A/N Thanks to Brown Phantom, for the reworked Court scene. You sir, are amazing.

XIX: The Trial

Road To Konoha, Present Day:

"Poor Sakura…" Shizune said.

"Yeah, she didn't really take it very well."

"Jiraiya, how did the council take the arrest of one of their members?"

"Poorly."

Konoha: Seven Months, Sixteen Days ago:

"I see..." The Hokage said slowly as he read the documents. Looking at Haruno Umeko in the eyes he calmly stated, "Haruno Umeko, I formally arrest you for charges of attempted murder of a clan head."

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT TO ME!" Umeko screamed. "I'M A COUNCIL MEMBER!"

"You are a suspected murderer." Jiraiya growled.

"You will be detained in a high security ANBU cell, until the end of your trial. You will be allowed supervised visitors only. Take her away." The Hokage gestured to the ANBU in the room. "Inform the councils of the situation." Turning to the assembled Genin the Hokage continued, "I'm sorry but you'll have to leave now. I will send for you if your testimony is needed."

Outside of the Hokage's office Sakura who had been quietly sobbing turned to Naruto, "I HATE YOU!" she screamed before running off.

Naruto looked crestfallen; one of his first friends hated him, probably forever, and there was nothing he could do about it. Placing his hand on Naruto's shoulder Sasuke said, "C'mon Naruto, it's getting late. We'll need our rest, for training tomorrow."

Meanwhile back in the Hokage's office, the councils had convened. "This is ridiculous!" One of the civilian council members shouted. "You cannot seriously take the word of a missing-nin over one of our own councilors!"

"She has been under suspicion for several years. However, due to repeated instances of evidence conveniently disappearing before she could be tried; we've been unable to lawfully arrest her."

The Hokage glared at the assembled council members. "All of you are under investigation on grounds of possible conspiracy. Any of her accomplices will be arrested and tried at a later date. Until the investigation is over, all of you are to be continually escorted by three ANBU operatives at all times. Any attempts made to interfere in the investigation will result in immediate incarceration until the end of your own trial, dismissed!"

The next morning, Naruto couldn't focus on his training. After three hours of failing to achieve anything he finally gave up. "I'm sorry Ero-Sennin. I just can't focus today."

"What's wrong kid? You worried about Sakura's mom?"

"I feel bad for Sakura. She's going to lose her mother too isn't she?"

"Yeah she is kid, but that doesn't mean it's your fault. C'mon, let's get back to work." Sighing Naruto tried to focus on his training. By the end of the day he'd made barely any progress in anything.

"There you are Naruto; the Hokage wants to see you." A masked ANBU said to Naruto who was on his way home. Nodding to the ANBU, Naruto headed to the Hokage's office.

When he arrived he was ushered into the Hokage's office immediately. "Naruto I wanted to talk to you about the upcoming trial. Do you have any particular requests?"

"Yeah, I want Sakura to be there."

"Naruto, there's a chance that Umeko will spill your secret in an attempt to validate her own actions. It's a high chance to be honest, and if she does. Sakura will most likely ignore the law against it and try to tell the others, just to hurt you."

"Then open up the trial so anyone can come."

"And what if she tells? Granted if she does then we have grounds for execution and the whole trial is pointless, but you shouldn't just ignore the risk to yourself."

"I guess I'll have to take the risk then. She deserves to understand." Naruto sighed, "I wish it was someone else. Sakura is my friend, even if she hates me now."

"I'm sorry Naruto. Maybe you should take the next few days off. Recuperate a little."

The next few days were hard for Naruto. His training was going nowhere, the few times he tried to talk to Sakura she tried to attack him, and not her normal hits. She even tried to gouge his eyes out once this time. Eventually though, he managed to get back into his normal training habits.

When his month of training was over he was depressed to hear that due to the trail he wasn't allowed to leave the village for missions.

Konoha: Six Months, Twelve Days ago:

"I'm afraid Hokage-sama, that the trial will be impossible. The evidence has disappeared from the court house and the judges refuse to even see the case." A council member said smugly, too smugly for him to not be involved on some level.

"I will be the judge, councilor, and the copy that was in the court house was just that, a copy. The originals will not leave my sight until after the court case. So the evidence to prosecute remains and the trial stands." This was the third attempt to prevent the trial from commencing and the Hokage was getting frustrated. This could not be coincidental; someone was trying to keep Umeko out of trouble here. "As this is the third attempt to derail the trial, all council members are to be placed under house arrest, and the council is to be temporarily disbanded."

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" The councilors screamed, in almost perfect unison.

"Actually, if I wanted to I could have all of you executed just because I felt like it. Konoha is a military dictatorship. The council only exists because I felt like giving the people a bit more say in how the city was run. However, because you are abusing it, I now feel the need to disband you until further notice. The trial will now commence in three days. Any further attempts to stop the trial will be seen as treason and an admission of guilt on Umeko's part. I am giving her the privilege of having a trial in the first place. Given the crimes, I can easily have her executed without anyone even knowing it. I could even hire myself to assassinate her and there would be nothing you could do about it. DO NOT test my patience any further." The Hokage was livid with rage by this point and he wanted to get the trial over and done with.

The next day the date for Haruno Umeko's trail was announced along with a notice that the trial would be open to anyone who wished to come. A dark mood seemed to settle over the village, with the populace divided three ways over the issue. The clans were behind Naruto purely on principle, he was technically one of them and they'd be damned if they let a civilian, even a council member, attempt to assassinate one of the clan heads. The villagers were out for Naruto's blood, Umeko rose to wealth and power by hard work alone, though no one was sure how exactly she did it; they only cared that she did. She was a hero to them and Naruto was the fox in human form; that was all they wanted to know. If they could, they would easily and shamelessly kill him themselves. The ninja were split down the middle, most of the younger generation of ninja, especially the ones who went to school with Naruto and remembered the poisoning attempts, wanted justice. The older generation was split between the higher level Jonin, who understood exactly how Naruto's seal worked, or knew him personally, and the higher level Genin to mid-Chunin, who were old enough to know that the Kyuubi was sealed into Naruto and saw him as the fox. All in all, it looked like the village was minutes away from exploding into a horrendous civil war all because of the question who was more likable, Naruto or Umeko.

As the day of the trial dawned, Naruto woke early (He didn't get much sleep) and headed to the amphitheater where the trial was to be held. On the way he met his team, along with Teams Eight and Ten, who were also on their way there. Ino was giving him the cold shoulder; she was obviously on her friend Sakura's side since she had no reason to side with Naruto here instead.

Shikamaru, Hinata, and surprisingly Sasuke had tried to cheer him up.

At the moment Kiba seemed to be lost in thought (a strange place for him). Shino and Choji were both silent as usual, because they were all there when Zabuza and Umeko ran into each other they all had to sit in the witness box.

"At least we have good seats." Kiba said trying to break the tension.

"Hn."

"N-Naruto-kun, are you f-feeling alright?"

"No. No, Hinata I'm not, I've been eavesdropping on the Old Man and Ero-Sennin. The case against her is air tight. Sakura's going to lose her mom and it's my fault. That'll be both her parents. I'm making her into an orphan." Naruto cried, before slumping forward and banging his head on the table a few times, while the red-faced Hinata rubbed his shoulders trying to calm him and ease the tension in his shoulders. "Hmmmm… wow… Hinata, that's wonderful…" for a moment Naruto forgot all about what was around him, but soon enough other people started filing in. A few people who had some evidence to testify had to sit in the witness box with them.

At last the Hokage entered the room, in full ceremonial regalia. "Order, order in the court!" The Hokage shouted banging his fist on the table in front of him. "As you know we are here to try one Haruno Umeko, former member of the Civilian Council, for the attempted murder, of one Uzumaki Naruto, heir and sole surviving member of the famed Uzumaki Clan of Uzu no Kuni. Her trial will now commence."

And so the trial began, with different people were called on to testify for both sides. The first person called up to testify was someone who worked at the Academy. "Did you have any interaction with Uzumaki Naruto that Haruno Umeko had some involvement in?" The prosecutor asked.

"No." The witness said, and then felt a strong electric shock. "What the hell?"

"Oh, you didn't know?" Sarutobi asked. "There are seals here that can detect minute movements in your body; they can tell if you're lying. We have them here to discourage false testimony and give a minor shock to those that try. Each lie makes the shock worse. Keep it up and you'll be taken to Ibiki himself."

"I'll repeat the question; did Haruno Umeko have any influence over how you interacted with Uzumaki Naruto?" The prosecutor pressed.

The Academy employee was tempted to lie again, but electroshock was not something he wanted to repeat. "Y-Yes… She once hired me and several others who had access to the Academy's food to place strange liquids in any meal or drink Naruto purchased, but I myself had no idea what the liquids actually were."

"Did you ever consider the idea these strange liquids were poison?"

"Oh course I did, but I never knew for certain." The witness answered. He sweat a bit, but there was no shock.

"If you had no idea what it was, why did you give it to the child?" The prosecutor asked.

"I was paid to." The witness answered simply.

"That's it?" The prosecutor inquired. The witness nodded. "Then would you have done the same if the accused had paid you to give these exact same liquids to another child?"

"Well, the pay would have had to be a lot higher for that." The witness answered.

"No further questions Hokage-sama."

The defendant had a turn to try and justify the Academy employee's actions, but it's pretty hard to put a positive spin on poisoning a child's food when you can't lie or say anything about the demon inside him if front of others, especially the Hokage. So unless they were already die-hard Naruto-haters, no one was convinced this guy had done something acceptable or even pardonable. And not only that; this guy wasn't the only one paid by Umeko to tamper with his food.

One of the more interesting testimonies came from a woman who was being asked if she had indeed seen Umeko meet up with Zabuza. She remained silent and downcast, and the prosecutor had to repeat his question twice before Sarutobi ordered her to answer.

When she spoke she only had one thing to say. "I refuse to testify on the grounds that my job and family have been threatened if I do."

While not something that could be ignored, ninja cases usually didn't leave it at that. Sarutobi looked at the woman on the stand in the nicest yet still firm way he could. "If you choose not to actually say anything that's your choice; however, due to the nature of the trial and your subtle admittance that you have information important here, we will insist on a Yamanaka examining your memories for the required information."

"Objection." The defendant argued. "The witness clearly exercised her right to remain silent."

"Overruled." Sarutobi say. "Konoha law gives us the right to have an uninvolved Yamanaka examine memories for situations like this. This way we get the information we need for the case to be settled and the witness does not actually testify anything. Yamanaka Inoichi, if you will be come up to the stand."

The Yamanaka head came forward and in his peripheral vision he could see Umeko scowl but look nervous. Obviously she had failed to take this turn of events into account. Ignoring that, he went to the witness. "Just relax. You won't be harmed." She closed her eyes and he placed a palm on her forehead. "Memory Scan Jutsu."

Everyone waited for Inoichi to finish, which didn't take long. "What did you uncover?" Sarutobi asked.

"According to her memories, Haruno Umeko did indeed arrange a meeting with Momochi Zabuza some time ago and paid him to murder Naruto however he saw fit. She failed to tell him Naruto was capable of defending himself, but she did encourage him to be as brutally creative in the killing as possible. And if he could bring her a sort of trophy from his death she's give him bonus pay." Inoichi explained.

"I did not!" Umeko shouted shrilly.

Inoichi gave her a stern expression. "Are you calling me a liar?"

"If you're saying that about me, then hell yes I am!" Umeko responded matter-of-factly.

After that several more witnesses were asked to testify, some also refusing to under claims of threats which Inoichi had to examine. Some people tried to defend Umeko's case, but by the end of the trial, it became clear to those watching that the woman had attempted, repeatedly, to kill Naruto. All such attempts were indirect, but they originated from her. Some were horrified she had done that so many times, and some were upset she hadn't yet succeeded.

Near the end of the trial, Umeko finally broke. "I don't care anymore! If you're going to kill me do it now!" She had started to scream. "SO WHAT IF I WANTED TO KILL THE DEMON? I'm entitled to! He took everything from me! My parents! My grandparents! My brother! My husband! That cursed fox took everything from me! We should have killed him when he was a baby!" seeing the direction her rant was going the Hokage gestured to some ANBU to gag her, but it was too late. "The Kyuubi took everything from me! Why shouldn't I take his life from him!" silence fell over the court. The adults were silent because they knew the punishment for revealing the secret, death. The children were silent from shock, staring at Naruto with disbelief in their eyes. He was the Kyuubi? Or was this just the ranting of a madwoman? She had raised her arm to point at Naruto during her rant. "DIE MONSTER!" she screamed and with a flick of her wrist a senbon flew out of a launcher mounted on her arm.

The distance was so short and the attack so unexpected that the ninja in the room barely had time to react before the projectile impacted squarely in Naruto's chest. Naruto's fingers brushed the senbon imbedded in his chest, before he could pull it out, his fingers started to burn.

As he fell over, he heard someone shout "MEDIC!"