(A.N.: Update wasn't ASAP, please forgive me! Summer is such a hectic time. Here's the next chapter, so on with the story!)


Greek Fire

Chapter 2: Renewed Regrets

"Tsunade-sama! Tsunade-sama!" Shinuze had one arm wrapped around Tonton while she knocked frantically at the door of the Hokage tower. 'Oh please don't be drunk! Not now, not this time!' After a couple of minutes with no success, the raven haired medic-nin stepped backwards with a look of distress and dismay painted across her face. She was about to leave as the door creaked open behind her.

"Shizune-san?"

"Sakura-chan!" she immediately dropped the pig that promptly ran over to the pink-haired chunnin.

"Tsunade-sama, is she in there?"

"No," Sakura looked as if she had just been asleep, her short hair stuck out at odd angles and her eyes threatened to closer again.

"Where is she? Mist was spot at our border earlier today! Anbu have already been dispatched to meet them. Neji and Shikamaru went as well."

"Mist?" the younger shinobi suddenly looked wide awake. "Have you checked the bar?"


"There was nothing you could do…"


Hatake Kakashi, the copy-cat ninja of Konoha, a man who was know by his companions for always being late stood before the large black stone which was the only reminder of the valiant souls who had died in previous wars. Those who consider themselves his friends knew why the gray-haired elite shinobi often came to stand before this memorial. Among those names listed was the name of Kakashi's closest friend, the name of a boy who had aspired to be great someday but whose dreams were never to be fulfilled. But he was not there to visit with Obito's spirit, for once. No, there was the loss of another that still haunted him to this very day, a chilling reminder of had happened fifteen years before.

Running his fingers over the engraved letters of the name, Kakashi could almost hear the last words they had exchanged.

-Flashback-

"Are you sure about this?"

"Don't worry about me, Kakashi. Take care of yourself. I'm doing this for Konoha."

"Sensei?"

"I'm not your teacher anymore," there was a pause as he started to leave. "I'm sorry you had to lose me too." And he was gone.

-End Flashback-

"Oi, Kakashi!"

Reopening his eyes and returning to the present, Kakashi looked over his shoulder at the woman approaching the memorial. "Tsunade-sama. What are you doing here?"

"It's been fifteen years to the day. Do you ever think about that night?"

The gray-haired jonin merely looked at her with his usual one-eyed, blank gaze until the Godaime sighed.

"I suppose you're here to visit with Obito," she gave him a half-smile before the jonin returned to watching at the black stone. "He did enjoy company–"

"There was nothing you could have done, Tsunade-sama," Kakashi stated suddenly, causing the Hokage to stop abruptly and stare at the back of his head. "He knew what he was doing that night. He told me that he was doing it for Konoha. That is how much he loved this village; his life would have been worthless had he done anything else."

"I despise that phrase, Kakashi, especially when there was something I could have prevented."

Intrigued, Kakashi looked over his shoulder at her but he wouldn't, of course, express any interest. He merely let her continue at her own leisure.

Swallowing before she resumed, Tsunade realized that she was about to admit to something she had never once considered acknowledging, something she didn't want to believe she had done.

"We were supposed to be the only ones to know Naruto's secret; we sworn upon Arashi's memory that no one else would know. So how do you think the rest of Konohagakure no Sato discovered what is imprisoned within him?"

"Orochimaru."

"A prompt response, Kakashi. Did you never consider the possibility that it was not him?"

"You?" A light breeze swept through his hair as he stared with disbelief at the sannin.

"The Kyuubi had taken so many of those I loved away from me. I wanted the demon fox dead, and at that point I didn't see Naruto as a cursed boy, a demon container. I saw a monster, a cold-hearted killer that deserved no mercy. Had I not been so selfish, I could have saved him from his life of misery."

That same lazy, one-eyed gaze pierced through her, but the jonin said nothing for a while.

"He wouldn't be Naruto if no one had hated him."

No, he wouldn't have. He would have grown up in a village that loved him, one that pampered him and honored him as a hero. In such an environment, he would not have grown up to be the Naruto that tried so very hard, the boy that would do anything to be noticed and accepted. No, in such a world, Naruto would have turned out very different.

Bending down, Tsunade placed her fingers over his name.

'Arashi, I understand now. You did the only thing possible in your power to save that which you loved most. I wanted to save you as I wanted to save the others because all of you had the same dream. All of you wanted to protect our beloved village.'

"Tsunade-sama! Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura ran up to her two mentors out of breath and panting heavily. "Mist, they're in Konoha!"


'Damn hat,' readjusting the ceremonial straw cap, Tsunade gazed down the stone path at the approaching delegation from Mist. If things went as planned, a treaty would be signed today and an alliance forged between the two countries once again.

They were at the foot of the steps, now, flanked by two divisions of Anbu, as well as Shikamaru and Neji who quickly departed from the group. Nine steps separated a group of Mist's top ranking shinobi from the council and the Hokage of Konoha.

"Tsunade-hime."

"Kazuma-san. It has been a long time since our last meeting. I assume you're still kage."

She was puzzled by the stifled coughs until the man before her responded.

"I'm afraid you are….um…mistaken, Hokage-sama….You see…."

"I am the kage of Hidden Mist."

'That voice…It couldn't be!'

A hand moved to remove the wide brimmed straw hat he wore.

"I am honored that Konoha receives us so graciously after what occurred seventeen years ago."

As he took the hat off and passed it over his face, whispers swept through the crowd of villagers present. Standing before them was a blond man with startling blue eyes, and a face that they all knew. It was a face that every one of them had seen each day as they went about their business. But this face seemed so very alive compared to the one set in stone upon the cliff, too alive to be that of a ghost's.

Looking down at him, Tsunade could think of nothing to say.

"Arashi?"


(A.N.: I'm so sorry I didn't update sooner. I had quite a bit of trouble writing the reintroduction of Arashi and after all my effort it's still awkward. I had half the chapter done by the time I went on vacation and had to figure out how to do the second half when I got back. The next chapter should be easier because I have it worked out in my head already.

Please R&R. Shinobi over and out.)