Context: The Sandaime's perspective when Konoha is invaded by Suna and Kiri. This correlates with Chapter 64 of Spirit of the Triage.

"Hokage-sama, Uzumaki Kichiro cannot be found in the village," the ANBU reported to me. Two Jōnin beside him affirmed the statement. The brush in my hand snapped before I managed to reign in my frustration.

"Where is he?" I demanded.

"He was last seen several hours ago near the west gate with Jōnin Uzumaki Nagato and Genin Uzumaki Natsuki."

"Damn it! This is the last time I will allow this behavior from that child!" I slammed my hand down on the desk. "Cat, organize a party of seven ANBU and meet me at the west gate." He vanished. "You two, with me. We are going to arrest Kichiro and those with him. This is the last time he is allowed to break protocol like this."

It took two minutes for Cat to appear at the gate alongside me with his team. Before I could give the order to move out, one of the ANBU, Bird, stepped forward. "Hokage-sama, with all due respect, arresting Fox doesn't feel right. He's saved all our lives several times over."

"Tell me, Bird, if an ANBU team were to come back on the brink of death right now—"

"Fox would meet them at the gate, just like he always does. When he leaves the village to train, he never goes far. It's been almost a year since an agent died inside the village walls save the one time Kichiro was on a mission in Kiri—hell, he's vanished in the middle of duty and returned with injured ANBU who would have died before reaching the gates. He may be inconveniencing you and us, but he never neglects his duty."

"Bird, are you compromised?" I demanded. I knew the young man was right, but I couldn't allow Kichiro the double standard any longer. I would court-martial any other ninja who left the village without permission.

"No, Hokage-sama."

"Follow orders, ANBU Bird."

I turned around to move out. Before we had even made it through the gates, an explosion of chakra nearly knocked me backwards. Two of the ANBU and one of the Jōnin stumbled and fell backwards. The Kyuubi appeared above the treetops and started ravaging something underneath it. A lump formed in my throat as Jiraiya landed beside me. I didn't even know he was in the village and I found myself desperately wishing he wasn't.

"Sensei—" The appearance of several more shinobi cut him off. In minutes, an army would be assembled in front of the gate.

There were two possible reasons for the Kyuubi's appearance without a barrier to prevent its chakra from being felt in the village. First, Kichiro lost control. Even though I disapproved of the boy training to fight with the Kyuubi, there was no denying that he was competent. The second reason for the Kyuubi to appear was if Kichiro encountered an enemy he couldn't fight by himself. I shuddered at the thought of a ninja that powerful. As much as I hated the thought, I suspected Kichiro could defeat me if we ever fought all-out. He was younger and had a lineage I couldn't compete with.

There was a glint of movement in the trees in front of me. "Hold!" I shouted, barely stopping the ninja behind me from attacking. Nagato burst from the trees, wheezing. The Kyuubi wasn't even three kilometers away. I didn't want to imagine how fast Nagato had run to be out of breath over such a short distance. Unable to breathe, I watched him flip through hand seals—a combination he shouldn't have known. A heavy weight settled in my gut. A moment later, the alarms changed from a general alert to ninja and orders for civilians to return home, to code black. An invasion.

Nagato set his sister on her feet and she rushed through the ninja and into the village without needing to be told.

"Invasion!" Nagato gasped, barely loud enough for everyone assembled to hear. "Suna and Kiri! Three Jinchuuriki! Kichiro is stalling! Two kage! Help!"

I glanced behind me at the ninja assembled. The Kyuubi rolled to the side, crushing a swath of forest beneath it. Kichiro was trying to destroy as much of the force as he could. I hoped the invasion force was smaller than I feared it would be. When three more Biju appeared and the Kyuubi didn't even turn to face them, I couldn't breathe. Kichiro's kill count was barely in the double digits. He would never commit such destruction unless Konoha was in danger of being wiped out. The Kyuubi turned and launched itself at one of the Biju that had just appeared, rolling over another massive section of forest.

I took a deep breath and turned to the assembled ninja. Minato and Kushina landed in front of me, their arms full of sealing supplies. "Kichiro can't win that fight without help," Kushina said.

"Go, help him," I ordered. They took off. "Nagato! Go with them and watch their backs." When the three had gone, I addressed the ninja gathered—every ninja in the village, save a few Genin who knew the proper procedures for a code black. "ANBU! Move out! Genin, maintain the village walls. I want every Genin in this village on guard." I noticed one of the more popular Academy Chuunin standing several paces away. He would be the most familiar and I knew he was a competent leader, albeit a subpar fighter. I set him in charge of the forces left in the village and the ranks thinned far more than I was comfortable with. "Everyone else, we are being invaded by Suna and Kiri. The village walls cannot, under any circumstances, be breached. If we lose the wall, we lose the village. This isn't just a battle, this is the beginning of the war. If we lose this battle, we lose this war. Uchiha, I want your Sharingans on. You are to surround the Biju and prevent our ninja from being caught in the fight and prevent enemy ninja from interfering. Medics: none are to enter the fighting. If someone is injured, wait for them to be brought to you. Konoha cannot afford the death of any of our medics, especially if Kichiro does not survive this fight. Work together and take no hostages. Any Konoha shinobi is your teammate, all other ninja are enemies to be killed—show no mercy. Work together and we can defeat this. Konoha is the strongest village, let us show them that peace has made us stronger than ever! Let us make them regret ever setting foot in Hi no Kuni!" I let the ninja roar for a moment before shouting over them. "Move out!"

I had barely reached the devastation Kichiro had caused when the Mizukage and Kazekage landed in front of me. One-on-one, I could beat them both. I may not have been the strongest Kage in the shinobi nations, but this was my land. I lived in the forest my entire life, fighting among the trees was in my blood. My opponents were used to fighting in the open air. The Kyuubi's claw landed behind them, upsetting their footing for the briefest moment and the creature's chakra began to poison their own. I summoned Enma and lunged forward. I just had to hold out against them until someone could help.

The two Kage ducked behind trees for cover and the battle began. Once or twice, a Jōnin took a pot shot at one of my opponents, but no one dared involve themselves in the fight.

At some point, the Bijus disappeared. I took a handful of small injuries, but dealt worse than I got. I sent a prayer of thanks to my predecessor for the trees that saved me from more injuries than I could count, including several death blows. Ultimately, when the two kage began to work together, I could not defeat them. When someone constructed the barrier, I quickly lost hope. The best I would be able to do was kill one of them.

When I saw the opportunity, I took it. "Mizukage-san, Kazekage-san, this is your one and only chance to retreat. You cannot defeat Konoha on her own ground."

"Your bleeding heart has turned against you, Hokage, none of your precious little leaves can help you."

The fight resumed and I held no technique back. I gained injuries left and right, but they didn't even slow me down. I managed to slip a kunai through the Kazekage's defense. It bit deep into his neck. I felt the satisfaction of my blade going through his spine, completely severing his head. Blood rained down on my head. I tried to turn to counter the Mizukage's blade through my back, but I knew I would never make it. A blur of bright red and green caught my eye as I turned, watching in horror, unable to move fast enough to stop the person throwing themselves between us. I yanked their weapon from their hand as the Mizukage's eyes widened. His blade was caught by the interfering ninja and he wouldn't be able to defend himself from my counter. I cracked the ninja's weapon over the man's head just as he managed to free his blade. He stumbled backwards, but the stick barely broke the skin of his skull. If it had been a blade, he would have died. Which idiot ninja under my command didn't carry a blade?

Too late, I realized that there was only one ninja skilled enough to carry sticks into battle rather than a blade. Enma snapped the neck of the Mizukage as I turned towards the ninja who saved my life. He swayed once, a massive hole in his chest. The blood-soaked blade fell to the ground as he pitched backwards.

"Kichiro!" I screamed—I didn't care if I lost my composure. I caught him as he fell, collapsing underneath him, desperately trying to stem the bleeding.

He gazed up at me, smiling, content with what he accomplished. I couldn't allow that. The boy had to live, he had to.

"Medic! Medic!" I screamed hysterically, drawing on every scrap of iryo-ninjutsu I knew to prolong his life. "You can't die, boy, you can't!"

"When I left…for Iwa, you ordered me…not to." He gasped out. He tried to focus on me, but he was too weak. I couldn't feel his chakra. "Fitting, I suppose, that…I die defying orders."

"You're not going to die, Kichiro." I swore, but his head rolled against my chest. "Medic!" I screamed. My eyes burned as I ran my hands over the wound. He wore no armor—not even his Chuunin vest. If he wasn't dying I would have been screaming at him for the foolishness of leaving the village with no armor and only his two sticks for defense.

"The Kyuubi's seal…it will release him at my death…I altered it." I didn't care—It didn't matter because I wouldn't let the boy die.

"Medic! You're not going to die, I swear." I couldn't control the Iryo-ninjutsu, so I stopped trying to heal him, fearing that I would cause more damage. "Medic! Medic!"

"It looks like I won, old man, you…really have no control over me. There's…no way for me to survive this, I…don't have enough chakra left."

I knot formed in my throat. "You will survive, Kichiro, you will, I swear."

"I'm not scared, it doesn't hurt. I'm—ready. Tell—tell everyone I'm sorry." His eyes glazed over then closed. "Tell—I love—" His body twitched once before his heart and breathing stopped.

"No!" Nagato screamed. I couldn't spare him any attention, I laid Kichiro on the ground and bent over him, breathing air into what was left of his lungs and forcing his heart to continue beating.

A medic landed beside me, but I didn't stop. She started to put his body back together. Another medic landed, with two shinobi behind her and started a blood transfusion in his leg, the ninja with her providing the blood.

Someone else started cutting away what was left of Kichiro's shirt to give the medics better access to the wound. I didn't move from my place beside him until my wife laid her hands over mine and smoothly took my place. I took a step backwards and started to help prepare a stretcher for him, making sure it was sturdy enough to support the my wife as she maintained his vitals.

"Our top priority is making sure Kichiro lives!" I announced to the ninja who had gathered. The fighting must have been nearly over for so many ninja to be gathered to watch. Professionalism had been abandoned and most of the ninja present had damp eyes. "Kichiro saved my life," I said, looking back at his unresponsive body. "For the next three days, any enemy ninja found in Hi no Kuni is to be executed immediately. Gather our dead and injured and bring them back to Konoha along with anything useful from the invaders but leave their bodies to rot and be ravaged by animals—only drag them away from any water sources. Anyone who threatens our children in such a way does not deserve to have their bodies honored."

(o_o)

Twenty-four hours later I was moving about the village, directly managing the preparations for war. Biwako landed beside me. "Kichiro?" I asked, completely forgetting about to two Genin I was speaking with.

"He's alive. Come with me." She led me to a somewhat private alley so our conversation wouldn't be casually overheard. "His heart is beating without help and he's breathing on his own. His sister managed to direct us to a cache of chakra she had stored up for either herself or Kichiro in the event of a situation where both of their chakra was dangerously low. We couldn't have saved him without it."

"Is he awake?"

"No. There are a number of complications, but at the moment, there is nothing life-threatening."

I pulled her into a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you so much."

"Everyone wants him to live, Saru."

"I know, but thank you." After a moment, I released her. "What are the complications?"

"The medics were so concerned with stopping the bleeding that the wounds weren't cleaned. Some of the debris in his wounds can be dealt with by his body, but there's enough that we're going to have to remove them surgically. As long as we watch him carefully, we can wait until he's stronger. It'll be safer to perform the surgery then."

I nodded agreement. "I already waived his family's rights to decide on his care, so you and Tsunade are making decisions for him. What else is there?"

"Part of the Mizukage's blade fractured inside of him. It's going to cause problems, but for now, we're hoping that the problems don't show up for a while. We can't use any more medical ninjutsu on him or it will put too much stress on his body—his chakra coils are damaged, but not nearly as damaged as we feared. We're going to have to wait a few days. He's the sixth case of someone living this long with the injuries he received. The other five cases were during the last war and Kichiro treated them all in the field. He recorded what he did and we've managed to dig up the records, but they only explain what he did, not the symptoms of the patient or anything beyond the injury. For us, they're practically useless. All of the cases he treated had complications, but he didn't detail what they were. The boy is barely literate, usually, his reports are much more sparse in details."

"But he'll be okay, won't he?"

"We don't know. He's alive and stable. If he stays that way for the next week, he should live."

"What about long-term?"

"He's in a coma right now. No one knows if he'll wake up."

"He's young, he'll pull through."

"You want him to pull through, but he's bad off. He's in a coma. By itself, we wouldn't be overly concerned, but he went hours without a steady and natural flow of oxygen to his brain. His brain is miraculously alive, but in what condition we won't know until he wakes up—if he wakes up. He channeled the entirety of the Kyuubi's chakra for more than ten minutes. Before this, his body was strong, it was used to the Kyuubi's chakra, but he is still human and human systems cannot handle that much chakra. His body is still developing, so his chakra pathways are still slightly elastic. Because of that, they were stretched too much. We're lucky the Kyuubi's chakra didn't simply destroy his chakra system. Parts of it burst, others were almost completely corroded, but they were still there. If he was younger, he would be fine. If he were a full adult, his chakra pathways would only have suffered the corrosion."

"He'll be fine," I insisted.

"No, if he recovers, it's not going to be pretty. His heart won't heal completely. After Iwa, his heart never fully healed, now it's been damaged again—if he recovers, a strike to his chest could rupture his heart. If he's able to use chakra again, he should not be allowed to resume his duties as an active ninja. The best you can hope for is that he can continue as a medic in the hospital."

"Kichiro has a habit of defying expectations."

"This isn't an expectation, his heart stopped four times after we got him into the operating room. I talked to his sister and she told me that she doesn't want him to wake up. The boy has suffered enough, he's had a full life despite everything, and he deserves to rest."

"He almost died for me—I can't let him follow through with that attempt."

"Men and women have died for you before."

"I can live with that, they had their duty to this village—they thought my life was more important to Konoha than their own, but Kichiro is different. He's one of two viable candidates for my position—I'm too old for this job."

"Saru, you hate the boy."

"I used to hate him, when I thought he was malicious and immature, but I know better now. The boy—no, that's not right. He's never been a boy. When he came to this village, he was terrified. It doesn't matter how, but he knew he was going to become the next Jinchuuriki and he handled the information extraordinarily well—like an adult. From the beginning, he intended to take his sister's place."

"Saru—"

"No, Itsuki wasn't much younger than he was, but I wouldn't have even dreamed of making Itsuki take on as much responsibility as Kichiro voluntarily did. Mito-sama told me why she couldn't adopt the children. She told me that it would be my responsibility to take care of them. I gave him an apartment, I made Sakumo train him, but that's not what she meant. I should have been Kichiro's father, not his master."

"You told me that before, but you didn't take him in because it wouldn't have been fair and you couldn't do so knowing that you would betray both siblings when you made one of them a Jinchuuriki."

"I should have never put the Shitagau on him—I should have kept him in the village and held his hand while he adjusted, not send him off to a war, severing any relationship we could have had."

"Occasionally, I observe Kichiro when he counsels ninja. He often talks about something called survivor's guilt. It happens among those who survive something when others don't. Kichiro chose to take that blade for you. That's just the kind of person he is, the kind of man he's growing into. That's why you want him as your successor."

"We can't talk about this here. Come with me."

I took her hand and led her into the room where Kichiro lay under the careful watch of his sister and a medic-nin. The medic bowed respectfully at me and Biwako before scurrying out. Kushina looked up at us but didn't move from where she lay beside her brother.

"You can't be on the bed with him, Kushina-chan."

"The medic said he was stable."

"Yes, but he's very delicate right now. If you jostle him too much, he could start bleeding and we might not know until it's too late."

Kushina stood up and swayed until Biwako guided her into the wheelchair. "He's hungry, he needs something to eat."

"I wish my boys were as close as the two of you are," Biwako said as she bent to check Kushina's vitals. Despite everything, I couldn't stop myself from smiling at how tenderly Biwako took care of her patients. "Hokage-sama is going to take you to your room with Minato, okay? You can lay down with him and keep yourself warm."

"Warmth sounds nice."

I stepped forward to push her wheelchair out the door.

"That way," Kushina pointed as we entered the hallway. I quietly followed her directions, greeting the medics I passed along the way. "Right here," she said. I waited for several medics to pass, all of them giggling with each other. Kushina scowled at their behavior until I steered her into the room. There was a bed and a cot. Minato lay unnaturally still on the bed, his chest barely rising with each breath. I parked the wheelchair between the beds. Kushina stood up by herself and sat down on the bed beside Minato. "Hokage-sama?"

"Yes?"

"I love my brother very much, but I'm not saying this because he's my brother, I'm saying it because it's the truth. He didn't throw himself in front of that sword for the sake of Konoha. If he was acting in the best interests of Konoha, he would have stayed hidden in behind that tree. He didn't step in front of that sword because he wanted to die—the Shitagau wouldn't have allowed him to move if that was the case. He stepped in front of that sword for you and only you. Not because you have control over the Shitagau, but because he cares about you."

My throat tightened. "Rest, Kushina, I'll fix things."

She gave me a small smile before lying down.

I left as fast as I could. When I returned to Kichiro's room and found only Biwako sitting beside the comatose Kichiro, I collapsed. Biwako rushed forward.

"Kami, what have I done?" I choked. "It's been eleven years—Kichiro was innocent when he got to Konoha—barely more than a baby—and I made him—"

"He understood—"

"No, he didn't! How could he? He was a child and I abandoned him for no good reason. He was alone, scared so he tried to stop me, he begged me for help but I just beat him, villainized him, tortured him for years. Kushina just told me that he sacrificed himself for me, only me, not for Konoha, not because I´m the Hokage, but for me."

"You couldn't have known—"

"No, you, Kagami, Sakumo, Mito-sama, even Danzō told me that I was mistreating Kichiro, but I refused to listen. This is on me, I did this intentionally, maliciously, and for no reason whatsoever. It would have been kinder to execute him. He was a gift from Kami and look what I did to him!" I shot to my feet and bent over Kichiro's lifeless form. "He's as good as dead, he might never recover, and it's all my fault! He's saved me, this village, everyone, several times over and I reward him with a sword to the chest and next to no hope of returning to the one thing he loves about his life: healing."

"Once he wakes up, he'll be able to help us with his treatment. If he wakes up, he'll almost certainly recover."

I ran my fingers through Kichiro's hair. Patches had been burned off, his skin was still dirty from the battle, and he still had the remains of his shirt around his neck, filthy sweatpants covering the bottom half of his body, and his sandals still on his feet. I gently removed the shoes, then the disgusting clothing.

Biwako set a sponge and bowl of water on the small table beside the bed. I gently washed the grime of battle from Kichiro's body. He didn't even shiver from the chill.

When I finished, I rinsed the sponge and set it beside the bowl.

"Do you have any idea how long until he wakes up?"

"We're hoping he stays like this for at least a week, that way his body is under the least amount of stress possible and the scars can form. After that, he'll be able to move around a little bit without too much danger. If he's comatose for much longer, it will be difficult to judge when we should perform the surgery. There is a shard of the Mizukage's blade sawing through the lining of his stomach so we can't force-feed him until we get rid of that. It's easy to remove, but we just need to wait until he's strong enough for the surgery. Food is the trickiest part. It's too dangerous to force-feed him when he's this deep in a coma. We could accidentally suffocate him or the food could send his body into a fit. We're not willing to risk it until the lack of food will pose a threat."

"When do you think he'll wake up?"

"He could wake up in an hour or he could wake up in a year. It's too soon to make a guess. He's breathing and his heart is beating, so we know his brain is at least partially alive, but beyond that, we just don't know, not yet. Only Kichiro himself can determine whether a patient has a chance of recovery at this stage."

"Hasn't he taught—"

"Kichiro spends almost all his time in the hospital training medics to do what he can, but he focuses on teaching them the things medics can use. Without direct orders from you, only Kichiro would attempt to heal someone with injuries as bad as his are. Medics can work miracles, but his condition is beyond us. No one has ever survived injuries like this and lived."

"Kichiro is the only person capable of healing someone in his condition."

"Like I said, once he wakes up, he can tell us what to do and he will almost certainly recover."

I nodded. "I want to be notified of any and every change, for better or worse. When he wakes up, I want to see him immediately." Biwako wrapped her arms around my waist. "I'm sorry, Hime," I murmured as I turned towards her to envelop her in a hug. "I failed you as much as I failed him. You wanted children and I waited so long—I've neglected so many responsibilities to you, I'm sorry."

"I forgive you, Saru, you did your best and I won't fault you for that."

"I don't deserve forgiveness."

"That just shows you need it more than ever." She stood on her tiptoes and ever so gently pressed her lips against mine. "You're a good man, Saru, a good man when most are not."

I didn't have an answer for her.