Invasion and Loss: Aftermath
Recap: The invasion by the joint Sound / Sand forces has been driven off at terrible cost. The Hyuuga clan has been decimated and its compound destroyed. The Sound forces ran rampant through the eastern portion of Konoha killing hundred of civilians, But fortunately for Konoha, the wall breech was in the near abandoned Uchiha sector. The snake summon used to break through Konoha's wall had led Sound forces deep into the village before being dispelled by a late arriving Jiraiya. The Sound attack broke down with the loss of its primary weapon and was being driven back as a strike team rushed to relieve the besieged Hyuuga.
The Sand forces attack never truly was launched due to the fast reaction of Ibiki coordinating Konoha's defense and the sacrifice of ANBU squad 11. 'Team Apprentice' stopped the attempt by Sand to recapture the gates and took two of the Kazakage's children as captives.
Sarutobi was forced to call upon the Death god and sacrifice himself to defeat the summoned First and Second Hokages. The aura of its chakra caused the Sound forces to break and flee. Naruto engaged Gaara and with the timely aid of Sakura and Yugito of the Cloud defeated him. The cost to Naruto was in the form of crushing damage to his legs.
Tsunade sat down heavily in the chair of her hospital office. She had been in surgery for hours and was exhausted. She looked at the sleeping forms of her apprentices Shizune and Sakura on the couch. Tsunade knew the without 'her girls' the death toll would be much higher. The sole month of extra training to the hospital corps had also reaped many benefits to the wounded. Dozens of ninja would be able to recover from wounds sustained in the invasion. Lethal wounds were healed into crippling ones, and crippling ones healed to be recovered from with only cosmetic damage. The hospital was filled beyond overflowing with wounded. Those ninja with non-life threatening injuries were being taken to one of the now emptied shelters with minimal nurse and mainly civilian caretakers.
Tsunade looked down at the list of fatalities sent up from the morgue. The list was hours old and held hundreds of names. She knew there had been more since then. Some ninja and civilians had been too grievously wounded to survive. It was done quickly and was just a listing on many sheets of paper. The names of the dead were added to pages headed by letters of the alphabet. The pages of 'H' made her shudder. Dozens of Hyuuga ninja had paid the ultimate price to defend their families. Elders and children outnumbered ninja survivors but the clan as a whole would survive. The fact that so many of the Sound forces could barely qualify as chunin was the saving grace for the Hyuuga. The jonin level members Hiashi had brought to defend the non-combatants had saved them all.
She rubbed her face as she fought off sleep for a few more minutes. She would have to talk to Hiashi when she made her rounds later. The Hyuuga Byakugan would make many of them excellent medics but the clan would not allow it in most cases. The wounded Hyuuga that had been attended to on the spot with basic first aid and healing jutsu would all recover completely. They could see the best places to apply the most effective healing while conserving their chakra.
The need for sleep and chakra depletion finally caught up to the Slug Sannin and she closed her eyes and drifted off.
Jiraiya frowned at Ibiki as the reports were brought to him. He had to deal with the overall political side of things right now as Tsunade dealt with the hospital. Konoha was still running in war mode so the division of labor was best right now. Someone who knew what needed to be done without a Hokage directing them was running each section of the system. But soon enough, things would come back under control and the need for a single leader would come up. Currently, Kakashi had assumed control of ANBU, as he was a former high-ranking captain. Ibiki handled defensive measures within the city. Anko was in charge of prisoners of war. New missions would have to wait.
Jiraiya's extensive spy network, reputation and political connections had given him the means to deal with the Fire daimyo as well as the Wind daimyo. All out war loomed if things could not be toned down and quickly. The Fire daimyo on the verge of sending his samurai and militias in an invasion of the Wind country based on the attack on Konoha. The Wind daimyo claimed innocence in the attack as Suna had not done so at his request but he was not backing down either. Luckily, the Lightning Country and Cloud had sent word that peace still remained between them and Konoha. Water Country and Earth Country were silent beyond the simple messages, 'We are not at war'. The smaller nations had sent word as well that war was far from their minds. Konoha might be reeling at the moment but with the backing of the military of the Land of Fire; both Konoha and its host nation were safe.
"Jiraiya-sama, you should rest. A few hours of sleep right now would make things easier for you," Ibiki said. "You are our public face right now. You need to look rested and confident, not worn and harried."
"I know, Ibiki. I just don't know how Sensei did his job. I am only looking after things until a new Hokage can be chosen but I never realized how much went through his hands. He got everything done and was still able to be out in the village with the people."
Ibiki just nodded and waited until Jiraiya got the hint and left the office with him.
Kakashi glared at Danzo. "I know you have several dozen of your Root ninja stashed away in hiding, Danzo. Get them to report to me within the next hour for assignment or you will be labeled a traitor to Konoha."
Danzo looked at Kakashi with a calm gaze, "You know there is no Root anymore, Kakashi. Sarutobi disbanded it years ago. Besides, it is not in your power to decide anything against me."
"I was placed in charge of ANBU by the order of Jiraiya, Tsunade as well as Hokage-sama's former teammates. You are in a bad place now, Danzo. If the rest of Konoha found out that you had a private little army that sat on its hands while so many died yesterday, you would not live past tomorrow."
"Are you threatening me, Kakashi?" Danzo growled.
"No," Kakashi replied in an icy voice. "I am promising you."
Danzo blinked at the cold contempt Kakashi voiced at him and nodded slowly, "I might be able to find a few ninja being trained by private parties to aid you. But know this, Kakashi; I remember who my enemies are."
Kakashi nodded and left.
Anko looked into the converted shelter. Over a hundred Sound captives sat in small groups about the room. Most looked scared but a few seemed to be quite relaxed. The only thing they had in common was the matching gray shorts, white tank top and white socks they all wore. All captives had been forced to surrender their clothing and submit to a full cavity search before being accepted as prisoners. The few that would not were executed on the spot. Konoha ninja were not in the mood to deal with trouble and after several jonin were cut down, the lower ranked shinobi almost fell over one another to disrobe and bend over. The few Sand captives were being held in the old police station jail.
"Take them one at a time to be interrogated. Start with the genin first. I doubt you will get much from them but it will give us an idea who the true leaders in the group are. We should be able to get their original plans as well from piecing together their ordered objectives," Anko told the interrogators. "Put the ones you talked to in a separate area so that not seeing any returning might scare them enough to shake loose a bit of extra information. We need the location of their village and names of the clans and leaders outside of Orochimaru. Save the tougher nuts for Ibiki."
The interrogators went about their job.
Hinata looked at the wreckage of the Hyuuga compound. Clan member were sorting through the damaged buildings. She was not used to dealing with the demands of leadership but with her father in the hospital for the foreseeable future, someone needed to lead. Her grandmother had refused the duty saying that while she had the advantage of age, she had never been a leader. The elderly matron would advise Hinata but left all final decisions to the girl. Things that required major decisions were saved for Hiashi, but for now Hinata was the final authority.
"No, we will salvage and repair the Main Building later on. The smaller houses are in better condition as they were further back into the compound," Hinata told the work crews. "We need to have enough places for our clan to live in without being over crowded. With our loses …" Hinata paused but continued on, "With our losses we will have to do a lot to recover and special treatment for the Main building over the rest of the clan will be the wrong message to those that were injured and to those that lost close family."
The crew nodded and bowed to Hinata. She turned to see her grandmother watching her and give a short nod of approval. "Your grandfather would have chosen to have the Main House repaired first Hinata but I agree with your decision. He was a proud man and felt the Main Branch was better than the Cadet Branch in all things. This led to a major rift in the clan. Some of this superior attitude leaked into your father but even so he knew what they had to deal with due to his brother. The rift is mostly gone at this moment due to your father's actions yesterday and you are wise enough to know instinctively not to squander the price he paid in blood to heal it."
Hinata blushed briefly at her grandmother's praise. She was not sure what her father would have decided, but either way; once the Cadet Branch houses were restored she would have the Main House repaired. She smiled briefly at how her sensei's lessons on control were coming in handy when applied to leadership.
She thought back on the previous day and the fighting as she walked toward the badly damaged Main Building. Her actions on the Sand ninja Kankuro were decidedly violent and not in her normal character. In the fight, she embraced the same idea that she had back months ago in her misunderstanding with Naruto. Hinata would not act like that, but Rabbit could. When she embraced the idea she was direct, effective and lethal. She had control. She just needed to continue to apply that attitude to leadership. Think about the objective, make decisions, and keep in control. The right projection of leadership was as important as the decisions made.
She looked at her still dirty clothes form the battle the day before. She needed to wash up and get into clean clothes. A spare uniform would have to do for now but that would project the right attitude until the situation in the village relaxed.
Kiba and his older sister Hana were on the search and rescue squads with many other Inuzuka. Both were mentally numb by now. Bodies were all they were finding, ninja from both Konoha and Sound, civilians. Kiba had broken down at one point in tears when he found a dead toddler crushed under a building knocked over by the giant snake. His sister let him weep for a few minutes before patting him on the shoulder to get him moving again. This was the least glamorous part of being a ninja. Most never waited around to see the aftermath and genin all over Konoha were learning the hard way as they gathered the fallen.
"Come on little brother, we need to keep moving. We were assigned to help outside the walls since we finished our sweep inside the city."
Kiba nodded dully and they moved through the gap in the wall. Artisans were already working on clearing the rubble in the gap to begin repairs. Talk of a new gate and the final razing of the Uchiha sector were already circulating as rumors. Kiba did not care either way right now. He was tired of death already.
The Sound staging area outside the wall was the site of a major battle in the Sound retreat. Few Leaf ninja had fallen here and their bodies were removed before light faded last night. Sound bodies were still scattered in the brush. A small clearing ahead had a burnt smell coming from it. But his ears picked up a faint sound.
Kiba stepped into the clearing to find a coffin with ink seals painted all over it and a number 4 on it. Two burnt circles on the ground showed in the dirt. The noise was coming from inside of the coffin. The smell of sweat and fear leaked from within it. "Hana! Over here, I found something!" Kiba cried out. The sound of his voice caused a whimpering cry from inside the coffin.
"Please, help me." A girl's voice was barely heard.
Kiba frowned as he pulled out a kunai and sliced into the ropes holding the box closed. Hana came up as he was cutting but did not stop him. Both were tired of seeing bodies and even finding an enemy alive was preferred to doing nothing. Kiba lifted the lid to see a long dark haired girl. She was naked except for seals painted all over her body. Hana turned to one of her dogs and sent him back to the village for a stretcher squad and someone who knew about seals.
Kin squinted her eyes in the bright daylight. The burning had stopped so long before that she had no idea how long she had lain there. On the verge of everything she was being destroyed, it had stopped. The process had left her too weak to move or even call out when the sounds of battle had come over and passed by. Even now she had no energy. She did see the Leaf insignia on the ninja hovering over her. She was still too weak and drained to move but tears were streaming down her face and her weak voice came out clearly. "He said he loved me. He promised me I would help him. That I was special in his plans. He lied to me. He just used me." Kin broke down and her words became incoherent after that as Kiba gently lifted the Sound genin from the coffin into his strong arms.
Ayame moved around quickly in the ramen stand. The restaurant portion of the building had taken some damage but the original stand was untouched. The proximity of Ichiraku's to the damaged part of the city made for a lot of hungry people. One of the block captains had told them to provide food to the ninja and salvage teams and the village would pay them for it. Just get the signatures for the food. Teuchi was cooking at full speed and was glad to do something to help in his own way. Ayame had not been this busy since the last time Choji and Naruto had a ramen-eating contest. Even busy, her mind kept turning back to what a few people had said while eating. Naruto was in the hospital in critical condition. She looked up to see the young man from the day before waiting for ramen. Ayame blushed as he smiled at her.
"What can I help you with today?" she asked him. "Oh, my name is Ayame. Thank you for saving Iruka and the other teachers yesterday. They are all customers here."
"I'm Haku. It was no trouble. I enjoyed being useful to someone."
"I have not seen you around here before."
"I recently moved to Konoha and I have almost recovered from some wounds I received before arriving. I am sure my doctor will be quite upset at me for exerting myself like that but I couldn't stand around and do nothing. If possible, I would like a single miso ramen. A friend has been telling me for some time about how that is the best kind.
Ayame hurried to pick up more orders once she had Haku's. For some reason she could not keep her eyes off the young man while she worked. Once he had finished, he complimented Teuchi and paid for his meal. He smiled at Ayame as he left and she was so smitten that her father had to whap her with his ladle to snap her out of it.
Sasuke grumbled as he was on a clean up squad clearing wreckage near his own property. Most of the Uchiha compound was gone, crushed under the body of the snake that broke through the wall. His parent's house was gone, along with all his belongings. Kurenai and Shino were with him along with a number of older Academy students. He felt that this labor was beneath his dignity but Kurenai got in his face when he tried to just order around the Academy students.
"I don't care how high and mighty you think you are, Genin. You were assigned to this job and you WILL do this job," Kurenai told him in a tone that would not bear questioning.
Sasuke did not seem fazed by her tone, "I don't see Kiba anywhere. He is on the same squad as me and Shino. He should be here doing this grunt work with us."
"Kiba is off doing other duties that his clan can accomplish better than anyone except a Hyuuga. Since there are so few available Hyuuga right now, he had been assigned to the tracking teams for now. Now, back to work, Genin."
Sasuke growled at being addressed as Genin like it was his name. This red-eyed Uchiha wannabe would get hers too. Oh yes. His list was getting longer. The Loser. His Wenches. Kakashi. Now this over endowed pleasure woman playing at being a ninja. Once he had enough power, all of them would pay.
Iruka sat in a chair in one of the shelters converted to hospital overflow. He was excused from work while he was kept under observation. His ruptured eardrums would not be attended to for days. The medics would be able to fix them with chakra healing to be as good as new. Until that happened, he was mostly deaf. Since he had nothing else wrong with him, he volunteered to sit with several newly orphaned children. He told them stories of his own youth and being an orphan himself. The children were still mostly in shock at losing ninja parents. Having someone there who had lost parents in war was a small comfort but it was all they had right now. Iruka saw a small girl shudder as she broke into tears again. He carefully walked over to her as his balance was still off along with his hearing. Iruka lifted the girl to his lap and held her close as she cried. Instinctively, he began to sing a lullaby his own mother had sung for him decades before. The off key sounds of comfort sounded out in the makeshift ward as the survivors began to find some healing.
Hiashi stirred after his surgery and looked around the room. He saw his nephew dozing in the chair next to his bed. The boy's own minor wounds had been attended to but a large chunk of his long hair was missing due to a fire jutsu that had gotten too close. Hiashi chuckled softly as he knew how much the boy took pride in his hair. The chuckle woke Neji from his doze.
"I apologize, Hiashi-sama. I fell asleep waiting for you to awaken from surgery."
"Don't worry about it, Neji," Hiashi replied. "I assume you are standing guard?"
"In part, Hiashi-sama. There is not enough medical equipment to go around. Since you were relatively stable with a non life-threatening wound, I asked to be assigned as your 'monitor'. I will be released to duty tomorrow since I suffered chakra exhaustion and food pill overdoses yesterday.
"How bad was it, Neji? How many died?"
"In the clan, we lost thirty eight trained ninja, four Cadet Branch elders who fought a delaying action to allow the children and non ninja clan members to evacuate. Five wounded who not expected to recover completely and thirteen wounded who are expected to recover enough to resume duty. All the bodies have been recovered. You might be glad to know that Akashatsu is expected to recover in spite of bad wounds again."
Hiashi smiled at that. The Branch member who stopped the explosive kunai back on the day those rogue ninja tried to kidnap his daughters a couple of years back.
"How about Konoha?"
"We lost the Hokage but the Sannin seem to have things organized at the moment. In a week or so, the elders and clan leaders with have to choose a new Hokage."
Hiashi nodded once more and asked the one question he truly wished to have the answer to. "My daughters?"
"Both are fine, Hiashi-sama. Hanabi-chan is with the clan. Hinata-sama is directing efforts at the estate with permission from her sensei. It seems she tried to defer to Grandmother but Grandmother would not budge in her decision that Hinata would fill in. She offered to advise Hinata saying that Hinata would welcome the experience of the coming weeks in the future.
Hiashi nodded once more and smiled slowly. His side burned in pain and he had lost many clansmen. But somehow, surviving with his most precious intact was a huge weight off his shoulders.
Ibiki looked at his deployment map. Several jonin squads were harassing the remains of the Sound forces. Hawk reports showed an additional forty taken; ten of them above genin rank. He knew the big fish had already gotten away. Early interrogations of the genin taken within the village walls showed a great number of forced drafts from ninja clans in the Rice Field and fringes of Earth and Cloud. Orochimaru had filled his ranks with cannon fodder in the hope that quantity would make up for quality. It might have succeeded if not for one alert genin named Nara Shikamaru. Those few minutes of warning had been enough to prevent a slaughter in Konoha.
The Sand ninja were retreating from the Fire Country in good order. They had left behind many fewer dead but also had inflicted much fewer atrocities than Sound. The few Sand ninja captured included two of the Kazkage's children. They would make a good bargaining chip.
The discovery of one dead Sand team inside of Konoha was the only disturbing point. All had been brutally slain. None of the Konoha forces claimed those kills. Ibiki was concerned but not overly worried. Many Leaf ninja had died in that area. Likely after defeating the Sand the victors became victims themselves.
Ibiki looked at the ANBU deployments. Kakashi had browbeaten Danzo into producing 5 teams of his Root forces. Well, at least the old war hawk was cooperating. Knowing who those teams were would weaken Danzo's overall position, as no one knew the true extent of Root.
Local defense would be a problem for weeks. They needed to repair the west gates and patch the main wall in the northeastern part of the village. They could use the breech as a new gateway since there was none close to that part of the village. The Uchiha district was blight and now with most of it destroyed the village could condemn it and build something near the new gateway. Ibiki wrote that down as a possibility to bring up with the others. The new school was also gone but getting the Academy up and running was a low priority item for now.
Local forces were badly depleted. Nearly a quarter of Konoha's total force was out on missions when the attack happened. Ibiki was forced to ask retired and previously crippled ninja to fill in at non-vital locations within the village so the remaining force could deal with any threats that might arise. Less than 50 percent of the total pre invasion forces were available for that right now. Once search and rescue efforts were completed, the number would rise. Within a week, the total force would be above 75 percent again as ninja with chakra depletion and ninja with minor injuries recovered. Over 300 ninja dead or crippled was a staggering figure for a single battle. The number did not even account for civilian losses. Sound losses to date were almost twice that. So many genin sent to early graves by the Sound. Orochimaru did not care of the cost as long as it benefited him.
But, he reminded himself, a good number of the Sound captives were genin. Some of the ones pressed into service by Sound could be recruited to Konoha but that was also a future project. They would remain captives for some time before that could happen. Ibiki kept writing down ideas for making the defenses of Konoha better as the day wore on.
Tsunade finished another surgery and leaned back against the wall. The chunin would never be a ninja again. She just had to amputate his arm above the elbow to save his life. Damn, she needed a drink but the line of injured shinobi just was not getting shorter. Of course, all the tough cases were given to her. The simple ones never reached her. It was a part of being who she was.
She signaled to the nurse. Tsunade needed a break. Another medic could take over for a few of the surgeries. Tsunade was going to check on one of her personal patients. She walked down to the critical care unit and stopped at one bed. The blonde haired Naruto lay quietly under a forced sleep jutsu along with a heavy dosage of civilian painkillers. She looked at his chart. The medics had stopped counting fractures in his feet and shins at one hundred. They settled for using chakra to move all the bone splinters back into proper position and hope for the best. Few held out hope for the boy but surprisingly a handful of doctors and nurses predicted a full recovery for Naruto. They said it might take a few weeks or months but he would recover as good as new. She saw one of those doctors in the ward now and called her over. Whispering so the boy could not hear even if he had been awake, Tsunade asked why she felt Naruto would recover completely. The doctor smiled like she had a secret.
"It is not just faith, Tsunade-sama. It is fact. Before you came back, the boy made himself into a hero. He saved the Hyuuga heir in the fire that destroyed the school."
"I know what he did there. Sarutobi-sensei told me about that."
The doctor nodded, "But one thing that was likely not mentioned. The burns on his back never got infected, never made pus. They just were forced to heal via chakra infusions because the skin burnt off down to the muscle so there was nothing to heal on its own. His back should be a mass of scar tissue right now but it isn't. The scar tissue that we forced over the wound peeled off over time with perfectly flawless skin underneath it. It regenerated. We felt that his guest made his body regenerate the wound to repair it once the skin was forced into place. That was why the nurse helping you with Naruto's surgery last night suggested getting the bones back into proper position. I did a diagnostic on him earlier. His chakra paths had been stressed when he was brought in here but they are already back to normal. The minor cuts and bruises on his body have faded and healed. The bones are already beginning to show signs of knitting together. All of this happened faster than the last time he was in here."
"The only thing I think sets him back is that he still feels every ounce of pain from his wounds. He heals fast but the pain never dulls for him until it does heal. Even pain killers only have a limited effect on Naruto. He was in agony for a month two years ago but he never cried over it. He whimpered a few times and shed some tears it we bumped it but he always was kind and thanked us for our efforts. He took time to pass out gifts people sent him for his heroics to the small kids in the pediatric ward. That boy is special Tsunade-sama. He gives people hope with his actions. An old adage says 'No good deed goes unpunished'. He pays for them in full measure in terrible ways. One day he will be a great man; if he survives."
Tsunade nodded slowly, still trying to understand the mystery of Naruto.
Sakura followed Shizune around as the older woman made her rounds in the hospital. She was still surprised at the sheer number of wounded. But deep down, she knew that half of these people recovering right now would be dead if the attack had come a month earlier. The Konoha Medical Corps was standing proudly once more. They had earned that privilege now and no one could take it away. It would only get better from here out.
The thoughts of greatness faded just as quickly as Shizune and Sakura turned down into the critical care area. Many of the ninja and civilians in this area would never leave it whole or even alive. Dozens moaned in pain or lay in sedated silence.
Sakura shuddered at the chill that would not leave her spine. Shizune noticed and gently smiled at Sakura and touched the teen's arm. This was the darker side of their profession, the ones beyond their power to help. They would try in any case but even effort could not chance the reality of things. Shizune finished her rounds over the next hour and decided Sakura needed one last stop.
"Where are we going?" Sakura asked. She knew Shizune had no patients in this part of the hospital.
Shizune smiled. "Someplace else you need to see today, Sakura."
The pair turned the corner to come to a brightly colored hall. Sakura recognized the hall immediately, Maternity and Delivery. It was the hour for babies to be on display in the nursery and three newborns lay in bassinets for a few relatives to look at through the glass.
Shizune pulled Sakura right up to the glass to peer at the babies. "That is one thing you can't forget, Sakura. In the middle of all this pain and death, there is still new life coming along."
The second day after the invasion dawned clear. The last of the fires had been put out during the night and things looked peaceful. The hospital was still the busiest point in town and several ninja gathered in front of it. Jiraiya yawned as he saw Hinata and Sakura walking up with Anko. The four ninja walked into the hospital with a single destination. It was time to wake up Naruto.
Tsunade was waiting with Shizune in the critical care ward and smiled at seeing the team. She was ready to lift the forced sleep jutsu herself. It appeared that Hinata and Sakura had listened to her advice to both look clean and healthy so Naruto would not worry when he woke up. The Sannin lifted her hand over Naruto and whispered, "Release." Naruto flinched a bit and slowly opened his eyes.
The blonde boy flinched then slowly opened his eyes as the pain from his legs rushed into his consciousness. He groaned slightly before his eyes focused on the group in front of him. Tsunade stood on one side of the bed. She looked concerned like the doctor she was. Shizune stood a bit behind Tsunade as she always did when the women were together. On the other side, Hinata and Sakura stood at the rail with Jiraiya and Anko behind. A large part of his 'family' was here for him. A single tear of joy slid out of his eye.
"Hi everybody," he said in a weak voice.
"You had us all worried, gaki," Tsunade said with a slight smirk. "Do you remember what happened?"
Naruto's brow creased as he focused through the pain he felt to remember, "I was fighting Gaara. Sakura had just thrown me at him and the cat girl was fighting him too. His sand … his sand was crushing me when my Rasengan blew up again and knocked us both out, I think." Naruto paused there for a minute before continuing. "I remember a lot of pain after that. I was saying something to Gaara and trying to move but I am not sure what I was doing, then I woke up here."
Tsunade nodded. "Well, there seems to be no memory loss at least. You were hurt extremely badly, Naruto. Gaara's sand crushed your feet and shins. If you had been anyone else, we would have amputated them already. As it is right now, we are holding that option open if you don't show signs of healing. It is important that you do not try to move your legs at all. It is that serious, Naruto, so none of your normal hospital antics, understand?"
Naruto nodded. He could tell from the pain that he was in bad shape. "How is everyone else?"
Tsunade kept a grim face, "You don't need to worry about anything else but yourself right now Naruto. Your teammates have been worried about you."
Naruto looked back at Hinata and Sakura and blushed slightly, "You two okay?"
Both girls nodded. Hinata had tears running down her face after hearing Tsunade's diagnosis but smiled for Naruto anyway. Sakura answered for them, "We're fine, Naruto. You just get better so I can smack you over the head for being an idiot, ok?" She bent over and kissed him on the cheek. "I have to get back to work with Tsunade-sensei and Shizune-sensei. Hinata has more time than I do right now. There are still a lot of hurt people out there. I'll be by later to check on you." Sakura turned and left with Shizune to get back to her current duties.
Jiraiya stepped up. "When you get out of here, I'll have to get you to learn to summon toads, like me. A few of the big guys might have made a difference in that battle. Plus my apprentice can't be ending up in the hospital like this. I end up looking like a bad teacher. Would you believe they have me helping to negotiate between the Fire and Wind countries? I have no time to even do research!"
Tsunade growled at Jiraiya as he mentioned 'research'.
"I'll be back later, Naruto. Seems like one little lady wants to talk to you too." Jiraiya motioned his head at Anko and Tsunade who followed him out leaving Hinata alone with Naruto.
Hinata stood in silence after the door closed. Tears still ran down her face but her smile had faded. Naruto reached out his hand to her but he could not reach far enough.
"Hinata?" he said in a soft voice.
Hinata's bottom lip quivered as she lost control. She was just so tired at that point. All the living clan members looking to her while her father was in the hospital. All the dead needing their affairs settled. Hinata had barely been able to deal with all of those things without breaking down. But even the strongest of steel has a breaking point. She fell across Naruto hugging the blonde while laying her head on his chest. Naruto just lamely wrapped his arms over her shoulders and rubbed her upper back as she cried on him. "I thought I was going to lose you, Naruto," she managed to say between sobs.
Naruto made small comforting sounds. He really had no clue what else to do. No one had ever cried for him in his presence before. He just lay there until Hinata got some of her composure back. Once she had lifted her head, he smiled at her. The small honest smile that always warmed her and made her feel special.
"Feeling a little better now, Hinata-chan?"
Hinata blushed a bit and nodded at him. "I'm sorry, Naruto. I should not have cried on you like that."
Naruto made his classic grin, "It'll dry. As long as you are okay, I won't worry about it." He let the grin slip from his face, "Things are that bad out there? How is the Old Man coping?"
Hinata bit her lip, "Yes, they are bad. So many people have died. And the Hokage … he died too Naruto."
Naruto just stopped. The Hokage was dead. "How?" he said quietly.
"It was Orochimaru. He summoned some warriors that couldn't die. Hokage-sama sacrificed himself to stop them and save the lives of Tsunade-sensei and Jiraiya-sensei."
Naruto hung his head as thoughts of the Old Man flashed across his mind. No matter how alone he felt in his past, the Old Man was always there to somehow make things better. The boy lacked family in the true sense but the Old Man was the closest thing he had to one.
Hinata reached out again and took Naruto's hand. She squeezed it as he squeezed back, his tears silently falling.
Next Chapter: Four Candidates but no Takers. Who will be Hokage?
No Parting Shot this time but Presenting the first and likely only omake side story I will ever write (until the next one)
Minato had lost track of how long he had been laying around. He was just trapped in between realms wherever the Death god had left him. Spirits would pass through and go on to their own personal destinations in the afterlife but he was just stuck. He gave up on one song at counting up to two billion bottles of sake. Fantasies of Kushina were entertaining but there was not a whole lot he could do with those.
He was zoned out when he heard voices. He opened his eyes to see old Sarutobi and two others that looked like the First and Second.
"Oh wonderful, now I'm hallucinating. As if keeping somewhat sane was not hard enough."
Sarutobi chuckled, "Not this time, Minato. You have company."
The First looked around, "Kind of barren, isn't it?"
Minato nodded, "Very. Oh, Sarutobi, would you happen to have those cards you always carried around?"
Sarutobi reached into a pocket and pulled out a deck.
"Oh sweet! Deal 'em out."
A few thousand hands of cards later, the four Hokages were still telling stories.
"So there I am, facing off with Madara, and the dummy starts on a monologue! He starts going on how he is going to destroy Konoha then he just keeps going and going on about his brother and his eyes. So, I use my wood jutsu and give him a '1000 years of Pain'! The guy lost the fight right after that."
End Notes: Yes, Sarutobi bought it. I know a bunch of readers were hoping for a different outcome, but the events on Konoha alone have not reached that far out into the wider world yet. The most major out of Konoha changes so far in relation to my story vs. canon are this
Orochimaru lives unscathed
The Sound Four are taken down
Temari and Kankuro are captured
Kin lives by the simple fact of being in the casket that would have summoned the 4th.
The lack of mid range missing ninja made Orochimaru recruit a LOT of genin level cannon fodder
Naruto gets badly hurt again.
The changes will increase in the second part of my story.
Review Notes: Sarutobi died because the price of summoning the death god was the summoner's soul. A shadow clone will not cut it as it is not the whole thing. In canon, Sarutobi uses shadow clones because he cannot grab both Hokages and Orochimaru by himself and he could only use the jutsu once.
Yup, I was the first to admit, my fight scenes suck as far as details go.
One thing I have tried to put into my story overall is a slightly more militaristic feel to it. Training is one of the most important things in the military and improvement only comes with experience.
As far as power levels of my characters, I did not want to push a super Naruto or suddenly finding my characters are so awesome they can defeat any random adult jonin that wanders up.
People forget these are still 13 yr old kids. Someone older with the same level of ability is simply going to smack them around like any normal adult would do to a normal 12 - 13 yr old kid.
I was surprised that no one noticed Naruto get the same hit on Sasuke that he did in my genin exams. Well, the original did come out nine months ago so it wouldn't be that fresh.
To the anonymous reviewer: Yup, Konoha took a heavy hit in my story. I have felt that for the perceived damage the canon story doesn't show, there was not a whole lot of canon impact on Konoha as a whole. Yes, the anime shows bodies strewn about but they are just 'red vest' chunin for all the impact they have overall. I want my readers to know, hey, there IS an effect here. I am not going to pull a Star Trek and have the place back to normal the next episode. Even the anime at least showed some rebuilding going on in the filler that most writers ignore.
To Mwkillkenny84 and anyone else interested. I am not against anyone using my original ideas or situations in their own fics. I just would like to be recognized as the person who came up with it.