Hi everyone. Here's the next chapter of Redemption. I hope you all enjoy it. Thanks to everyone who reviewed and added me to their faves and alert lists. I really appreciate it. Next chapter will be the last one for this fic.

I'm sorry that it's taken me ages to update but life has been rather hectic for me lately, so I haven't been jumping at my laptop for a while. I've been rather busy helping my poor Mom to clean up the entire house. I'm not sure when I'll be updating next, but I try to make it a habit to update at least once or twice a month. You see my Mom is having surgery and she won't be allowed to move around a lot afterwards, so I will be (unfortunately as it were) taking over the household until she's up and about. I apologise to all of you that have to wait for my updates, and I'm sorry for the inconvenience. Thanks for your patience everyone.

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Redemption.

Chapter Nineteen – Worth.

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Before Sakura could land the punch, her wrist was grasped gently. Everyone looked at Tsunade. "You shouldn't have to do this Sakura. Killing him out of revenge won't help anyone." Tsunade said softly. Sakura was shaking, tears crept down her cheeks. That was when something strange happened. Orochimaru started convulsing on the ground. His eyes rolled back in to his head, and he started screaming in agony. Everyone looked wide eyed at the sight, as finally, Orochimaru fell limp, and his last breath rattled from his body. The group turned to Kushina, but she appeared as shocked as they did, as she sat by the side of her father. Then a small figure came from out of the shadows, and the group stared at the girl in shock. It was Hinata Uzumaki, her Byakugan blazed a blood red like her sister's.

"I don't know what happened." Hinata said softly. Kushina beckoned Hinata over to them, and the girl ran over. Sakura and Tsunade, as well as the rest of the group, ran to the side of their fallen Hokage. Naruto was coughing, trying not to think of the sword that was lodged in his chest. "You need to pull it out." Naruto whispered to Sakura and Tsunade. They did as he asked. After all, how could Kyubi heal Naruto around a sword?

Sasuke came forward and picked up the heavily bleeding, but healing, Naruto. Then he looked at the group. "I know this is hard. But we all need to keep on fighting. I'll take Naruto to the hospital. Tsunade-Sama, Sakura, come with me. You're both Medic-Nins. Apart from that, we need to drive out Sound. We can't wait to get rid of them." Sasuke stated. Kushina and Hinata were about to protest when Naruto spoke up. His voice was weak. "He's right. All of you get going. I'll be fine. If I'm not I'll get Sakura-Chan to come and get you." Naruto said softly. The others didn't like it, but Naruto was their Hokage, and his word was law, so they did as he asked.

xXxXxXx TWO DAYS LATER xXxXxXx

Soon the Sound invasion was pushed back. The injured and the dead had been moved to the hospital, or the morgue. Sound prisoners had been moved to the interrogation squad's own prison cells. At this moment, Naruto Uzumaki, lay in a hospital bed. He was weakened greatly and was not conscious, despite Tsunade and Sakura's best efforts. Sakura sat on one side of his bed. Minato and Chiyo were sat on her lap. Kasumi, little Sasuke, and Hinata stood by her side. Sasuke sat on the windowsill, waiting for his best friend to awaken. Itachi, Hikari and little Naruto, stood on the other side of the bed. Kushina sat in the chair on the other side of her father's bed. She was willing him to wake up. Kimi was sleeping on Kushina's lap.

Tsunade was always in and out of the hospital room. Kakashi, Nawaki, Mayumi, Dan and Sakumo also visited on a regular basis. While Naruto was in such a bad way, Tsunade had retaken up her position as Fifth Hokage until Naruto became well again. The council didn't seem to think that would happen, and were urging Tsunade to make the call, to remove Naruto from his position as Hokage, and to elect another. Tsunade had refused. Her anger had frightened the council and no more was said on the subject.

Now as the occupants of the room watched, Naruto Uzumaki fluttered his eyelids. Then his eyes opened fully. Sakura sighed with relief. Kushina grabbed hold of her father's hand and squeezed. Naruto gave a soft smile as he looked at everyone around the room. "You'd think somebody died. I'm fine." Naruto said bluntly.

xXxXxXx ONE WEEK LATER xXxXxXx

Kushina and Itachi looked out over the village. People were rebuilding, and a lot of the village had been left in ruins. But as soon as Naruto had awoken and got back on his feet, he'd used shadow clones to go round and help the worst affected areas of the village. He was also back in his position as Hokage, and Tsunade was free to carry on at the hospital. Things seemed to be going well.

Itachi looked at Kushina and grinned. "So what do we do now?" Itachi asked. Kushina looked at Itachi. "We live?" Kushina replied softly. Itachi couldn't help but grin even wider. He was used to Kushina's strange but straight forward nature. "Of course we live." The pair looked at Saiyuri who had just arrived. "We were lucky. None of us lost someone precious." Kushina added. Itachi nodded. "Yeah everyone was fine. We still need to train more. Get stronger." Itachi stated. His two female teammates nodded their agreement. Protecting their village was everything to them now.

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Hinata was sat in the Hokage's office, looking at her father. "Dad?" Hinata asked gently. Naruto looked at Hinata. "What's wrong Hinata?" Naruto asked. "Do you think that what I did to Orochimaru was wrong?" Hinata asked. "No Hinata. I think that Orochimaru deserved everything he got. I know you didn't have control of the Blood Byakugan then. Don't blame yourself. Just make sure you train to control it." Naruto replied. Hinata couldn't help hugging her father then. "Thanks Dad." Hinata whispered. "For what?" Naruto asked. "For not thinking I'm a monster." Hinata replied. "I could never think that." Naruto quipped. Hinata grinned.

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At sunset, Naruto was on top of the Hokage monument looking over the village. Sasuke was stood next to him. "So when you came back, did you think all of this would happen?" Naruto asked. Sasuke smirked. "No. To be honest I thought I was going to die. I never thought I'd see my first grandchild. In fact I didn't think I'd make it to see my son become a true Shinobi. All I wanted was to make sure that my children were safe and to redeem myself to you, Sakura and Kakashi. All of this was an added bonus." Sasuke replied. "All of it?" Naruto asked cheekily. Both men laughed.

"So do you think I redeemed myself?" Sasuke asked his oldest friend. "I think you more than redeemed yourself Sasuke. But was it all worth it?" Naruto asked. Sasuke gave Naruto a true smile. "Yeah. It was worth it. Every minute of it." Sasuke replied.

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Okay that's the end of this chapter. I hope you all liked it. Next chapter will be the last one. Please R&R and let me know what you thought. See you all next time I update people.