A/N: I really struggled with the end of this chapter. It took me far to long to write that end scene.

Chapter 16: Final Preparations

When they made it back to the village, the Sand Shinobi were escorted to their hotel by an ANUB while their team headed to the Hokage tower in order to debrief him about what had happened. Because their mission had involved three politically sensitive individuals and an incident had occurred, they reported directly to the Hokage instead of just sensei reporting his observations at a later date and a report being handed into to a Chunin on mission end as would have been the case had nothing gone wrong.

"Hi, jiji," Naruto greeted the Hokage brightly while the rest of the team offered bows to their leader.

"Well, this is becoming quite a common occurrence." The Hokage sighed, his lips twitching in a smile as he leant back from his paperwork and pulled out his pipe to smoke while listening to their report.

"The merchants were safely delivered to the exchange point without issue. On escorting the Sand Shinobi to the village, we came across an ambush point which had been carefully disguised in order to remain unnoticed until the very last minute." Kakashi started the briefing. "Explosives traps had been laid into the ground, and were triggered to activate by a chakra burst once we had travelled over them. Fortunately, Sasuke felt the chakra pulse and managed to get the target of the attack – Gaara Sand – out of the way. With other explosions having also been rigged the group was forced to break up. Each of us encountered shinobi residence, masked and with no village identification."

As they had discussed, Sakura took up the briefing then. As they had been separated it was protocol to discuss what happened with each individual group one at a time in order to get the full picture.

"When sensei ordered us to scatter, I broke left along with Temari Sabaku. We were attacked by a single pursuer who forced us further away from the first contact point. He seemed to know how Temari fought, since he kept in close to her to prevent her from using her wind jutsu effectively. I was forced to engage, and managed to distract him long enough for Temari to create some distance and then used her wind to decapitate our opponent. Due to my shorter statue, the jutsu passed harmlessly over my head. We re-joined the group when Naruto's clones were able to locate us not long after." Sakura explained succinctly.

Since the majority of her training evolved around boosting her strength and stamina, it wasn't recommended that she engage in a Taijutsu contest with someone stronger than her. But if she did, she used her dodging training in order to jump in and out of her opponent's guard, looking for openings or creating openings for someone else to take advantage off. It was fortunate for her that Temari had recognised what she was doing and taken advantage of it. In time, Sakura would develop a taijutsu style of her own, which would increase her close combat effectiveness but she wasn't at that stage yet.

"I grabbed Kankura and pulled him up into the trees and forward of the contact point." Naruto took over. "He released the puppet on his back in order to engage the first attacker which engaged us, while I engaged the second attacker who had a Tanto. Our fight took us further away from the clearing, since I struggled to manoeuvre in close with the tree coverage. When we finally reached a clearing, I was able to trap my opponent using the Hidden Mole technique. Since he nearly escaped, I was forced to kill him. Kankura had mostly managed to hold off his opponent, but his puppet was destroyed and my clones provided him with back up until he managed to use some kind of poison. Kankura and I were arguing about whether we should back track to the contact point to find the others when Sasuke and Gaara arrived and Sasuke had me send out clones to find the others."

"When I felt a concentrated burst of chakra heading at Gaara's back, I believed him to be the target of some kind of technique and so I pushed him out of the way. We tumbled through the trees and bushes for a short while, before I was able to disengage from Gaara's sand. From what I was able to tell, Gaara has a constant, thin, layer of sand around his person at all times. When I pushed him out of the way, appearing as a threat, his sand reacted. It became thicker and attacked the point of contact between the two of us." Sasuke brought her hands forward to reveal the bandages, her voice bland and professional as she explained what happened. "When I disengaged, it seemed that Gaara was going to attack me but then three threats appeared and he turned on two of them while I handled the third. Gaara displayed a high level of bloodlust when it came to killing of opponents, but I was able to convince him to keep the last man that he'd captured in his sand alive for interrogation. Kakashi-sensei has the prisoner scroll."

Sasuke brought her hands back to her sides before continuing her report. She had a lot more to say then her team mates, especially since she was going to alert her Hokage and team leader to the potential threat that had been let into their borders. As well as a potential opportunity.

"When asked, Gaara informed me that the men who had attacked us were assassins sent by his father in order to kill him. I got the impression that this was not the first time that such a thing had happened. Gaara's siblings and sensei all viewed him with caution, like he was a blood thirsty monster who would turn on them at a second's notice. They were extremely surprised to discover that Gaara had taken a prisoner and that I retain my life – let alone the use of my hands – after coming into direct contact with his volatile sands. Further, I believe that Gaara is extremely mentally unstable due to the partial failing of the seal upon him that contains one of the Buji."

There was a tense, dead silence in the office as Sasuke so casually spoke about something that was normally considered to be an S-rank secret no matter what village you were in. The fact that she hadn't shown any negative emotions towards the knowledge she was imparting was also a shock, but Sasuke knew that Jinchuriki were still people with emotions and lives. Even Gaara, no matter how damaged he was still had the potential for emotions, dreams and hopes. He just needed a little help pushing back the voice in his head demanding he go on a homicidal rampage. He'd already demonstrated more control than she'd thought possible with the maleficence that he leaked with sparing her life and the life of their prisoner.

"You are certain that Gaara' is a Jinchuriki?" The Hokage leaned forward with a frown on his face.

"The chakra isn't well contained within Gaara. When he fought, when he killed, I felt the power contained within him trying to break out. I'm absolutely certain that he contains a Buji within." Sasuke nodded her head certainly. "It's not as powerful as what I can remember the nine-tails feeling like when it attacked, but it seems to be more unstable? I'm not sure how to explain it and Gaara only lost control for a moment so I couldn't get a good read on it."

She could see how pale Naruto was out of the corner of her eye, and she suddenly felt like hitting herself in the head for so casually discussing Jinchuriki and Buji with him there. He didn't know that she knew the truth and he certainly didn't know that she didn't give a damn. Stepping back slightly, Sasuke moved so that she was stood just behind Naruto's shoulder and brushed against him the way she'd done during formation practise and missions. Silently telling him she was there and that she had his back. So that the other's wouldn't dwell on her actions, although she was certain sensei and the Hokage had both noticed, she continued her report.

"Anyway, once our prisoner was secured, we returned to the sight of the first attack to find evidence of multiple explosions. We followed the trail of broken puppet pieces in order to find Naruto and Kankura. While Naruto's clones were searching for the rest of the group, Naruto provided me with first aid."

Kakashi didn't let silence full, speaking up to finish the report.

"Meh, I didn't have nearly as much fun as my cute-genin. Five jonin level opponents attacked to take myself and Baki out, but we dispatched them. It seems they didn't anticipate my presences in the escort team, since I caught three of the Jonin change from following Gaara in order to engage me." Kakashi eye smiled, pleased that he presented a big enough threat to enemies that they would send more after him then they would a Jinchuriki and therefore one of his students.

"Very well, you will all have to provide a written report of what happened. Although, I ask that you keep speculations about Gaara being a Jinchuriki out of your report." The Hokage's eyes hardened as he looked seriously upon the genin. "Unless you feel the life of a comrade might be in danger, you are not to reveal such knowledge to anyone."

"Yes Hokage-sama."

"You are dismissed."

The moment they stepped outside of the Hokage Tower, Sasuke looped her arm through Naruto's before the boy could run off and be locked in his panicked thoughts. Ignoring Sakura, who was pestering her about going to the hospital to get her hands checked over, she took off – towing Naruto behind her.

Despite her added cargo, it wasn't that hard to lose the shocked Sakura as she headed to her home. She needed to have a long overdue conversation with Naruto and the empty lands of her clan compound would be as good as place as any to have it. She knew that Kakashi was following behind, likely having an idea about why it was she had kidnapped Naruto, but she didn't have a problem with their sensei knowing that she knew.

"Sasuke what was that for?" Naruto protested as he stumbled to a stop inside Sasuke's hallway.

"We needed to talk," Sasuke shrugged, dropping her bag and toeing off her sandals to swop them for house shoes.

Since this wasn't the first time that he'd been to her home, Naruto automatically did the same. Whenever Sasuke brought him over for cooking lessons, she'd also taken to teaching him appropriate etiquette for entering someone else's home and the different protocols that should be followed depending on station. It hurt his head, but one of the things that had stuck was that it was impolite to go around someone's home in outdoor sandals. And Sasuke had even brought him an orange pair of house slippers that was kept next to Sasuke own!

"I know you're the container of the nine tails." Sasuke got straight to the point as she pulled Naruto into the living room. Normally she'd make them something to drink before having this conversation, but she wasn't going to put herself through the pain of manipulating her hands like that.

"I… how… I don't…" Naruto stuttered, trying to deny the accusation, while's his eyes darted about the place, looking for an escape.

"I've known since I was seven." Sasuke continued like Naruto hadn't tried to say anything. "And I don't give a damn."

"You… you don't?" Naruto asked, hesitantly.

"Naruto, if I cared that you're the container would I have given you those note books? Would I have worked with you the way I have these past months?" Sasuke pointed out. "I'm not the ignorant population of this village, I know for a fact that you are not the nine tails and that without you, without your strength of will and body, that the Kyubi would have escaped – if only partially – and continued it's assault on the village. You are it's jailor, and the only thing that stands between the demonic chakra and mass slaughter."

"I… everyone else thinks I'm a monster." Naruto admitted, his sunny disposition nowhere to be seen as he said this.

"I don't think you're a monster. Sensei doesn't think you're a monster. Hell, most of the Shinobi forces are smart enough to have realised you aren't a monster. For those who were stupid enough to be warry of you when you were younger, many of their attitudes have changed in the last five months or haven't you noticed the difference? It's just the civilians that treat you like that because they are so caught up in their ignorance and their anger. In time, once you've shown to them that you love this village just as much as they do, and are willing to do everything you can to protect it, they will come round. You will show them the truth." Sasuke said with absolute certainty.

"Thank you, Sasuke." Naruto suddenly exclaimed. "I won't let you down."

"I know." Sasuke chuckled.

"Sasuke, you still need to get your hands tended to." Kakashi suddenly made his presence known.

"I'll head to the hospital now. Naruto, you are free to spend the night in my spare room if you wish." Sasuke conceded to the hidden order but made sure to let Naruto know he was still welcome.

Considering the damage done to her hands, Sasuke was stood down from team training for three days so that she could recover completely before the start of the Chunnin exams which was to start five days after returning to the village. The day after returning to the village, Sasuke went looking for Shikamaru who was having the last two days of his team training before focusing on Clan training skills for the last days. With his changed training schedule, Sasuke had to wait until after his team training at five in order to catch Shikamaru since they had things to discuss.

He found Shikamaru waiting for her in their training field, clearly waiting for her. Instead of lying on the floor and cloud watching while he waited, Shikamaru was propped against a tree – which told Sasuke that whatever he wanted to discuss was very important.

"Shika," Sasuke greeted.

"So, we have a problem." Shikamaru hummed. "Internally."

"Troublesome." Sasuke sighed.

Since they'd discussed the issue with Danzo and his Clan, Shikamaru had commented that Konoha was open to attack due to internal weakness. The Shodaime had done his best, but he didn't have the man power or the will to do what he should have done. Because of this, they had both been watching what they called 'key targets' which would alert them to the potential of an invasion force or a mass assignation attempt. If Shikamaru was saying there was a problem, then it meant the people or infostructures he was watching had done something which indicated an impending threat.

"Who?"

"Root members have pulled away from several people believed to be spies, at least 12% of the regularly caravan's have been replaced with impostures. Of the increased foot traffic arriving for the Chunnin exams, a further 7% of the civilians are also ninjas disguised as civilians. That number will likely increase in the next five days, and again in the lead up to the final event which is in five weeks." Shikamaru supplied. "I have not noticed an increase in our own internal defences in order to keep an eye on these spies and imposters. Danzo clearly knows if he has pulled back his Root members, but he has chosen not to do anything."

"Danzo knows that in the invent of an invasion, he may be able to pull power from the Shodaime. Especially, if he knows who is behind this increase in foreign ninjas and he believes that the Shodaime will fall in the invasion. As he does not have a successor, the disbalance of power and confusion will be a good time for him and the council to make their move. Especially considering how much they gained after the Yondaime's death." Sasuke theorised a reason why Danzo would have held his silence.

"They won't attack in the first two parts of the chunin exams." Shikamaru proposed.

"No, they'll wait until the finals when the daimyo and the wealthy lords and ladies, our potential clients, are all in the stands. The most damage to the village and the reputation." Sasuke agreed.

"If it's a full invasion they will target more than the stands. They'll attack from inside and out, that's why they've already started feeding ninjas into the village. The Academy, the Hospital, the Administration Building are all high valued targets." Shikamaru brought his fingers together as he thought.

"The South Wall is the weakest security point. If the invaders have an insider feeding them information, or their spy has been within our ranks long enough, they'll know that." Sasuke looked in the direction of the South of the Village.

It used to be their most protected side but then the Uchiha fell and their main headquarters became an empty building and training ground. No more patrols, no more trained ninjas their twenty-four seven always on alert. Nothing had been done to rectify this weakness when the Genin, Chunin and ANBU took up and split the workload of the police and internal defence.

"So, what do we do?"

"We can't alert someone; we won't be believed without proof." Sasuke frowned. "I can put a proximity and alert seal on the wall, and also at several points into the woods. If you check the map, we can create a web to get an idea of the number of troops that will move against us and also when. The seal will be enough proof for Kakashi to use his authority to get the Hokage and ANBU to act."

"In the meantime, we train and keep our eyes open." Shikamaru agreed. "You have the maps at your place?"

"Yes, but I won't be able to draw and place the seals until tomorrow – my hands haven't finished healing." Sasuke confirmed.

"The Jinchuriki, do you think he might be part of this?" Shikamaru questioned before they could leave.

Sasuke blinked, surprised. She hadn't told Shikamaru what had happened on her last mission yet, but she shouldn't be overly surprised that he had figured it out. If he's passed Gaara on the streets or otherwise seen him, he would have noticed the instability in Gaara's emotions and mentality as well as his blood lust and potentially the feeling of his chakra. More than enough information for him to deduce that Gaara was a Jinchuriki.

"Gaara, the Jinchuriki of the one tales." Sasuke supplied him with the information that he needed. "It's possible because who sends a Jinchuriki with an insufficient seal into an ally village? But, if Gaara is involved then it means that Suna is going to be part of the attack force. But…"

"They don't have the motive to do that alone." Shikamaru finished.

"And they only have the one spy in our village." Sasuke confirmed.

"So, whoever is going to attack us is doing it with Suna's help. So, two villages against our own when our forces are already barely enough…" Shikamaru trailed off, knowing that he didn't need to state it all for her to understand.

"I've already warned the Hokage about Gaara, so there will be ANBU keeping an eye on him and I assume that Jiraiya is on his way back to the village so there is a chance that he will notice something or have information for the Hokage about the invasion." Sasuke hummed.

"If he does come back, we need to make sure he stays in the village for the finals." Shikamaru's eyes narrowed.

"The easiest way to do that is make sure Naruto is in the finals. Jiraiya will want to see his godson proving to the village what he can do." Sasuke pointed out. Shikamaru had known that the Yondaime was Naruto's father since he was eight and a picture of the Yondaime was covered in their history lectures, so it wasn't news to him to discover that the Yondaime's sensei was Naruto's father.

"The first two tasks are team efforts; do you think your team is ready and able to complete those tasks? Are they ready?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Yes, I think they are strong enough to survive the exams." Sasuke confirmed. "Kakashi has been working us really hard. Sakura isn't ready to be a Chunin, but she will survive the exams."

"Alright," Shikamaru nodded. "My team will also be in the exams; I will do my best to make sure they make it to the finals although neither of them have the strength yet to be a chunin."

"Team 9 and 8 will also be nominated."

"Neji is physically Chunin material, but not mentally. Tenten, I think is ready but she will need to be placed on chunin teams for a few months before she's given the chance to lead." Shikamaru thought over the information he had on team 9.

"Lee is like Neji he has the physical skill but I don't think he has the mental capacity. He can't recognise when it is better to retreat instead of continue trying to bash himself against a superior opponent. If he is promoted, he will get himself or his team mates killed with that mentality." Sasuke knew more about Lee from their sparing sessions.

"Hinata is still to shy and beat down by her clan to lead a Chunin team, and she is holding herself back physically." Shikamaru picked back up as they moved on to team 8. "Kiba is too brash and relies to much on his companion. Shino does have the potential to advance. He has the physical requirements despite his low chakra and he is intelligent and not emotion driven. I'll have to see how he handles himself in a fight to say for sure, but he does have the potential."

"There are another 18 active genin teams who have yet to be promoted or shifted into the genin corps." Sasuke frowned. "At least three of them will be nominated, but I don't think any of them have the potential to advance. There are a couple of others who show promise of being good Chunins, but they need more mission experience. Next year perhaps but not this go around. Their jonin instructors know it, and probably won't nominate them."

"Teams 13, 21, 28 and 16 next go around, Teams 14, 25 and 29 nominated this time?" Shikamaru questioned.

"Team 12 also has potential for the next exams in Kusa. They've only got 10 C-rank missions under their belt and they need 12 to qualify. Teams 21 and 28 will probably be in those exams alongside 14 and 29 but Team 12 is the only one I know who will make the cut as a whole team in six months." Sasuke admitted. She knew more about the other genin teams and the genin corps, while Shikamaru knew more about the Chunins.

"Do you think any genin teams outside of team 9 and the rookies will be able to make it to the finals? If they don't make it to the finals, the Hokage will stand them down because their Jonin need to be in the village with so many dignitaries." Shikamaru focused, trying to think about who would be the most likely to be open to victims. Genin weren't strong enough to be able to help in more than the evacuation efforts in the event of an invasion, especially if they are caught at one of the 'target points' like the stadium.

"Some of them will try and get into the stands to see the finals, the rest… well I image they will be assigned D-ranks." Sasuke hummed. "We don't have any influence over where they will be. We just have to focus on those who make it to the finals and mobilising quickly to stop the chunin and Jonins from being overwhelmed."

Two days before the chunin exams, Kakashi called a team meeting and finally let them know that he had nominated them. He gave them the next day off so that they didn't injure themselves with training and so they could prepare themselves and get everything they thought they would need for the exams. However, he did order them to spend the night together as a team to make sure that they were as prepared and ready to work together as possible. They were already a tight nit team, but Kakashi was observant enough to know that Sasuke was keeping herself slightly distant from the rest of her team and that Sakura still hadn't let go of her 'worshipping' of Sasuke to either Sasuke's or Kakashi's satisfaction.

Sasuke volunteered her house for her teammates to stay in so that Kakashi didn't have to open his flat to them, and it meant that they each had their own place to sleep. Due to the amount of time that Naruto spent around her house, and her dissatisfaction with his living situation, Sasuke had given Naruto his own room. She's gotten him orange bedding, and painted the lower halves of the walls orange while leaving the upper wall and ceiling white. The curtains were a burnt orange, nearly red, since she couldn't find any in the 'kill-me-orange' that Naruto preferred. She'd filled the dresser with clothes for Naruto, half of which where light blue and white with red or orange seams while the other half was black trousers with a dark orange undershirt to go under his vest. He only wore his orange boiler suit when he'd stayed at his own place since those were the only clothes he kept there.

She'd also got him a desk to work on his Fuinjitsu work since he'd taken an interest in the art after he'd learnt about his Clan history. He was very quickly catching up with Sasuke's proficiency and taking over because he was far more creative in his thinking and understood the seals on a level that Sasuke couldn't reach. It took Naruto a week or month to develop or adapt a new seal, while it was taking Sasuke' months to do the same thing. She had a handful of seals that she'd adapted over the years, and three off her own invention, while Naruto had already doubled that in the two months that he'd been working on Fuinjitsu after learning the basics from her notebooks.

Kakashi and Sakura didn't come round to her house very often, and when they did it was typically just for a meal, so she hadn't done anything to her other spare bedroom. With only the one other spare, Sakura took that room while Kakashi chose to sleep in the living room. Sasuke had been surprised when their sensei chose to stay with them instead of heading back to his apartment because he didn't typically join in the team building exercises that they did.

His placement in the living room meant that Kakashi was woken by Sasuke movement into the kitchen in the middle of the night.

"Do you want a tea?" Sasuke didn't turn around to see her sensei stood in the doorway.

"It's three in the morning." Kakashi observed, his voice light and unaffected by the fact that he'd just be woken. One of the side effects of being an experienced ninja was that they could go from asleep to awake in a slit second – a reflex which could save their lives on a mission.

"Yes," Sasuke grabbed a second cup despite not getting a response.

"You should be resting. The exams shouldn't be taken lightly." Kakashi warned.

"I know," Sasuke placed the unique combination of dried leaves and fruits that she preferred in her midnight teas (strawberry, raspberry and black leaf) into the metal strainer for each of the cups before pouring the hot water over the top. "But sleep doesn't come as easy as it used to."

Sasuke felt her sensei's eyes narrowing on her back, but she didn't turn round as she continued straining the tea to make sure that plenty of flavour made it into the hot water.

"You've been having nightmares." Kakashi deduced. "Don't dodge the conversation like you did last time."

"Nightmares," Sasuke turned around and handed one cup to her sensei before slipping into her seat. Kakashi did the same, sitting opposite her. "Are just the minds way of letting us know we're worried about something."

"And what are you worried about?"

"The Village," Sasuke admitted. "I'm worried about the village."

"Why?" Kakashi straightened from his habitual slouch and focused his intense gaze on his student who stared into her tea like it held all the answers.

"An unstable Jinchuriki, an increase in the number of foreign ninjas into our village, and… our village isn't as strong as it should be. Our Hokage is old, our internal defences are weakened with less people running patrol within our walls and less ninja who are capable of protecting us. 3 elite ninjas, 29 active Jonin, 39 active special Jonin, 652 chunin and 800 genin; our village is week. Our active village forces are half of what they should have been, with a quart of our number retired or forced to retire due to injury. If any of the other villages see beyond the ruse that the Hokage has been putting up for the last ten years…." Sasuke trailed off as she looked up at her sensei.

"You think there will be an invasion." Kakashi deduced.

"The Chunnin exams would be the perfect time for it." Sasuke admitted. "Sensei, I've had this feeling before."

"Feeling?"

"My chakra, it reacted like this the night… the night I lost everything." Sasuke explained turning her gaze to the window which looked upon the homes of her clan. "And when I was on the way home from school when I six."

"What happened when you were six?" Kakashi questioned. Having read her file, he would know everything that had been reported as happening to her. As far as the village was concerned, nothing had happened to Sasuke until she was seven and her Clan had been murdered.

"My brother, and cousin Shisui was on a mission out of the village and school had just finished. The Academy was closed to my class to allow the teachers to test for the genin graduates and get the new intake used to being at the Academy." Sasuke sighed. "When I was walking home, someone came up behind me and grabbed me – a Chunin. I woke up in a run down building outside of the village – chained and naked."

Sasuke stopped talking for a minute as she frowned.

"No one came looking for me for five days because my father refused to admit that someone was holding his son for ransom. When Itachi got home and learnt what happened, he was furious. It took him four hours to find me… to kill the man who had taken me and bring me home. He didn't take me to the hospital, because that would be disobeying fathers will more than he already had. Instead, I was seen to by one of the few trained medics in the clan so that there wouldn't be anything on file." Sasuke smiled bitterly.

"This is why you flinch away from men with dark hair and eyes who move to quickly near you." Kakashi's eyes narrowed. "That's why you don't allow contact with people. It's not, as Inoichi assumed, as a result of the trauma you suffered from your Clan's massacre, but because of this incident."

"The genjitsu didn't help," Sasuke shrugged. "But yes, my kidnapping was the first reason why I don't trust adults."

"You realise, I'm going to have to put this on your file. You will have to see Inoichi." Kakashi warned.

"Wait until after the exams, then I'm willing see Inoichi." Sasuke shrugged, finishing off her drink.

Kakashi nodded, accepting that and understanding her unspoken reasons for that request. If Kakashi reported what she'd just told him, Inoichi might stop her competing before doing a mental assessment.