Kakashi decided to stand during the meeting once it got under way. Not exactly the smartest move for someone in a weakened condition but he wanted desperately to see Naru. As it was he doubted that he'd recognise her once she walked in.
So when Jiriaya walked in an hour later with a hooded figure that sort of reminded him of Shino, then he was right. He hadn't recognised her. At least not right away. But the second she took the floor next to the old Sage and lowered her hood, well he sort of recognised her.
He saw only the briefest glimpse of soft tan skin, the curve of a jaw through platmium blond/reddish pink hair that hung in the person's face and down the person's back. Stopping just shy of the middle of the person's back.
He could see soft pink lips, a small nose, and could just barely make out the eyes. Wide, exotically shaped- But they weren't blue. Or rather they weren't Naru's. The eyes of the person standing next to Jiriaya in the black pants and hooded jacket had no weapons on them that could be seen. No pouches or holsters. The hands were stuffed in the jacket pockets and the person's head was bowed.
If it hadn't been for Tsunade's reaction to the person Kakashi wouldn't have even known that the person that he was staring at was Naru.
But the person standing just next to Jiriaya, looking down at her feet and appearing anxious and scared, was Naru. His Naru. God she'd gotten so big! He saw Sakura out of the corner of his eye doing this weird thing with her hand as if she were trying to figure out just how much Naru had grown, it was either that or she was mentally calculating her size.
Kakashi figured that Naru had at least six inches over Sakura. Which would put her right about chin height on him. Amazing- He thought as a small smile curved his lips as Jiriaya started talking.
"Thank you everyone for coming here on such short notice. I know that many of you are anxious, and wondering why you're here. Where Naru is and such. But before I let you anywhere near Naru I need to explain why- It took us two years longer to come home..." Jiriaya started fidgeting with one of his sleeves then blurted out suddenly. "The truth of the matter is that we, the adults of the village have been keeping secrets from you. You see twenty years ago our village was almost destroyed by a very ancient, and terrifying force. The Kyubbi. The nine tailed demon fox that was sealed away in one of the villagers-"
He paused and frowned, and seemed to be trying to think of what to say when Tsunade stepped in and helped him out. "The person that the demon was sealed in was Naru. She was the person that the fourth Hokage sacrificed so that all of us could live."
There was a sharp intake of breath from Choji and Shino, Ino gasped and looked horrified. Hinata stared with a slightly shocked look on her face. While others, like Kiba, Neji, Lee, Tenten and Shikamaru didn't react at all.
Kakashi glanced towards Sakura as she walked up to him and leaned in and hissed, "Did you know?" Kakashi weighed his answers carefully, knowing that if he said the wrong thing that the pinkette would put him in traction for the next few months. And that was not what he wanted at all since it meant more time in the hosptial.
"Yeah. I knew." He said in a hushed tone and flinched when Sakura's fingers grasped his upper arm in a steely grip and she gave him a furious look. Kakashi wondered what pissed her off more. The fact that she'd worked with the demon container all these years or the fact that everyone, him included had known and hidden it from her.
"We are going to have a long, long talk later about keeping secrets from your teammates, Kaka-sensei." Sakura growled in a scathing tone. Kakashi blinked at her but said nothing more. There was no point in him digging his grave any deeper. Instead he focused on what Jiriaya was saying and tried not to let the feeling of dread churning in his get overwhelm him.
"The reason why Naru was chosen by Lord Jiriaya to train outside of the village is because there is an orginazation called the Akutsuki. And these people are collecting the containers and the demons inside of them and using them to build a weapon that we believe would lead to the mass destruction of the world as we know it-" Tsunade said in a slightly shakey tone before Jiriaya picked up where she left off.
"Two years ago before we were due to come back to the village Naru and I came across an old Akutsuki hideout that I believed to be abandonded-" Tsunade gave the Sage a quick puzzled look. Kakashi found himself straightening his spine and narrowing his eye at the Sage as he listened. "I was wrong. While I was out gathering information I left Naru in the...anyways some of the Akutsuki guys came back and managed to catch her unaware. When I returned I caught them leaving the hideout with Naru. She was unconscious, unresponsive and unaware of anything from that point on-"
"What happened next Jiriaya?" Tsunade demanded in an angry tone. Cutting the Sage off for a moment.
"They took the Kyubbi." Jiriaya said suddenly and just barely had time to push Naru out of the way as Tsunade stomped up to him and slapped him hard across the face and screamed.
"Oh my god! What is wrong with you? How could you let such a thing happen-" Naru moved slightly, catching the Kage's attention as she moved back to the Toad Sage's side and slipped her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. Jiriaya gave the young woman a small pained smile.
"I'm okay Naru..." He muttered before looking back at Tsunade who was looking at Naru through narrowed eyes. Kakashi knew what was coming next and he couldn't blame the woman for her question. After all taking the demon from a container killed the human being used to supress the demon's power. "We needed the information, Tsunade. To know their next move. I never expected them to come back or I would have died to keep them from her."
"How is she alive?"
"Kyubbi was taken-"
"Yes you said that already so how about answering me." Tsunade snapped.
"I'm trying to answer you. Kyubbi was taken before I could get there so I don't know all of the specifics or details but from what I understood of things later on, before Kyubbi was taken; it gave itself flesh and blood form and seperated it's demonic chakra from it's new form. So when it was pulled from her body, it died. But it's chakra remained untouched inside of Naru triggering a physical transformation in her-"
Tsunade frowned and reached out and grabbed Naru and pulled her away form Jiriaya's side before he coulds say or do anything, causing the startled young woman to yelp and quickly slip out of her jacket and scurry to the back of the room so quickly that her every movement was a mere blur.
Holy shit- Kakashi thought as he took an unsteady partial step froward as he gaped in disbelief and was tempted to ask someone if they had seen Naru move too. Just to make sure that his eye wasn't playing tricks on him. He looked over at Sakura and found her gaping then looked around the room at everyone else.
Well hell. They were all more or less gaping too.
Jiriaya chuckled and scratched his cheek nervously. "As I said before, Kyubbi's removal from Naru triggered a physical transformation in her. The Akutsuki thought that she was dead when I grabbed her so they didn't bother to come after me when I took her from them to the nearest hospital to see if they could help her. Once there Naru started to go into shock and several attempts to stabilize her condition were made. But after about an hour or so, she seemed to stabilize on her own. Then later that night she started to run a fever of a hundred and ten-"
Tsunade blinked and recoiled a little bit and shouted. "That's impossible! No one could run a fever that high and survive. Most people suffer brain damage once their temp gets as high as a hundred and six!"
"That's right. Most people would. I can't say much about her mind since she can still function pretty well. But she was down with that fever, writhing in agony and screaming for twenty nine days and nights straight before her fever broke and she woke up. And during that time she went through total organ failure and regeneration, she lost copious amounts of blood because she was sweating the stuff, and her skin would slide right off of her body if anyone touched her. There were times when she was lucid enough to beg someone to kill her she was in so much pain..."
Tsunade looked at Jiriaya for a moment as a haunted look crossed his face. "When she woke up she couldn't remember things. Like how to walk, talk or dress or feed herself. I honestly thought that she was ruined for life, she was so defenseless. And I felt like such a failure that I couldn't bear the thought of bringing her back to you like that. So I sat down with her and started to re teach her those things-"
"And when she had them down I re taught her the basics of shinobi training and so on until she had mastered everything all over again. All in all it took about three months for her to re learn everything. Which is just amazing if you really think about it. Once she re learned everything I then tried to help her teach herself to use her new abilities. And that is what took us so long."
"So that...person really is Naru?" Someone, Kiba, asked as he pointed towards the woman peeking out at them from around the late third Hokage's favorite sitting chair.
Jiriaya nodded. "Yeah that's her."
"So is it okay if we finally talk to her?" Shikamaru asked in a bemused manner. Jiriaya indicated that it was fine with him. Naru however remained partially hidden behind the chair for the next twenty minutes or so as everyone walked over and started talking to her all at once.