8

Tsunade was helping to heal some of the wounded villagers that lay on the ground alongside each other atop Hokage Tower. Karin was a few feet away from Sakura who was healing a child who was bleeding internally. Karin herself was ordering Kakashi to bite her arm and, as he did, albeit hesitantly, his smaller wounds began to heal visibly. She informed him that he would have to wait a little while for his broken arm and fractured ribs to heal completely before he could move around freely.

There were two Anbu behind Tsunade watching warily as Juugo and Suigetsu approached, carrying six unconscious villagers over their shoulders.

As much as she loathed admitting it, Sasuke's team had been a great help. They'd searched for and found most of the unaccounted for villagers (most of whom had not been evacuated and were caught in the crossfire) and had brought them to Hokage Tower. Karin had lent her skills as a healer and Tsunade was not about to refuse them. She had only barely managed to scrounge up enough chakra to smooth out the wrinkles on her face, not wanting to worry those looking to her for support.

Team Hawk had made it clear that they were only helping out because of Sasuke's command to do so but they had done a great deal for Konoha. Tsunade was thinking of waving their sentences as rogue ninja if they wanted to stay in the village after Sasuke returned.

They'd already found all of the ninja who had miraculously come back to the world of the living, but who had been unable to move due to their injuries. Once she'd called the all clear, the villagers that had been safely evacuated under the Hokage Monument joined in the search for the missing and those that could deal well in medicine came straight to the tower to assist, since the hospital had been destroyed in the attack.

There were now only ten people whose whereabouts were unknown and Tsunade expected them to be found soon. She suspected that the amazing survival and revival of all of the ninja of Konoha had something to do with Naruto's disappearance.

There were only a few casualties resulting from the attack and they were all villagers who had no access to the chakra they held in their bodies. Tsunade had an idea that something had happened to force the souls of Konoha's ninja back into their bodies, and had used chakra to keep them there. The fact that only ninja had been brought back when they had been thought dead nearly proved her point. And the phenomenon was limited to only Konoha forces. All of the enemies forces had either retreated or been eliminated; none of them had been brought back, thankfully.

Tsunade had ordered all of the bodies of the enemy ninja to be taken to the interrogation office so that she could find out exactly who it was who led them. She wanted to verify that what Sasuke had told her was true, especially what he said about Madara still being alive, although she was fairly certain he would make up a better story than that if he was really lying. She knew that none of the grunts that had attacked the village were likely to know the orchestrator of the attack, but she had to at least try.

She felt a familiar presence behind her and she sighed.

"Shizune, status report."

"Lady Tsunade, the search has been completed. There are twenty-three villagers dead and none of ours are without injury. The only areas that survived Pein's explosion were the buildings one hundred and twenty feet in front of Hokage Tower and behind it. The outer rim of the village is also intact since the blast was centered in the middle of Konoha and extended outward in a large circle. We should be able to rebuild completely within four months."

"And Naruto?"

"He hasn't returned yet but I'm sure he will, soon."

"He'd better! He can't just go off and do whatever he wants whenever he wants!" Tsunade ranted as she turned around and put her arm around Shizune's shoulders, suddenly dizzy from her chakra loss and trying to hide that fact from those around her by acting at least semi-normal. The Hokage could not afford to appear weak in a time such as this.

Shizune glanced at her worriedly, though she said nothing as she supported Tsunade's weight. She walked the older woman towards the wall of the covering for the stairs that led down into the tower and let Tsunade lean against it.

"I've got to go organize the villagers so we can begin to rebuild. I'll report back in a bit." She slipped from her Hokage's hold and retreated down the stairs.

Tsunade sighed. "Being Hokage is tiresome. I need some sake…"

"You should probably hold off on that drink order for a while, Tsunade. I think something's wrong."

Tsunade turned to face the three brats that had taken to calling her by her first name without any title whatsoever, but she didn't comment when she saw their serious expressions.

Karin was in front while Juugo and Suigetsu stood behind her off to either side. These three were the only ones who knew that Naruto was in trouble besides herself and Shizune. If she had told Kakashi and Sakura then they would've gone after him despite the conditions they were in. She couldn't have that; Karin may have healed Kakashi but he still had barely any chakra left and Sakura's right leg was broken; she couldn't get around without help.

"What is it, Karin?" she asked.

"I've been monitoring Sasuke's chakra, but something's happened. I can't sense Sasuke's chakra anymore. It just disappeared, like it would in a transportation jutsu. The jutsu wasn't his, though, because I would have caught the flare in chakra."

"What about Naruto? And Madara?"

"I don't know. I can't sense specific chakras from a far distance unless I'm familiar with them."

"Hmm. Do you remember the last place you felt Sasuke's chakra?" Tsunade asked.

"Yes." The redhead nodded.

"Okay. Wait here for a minute."

Tsunade walked over to a masked Anbu who was a little bit away and, as Team Hawk watched, she whispered something in his ear. He nodded and replied with a 'Yes, Lady Hokage '. A moment later she came back over to Sasuke's team and nodded to them.

"Let's go."

The three looked at each other and then they shrugged almost simultaneously. Karin turned towards Tsunade and lifted her arm to point to her left where there was a large area covered by trees.

"He's that way. Do you think you can keep up?" She asked with a smirk. She only seemed to be trying to hide anxiety over their leader's disappearance, though, rather than attempting to find any real humor in the situation.

"Shut up, brat! I'm not that old yet!" Tsunade jumped off the side of Hokage Tower and to the roof of a nearby house with a short burst of chakra then she turned back to the three members of Hawk who were still standing on the tower, staring at where she had been in surprise. They hadn't even seen her move. Ha! Serves 'em right! Now. Let's go find my favorite gaki and bring him home. "Come on! Hurry up!" She yelled with a smirk of her own, and then she turned and took off in the direction Karin had pointed.

After she felt three presences following close behind her, Tsunade forced herself to relax and she extended her senses outward and searched for Naruto's chakra. She hoped that he was alright and that Sasuke had found him already. That the only reason Karin couldn't sense Sasuke was because he was low on chakra.

Just as they entered the Forest of Death, which was where Karin had last sensed Sasuke, and the direction in which Tsunade had seen Naruto leave when he had finished his fight with Pein, Tsunade sensed a short, intense burst of chakra not far from them. Looking back at her, Tsunade saw that Karin had felt it too.

All four of them raced quickly altered course to the location of Naruto's chakra spike and, as they were jumping from branch to branch, Suigetsu spotted two motionless figures on the ground below them. Tsunade recognized the orange-colored shreds of cloth that still hung to his arms. Her heart jumped to her throat.

"Naruto!" she darted from the branch she'd stopped on towards the blond. She panicked when she reached his side. "Talk to me, Naruto!"

"Calm down, Tsunade." Karin said as she kneeled down beside Naruto and ran practiced, green-glowing hands over him. "He'll be fine. He's only got a couple of fractured ribs. His only other major problem is chakra loss. Everything else is small, like a sprained ankle and a whole bunch of cuts and bruises, but those are obvious."

Tsunade only just managed to push back the part of herself that was screaming at her to make Naruto wake up and say he was alright, and the part of herself that was screaming at her for forgetting her skills as a medic ninja. She looked up at Karin as the woman stood and she calmed down almost visibly, nodding to let Karin know that she had heard her.

Just as Karin stood, though, Naruto stirred and he slowly opened his eyes to the sight of the Fifth Hokage and a group of rogue ninjas he didn't know standing over him. He reacted quite calmly to it, too.

"Hey, Baa-chan." He started in a hoarse voice. He coughed lightly then cringed as a sharp pain ran through his chest. Naruto saw Tsunade open her mouth to say something and raised a hand to stop her. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me. But, please, heal her. She's the one who needs it."

The four new arrivals looked at the other figure lying beside him. Their attention had mostly been on Naruto, having deigned her of no importance when they saw that the figure was not Sasuke, but now they studied her for the first time.

They soon saw that her clothing would resemble an Akatsuki member's cloak if it were not torn to shreds, and as soon as the four realized that fact they each pulled out a kunai in surprise. At Naruto's urging they backed down, but when they looked again they saw that there really hadn't been any need to go on guard at all. She wouldn't have been able to fight if she'd wanted to.

Some of the strips of the woman's cloak had been tied around three of her limbs to staunch bleeding from many small cuts and some larger ones. She was nearly covered in new bruises and blood.

Through it all, and with the assistance of noticing her blue hair, Tsunade recognized her as Konan. She'd been part of the attack on Konoha; some people had seen her going around the village looking for Naruto and from the intelligence Sakura had brought her, Tsunade could put a name to her face.

She looked back toward Naruto, who was trying to lift himself up against one of the ancient trees that surrounded them and wincing as his injuries made themselves known. Tsunade would have told him to lay back down except she knew it wouldn't work and she was too busy wondering what Naruto was doing with an Akatsuki member.

"Wha-?" What have you been doing, Naruto?

The blond sighed in relief as he finally managed to maneuver himself into a comfortable spot. Or maybe it was in annoyance.

"Just heal her, Tsunade." She flinched at the impersonal use of her name from Naruto. "She's on our side now. She helped me… and Sasuke."

At these words Tsunade was quiet, and then, a minute later, she nodded decisively. She turned to Karin, who was standing on the other side of Naruto still. She wondered why the woman hadn't moved to help begin healing either of the two. The woman had a hard look on her face.

"Karin? What's wrong?"

Karin didn't answer. Tsunade glanced at the other members of Hawk and saw that they were both staring at Naruto in an almost questioning way.

"Karin?" Tsunade asked again.

"Where is Sasuke?" the redhead asked quietly.

Naruto turned his head away from her. From the angle she was at, Tsunade could see that he'd closed his eyes and that he'd pulled his arm across him middle, as if the seal there was paining him. But she had seen this very movement before, when Jiraiya had died, or sometimes when he'd thought of Sasuke. She recognized that something terrible had happened to him since the last time she'd seen him. Then, when he opened his eyes a second later, he plastered a fake smile on his face. It hurt Tsunade to look at it. He turned back to face Karin.

"You guys must be Sasuke's new team. I didn't think he would be stupid enough to go after Itachi without one. He has a lot of people after him. I'm sure he wanted to actually get to his brother before dying from an ambush or something. And if he picked you guys I'm sure you're all really good ninja. Your name's Karin, right?"

When he saw that Sasuke's team was still glaring at him, his smile faltered and his babbling stopped. Tsunade didn't know why Naruto had thought that his distraction tactics would work in the first place, but the very fact that he'd resorted to it made her stomach drop.

"Where?" Karin asked again.

"He… he was taken by Madara- No! WAIT!" Naruto shouted hoarsely as the three of them readied themselves to jump into the trees again and begin a search. They paused at his voice. He was breathing harshly, and his features hardened.

"If me and Sasuke, not to mention a rogue Akatsuki member, couldn't take Madara out, what makes you think you can?"

It was Juugo who spoke this time. "He is our teammate and he took us from Orochimaru's clutches. Even if it was for his own devices, we still owe him our lives!"

"I know! I promised him-!" Naruto started, but his voice cracked this time and he lapsed into a coughing fit. After he'd recovered, he continued in a quieter tone. "I fully plan on going after Sasuke but we need to have backup. Just wait in Konoha for… for three weeks. Three weeks at most. After that we can go kill that bastard Madara and bring Sasuke back with us." his voice was lower now, tired. "You can go and get yourselves killed without doing any good or you can wait for reinforcements and we can get some serious revenge and bring Sasuke back. What do you say?"

Tsunade had moved to the other side of Konan, healing her major cuts and stopping any free-flowing blood while Naruto was speaking to Team Hawk. She was impressed, to say the least. The hothead he'd been before Jiraiya was killed had all but disappeared, and he'd already come up with a smart strategy. She decided to lend her own opinion to his argument and, when she cleared her throat, the three members of Sasuke's team looked at her.

"Because Sasuke was taken, you three no longer have any obligation to stay here, but Naruto is right. There is strength in numbers. The Kazekage is a good friend of Naruto's and I'm sure he'd be more than willing to lend a hand. I'll send a few of my ninja as well, so you'd have the support of both Konoha and Sand behind you. Doesn't that sound better than going out to die?" Naruto turned towards her and grinned in thanks.

She smiled back and then watched as Hawk walked out of hearing range to deliberate, their expression grim. She idly wondered if Sasuke knew exactly how loyal they were to him. She kept her eyes on them for a moment before turning back to Naruto.

"What happened?"

"I'll… I'll tell you later, Baa-chan."

She sighed. "… Fine. You know, you've really grown up since we first met, Naruto."

"Yeah… It's kinda hard not to, what with all that's happened."

"I know." Tsunade used what was left of her chakra to heal a large gash along Konan's right arm. She then stood up and moved to Naruto's side. He was currently struggling to use the tree behind him as a sort of prop, to help him to his feet.

Once again, Tsunade knew that it was useless to say anything and they had to get him back to the village anyway, so she leaned down to put an arm around his waist and she pulled him up slowly. Once he was steady on his feet, Naruto pushed Tsunade's hands away and leaned back against the tree.

xXx

Tsunade looked at him worriedly, but he waved her away and sighed. She stood next to him anyway. He said nothing and stared at the ground, trying to block out everything so he could think while Sasuke's team was deciding what they would do.

He wondered what type of seal it was that Madara had put on him and when he'd done it. Naruto had already decided that it was impossible for the Uchiha to have put two seals on him at the same time, which is basically what the man had tried to say he'd done. Naruto hadn't felt two hits. Plus he'd had contact with Kyuu after the man put the Five-Pronged Seal on him. Madara was trying to trick him into thinking he was more powerful than he actually was. His taijutsu and genjutsu skills were definitely real, and more than impressive, but Naruto had yet to see any ninjutsu from him. Maybe that was his weakness? His clones were certainly weak, or at least, not as equal in strength to him as Naruto's were to him. And he'd been winded by the hit that Sasuke had landed. Although he'd barely flinched when Naruto had stabbed right through his arm…

Either way, the main problem was the seal. He hadn't heard a word from Kyuu and he was beginning to get worried-

His thoughts were interrupted as he heard a voice. He raised his head and saw Tsunade looking at him anxiously. "Naruto? Are you all right?" He looked at his clenched hand that she held in two of her own, the nails digging into the skin of his palm. He'd been so engrossed in his thoughts that his mind had yet to register the pain that seemed to grow from his stomach. Or rather, from his seal…

Speak of the devil and she will come. This is probably gonna hurt. Naruto thought grimly as he pressed his other hand onto his seal having suddenly realized what was happening.

"Shit…Madara sealed Kyuu… She's trying to break it… don't… do anything." That was all he could manage to say before the pain grew even more and he was forced from his standing position against the tree, to his knees on the ground. His left hand, which Tsunade had since released in confusion, scrabbled to find purchase in the damp earth below him as if it could steady him against the dizzying waves of pain that began to wash over him.