A/N: So in the previous chapter, I know I had Tsunade past when she was supposed to fall unconscious, blah blah blah. But that was only for story purposes. Just read now.

Chapter 25: Kill the Wolf, not the Hawk

I woke up maybe a couple of hours later, but I was still in the same spot. I shot up, to find Kiba and the Hyuuga from before with me. Kiba's face broke in to a wide grin and he mauled me in a hug. I didn't ask him what had happened, I remembered every part of it. Even the weird chakra that had surrounded me. I smiled at Kiba as he leaned back, and looked around.

"Where's Tsunade? And Sakura? Has Naruto returned?"

"Woah calm down with the twenty questions! Geez! Sakura and Tsunade went to go treat the wounded, but while they were gone everyone that was dead was suddenly brought back to life! Everyone's out in the crater waiting for Naruto to show up." Kiba explained. I blinked.

"So, Hinata's alive?" I asked, hopeful. Kiba nodded.

"At least I think. I haven't seen her yet if so."

"Let's go wait for Naruto!" I said, bouncing to my feet quickly.

It didn't take long for Kiba, Akamaru, and I to join the large crowd of villagers in waiting for Naruto. The Hyuuga went to go find his family. I sat on the ground while we waited for Naruto, in the front of the crowd by the forest I knew he would come out from somewhere. It was the closest spot to Pein's tower. I was still incredibly weak, but I wasn't dead weak either. I could at least move.

I turned around to talk to Kiba, my back to the forest. After a few minutes, everyone began shouting and cheering.

"Naruto!"

"Welcome back!"

"We believed in you!"

"You're a hero, Naruto!"

I turned around to find Kakashi carrying Naruto on his back, not far from us at all. Naruto was in complete shock as he saw the mass of people waiting for him. I stood up, and smirked at the blonde idiot, who still hadn't noticed me. He got off of Kakashi's back, only to have Sakura run up, punch the top of his head, and then thank him. Man, bipolar much?

Suddenly, a big crowd rushed Naruto, all of the villagers minus his best friends, and they picked him up and threw him in the air. I smiled at the scene. Naruto had always talked about how he wanted to be recognized as a good guy from everyone. Finally, he was. As the crowd lowered him and slowly began to disperse, Kakashi caught my eye, and tapped Naruto on the shoulder, and pointed at me. Naruto caught my eye, and a look of shock and then worry crossed his face. I smirked lightly, before grabbing the edges of my headband, and moving it slightly. Naruto saw that it was a Leaf Village's headband, and his face broke out in to a huge smile.

In a matter of seconds he had encased me in a bear hug.

Or maybe it was a fox hug.

I still don't know.

"Koinu! Oh my god! I can't believe it!" He finally put me down and I saw that tears were leaking from his eyes, though I knew they were tears of happiness. "I'm so happy!" He then hugged me again, though it wasn't a bear hug, but a more normal one. He released me and smiled at me again, though I saw something in his eyes that looked like he regretted something. Somehow, I knew it was because I had come back, but he still hadn't managed to bring Sasuke back.

Totally out of character, I hugged Naruto. While my head was near his ear, I whispered something so only he could hear it.

"We'll bring Sasuke back, Naruto, I promise." Though I knew it was a lie. Even if Sasuke did come back, I was going to kill him one way or the other.

Sakura and Kakashi walked up with Suzume, saying they needed to show us something. Kiba went to go find his family and team to make sure they were okay, so I went with Sakura. We arrived in a desolate area, but there was a large tent. We walked inside, to find an old lady who looked desolate unconscious lying in a bedroll.

"Is that Tsunade?" Naruto gasped, and when I looked closer I was shocked to find that it was in fact Tsunade.

"She used Katsuyu to protect the village." Sakura began to explain. "She's been unconscious ever since Koinu broke free from Garou." Kakashi and Naruto shot me questioning looks, and I waved it away as Sakura spoke again. "We don't know when she'll wake up."

"Tsunade..." Naruto muttered.

We left and went to join all of the other ninja, who were busy scouring the area for reusable wood. Some Yamato guy that had been with Naruto the one time we had met had used a jutsu to rebuild a lot of buildings, but it obviously wiped him out. Naruto, Sakura, and I were sitting on a bench, as all of us were too worn out to really help right now.

"There's so much I want to tell Tsunade." Naruto muttered.

"Don't worry! I'm sure she'll wake up soon! She's the Hokage, after all! She's a strong woman! She'll be fine!" Sakura obviously lied. I rolled my eyes, before someone shouted Naruto and Sakura's names. All three of us looked up to see an old man and some kid who looked a few years younger than all of us.

"I never thought I'd see you heroes again, Naruto!" The kid laughed as he wiped sweat off with a rag that was around his neck.

"Inari! Tazuna!" Naruto shouted as he got to his feet.

The four of them began having a conversation after I was introduced to them, before Kakashi joined everyone. The old man then mentioned Sasuke, and I sighed as Sakura and Naruto turned doom and gloom.

"Ya see, Sasuke went away for a while after Naruto and him had a fight. I'm his replacement until we bring him back!" I smiled, pointing my thumb at my chest.

"Oh... well that's mighty kind of you, Koinu. What was the problem? Some sort of love triangle?" The old man asked.

"Of course not!" Naruto laughed.

After the old man and the boy left, Naruto spaced out.

"I understand now... how Sasuke felt." Naruto muttered, only to have Kakashi, Sakura, and I look at him in question. "I know what revenge is." It then cleared up for me, and I looked straight ahead. I knew how he felt. Having teammates and a master ripped from you, it sucked. But, I was determined to not let Naruto end up like I had. It seemed, however, that he wasn't going to let it get him down too much.

"I thought I understood him, but really I didn't. No wonder nothing I said got through to him..." Naruto muttered.

"Naruto." Sakura gasped.

"If I can't understand his pain, I can't laugh with him. No wonder he wouldn't even fight with me. It might hurt a lot, but I want to fight Sasuke for real next time. 'Cause I want Team 7 to laugh again, Sasuke included!" Naruto laughed at the end, and looked at me. "You included too, Koinu." I smiled and nodded.

Suddenly Kiba and Akamaru appeared.

"There you guys are!"

"Kiba! What is it?" Sakura was the first to ask.

"Listen! Just calm down and listen! Tsunade's been dismissed as Hokage! The 6th Hokage is some guy named Danzo! I don't know him but apparently he's pretty shady!"

"What!" Naruto shouted.

"I have a bad feeling about this." Kakashi muttered.

I was silent.

"That's not it! The new Hokage has given permission to dispose of Sasuke as a Missing-Nin." I turned my head to look at Naruto, who looked on in utter horror.

"What the hell do you mean?" He demanded.

"I don't know myself!" Kiba answered.

"They're not willing to wait for Tsunade to recover. It's not surprising. And it's true Sasuke is a Missing-Nin. The usual punishment for that is death. It's only because Tsunade was so lenient that he hasn't been killed yet." Kakashi informed all of us.

"I'm going to see Danzo!" Sakura growled, but before I could stop the idiot Kakashi did.

"Wait, Sakura! Storming in there and yelling at him won't solve anything!"

"But Tsunade hasn't even woken up yet! This isn't fair!" Sakura protested.

"I'm going too!" Naruto added.

"Calm down, both of you. You have to stay cool-headed about this. Danzo knows you'd react like this. what are you going to do when you talk to him?"

"I'm not going to attack him! I'm just going to ask him to change his mind about Sasuke!"

"I know you can't just leave it at that when it comes to Sasuke. The Jonins may not have voted yet, but Danzo is still the Hokage. You need to be careful, otherwise you may end up in jail."

"I don't care! I'm still going!" Naruto was stubborn as usual.

"Naruto you have the Nine-Tailed Fox within you. That's why Danzo wants to keep you in the village. You'll be playing right in to his hands. Then you won't be able to look for Sasuke at all. Stay calm." That stopped Naruto, finally.

After that, we all split up. I went to a nearby forest, and took a spot in a tree to get some rest. After I fell asleep, it didn't seem like long before Naruto woke me up. When I woke up I found him, Sakura, some guy who kind of look like Sasuke, and two Kumogakure ninja with them.

"What do you want, Uzumaki?" I asked as I stood up.

"I need you to tell these guys all you know about the Akatsuki." He explained. I looked at the two Kumogakure ninja, and then yawned.

"Why should I?" I asked.

"Because our master was taken! And he's a host! Naruto says he might still be alive!" The male out of the two shouted, I blinked in shock. Host? Kumogakure? Great...

"Yeah, I kinda know about that... didn't realize it took Sasuke so long to capture him." I muttered.

"What do you mean?" The woman from Kumogakure asked.

"I was sent on the retrieval mission to go get the Eight-Tails with Sasuke and his team. However I bailed the night before they fought the Jinchuriki, because of... stuff. That was right before I resigned from the Akatsuki. I didn't know it had taken Sasuke so long to capture him. He must have been stronger than we thought." I muttered.

"You wanted to capture our master?" The man screamed, running to get in my face, but I didn't flinch.

"Like I said, I resigned. Do you think that as a fellow demon host, I ever WANTED to capture them, only to have them die? It was apart of the deal. When nobody will take you in as a normal human being, you'll go to anybody, no matter what the conditions. I'm not proud of my decisions, but I won't deny them either." I said as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Tell us about Sasuke." The girl demanded, and I shrugged.

"I don't know much about him, but I'll tell you what I know about the remaining Akatsuki members. Naruto, you said Pein is dead, and that Konan resigned, right?" I asked the blonde ninja that was standing a little bit away from me.

"The paper girl? Yeah."

"Right. So that leaves Kisame Hoshigaki, Tobi, and Zetsu. Kisame is from the Mist Village. He is a water ninja, and wields the sword Samehada, which literally eats an opponent's chakra when it strikes said opponent, or the area around them. Zetsu has two different parts; one white and one black. Both have different personalities and they can split in to separate bodies. Not much is known about his fighting techniques. As for Tobi, he claims to be Madara Uchiha, long believed to be deceased. He cannot be physically hit, and he wears a mask with one eye hole. Said eye reveals a sharingan, but as with Zetsu I do not know much about him. All in all, if you end up meeting a masked man in an Akatsuki cloak, run." I finished.

The girl and man nodded, before looking at Naruto. "Will you tell us about Sasuke?" Naruto nodded, and then they walked away, but Sakura and the kid that looked kind of like Sasuke went off on their own. I felt a little better from my nap, but I was still tired. However, I knew I wasn't going to get anymore sleep, so I went out to search the rubble near where my house should've been between all the debris.

While I was looking, I was looking for one thing. Finally, I found the familiar wooden frame, and the glass was shattered. I didn't want the frame anyway. I wanted the picture inside. I dug at the glass with my nails, breaking it apart until I could pull the picture out without harming it. Surprisingly, it wasn't damaged much. It was the picture of me and my previous team. I followed it once in half, and then that part in half again, before putting it in one of the pockets on the inside of my cloak that zipped closed.

I wandered the village for a while, not really having much to do. People started clearing and going to their tents and what not as the sun began falling, but I continued walking around. Soon, I surprisingly found Naruto sitting on a stack of wood, holding a popsicle meant for two people. Even from a distance, I knew he was crying. I could only guess that it involved Jiraiya. I sighed and walked up to him, but he didn't look up at me. I carefully grabbed the popsicle stick that he didn't hold, before snapping the half of the popsicle off.

Naruto's tear-streaked face shot up to look at me, and I smiled as I held my popsicle up.

"Jiraiya was a good guy, Naruto. I know it sucks, but he wouldn't want to see you like this." I knew it was hypocritical, but I didn't want Naruto to remotely end up like I had after my team had been killed. I took a bite of the half-melted popsicle, before sitting down next to Naruto. I only now realized he had bandages over his right eye, but I decided not to ask. He'd tell me if he wanted to.

"Hey, Koinu, I need to ask you something." Naruto said.

"What's that?"

"In the morning I'm going with Kakashi and Yamato to go talk to the Raikage. I was hoping you'd come?" I smiled as Naruto looked up at me hopefully, and nodded.

"Sure. I'd love to." I was slightly surprised to find him beaming at my answer. I only wanted to go to get out of here. I needed to get around outside of the village, and maybe get some action in too.

I went to the tent I'd been assigned after the battle after we had finished eating our popsicles, and I packed my bag quickly. I dropped my bag next to my bag when I jumped in to bed, and thought about what was going to happen tomorrow. What happened if we ran in to Sasuke while we were out? Sure, he was a member of Team 7. We were doing this to help him. But at the same time, I wanted him dead. He'd killed the man who'd killed my old team... maybe I should be grateful for that? But it'd been my goal since my team's death to kill Orochimaru myself. Plus, Sasuke killed the only guy I'd actually considered a sensei since my old team. The closest I had to one now was Kakashi, but it'd take time for that bond to establish if it ever did.

The next morning I grabbed my bag and threw it on, before meeting Naruto, Kakashi, and Yamato at the gate. We turned, however, and went to a field before Yamato began using his skills to find the team of Kumogakure ninjas. We all had on our traveling cloaks over our regular outfits, so I had two cloaks on. Not that I was complaining. Finally, Yamato found them, and stood up. The rest of us followed suit, and followed Yamato as he began tracking the team.

It took a while, but later that day we hit the mountains the the Kage were meeting at in the Land of Iron. It was snowing, so I pulled my cloak up as we ran. Naruto sneezed, and remarked on how it had gotten cold, before being told to shut up by Yamato.

"Hey, Kakashi?" I whispered so we wouldn't be detected.

"Hm?"

"Instead of ninja, doesn't the Land of Iron have Samurai?" I asked.

"Yeah. Why?"

"I wonder how tough they are." I muttered, staring up at the mountains. I wanted to fight a samurai, but at the same time I didn't really want to have a fight to the death.

We weren't that far behind the Kumogakure ninja. Suddenly, they stopped. Quickly, we ducked behind a few boulders that were in the area. Naruto and Yamato were behind one, while Kakashi and myself were behind the other. We waited maybe half an hour before a group of three ninja leaped in to the area in front of the team we'd been tracking. One was rather large, and the other two acted like bodyguards for him. As I looked at him, he looked a lot like the eight tails' host. Could that be the Raikage?

"We have returned from Konohagakure." The girl we'd been tracking reported.

"How did it go?" The man I suspected as the Raikage asked.

"Samui, someone followed you." One of the bodyguards said, turning slightly around. "Come out Konoha dogs!" He shouted.

Caught, we all complied and leaped out from behind the boulders, ready for a fight if it came.

"You're not bad if you were able to track Samui." The man said.

"Damn it, Naruto!" The Kumogakure girl I'd met shouted.

"Did the Hokage send you, Kakashi?" The big man asked suddenly.

"No, we have a favor to ask of you. Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure wishes to speak with you. Please listen to him." Kakashi answered as Naruto moved to be the point of our group.

"Don't you think that's a little rude?" The man who'd caught us muttered. "You didn't ask ahead for an audience and we're on the way to a meeting."

"We're well aware of that." Kakashi answered.

"All right. The blonde kid there, right? Spit it out!" The Raikage growled.

Naruto took a moment to calm down, before looking straight in to the Raikage's face.

"I want you to stop Sasuke Uchiha's execution."

"Are you still on about that?" The Kumogakure girl I knew asked.

"I can't believe it." The man from Kumogakure that I knew muttered.

"I know it's a lot to ask!" Naruto suddenly shouted. "But I have to try! Sasuke's my friend! I can't sit back and watch him be killed, and I don't Sasuke to be the cause of a war between Konoha and Kumo! I don't want either of us to get caught up in revenge!" He pleaded.

The Raikage was silent for only a moment.

"Let's go." He commanded, he was about to turn around, but stopped.

"I'm begging you!" Naruto shouted even louder as he slammed to the ground on his hands and knees. "I don't want anyone else getting killed for revenge! All Sasuke ever thought about was revenge! It consumed and changed him. He was driven mad by it, and because of it he's not the same guy I used to know! I don't want that to happen to anyone else! I don't want people from Konoha and Kumo to kill each other! So... please..." It was then that I noticed that Naruto had started to cry.

There was silence as everyone stared at Naruto, who's headband was now sitting in the snow as he bent over. Then the Raikage spoke up.

"I will kill Sasuke. It's up to you to make sure it stops there." The Raikage answered. There was more silence, but then Yamato spoke up.

"When you went after the Hyuga's Byakugan Konoha never did anything to retaliate. You're actions could've started a war! But we swallowed our bloody tears in order to prevent that. Don't forget that you exist because of our precious sacrifices."

"This young ninja before you may not be skilled at this, but he's begging you... for the sake of both Kumo and Konoha. Raikage, as one of the Kage, what is your opinion of this?" Kakashi asked.

"A ninja shouldn't be so quick to bow before another! Ninjas respect action and strength! There should be no compromise between ninjas. The history of the human race is a history of war. Ever since the three great ninja wars... every country, every village has fought for the strongest techniques. The weak will be crushed! That is the inescapable truth of our world!

"Akatsuki will be internationally wanted criminals. Then the whole world will be after Akatsuki, not just me. You beg for the mercy of a criminal, for the safety of your friends, but in the ninja world we don't call that friendship!" The Raikage began walking forward, to move past us. "Kid, think about what you must do! You won't get far in this war if you keep acting so stupidly!"

I almost let the Raikage and his group pass me, but on a whim i held my arm out, stopping the Raikage only from pure shock. I had no doubt that he could've broken my arm if he wanted to.

"Idiot girl! What are you doing?" The man growled. I watched as Yamato, Kakashi, and Naruto looked at me in shock.

"I was a member of the team that went to catch your brother. I was with Sasuke." I informed the Raikage, looking at him as I spoke. I opened my mouth to continue, but before I could the Raikage had grabbed me by my throat and held me high in the air. I couldn't breath. My neck was being crushed, and as I stared in to the Raikage's eyes, there was fury in them.

"Raikage! Please, put her down!" Kakashi shouted suddenly. Surprisingly, the Raikage complied, and dropped me in to the snow. I coughed and spluttered on the ground, but got to my feet after I'd caught my breath. I glanced at Naruto's tear-streaked face, smirked, and turned back t the Raikage with a calm face. It was time to lie my ass off.

"Raikage, I fought your brother. I did more than Sasuke ever did to capture your brother. However, for my own personal reasons after we'd capture your brother I gave him to Sasuke so that I could go do what I needed to do. So, if I hadn't had to go I would be the one to be said to have killed your brother. Not Sasuke." I took a deep breath, surprised my head hadn't been ripped off yet.

"Please, kill me and leave Sasuke alone. Take my life and end his execution."

A/N: Before anybody says it, I realize the scene with Naruto crying over Jiraiya was over before the fight, but I added it in to the story because I thought it'd be a nice touch! Please review, I love getting them! :) I hope you liked the chapter, and sorry for the horrible cliffhanger!

Also, sorry for not updating my story in a little bit, I was busy and then forgot what I was going to do with the story at first, but then I had a different idea that would work, so I went with that! :)