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Naruto came too slowly, grimacing as she pushed herself up so that she was sat up straight.
It took her a moment to regain her awareness, but the sight of Karin led in her hospital bed brought it all back and Naruto stretched slowly, quietly as she looked around.
Sasuke was stood just outside of the room, talking to Tsunade, who looked exhausted.
Naruto sighed to herself, standing up and moving to the door, opening it, drawing both of their gazes to her. "Hey Baa-chan."
"It seems you had a busy night." Tsunade raised an eyebrow, "I admit I was very surprised when I found a message on my desk from Sakura-chan saying that Fu-chan was retrieved and is in critical condition."
"Sorry I didn't alert you." Naruto ran her fingers through her hair, letting out a breath, "Kurama made contact in the middle of the night and we had to move fast."
"Of course." Tsunade nodded, "What happened?"
"Kurama made contact in a shared mindscape and I taught Fu how to draw the Hirashin seal."
"Ah." Tsunade nodded, "I see, that makes sense."
"Once she'd done it we Hirashined there, but we were too late to stop extraction, Sasuke used his Susanoo to protect us while I infused Fu with a tails worth of chakra to try and save her and Sakura got to work healing her. Once that was done we left."
"Did you see any of the members? We need more information on them." Tsunade shook her head, "Kami knows we know little enough now-"
"Danzo." Sasuke's voice was tight, "Shimura Danzo was there Hokage-sama."
"Ah." Tsunade's eyes widened slightly at that revelation, "That's not good."
"I also saw Orochimaru and Kabuto I think but I can't be too sure-there were ten of them and they were all a fair distance above us."
"I see." Tsunade nodded, "I'll inform Jiraiya-he's currently following some leads on this Pain person who from what we know is their figure head so to speak while Obito leads from the shadows."
"Leads?" Naruto straightened up, "What leads?"
"We've not been able to find out much about anything going in in Ame for years." Tsunade shook her head "But one of Jiraiya's spies managed to learn the name of the man in charge there."
"Pain. Pain is in Amegakure." Naruto breathed the words, her eyes wide, "That... is huge. That's.. if we can track this guy down we can take out one of the biggest threats to Konoha."
"Jiraiya plans on infiltrating Ame personally." Tsunade sighed "I'm worried-he has a history there, if this Pain is connected to Hanzo..." she shook her head, "But we need information and he doesn't think any of his contacts would be able to slip in and the people are all incredibly loyal to Pain."
"Wonderful." Naruto grimaced. "I don't like the idea of it either Baa-chan."
"He's agreed to wait." Tsunade added, "Until your Inauguration."
"Right." Naruto nodded. "That should be interesting. He went this far to ruin the day I got the news, what'll he do on the day?"
"We'll make sure that the security is tripled." Tsunade nodded.
"Good." Naruto let out a breath, "After my Inauguration I'm calling a Five Kage Summit." she watched Tsunade draw in a sharp shocked breath, but Sasuke just nodded, looking unsurprising.
"You're declaring war against the Akatsuki."
"I am-"
"Naruto-chan there hasn't been a Summit since-"
"Since the Shodaime called one to call for peace during the first war." Naruto finished, "And I'm calling one now, to declare war against an organization that is a terrible threat to us all. They've already extracted three of the Biju from their Jinchuriki."
"Where will you hold it?"
"I'm not sure yet. I need to figure out the details, but we need to work together to deal with the threat, that much I'm sure of."
"Think you can figure those details out within a month?"
"Of course I can, but wh-"
"We'll bring your Inauguration forward." Tsunade looked tired, "And we'll invite the five Kages... I know that only two of them are likely to come but at least if we can get them on side we can strong arm Iwa and Kumo into at least being willing to discus the situation with us."
"Better than nothing I suppose." Naruto let out a breath, "What will I need to do to prepare-"
"Nothing, I'll deal with the Inauguration preparations, you'll need to plan out what to say to the other Kage's but other than that there isn't much for you to do." Tsunade gave a wry smile, "You have enough to worry about, let me handle things until you take the hat. Enjoy your last days of freedom."
"You make it sound like I'm dying." Naruto grinned weakly, "Not like I'm literally getting the one thing that I've dreamed of since I was old enough to know my fathers story."
"I'm sorry that the Akatsuki have sucked some of the joy from it for you." Tsunade laid a hand on Naruto's shoulder, squeezing gently.
Sasuke spoke up then-he'd been silent, letting Naruto and Tsunade discuss their plans for a few minutes but clearly he'd been having to bite he tongue to stop himself from interrupting.
"A Kage is supposed to have guards at a Kage Summit right?"
"Yes." Tsunade nodded, "Of course-"
"I want to be one of your guards Naruto-chan."
"Well duh." Naruto gave a wry smile, rolling her eyes fondly, "Of course you were gonna be one of my guards dumbass. Though I guess I'll have to promote you to Jounin immediately-might look kinda weird for a Kage to be being guarded by a Chunin." Naruto laughed at the thought and Sasuke snorted.
"I'm honestly surprised you're agreeing, what was it you said last time we discussed the fact that Kages have guards?"
"I just think it can be kinda dumb." Naruto rolled her eyes, waving a hand dismissively, "The Kage is supposed to be one of the strongest shinobi in
the village it seems counterproductive for them to have guards who technically are probably weaker than themselves. That's logical right Baa-chan."
"You won't get out of it." Tsunade shook her head, "If I were you I'd just choose Sasuke-kun as my guard and resign myself to being followed around for the rest of your life."
"Ugh." Naruto pouted, "It's so dumb."
"Get used to it." Sasuke elbowed her lightly, a teasing grin on his lips, "You wanted the position-it's too late to change your mind no-"
His mouth snapped shut and he straightened and Naruto turned her head to see what Sasuke was looking it-and her eyes widened slightly when she spotted Sakura moving through the halls towards them, a tired and resigned smile on her lips as she reached them.
"Is Fu-chan okay?" Naruto's voice was tight, panicked and Sakura gave her a reassuring smile.
"I'm not sure if okay is the right word, she's going to live though, she's actually awake if you want to speak to her."
"I'll leave you in peace." Tsunade nodded, "I have arrangements to wake, Naruto-chan you go and see your friend."
"Thank's Baa-chan. Will you come too Sasuke-kun?"
"I would but I think I'll stay with Karin-chan." Sasuke shoved his hands into his pockets, "She should be waking up any day now and I don't want her waking up alone."
"Of course." Naruto smiled slightly, "Thank you for being there for her." she saw Sasuke's face flush very faintly pink and his eyes narrowed.
"Naruto-chan?"
"Yes Sasuke-kun?"
"Shut up."
Naruto laughed, letting Sakura roll her eyes and drag her away from the blushing Uchiha, though as soon as they were far enough away not to be heard Sakura spoke.
"Okay, okay I feel like I'm missing something there, was Sasuke-kun blushing then?"
"Oh yeah." Naruto nodded, "Itachi-san and I realised it when we saw them training, we think that Sasuke and Karin might just like each other."
"Oh." Sakura grinned at that, "Actually I can see it. You know it was Karin-chan who told Sasuke-kun that Itachi-san was back in the village. I definitely think you might be right about there being something there that wasn't there before."
"As long as they're happy I think it's great." Naruto admitted, a fond smile on her lips, "They deserve that much after all."
"What about you?" Sakura's voice was curious, "Did you meet anyone like that during your travels?"
"Oh kami no." Naruto blushed as they walked together towards Fu's room. "The only people I really spent any time with other than Ero Sennin and the toads were Itachi-san, Fu-chan and I guess Utakata-san but honestly Fu spent more time talking with him than I did." she shoved her hands into her pockets, "I haven't really thought about-y'know, relationship stuff."
"Of course you haven't." Sakura laughed, "I don't know why I expected any different. Besides you're super oblivious anyways. The amount of boys who tried flirting with you before your training trip that you just didn't pay any attention to was hilarious, Sasuke-kun and I used to laugh about it."
"They did?" Naruto blinked, "I didn't notice anyone flirting."
"My point exactly Naru-chan." Sakura hooked her arm around Naruto's. "Oblivious. It's frankly ridiculous-I mean I love you but really Naru-chan."
"I'm not!" Naruto pouted-though the pout slipped away when they came to a halt outside of Fu's hospital room, and she hesitated, looking in through the window.
Fu was very pale, alarmingly so, her skin looked tight and drawn and there were heavy bags under her eyes.
"The extraction did a real number on her." Sakura's voice softened, "She was lucky to survive."
"She has some of Kurama's chakra in her."
"I know. It's the only reason she survived the extraction. We think that as the chakra slowly gets worn down naturally her body will actually have the chance to adjust rather than the sudden shock of having so much chakra ripped away."
"I hate them for doing this to her."
"Believe me so do I." Sakura laid a hand on Naruto's elbow. "She's going to need a friend Naruto-chan. She might not have been as close to Chomei as you are to Kurama but-"
"But they were close enough that Chomei begged Kurama to save her." Naruto finished. "They were friendly even if they weren't on the same level as Kurama and I." and she didn't think many Jinchuriki would be on the same level of friendship as Naruto and Kurama even if they were friendly with their Jinchuriki. Naruto and Kurama were ridiculously close-Naruto knew for a fact that if anything happened to either of them the other would burn down the world to fix it. Their love for each other was extreme-probably too extreme really but neither of them really cared.
No matter how much Kurama might grumble and complain they were tied together-though he didn't know it Naruto had even made certain functions in the seal that would mean instead of being temporarily discorporated he would simply be freed from her-she didn't want her friend to have to reform, she wanted him to be free and happy without her-y'know, after he avenged her undoubtedly tragic death.
She shook away her overdramatic thoughts, staring in at Fu.
If they'd been faster-if she'd have somehow gotten there sooner she could have saved the girl this pain. Fu was her friend and she'd failed her.
Sakura gently nudged her in the side, a sad look on her face. "Naruto-chan." her voice was gently chiding, "Don't do this to yourself."
"You don't know what I'm doing."
"Naruto-chan you're my best friend of course I know. You're blaming yourself which you can't do-"
"He did this to hurt me-"
"He would have gone after Fu at some point anyway. If he hadn't been taunting you who knows what would have happened? She probably wouldn't have gotten the chance to call for you with your Kunai and you wouldn't have known that she'd been taken." Sakura's voice was calm and reasonable-and Naruto pouted slightly.
"Why do you have to be so logical all the time Sakura-chan?"
Sakura sorted at that, "Because one of us has to be and it's not gonna be you and Sasuke-kun now is it?"
"That's just rude." despite Naruto's words she managed to find a slight smile. "Thank you Sakura-chan I just..."
"You were being dumb and blaming yourself I know." Sakura shook her head, "And don't think that Fu-san will blame you either because if she has any brains she won't-and she asked if she could see you when she first woke up so I figure that's a good sign."
"Right." Naruto nodded slowly, letting out a breath, "You're right." she smiled at Sakura, "Thank you. I know I haven't been hanging out with you or Sasuke-kun as much lately but-"
"Eh don't worry about it." Sakura waved a hand dismissively, "I'm busy with the hospital and Sasuke-kun's still training his ass off, and you, you're changing the world, of course you're busy. Now go make yourself busy again, Fu-san needs you right now."
"Of course." Naruto laughed softly before moving to the door of Fu's room and opening it, stepping inside.
