Author Note: And Finally this long tale draws to a close. I may do an epilogue if you see any loose ends needing to be tied off but overall I am pleased with how this tale turned out and hoped that you have all enjoyed it as much as I have. It's always fun to write a story where the characters take on a life of their own and you think you know what they're gonna do but then they go and do something else instead. Fun times.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto because if I did do you really think there would be a girl with PINK hair in the story. I mean come on. Pink hair is for old ladies not young girls. If I owned Naruto she'd at least know the benefits of a good henna wash.

Chapter Twenty

After the Storm is Over

Tsunade woke to a pounding on her door and growled a refusal to the person on the other side as she pulled the pillow over her head to block the stubborn sun that refused to go away. Jiraiya came in anyway and laughing, he pulled away her pillow and said, "Time to rise and shine Princess."

"Too early," mumbled Tsunade.

"Early? You got to be kidding me. It's three in the afternoon."

"Go way Jiraiya."

"Ok." He tossed her pillow back. "I guess you don't care if the council takes away your title. They plan on sending Naruto off into the Iwa village to look for some missing nin but hey that shouldn't bother you at all." He casually sauntered to the door but before he managed to take more than two steps Tsunade sat up in her bed and threw her pillow at his head.

"The HELL they will," she screamed.

Shizune came running into the room. "Hokage-sama, what is it? What's happened?"

Jiraiya was laughing and pointing at her. "Got you. It really is time you got up though. It's really only about eight in the morning."

He left the room at a run since Tsunade was chasing him. He knew just how wickedly strong she really was and just how much she disliked waking up no matter what time of the day it was. But this was strangely enough reminiscent of their genin days when he'd often been the one sent to bring her to the training grounds. He'd say something outrageous and she'd bolt awake, get mad and chase him around while getting dressed as she went. She was the only person he'd ever met who could do that. How do you go from wearing a nightgown to being fully dressed while running full tilt intent on catching and beating the crap out of someone? Someday when he actually had time to stop he was gonna ask her how she did it but for now running was a VERY good idea. But what really got his goat was he was so busy running he never even got a peek. He was the master pervert and he couldn't catch a glimpse of a woman who was changing her clothes as she chased him around a room. That was just way too sad and if it ever got out he'd be a laughing stock. But that was life and he wouldn't change Tsunade-hime for anything. Finally she wound down in the kitchen where Shizune had set out her morning tea with dango on a stick. Jiraiya sat across from her as Shizune brought him a cup and poured his tea. She placed a small plate of dango before him and then got her own. The three ate in companionable silence.

Tsunade closed her eyes savoring the taste of the dango. Jiraiya just stared. Damn the woman, he thought as she licked the sticky off her fingers, one by one. Jiraiya was mesmerized. A slight flush rose in his face as his eyes met hers. Her now clean finger was rocking back and forth in a "naughty, naughty" gesture. He just smiled and said, "Well, I'll see if I can find Naruto today and send him to your office. See you both later." He rose to his feet and left the house.

"How long are you going to keep that up? You know you have his full attention," Shizune asked once they were sure he'd moved off. She was washing their breakfast things at the sink and didn't even glance at her friend and employer.

"I don't know what you're talking about, Shi. Keep what up?"

Shizune just continued to wash and dry the dishes as Tsunade eventually left the room to gather her things together for the office. Half an hour later and the two women were on their way to the hospital where both would make their rounds before heading to the tower to spend several fruitless hours with a never-ending mountain of paperwork that just never seemed to go away.

While Jiraiya went on a find Naruto mission, Watari was waking up and getting the twins settled for the day. There was no school since the teachers were likely to be hung over from the celebration yesterday so she would have to spend at least part of the day with them. But maybe she could take them with her when she went to check in with Tsu. Kashi would have to take care of them while she had her meetings with his team but they could be there at the field with him if he still felt the need to mother hen them both. She told the girls to get ready to go out and bring something to do because they wouldn't likely be back until the day's end. They raced off to their room to get dressed and she wondered where Naruto had slept last night. Kashi had made sure to walk them by the complex he lived at on their way home after the contest and even in the darkness she could tell the place wasn't habitable right now.

Meanwhile Naruto and Sasuke were on the Uchiha training ground working out and sparring. They'd woken at their normal time and fallen into their workout clothes with relief. Later Sasuke would go shopping with Naruto's ryu for new clothes for him. He knew his taste well enough that he and Iruka should be able to get him some new stuff without too much trouble but Naruto had come to a decision and for the first time in his life he was breaking his word.

"Sasuke, when you go shopping today, get me something loud and obnoxious that is too big so it'll be baggy. It's time to let the fool come back. These people aren't ready and we both know they never will be. I'm not going to spend the rest of my life afraid to go to sleep or eat anything I didn't prepare myself."

"It's only a few more days, Naruto. You can last that long."

"It isn't though. The longer the real Naruto is on public display the longer he'll stick in peoples minds and the longer I remain a threat to them. If I let the fool come back they'll think the show last night was a culmination of the week's acting and the real Naruto will slip away unnoticed. Those that do remember him will think they got another prank pulled on them but they won't admit to anyone they fell for the act and I'll be safe from outright attacks. So will you and everyone else who knows the real me."

"And that's what it's really all about isn't it," asked Kakashi from his position at the edge of the field.

"How am I supposed to be able to just stand by and watch these idiots hurt Iruka or Hinata or Sasuke. They want to beat on me that's fine. I can take it. They've been doing it all my life and I've got the Fox to fix the damage. But Hinata has enough to deal with in her father. She doesn't need the villagers crap too. And Iruka is the teacher to their kids How miserable could they make his life once they figure out he's known all along? No, to be fair I have to go back to the fool. To keep my precious people safe."

"I thought that's how you'd see things. You know you won the contest last night in spite of who the judges were. Tsunade-sama has your reward."

"Yeah like it'd do me any good to take it from her. Stupid villagers would just break in and snatch it back. She can keep it. Then the next time she decides to do something this stupid I can point to it and maybe she'll rethink it."

"Well, I think you should go see her today. I think you might be surprised by what she has to say."

"Sensei, if you were me is there really anything she could say that would make it alright again? Is there anything she could say that would make the events of the last week not have happened?" Naruto stood still in the center of the practice field staring at his teacher. He really hoped Kakashi would say yes but he couldn't imagine anything she could say making any big difference.

Kakashi closed his one visible eye, knowing he was about to tell the biggest lie of his life but also knowing it was the right thing to do. Then he looked Naruto straight in the face and said, "Yes. She could say she was sorry and mean it." For him, he knew that it wouldn't have been enough but he wasn't Naruto and maybe for him it would be. All he really knew was that Tsunade-sama missed Naruto almost as much as the blond missed her and the situation had to be fixed between them.

Naruto nodded saying nothing and walked back to the house. He showered and changed into the clothes he'd worn last night and then left the estate alone for the walk to the Hokage's office. He wondered if she would apologize. And he wondered if it would really be enough. He just didn't know. He took the back roads and encountered no one but that didn't mean his presence went unnoticed.

Several villagers saw him passing by on the rooftops of their neighbors home. They called their friends who called their friends who called still more people and before long the whole village was gathered together on the open ground before the Hokage's tower. Tsunade and Shizune walked out of the hospital to see the mass of people and wondered just what was going on. They pushed their way through the crowd to find the stage manager of the show the previous night rigging a small stage and his sound equipment.

"What are you doing?" Tsunade asked.

"They want to hear the award winning song from last night," he said gesturing to the crowd. "Not everyone heard it, but those who did were talking about it, saying how it was the best piece they'd ever heard and how wonderful Naruto's voice is so now they all want to hear it."

"So you set up an impromptu performance without permission? Do you even know if Naruto is willing to sing for them again?"

One of the council members stepped up and said, "He'll sing or we'll know he cheated and take back that award. Everyone knows Demons can't really sing so I already know he cheated. Since this is an impromptu performance he won't have time to get his accomplice to back him up and no curtains for a backdrop means nowhere for anyone who's really doing the singing to hide. We'll know who really won that award if he tries to sing that beautiful melody."

Tsunade had known the council members were vicious where Naruto was concerned so their pettiness over this shouldn't have surprised her but it did. She watched as the council member walked off with his head in the air. Next to her the stagehand said, "I know it was really him singing last night. And the young man has a beautiful voice. If he ever gets fed up with this place and the life of a ninja you send him my way and I'll see to it he has a new career." He handed Tsunade a small piece of parchment with a name, location and number on it. Then he went back to work setting up his equipment.

Ten minutes later Naruto came out of her tower where he'd been waiting for her. She saw at once the flaw in the councils brilliant plan. Naruto didn't have his guitar. He couldn't repeat last night's performance without it but then she saw Sasuke show up with Kakashi and Iruka and knew someone had gotten wind of the debacle and came to head it off. She watched as the council members cornered Naruto as Kakashi and his group came up behind them. She headed across the stage to where he was being coerced into singing for the whole damn village. Her eye began twinkling as she changed direction. She went to the microphone and told the manager to make it live. He nodded and flipped a switch.

"Hello people. I understand you came to hear the song that won at the festival last night." The gathering thundered with applause. "Well, seeing as how the performer that won that award wasn't asked if he wanted to do this and I know he hadn't planned on it, as singing isn't his first line of work, I have a deal to offer first. Naruto get up here, please. Wata, where are you? Come to the stage. And finally I will have my council members who thought they could trick him out of his award come forward. I know who you are, Councilmen, so don't be shy now. If you aren't too shy to plot behind my back don't be cowardly now. Get up here on your honor." She couldn't help but leak a little of her anger out.

Sasuke handed Naruto his guitar and whispered, "Trust her. She'll do what's right by you."

Naruto said nothing but he walked towards Tsunade with his head held high and looking her straight in the eye. She understood the look to mean you have one more chance. Don't blow it.

The council members were a little slower in getting to the stage than Watarimono was but eventually they were all there. The three councilmen who'd judged the contest the night before understood politics but they didn't know why they'd been brought onto the stage now. They weren't the charlatans who'd fraudulently won an award that they shouldn't have for a song they never should have sang claiming a relationship they never had.

Once she had her game pieces on the stage Tsunade began playing the game she was better at than any of them realized. The game of manipulation. "Ok. Since Naruto was never asked if he wanted to sing for you people I'll ask him now." She turned to face him. "Naruto, keeping in mind that you are still bound by your given word, do you wish to sing for this crowd of your fellow villagers today?" She turned the mic to him as he thought about what she was asking of him. "I don't know. What do I get out of it? All they've ever given me is a hard time, bruises and broken bones, high prices and broken or shoddy made goods no one else will buy and a burnt out home. Would you sing for them when you have no place to live any more because of them?"

Tsunade turned the mic back to herself and said, "Well, Wata, would you?" She turned the mic in her direction. Watarimono shook her head. On the stage Tsunade said, "speak into the microphone Wata. The people at the back of this crowd can't hear or see your head move. Besides we got him into this. We need to get him out."

Watarimono leaned into the mic and said, "No, I wouldn't. I was walking around the village and listening to what you all were saying when you thought no one on his side was listening. I wouldn't do a damn thing you wanted me to. Most of you are here because you want to discover who really wrote and sang that song. You believe the song but you don't believe the singer. How sad."

The audience shuffled their feet and grumbled but they couldn't deny what they heard. That was why most of them had come. They did want to see the boy exposed as a fraud.

Tsunade said , "So, Councilmen. How bout it? What does Naruto get if he sings again and there is no doubt it was his voice last night?" The three councilmen stood there for a moment. "He'll get to keep his award if he can honestly prove it was actually him singing and he tells us who wrote that song."

"Not good enough. He already won the award fair and square. His performance brought the house down and I looked over the rules very thoroughly. Even if, and I'm not saying he did, but even if he had gotten someone else to sing for him there was nothing in the rules that said he couldn't. All that was required was that he had a musical act to perform. So what else will you offer other than an award that's already his?"

The audience snickered while they waited. Finally Hiashi stepped forward raising his hand to be acknowledged. Tsunade motioned for him to step forward and knelt down to hear what he had to say. He took the microphone from her and hopped up on the stage. He said, "I purpose that since they have nothing to offer young Naruto to induce him to sing for us again, that if he does prove that it was indeed his voice, His True Voice that we all heard last night, that these three councilmen will resign their seats on the council effective immediately." Hiashi handed the microphone over to Tsunade and went to have a quiet word with Naruto. "Use your real voice and do what you must. Getting them off the council is truly in your best interest both now and in the future. Besides my daughters are listening. Give Hanabi a reason to believe in her big sister." He turned and addressed the council. "I'd advise you to accept the terms. If he accepts and fails the test then you win and he gets branded as a fake and a fraud but if he accepts and he wins then you resign and leave your seats for younger men to fill."

Tsunade stepped back by Naruto and Watari and said, "The contract between us ends today. I don't care whether Naruto wears a mask anymore so long as he's safe. Safe to walk alone on a street or go out to eat or answer his own front door. If wearing a mask lets you do that Gaki than put it back on but win this showdown first." Watarimono nodded but they could both tell she wasn't pleased.

The councilmen were still arguing with Hiashi over the wisdom of the terms he wanted them to accept and the crowd started chanting. Accept. Accept the deal. Accept. Accept the deal. Accept.

Finally Naruto picked up the microphone. The crowd quieted down. He looked thoughtful for a minute before he said, "You know there are very few of you that I owe anything to. Very few of you have ever had a nice word for me or tried to help me in any way shape or form. In fact, most of you will still try to hurt me in any way you possibly can that won't get you thrown in jail. But if those councilmen accept their part of the deal then I will sing for you but I will not sing "Yondaime". That song is personal and it's between me and him." He pointed to the face on the cliffside. "I'll sing something new and incomplete." He stepped back from the microphone and waited. And he wasn't the only one waiting. Every villager in the town was waiting to see what they would say.

Finally they nodded and Hiashi stuck the microphone where it would pick up all their voices at the same time. "You were loud enough when you were declaring him a fraud, when you pushed in chambers to have him executed for the crime of being alive, when you wanted him held back in the academy lest he get too strong, when you wanted him held back from promotions and assignments that might bring recognition, when you wanted to send him on suicide missions. Be loud enough now to voice your acceptance of your own risk. Or are you really that cowardly?"

Hotaru spoke up, "Hiashi, you speak out of turn. Chamber matters stay in chambers."

Hiashi merely nodded and said, "You're correct but I'm not the one who spilled those chamber secrets am I? You've never been shy with your supporters about your efforts to destroy him so why be shy now?"

Koharu and Homura both spoke as one. "I accept. It is time I retired anyway." This really left Hotaru at a standstill. Though he was younger than they were by five years he was one of the three elders on the council and ever since he'd been appointed to his chair the three of them had been in lockstep on their decisions. Reluctantly he stepped up to the mic and announced his acceptance. Koharu and Homura didn't seem to realize that the way they had worded their acceptance of the deal suggested they already knew he'd won fair and square as they stepped aside. Tsunade took the mic and said, "Well, since the terms have been accepted someone bring him a stool. He can't play standing up you know." This brought a chuckle from the crowd as someone passed a barstool forward. Tsunade placed the microphone back in it's holder and smiled at him, pride in her gaze. Even if she never regained his trust she was proud of him and she wanted him to know it.

"Well, at least there no spotlight blinding me today," he said. The audience chuckled as he propped his leg over the stool and positioned the guitar. He tuned the strings and the crowd quieted down. At first he was tempted to sing his old way but getting rid of those three was worth another assassination attempt so he didn't. He sang in his normal voice and played an upbeat tune that soon had the crowd clapping along to the beat. The song he chose to sing was one he'd started writing after the mission to Wave when he'd met, fought and helped to kill Haku. But he wasn't yet satisfied with it so although it seemed complete to him it wasn't. He'd called it A Reason to Live because for him that's what it was. It was a song he was working on that revolved around the question Haku had asked him. "Do you have someone precious to you that you fight for?"

When the song ended he launched into an old-time favorite that he'd heard many times around the village and had even done Karoke to a couple of times. The audience loved it and there was no doubt in anyone's mind that this was the real Naruto's voice and the villagers loved it. A few muttered but they were quickly shushed by those who were enjoying what they were hearing. When he finished that song, someone shouted out the name of another and then another until an hour and a half had passed. He was sweating buckets and they were still calling out song titles. His hair was plastered to his head looking more like beaten gold than bright sunshine and his black t-shirt clung to every muscle outlining his firm six-pack. Finally Hiashi and Tsunade both stepped forward. Tsunade grabbed the mic while Hiashi took his guitar in one hand while placing his other on Naruto's shoulder to keep him still.

"That's enough folks. Even professionals get to take a break every once in awhile. But I think that it is perfectly clear that the contest winner last night really was Naruto. What do you say?" She held the mic out towards the crowd. Even his enemies couldn't claim he didn't and the three elders had their cloak of office removed from their hands as they stepped from the stage. Never again would they be involved in a decision effecting anyone living in the Hidden Village of the Leaves.

At the edges of the crowd Jiraiya, Kakashi, Shizune, Ino and Sasuke smiled in relief. Everything would work out. It would take time but now the village had found a way to forget about the demon inside Naruto. They could begin to heal and he could be free to be himself.

At the garbage dump Sakura continued to pick through the mess of garden worthy compost. At first she'd tried touching it as little as possible but had quickly realized that way would take forever. Everything that even remote resembled paper she dried as best she could with chakra but so far all she'd found was decomposing food waste. It was gross and she couldn't help but think that this was a task better suited to someone of Naruto's station than hers. Once more she cursed her luck in ever having been placed on a team with him.

Author Note: I did think about having Sakura finally realize the error of her ways but with the way everything tied together in this chapter I really think it was too soon for her to understand. She has months if not years of ego to overcome and that'll take months if not years to set right. Not days. All total, time passage in this story is less than one month and if you know anything about young people you know it would be unrealistic for her to get the message this fast. But now that the Tale of Watarimono is done I hope everyone enjoyed the story and soon I'll be back with another story for you all to enjoy. The True Sword Master is about halfway done and I plan on posting it only when it is finished. Thanks for reading and see you next time. The Mother Rose