AN: A bit of background for Chapter 61. I'm not that happy with this, but it might as well be put up.

.

.

Tsunade cannot quite explain the feeling that rises in her chest when she gets called down to the village gates with the news that two ninja from the high priority mission are limping home. She wouldn't explain it, even if she could, because she is the Hokage and she must be strong, must be stoic, must not, must never show despair, but it is like the bottom of her stomach drops out, a curious mix of horror and despair and please, no, no, no-

She cant think what she is pleading for. Please not Naruto? Not the boy she gave her cursed necklace to, the bundle of sunshine and laughs that dragged her home. Please not the Uchiha boy that Orochimaru is so desperate to get his hands on? Please not Shikaku's twins, who have so much potential? Please not the wild Inuzuka boy with the not-yet-grown nindog? Please not Inoichi's beautiful girl? Please not the Akimichi? Please not the Hyuuga? Please not Ibiki, because replacing him will be difficult?

All of the choices are wrong and steeped in guilt. She can't chose, she can only think 'please, no' and hope there is something merciful in the universe.

Seeing them. Seeing Ibiki half walking, half being dragged… seeing Naruto…

There is relief.

Naruto.

Then she closes her eyes and counts up the tally of the dead and feels just a little nauseous.

"Heya, Baa-chan," Naruto says, weary but not broken. "You gotta take Ibiki so I can get back to the others."

Others? Tsunade thinks, and feels a stirring of hope. Just a tiny, fragile spark, but it's there.

"The mission is ongoing," Ibiki says. "The ambush was a failure. The enemies escaped with Sasuke Uchiha captive. The other members of the squad are in pursuit, led by Shikamaru Nara."

He looks awful, but the news is the best thing that she has heard since… well. For a long time. She hasn't sent eight children to their deaths.

Yet.

She wants to get a squad of Jounin together, send the best backup that she has. Only she can't, because she needs everyone here in the village. Konoha has too many enemies, and some of them are already inside her.

Tsunade knows. There is something rotten in Konoha. She just doesn't know who. She is fumbling blindly in the dark, trying to protect herself from an attack who's form she does not know.

Her eyes drift over the three Genin waiting anxiously by the gate, out over the traffic coming in.

And then she smiles.

.

.

"Hokage-sama," Temari of Hidden Sand says respectfully. "We bring correspondence from Suna regarding the developments with Hidden Cloud."

"Of course," Tsunade says easily. That situation has to be worrying the old fogies in the desert. They don't have the forces for any kind of extended warfare, but with their own betrayal so recent they can't afford to get on Konoha's bad side either. "But first… how do you feel about taking a mission from the village of Konoha?"

The three straighten with interest.

.

.

"I am going after them," Lee declares suddenly, staring into the distance. "Do not try and stop me, Tenten. This is something I must do."

"Stop you?" Tenten says, smiling grimly and tucking her scrolls away where she can easily reach them. "I'm coming with you."

The real surprise, though, is running into Hinata outside the gates. Her fingers twist together nervously, but her eyes are set and hard.

"This way," she says quietly.

Hinata is much better at using her Byakugan to track than to fight. It's a small thing, probably something she shouldn't be proud of, but she is. It makes her fit in Team Eight, makes Kurenai-sensei and Kiba and Shino happy when she can find something kilometres away. She's proud of that ability now, as they race through the trees and the path her friends have taken might as well be laid with paving stones to her eyes.

They push fast and hard, remembering the state Ibiki had been in. All three of them dread what they will find.

"Neji-niisan is to the left," Hinata says, after they've passed the first ambush site. The damage is incredible. "He's fighting an earth ninjutsu user."

"I shall-" Lee says, bending his knees in preparation to spring away.

"No," Tenten says. "I'll go. If Neji is having trouble, it'll probably be a range thing." Unsaid is that a second Jyuuken user will do no good where the first has failed.

"Chouji is injured," Hinata says softly. "Shikamaru can't carry both him and the prisoner. But…" she trails off, eyes moving to a different target. "Shikako and Kiba are still fighting. They need help."

"Go ahead to help them," Lee says gravely. "I shall assist Shikamaru and then join you."

Hinata nods, fixes her gaze on the faces of her friends and leaps forward.

And then she's flying.

.

.

I will run, I will fly,

Chase the wind and touch the sky ~ Brave soundtrack