(A/N: I'm back! Are you ready for another chapter? -Sees friend shake head rapidly- Well, fine then, don't read it! But I have to update for all my adoring fans! Hehehehe. :) It really is too bad that I don't own Naruto. I would hate to leave you in suspense like Kishimoto. I wish he would just finish writing Naruto already! I want to know how it ends….sorry. Rant over. You can go on and read the story now.)

Chapter 4: Trouble with Otogakure

"Snake-chan may be in trouble, Uchiha." She repeated her statement upon receiving a blank look. "I mean something bad might have happened." Snake admitted, picking up the speed with which she leapt across the roof tops.

"You're faster than Lee." Her charge observed.

"He was faster. We actually raced once and he beat me, but that was only after he took off his weights."

"Was?" Sasuke's curiosity was piqued after receiving a half statement about his old acquaintance.

"He and Gai left the village a year after I arrived here to go train in the mountains. Said something about coming back and challenging me to a spar after he improved his skills."

Sasuke looked exasperated, wanting an answer from the elusive, frustrating woman.

Before he could speak his upset, however, Snake continued. "He died when two of the Akatsuki initiated a surprise attack on a small village where he and Gai were staying. There weren't many ninja there so the battle ended quickly, with many casualties. They lost, obviously, and the village was destroyed. Gai was also killed in the crossfire."

"Oh." Sasuke said, and he was quiet the rest of the way to the Uchiha Mansion.

Snake arrived first, mere seconds before Sasuke. She paused for only a moment to assess the situation before jumping down to help her foster daughter. "Snake-chan!" Her apprentice fell, knocked out by one of the opposing ninja, who smacked the hilt of a katana against her the base of her skull. He was not aiming to kill, but to get away before reinforcements came.

There were ten ninja in the clearing around the Mansion. Snake's apprentice had already knocked out five of them, but nine looked to be chunnin, and the other was likely a jounin. Her apprentice was only an apprentice, be it ANBU or not; therefore, it was a miracle that she had been able to knock out five before being eliminated from battle herself.

Snake stared at the ninja for a moment. "One of you will live as my prisoner, whom I will take to Hokage-sama. The others of you will die. You-" Snake began, drawing her katana and using it to point threateningly to the one who knocked her apprentice out. "Will have no chance to continue to breathe. Which one of you shall I chose to live? I don't know. Whomever is furthest from me when I attack, probably." Her grin was malicious, eyes roving over the ninja who had met her criteria for the chance at life.

The rival ninja didn't move. They believed they could take her on. What a mistake.

Snake flew forward with a flash of her sword. They stood disbelievingly in front of the ANBU as she felled two of their companions before they had even seen her move.

Sheathing her katana, she sent chakra to her feet to speed her movements, while also concentrating chakra to her hands. She struck them all in the chest with her hand-sword, which she had made painfully sharp. They immediately fell, blood splattering everywhere, including onto Snake's mask. Only one of the men were left standing.

One of the fallen, however, disappeared in a puff of smoke. A shadow clone of the one who knocked out Snake's apprentice. Sasuke acknowledged from his observing place a short distance from the fight.

The real ninja appeared behind Snake and pierced the skin of her shoulder with a kunai. Snake whirled around with a hiss, grasping her injured shoulder with her opposite hand. She lashed out with a senbon and landed a shallow cut on his cheek. Snake smirked. "There is poison on the tip of my senbon. Even the shallowest of cuts with this is deadly."

The man's eyes widened as he fell to his knees clutching his cheek and looking at the blood on his hand. He fell forward, not dead, but dying because of the fast moving poison. He writhed on the ground for a several moments, before retching and gasping for breath as his lungs shut down. He gave a final gasp, as though he were a fish out of water, and lay still, quiet.

Dead.

The last hostile ninja looked at her with fear clouding his eyes, panic rising when she began laughing. "That was one of the easiest battles I've ever fought." The blood on her body and the taunts she proclaimed made her seem demented.

She turned to face the nin, blood still spattered on her mask and dripping down her injured arm. "You will follow me to the Hokage Tower." She ordered him, watching in pleasure as he flinched. "Uchiha, you're coming too." She walked toward her apprentice and gently lifted the girl into her good arm while avoiding her injury and trying to keep her blood off her apprentice.

She turned to the other two ninja. "Now," she forced, watching as both men took steps in front of her. Sasuke's attention remained rapt on the man beside him, watching him for any sign of treachery.

They began the short trek toward their destination, hurrying according to Snake's orders. When they arrived at Naruto's office, Snake ordered Sasuke to knock loudly.

"Enter," came the Hokage's exuberant voice.

Sasuke swung open the door and the three stepped into the office.

"Snake-sama! What happened to Snake-chan and yourself? Why is there a foreign ninja in my office? Has there been an attack? " He demanded responses, but questioned her too quickly for her to answer them individually.

"Snake-chan was attacked by ten men who somehow got past your border patrols. This man was one of her attackers. This was most likely Uchiha's doing."

"What?!" Said man looked indignant, not sure whether to be fearful that the reason he was allowed to stay was turning against him, or to be angry at her.

Naruto narrowed his eyes thoughtfully at Sasuke, contemplating the weight behind those accusations. "Why do you believe that?" His question, however, was for Snake.

"The shinobi that attacked us were of Oto origin." She said simply, emotionlessly.

Naruto's eyes narrowed further, no longer contemplative, but suspicious. "Sasuke, do you have any way to defend yourself?"

The man beside Snake raised his eyebrows and growled at the indicated man, finally bursting out with his anger, unable to keep himself in check with his fear of the ANBU. "Uchiha you traitor!" He turned to the Hokage, not expecting mercy, but demanding answers. "Why is he in this village?" He hissed. "He destroyed Otogakure! He is a traitor to both Konoha and my village! You've given him a home when he deserves to be turned loose and let starve! You should have told him to leave and let him die in the wilderness!"

"Snake-sama, is this proof enough that he did not set this attack up? It is for me." Naruto's suspicions were eased with the explosion of anger from the unidentified ninja. He turned to Snake, looking for an affirmation in her body language.

"Hokage-sama, with all due respect, you are being simple minded. If Uchiha did plan these attacks, he would have a back up plan, iie? If they were to get caught, those ninja would accuse him of being a traitor and make it seem that Uchiha wasn't involved. Thus shifting the guilt from the Otogakure 'prince' to the assailant."

"Do you have something against Sasuke?" Naruto demanded, seeing her logic, but unwilling to allow his mind to wander and question whether his best friend was truly still with the 'dark side.'

"Iie. I am merely stating what could be happening. Hokage-sama, you of all people should know that one must be careful when dealing with traitors. You must consider everything. You would do well to wise up, Hokage-sama, before you bring certain doom to this village. One person can only do so much to save us if you do." Her coolly answered question and warning left the room feeling ten degrees cooler than it had been.

Snake turned to walk from the room, leaving a stricken Naruto and an astonished Sasuke behind. "Uchiha, let's go." She ordered with an emotionless voice, but everyone in the room could tell she was angry. She left the Hokage to deal with the Oto ninja's punishment.

Sasuke glanced at Naruto one more time before walking out of the room, thinking it smart to follow Snake, else risk the brunt of her freezing wrath. "Where are we going?" He inquired hesitantly, afraid of attracting Snake's anger.

"To see Uzumaki-sama. Snake-chan needs to be checked out and I need to discuss Hokage-sama's recklessness with her."

"What about your arm?" He was stunned by her lack of consideration toward herself, even in her apparent pain.

"I'm fine. I can bandage it myself. Snake-chan is the one who needs to be checked by Uzumaki-sama." Snake said, finalizing the conversation.

Sasuke was silent for the rest of the trek to the hospital. He did not want to draw Snake's fury, though he would never admit it.

When they arrived at the hospital, Snake went to the front desk and asked where to go to wait for Sakura. The nurse at the desk was trembling when she told them to wait in room 154. She also told them she would send one of the interns to get Sakura for them. The snake and last Uchiha made their way to the directed room.

The intern made her way to the hospital room in which Sakura was operating. The head medic ninja was healing a patient with a minor injury when the intern entered the room.

The poor intern began to speak in a slightly trembling voice. "Sakura-sama, there is a patient in room 154 who says you need to immediately go find her. She says it's really important. She…she said you had better be in there within the time span of ten minutes." The intern involuntarily flinched.

Sakura was known for having magnificent medical skills, but she was also known for her super strength and a temper that could rival her shishou's.

"How dare a patient come to this hospital and try to order me about!?" She shrieked, throwing her hands in the air. "But I shouldn't take this out on you. I'm going to give this woman a piece of my mind!" She turned to stomp out the door, but suddenly remembered something. She turned back around and sweetly vowed, "I'll be back in a few minutes, sumimasen," to the patient she was previously treating. She turned once again and stomped out the door. The patient blinked, confused, as she left.

When she arrived at room number 154, Sakura opened the door and shouted, "Who do you think…" She trailed off, seeing who was in the room. "Ah! Gomen nasai, Snake-sama! I didn't know it was you!"

"That's fine, Uzumaki-sama. I need to discuss an issue pertaining to Hokage-sama with you after you check over Snake-chan." Snake gestured to her apprentice, who was lying on the examination table in the room.

"What happened to you two?"

"Some men from Otogakure attacked her. I also came to discuss that with you. Hokage-sama thinks that it was a coincidence, but I think it was more. Sasuke came to the village, and Otogakure ninja attacked us the next day. I captured one of the ninja and when we got into Hokage-sama's office, the captured nin screamed at Uchiha. Hokage-sama thinks Uchiha is innocent, but I think he may be guilty." She said, making use of a broken code that she formed with Sakura to discuss private affairs with one another while other, conscious people were in the room with them.

"The only way to find out if he is guilty is to threaten him." Sakura replied in the broken code Snake was using. She turned to Sasuke. "It is possible that Snake-chan could die from the wound she took to the head."

Sasuke let his eyes widened with surprise, though there was not a trace of guilt. "Surely Snake-sama arrived here in time?"

"She might have, I'll have to have a more thorough examination first." Sakura turned back to Snake. "I say he's innocent, not guilty. Should I tell Naruto-koi?" She continued to make use of their code.

"Hai. Tell him I changed my mind, I will trust your judgment that he's innocent." Snake said, and Sakura disappeared to tell Naruto what they had discussed.

"What was that about? Is Snake-chan really going to die? Why did she leave so suddenly? What were you two talking about?"

Snake summarized the gist of their conversation without giving him specific details. "You are not to know the specifics of what we talked about until Uzumaki-sama returns with Hokage-sama's decision."

Sasuke was about to argue when Snake walked over to her apprentice and sat in the chair beside her bed. Snake sighed and put her mask-covered forehead in her hands. "What's wrong?" His curiosity was overpowering his dislike of compassion.

Snake looked back up at him, and though she was wearing a mask, he could tell she was not angry at his intrusion of her thoughts. "For a long while, the village has been peaceful. Now that you've come back, there have been at least two attacks by Oto ninja." As she spoke, she stood and walked to a cabinet, as though remembering a forgotten problem.

She opened the cabinet and pulled out a roll of gauze and a bottle of antiseptic. As she sat down on the bed beside her apprentice's to cleanse and wrap her own wound, she continued. "One was when we were at your house. A ninja came in the middle of the night and tried to attack me, thinking I was a heavy sleeper. I put a sleeping genjutsu on you so you wouldn't wake. Then I killed the ninja, disposing of the body outside the village. I then came back to your house, bleached the blood off the floor, released you from the genjutsu, and continued my meditative sleep.

"The second time, you witnessed, but you did nothing to help. That's twice I've had to fight Oto ninja in the past week, when I haven't fought them for over a year."

"I swear that I didn't have anything to do with it."

"I know that. The look in your eyes when Uzumaki-sama told you Snake-chan could possibly die told me that you were innocent. That's why she said that. To find out if you planned this or not." She moved to return the supplies to their respective shelves as she finished with them, rolling her shoulder and wincing at its soreness.

"I think they are working for Kabuto now that Orochimaru is dead. I would have killed that freak also, but he wasn't there at the time I left."

"So you believe that Yakushi may be behind this?"

"Kabuto knows that I would come back here. Maybe he wants revenge on me for killing Orochimaru. Those two times he attacked, the first time, he was at my house, in my room. He probably wanted to kill any witnesses, and then kill me. The second time, he was at my house, was he not? Snake-chan just happened to be there."

"You may have a point. But you're lucky that Uzumaki-sama knows how to convince people of innocence, or you would be banished if it were my choice. The head ANBU has a lot of influence on the elders' decisions, almost as much as the Hokage."

They both fell silent. Snake put her forehead back into her hands. All of a sudden, Snake looked up sharply. Sakura reappeared in the room several seconds later. "Hokage-sama begs your forgiveness, Snake-sama. He said you were right, he was a fool, and he would try harder next time. I think he's just desperate to give Sasuke another chance. Naruto-koi missed him so much, whether he admits it or not."

"You're talking about me like I'm not even here."

Sakura turned to glare at him. "What right do you have to be here?" Her voice was scathing.

Sasuke was taken aback by her tone. He winced slightly and kept quiet from that point onward.

Sakura turned back to Snake and began to whisper. "You really hurt him when you insulted him like that. I could tell. I don't know who you are, but you're really close to his heart. When I walked into his office, he looked so broken."

"Gomen nasai." Snake apologized, unfazed and emotionless.

Sakura sighed and began to speak in her previous volume. "As soon as Snake-chan wakes up, I'll check her vitals to make sure she's okay, then you can go home. I'll run a few tests in the mean time. She may need to rest for a few hours, but she will be fine tomorrow."

"Arigatou gozamizu." Snake turned to Sasuke. "Uchiha. You will wait here with Snake-chan and Uzumaki-sama until Snake-chan wakes up. I will be back." Snake walked out of the hospital room, leaving Sakura and Sasuke as the only conscious ones in the room.

"Sakura-san?"

"Sakura-sama to you."

"Hn…Sakura-sama?"

"What?" She glared at him.

"Gomen nasai. I didn't mean to hurt you like I did. I needed power. I couldn't gain that here. I would have brought you with me if I could have. But I knew that Orochimaru would have killed you the first chance he got. Or worse. I didn't want you to die, become one of his experiments, or be considered a missing nin. Sumimasen." Sasuke looked down as he finished. His speech was far out of character, but he knew it had to be said. All of his burnt bridges had to be repaired to the best of his abilities if he was to live once more in Konoha.

"Apology accepted." Sakura said in a sugary sweet voice. "I was just waiting for you to apologize. I thought it would take much longer though. But I suppose you didn't want to do it with Snake-sama around." Her smirk almost made him want to take his apology back, but he knew he would have to leave it be or risk expulsion. He had to make a good impression on the Hokage's wife, after all.

(A/N: I don't really have much to say today. Read and review, onegai.)