Name: Oni Butterfly
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, but I do own this little fox plushie that I call Kyuubi. It has these sad eyes…IT'S SO CUTE! Cough I mean…. Don't sue me. But if you do, you can have everything but my plushies!
Author's Note: Thank all of you so much for the reviews. Sorry it took so long so now I give you happy candy full of happiness! Oh and if I you bump this fic up to 30 reviews I will have the next chapter posted before March 1. And thank my beta Viola!

Sasuke Uchiha woke to find himself lying in a very comfortable bed. A luxury that was extremely uncommon to him. He was more used to waking up in a hard hotel bed, or rather the ground or in a tree. It was a luxury that most took for granted but not a shinobi. His life as a shinobi, or a missing one, had taught him that. He would never take a bed or a clear source of income for granted ever again.

He stepped away from the comfortable bed and found some clothes that the Hokage had apparently laid out for him. It was a pair of black jeans and white shirt with the Uzumaki swirl on it, a typical Naruto fashion. Sasuke stared at the outfit realizing it would be very... improper to wear it, but then again even more so to appear naked. Or in the ANBU outfit he 'borrowed.' The man stood in the nude for a few minutes before finally giving in and putting the clothes on. He looked at his reflection in the mirror and let out a small laugh. There was a knock at the door, which made his smile turn into a large smirk.

He opened the door with a large smirk on his face. To his dismay he found his old jounin sensei. His smirk promptly fell into a frown.

"What do you want?" He said as more of a demand than a question.

"Nice to see you as well Sasuke." Sasuke shook his head at his former sensei.

"What do you want?" Kakashi laughed.

"Oh come on Sasuke, you haven't seen me in how many years? Just a smile for old times sake?" There was mischievous glint in his eyes. Sasuke smirked.

"Sensei, you know damn well you've never seen me smile." And with those sixteen years of abandonment and unanswered questions were forgotten. Kakashi wasn't one to hold a grudge. Not against someone he had taken a liking to anyway. "So you're still a ninja? What are you now 50? 60?" Kakashi laughed.

"You know better than that Sasuke-kun," He said in a very good impersonation of Sakura, sending a shiver up Sasuke's back. If he saw fit, there would be a ban on adding the suffix "-kun" to the end of his name. Permanently. The deadpan response he received from Sasuke made the older man laugh once more. "More importantly, I am here to escort you to the meeting. I'll wait for you to dress." It was Sasuke's turn to laugh.

"I am dressed." For the first time in their conversation Kakashi's eyebrow rose in surprise.

"Are you sure?" Sasuke nodded.

"This is all Naruto left for me to wear." Kakashi was taken aback before his eye turned over in its trademark half-moon shape. Sasuke was frightened, to say the least.

"Well if that's the case, lets be on our way." Sasuke shut the door to the guest room and followed the jounin from the room. To say he was depressed in Naruto not being the one sent to summon him was an understatement, but in truth it was nice to see his sensei... no his friend, he concluded. Kakashi had been his friend. Another one that, he had thrown away carelessly. He fought back the twinge of pain and looked down at the floor. A few minutes of awkward silence led Sasuke to ask a question.

"Did Naruto clear out the building so no one would see me?" Kakashi nodded in response without even turning.

"Yes, Hokage-sama thought it best if no one saw you before the trial." Sasuke raised an eyebrow.

"Trial?" Kakashi laughed.

"Well it might as well be," Sasuke nodded even though the jounin could not see it. Finally Kakashi stopped outside a door and pushed his way though. Sasuke thought he would be entering a conference room, but instead he found himself in a small waiting room. He walked in slowly, caught off guard. Once inside he spotted Shikamaru standing beside a large set of double doors. The only sign that he had noticed Sasuke's presence was the grimace that crossed his face before returning back to his normal bored expression. He nodded to the two men.

"I will announce you are here," Shikamaru proceeded through the two doors into a larger room, and shut the two doors behind leaving a bewildered Sasuke.

Shikamaru entered a large plush room. There was the Hokage's seat, black and very plush looking. Naruto was currently lounging in it, a stern look across his face. In a half-circle around him was all the heads of the clans. There was Hinata for the Hyuuga clan, Chouji's father for the Akimichi clan, Shino's uncle for the Aburame clan, and Kiba's mother for the Inuzuka clan, Shikamaru's father for the Nara clan, and three other clan heads. There was one empty chair located at the end of the line. It had a red and white fan painted across the wood surface, framed by the words "In Memory of The Uchiha Clan." For until recently, it was thought that they had been wiped out (AN: Poor Itachi, no one remembers him!).

He made his way over to the seat occupied by Naruto and stood beside him, nodding lightly. Naruto cleared his throat to get the council's attention. The room became silent as everyone focused on the Hokage.

"I know you are all curious as to why this meeting has been called, so I will get straight to the point. Last night the Hidden Village of Konoha received a visitor. Since I know you will ask, I did not immediately warn the village because I was assured he was not a danger. I have supervised him all night and he is here to receive our judgment on what his fate should be." The council stared their Hokage in great interest now. Naruto nodded to Shikamaru and he opened the door allowing the Uchiha in.

There was a long pause of silence.

"WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?" Kiba's mother exclaimed as she was pointing at Sasuke. All of the other members, except Hinata joined in the shouting that began an uproar before Naruto managed to quiet them down. Shikamaru brought over a chair for Sasuke to sit in, and placed it beside Naruto's desk. The Uchiha nodded to Shikamaru in thanks and lowered himself into the offered seat. Shikamaru stood beside the chair in full attention.

To the greatest shock of Sasuke, the entire council turned their gaze to Naruto. All of them appeared cautious, even concerned. Naruto noticed this and covered his face in an emotionless mask. Sasuke was left in confusion as Naruto began to speak.

"Yes, well, I also did not inform the council earlier because I did not want there to be any outside influences, in the difficult decision that we're going to make today." There were a few grumbles at this but he continued undisturbed. "Now I am going to have Sas-… Uchiha-san repeat to you the story he recited to me yesterday." No one even flinched at the slip in Naruto's speech, which concerned Sasuke greatly. He understood why he would not want to appear so friendly to Sasuke, especially in front of the council, but you think at least one member would have coughed or glanced at him. Now he was assured something had been going on since he was missing. He put the thought into the back of his mind for the time being as he began his tale.

He told the same story he had told to Naruto, but he made it appear as though, he had returned directly to the Hidden Village as soon as he had killed Itachi. When Sasuke finished his tale Shikamaru led him through the door back into the waiting room.

Kakashi smiled at him, which was really arching his eye upwards, which Sasuke interpreted as a smile. He sat down in one of the plush chairs opposite of the scarecrow.

"Are you worried?"

"Do you I would I tell you if I was?" The door bursting open interrupted the older man's retort. To the shock of both of the room's occupants, Iruka and Sakura entered. Both of the Sharingan wielders stood in surprise. Iruka gasped.

"It is true...I thought he was lying." Kakashi sighed.

"Damn you Genma." Sakura cautiously moved toward Sasuke, her body trembling. The Uchiha kept his face emotionless even when the pink haired girl was standing an inch apart from him. Iruka and Kakashi watched the two shinobi, wondering what would happen.

Sakura promptly slapped Sasuke across the face. The sound reverberated throughout the silent room. Kakashi begin to move forward to stop any other harm that may befall Sasuke when Sakura burst into tears and threw herself onto Sasuke.

"You're alive! You're really alive!" The Uchiha shook his head and embraced Sakura, pulling her closer. "Sasuke...I can't believe your alive... We had a funeral for you and everything!" Sasuke nodded.

"Yes, Naruto told me."

Sasuke had not been able to kill his brother because he was second-rate ninja. He was top-rate, and none, except maybe Sakura, seconded his observation skills. Though he did not even need those skills, as wonderful as they were, to notice the obvious uncomfortable wave that spread throughout the room when he mentioned Naruto's name. Sakura let go of him and stepped away, keeping her eyes down.

"What...What happened?" No one would meet Sasuke's eyes. He began to add it all up. The looks the council gave him earlier, and now this. "What happened to Naruto?" His voice was direct and harsh, making Sakura flinch. Iruka sighed.

"That's really not our story to te-"

"He attempted suicide." All of the men snapped their eyes to the pink-haired shinobi.

"Sakura!" Iruka stepped forward but was stopped by Kakashi. Brown eyes meet blue, before the teacher backed down.

"When we received word that the Sound had collapsed... and that you had died with it as well, Naruto just stopped." Sasuke stared as he waited for the woman to clarify what she meant. "He stopped everything. For an entire week he just wouldn't leave his room. He wouldn't even leave his bed. He just sat there; he wouldn't even speak to any of us. We tried everything to get him to awake. Gaara even came in. He tried to provoke him into a fight, even did fight him a little, but Naruto just took it. Then we had the funeral, it was a nice ceremony, and you would have enjoyed it." She smiled sadly at him, but stopped at the look of pure shock that had crossed his face. She coughed and continued, "He didn't show up at the funeral. Afterwards we went searching for him, and Hinata found him out in the woods. He was training... hard. Jiraiya went out a few times with him, and he wouldn't even speak to his master, he just trained. It was... heartbreaking to say the least. For four whole days he just sat out there and trained. Never slept, never stopped, even to take a break. One morning I went out there with a whole tub of ramen, I was going to try and knock him to his senses when I found him," She stopped for a second, he breath catching on a sob.

Kakashi placed his hand on her shoulder, as he nodded to Sasuke. "He had trained to use up every single bit of the Nine-Tails' chakra and as soon as he was almost drained, he cut into his life force, and made a Kage Bunshin. He stood there as he made every single one of them, stab him with their kunai... He had one in every single vital organ in his body." Sakura's body shook. She looked up as all of her anger toward the boy began to resurface, but when she took a look at the other's face, her anger subsided. His face was completely white, like someone had just stabbed him in the gut.

"I-I...didn't know..." They all looked up at him, not knowing how to respond to the way Sasuke was reacting. They were all saved from responding when Shikamaru opened the door.

"Follow me." Sasuke looked over the other ninja, and took a breath as he set his face into the emotional mask it had stayed in for years. Sakura glanced towards Shikamaru, and as soon as the missing-nin had entered through the door, Shikamaru gave her a wink before following after him.

Sasuke entered into the room, not knowing what his fate would be. He tried to catch Naruto's eye as he sat down in the seat he had abandoned earlier, but the Hokage seemed addiment in not letting his blue eyes stir towards the man entering the room. It did nothing to calm Sasuke's nerves.

He was calmed slightly when Hinata gave him a small smile, but he still felt his stomach fluttering. It wasn't the thought of being sent from the village, or even if he was put to death, although he hardly believed his punishment would be that severe. The thought that sent him reeling was the idea that he would never see Naruto again, or never get to try and convince the other of his feelings. Naruto cleared his throat again to silence all the conversations in the room.

Watching the way the council members gave Naruto their respect made the Uchiha realise something. The Naruto he had known when he left would have never gained this much respect especially from the others. The blond haired Kyuubi container must have changed his personality drastically, at least publicly. 'And I bet the hag had him training to become to be Hokage, for a long time before she even announced it.' Their very subject interrupted his thoughts.

"Uchiha Sasuke, the council has reached its decision." He took a breath for dramatic effect. Sasuke had to hold in a smile, as he noticed this as an extremely Naruto-like behaviour. "After much deliberation we have decided that you will be allowed to once again live in Konoha village." Sasuke did not stop the smile that fell across his relaxed face, confusing the council members who had never seen an expression on the Uchiha's face. "You will even be reinstated with your ninja status at the level of Chuunin. You will also be under probation for 6 months and will only be able to receive missions that will keep you inside Konoha. After that 6-month period you can receive outside missions but you will be accompanied by Kakashi-san or Shikamaru-san, until the council deems you able to carry missions by yourself. There will a jounin test in three months and you are allowed to participate in it if you wish."

Sasuke stared at the Hokage as well the council members. This was... extremely lenient. Why were they letting him go with just a slap on the wrist? This was insane. Before Sasuke could voice his insecurities Naruto stood up before declaring everyone to be dismissed. Sasuke stayed in his seat as everyone began to stand up and prepare to leave. Not even glancing towards the Uchiha, Naruto walked over to Hinata, whispered in her ear, and walked out with her following close behind. The other council members began to filter out as Sasuke remained in his seat. Shikamaru took pity on him and shook the man's shoulder.

"Uchiha-san, are you okay?" Sasuke stared up at the boy in a daze before snapping out of it and standing up, his eyes betraying the inner struggle inside.

"What's going on?" Shikamaru sighed and turned towards the door where Sakura and Kakashi were waiting before motioning for Sasuke to follow him. The Uchiha glared at the back of the other's head as he followed him through the doors into the room. Sasuke sat down in one the chairs, still debating over his verdict of pity. Sasuke knew it was. He barely noticed that Shikamaru was telling the room's occupants about the verdict since his thoughts were centred on a certain blonde Hokage.

"Oh Sasuke, this is great! Isn't it?" He finally noticed the pink girl standing in front of him. He nodded slowly, before standing up, looking over at Kakashi. The other man simply gave his trademark smile, which one could only see because of the curve of his eye.

"Uchiha-san." Sasuke turned to face his addresser. Shikamaru gave him a look that said he would rather be anywhere else than his current location. "I was asked by Hokage-sama to tell you that you are welcome to stay in the Hokage Tower until you find somewhere more suitable." Sasuke nodded at the other, before realising something. He had no idea where the room he had stayed in was.

"Nara-san, can you show me back to where my room was located?" All of the room's occupants stared at the Uchiha. He blinked, wondering what he had said wrong, before he realised. The old Sasuke would never have openly admitted he needed help. He shrugged it off. He was different and they were just going to have to accept it. After receiving no explanation from Sasuke, Shikamaru nodded before exiting the room. Sakura hugged him tightly.

"I'll come see you after you get settled in, okay?" He nodded, waving a goodbye at his two former teachers before following after Shikamaru.

As he walked down the hallway after the jounin he realised that he needed to be thinking about what he would do now that he was in the village. He hadn't really thought about it, but now he had come face to face with the idea. He was almost certain the bank had swallowed all of his money and such after his supposed death, but he still had hope. If so, there was still plenty of other accounts he had in separate names, in villages scattered across the five worlds. Even though he couldn't leave he could send other's to retrieve the money for him…. hopefully.

When they reached the room he thanked the other ninja, before walking in and shutting the door. He sat down on the edge of the bed, once again losing himself in thought. What would he do with the money even if he had it?

His first thought was that he could rebuild the Uchiha estate. Even as he thought about it, the idea held no appeal for him. He would be the last Uchiha and nothing would ever change that. So why rebuild? Maybe he could use it to build himself a new home. That didn't sound so bad. It wouldn't be too big as he had always hated the loneliness of the large deserted manor, but it wouldn't be too small either. He would even have a room for Naruto as well, for when the Hokage would want to stay over...

He sighed as he thoughts once again turned to the blonde. Pulling off his sandals he decided to take a quick nap, before deciding what he was going to do about the other man. Sakura's revelation had left him in quite a predicament. To find out the other had felt that strongly about him, and he had hurt him so much, left him quite confused. He knew he needed to sort out his thoughts before he me the Hokage again.

OniB: YES! It is finished! Go Me, Go Me!
Sasuke: It's just a chapter.
OniB: I know, I know. I've just been busy with plays, writing my senior portfolio, and homework, so the fact that I got this finished makes me feel happy!
Sasuke: ...What are you talking about?
Naruto: You miss play practice half the time, you haven't been writing your portfolio pieces until the night before, and you never do your homework.
OniB: ...Okay, which one of you wants to have a NC-17 scene with Orochimaru, hmmm?
Naruto and Sasuke: Oh shit...
black out
OniB: light returns with both Sasuke and Naruto tied up and being hung above a pit containing sharks Well that's it for the 3rd Chapter folks. Please, oh Please review!