Naruto's Return

Chapter 2

"Naruto," whispered Tsunade again, "You're alive. How? I saw the distruction you caused. There should be no way to have survived that." Tsunade just continued to stare at the comatose form of the boy that had brought her back to Konoha, a boy who until just a second ago was believed to be dead. She started to tear up at the thought of him being back but the medic in her stopped her and reminded her she should check on his condition. She walked up next to the bed that held the blonde and listened to the machines that monitored him. Everything was normal according to those machines but Naruto would not awaken so she used a rather complex scanning jutsu to see if she could find the problem that kept him in his current state.

What Tsunade found startled her. His mind was in tatters and his body should have been dead judging by the many scarring wounds. "Naruto, you are a remarkable man. No one that I know could have survived what you seemed to have."

"How is he, how is Naruto-kun Tsunade-sama," asked Hinata as tears of joy began to fall from her lavender eyes, "Will he be ok? Can he come back to Konoha with us?"

"Well, he will be returned to Konoha regardless. The real question is will he be returned as a shinobi or as a traitor to executed," Tsunade said. In reality her thoughts were nowhere close to the traitor side of things. Naruto would never abandon Konoha and his friends if he had any say in it. "I need to send out a message to Konoha Gaara-san, would it be possible for me to use your messenger hawks?"

"Of course," Gaara replied, "Just head to my office and tell Temari that you need to send a message." With that Tsunade left to send a message to konoha. Shikamaru, Chouji, and Hinata all stayed in the room with Naruto and the woman who had apparently been here with him since he was deemed to be out of critical condition.

Hinata turned to the red headed woman sitting next to Naruto's bed. "Ano, but who are you? How do you know N—Naruto-Kun," she asked with barely a stutter.

Kasumi looked at Hinata thinking 'I can't let her know how I really know Naruto, it would break his heart if his friends found out and left him. I'll have to leave breaking that news to him.' Kasumi sat looking at Hinata for a few seconds then finally answered. "I helped him when he was in trouble a few times and I helped him just a month ago. I was also the one to carry him here after he was injured." What Kasumi left out was the fact that she was the Kyuubi that Naruto had contained up until two months ago when Akatsuki tried to extract her from him.

"Well, thanks a lot for your help. If you hadn't of been there for him this would have been to troublesome for me," said Shikamaru as everyone decided to leave Naruto alone in his room.

Two Days Later

Tsunade had sent a message to Konoha to Shizune to ask her to send Inoichi to Suna to do a mind walk on Naruto. It was her obligation as hokage to see why he didn't return after defeating the two S-ranked missing nin that were part of Akatsuki.

Inoichi arrived just before noon and was immediately rushed into a private room with Gaara and Tsunade. "I take it you have no idea why you specifically were called here to do the mind walk when your daughter is better at the family arts. Am I right Inoichi?" asked Tsunade.

"I am a bit curious but it isn't my place to question your judgment. I can do the mind walk any time you would like me to Hokage-sama, all I ask is that you tell me who the mind I will be invading belongs to." Said Inoichi.

Gaara replied before Tsunade could say anything. "Of course we will tell you whose mind you will be reading. This will also make you understand why you were asked for by name. You will be walking a mind of a man who was thought dead for the last two years. You will be entering the mind of Uzumaki Naruto."

"I can see why you asked for me then," Started Inoichi, "my daughter still doesn't know that he is the container for that beast. I will do the mind walk and get you whatever information you need to accuse or acquit him of any treasonous acts."

"Thank you Inoichi. I need to know what he has been doing for the last two years. I need to know why he didn't come home or let anyone know he was still alive." Said Tsunade as she sat further back into her seat. "If what you find is good enough I will then see what I can do for the state his mind is in."

"Hokage-sama, what do you mean by that? What state is his mind in?" asked Inoichi.

"When I checked him a couple days ago his mind seemed broken, disjointed. I can't try to fix anything for sure until I know what's going on in his head." Replied Tsunade. With that the three left the room they were in and headed to the hospital to start the investigation in Naruto's mind. When they arrived at the room in the hospital where Naruto was still comatose Tsunade had to order everyone to leave. "Ok everyone you have to get out, Inoichi needs this to be private and it won't be if you're here so OUT."

That simple action confused Chouji and Hinata. Kasumi and Shikamaru had an idea what was happening and Shikamaru quickly spoke up. "Tsunade-sama is probably having Inoichi do a mind walk on Naruto to find out what happened to him for the last two years. She probably kicked us out because there may be some classified information or something released in the mind walk. This is all just getting to troublesome."

Inside the hospital room Inoichi entered Naruto's mind. What he saw when he entered frightened him a bit. In most people's minds the mind was represented by a long, straight corridor with doors on either side. Usually very few doors were locked and those that were, were just bad memories that the person didn't care to remember or just forgot. When he entered Naruto's mind he found that everything was in a state of disrepair and there was no a distinct corridor like normal. His mind twisted and turned and the path split in many directions. Inoichi just looked on amazed at the sight before him. After a few seconds he got down to buisiness. He approached the first door and found it locked. 'Well, that's not to unusual' he thought 'I guess something that happened while he was gone, probably what has him in the condition he's in, is linked to the memory here.' Inoichi proceded further into Naruto's mind. In just a few scant minutes he was rather disturbed.

Five minutes after Inoichi had entered Naruto's mind he looked up to Tsunade. "I had heard that you worked quickly Inoichi but I didn't think it was possible for you to be that quick," said Tsunade.

"I can't work that quickly," Inoichi replied. "Like you said, his mind is a mess. Even worse than that is the fact that every memory I tried to approach was locked away. Either he is able to unconsciously able to defend his mind, or the last two years of his life have been extremely bad. I'm going to have to get a room prepared and use one of our more advanced versions of Shintenshin to get anything from him."

Tsunade sighed and thought for a few minutes. "Do what you need to do Inoichi. I need to know what happened with him the last two years."

"Thank you Tsunade-sama," Inoichi said. He hesitated for a few moments before he continued. "With the jutsu I'm going to use it is likely I will end up seeing most, if not all of Naruto's life to date. I figured you would want to know before I invaded his privacy in such a way." With that Inoichi left the room to find Gaara. He needed to find a room where he could draw up some seal diagrams and where they could bring Naruto so that he could jump into his mind.

Two days passed as Inoichi got ready for his journey into Naruto's mind. In this time the three rookies that had come with Tsunade took every chance they had to come and see Naruto. Shikamaru would just sit at his side and mumble about how troublesome Naruto was but at the same time he would say that it was even more troublesome when everyone believe he was dead. Chouji, having heard that sometimes when a person was in a coma they could be awoken by the sound of a friend or loved ones voice just sat and talked to Naruto as he munched on his ever present chips. He talked about what had changed since he disappeared and how everyone was doing now. He also talked briefly about how Sasuke returned and what everyone had thought at the time. Hinata had been the most vocal of the three of them surprisingly. She had finally gathered the courage to tell Naruto that she loved him after Chouji had told her that he might be able to hear them.

Flashback (1 day ago)

Hinata sat in the chair next to Naruto's bed. She looked at him and she could still only see the boy who would give anything for his friends and precious people. "You know I really missed you Naruto-kun. I thought that you had really left me." At this point Hinata Started to cry gently. "I'm so glad that you're alive. While you were gone I had thrown myself into my training. I refused to go out with anyone because I didn't think it would be right. You have my heart Naruto-kun, you always have and you always will." With that Hinata, a little red in the face, leaned down and gave Naruto a chaste kiss on the lips. "I hope you wake up soon so I can tell you again how important you are to me and I can do that again." Hinata Blushed and left the room.

Tsunade and Kasumi didn't visit Naruto over the last two days. They opted to try and drown their sorrow in sake. Tsunade was drinking because if what Inoichi found in Naruto's mind said he left of his own free will she would have to execute him for treason. Kasumi drank because she wasn't sure that Naruto's mental state would improve. If she were still sealed within his belly she could have helped restore order to Naruto's mind. As it was Naruto was on his own unless Tsunade, with Inoichi's help, could find a way to repair the damage.

Back in the room Inoichi had procured the walls and floors were lined with complex seals. Inoichi said that the seals were used to focus the Yamanaka abilities and they helped straighten out damaged and twisted minds. Besides that, the seals would allow Inoichi to more easily access the memories that were previously locked in Naruto's mind. The thing he didn't tell everyone was that using this jutsu he would live through most of Naruto's life via his memories. Every memory he entered, which would likely be quite a few, he would see and to a lesser extent feel everything Naruto felt.

Finally ready to procede, Inoichi asked that everyone but Tsunade leave the room. When the others went to protest Inoichi cut them off. "This jutsu is very dangerous. As I enter Naruto's mind it is likely that there will be some backlash. Chances are if you were to stay in here one or more of you would get hurt. I can't allow that." Sensing another question Inoichi Preempted it. "The only reason I am allowing Tsunade to stay in the room is that she has the nessecary medical expertise to help me if the jutsu goes wrong and I hurt myself. That and I will need her to supply a constant flow of chakra to the seals on the floor here so the jutsu doesn't cut me off from my own body."

The three Konoha nin accepted the explanation and left the room. Kasumi was a little more reluctant to leave the room but did it anyway knowing that Inoichi would need all the concentration he could get.

Shortly after the group left the seals in the room began to glow a light blue and Inoichi slumped over seemingly dead. Tsunade quickly checked on him and found him to be alive. She assumed that the jutsu was working and that she would have her needed answers in a while. In the mean time Tsunade did the one thing asked of her and started to feed chakra into the seals to keep them active.

Inoichi reentered Naruto's mind to find it much more organized now. The problem he knew he would have is that using this jutsu tended to rearrange where memories were kept so he would have to search every door to find the information he needed. He hoped that he would finf the information in the first couple doors but he knew it would never happen, he wasn't that lucky. At any rate Inoichi started on his trek into Naruto's memories. He decided to start on the left side. He opened the first door and was pulled into the memory. This was one of Naruto's bad memories and he wouldn't soon forget it.

A/N I will continue on in Naruto's mind next chapter. It may take more than the one chapter to do this but I hope you still enjoy. Thanks for reading so far.