AN: Sorry for the late update! I'd forgotten about it due to a science fair on saturday, which is the stupidest thing on earth. That's my day off! Waste your own damn school time and let me have my break.

My Sacrifice

Chapter 22

Tsunade sighed. Naruto had been gone for what felt like an eternity. Of course, she didn't mind. For the moment, she had all the time in the world. But she did miss her onii-chan. Just then, the door opened and slammed shut, but there was no one in the room. Standing up, she looked over her desk, and saw Naruto sitting on the ground, panting.

'That's what sucks about being a nuke-nin. I can't go anywhere without being chased down, and it really hurts when I have to move that fast.' He said, standing up. Tsunade grinned.

'Guess what? The counsel's going to try to kill you.' Naruto stared blankly at how happy she seemed over this. 'You'll die, come back because of your kitsune blood, and then you'll have paid your dues and you're off the hook!' She tossed him a small bottle of sake, which he grinned at.

'Been needing a drink. Oh, by the way, I need to see the counsel.' She gave him a confused look. He held up a duffel bag and Sasuke. 'I changed my mind about sending them, seeing as someone else would've taken credit and I would have my head on a stump.' Tsunade grinned as he drank the whole bottle in one gulp. (It was about the size of the one she gave Lee by accident.)

'They're in a meeting right now about what to do with you.' She broke out laughing. 'Their best idea is to send a group of hunter nin, disguised as genin, to try and kill you, thinking you'll underestimate the genin.' Naruto started laughing. Then he grinned and activated his Sharingan no za Kitsune. She looked him in the eye and gasped.

'How'd you get it?' She screamed, he assumed in joy, and hopped over her desk to get a closer look. She pulled his eye lids open and looked, turning his head at different angles. 'I'm assuming it's Itachi's?' Naruto nodded. 'Can you do the Mangekyo?' Naruto nodded again and activated it. She gasped.

'Amazing. It's like a four bladed pinwheel.' She said, before backing away and looking at the clock. 'They're going to dismiss in ten minutes.' Tsunade was in Hokage mode again. The door opened, and Sakura and a Cloud nin walked in. Tsunade looked at them in surprise.

'Ok, you can drop it now.' Naruto said grinning. The cloud nin disappeared in a poof of smoke and in his place stood the Yondaime. Tsunade gasped, before glomping him. Arashi grunted as they hit the floor.

'Tsunade...can you come with me?' He said, looking down at her, the amusement clearly showing on his face. She looked confused and shocked. Confused as to why he wanted her to come with him, and shocked that he called her Tsunade. Nodded, she pushed herself off Arashi, using his stomach, which made him grunt, and followed him. Sasuke was still unconscious, and probably would stay that way for a long while. They walked up a flight of stairs, and Tsunade made to knock on the door, but Naruto beat her to it. With his foot.

'WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS TSU-' The man that was screaming stopped when he saw Naruto walk in.

'What're you so mad about? I knocked...just with my foot.' Naruto was grinning sadistically. Tsunade didn't know when he brought out his kitsune features, but he had fur now that looked really soft. She had to resist the urge to touch it. The counsel man was speechless, but caught the duffel bag tossed to him none the less.

'These are my bartering tools. I want to use it to lower my punishment.' They still didn't notice Sasuke, seeing as they were staring in shock at Orochimaru's face that was twisted in a scream.

'Ts-Ts-Tsunade!' Cried the man holding his head. 'Please identify this! It is probably a fake.' Tsunade nodded and caught the bag tossed to her. So that was why he wanted her with him.

'I see you've lost all control of your fox.' Naruto grinned. Time to win a Grammy. 'Oh yes. I lost control and had to go through a long hard sealing process that finally sealed it, but I can't subdue the features without a genjutsu.' Then Naruto pushed all of their papers off the table and laid Sasuke down on it. 'And here's your precious Uchiha.' He didn't bother in setting his head down, and it made a loud thunk when it hit.

'You killed him!' Screamed someone from the top riser.

'He's just unconscious.'

'LIAR! Tsunade! Check him too!' Tsunade growled, but threw the head at the loud mouthed counsel man.

'It's the real thing. That's Orochimaru's melted stump of a head.' She stuck her head to Sasuke's chest. 'And yes, Sasuke's alive.' Someone in the top riser's corner who'd been silent so far suddenly spoke up.

'So that chakra spike I felt earlier was Sasuke?' Naruto laughed.

'Good to see you really did get somewhere Neji. I always did think you'd make a great counsel member. But no, the chakra spike wasn't him. I sort of lost my temper and sent him a good few feet into the side of the Valley of the End.' Neji grinned a little. The beginning and the end in the same place. How fitting.

'I see. Yes, you've brought back two nuke-nin, and you're one yourself. So you've basically returned three nuke-nin, all S-class. That's mighty impressive. For that, I'll let you choose how you'll be killed.'

'I want an ax across the middle of my stomach.' He replied instantly. 'And also, I don't want to be held in a cell. I would like to be able to move freely within the village and spend time with my father.'

'Your father is dead.' Naruto grinned as another figure walked through the door.

'Hey Tsunade, where do you hide your sake?'

'Under the desk there's a hidden compartment.'

'Okay, thanks.' And with that, he left, leaving the Konoha Counsel in shock for the third time today.

'You want to rethink that?'

'Fine!' Said the lead man angrily. 'I'll accept all of your requests.'

'I wasn't done. I want Sasuke to walk free. He'll be returned his status of genin, with no charges pressed.' The counsel man nodded.

'Fine. It's done. Your execution will occur on the fifteenth at three o' clock.' Naruto nodded, before picking up the duffel back, and Sasuke.

'I'm going to get Orochimaru's head stuffed and I'm going to use it as a trophy.' He announced as he stepped through the doorway. Tsunade grinned triumphantly at them as she turned and walked out. After they walked out of hearing range of the room, Tsunade turned on him to ask a question, but instantly had her lips pinched together by Naruto, who was shaking his head, before leading her back to her office. He placed his usual seals on the room, before turning to her.

'Can you explain that again? You lost me.' Tsunade said.

'I'm going to be executed on the fifteenth at three.' Sakura and Shizune gasped, and Arashi's face hardened.

'But that's in two days!' Sakura cried, standing up.

'I know.' Naruto said, his voice still upbeat.

'How can you be so relaxed about your death?'

'Because it's not going to happen. I'm going to die, and then I'll come back. It's pretty simple actually.'

'So why did you want to have an ax taken to your stomach? You said it as though you had it all planned out.' Naruto's face hardened.

'I do.' He stopped.

'And...?'

'That's all you need to know. If I tell you...well...I don't know what you might do, so I'll go with not telling you.'

'But I need you guys to act like I'm really gonna die. Actually, now that I think of it, there's a slim chance that I actually will die.' He said slowly. Sakura was going to say something, but she was cut off.

'Hey Kit, you do realize that you proposed, right? Multiple times.'

'What!' Everyone stared at him. 'It's Hitomi.'

'When did you propose?' Naruto's eyes widened.

'You can...'

'Yes they can. I'm projecting myself. You don't like it, tough. But you've called yourself King of the Demons quite a few times recently. However, that would suggest you're married to the Queen of the Demons. Right now, you're still court jester.' All the girls started snickering at that, but Arashi broke out laughing.

'Shut up.' Naruto's face was deep red.

'Aww, it's okay Kit. But you still have a minor problem with you pretending to be married to me. You're not.' Naruto sighed, before slamming his fist into his head, and falling unconscious. He stood back up in Hitomi's bed room.

'Okay, I'm here. But I'm still not proposing. I'm just not ready.' He said sighing. She tackled him.

'I wanted you in here! Thanks so much Kit!' He looked on in confusion.

'For what?'

'No reason.'

About fifteen minutes later, Naruto sat up.

'Okay, sorry about that. She was going to keep embarrassing me until I visited her.' Just then a Sand Village eagle tapped on the window. Tsunade opened it and reached out to take the message, but it went over her and dropped it's message to Naruto, before going out the window. He broke the seal and read it, before setting fire to it.

'Seems Gaara and Shukaku have successfully joined. He's got full control over his sand again.' Tsunade nodded. 'And this time, it seems Shukaku's letting him sleep. That's definitely an improvement.' Tsunade nodded again.

'Okay, I'm done. I'm going to my apartment.' He caught the keys Tsunade tossed to him.

'It's clean, and is freshly stocked with food. Of course, the Genin had to file some workers comp after the mission, which was afterwards declared an S-Class mission.' Tsunade said, shaking her head. 'Even some of the ANBU couldn't go in there. But it was finally cleaned up, and was restocked just yesterday.' Naruto nodded and started to walk out, before looking back in.

'You guys want to come over to eat tonight? I can cook.' They all nodded. 'Invite Kakashi too if you see him.' Arashi got up and followed him, swaying a little from the Sake he'd been drinking the whole time they were talking.