The Last Hope-Revised

This is the revised version of my story the last hope as you can tell from the title… Contains spoilers up to chapter 367 including Yondaime's real name.

Summary: (Post Sasuke Retrieval) after failing to bring Sasuke back, Konoha blamed everything on Naruto. In blind anger, Naruto ran to the only place he could think of the Akatsuki! Gaara, after hearing the news joins his only friend. Neji, fallen into the hands of Orochimaru, earns the biggest secret of the Hyuuga clan.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and I am not making any money off of this

"Speech"

'Thinking'

Flamez are welcome as long as they are not just none sense like "it sucks" or some thing like that... if you have to flame me, at least tell me why I suck!

My time skip version!

On to the story!

Chapter 3 Konoha

Konoha Two years and eight months later

Jiraiya POV

It has been two years since the little brat left. Damn! I told Tsunade that we should tell everyone the truth about Naruto's heritage, if we did; Naruto would never have run away. At first I was naïve, counting on the ANBU to bring him back… but those useless retards couldn't even find a clue as to where he was. Now I think about it, they probably never tried. Well, three months later we found out. When Naruto showed up along with Gaara and Itachi in Kumogakure destroying over half of the rain village and taking their forbidden scroll… of course we found out. Two month later, Suna was attacked, their forbidden scroll was also taken, but nothing important was destroyed and no one died. Probably Gaara's doing. Those two attacks alone were able to earn Naruto a rank as an S-class missing Nin.

I cursed myself for my stupidity back then; of course they would be after those two scrolls. I was one of the few people who knew who Naruto's parents were. Uzumaki Kushina, Naruto's mother was from the former whirlpool village, now a part of the rain.

Well I guess we are at fault here… as harsh as the Akatsuki is, Naruto probably has a better time there then in Konoha. I still remember the faces of the elders when they discovered the identity of Naruto's father… that was hilarious! Back then I actually found the situation fairly amusing, not understanding the seriousness of desertion of the last member of such a prestigious clan.

It wasn't until around one month later did l realized that Naruto is serious on putting Konoha completely behind him. His name disappeared on the frog summon scroll. As a rule, a shinobi is only allowed two animal summon, once a shinobi sign a third scroll, they must choose which one of the other two he already signed he wants to keep. … That was when I finally realized that he is leaving Konoha for good. That was also when I realized that it was too late to bring Naruto back to Konoha

Minato… I'm sorry, I really am, I failed you as mentor, and I failed you as a friend…. I could not even keep your last heir safe.

Kakashi POV

Once again I'm standing in front of the memorial sight of my sensei; I started to visit here more and more frequently after finding out about Naruto's heritage. I did not realize until too late that I was being completely unfair to him, blaming him for the death of my sensei at the hands of Kyuubi. Then I found out, I found out the horrible truth that the innocent child that I blamed for the death of my sensei was actually the son of the same sensei of mine.

'Sensei, if you can hear me right now… please… please tell me what to do…. I failed you … I always said that people who abandon their comrades are worse that shit… but that was exactly what I did. I abandoned Naruto I favored of Sasuke thinking he needs more help since he is the last of his clan. But Naruto… he needed me even more, at least Sasuke had the rest of the village to look after him….'

I sighed. Since Naruto and Sasuke both became missing Nins, Tsunade-sama took Sakura as an apprentice and team seven broke up. I must have been the worst jounin sensei ever; with in half a year two of my three students became missing Nins… both are S-class too. I must have set a record, not that it's a record to be proud of. After that incident, the Hokage never asked me take on team again. I guess I wouldn't either; Konoha does not need any more missing Nins!

Iruka POV

The last three years were the worst time ever for Konoha since the Kyuubi attack. Especially two years and eight months ago, within two weeks, Konoha produced three missing Nins. I should actually say three S-class missing Nins. Some villages don't even have 3 S-class missing Nins in their whole history, and we produced three within two weeks, Naruto, Sasuke, and Neji.

I really wonder how none of us ever seen it, all three of them have enough problems for any psychologist to run away screaming. Now I think about it, I think a lot of people figured that they would snap one day. The thing we never suspected was the fact that they would all snap at the same time. Wincing, I remembered Naruto's little attack on the rain village, and Sasuke and Neji's attack on the Earth village a little less then a day later.

Glancing at the horizon and sighed. Naruto, the little brother I never had…. Tears leaked disregarding rule 25 as I softly uttered my many apologies. I should have protected him better; I should have spent more time with him; I should have consoled him after he failed to retrieve Sasuke.

Since the desertion Sasuke, Neji and Naruto, the relationship between all of the hidden villages became very strained. Now a war is near the horizon, just a few days ago we heard a rumor that the Akatsuki and the Oto is forming an alliance to attack Konoha. Since then Hokage-sama has been calling emergency meetings with the other villages. So far only Suna answered, the rest of the villages are still afraid of Konoha power and would rather watch us get destroyed. I sighed again. Don't they see that if Konoha falls, all of them would be next? Well, I suppose Konoha will be buying time for them by weakening the Akatsuki and the Oto.

Tsunade POV

I sighed as I felt another migraine coming. Ever since the little hyper brat left, every thing went from bad to worse. And now the tension is about to snap anytime. Damn it, even now as a war is brewing, none of the other villages is even offering the slightest help, only Suna is still honorable enough to offer an alliance. Why did that stupid brat have to left? Now everything is beyond screwed up!

When Naruto left, none of the ANBU was obedient enough to actually offer to find him. Even when I ordered them to, they still kept on making excuses to not go. Some kind of loyalty to Konoha they have! I palmed my face as I remembered their panicked faces and wide eyed when I finally decided that I could no longer with hold the identity of Naruto's father. After I revealed that Minato was Naruto's father, the offer to go after Naruto rained into my office for the next week.

Three months later the majority of the Konoha population received the biggest shock since the Kyuubi attack. Out of the three most celebrated clans of Konoha, two of the head of the clan (Naruto and Sasuke) and the genius of the other one became missing nins; all at the same time. I remembered the horror of the atmosphere when Konoha received the news of the attack on the rain village and the earth village. It was absolutely horrible! Fingering the necklace I gave to Naruto that I found in his apartment after he left, I groaned… things weren't supposed to be like this! They weren't supposed to!

General POV

Although for most of the shinobi of Konoha it was a normal day filled with the some old missions, the guards of the Konoha Gate could not say the same. Around mid morning, a parcel landed directly into one of the guarding towers. Being the trained shinobi they are, they had at first quickly threw it as far away as possible, gearing it was something explosive. After seeing nothing happened as it made contact with the forest grounds, an unlucky chunin was sent to investigate.

When the parcel was retrieved, the two of three chunin tested it for every possible type of trap while the other kept watch. After everyone is sure that nothing is wrong with the parcel, the same unlucky chunin was forced to open it. A head rolled out of the parcel as it was opened. It was not a normal head, instead of skin, it had what seemed like scales, long black hair was messily pointing outwards and instead of a neck, it had what seemed like a scaly sector of a snake. The three chunin knew on sight that the head belonged to no other than the snake Densetsu no Sannin, Orochimaru.

The guards wondered who would throw away something so valuable. After all, there is a bounty of 70 million ryou bounty on his head. (AN: I made the number up…. I figured that if Asuma is worth 35 million, Orochimaru should worth around double that.) Their question was answered soon as five people appeared right next to them. Looking up, the guards saw a pair of pupil-less green eyes, a pair of Byakugan, a pair of Tenshingan and two pairs of Sharingan. Unable to process what they are seeing, the guards did the only thing they could at the situation… they fainted.

To be continued

So… how was that…. I hope you liked it! Nothing really changed form the POVs of Jiraiya, Kakashi, Iruka and Tsunade except for the tiny paragraph in Iruka's section. I was actually quite happy for that.

The last bit was new… and I hope that you like it! Next chapter might be a little late, I have to word the weekend and school is starting soon... bu I promise that I shall make time for this story!

As I said in chapter one, old readers of the unrevised version, please tell me if you like this one better. New readers… what do you think?

Well, gotta go… Shiho signing off!