Chapter Twenty-

Naruto sighed. Why was this taking so long? Why couldn't the bastard understand?

"It's not that hard," he complained, "C'mon, if we just tell them what happened, I'm sure they'll understand!"

Sasuke gave him a look.

"Don't look at me like that, you asshole!"

"How many times do we have to go over this?!" Sasuke asked, looking frustrated, "Telling them is just going to make it worse! We'll probably get into trouble too!"

Naruto scowled at him, "I'm not just going to sit here and let her get killed," he said angrily, "Or worse, get sent back to the Rain!"

"I didn't say we're not going to do anything, but we have to have a better plan than that!"

"My plan's plenty good! You're just mad because you didn't think of it yourself!"

Sasuke scoffed and shook his head in an annoying way that made Naruto want to smack him.

They had been sitting in Sasuke's room in the hospital for almost three hours, discussing what they were going to do about Sasumi. Between the two of them they had little information concerning where Sasumi was or what had happened to her, making it hard to come up with a solution.

"Well, what else are we supposed to do?" Naruto asked collapsing onto Sasuke's bed.

"I don't know! Why do you think we're still talking about this?"

Naruto groaned into Sasuke's pillow.

"And don't do that! It's disgusting!"

"Whatever you say, princess," Naruto muttered, but Sasuke heard him and they spent the next twenty minutes throwing pillows at each other.

"I'm still right!" Sasuke gasped, pushing Naruto weakly.

"You…wish!" Naruto wheezed back.

"Look, it'll just make things worse if we tell them we were in on it," Sasuke said, breathing hard and leaning against the headboard of his bed.

"In on what? It's not like we're trying to take over Konoha or something!"

"They won't see it that way. I told you, they think Sasumi is a spy."

Naruto gave a weak laugh, "That's retarded. They think she would spy for them after they tortured her?"

Sasuke shrugged uncomfortably, "It wasn't my idea. Besides, they're freaking out because the Rain's going to go crazy if they find out she's here.

Naruto paused and bit his lip, "Hey, Sasuke?"

"What?"

"Well, when I was with the old hag-"

"Who?"

"You know, the Hokage!"

"…why did you call her a 'hag?'"

"'Cause she's old, see!"

"No, I don't."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Ero-sennin said she was on the same team as he was, which means that she's his age, which means she's old!

"…'Ero-sennin?'"

"Never mind that!" Naruto said, frustrated, "The Hokage said that Sasumi…killed a lot of people and that…she's…she's a wanted criminal…"

Sasuke didn't say anything for a few seconds. Then…

"Well, she did say that she used her Kekkai Genkai to escape."

There was an awkward pause.

"Shit!" Sasuke suddenly said, sitting up straight, "Why didn't I think of it before?"

"Huh?"

"Shikamaru! He knows too, doesn't he! We have to talk to him too!"

Sasuke sat up and made a grab for his crutches. They were about to leave when a voice stopped them dead.

"First," Kakashi-sensei said, dropping down from his place on the ceiling, "You're going to talk to me."

"Ka-Ka-Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto stuttered, "Hey, it seems like forever since we last saw y…okay, I'll just shut up…"

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke asked angrily, looking pale.

Kakashi-sensei gave him a look that Naruto had never seen on his face before and never wanted to see again.

"Now."

Sasumi coughed, her lungs ablaze with pain as she struggled to breathe. Over the last few days she had developed a horrible cough that probably came from breathing the foul, damp air of the dungeon. It was getting worse and worse and she was starting to wonder how much longer she would remain alive. She shifted her handcuffs slowly and pressed her mouth to her knees and another coughing fit overcame her. The last few times it had happened it had been accompanied by the horrible smell and taste of blood.

She was too weak to move around anymore and she was not given any medicine to relieve the pain. She vaguely wondered if they had decided to let her die or if they were unaware that she was sick at all. It was true she didn't particularly want to die, but it looked like she no longer had any choice in the matter. Sasumi really wanted to see them all one more time; Naruto, Sasuke, Hanada-san, Shikamaru, Ino, and Kakashi, but it was probably just as well that see would never lay living eyes on them again. She had caused them all enough trouble. The thought of asking her guards for help never crossed her mind. Later, she would reflect that this was not the first time her pride almost killed her.

She heard the usual sound of huge metal doors opening and laid her head down on her knees, praying that she wouldn't have another coughing fit until they were gone.

"Oi, brat, wakeup!"

Sasumi didn't move.

"Oi! C'mon, we're supposed to take you out of here…gah, this isn't working…"

"Do you think she's dead?"

"Nah, she ate her breakfast, didn't she?"

"C'mon, let's just get this over with."

Footsteps. Coming closer. There is a hand on her arm (her good one thankfully) and she is pulled her to her feet. There was pain in her lungs and she couldn't stop herself from coughing. Harsh sounds echoed around her cell and the guards whacked her on the back a few times, as if she's got something stuck in her throat. At the end, there was a familiar coppery taste in her mouth and blood ran down her chin. She didn't have enough energy to stand and slumped to the floor.

"What the hell is this?"

"Damn, she's sick! Look at that blood!"

"Blood? Take a look at her arms, hell, legs too! Are those burn marks? I never noticed before 'cause it was so dark…"

"Shit, let's just bring her to the room, c'mon this is really creeping me out…"

"Are you sure, it looks like she's really sick…"

"The Godaime's in there, right? She's a great healer, isn't she? Let's just go…"

"Godaime!" Sasumi thought, "What's going on?"

There was the sound of metal clanking together and suddenly she realizes that the chains around her ankles have been removed. One of them made a grab at her other arm, but she pulled it away from them and limps along, every step weakening her a little bit more. The light hurt her eyes. The blindfold had not been removed, but she could see it through the cloth, and after countless days in the dark her eyes weren't used to it.

They walked a long time, what seems like forever. The stairs almost killed her, there were so many steps upward and she had a coughing attack and almost broke her neck. Finally, she heard the doors open in front of her, big doors, she could tell from the sound. Sasumi was walked to the center of the room. It was a large room; she could tell by the slight change in temperature and air consistency.

"You two wait outside," a male voice said. The voice is harsh and unfamiliar and for what seems like the millionth time Sasumi wondered where in Konoha she was. Or if she was even in Konoha. The hand on her arm pulled away suddenly and she was not prepared for it. Her knees gave way and she fell to the cold tile floor, shaking slightly.

"Sasumi!"

That voice! There was no mistaking it, it was Naruto! He was alive?! She turned her head towards the sound slightly.

"Silence!" the voice said coldly, "You, Modoka, stand up!"

Sasumi's entire body lurched when he says that name. The name that she cast away from her when she finally escaped that hell, the name she swore was not her own any longer.

"This is ridiculous, stand!"

"…can't," she said softly, surprised how dry and scratchy her voice sounds. Then, maybe because of the talking, her lungs burned again and she leaned over and coughed, the horrible sound echoing around the room. Blood filled her mouth and she choked it out onto the floor, slumping, totally exhausted. She heard yelling, probably Naruto, but her ears didn't seem to work properly and everything was beginning to sound the same. Then she felt a hand on her back and then another on her shoulder. She tensed immediately and her handcuffed hands twitched involuntarily, causing pain to travel up her bad arm.

"Oi, Sasumi, are you okay?!"

"Does it look like she's okay? Shit, we need a doctor…"

She gave another soft cough and blood dribbled out of her mouth. Everything was spinning suddenly and she found that she couldn't keep her balance and fell to the right.

A pair of hands caught her at the last second and she is pulled into a seated position. Another voice close to her was saying: "Dammit, this isn't good!"

More voices, people who she may know, but who they were she couldn't pinpoint at the moment.

"What the hell is this, Danzou? This is the second prisoner in a week that I've found to be mistreated! Do I need to instigate an inquiry?!" a woman yelled.

"She's choking up blood! Tsunade-sama!"

"Sasumi, c'mon, Sasumi!"

"What the hell are you doing? Get away from her this instant!"

"Get those handcuffs off now!"

"But, Tsunade-hime, she-"

"Now!"

"Sasumi!"

Sasumi felt a hand clasp both her wrists and a jingle of something metal. Then suddenly the handcuffs are gone.

"And the blindfold."

There was an uproar of argument from the left side of the room, but Sasumi can barely understand what they're saying.

"I said, and the blindfold! I can't judge a person if I can't see their eyes!"

The piece of cloth was wrenched from her face and she immediately snapped her eyes shut as light pierces her sensitive eyes. She kept her head parallel to the floor and opened her eyes a little more every second, trying to get used to the light.

"Sasumi?"

She looked up, her eyes mere slits, and saw a blob of orange and yellow. Definitely Naruto. She looked to her sides and saw what looked like Sasuke and…Shikamaru? She surveyed the room, but it was hardly worth it considering her bad eyesight. As far as she could tell it was white and big and there were about twenty-five people. She could see what looked like Kakashi, the Godaime Hokage, her assistant, and then a bunch of people on her left who she couldn't identify. The woman who was the new Hokage walked closer to her and put her hand on her chest. Sasumi hissed in anger, but then stopped when she realized that the woman was healing her. She closed her eyes and let the tension out of her body.

"Hey, is Sasumi going to be okay?" Naruto asked, his voice a whisper.

"Are you doubting me, brat?" the Hokage said.

It was a mark of the direness of the situation when Naruto doesn't complain about being called a brat.

"Are you okay?" the woman asked her and removed her hand.

Sasumi opened her eyes and looked into the Hokage's. The woman immediately broke eye contact with her.

"So," Sasumi thought, "They know the details of the Shi no Me. I wonder how she found out."

"Fine," she rasped out and pressed her good hand to the floor and pushed her self into a standing position.

"You will not break. You're going to stand tall and you're not going to show them any weakness."

She straightened her spine and ignored the stares at her arms, legs, neck, and the V-neck of the yukata she was wearing.

"You're not going to beg. It doesn't matter what they threaten you with. You have your pride and you're not going to let them take that away."

She turned her eerie green eyes towards the group of people to her left. One glance at them told her that they were the Council of Konoha and that they were all terrified of her. A man covered in bandages admonished Sasuke, Naruto and Shikamaru for interfering with the questioning and told them to go back to their seats. Naruto looked like he wanted to argue, but they all trudged back, shooting her worried glances. The Hokage also returned to her seat at the front of the room.

"They can do whatever they want to you, but you must not let them beat you. That was your mistake last time."

She was alone now, barely standing in the center of the white, big room, with every eye on her.

"You are Modoka Sazumi?" the Godaime Hokage said, her eyes fixed to an indiscriminate place above her head.

Sasumi almost flinched at the sound of her old name. Almost.

"Yes," she said calmly.

"You are charged with treason, duplicity, and 1st degree murder. How do you plead?"

"Guilty," Sasumi said evenly, "To all but the first count."

"You must not break again!"

Tsunade had seen many horrible things in her lifetime. She had seen her old teammate's human experiments, her younger brother's mangled body and her lover die before her own eyes. She had seen shinobi and civilians alike cut into pieces and an entire city that had succumbed to a horrible disease. However, even after all that, she didn't know exactly how to react after seeing a tortured child. Especially one like this one.

The girl who stood before her stood straight and there was no hint of submission in her eyes. There were burn marks, grotesque scars, needle indentations, chunks of flesh torn out, and blacked puncture wounds on every part of her body that Tsunade could see except for her face. She was also very thin and bony and her skin had a sickly pallor to it. One of the girl's arms went up to brush her oddly bright hair out of her eyes and Tsunade saw more scars and what looked like acid burns. Tsunade's hands began to shake and she gripped her thighs, willing herself to calm down.

"This is just another convict," she told herself, "Get a hold of yourself!"

"Why not guilty to treason?" she asked, cursing her weak tone, "We have every reason to believe you're a spy from the Rain."

What were those reasons again? Tsunade couldn't remember.

The girl let out a derisive noise, "Are these not reason enough?" she asked, gesturing to her disfigured body.

Tsunade felt sick.

"For the past three years," the girl said, her voice still rough "Konoha had been my home. I cannot think of any plausible reason that I would betray my home to my former torturers."

It was how casually the girl said these things that scared her, not the words themselves.

"I can," Danzou cut in and Tsunade tensed, "I have seen even shinobi break under the pressure of torture and turn against their home village."

Modoka looked intensely at him and suddenly Tsunade realized that Danzou had forgotten to avert his eyes and had walked straight into the trap of the girl's Kekkai Genkai.

"Well," said the girl after a few seconds, "You would have, wouldn't you?"

"Objection!" Danzou said angrily, flushed with anger "Tsunade-hime, this is absurd! The Modoka must be blindfolded, otherwise she will be able to do even more damage!"

"Are you saying," Tsunade said slowly, "that this allegation is true?"

Tsunade has never heard a silence so loud.

Shizune shifted uncomfortably next to her and without waiting for an answer, Tsunade speaks again:

"Mark my words, Danzou," Tsunade said steadily, though her hands are shaking, "I will look into this."

She turned her eyes back to Modoka whose expression had changed. She was now looking vaguely interested and Tsunade could not stop their eyes from meeting. They stared at each other for a few seconds before Tsunade looked away, her cheeks heating up in shame. Maybe it would have been better after all if the girl were still blindfolded. But the girl didn't say anything.

"You admit, that three years ago, you murdered approximately half of the Rain's ANBU," Tsunade said, regaining her confidence.

"Yes."

"You confess that you tricked your way into Konoha, using a false identity."

"Yes."

"You concede that you therefore lied to the officials of our Country."

"Yes."

"You acknowledge that you have been spying on Konoha for the past three years."

"No."

The word is spoken in just the same tone as the others and Modoka's facial expression does not change.

Tsunade had used up all her tricks and out of the corner of her eye she saw that Danzou was opening his mouth to speak.

"How did you do it?" she asked, before Danzou could utter a syllable.

For a fraction of a second, the girl looked confused. But then it was gone, replaced by a cold mask of indifference.

"Do what?" Modoka asked.

"Get inside the gates. We do have guards."

"It was a summer night," the redhead replied, "The guards were asleep."

"If you were not sent to spy on us," Tsunade asked, changing her track, "Then why are you here?"

Modoka looked at her strangely, but replied just the same, "This is a nice village, better than the others I have seen," she said baldly.

Some of the Council members shifted uneasily at this and Tsunade raised her eyebrows in surprise. It was not the kind of answer she expected.

"If you are not a spy," she said, choosing to ignore the strange reply, "Then why did you become a ninja?"

"It is a job," the S-Class nin replied, "And there is not much else that I excel at."

"Being a ninja?" Tsunade asked in surprise, remembering 'Yamaki Sasumi's' average marks from the academy and notes from mission files.

"No," the girl answered, "Killing."

For a second Tsunade looked into her eyes again and saw something strange. An element of remorse, maybe? No, that was not it. Those were not the eyes of someone who regretted what they had done. Tsunade had seen many of those. No, in her eyes, the Godaime Hokage saw self loathing and disgust. And that changed everything.

A odd mummer ran through the few spectators and Tsunade automatically sought out the figure of Uzumaki Naruto. He was staring intently at his teammate with an expression she had never seen on his face before. Was it…pity?

When Kakashi had dragged him, the Uchiha, and the Nara into her office claiming that they had more evidence about Modoka, Tsunade was…well, a bit hurt. It was stupid of her, she knew, but for some reason she had thought that maybe she had gained at least Naruto's trust if anyone's at all. The three of them were forced to tell her that they had known about 'Yamaki Sasumi's' true identity for months and that they had promised her that they wouldn't tell anyone. Naruto had told her that at least part of the Rain's story was true, that Modoka had indeed broken out from a prison in the Rain where they had tortured her because of her genetic ability. Tsunade had been slightly skeptical and had told herself that she would not make her decision before she actually saw the girl. But now, by the look on Naruto's face and the scars that covered Modoka Sazumi's body, Tsunade knew that she could not execute the girl as much as she could not execute Naruto.

"I must be getting soft," she thought.

"Homura, Koharu," she addressed the most senior Council members as she rose out of her chair, "I need to speak with you outside, now."

It was an order and they disapprovingly rise from their seats and follow her out into the hallway.

"What are you thinking?" Homura asked her seriously as soon as the doors closed.

"Do you honestly believe the girl is a spy?" she asked them, ignoring Homura's question.

She saw the reluctance in their eyes before they even answered.

"After seeing her…" Koharu trailed off.

"…it is rather doubtful," Homura finished.

"But what is to be done?" Koharu asked, "Tsunade you do know what will happen if the Rain finds out she's here. They've been looking for a weak spot for years and you know they will accuse us of knowingly harboring a criminal whether they truly believe that or not!"

Tsunade frowned, "You don't think they'll-"

"That's exactly what we're thinking," Homura said, "War!"

"That's ridiculous," Tsunade exclaimed, "The Rain isn't even a tenth of the size of the Fire Country! There's no way they'd declare war!"

"There have been strange rumors going around about that region for years," Koharu said seriously, "I'm not suggesting that they could defeat us, but the Rain have always been unstable and unpredictable. We have no idea how important this girl's ability could mean to them and their pride as a Country."

"We can't give her back," Tsunade said, horrified "That's out of the question."

They did not argue with her and Tsunade knew that the girl's scars had scared them as well.

"No," Homura said, "We cannot."

"Her ability could potentially be extremely useful," Tsunade ventured, "If the proper precautions are taken, we could use this to our advantage."

There was a pause.

"This is your decision then?" Koharu said softly.

Tsunade nodded.

"I hope you do not regret it," Homura said gravely and both of them turn to enter the room again.

"One more thing," Tsunade said, stopping them short, "Who came up with the idea that Modoka was a spy?"

Homura swallows, "Danzou."

A few minutes later

"The details of this trial are to be strictly confidential," Tsunade said, addressing the entire room "If any of you breathe a word about this to anyone there will be consequences." She looked at Danzou longer than any of the rest of them.

"Tsunade-hime, I must protest against this decision, it is much too rash and-"

"And that, Danzou," Tsunade said, her anger taking control, "is why I am the Hokage and you are not."

Fury took over his features for a second and then, in a blink of an eye, it was gone again. Tsunade turned her gaze away from him arrogantly.

"Yamaki," she said in a calmer tone, "You were never here. You were in the hospital for injuries obtained in your fight with Orochimaru, do I make myself clear?"

The red-haired girl nodded, the expression of confusion that had appeared on her face from the moment Tsunade announced that she would not be punished or handed back to the Rain had not disappeared.

"Thank you," she said politely, bowing her head.

"Alright," Tsunade said, "Dismissed."

The second the word left her mouth Naruto jumped out of his seat and hugged Modoka…to her obvious discomfort. The Nara and Uchiha follow, looking incredibly relieved. Kakashi looked just about as confused as Modoka, but did not say anything. Tsunade waited until the room was cleared of people and then she and Shizune packed up and left.

"As one problem is solved," Tsunade thought, "Another surfaces."

And she had a feeling that this one would be her hardest yet.

A/N: Woah, chapter twenty! This fic is getting so long…Anyway, yeah this chapter just about rounds up this part and the real question is, is the Council good or bad? They keep switching on me! Though, don't worry, Danzou's always going to be evil! XD

And can you believe it? It's been about a year and two months since this fic was started! It's seems so weird!

Anyway, please review and thanks to my awesome beta! Happy Holidays!