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Sarutobi rubbed his eyes with his good hand and fought back a yawn. The Invasion had been culled while he was asleep, and he was now among the other members of the Konoha Council. They were discussing the matters related to it in terms of the aftermath.

His years were being felt after all this time, aches from the battle coursing through his body. Not to mention his arm. They reattached it since the cut was clean, but some of the nerve endings suffered and he couldn't use it as well. All he needed was a cane and eye-wrap, and he'd match his former teammate sitting across from him and gazing at the drafts of the terms of reparation to be sent to Sand.

Danzo Shimura had been removed from the Council after the slaughter of the Uchiha, which had been done without consent, and his special operatives Root program officially disbanded. However, considering what had transpired, Hiruzen allowed him to sit among them once more for this issue and this issue alone.

Of the two attacking forces, the majority had been Sand forces that lied in waiting, and those that had survived and been captured were detained until they could sue for damages and death. The majority of Sound, with no one to vouch for them and being the enemy force of his now-deceased former disciple, had been executed for their trespasses.

"These conditions are too light," Danzo said as he set the papers down. "You are giving them a slap on the wrist after they launched a full-scale invasion upon us. If you show kindness to those who bare kunai at our throats, they'll slit them. We should just annex them as a warning."

"It would be seen as an act that could lead to another Great War," said the Hokage, his voice tired but firm. "It is a balancing act. We topple one village, the others will act. It is best to simply tether them through legal means and work from the shadows in ensuring that they never do such a thing again."

Koharu shifted in her seat. "But unless we take care of the root problem that led to the assault, it will happen again."

That had been due to the Wind Damiyo undercutting them. Sarutobi made a mental note that his time was done as well. Whatever petty grievances he had with the Kazekage and how beneficial his outsourcing of their missions to Leaf had been, he inevitably played a role in the deaths of all here. It would take time to remove him without leaving a trail to the Leaf, but no one would blink an eye if an agent of Sand were to be seen fleeing the scene.

Homura rubbed his aged knuckles in thought, softly ruminating before he spoke. "In all honesty, this could have been avoided on many levels. There were measures that could have been taken. That should have been."

Danzo didn't bother with subtly. "Frankly, the blame for most of this is your oversight, Hiruzen."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow in query but gestured for him to continue. Why allow him in if he wasn't willing to give weight to his words? After all, as long as this meeting remained merely a private one among peers then there was no reason concern himself with appearances to the public, forced to play up that he must be unchallenged in his decisions.

Danzo took the invitation to do just that. "You should have had forces dedicated to identifying threats during the Chuunin Exams, when we were at our most vulnerable. They managed to sneak a clearly unhinged Jinchuuriki into the village. One that displayed murderous tendencies the entire time, right up until it was too late. It is mere fortune that when it did reveal itself the resulting fight took place far outside of the village, or we wouldn't have one left."

The damage done to the forestlands nestled between the village and the border to the Land of Wind, ravaged by the ensuing fight, had been extensive. Entire sections that stood strong over the course of centuries had been uprooted, and chances were there would be a new lake by the end of the year. All of that devastation in less than ten minutes of combat total, and only three or so being with the One-Tailed Tanuki released in full.

It went without saying that tidbit of information would never be released to the general forces unless necessary, only those with clearance. He had no desire to remind people of the events of Naruto's birth. Nor stir anti-Sand resentment to the point of bloodily demanding retribution and risk another Great War.

"More measures could have been taken," Sarutobi admitted. "I was focused on Orochimaru and didn't think that the Kazekage would risk starting a war for a perceived slight. Peace is something every leader should strive for, after all."

"Peace is but a prelude to war," Danzo argued. "It is a time to amass our forces, swell our ranks, and prepare our arms for when conflict inevitably breaks out again. To lose yourself in it and drop your guard is an invitation for this sort of thing to happen. Our overall causalities may have been light, but we still lost good men and women—civilians and shinobi."

"And then there is the matter of the infiltrators," Koharu added. "Leaving aside that Yakushi boy, there is the young Uzumaki girl."

The revelation that Karin Uzumaki had been a plant of Orochimaru had been a troublesome one. Grass had immediately renounced her when approached, and willingly offered minor reparations since she had been assigned to spy on their behalf, even if that turned out to be a cover. Because they had more pressing matters with Sand and Sound, and Orochimaru had killed several of their candidates to infiltrate, the matter was closed when it came to them.

"A Yamanaka is combing her memories while she has been placed in a medically-induced coma to deal with the aftereffects of her Cursed Seal," he said. "She will need to recover before a punishment can be metted out."

"The issue isn't her condition, Hiruzen," Danzo said. "It's the fact that you allowed an agent of Orochimaru to get that close to our Jinchuuriki. You should have subjected her to a deep mental probe before even considering that."

"She showed no signs of being a spy, even while alone," he noted. "No Anbu reported suspicious activity, though it is possible with what we know now that she may have been aware of their presence. Not to mention it was clear that she had no intention of carrying out her assignment."

"Only because she was inexperienced and young, allowing her emotions reach that point so quickly that it compromised her judgment," Koharu pointed out. "Had Orochimaru trained her towards shutting off her heart for the sake of the mission, I have no doubt that she could have left the village with both the young man and the relics retrieved from that forgotten temple. It was a stroke of luck that we can't count on again."

"We can't let her actions go unanswered," Homura reasoned in agreement. "But executing her may run the risk of causing trauma to the boy, and the last thing we need is another unhinged Jinchuuriki as Sand had. Imprisonment would be best, with a moderate sentence in lieu of her later actions—show enough mercy to prove we are not unforgiving, but punish her enough to show that we don't make light of infiltrators despite their age."

"And let her usefulness rot in a cell?" Danzo drew up into himself, sitting straight. "You garner power by taking away the enemy's assets and making them your own. Her purported talents can be harnessed. I am not saying we should make her a part of our general forces, but letting all of it wither away would just be a waste when we can make it a boon."

"Oh?" Koharu turned her head towards him. "And what do you propose?"

"We can research into her healing ability to find a way to replicate it and save our forces in the midst of combat," Danzo explained calmly as he tapped a finger on the table. "If the talk of her being a natural-born chakra sensor is true, we can use her sensory abilities to track down otherwise difficult targets. And as long as she remains in our custody and is seen being treated adequately, the Jinchuuriki will remain within our grasp for showing her mercy and a fading clan can be retained should we be unable to undo the blood-lock on those masks."

There was logic behind his words. Cold, war-logic, but it was true. Sarutobi would admit that, and he understood how coercive his former disciple could be. It would not be the first time they had taken in one of his former apprentices left abandoned, like Mitarashi.

"There still remains the influence she had on the young Uzumaki," Homura pointed out. "Whether good or bad, he will be in a fragile place at the moment. It would be best if we had a way to make our decision less likely to cause him to have doubt in the village."

"Need I state the obvious?" Danzo asked, with the annoyance in his undertone clear. "Promote him to Chuunin."

"Are you vouching for him?" Koharu asked.

"Competence is a rare thing," he explained. "I appreciate it in both my enemies and my allies. And though Uzumaki, his team, and the other fresh graduates have had only a scant few months of training compared to most Genin, they have proven themselves with their actions that day by subduing multiple enemy forces—and he has proven himself in serving his purpose as a Jinchuuriki by fending off that of an enemy and bringing it back into the Leaf's custody once more."

Homura stroked his chin in thought and then looked between the other two men. "Regardless of what happens in the future, Sand has lost a weapon they can never hope to replace for their hubris in attacking us because of him. And we can justify it at a later date publicly because of his performance in the match. He was the only one to complete it given the circumstances, and in a manner that many cannot argue against even if we keep the events of the Tailed-Beasts private."

"And once he is a Chuunin, we can remove him from the shackles of working on a team and then give him adequate training." Danzo looked the Hokage square in the eyes. "You clearly have higher aspirations for him than most others, so start giving him what he needs to live up to them. Teach him tactics, begin on his elemental training, and broaden his experiences—temper him into a respectable and loyal asset for the Leaf. We couldn't harness the power of a Jinchuuriki in the last wars, but our village will boast unparallel power when the next war inevitably happens if we hold both the One and Nine-Tails."

Everything looks like a war waiting to happen to you, Sarutobi thought to himself. Was it wrong for him to hope that peace would last forever? Or at least until he could die comfortably in his bed from old age, as so few of his time have done?

Then again, the thought had been on his mind as well and it spared him the need to bring it up out of perceived favoritism. And the timing couldn't have been more perfect either. Itachi had sent a message that he and another agent of Akatsuki were on the way to investigate the current state of the Jinchuuriki in the wake of the Invasion, seeing whether or not either one had been killed and would take time to reconstitute themselves.

He could use it as an excuse to keep Naruto out of their eye by having him depart with Jiraiya to retrieve Tsunade as quickly as possible.

[0-0-0]

Naruto hadn't known what to expect when he received a visit to his doorstep by an Anbu Officer. The mask and figure was the same as the one from when they met the Hokage at Ichiraku's, so he figured that she was telling the truth when she said the Old Man had summoned for him. The document and his seal only confirmed it further.

However, he was not expecting that he would be blindfolded and then carried away using what felt like a prolonged Body Flicker, until he was dumped in a dark room, surrounded by concrete walls that were nondescript. It sent up some red-flags, to say the least. "Umm… where am I?"

"A secure location of which you do not have the clearance to know of," spoke the Anbu. She performed hand-seals too fast for him to see and then pointed to the wall ahead of her, which wavered and turned into a corridor leading to a door. "The Hokage is waiting for you in there."

Naruto took tentative steps forward, more than a little nervous. What could all the secrecy be for? He was careful when he opened the door and peeked inside. The Old Man was there, looking through a glass pane. His shadow seemed deep as the night from the light above his head.

"Come in, Naruto," he said, not looking away from the glass. "We need to talk."

He did so. "You wanted to see…." His words died as he approached the glass and saw what was on the other side. "Karin."

She was lying in a medical bed with life support equipment hooked up. Her body was covered from head-to-toe in Cursed Seal markings. The steady, rhythmic beeping of a heart monitor was the only sound that could be heard, her chest rising and falling quietly.

"We had to put her in a medical coma in order to stop her suffering," the Old Man said. "It's a devious seal that's been placed on her. Even the process of sealing it can threaten her life without proper measures taken."

"But you can help her, right?" he asked.

"I intend to, but there is the matter of what she has done to this point, Naruto." He turned to look Naruto in the eyes. "I had hoped that her presence could give you comfort, only for it to end up like this. That I apologize for."

"She didn't want to," Naruto said. "That snake guy and Kabuto forced her to do it."

"I understand that, but she will have to be judged for her actions when she wakes." He turned back to the glass to look at the girl. "Had we been aware of Kabuto, we could have taken him into custody. That boy proved to be one of the key members of Orochimaru's forces. We could have saved many lives if we had known."

Naruto wanted to say something otherwise, but he wouldn't. He wouldn't because it wouldn't help her when the point had been made already. All he could ask was, "What'll happen to her?"

"The Grass has turned her over to our custody, and I intend to give her a chance to redeem herself." Naruto exhaled in relief at that. "But first we need to handle the fallout from the Invasion. To that end, I have a mission I would like you to undertake."

"Whatever it takes," he said. If it would help, he'd do anything. Karin didn't deserve to be like this after everything. "But my teammates are still recovering from what happened in the forest. Sakura had some short-term memory loss from her head injury, and Sasuke's chakra is messed up at the moment."

"Team 7 is currently dissolved at the moment, Naruto." He handed over a pair of scrolls, one labeled as a sealing scroll and the other a mission. "As of this moment, you have been promoted to Chuunin."

A jolt passed through Naruto at that and he looked up to the man in surprise. "Really?"

The Hokage nodded. "To be blunt, Naruto, no one expected you to do what you did. Fully-trained Jounin aren't expected to go against a fully-emerged Tailed-Beast short of several teams, yet you and a handful of Genin not only overcame several other shinobi, but defeated it without losing a man. That is a fact I recognize."

"I…" He shook his head. "We got lucky. If things had been a little different, we could have lost everything."

"Luck counts at certain times," the Old Man assured him. "And then there's the result of the Chuunin Exams. As we have mentioned, not everyone who wins their match would be promoted. That is because we seek candidates that demonstrate maturity, strategy, focus, and fair play during the match. They need to prove themselves as competent and mature enough to handle the advanced dangers most Chuunin face in the line of duty. You exhibited all of those qualities."

Naruto looked back to his sleeping clanswoman. "That's only because she helped me a lot over that month… her and Sakura. They've helped me during that last battle too."

"Their influence has done you well," he agreed. "That's why you owe it to them to accept your new ranking and handle yourself in a manner befitting a Chuunin. Show that their efforts are not wasted by completing this mission, Naruto."

He felt better hearing that. "Okay."

"Then, to summarize the mission in the scroll, you will accompany a Jounin by the name of Jiraiya to find a woman named Shizune and her associate. During that time, you will be traveling under a Transformation to match the photos and identification inside of the sealing scroll. You have three hours to prepare and meet at the northern gate. The mission is not to be mentioned to anyone else, understand?"

Naruto nodded his head. The wrinkles on the older man's face shifted as his mouth crooked into a soft smile at that.

"Then you may go, Chuunin Naruto Uzumaki," he said. "And feel free to visit the Sealing R&D building to retrieve the rest of the Masked Beasts. They've been cleared for use and their transportation utility can prove useful on the way back, saving you ample time."

"Got it, Old Ma—" he caught himself. This was a serious mission and he was a Chuunin now. "I mean, Hokage sir…."