Retrieving the Uchiha.

Written by: Kin-Ryu Chikara

I don't own anything from the manga/anime Naruto. It is Masashi Kishimoto that owns Naruto. This is a fan fiction based on Masashi Kishimoto's manga and anime: Naruto. It really doesn't have much to do with the story, other than some events. Warning, does involve spoilers to things that happens in the anime and manga.

"Ordinary conversation"

'thought'

"Kyuubi speech"

'Kyuubi thought'

Scene change and story perspective. Example: Tsunade's POV (Point Of View): Tsunade is telling the story. Hinata's POV: Hinata is telling the story.

Golden dragon speech

Authors note: a comment from me about the story.

-- paragraph

Wordlist: Konoha one of the ninja villages, Suna another ninja village, Hokage leader of Konoha, Kazekage leader of Suna, Sandaime Third, Yondaime Forth, Godaime Fifth, kage shadow, bunshin clone, jutsu technique, Hijutsu secret technique, Katon fire element, Suiton water element, Doton earth element, Fuuton wind element, Raiton thunder element, Iton healing element(my creation), kawari replacement, shinobi ninja, Jounin high ninja, Chuunin medium ninja, Genin low ninja, henge transformation, KAI undo/cancel, shuriken throwing star, kunai throwing knife, Hai 1. yes 2. here, Yatta I did it, Honto really, Īie no, sugoi 1. amazing/wonderful 2. awful/terrifying, Nani what, baka idiot, dobe moron, gambatte do your best/try your best, kawai cute, gaki kid/brat, obāsan grand mother, otosan father, okasan mother, onesan Big sister, 1.onosan 2. nii-san big brother/brother, imoto-san little sister, ototo-san little brother, sama/san Mr, Mrs, or Ms (formal), nesan elder sister(familiar form), Ero gaki perverted brat, Ero-sennin perverted hermit(Jiraiya), tenketsu chakra holes, Jyuuken gentle fist, Gouken iron fist, Katon, Goukakyuu no jutsu Fire element, Grand Fireball technique, Katon, Karyuu Endan no jutsu Fire element, Fire Dragon Flame missile technique, Katon, Housenka no jutsu Fire element, Phoenix fire technique, Katon, Ryuuka no jutsu fire element, Dragon Fire technique, Katon, Gamayu Endan Fire element, Frog Oil Fireball (can only be used together with a frog summon).

(A/N: I am not going to write down every jutsu name in Japanese. That will be too troublesome. So I'll only write down some of them, the rest I'll use the English translation.)

Ryu-ichizoku the dragon clan, Ryu-kuni the dragon country, Kin-ketto golden lineage, Infomeshon Information, Cymer Chikara's ninja helper, Mujaki Chikara's adoptive daughter, Namida-chan Chikara's pet name for his adoptive daughter, Taiyo-kun Temari's pet name for Chikara.

Chikara's summons(all are dragons): Kaji (fire), Chikyu (earth), Kaze (wind), Mizu (water), Kori (ice), Raimei (thunder), Seibutsu (life), Yugure (darkness). Chikara in his dragon transformation is called: Kin-Ryu.

Continuation from "Family visit"


Almost one month had passed after I removed Anko's cursed seal. Over that month she had really changed, from the sadistic….sadist to a friendlier and less scary woman. She had show her appreciation by helping us train and shown us a lot of Orochimaru's moves.

--

Jiraiya had returned and delivered the info he had on Orochimaru and Sasuke's movements. Then he had left to catch up on some "rejected research", as he himself had put it, or peeking, as Naruto had translated. Of course, Mujaki heard that, and being a little naïve, she had asked me why Jiraiya went peeking. I had never felt so awkward before, and barely managed to mumble: "I'll tell you when you get older" before I went to beat Jiraiya up, blaming him for my predicament.

--

The day after I beat Jiraiya up, Tsunade called me, Temari, Naruto, Hinata, Sakura, Kakashi and Jiraiya to a meeting, Jiraiya was cowered in bandages from head to toe. When we came to her office, we were ushered in and saw Shikamaru standing next to Tsunade in front of a huge map. A map which showed what I assumed were Orochimaru's hide out.

"Hello everyone. So glad you could make it, on time." Tsunade said, the last bit directed towards Kakashi. He looked a bit awkward but didn't say anything.

"I and Shikamaru have been making plans for the Sasuke-retrieval mission. This is a map of the place Orochimaru is said to be hiding. Sasuke is also observed there." Tsunade said.

"Do we know if the source of this info is reliable?" Temari asked. Tsunade nodded and pointed to the bandaged mummy that was Jiraiya.

"Jiraiya was the one to get the info." Tsunade said and Temari glared at the injured man.

"That is why is wanted to know if we could trust the info." She said and I chuckled at that.

"We just have to take that risk." Kakashi said smilingly.

"So what is the plan?" I asked and Shikamaru pointed to the map.

"Half of the team creates a distraction in the west corner of the mansion so that the rest of the team can sneak in, capture Sasuke, immobilise him and Chikara can remove the seal. When that is done, the team extracts with Sasuke and sends up a signal flare and the rest of the team escapes as well."

I thought for a bit and pointed to the map.

"Do we know where the guards are?" I asked and Tsunade nodded a little.

"Yes, some. But not all. We do know where the most regular guards are, but some of them change positions every hour or so." She said and I nodded.

"When do we move?" Naruto asked eagerly

"Two days from now you leave. Until then you rest. No training except some scroll study. Got it?" Tsunade said sternly and Naruto nodded.

"Two days of rest seems fine by me." I said and grinned at Temari, who grinned back.

"Now, get out of here. I will make the mission details and give them to you tomorrow." Tsunade said and made shoo motions. I grabbed Temari and vanished in a poof.

--

Temari and I reappeared in out apartment, and we went to the roof. There I made a bed of leaves and we lay down and relaxed in the sun.

Temari laid her head on my chest and listened to my heartbeat.

"How do you feel about this mission?" she asked me and I sighed.

"I may have to become the dragon to be able to do this." I said and sighed. Temari looked at me and smiled.

"If you have to, then you have to. Don't worry, I have faith in you." She said and I smiled back.

"Thanks."

--

Naruto, Hinata and Sakura made their way towards Ichiraku ramen, chatting about how great it would be to see Sasuke again. They arrived at the ramen stand and sat down at their favourite seats.

"One big pork ramen and one vegetarian ramen please. What do you want Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked after ordering for himself and Hinata.

"Vegetarian sounds nice. I'll take one of those." She said and Ayame, the waitress at the Ichiraku nodded and went to make their orders.

"Do you think that Sasuke will want to come back?" Sakura asked and Naruto nodded.

"Of course he will. When Chikara-sensei takes of that seal, Sasuke will be back to normal, only he will be much stronger. And then he will be able to work for Konoha again. So don't worry Sakura-chan." Naruto said and Sakura nodded slightly.

The food arrived and the three of them ate in silence. Naruto had eaten seven bowls by the time Hinata finished her one.

"Um, Naruto-kun, what do you think will happen to our team when Sasuke comes back?" Hinata asked shyly. She was sad, since she thought she would get kicked out of the team once Sasuke came back.

"I don't know. Perhaps Sasuke will come on our team as well. Then we will be a four man team. Won't that be cool?" Naruto asked, mouth full of ramen.

"Yeah, that would be nice. The four of us and Chikara-sensei on missions. We would be unstoppable." Sakura said and Hinata smiled while she gave a nod.

--

Two days went by faster than we wanted, but suddenly I held the mission details scroll in one hand and were rubbing Mujaki's back with the other. She was sobbing into my shoulder, and didn't want to let go.

"Namida-chan, please. I have to go. I promise to be careful." I said and she sniffed a little.

"Promise to come back soon?" she said sadly and I nodded.

"Yes, I will. Don't worry. But aren't you a Genin? You shouldn't be so scared. Both of us have to go on missions that are dangerous. And I don't want to die yet, so this mission won't kill me." I said reassuringly. Mujaki sniffed a bit more and snorted defiantly.

"Dangerous mission? I have only take on boring D ranked ones. The most danger I have been in as a Genin was when that stupid cat started scratching me." She said and I laughed before I stood up and ruffled her hair.

"Trust me, one day you will wish you could do only D ranked ones. But now I have to go. See you in a few days." I said and turned to walk to my waiting team.

"Be careful daddy!" Mujaki called after me. I turned and waved back at her before I took off.

"Don't worry. He is the strongest we have. They will be safe." Tsunade said to her niece, who nodded and wiped off her tears.

--

I caught up to the teams. The first team were Naruto, Sakura, Hinata, me, Temari, Anko and Kakashi. Our job was to wait for the other team to make their distraction and move in to get Sasuke.

The other team was made up of five ANBU, Genma, Aoba and Jiraiya. We all wore pitch black clothes, masks and hoods. None of us wore the Konoha mark, so that even if we were seen, we wouldn't be recognised so easily. I was also prepared to use a invisibility jutsu so that I could turn into my dragon form.

"So, your daughter didn't want to see you leave?" Anko asked as I pulled on my mask.

"Namida-chan is very attached to Chikara-kun." Temari replied and Kakashi snickered for no apparent reason. I looked at him and saw he was reading his perverted book again, and rolled my eyes.

"She is a very cute kid." Aoba said and Genma nodded.

"Resembles her father!" Temari said and I was glad for the mask and the hood.

--

We arrived at Orochimaru's hideout at night, and we spread up. My team positioned ourselves so that we could see our entrance point.

A long, silent wait where I used my eyes to see all the guards. I also saw Orochimaru and Sasuke training.

"Damn, okay. I have to transform." I said softly, and did a long series of hand seals. When I was done, I murmured: "Invisibility no jutsu" and a transparent film flowed up my legs, torso and head, rendering me completely invisible.

I stretched and started the transformation. I grew and my bones cracked and stretched. My wings grew out and my skin shifted to scales. My tail grew out and my hand changed into claws. My eyes changed and got the seven pupils. My head stretched and changed into the dragon, my fangs dripping with saliva. On my back, on top of my spine, spiked plates grew and made my back look like a saw. My tail, just as long as my main body, also had the "saw" on it, but also spikes that stood around my tail in rows, and at the end, my tail had a sharp point that could easily pierce trough metal.

When the transformation was done, I dropped my jutsu and stood there in my dragon shape. This time I was about two and a half metes long and one meter high. My wings were about two and a half meters long and one meter wide.

"Chikara, don't you think it would be wiser to wait to transform?" Kakashi asked but I shook my head.

"No, it isn't. Orochimaru is with Sasuke and I won't be able to remove Sasuke's seal if Orochimaru is close. So I have to beat him back first, and while I do that, the rest of you knock out Sasuke. When I have either beaten Orochimaru or he escapes, I will come back and remove the seal. Then we will leave. That is the plan, okay?" I asked but Anko shook her head.

"No, I am going to help you. It is my duty as Orochimaru's former student. I know him best, and now that his seal is gone, I can fight him much better." She said and I nodded after a slight moment of thought.

"Alright, then I and Anko will fight the snake bastard. Oh, there is our cue. Let's go!" I said and moments later a huge explosion erupted on the other end of the hideout. We saw ninjas jumping towards the cloud of dust that rose towards the sky. Only minimal amounts of guards remained behind, and I saw a third person enter the room Orochimaru and Sasuke was in.

"Kakashi, it looks like you have to fight Kabuto. Can you do that?" I asked and the man nodded.

"Sure. It will be a pleasure." He said and I smiled before my colour changed from golden to the colour of my environment, so that I could blend in completely. Almost like a chameleon. I rushed over to two of the guards, and used my claws to slash huge gashes in their necks. They gurgled slightly in their blood before they died. I caught their bodies before they hit the ground, and flashed a signal to the team. They landed by me as silently as they could and we crept into the hideout.

--

Inside we found virtually no opposition. The few guards that were still inside, Naruto and Hinata killed fast and effortlessly. They were so silent even I had difficult hearing them.

Once we reached the room where our targets were in, I spread one of my wings to signal a stop. Then I formed the seals necessary for me to be able to talk in their minds.

"Okay, listen up! Naruto, make two kage bunshin and have them use Rasengan on that door. Then, once the door is down, Naruto, Sakura, Hinata and Temari go for Sasuke, while I and Anko goes for Orochimaru and Kakashi goes for Kabuto. Kakashi, I think Tsunade would be pleased to capture Kabuto alive, so do not hesitate to use that jutsu I showed you. That goes for you four after Sasuke as well. That jutsu is guaranteed to work, even against the Sharingan. Only I and Anko should go for the absolute kill. Orochimaru is only returning to Konoha with his head and body in separate bags. If Kabuto becomes to much to handle, kill him Kakashi. But Sasuke must not be killed, and try to keep the injury to a minimum. If you have to, keep him occupied until I come to help. Okay? Everyone understand the plan?" I asked in their minds and they nodded. But Anko had one question.

"How are we going to kill Orochimaru?" she asked. I gave her a evil smirk, which probably looked a lot like how a predator shows its fangs to its prey before strike.

"First we immobilise his body, and then I call the Death God. He wanted to eat Orochimaru's soul, and I intend to let him." I said and Anko mirrored my smirk.

"Sounds good!" she said evilly.

"Let's go then!" I commanded and nodded to Naruto, who formed the seal and two more Naruto's poofed into existence. The two Naruto clones formed a Rasengan each and slammed it into the door at the exact same time. The result was a huge cloud of smoke in which we speed trough.

--

Orochimaru and Kabuto looked up from their documents when the door was blown away, and trough the smoke several black clad ninjas came, along with a huge shadowy shape.

"What the…?" Sasuke said when one of the ninjas jumped at him and threw a roundhouse kick at his head. Sasuke barely managed to dodge, but didn't have time to counterattack when another ninja came and threw a punch. Sasuke dodged again, and the floor shattered upon impact from the fist. Sasuke stared at the damage but sensed another presence behind him. This time the assault was from a Hyuuga, since Sasuke had to dodge a Jyuuken attack. Sasuke

started to charge up a Chidori, but suddenly he felt several impacts on his body and all his chakra was gone. Then he heard a very familiar voice say a jutsu: "Forced sleep no jutsu", and then all Sasuke saw was black and he was fast asleep.

--

Kabuto was faced with a opponent with dark glasses and the ability to read his movements perfectly. Kakashi wore glasses so he could use his Sharingan without compromising his identity.

Kabuto tried to use his chakra scalpels on Kakashi, but it was no use since Kakashi just dodge and struck Kabuto in the arm with a kunai. When Kabuto tried to heal the wound, Kakashi struck him in the other hand and cut of the blood flow.

"How can you move so fast?" Kabuto asked, but Kakashi didn't respond. Instead he pulled out a couple of kunai and thrust them into Kabuto's legs. When Kabuto doubled over in pain, Kakashi charged up a Chidori and thrust it trough Kabuto's chest, completely destroying the hearth. No way would Kabuto be able to heal that, and with a gurgle he managed to say: "Kakashi" before he fell down, dead.

--

Orochimaru saw four of the ninja go after Sasuke and one go after Kabuto. He was about to go help his Sasuke-kun when he heard a call: "Hidden snake sleeves" and a lot of snakes wrapped around his body. He turned his head and saw another ninja with the snakes coming out of the sleeves. He could have sworn he heard a dark chuckle from the ninja, who could be none other than his left behind student.

"Anko!" he just said and she removed her mask and hood.

"Hello Orochimaru!" she said dangerously. Then she drew a kunai and threw at him, but he vanished, the snakes around him dropping harmlessly to the floor.

"What's your plan Anko? To take Sasuke away from me? You can't even stand against me now that I activate your seal." Orochimaru said and did a hand seal. When noting happened to Anko, Orochimaru tried the seal again, but to no use. Anko smirked at him and showed him her shoulder. Orochimaru's jaw dropped when he saw that the seal was gone.

"What? But that seal…it's no way to remove it. That's impossible." He stammered and took a step back. And bumped into something hard with spikes. He whirled around and was meet by a golden dragon, who growled at him. Some drool dripped from the dragon's fangs. When the drool hit the floor, a hissing sound came and the floor got burned. The dragon took one step towards Orochimaru and he took one step back. Suddenly he felt Anko charge and jumped out of the way. Anko hit the dragon, which dissolved into mud.

"Damn, what happened to that dragon?" Orochimaru thought, but soon had the answer. A wing came out of nowhere and struck him in the chest. He flew back and managed to pull out his sword from his mouth before he was forced to dodge another swiped from the wing. He turned in the air and saw a tail come out of a shadow and strike at him. Orochimaru barley had time to block the tail before another wing crashed into his back, nearly severing his spine. Jumping back, Orochimaru prepared to use the dead soul summon, when he remembered he didn't have any sacrifices handy.

"Damn!" he cursed before dodging some thrown shuriken from Anko. Then he heard a voice that made his bones shill, and hairs stand.

"Ryupou: dragon flame no jutsu"

The whole dragon emerged in front of him, its mouth wide open and a ball of fire swirling in it. Before Orochimaru had a chance to react, the ball of fire erupted into a column of white hot fire, scorching Orochimaru and nearly incinerating him. He managed to jump away, only to see one of the ninjas pull his hand from Kabuto's body.

"Kabuto!" he yelled but couldn't do anything before he felt a searing pain in his leg. The dragon had bit down on the leg, completely ripping it of. The searing pain came from the dragon's saliva, which was burning what was left of the leg. Orochimaru yelled in pain and tried to jump away. He lost his balance upon landing and tumbled to the ground. When he tried to get up, Anko was there and jabbed a kunai into his shoulder. She tried to hit him in the other, but he rolled away. He used his sword to keep Anko at bay, but the dragon charged straight towards him. Orochimaru stabbed the sword straight into the dragon's skull. Or at least, that was his plan, but the sword didn't even pierce the scales. Instead the sword got several cracks that went up and down the whole blade. Orochimaru stared at his sword before the dragon lunged at him with its mouth wide open. The dragon's fangs pierced Orochimaru's back though, and punctured his spine. Orochimaru fell limp to the ground, paralyzed. He looked up into the face of Anko, who looked delighted.

"What are you waiting for? Kill me now!" Orochimaru growled out. He knew he would die here, his body completely broken and his sword cracked from the impact with the dragon. Anko shook her head.

"Sorry, but I am not the one to kill you. He is." She said and pointed at the dragon, who stood on his hind legs, his back in a S shape and his mouth slightly open. He suddenly slammed his front feet into the ground and said: "Summoning jutsu: Death God!"

Behind the dragon, the death god materialised with his bone chilling cackle. His eyes focused on Orochimaru and then on the dragon.

"So, is it time for me to eat the snake?" the death god asked and the dragon nodded. The death god cackled again and floated towards Orochimaru, who tried desperately to get away. The death god reached him and stretched out his hand, grabbing Orochimaru's soul and started pulling it out. Orochimaru panicked and tried to call his sword, but the dragon stood on it. He then panicked further, when he saw that half of his soul was outside his body.

"Sasuke-kun! Kabuto! Help me!" Orochimaru yelled, but no answer came. Instead a sound nin came bursting into the room, only to meet his death on the dragon's tail. Just as the sound nin died, Orochimaru's soul was ripped from his body and the death god started slurping it up, almost like he was slurping ramen. Orochimaru's soul gave a terrified scream before the death god finished eating him. When he was done, Orochimaru's body became ash grey and the death god burped happily. He then bowed to the dragon.

"Thank you! Now your promise is complete. If you need my help again, don't hesitate to ask." With that the death god vanished again and the dragon used his claws to separate Orochimaru's head from his body. Anko placed the head in a bag, while the dragon burned the body. They then went over and saw that Kakashi had done the same to Kabuto and that Sasuke was fast asleep. Naruto had Sasuke over his shoulders, and was probably grinning broadly.

"Alright, everybody okay? Then let's go!" Temari said and the ninjas headed out of the hide out. The dragon formed some kage bunshin of himself and sent them to search for any prisoners in the hideout. Once outside, they sent up a flare to signal to the other team, and they left and hid at a designated spot.

The dragon's clones came back, and reported no prisoners in the hideout. The other team arrived moments later. They looked beat up, and one of the ANBU required immediate attention from Sakura.

The dragon commanded his clones to go and destroy the hideout completely. They left and about five minutes later they heard a explosion from the hideout. The dragon gave a signal and the two teams moved out to find a safe spot to hide at and remove Sasuke's seal.

--

We arrived at a cliff, and I gave the signal to stop for the night. Naruto put down Sasuke and I sat down next to him. Genma and Aoba went after some fire wood while Anko, Kakashi, Jiraiya, Hinata and Sakura went to find food. Temari remained behind along with Naruto. I started work on Sasuke's seal, and like with Anko, I placed my hand, or rather claw over the seal and sent some chakra into the seal. Unlike with Anko, Sasuke's seal gave him chakra, and the seal's tendrils were much longer, some of them even reaching Sasuke's brain, fastening themselves on the chakra coils in Sasuke's brain.

"This is going to take a while. Temari, can you guard me?" I asked and she nodded. She sat down in front of me and smiled at me. I nodded at her and began. All she could see was my golden chakra move around Sasuke's body. What I saw was that I was moving my chakra along Sasuke's chakra coils, severing all the tendrils. It took a long while, but after about one hour of painstakingly accurate tendril severing, I had removed all the tendrils from his body, and the only ones left were the ones in his brain. I focused hard and started. The tricky part was not to damage the brain, but one hour after I started on Sasuke's brain tendrils, I had them all severed, and I had drawn out all the corrupted chakra. I then focused on the seal and destroyed it with my chakra.

When I was done, I took a couple of steps away from Sasuke and lay down with a tired sigh.

"Sakura, check Sasuke to see if I damaged him in any way." I said tiredly. She nodded and started the check-up. While she did that, Temari and I ate some fish that Kakashi had brought us. When I was done with that, I transformed back into my human form. When the transformation was done, I fell asleep as fast as I could, feeling really tired.

--

The first thing Sasuke noticed when he started to wake up was an ache over his whole body. The other thing was that his thoughts were no longer influenced by the cursed seal on his shoulder.

Then a wave of guilt washed over him. Images of how he had treated his two best friends and how he had tried to kill Naruto. 'What have I done? I…I really tried to kill Naruto? How could I?' he thought but then more recent images bombarded him. Images of his training with Orochimaru. And then, the image of a huge lizard shape sitting by him, doing something to his seal, releasing him from its grasp.

'I have to find them, and apologize. And thank that lizard for helping me.' Sasuke thought and tried to open his eyes.

--

Anko was the one on guard when Sasuke started to stir. She quickly woke up Sakura, Kakashi and me. We watched as Sasuke's eyes started moving and slowly, ever so slowly he opened one of them up. He looked around and saw us. Then the other eye flew up and he tried to sit up, but Sakura stopped him.

"No Sasuke-kun. Don't move yet. You still haven't recovered completely yet!" she said and he obeyed. He looked like he was at a loss for words before he decided and swallowed.

"Naruto, Sakura, Kakashi…I am so sorry for what I put you trough. After Orochimaru put that seal on me…" Sasuke started but Kakashi held up a hand to indicate that he should stop.

"Don't worry Sasuke. You didn't do any real crimes against Konoha, and that seal infected your mind. It wasn't your fault. Really!" Kakashi said and both Naruto and Sakura nodded enthusiastically.

Sasuke was feeling overwhelmed.

'They are willing to forgive me…just like that?' he asked himself.

"Yes, they are!" I said and he nearly jumped out of his good skin.

"Wh…what did you say?" he asked me and I smiled at him.

"We are willing to forgive you, mainly because that seal influenced your mind and changed you. Now that the seal is gone, you are back to normal and if my guess is accurate, you are filled with guilt now. Right?" I asked and Sasuke nodded slowly.

"I can't believe I did all that. I…I even tried to kill my best friend." Sasuke stammered out and looked down at the hand that had been trough Naruto's chest. Naruto stood up, walked over to Sasuke and punched him square in the jaw.

"Wake up will you? We saved you, because you are our friend, and what you did wasn't your fault, and we forgive you. Now come on, let's go back and see the old hag and get you reinstated as a Konoha shinobi!" Naruto half yelled at the stunned Sasuke. I smiled at Naruto's way of 'waking' Sasuke up and I stood up.

"Wait Naruto, it's still in the middle of the night. I want to sleep a bit more before we go back, and I am sure Sasuke still feels sore. So let us rest a few hours, okay?" I asked and the blonde nodded.

"Okay, let's rest." He said and went to laid down again. Sasuke lay down also, but Sakura stayed by him to talk with him. I could have sworn I saw a smile on Sasuke's face, a blush on Sakura's and happy thoughts in them both. I smiled at that and laid down next to Temari. Soon I was fast asleep.

--

I woke up to the smell of frying eggs and bacon. I noticed Temari wasn't next to me anymore. I sat up and saw that she, Naruto and Sasuke was cooking breakfast, while the others started removing any signs of a camp. I got up, stretched and started helping with the clean up.

--

A little while later, Temari called us over to eat.

We sat down an enjoyed a rather good meal in silence. When we finished, we cleaned up and gathered in a circle.

"Okay, now that we have eaten and slept, I think we should hurry back to Konoha. Tsunade is waiting to hear the results of the mission, and I am sure Sasuke wants to get his name cleared." I said and the others nodded except Sasuke, who looked down on the ground.

"When we get back, what will happen to me?" he asked and I looked at Kakashi and Jiraiya. Jiraiya shook his head but Kakashi took a step forward and placed a hand on Sasuke's shoulder.

"Hokage-sama will have to decided on a punishment for you." He said and Sakura stiffened.

"What punishment?" she asked and I smiled reassuringly at her.

"Not execution or removal of ninja status. Since Sasuke was influenced by that seal, he will get less punishment. I won't guess what punishment you will get, but not anything you can't handle." I said to Sasuke, who nodded.

"Alright, let's go!" Naruto said and we started to move homewards. I was in the front along with Temari, while Naruto, Sakura, Hinata and Kakashi were on Sasuke's sides. The rest made up the rear. We travelled like that in silence for the most of the trip, only broken by the former team 7 and Hinata having a conversation.

--

We arrived at Konoha, and were greeted by Tsunade, Shizune, Mujaki (who immediately when she saw me, ran towards me and jumped into my arms) and the council of elders.

"Good job everyone. No one is seriously injured?" Tsunade asked and I nodded. Anko walked forward and handed Tsunade the bag with Orochimaru's head inside. She took the head up and her mouth twisted into a snarl.

"The bastard is finally dead. Good job, and Kabuto?" she asked and Kakashi handed her the other bag. She looked inside and pulled out Kabuto's head.

"Well then. And Sasuke's seal…?" Tsunade asked me and I nodded.

"Completely gone." I said and she smiled widely. Stuffing the two heads into the bags, she turned to Sasuke.

"So, are you ready to face the consequences of your actions?" she asked him, and he nodded before bowing.

"Yes, I am Hokage-sama." He said and Tsunade smiled.

"Good. Until I decide a punishment, you are under house arrest. You will not leave Konoha until I say so. You will be guarded by your former team and Hinata-san. That is all." She said and made a shooing motion with her hand. Sasuke, Sakura, Naruto, Hinata and Kakashi left towards the Uchiha estate, while the rest of us remained.

It was about then I noticed Mujaki was pouting.

'Huh? Oh, right.' I thought and smiled at her.

"Hello Namida-chan. How are you?" I asked and she rolled her eyes before hugging me.

"About time you noticed me, daddy. I was beginning to wonder if you were ignoring me on purpose." She said and pouted again. I laughed and stroked her cheek.

"I would never ignore you on purpose Namida-chan. I am sorry." I said apologetically and she hugged me in response.

"It's okay. You are weird, but still my daddy." She said and I grinned.

"As cute as that picture is, we have to interrupt. We have to discuss what will happen to the Uchiha when his punishment is over." One of the elders said and I nodded.

"Any suggestions?" Tsunade asked and looked at us. Mujaki raised her hand.

"Yes, Namida-chan?" Hiashi said.

"Can't daddy train Uchiha-san? He already trains Naruto-kun, Hinata-chan and Sakura-chan." Mujaki said and the elders started mumbling between each other.

"No, that won't do. I don't know anything about training a Sharingan user. I suggest Kakashi train Sasuke." I said and more mumbling ensured.

"Either way, we have until his punishment is over to decide. I suggest you all go home now. you look tired." Tsunade said and we nodded. Temari took my hand, and I tightened my hold on Mujaki. Then all three of us vanished.

--

Sasuke's punishment was constant D rank missions for six months, alone. He accepted and did all the missions Tsunade gave him. There was a rumour spread that all the worst D ranked missions, Tsunade saved for Sasuke, which was true.

Sasuke started training again, with Kakashi as sensei, and Naruto, Sakura and Hinata as team-mates. I and Kakashi split the duties of leading the team, and took turns on leading the team on missions.

The Rookie nine all forgave Sasuke, some faster than others, and Konoha held no grudges towards him. A lot of the villagers cheered when they heard the Uchiha prodigy was reinstated as a Konoha shinobi.

Sasuke himself tried to be more open to his friends, and started training with Naruto. They grew closer and their teamwork increased significantly over the months. Sasuke was also seen walking Sakura home after training.

Kibo left almost a month after Sasuke was brought back. I flew her home, and she was sad to leave the friends she had made in Konoha, but she missed her home also, so it was a bitter sweet feeling, or so she told me when we arrived in Ryu-kuni.

--

All was well for seven months after the Sasuke retrieval mission, until one day…