A/N: Alright, so it's time to enter the final conflict of this story. It won't be particularly massive in terms of worldly consequences, but it'll mean a lot for the characters. I'm sure some of you know what this is going to be already, but oh well.

Time for Chapter 29

Enjoy!

Exactly one week had passed since the apparent suicide of Danzo Shimura. Seven painfully long days had dragged on since the night of his death, and each one grew progressively more chaotic. The first two days had been rife with questions and an underabundance of answers. The following three were defined by mass confusion as to the circumstances behind his passing. The most recent two had been slow, with very little happening in any sense. Things were still not normal, per se, but they were indeed less chaotic. The chaos had not yet ended for Kakashi, though. No, at present, his future was unpredictable.

This was because he currently sat before the council of Konoha for reasons unknown to him. He had heeded Itachi's words and remained in his home for exactly thirty-six hours after their conversation, mostly having passed the time by sleeping and occasionally eating. It seemed extremely unlikely that he would be accused, let alone convicted, of staging Danzo's death to appear a suicide, but stranger things had happened before. The worst aspect of the Jonin's current situation was quite the opposite of what one might assume. In general, people usually lost their nerve when faced with a large crowd of people. In particular, a large crowd of prominent people.

That was not what Kakashi was currently contending with, though. As of now, only five people sat before him. Every one of them held a legitimate degree of influence, but it was hardly the crowd that Kakashi had expected upon his summoning. For whatever reason, the small audience brought him great unease. Perhaps it was the focus and pared-down nature of it all. There was little to look at other than the council members, which was unnerving to say the least. Worse yet, nothing had been said since his arrival in the council room five minutes previously. In fact, it wasn't until the eighth minute that a word was spoken.

"Have you a guess as to why you're here, Hatake-san?" an elderly councilman asked calmly from his elevated seat above Kakashi. It was a trap of a question, and the silver haired ninja knew it. Despite the obviously underhanded nature of the inquiry, Kakashi felt little actual pressure to answer it carefully.

"I've got a few ideas. None of them are all that great, honestly." he replied. A murmur circulated through the quintet before him. After a moment of hushed discussion, the same man cleared his throat to silence the others.

"This may come as a surprise to you, but you actually aren't in any hot water. We find your sudden disappearance several days ago to be strange, but we also have no way to link you to Danzo-san's suicide. As it stands, you're an innocent man." he informed the Jonin, causing him to relax subtly.

"What am I here for, then? Given the situation, I doubt you just wanted to chat." Kakashi asked skeptically. The councilman responded by tossing him something. After fumbling with the object for a moment, the silver haired ninja caught a firm grip on it and flipped it over. It was a Suna forehead protector. Upon further examination, there was blood crusted on the metal.

"Let me guess, this was Gaara's?" Kakashi inferred as he gestured to the foreign object. The council gave a collective nod in confirmation.

"It was found amidst the mess they left in the prison when they broke out. As for why exactly you're here, we actually would like to ask for you advice on a matter pertaining to our next course of action." a different council member clarified from Kakashi's left.

"As you're likely aware, we've determined that they're heading for the southern coast. Given that Uzushiogakure lies there, we have every reason to believe that they intend to take refuge in the ruins. With that in mind, we'd like to take steps to retrieve them." another from the opposite side explained.

"And you want Sasuke to be on that retrieval team, right?" the Jonin guessed. There was then an uncomfortable change in demeanor from the council.

"We have very few options. Our Hunters have nothing for them, and we've already seen Sasuke have a promising amount of success against Gaara in particular. According to academy scores, he should also outclass Naruto quite handily." the man who had first acknowledged Kakashi said carefully. The silver haired ninja sighed and stood up from the chair that had been provided for him to sit in.

"You've got a few things wrong. First of all, the success Sasuke had against Gaara was almost entirely pyrrhic. He'd have to get extremely lucky to win that fight reliably. Second, Naruto is stronger than both of them. By a fairly huge margin, actually. He largely held back against Gaara, and he still beat her pillar to post. You know that as well as I do." he said. Several members of the council began to respond, but they were swiftly cut off by Kakashi.

"Also, I don't really trust you any further than I could pummel you. For the most part, you've all been on board with Danzo. He planned to use both of them as instruments of a war that doesn't need to be happening. I have no reason to believe that you aren't operating under that same agenda." he said. Initially, there was an uneasy silence. It was clear that at least some of the accusations Kakashi had levied at them held truth, though how many was difficult to discern with any accuracy.

"While we did agree with Danzo on a variety of matters, we were never fully supportive of his plans for the Jinchuuriki. Namely Naruto, who we disapproved of his future machinations for. I can assure you that he would be treated fairly upon his return. As for Gaara, we would be legally required to punish her, but her sentencing could be lightened due to the extenuating circumstances." the leftmost councilman said. Kakashi gave a derisive snort.

"Oh please. All that'll be different without Danzo around is that you won't be threatening him with Gaara's suggested execution. I know all about what he planned to do. There's absolutely no way he could have set all of that up without going through the council first. You're as bad as he was. I do think you're probably going to be easier to negotiate with, though." he said vaguely.

"What are you implying, Hatake-san?" the central councilman asked with narrowed eyes and a suspicious tone. The Copy Ninja held up Gaara's forehead protector.

"Sasuke still falls under my jurisdiction, and you can't send him out after them without my consent. I'll let you do it, but on three conditions." he said, earning the begrudging intrigue of the council, who all gestured for him to continue.

"First of all, you're going to call a meeting with the council of Sunagakure. They're in the same position we are. Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage, is dead, and that invasion was arranged by Orochimaru. Our leaders were killed by the same man. We have no reason to be fighting one another. We're twice their size in terms of military might, so a war would be nothing more than a pissing contest." he began, eyeing each of the men before him intently.

"Can you agree to that? Of all the things I require, this one is completely non-negotiable. We don't need a fourth world war." he pressed. It took a few moments, but he received a reluctant nod from the group. Satisfied with the result, Kakashi continued speaking.

"Secondly, if I agree to let Sasuke go to Uzushio, I want to send Neji Hyuga with him. And before you ask, it's because somebody needs to keep Naruto occupied if they can't just talk them into coming back." he said. The rightmost councilman raised an eyebrow.

"If I'm not mistaken, Neji was soundly beaten by Naruto during their match. What makes you think he'd be of any use against him a second time?" he asked.

"On the most basic level, Neji is hard for Naruto. He's a whole lot weaker in a literal sense, but he'll always have the ability to stick around long enough to give him trouble. He'd be there to buy time." Kakashi replied. With no other questions to ask, the central councilman glanced at the clock.

"You said you had three conditions. What's your third requirement? Make it quick. We don't have all day." he pressed. The Jonin ignored him at first, choosing to turn around and head for the door rather than answer. Just before he exited, though, he cast them one last glance.

"If Sasuke and Neji can't bring them back, don't send anybody else after them. Leave them be."

"You do realize how poorly this could turn out, right?"

"Not really. A loss for either side means good things for the other in one way or another."

Guy rubbed his temples and shook his head. He and Kakashi had gathered for lunch nearly an hour ago, and though it had taken a shocking amount of time, the topic of Kakashi's summoning the previous day had finally reared its head. While he had not been especially appreciative of the silver haired ninja volunteering Neji for such a perilous assignment without his consent, Guy had relented and given his blessing. It was a necessity, though one that pertained to an entirely optional task.

"What if Gaara kills them both? Who does that benefit?" he asked. Kakashi gave him a bored look and took a sip of his half-empty glass of water.

"You and I both know that Naruto would never let her. Besides, if she beat Sasuke, I highly doubt she'd even try to kill him. Maybe I'm reaching here, but I think Naruto's opinion of her means a whole lot to that trainwreck. They won't die unless something wild happens." he assured his comrade casually. Guy's eye twitched slightly.

"You're awfully calm about this. We have absolutely no way to know if Naruto can actually control her. Even if he can, are we sure he won't do something he regrets? He's good by nature, but tapping into the fox is bound to cloud his judgement somewhat. Also, consider that minor injuries could become major if left untreated. They'll have a month-long trek back no matter the result." he pointed out. The silver haired ninja set his cup aside and glanced out the window of the cafe in which they were situated.

"They'll be given medical supplies for the road, so that shouldn't be a huge issue. What I'm a whole lot more worried about is Sasuke, to be perfectly honest. He's an unknown quantity." he said, drawing a frown from Guy.

"How do you mean?" the taijutsu master asked skeptically. Kakashi ordered another cup of water and drummed his fingers on the table pensively

"I'm concerned about his mental state heading into a third fight with her. He isn't built to handle Naruto at this point, and he knows that, but he very much believes that he can take Gaara down. That would be fine if it weren't coupled with what seems to be a real desire to kill her. That complicates things. Let's say he does beat her, and then he puts a knife in her, that could ruin our chances of Naruto coming willingly." he pondered aloud, seemingly quite deep in thought.

"The seal on his neck also feeds into that, doesn't it?" Guy asked his conflicted friend. Kakashi leaned his face on his arm and lazily accepted a full glass of water from the waitress.

"It does, and I don't know if locking it down is the best idea right now. It ran rampant at the end of his second fight with Gaara, and it took almost six hours to contain it again. Putting another seal on it would take awhile, and it would need to be stronger. He would probably still be weakened by the time they reached Uzushio." he said, clearly stumped by the predicament.

"What do you plan to do? We Jonin aren't allowed to leave the village for the time being, not until things are sorted out. It feels to me like we should leave them alone until you or I can go after them." Guy said. Kakashi pursed his lips.

"I've made a deal with the council regarding that, actually. Should Sasuke and Neji fail to bring them back, they've agreed to simply forget about them for now. I...don't really know how to feel. In some ways, I think that those two settling down in the middle of nowhere is a terrible idea, but in others, I think Naruto deserves the chance to make a life of his own. A life that isn't chained down by a system that's biased against him. As much as I hate to admit it, Gaara probably deserves that too." he said. His fellow Jonin gave him a sympathetic look.

"Understandable as that is, you still can't let your emotions get in the way of the task at hand. The boy deserves better, that much is true, but he can still make a life here. He just needs to give people a reason to respect him. Hard as he works, few know. Lee was in the same position until he took Gaara to death's door. People's opinions are malleable." he said. The silver haired ninja shook his head.

"If that were true, they'd have revered him after he broke Neji in a goddamn taijutsu match. People didn't care about Lee, but they also didn't have any strong opinions on him. They hate Naruto, Guy. They cheered for him after he knocked out Neji, but only as a sign of respect for what he'd accomplished. Not as a sign or respect for him. It'd take something miraculous for him to get on their good side." he countered. His expression then softened slightly.

"I just don't think it's fair to expect him to wait for that. I want him back here, but letting him go isn't a thing I'm against." he said a tad more quietly. At this, Guy stood up from the table.

"Let's take our minds off this for a bit. Let's take a jog." he said with a gesture towards the door. Kakashi sighed and paid for their drinks before setting out with him to exercise.

Though he still lacked the raw enthusiasm of his comrade, he did, in fact, enjoy himself to some degree.

Naruto suppressed a yawn as he leaned back against the interior of the sand shell. He was tired, both physically and mentally, but he had found himself unable to sleep. For once, the paradigm between himself and Gaara had been reversed. Most nights, Gaara remained conscious for a time, holding and squeezing the blonde before eventually falling asleep. Tonight, Naruto seemed on track to take her place in that role. They were less than five days away from their destination, which was fortunate. The weather was growing colder. It was also quite convenient that the pair were openly romantic by this point. Huddling was an extremely effective way to maintain warmth.

At present, Gaara was cradled in his arms much like an infant. She was curled up into him with her legs and head being supported by Naruto's arms. She was shockingly light. Less than one-hundred pounds without question. Recent times had truly emphasized just how small a girl she was. Generously five feet tall, extremely light, and with very little actual muscle. She felt like a bundle of straw. Despite this, she was inhumanly durable. She had survived a Hidden Lotus from Lee, been impaled by Sasuke, and had taken a horrendous beating from Naruto during the invasion. Through all of that, she had never once completely broken.

'Funny. Looking at you now, I'm starting to get protective. Not that you need protecting. You're just so...little.' the blonde mused as he gazed down at her sleeping face. Though he had initially been somewhat dismissive of it, she was quite an attractive, if somewhat scruffy-looking girl. She was pale white, but her skin was virtually flawless, her eyes had dark circles, but her irises were a striking blue. She was very pleasant to look at when she wasn't reveling in her madness. Even in horrible situations such as their encounter with the Hunters, she had managed to calm him.

Her face had been painted with blood, and her lips had tasted of iron, but her always-shocking purity had warmed him. A part of Naruto knew all too well that accepting and relishing her affections was a moral tragedy in some ways, but he also knew that she was entirely a product of the environment in which she had been forced to grow up. When Naruto had shown her kindness and mercy, she had returned it with every fiber of her being, though to him only. Her morality was very much a mutually exclusive trait that only he and her siblings had seen, but it still existed.

'It won't take that much to show her that people are worth the trouble. It'll take some time, but I know I can help her be herself with other people.' the blonde thought to himself. For the next few minutes, he simply let his mind drift and listened to Gaara softly breath. Eventually, his eyelids grew heavy, prompting him to close his eyes. He then carefully laid down on his side with Gaara still in his arms. The shift caused the redhead to stir slightly, a quiet groan escaping her as she unconsciously nuzzled her face into his chest. Naruto smiled at this and ran a hand through her crimson hair.

'Goodnight, Gaara.'

A/N: Sorry for the longer wait on this one. Had to get some stuff done IRL. Regardless, the last fight is approaching. Once that's done, this fic will wrap up. We aren't there yet, though, so no worries. Tell me what you thought of this one :)

See you next chapter! Read and Review!