9
"Naruto!" Tsunade exclaimed.
Team Hawk was back at their sides in a second, on the ready for an incoming attack. When they saw what was happening they silently put away their kunai. Juugo and Suigetsu stepped a few feet back while Karin knelt at Naruto's side. She was about to put her hand on his chest when Tsunade interfered.
"No. He said for us not to do anything. It's a seal that Madara put on him and Kyuubi's apparently trying to break it so-"
She was cut off mid-sentence as Naruto's piercing scream rang through the surrounding forest. Both she and Sasuke's team flinched with the sheer pain that it contained. A slightly reddish hue was beginning to surround him and sickening cracks were heard even as the Naruto's shirt stirred grotesquely, suggesting that Naruto's ribs were being put back into place and repaired.
"-so we shouldn't disrupt his chakra anymore than it already has been." Tsunade finished her sentence and trailed into silence, her face pale and ashen. She had a sudden idea and then looked over to Konan. Maybe she can tell us what exactly happened. Tsunade slowly walked towards the now semi-healed woman and, one she reached her, she slapped Konan, none too gently, on the face to bring her back into consciousness.
Konan's eyes flickered open and surveyed her surroundings, as was drilled into a ninja from the moment they could speak. The first thing her eyes landed on was the tense, rigid-muscled body of Naruto. Seemingly grasping the situation, she gasped and, surprising Tsunade with her agility while still injured, jerked up and crawled to the blond's side before anyone could do anything to stop her.
Konan grabbed Naruto's shoulders and pulled his head to her shoulder as she whispered harshly to him. "Naruto-kun! Come on, Naruto. Hold on a little while longer. Remember? You promised Nagato. You said you always keep your promises, right? You have to keep your promise to Sasuke and Nagato. You can't die." She rocked him gently with a worried expression on her face.
Tsunade and Team Hawk both stood in shocked silence. None of them had expected such an exclamation from an ex-Akatsuki member, especially one who had, just hours ago, gone after Naruto, trying to kill him and take the Kyuubi. Tsunade hadn't realized that Naruto could die from the Kyuubi breaking the seal. That shocked her even more and added to her anxiety.
In apparent response to Konan's urgings, Naruto eyes flashed open for a slow millisecond and his hands snaked forward to latch themselves around Konan's waist. She pulled him further against her chest and tucked his head under her chin as she murmured assurances and began to rub her thumb in calming circles between his shoulder blades.
Tsunade tried to step forward to separate the two, worried that Naruto was so close to the woman, but Karin stopped her. She directed a scowl at redhead, but Karin shook her head.
"Can't you see? He needs it. He's breathing calmer now. I don't know what happened, but I can tell that she won't hurt him. I can sense it." She said, tapping her temple as if the movement explained exactly what she meant and she looked at Naruto with what seemed like a new respect. It was strange how seeing another ninja endure pain was something that could instill respect in the one's watching. But who was she to determine the culture of the world she lived in? "We've decided that Team Hawk will stay in Konoha until Naruto leaves to find Madara. We'll leave with him then."
"You're sure?" Tsunade marveled at Naruto's gift of charming people into putting their trust in him. Even while he was suffering great pain.
Karin nodded. They both turned their attention back to Naruto, from whom drifted a weak breathy moan. The chakra from the fox had recede somewhat and Naruto was no longer screaming, but he was still in apparent pain. He was trembling.
"Itai… it hurts…" He didn't seem to realize they were even there, instead speaking as if to himself. Naruto had his back to them and Konan's face was visible over his shoulder. From this viewpoint they could see Konan move her hand up to Naruto's neck and they could see her press down on the pressure point behind his ear. Before they could move, Naruto slumped further into Konan's arms.
"Wha-?" Tsunade started to object to the action, but Konan cut her off as she put a finger to her lips and moved to lay Naruto on the ground in front of her. Tsunade was somewhat shocked to see the tear streaks down his cheeks. She'd never seen him cry in front of anyone before and the only instance of it she'd heard of was after he'd been told Jiraiya had been killed. And she'd never, never, known him to cry from pain, not even when he was nearly dying from it. The first thing she thought was that he must have been in an unbelievable amount of torment.
Tsunade sent Konan a questioning look.
The woman answered while still looking down at Naruto. "The seal was one of Madara's own making. Madara once bragged to Pein that it nearly fuses to the host's chakra system, so the pain of breaking the seal is unimaginable. I think that the demon fox was blunting a lot of the pain; if the Kyuubi hadn't been, he would have died from the shock of it; at least, that's what Madara said. I put him out so that his chakra system could recover from having the Kyuubi's chakra running through it."
"Is he…okay now?" Tsunade hated to admit that she was in no position to judge his well-being, having no chakra and being almost dead on her feet.
"Not right now, but he will be."
"Why did you help him?"
Konan shrugged. "He promised someone dear to me that he would fulfill their hearts greatest desire. Because of that he has become a precious person to me and I will protect him."
"How did that happen?" Konan looked up at Tsunade with a bland expression, one that made it clear she was not willing to elaborate on the subject.
"Godaime, I think we should go back to Konoha. Kyuubi may have healed his injuries…" She gestured down at his now unmarred body. "…but he still needs to get some food when he wakes up, since he has very severe chakra loss. Plus, I don't think the story you need to hear is my story to tell."
Suigetsu stepped forward. "We ought to hear this, too, since we're Sasuke's team. I think we should know what happened."
Tsunade stared at the four conscious members of the group and then she nodded. "You're right. Let's go back to Hokage Tower. I'll summon Kakashi and Sakura since they're Naruto and Sasuke's old teammates and I'll have some food sent to my office while we wait for Naruto to wake up. I need to check the status of the village as well.
"Juugo, can you carry Naruto? And can you help Konan, Suigetsu?" Both of them nodded.
"Let's go then."
xXx
Juugo carried Naruto princess style all the way back to the tower and the blond probably would have tried to kill the man for it, or died of embarrassment, had he been awake or in any condition to fight; he was neither. Konan, however, wouldn't allow Suigetsu to carry her, and was perfectly able and willing to protest, so he'd held her by the waist keeping her steady the whole time.
They'd been met by ANBU as they'd made their way past the wall protecting the village. Tsunade had no problem getting them to let the four rogue ninja pass through, as none were part of Danzou's ROOT division and they'd quickly darted to Hokage tower and straight into Tsunade's office. They'd had no problems with the elders or the aforementioned Danzou as of yet, so Tsunade had deemed it safe to say that they had not been sighted beyond the ANBU. If they had been seen, they would have some troubles to deal with, namely that of Tsunade quickly being named a traitor.
Once in Tsunade's office, Juugo set Naruto on the couch that was pushed against the wall to the right of her desk and Suigetsu helped Konan into a chair that was diagonally facing the make-shift bed. Both he and Juugo had promptly fallen back into the other couch that was on the opposite side of the room, Karin making a trip down the hall with Tsunade to find some new clothes for Konan.
Now, about an hour and a half later, Tsunade was dozing gently behind her desk waiting for Naruto to wake up. They'd estimated he would wake soon judging by his healing abilities. Everyone was still in the same place they'd chosen when they'd arrived, except that Karin had joined her teammates on the couch, using Suigetsu's shoulder as a pillow. Tsunade had been surprised Suigetsu hadn't shoved her off of him, knowing from his Bingo book file that he had a rather short temper.
When Tsunade had returned from her check on the status of everything in the village, she'd brought with her two more people; Kakashi and Sakura. She hadn't told them much of anything yet, and they now sat in chairs in front of her desk with curious and bewildered expressions towards both the unconscious figure of Naruto and Konan who was leaned over him worriedly. Unsurprisingly, Kakashi sent many a hard stare at the three members of Sasuke's team, a calculating glint in his eyes, trying to figure out what was going on. Sasuke's team was pleasantly oblivious to the suspicious attentions, alternatively talking amongst themselves and going quiet.
Sakura, on the other hand, was completely confused. She didn't know anyone in the room besides the Hokage, Naruto, and their sensei, but she knew from their scarred headbands that they were all rogue-nin, and she had to wonder why the Hokage was allowing them to stay in her village, her office, without repercussion. She knew that they had helped in the aftermath of the attack, but she still didn't trust them. She kept a hand near her weapon's pouch.
"He's waking up!" Konan quietly, but loudly enough that everyone in the room heard. They all jerked to attention, glad they no longer had to wait for explanations. The fact that Naruto was waking up, of course, was good as well. They all heard a soft moan and saw Naruto begin to shift around on the couch. Konan put a hand on his shoulder and shook it slightly.
"Naruto, wake up. We need to discuss what happened and what we're going to do about Sasuke." He started to blink slowly, not quite awake at the moment, and still drowsy from having been chakra deprived and from recent events.
"What?! Sasuke was here?!" Sakura practically screeched.
"Ne, Sakura-chan…" Naruto whined, putting a hand up to massage a temple. "Can you be a little quieter? Please?" She snapped her mouth shut with an embarrassed expression. He carefully pushed himself up into a sitting position and when Konan started to help him he pushed away her hands. "I'm fine now, Konan… Thank you."
Konan nodded and sat back in her chair before turning towards Tsunade. She set the plate of fruit Tsunade had brought for them earlier in front of him, and he quickly grabbed a few apple slices to munch away at while he narrated the story.
"Now, I guess we can explain. Naruto?" When she and everyone else in the room turned to him expectantly, Naruto sighed and leaned back against the couch arm, getting comfortable.
"Fine. I'll start from when my fight with Pein ended." he sighed again. "I figured out where the real Pein was by tracking him through one of the chakra receivers on his body and went to where he was hiding after sending Katsuyu back to you, Tsunade." He nodded in her direction. "When I entered the hideout I found Pein and Konan waiting for me. We…talked. And I convinced him that though we both had the same ambitions-"
"Wait." Sakura interrupted. "Why did you just talk to him?! He destroyed most of the village!"
When Naruto answered, he was glaring at Sakura. She flinched back. "He was once a student of my teacher, Jiraiya. He wanted peace. Just the same as me and Ero-sennin. He just didn't realize that peace put into effect by a forceful domination would be worse than a war. He was the one who gave all of Konoha's ninja their lives back. At the price of his own."
Sakura sat back in her seat with a red face and tried to avoid Naruto's gaze. After a moment, his gaze left her to rest on their old sensei as the silver-haired man began to talk.
"If that's true then we owe him. He might have been the one to take most of the inhabitants of Konoha's lives' but he tried his best to rectify his mistake. I, for one, am glad to be back among the living." Kakashi said as he smiled under his mask.
"He wasn't even the person who led the attack on Konoha, though." Naruto continued with his story after nodding in agreement to Kakashi's words. "After Pein died and when Konan was about to leave, another person showed up. He was also a member of Akatsuki and he turned out to be the one that Pein and Konan actually used to answer to. You guys might recognize his name: Uchiha Madara."
The only people who looked surprised, once again, were Kakashi and Sakura. Sasuke's team had already been told about him, Konan had been there with him and, to Tsunade, Sasuke's words had only been confirmed.
"I was under the impression that Uchiha Madara was dead. I'm sure you're right about his identity, though. I assume he has a technique not unlike Orochimaru's?" Kakashi asked.
"That's what I'm guessing too." Naruto answered back. He waved his hand in the air in front of him as if he didn't care about what he was saying. "He said some useless stuff about him taking me wherever and taking Kyuubi and killing me. After that, I attacked him." He shrugged. Tsunade half-smiled at his nonchalance. "He was really strong. He threw me into a wall easily and, as far as I could tell, he wasn't even using chakra. Everything I threw at him he dodged easily and, sometime during the fight, Madara put a Five-Pronged seal on me. After about the fourth or fifth time of being thrown against a wall-" he interrupted himself and scowled at Konan. She put up her hands in a peace gesture.
"Hey, I couldn't soften the walls fast enough to gentle the landing. If I'd softened everywhere, then the place would have collapsed. I would've if I could've." The others in the room just looked at each other with raised eyebrows, seeing the former enemy explaining herself to Naruto. But it was also slightly amusing seeing the petulant look Naruto was giving her.
"Yeah, I know…" He sighed. "Well, after that, just when I thought he was about to knock me out, Sasuke showed up out of nowhere and blocked the hit. He removed the Five-Pronged seal and we fought Madara together. I jumped in with a huge Rasengan, but Madara avoided that somehow as well. He kicked me clear across the room."
He leaned forward and put his head in his hands, elbows on his knees, running them through his hair. "He was too strong even when Sasuke had his full power, plus the Mangekyou Sharingan! And Madara managed to goad Sasuke into fighting him one on one, but then he made a clone that tried to keep us out of the fight. I dodged around the clone while Konan kept it busy and I managed to catch the real Madara in the arm with one of my wind attacks." He confused the details of the events a little bit to hide the fact that he had used a new jutsu in the heat of battle. He knew neither Tsunade nor Kakashi would be glad to hear about it. Frankly he was surprised that Sasuke had even agreed to it in the first place, but that was neither here nor there.
"How did you catch him off guard, if he's as good as you say?" Kakashi asked.
"I'm not really sure, but I think… it was this." He wasn't exactly sure how to make his kekkei genkai appear at will, but on a hunch, Naruto raised his head recalling and recreating the feeling of his eyes burning; it didn't hurt, it only felt strange. Everyone in the room gasped, including Konan, because she'd been too occupied with the clone to pay any attention to Naruto at the time.
"A… Kekkei Genkai? I had no idea either of your family lines had a bloodline limit." Tsunade said in an amazed voice, though when she realized what she'd said, her eyes widened. She'd just mentioned something no one was supposed to know about. Naruto half-smiled, half-frowned.
"The Fourth, right? Don't worry; I can understand why you didn't tell me. You'll have to tell me the rest later, though." Everyone else looked at him in confusion, minus Kakashi, who seemed to know perfectly well what was being spoken of, but Naruto waved his hand at them in a motion that said he'd explain later.
"Anyways, I think that these eyes can negate the effects of other Kekkei Genkai or something, since Madara didn't seem to see me coming at all. He seemed to know that I would have it, though, and he started ranting about taking mine and Sasuke's eyes. He said that he wanted us to give them up willingly. We both told him, well, actually, only I did, to go to hell." Kakashi and Tsunade grinned, knowing that Naruto would do something like that.
"The only problem was that I'd used almost all of my chakra in that last attack on Madara and I couldn't actually do anything to back up my words." Naruto winced at remembering the feeling of uselessness. "He threw me against the wall, again, and he picked Sasuke up by the back of his neck. I was afraid he'd break Sasuke's neck so I didn't move. His clone brought Konan over to them and then dispelled itself and he told me that I should find him whenever I could use these eyes better. Then… he disappeared. He used a teleportation jutsu." Naruto closed his eyes then opened them again to reveal his sky blue eyes once again.
"After that, I picked Konan up and carried her until I collapsed. I used the last of my chakra to help you guys find me and… after that you know the rest. Kyuubi broke the second seal Madara had put on me-" He put up a hand when Tsunade opened her mouth to ask a question. "But I don't know when he did it, so don't ask. After that, you guys brought me here. That's it."
Tsunade looked over at Konan. "Anything to add?"
"No. He told it right." She shrugged. Naruto was thankful that she went along with his attempt at hiding his jutsu.
"Alright… Kakashi. Sakura. Team Hawk over there, Sasuke's team-" she gestured with her hand at the couch that held Sasuke's three teammates. "Have decided to wait in Konoha for reinforcements and until Naruto is ready to go. They will go after Sasuke when Naruto leaves. What I want to know is will you go with them?"
Both of them answered without a second thought. "Of course!"
"Good. I think we all need some rest. We'll discuss Naruto's plans tomorrow with Shikamaru and see what he thinks. He's going to be at least one of the ninja from Konoha who go with you after Sasuke. There are some pallets, futons, and blankets over there in the next room. You can lay them out and move the furniture around so you can all sleep here until we can arrange for a place for you to stay. I'm going out to help Shizune with some of the villagers- and, no, Sakura you cannot help, you've already used almost all your chakra up. Stay here and rest. I'll be back tomorrow with Shikamaru." She said as she started for the door.
"Thanks, Baa-chan."
"You're welcome, gaki. And, Naruto?" he looked up at her. "I'm glad you're okay." He smiled at her tiredly. "Now. Go to sleep." And she left. Kakashi and Sakura followed shortly, leaving everyone to their business. Everyone left in the room could see that no one else wanted to talk so they all quietly got out the pallets and blankets and fell asleep quickly. They all desperately wanted for all of this to be a dream, even though they all knew it wasn't possible.