Author's Note: In my humble opinion Orochimaru is so misunderstood. That being said, the next chapter will have a time jump of sorts. In this chapter, Tsunade's war on the Council is just kicking off, and no, I am not attacking Sakura.
As stated before, reviews are welcomed.
Dishonor: Three
Sakura Haruno raced into local hospital with a bright blush on her face and tears in her eyes. Sasuke-kun had been brought back, he was back, and she was so desperately relieved.
Sakura ran all the way from her home to the hospital in the center of the village, she had not the time freshen up or buy flowers for Sasuke, but she knew he would appreciate her presence more than seeing her in a pretty dress or having flowers. Her being there with him, for him, would show Sasuke that she was truly devoted to him and he would realize that no one else in the village could ever love him the way she does, and finally he would understand that he loved her as well.
At the hospital, Sakura noticed the line the rows upon girls, young women, and slightly older women filling the reception area. They were all dressed in their best and each carrying flowers and other gifts and they were all there to see Sasuke.
Suddenly self-conscious, Sakura backed away into a far corner, her callous hands smoothing over her shorn hair and the front of her jumper. Maybe Sasuke would overlook her plain clothes and short hair, she tried to bolster her self-confidence. Maybe Sasuke would—Sakura looked around the room again and her confidence faltered.
Before Sakura look down again, a man in long white coat stepped into the reception area. He eyed the suddenly preening women with look of pure disgust before speaking in stern, commanding voice that left no room for argument.
"As the nurses have told you all, Sasuke Uchiha was not brought to this facility. Clear out of this waiting area, this is a hospital. If you are not sick, dying, or visiting a family member, clear off these premises immediately or you will be arrested of loitering." He signaled the small contincy of Chunin that appeared in the entrance..
The women were putting up a fight, demanding to know where Sasuke was while treating to file a complaint with the Hokage, only a few were actually arrested, the rest were let go with a warning. Sakura managed to escape both because she was said that she had come to see both her teammates. It was wrong and cruel of her to use Naruto like that, but Sakura was desperate. One of the Chunin asked the nurse on duty if Naruto Uzumaki had been brought in. Neither boy was there.
*.*.*
Jiraya looked down at the small, fragile body of his godson, watching the child's chest rise slowly in an even pattern. The worst of his injuries had been healed, the only thing left to do was to make sure they made it to Wave by dawn.
Gamabuto bound quickly over the landscape, the giant beast's was steady and soothing to Jiraya's jumbled nerves and confused heart. Tsunade was right, he had come to realize Jiraya would have sought to compromise with the Council and forgive them for their crimes if it meant maintaining the peace within the village. He would have sided with the Council because it was what his teacher had done. He would have fought for Naruto, Jiraya was sure of that, he would have been angry too, but if he was still in the dark about the true depth of the Council's deception—
He didn't want to think about this anymore.
Jiraya looked down into that small face with three odd birthmarks adorning his cheekbones and his heart ached. There was so much they needed to undo and fix to make the boy healthy, both physically and mentally, there was so much that needed to be done, that Jiraya wondered if he was up to the task. Yet, he owed it to the kid to try, for Minato and Kushina, he would try to help Naruto become the man his parents wanted him to be.
Dishonor
Sasuke woke up in a single bed inside a simple room. He laid there for a moment, staring at the ceiling with wondering what he was going to do now. Yesterday, after he woke up the second time after his surgeries, Kakashi had been in this room, asleep in an awkward position in an armchair. The chair was now sat in a corner near the only window in the room, from the window, Sasuke could see the forests and tops of the mountains that bordered Konoha. It was at that very window Sasuke watched the legendary Toad Sage whisk Naruto away from their village on the back of the gigantic clothed toad that Naruto had summoned to help him fight that Gaara kid from Suna.
Naruto had been asleep, Sasuke had seen the Hokage pass Jiraya-sama a scroll before she bent down to kiss Naruto's brow. When he asked Kakashi about it during his second visit, Kakashi had told him Naruto was going home to his mother's clan. The news was rather surprising considering that Naruto had lived his entire life in the village as an unwanted orphan and troublemaker. It also left a sick feeling in Sasuke's stomach. Before he could dwell on his friend's change of status, Kakashi pushed on and this was what had the thirteen-year-old boy wondering what he was going to do with his life.
Everything thing he had known since the age of eight was a lie, a terrible lie that was meant to destroy the old Uchiha Clan and the village elders would rebuild it in their own image. Itachi had been forced to take the blame in the entire affair and was forced out of the village under the badge of a traitor, beholden to will of Council to protect his brother.
At first Sasuke did not believe Kakashi, it was too horrific to believe. Itachi had the Manguko Sharingan, there was only one-way to achieve that. You have to kill the person closest to you. Sasuke remembered his father and other members of their clan approaching Itachi after the death of their cousin, Itachi's best friend, Shisui…That was the only way Itachi would have developed that terrible Sharingan.
But that was not the case. Itachi did not develop his own Manguko, he received Itachi's was given to him by none other than their mother, Mikoto. Sasuke had been too young to know much about his mother other than what he saw every day. His mother had been a sweet, kind, gentle woman who doted on her two sons. Sasuke did not know his mother had been a shinobi until the moment Kakashi told him. In the Bingo book from eighteen years before, Mikoto was listed as an ANBU captain with the rank of Jounin First Class. She had been second in her graduating class, following a close second behind Minato Namikaze, the Fourth Hokage. Mikoto was considered the genius of her clan and within the village. She and Minato were rivals, and ironically, they wound up in the same Genin Cell with Jiraya-sama as their instructor.
The Uchiha Elders did not want to lose such a brilliant talent nor see it passed along to lower branch within the clan, so in their wisdom they decided to wed Mikoto to clan leader's eldest son, Fugaku, a Chunin who a lackluster shinobi with no talents beyond the basic Uchiha fighting techniques.
Sasuke remembered the bitterness in their house. Sasuke remembered his father awkwardness when Itachi would talk of his training and how his father would glare and belittle the boys' mother but Sasuke never understood why until now. His father had been a failure, a spoiled brat who had received everything, the clan heir, but he was outranked by the woman forced to marry him and bear him children. Kakashi told him that Fugaku had tried to steal or outright deny Mikoto's history and with the help of the Elders and the Council, it was done.
Yet in spite all of that had been done to her and her sons by that man and the elders, Mikoto joined the Uchihas in their plan to overthrow the Council and depose the Hokage. She did this with the desperate plan to save her friends child, a little child who was ripped viciously from her arms and thrust into an orphanage and was being made to suffer for no reason other greed.
Sasuke was still coming to grips with that part as well. It was easy to see that Naruto was that child, Kakashi did not need to tell Sasuke that, it what he said next that threw Sasuke in tumult. Before Mikoto went to Uchiha elders, she went to her father. She had taken Sasuke with her, he remembered that, he remembered it was his first time outside the village and in a new place, a little town that was just on the border of Fire and Grass countries. Sasuke remembered being held by a man with long black hair that flecked with silver, his mother had told him to call the man 'Ji-Ji'.
The man, Ji-Ji, had offered him sweet tea and a bun with sweet red bean paste. Sasuke played with a little snake Ji-Ji had made for him while Ji-Ji and his mother spoke. Sasuke had not paid much attention to conversation, but did notice when his mother gave Ji-Ji a photograph. Sasuke and his mother stayed the night a small in and the next morning they left for their home.
Sasuke had asked if they would see Ji-Ji again, his mother smiled down at him but she didn't answer, instead she lifted him to her back and leapt into the trees. Sasuke now knew the name of the man, his name was Orochimaru and he had been Mikoto's father.
And he wanted revenge.
*.*.*
Kakashi reluctantly left Sasuke in his room. Though the safe house was in a secure location, but one never knew with how desperate Orochimaru had gotten to Sasuke before and he would he would do to get the child now that Sasuke had evaded his clutches yet again.
Sasuke had destroyed the seal Orochimaru had put on his shoulder and freed himself from the Orochimaru's compulsion and then Lady Tsunade had extracted the poison and a mutation virus that had still been in Sasuke's blood stream, both of which would have eventually killed him if he did not go to Orochimaru. This had all been documented and was now being presented as evidence by the Hokage who was fighting the two powerful elders of the Council who seemed to desperately wanted Sasuke severely punished for apparently being kidnapped.
Never had Kakashi felt so helpless in any situation. He was forbidden to speak except when to give his testimony before the assemblage of clan leaders, the elders, and the Lord Daimyo. Yet before going in, Lady Tsunade promised him that everything would work out. Her expression was hard and her gaze was unrelenting, Kakashi had not felt so relived and safe since Minato-sensei was Hokage. Kakashi put his faith and trust in the amber-eyed woman, she would not allow any of them to be hurt again.
The Hyugas were ready to condemn Sasuke even before the first word had been spoken. Thankfully the Naras were more patient and as the debriefing continued, they sided more with the Hokage. The Inuzuka were split down the middle. Their heir had been injured by one of Orochimaru's men and they were quiet willing to put the blame for this on Sasuke. Yet it was Akimichi and Aburame clans that pushed the deciding factor in Sasuke's favor due to Shikaku Nara having asked a question that neither of the elders were two eager to answer and when they did, it not reason enough to warrant the level of punish they were seeking or any punishment at all.
Why were the elders so desperate to condemn the boy who did fought against his kidnappers and defended his teammate?
Not used to having her views or judgments questioned by those deemed lesser than she, Koharu, with an edge of impatience coloring her words, reminded the assembled Sakura had seen Sasuke as he was leaving the village and that he was alone. The old woman knew that there was nothing to refute Sakura's statement of had happed that night, no one could refute what the girl claimed.
While Koharu-san was speaking, Shizune, Lady Tsunade assistant, had been quietly distributing portfolios to council members and the Lord Daimyo. If Kakashi could have described the Lady Tsunade at that moment, the term he would have chosen would have been smug. Yes, the Hokage look smug as if she finally managed to maneuver her prey into the position she wanted as she sprung her trap on them.
Before them were now copies of Sasuke's statement regarding the events, that coupled with Kakashi's report would have been enough to prove the child's innocence, however, Koharu would not be swayed. She doubted Kakashi's testimony, she did not call him a liar outright, but she came damned close enough.
Kakashi felt Shikaku's gaze on him, they both were wondering the same thing: Why was Elders of the Council fighting so hard to brand Sasuke a traitor?
"I understand your concerns, Elder Utatane," Tsunade said evenly as she met the skeptical gaze of the older woman, "Please allow me to put to rest your fears regarding Sasuke Uchiha. The Investigation Unit, under the command of Anko Mitarashi, did search Uchiha's hospital room and indeed discover signs of a struggle that collaborate Uchiha version of events. There was a witness who came forward after being treated for foolishly trying to stop kidnappers."
"A witness, my Lady?" Shikaku asked coolly for even he was a bit surprised by the sudden turn of events.
"Yes, a witness," Tsunade smiled, it was as sharp as a kunai and just as dangerous. "It Uchiha's former teacher at the Academy, Iruka Umino."
Dishonor
Itachi had been debriefed and was now resting in a hidden room in the Hokage's Tower. Tsunade had insisted that he have full check up and she proceeded to box him about the ears. Itachi was in the first stages of leukemia and his eyes were a mess from the constant use of the Sharingan. Being undercover, Itachi had not been able to seek proper medical care and for the last few months, he had been suffering terribly. Tsunade reversed the damage but his body was going to need time to recover and that was what Itachi was doing, resting because the worst was before them with both Orochimaru and Akatsuki looking at them.
Orochimaru was not going to go away. Itachi had met his grandfather two years after the Massacre and Itachi had been forever grateful for his mother's tutelage. Orochimaru had tried to kill Itachi on-sight. Hatred had burned in those cold yellow eyes and nothing short of Itachi's death would have ever appeased him. Madra had tried to tell Itachi that it was different, but then Madra had not been there when Orochimaru swore that he would have his revenge on the Uchihas and Konoha and avenge his daughter's death.
Orochimaru wanted them all dead, Madra had a bounty on the man's head, but just like a snake, Orochimaru managed to evade him and attack with deadly precision on vulnerable positions. One of those vulnerable positions Itachi had thought he had protected had been his brother. The Third had promised Itachi that Sasuke would be safe in the village and that he would grow up with the honor, respect of a cherished clan, and would be made into a great shinobi and the old man tried to honor promise made to a thirteen-year-old boy who had been forced to murder his entire clan.
If Iruka was to be believed, and Itachi did trust that scatterbrain, the Third had begun to pushing back against his council. He had been trying to change Uzumaki's circumstances after that traitor Mizuki convinced the child to steal Konoha's scroll of Forbidden Jutsu and Seals. The Council was ready to throw the child to Danzo, they finally had the ammunition they so desperately wanted but the Third said no. The old man tried to change, in the letters Tsunade-sensei was reading were sad and pathetic. The Third knew who was responsible for the Fourth's death and the murder of his wife, but he chose to take out his pain on an innocent child often by ignoring his abuse and neglect. The Third had been partly culpable in Madra's attempt to steal the Kyuubi. When the council failed to concivence the Fourth that Kushina should give birth in a facility that was outside of the village, the Third went in and persuaded the Fourth that it would be best.
The Council had been willing to sacrifice both Kushina-sama and Naruto for their own greed. What Itachi knew now was that the Third and Council had willing aligned themselves with the Madra. They participated in the slaughter of the original Ataski in Ame, and assassinating the leader Yashio. Konoha had raided Wave shortly before the Third left office and began killing Uzumakis, many of them fled to Ame and hid deep within Water Country until about ten years ago.
Tsunade was livid, but she was also hurt.
Her family had founded Konoha with the Uchihas, the treaty with once rich and influential Uzumaki clan led to their success and the establishment of a powerful shinobi nation, but these people, this cruel, malicious people destroyed everything that once defined Konoha.
From his room in his sensei's house, Itachi rested and waited for the moment he would be called back into service.
Thanks for reading.
