A/N: Thank you deanine, Bobboky, cloystreng, Yumetaka Kourui and Salamander Hanzo! As usual it is much appreciated and so are the favorites and alerts :D
That's not quite it though I can see your points InARealPickle. The Hokage has been under a fair amount of stress even before Naruto arrived and began murking things up. With the trouble Naruto got himself into in addition to the unveiling of a secret group right under his very nose, the Sarutobi isn't feeling very generous toward anyone.
As well precautions were taken to ensure Yamato's loyalty to the Hokage and the like and all the info on Root that he knew was successfully extracted at the time he was interrogated.
Yamato's orders while acting under Danzo were meant to ensure Konoha's survival, but with the Hokage's direct commandment and the breaking of the seals employed against him(and all Root members) Yamato no longer has to obey Danzo and nor would he want to at this point.
He could try and hand Naruto over but the Hokage wouldn't place the jinchuriki in that danger again without good reason, and the boy himself will be on guard against any such actions repeating.
As the sun rose over Konoha a young boy stared up at the pale orange sky in a state of exhaustion.
The bark scattered across the area ran as far as a dozen feet away, and the soles of his shoes had cracked and melted long ago, inciting burns and blisters to the feet within.
And yet all that mattered to the small raven haired child was the awkward trail of indentation's starting at the base of the tree before him and trailing up to the top of it's branches. His chakra was long since spent to the final drop, his muscles from mid-chest to toes felt raw and torn, and his flesh around his ankles was caked in dried blood.
But he had done it.
He had succeeded, and the agony was a welcome side-effect for his accomplishment.
A soft rustling sound from behind followed by quick footsteps entered the area as Kakashi slid off the roll-up bed five meters back from the tree.
"... Well done," he stated quietly as he reviewed the extent of destruction to the boy's chakra coils through the Sharingan.
It'll be months before he can make up for this one task, the Jounin thought. It may be possible to proceed with the taijutsu exercises at a milder rate, but any excess strain could permanently damage what's left of his legs.
Hoisting the Uchiha heir into the air by the back of his shirt and ignoring the groan of protest, Kakashi carefully brought him over to the rumpled bed and laid him down on it.
"You succeeded in tree-walking at the cost of nearly six months of other training - three months at the very earliest," he stated.
Sasuke made a noise of protest.
"Quiet, your legs are so damaged they can't support your weight even with crutches, and the chakra paths running through them are all but torn open in several places - that more so than anything will take the longest to heal over."
Six months... I can't waste that kind of time...
"Arrgh!" his thoughts turned from desperation to an agonized groan of more pain as he tried to move one leg into an upright position, and felt like he had dipped it into a pit of boiling flame instead.
Kakashi scoffed above him.
"We're going to the hospital. I'll find something for you to work on in one week to keep your mind off of your legs, but I expect you to actually listen when I train you from now on, Uchiha. Hold on," Kakashi warned as he gripped the edges of the top and bottom of the bedroll and lifted it into the air so as to mostly keep Sasuke's body in a slight slope.
Another noise of pain and protest escaped the boy's lips instead of his agreement or disagreement toward the last subject, and then they were on their way.
A few minutes later, however and Maito Gai finished his first loop around Konoha in time to see the damage to the tree.
The unexpected sight made him do a double-take and slow in his jog.
"Hn!" he exclaimed. "What determined foe struck down such a host of loveliness into this state?" his eyes trailed over to the house of his eternal rival only a short distance away.
Gai shook his head with the decision to investigate properly very shortly.
"I do not know yet, but I shall uncover this truth or do another two hundred laps around Konoha... on my hands!" he swore with a determined glint in his eyes..
Naruto blinked his eyes open and stretched tiredly - or he would have, if his muscles were not still locked up.
The effect was fading with time, but nothing wanted to respond to his commands more than the occasional twitch.
He felt like screaming in frustration.
Thankfully, someone had forced his body into a relaxed state and he was currently laying down on a fold-out mattress a short distance behind the Hokage's desk. The pale morning light shining in through the windows came to a rest across his face, which happened to be what had awoken him.
Oh, great. Now I've got to deal with a face full of sunshine and no way to escape? he thought dismally. Uh-uh. No-way. I'm getting out of this stupid jutsu if I have to drag the Kyuubi's nine tails to the surface one at a time! he swore.
Unfortunately for him the fox seemed rather intent on denying him it's chakra.
A minutes' swearing didn't help his situation out, after straining to no avail.
At length he clenched his eyes shut and begin trying to relax again.
Gotta calm down... gotta calm down... Naruto chanted as his stomach rumbled pitifully up at him. Try and gather the energy around you... The effort was far harder than before his body decided to lock it self up.
Ten minutes passed before he could feel the swirl of natural power gathering around his form in slow spirals. It felt vaguely awkward from the usual manner of gathering, but sage chakra was sage chakra.
He gathered it into his form and focused intently on what he wanted. Around his eyes the usual red-orange tinge formed as the pupils shifted accordingly to a shade of yellow with the horizontal dash-marks.
A pain in the back of his mind nearly distracted him from completing the transformation into Sage Mode and it continued to grow with every second the passed.
Rrrgh... pushing through it he felt and heard a soft crack echo throughout his mind and the muscles around his arms collapsed from their taut state back to normal.
The rest of his body remained as it was, however.
"Ugh," grunting through the burn as he brought his arms up before him to perform the Shadow Clone technique, he sent two of them to gather up the Hokage before focusing on keeping his sage chakra up.
A minute and much startled noise and exclamations of surprise later and the Sandaime was standing over him in a night robe with the two duplicates at his back.
Naruto waved weakly at him before gesturing down at the rest of his stiff body.
"What happened?" Sarutobi asked him in concern.
A clone answered tiredly for him.
"He's in Sage Mode. The fox is in a snit and won't give up any chakra to counteract the jutsu like it did when we fought Danzo yesterday, and after it sealed up it's power he ran out of sage chakra and the jutsu won out in the end."
Sarutobi glanced between them. "Did you hear or see what Danzo- no, why am I asking?" turning back to Naruto the old Hokage leaned down and stared into his eyes.
"If you could focus on the events of yesterday I could more clearly define just what has happened to you," he stated.
Naruto matched his gaze after a hesitant moment, though unlike the last time as the ninjutsu was used, Sarutobi did not wheel away in discomfort.
He stood up straighter and dug into his robe for a pipe. "It has been a very long time since I last saw Shimura Danzo in combat. Though it startles me to see he possessed a Sharingan, I have seen the technique he utilized against you before," he said in a considering tone.
His clones did not have the patience to wait around.
"Well? What is it?" one asked.
Sarutobi took a few steps away to light the pipe and slide down into his chair before answering.
"It belonged to a member of the Uchiha of course, of that much I am quite certain. This isn't one of their traditional genjutsu or the like, however, as I had previously suspected it to be. No, this is but a very rare Dojutsu unseen in Konoha since before the massacre," he explained.
"That Danzo can wield it explains all too much. I have little doubt what he was able to do to the council over the last year, if indeed it has been merely that little a time since he obtained it," the Sandaime stated with a low sigh, and his expression hardened after a moment.
"That he could compel a number of ANBU to betray their Hokage's trust and authority in the manner in which he did can also be attributed in part to the Dojutsu."
"I can not recall which Uchiha it was that bore this Dojutsu, but it would not matter if I did. What I do know is that it's effect's can be defeated." Sarutobi looked over at the real Naruto.
"Unfortunately it will take more than merely my skill to undo it- you must find the will to overcome the binding effects on your own, and once overthrown the grasp it has over your mind will be shattered."
"Stop it! Leave me alone!" a small red haired child's voice rang throughout the area he was in.
Tears ran down his face as he raised one arm defensively against the black armored shinobi wielding a katana a short distance away, and already droplets of blood splattered the edges of the blade and the sands around them from the thin slash marks running over the child's back.
The assassin grunted in annoyance and leaped into the air with his blade raised overhead.
Looking up at the gleaming metal descending at his head yet again the boy dove forward out of it's direct path and received another cut over his shoulders for it. One foot shot backwards and descended to press down on the boy's back with more than enough force to shove him down into the sand an inch.
Spitting out as much as he could and scrambling to get his feet and arms under him the child cried out in pain as his cuts were cruelly ground on, even as the shinobi turned around without lifting his foot away from them.
"And now you die!" Swinging the sword around and lifting it just over the back of the neck the shinobi thrust downward to finish him off.
The tip cut into his flesh before halting on what felt like a steel rod.
"What?"
Pillars of sand rose up and wrapped about the assassin's lower legs and simply squeezed, and after only moments a dull crack followed by a sound like mud being trudged through escaped the entrapment, sending a deluge of crimson through it.
The shinobi's screams carried on far louder than the boy's shouts had.
Held in place by what remained of his legs he could only watch though his pain as more sand spiraled through the air around his body in a loose manner, before steadily growing thicker.
His attempts to slash his way free were met with futility as more and more sand rose up into a flowing three hundred and sixty degree radius ring before suddenly shrinking in width, and rising up to form a perfect sphere just above the pillars holding his legs.
A soft rush of air followed as it wrapped tightly around the body and sword and squeezed.
The assassins final agonized shout was terminated mid-way through as he was reduced to a fountain of blood with the same squelching noise accompanied by a terrible screech of rending metal.
The now-red sand descended to the floor again with a piece of awkwardly shaped metal the size of a crumpled kunai rolling free of it. Moments later a panting Gaara pushed up from beneath it with eyes streaked through with further tears at the sight of the red sand all around him.
Didn't mean to.. I didn't mean to.. I didn't mean to..! he thought desperately, mouthing the words over and over again as his eye's roamed from the sand to the few villagers nearby and back again.
A short distance away a peasant observed the encounter and mentally went over everything that he had just observed seen to report it back to his master.
Sasuke fidgeted in bed the entire time the doctor reviewed him.
Kakashi stood near by with his Sharingan active and described what he could of the damage - he could only see the path and how it flowed, and not the individual junctions as a Hyuga could.
"I concur with your original estimate of at least three months as a very positive earliest. The muscles and ligaments are torn so badly right now that even swinging the legs from side to side would probably tear apart what's left. He'll need to have regular chakra injections for the first month alone to compensate for what he lost last night into this morning in order for his body to begin repairing the damage," the doctor told Kakashi in a low voice.
The Jounin grimaced beneath his mask.
"Is there anything that can help him speed up the recovery process?" he questioned in the same tone.
The doctor shook his head and looked back through the notes he had made so far to confirm it.
"No. It'll be a small miracle for him to be running again in six months without suffering from deterioration in the process. Right now he needs proper rest for the progress to begin," the doctor responded.
Facing Sasuke he said aloud, "It will be a long road to recovery, young man, but I fully expect you will succeed in the long run."
His intention to infuse the boy with hope went unnoticed.
With a sigh he turned back to Kakashi and handed him a sheet of paper regarding when the injections would be expected and the side-affects generally associated with them before walking out.
Sasuke looked at him. "I heard all of that," the child stated in a tone dulled by the pain medication. "'A small miracle...'" he quoted and trailed off, losing himself to thought.
"Ignore that. You're the last of a powerful line, Sasuke. You'll make progress and than some to compensate for this set back." Kakashi told him seriously.
The boy didn't look as though he heard or cared.
"I'll see what I can do about finding something for training the rest of your body while you're in here."
Further silence met his words, and after a moment the Jounin exhaled softly and turned his attention to the sheet, then headed out of the room.
It wasn't until he was alone that Sasuke spoke again. "Itachi would have found a way to heal in a month. I won't falter... I'll find a way to match that time frame at the least..."
Hours after it had begun the throbbing pain in the back of his mind faded away and with it so too did the restriction keeping his body locked up like it was.
It was as though every muscle decided to go flat at once the way his stiff posture relaxed into the bed roll.
Naruto opened his eyes and let out a triumphant snarl, his slightly enlarged incisors bared in a smug grin. "Take that you stupid fox! I didn't need your help after all!" he turned to his two clones and they gave him a thumbs up before dispelling.
Sitting up almost put him back down the way his body protested, but he pushed through it and rose unsteadily to his feet.
The Hokage wasn't in the room and his memories from the clones told him that the old man had gone to get ready for official duties or some such elsewhere in the tower.
His joy slipped a little at that and he gave a start as Yamato walked in from outside.
"..." without a word he gave a small nod of the head and drew out a small wooden sheet from within his jacket - on it words were etched and the former ANBU and ROOT member passed it off to the boy.
"Huh?" looking down at the message with one eye and keeping the other warily glanced in the older nin's way, he frowned.
It read, 'This will be our primary way of speaking. My voice is gone and won't be returning, and hand-signs are just too much trouble. Unless my chakra runs low we should be able to get points across fairly easily and often.'
A short distance beneath that and as though it was added as a last minute thought, 'On another note, you have my apologies for the events of yesterday. I may not be the same man you once knew but I hope we can establish a proper friendship in due time.'
Naruto looked up from it and tilted his head to the side in imitation of the way Yamato had looked at him with the mask on before.
"... You don't plan on locking me in a cage and dragging me off to Akatsuki next, do you?" he asked mildly.
Yamato frowned and performed a series of hand seals before a piece of wood grew out of his hand and expanded into a long sheet of wood.
A few beads of sweat dripped off his forehead as he wrote out his response before handing it to the boy with a blank look on his face.
Naruto glanced through it.
'Considering that you are a vital member of Konohagakure and liable to save our collective rectums a handful of times in the events to come, as well as the fact that I am no longer bound to honor or obey the orders of Shimura Danzo, you have no need to question my intentions.'
Going further it continued, 'And that aside, you weigh far too much to tote around like a piece of luggage, and I don't even know where the Akatsuki base is if the urge ever arose, though in the years to come I may consider seeking it out if the rest of our days together have such charming conversations and encounters as it's expected to.'
When Naruto looked up at the older shinobi with a sharp frown a smirk was etched onto Yamato's face.
"Alright, wiseguy. Apology accepted." Naruto stated.
Yamato began to smile until Naruto smirked in his own way and added, "But only if you buy me a few rounds of ramen!"
End Chapter Six.