genius of their blood, destroy them all in one fell swoop?" Tsunade leaned forward to look right into his eyes.

"Uchiha Itachi did not murder your family." It was a statement said with the utmost conviction.

"Then…who did?" Sasuke asked, sounding like he still couldn't believe what he was hearing. It was almost a whisper, but everyone heard it.

"Care to take a guess?"

At the outskirts of the village of Konoha, two dark figures slowly approached the initial lookout post. Wearing strange, woven conical hats on their heads that shrouded their faces in shadow and long black cloaks that covered almost all of their bodies, hardly any skin was visible to the outside world. One was very tall, with a long wrapped object strapped to their back. The other was a good deal shorter, and bore no such load. They walked slowly, assuredly, their sandaled feet drifting over the gravel-strewn ground soundlessly.

"You know, it didn't go so well the last time we tried to get the nine-tails brat," the tall one said in a grating voice. "He's not any less well-guarded, either. Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Do not question me," a low, smooth baritone admonished from underneath the large hat of the smaller figure. The air around him seemed to drop several degrees. The other man didn't seem to be bothered by this, though—instead, he chuckled softly, shrugging his shoulders and holding his hands out in a placating gesture.

"Alright, fine, let's go." Razor teeth were bared in a wide grin. "Let's get the brat."

Small bells chimed in the wind, covered by the subtle sound of flapping cloaks.