A/N: Hi everyone! Thank you so much for the reviews, keep them coming please! :D

Ok I need to explain something here about the kids before people start thinking it's strange when they see their behavior: children are extremely resilient. When faced with tragedy, they can snap out of shock and focus on something else faster than adults. I know this firsthand: my grandmother died when I was seven, my father died when I was twelve and my brother was five, and my stepdad died when I was twenty-two and my little sister, his daughter, was five. The younger the child, and the more distant the relationship to the deceased, the easier it is for them to cope. That does not mean they won't grieve or suffer, but that they'll keep a clear head until they feel safe enough to grieve. Why does that happen? I'm not sure about humans, but I believe it's a coping mechanism to help kids survive when other people have to take care of them. After all, we are the most social species amongst mammals.

That said, onwards with the story :D

Sakura left the Hyuuga compound with ominous dark clouds covering the village. She smirked on her way; the weather was fitting, and convenient: the rain began as she got near the Hokage Tower, and she was sure the people running for cover saw Naruto walking by them.

She dropped the henge in an empty alley, and left on the other side, humming in the rain.

Naruto slid down the wall and held his head in his hands.

He couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't even feel. All he could was repeat a circular line of thinking.

'Hinata is dead… Himawari is dead… I wasn't there… I wasn't there and now they're dead and it's my fault'

He fell sideways, a deep, guttural moan leaving his lips while the memories of his family haunted him.

'Why? Why? If I knew… oh gods, why?' he thought, remembering his children's births, Himawari's birth… he remembered arriving late because of work with Kakashi, he was already training under the Rokudaime. Hinata hadn't commented, only happy that he had gone to meet their daughter before they were released home. Bolt had been with her, then, she had told him the boy had refused to stay at Hanabi's. Naruto remembered the haunted look his son gave him when he asked the boy why, the two year-old quietly cuddled next to his mother and sister. 'Hiashi… Hiashi…'

Bolt crossed the room and kicked his father's face with all his strength, and Naruto turned a shocked, tear-stricken gaze to him.

"You can cry when we're gone, Scumbag. When you get me safe from him, you can cry, you can scream, you can find a way to get back at him," the boy said in a venomous voice, "but don't you fucking dare leave me, leave him-" he pointed at Menma's trembling body, feeling a sense of kinship with the child, "-for that asshole to kill after he gets a hold of you because you felt guilty and decided to act like a stupid idiot. If you go there now the clan will beat the shit out of you and you won't get to prove anything, so stop acting like you're a fucking little kid!"

At that moment, Menma gave a pained moan, his back rising from the mattress, and his body went still.

In the little boy's mind, Kurama fell out of the sky, landing on his lap.

"I'm sorry kiddo, it just hurt too much," the baby fox mumbled, and the boy hugged him. They were surrounded by the other beasts.

"It's ok," the boy said quietly, and they all fell asleep in a huddle.

"What do we do now?" Suigetsu asked, after explaining the situation to Shikamaru, Tsunade and Shizune.

"We have to get Naruto out of here. If what you said is true, then they might only come for him, but we can't be sure Sakura won't retaliate. Shizune, please go to Ino's and get her and Inojin to come here. Tell Sai he's supposed to stay there, and then go back to the hospital. Make haste, but be careful. We'll need you as contacts in the village."

Tsunade's eyes widened. "Wait, you intend us all to go with him?"

Shikamaru nodded. "Temari and Shikadai are already on their way to Suna. I had a hunch something like this would happen, but I couldn't act further without confirmation. As soon as Ino and Inojin are here, we'll all leave. Your relationship with Sakura may become a liability, Tsunade-sama. And we'll need a healer."

Bolt looked, alarmed, at the boy. Unbeknownst to the others, but seen by him, nature energy was being drawn in the child's body at an alarming speed. Whatever the Scumbag had done to this kid, he thought, it was making him suffer horrendously. And the energy flow looked…

"Like a wave," Bolt whispered, and his eyes went wide. He took a couple of steps back, watching as the light from the flow of nature energy was drained into the boy's body, focusing on a dark, spinning point on his chest.

Tsunade nodded. "We can use Orochimaru's tunnels, they've been closed at the end outside the village but I can open them," she said, making a fist with her right hand. "I might be but an old lady," she sneered, looking at the still shell-shocked Naruto, "but I still got enough spunk in me to help you out."

Bolt's eyes were riveted on Menma's body. "Whatever you are going to do, do it now, we don't have time," he said, jumping on the bed as he saw a tiny spark of red begin to form inside the dark spot on Menma's chest. He picked the boy up and turned to Shizune.

"Go get whoever's coming NOW!" he yelled, and teleported away.

Shizune nodded and ran out.

Bolt dropped the still body on the floor and ran to get his disguise pack from under a stone, before teleporting back.

Lightning struck the Nanadaime's rock face, cracking it open all the way vertically through the middle.

"What the..." Shikamaru began, and the earth shook with a mighty boom.

They all threw themselves to the floor.

Outside, Shizune held herself upwards with chakra, as she ran to the Yamanaka's. People were busy trying to get up after the tremor, scared and confused, and Shizune thanked the gods for Naruto's freakish bout of good luck.

"Ino-san!" she called out as she entered the flower shop, and Ino came up from behind the counter, picking up debris from her hair. "Get Inojin and go to the Hokage's quarters right now, it's not safe in Konoha anymore," she said, and raised her hand to stop Ino from interrupting her. "Is Sai-san in?" she asked, and Ino nodded, still confused.

"Take me to him, I'll explain to him what is going on, but please, please gather Inojin and run, Tsunade-sama will tell you what happened! Hurry!"

Inside the mountain, a small breath went unheard amongst the tremors.

Menma opened his eye, but didn't see anything. He closed it again, musing on the inutility of the Juubi having an eye when it was blind.

He stood up carefully, still dizzy from the final merging. He knew all that the nine tailed beasts knew, now, and held all their memories. Their individual selves were safe, facets of the prism his soul had become. He was still himself as well as the product of the joining of their individual minds, though, and that was a relief. His own newness to the world helped him adapt to his blindness almost instantaneously.

He turned around as soon as he knew the boy (kin, friend, companion) had materialized behind him.

"You survived," Bolt said, impressed and relieved, and Menma nodded. "Can you teleport back by yourself?"

Menma made a pleading face. "Nope," he said. "Dunno much left from right yet. Can you help me out, please? Erm… I think I'm not gonna blow up again."

Bolt snickered. "Che, aren't you useless, boy," he mocked, while holding on to the (as big as him now) boy, who gaped at him. "My name is Uzumaki Menma, and I'm not useless, you ass, it's not my fault I'm blind, and," he started, and they teleported.

"If I didn't exist your dad would still be a retard pawn on other people's hands!" Menma finished, back at the bedroom.

Bolt made a noncommittal sound and pulled the boy forward, ignoring the shocked gazes of the others upon them. "Can you stand by yourself?" he asked, while opening his backpack and pulling out a change of clothes.

"Yeah. Uh, hi, everyone," Menma said, while pulling his pants on. "I'm stable now, me and the beasts finished merging. Thank you all so much for taking care of me."

"What happened?" Tsunade asked, and came closer to examine the boy, but took a step back when he turned his head away from her before she could touch his eye.

"I'm ok. Just blind, but uh, I think I can find my way around stuff," he said. "Thanks, baa-chan."

Bolt got up and yanked the shirt off the younger boy's hands. "It's back to front, stupid," he growled, and helped him put it on. "I saw nature energy building up on him, so I got him out before he blew up and us with him," the young Uzumaki said. "Are we gonna sit here like ducks or what?"

"How?" Naruto whispered, stunned.

"When I turned seven Hiashi tried putting the curse seal on me. Mom didn't let him and he beat the shit out of her in front of me instead," Bolt explained, while tying up his black headband over Menma's eye, not looking at his father. "As I saw that happen, my eyes began hurting, I blinked and then all of a sudden I could see everything. Chakra, all kinds of energy, people's insides, like… layers, all the layers that make things what they are," he said. "Every detail, too, even from movement. All the time. I thought maybe it was the Byakugan but it didn't work like what mom had told me it did, it never turned off. I was scared, so I started trying to tell you about it, but you were always too busy to talk to me, so after I vandalized your face and you still didn't even ask what the fuck was wrong with me, I gave up."

Suigetsu held back a gasp as he saw the dark-haired boy with his eye covered. 'Could this be?' he thought, noting the shocking resemblance.

"After a while I realized I could tell when people were lying or telling the truth by watching what parts of their brain lit up. And every time you said you loved mom, you were lying," Bolt sneered at Naruto. "When you said the whole village was your family, you were lying too. So I decided to study what was going on with me by myself. I went to the library and studied all the medicine scrolls, and the history of the different doujutsu, so I could try and understand what happened to me, because it was driving me insane."

"Bolt…" Naruto began, but the boy interrupted him.

"Do you have any idea what it is to look at people and see their fucking insides? To know when they're telling the truth or lying to you? To start remembering every damn thing you ever see? To know when someone is sick? I lost all sense of beauty or recognition because I became this fucking freak. I had to learn how to recognize people all over again, and I had to lie every time mom, Himawari or anyone asked me how they looked. What the hell was I supposed to tell them? "Oh, sure, your liver looks great today, mom"? "Sure Hima, I can't say much about your hair but your sinuses look perfect"? That wouldn't have gone down too well, would it, Scumbag?"

Naruto blanched. "I had no idea…"

"Of course. While I still thought I could try talking to you, I started to mess around trying to see what I could do with this shit. Turns out I can copy any jutsu I see people doing, because I can't fucking NOT see and remember the seals, or the way the seals drive and module the person's chakra for the jutsu to work. So I started training by myself, alone, in secret. I wanted to show you, Scumbag, so I could prove to you I was serious. I knew if I let everyone know about it I'd be in trouble," Bolt continued.

"Sharingan," Shikamaru said, and the boy nodded.

"Hiashi would be the first to yell that, and I'd be screwed. He already hated me because I didn't lick his feet like everyone else in the clan, and he'd definitely want to "study" my eyes," he said, making quote marks with his fingers for emphasis, "especially since it looks more like a combination of the Sharingan and the Byakugan, but to be honest I think it's something completely different because none of the doujutsu, as far as I read, can see everything clearly all the time, and I do. I also can't see things behind me. So my only hope to understand what was going on was you. And then I had nothing, because you couldn't spare the time to talk to your own stupid kid. Hah. And now we're all here, and I find out you were using this other kid," he said, pointing at Menma while giving Naruto a furious glare.

"He didn't know what he was doing," Menma interrupted him, and he turned angry eyes to the blind boy. "My parents… they tried to kill me when I was born, because of this," Menma said, pointing to his concealed eye. "He didn't let them do it, and took me in. But his body sucked my chakra on its own, and I was too small to survive that, so the beasts helped me. It's not his fault."

Suigetsu covered his face with a hand, his suspicion confirmed. Kittens? Forget that, Sasuke would have freaking tiger cubs when he knew about this…

Ino arrived then, with a startled-looking Inojin at her side. "Shizune-san told me to meet you here."

Shikamaru nodded. "We can continue discussing this after we're safe. Tsunade-sama, we'll be on your care while we travel through Orochimaru's tunnels, but where do we go from there?"

Suigetsu carefully raised a hand. "We can at first hide on one of Orochimaru's hideouts… uh, Sasuke said he didn't tell you where all of them were," he said, carefully studying their expressions, and hoping they'd go along with his idea. No matter what Sasuke had tried before, he reckoned keeping the Uchiha's son safe was his number one priority. "Well, sorry, but considering all that's happened I think he was right to take that precaution, ya know."

Naruto stood up, walked to Bolt and Menma, and kneeled in front of the two boys. "I am sorry, Bolt. And I swear on my name I'll never neglect you again. Neither of you," he said truthfully.

"Hn," Bolt grunted, but nodded in quiet acquiescence of his father's honesty.

Naruto stood again. "Let's move out."

Hiashi stood up and yelled out in fury as the woman he had sent to call on Hinata told him of what she had seen at the Uzumaki household.

"My daughter! My oldest, precious child!" he screamed. "Sound the alarm! Call the ANBU! Find Bolt!"

Hanabi came running into the main house. "Father, what happened?"

"Your sister… and poor little Himawari," Hiashi sobbed, "they are dead!"

Hanabi fainted.

When the Hokage's party reached midway through Orochimaru's tunnels, Menma poked Suigetsu's shoulder. "I can run on my own now, thank you."

"Aren't you blind, boy?" the spy asked, still running with the boy on his back.

"Um, yeah, kind of. But I know where things are. Please let me down, it'll help you out," the ugly little Uchiha explained politely, and Suigetsu let him down, shrugging. "Suit yourself, I'm not stopping for you, though," he said, before taking off again.

The boy quickly overtook him, running so fast he could only see him as a blur.

"Yo," Menma called to Bolt, who was running at the front of the queue, and grinned toothily at him. "Not that useless anymore, huh?" he snickered, and the Uzumaki boy gave him an unimpressed side look.

"You know people might catch you by sensing those chakra pulses, right?" he said, and Menma pouted.

"Damn know-it-all, it's not like I can help it," he muttered, as another pulse of nature energy entered him, converted into chakra, and pulsed out again.

"Still useless. And slow," Bolt sneered, running faster.

"Why you little!" Menma yelled, speeding up.

It took them an hour to reach the end of the tunnel. Naruto let Tsunade down so the former Godaime could smash the blocked exit open, and they continued running, with the two boys at the vanguard, Naruto carrying Tsunade on his back and Ino carrying Inojin.

"Can you do something with what the beasts gave you or are you completely useless?" Bolt asked Menma, who huffed at him.

"What do you want?"

"We need something that hides us from the old ninjas. Most of the guards are shit, but I'll bet by now the gig is up and people know the Scumbag is out of the building," Bolt explained as they took to the trees.

"Hmmm," Menma grunted, and searched through his memories. He nodded, and pulled up his headband, exposing his eye. "Don't look at it directly," he warned Bolt, and opened it.

"Bolt!" Naruto yelled, as his son disappeared in front of him.

"Shut up and look down!" Menma said in an unnaturally loud voice, turning around to face the others.

Naruto saw a flash of fire, and averted his eyes. The others did the same, their training kicking in instinctively.

Menma twirled around while jumping, and resumed his running.

"Show off," Bolt muttered, and the little brunet snickered.

"Told ya I wasn't useless, you jackass!"

It was after breakfast the next morning, and Sasuke was cataloguing all the documents his spies had gathered from the electronic communications between the five Kage.

"Papa! Papa!" Salad yelled, and he turned to see the little girl running down the stairs to the farm house's basement.

"Don't scream," he chided her absentmindedly, and she skidded to a halt, blushing furiously. "I'm sorry. Uh, Mama is on tv, I thought you'd want to see it, they're saying the Hokage killed his family!"

Sasuke's eyes went wide, and he hurried upstairs after her.

Juugo was standing in front of the tv set in the living room, still with a plate and a dishcloth in his hands, gaping.

"… the Hokage has not been located to answer the accusations, and Uzumaki Bolt is still missing, presumed dead as well. The daimyo of the Fire Country has been informed of the tragedy befallen Konoha, and the Konoha Council has put an order to retrieve the following persons, missing and suspected dead, kidnapped, or aiding in the Nanadaime's escape after murders of Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Himawari: Senju Tsunade, Nara Shikamaru, Yamanaka Ino and young Yamanaka Inojin. Also wanted for questioning about his possible involvement in the crimes is Uchiha Sasuke, who was last seen," the news anchor's voice went on, as pictures of the suspects appeared on the screen.

"What the fuck?" Sasuke growled, and Juugo reflexively held him back before he could hit the television set in his fury.

Salad looked up at her Papa, and back at the tv.

"We are here with Mitokado Homura and Utatane Koharu, representing the Konoha Council. Mitokado-san, what are the measures the Council is taking to capture the presumed fugitive Nanadaime and his supposed allies? Have you been able to gather the motive of the crime?" the reporter asked, and Sasuke snarled as the hateful figure of Homura filled the screen.

"We have instated the Hachidaime Hokage, Haruno Sakura, as an emergency basis, since neither the Godaime nor the Rokudaime are available to take the criminal Uzumaki Naruto's place. We will let her inform you of what the ANBU has found out," he said, and stepped back, while Sakura took a step forward.

"I would like to ask the population to remain calm. ANBU is tracking the fugitive and any potential accomplices, and we have already informed the other Kage of this tragic incident, so they can put their own ANBU squads on alert for Naruto's presence. As for the motive," Sakura said calmly, and Sasuke noticed the hard glint in her eye, "we have gathered that Yamanaka-san had been ordered by the Hokage to investigate a supposed misuse of forbidden jutsu, and one of the people she interrogated was the late Hyuuga Hinata. Apparently, that caused a discussion between the former Nanadaime and his wife at their home, and in a bout of fury he attacked both her and their unfortunate child, before leaving the Hyuuga compound. We have testimonies of civilians and ninja who saw him heading to the Hokage Tower, and as ANBU searched it after Hyuuga-sama sounded the alarm, they found the guards and personnel stationed there under an intricate genjutsu,"

A collective murmur formed around Sakura, and she glared at the people present until they went quiet. "We also know that in the Tower at the time of the murder were the former Godaime, Tsunade-sama, the Nanadaime's assistant, Nara Shikamaru, and that sometime after the Nanadaime was seen on his way to the Tower Yamanaka Ino and her son Inojin were seen going that way. We do not know yet what happened to those people, as their bodies were not found, or the whereabouts of Uzumaki Bolt. We do know, however, that Uzumaki Naruto is extremely dangerous and that his actions are currently unpredictable. Due to the high level of genjutsu under which the guards had been, we – I – humbly ask for my ex-husband, Uchiha Sasuke, to attend at the ANBU headquarters by tomorrow, as a preventative measure to avoid wrongful accusations of involvement. We are currently monitoring all electronic and telephone communications to and from the village. Any information from the population in regards to any of the missing people's whereabouts will be duly rewarded, of course," Sakura finished her speech, an almost imperceptible smirk on her lips, and left, with two ANBU opening the way for her and the Council.

Sasuke sat down on the couch, speechless. Sakura was the Hokage? Naruto had killed his wife and child?

"This can't be right," Juugo said after turning off the tv set, and sitting on a chair across from the Uchiha. "I don't know Naruto that much, but… he wouldn't do that, would he?"

Sasuke shook his head slowly, while Salad cried softly. The Uchiha girl had seen Himawari walking around with her mother a few times, and seen how lovingly the Hyuuga had acted with her. And the Nanadaime had always seemed stern, but nice. He had even given the Academy students a show of his signature jutsu, the Rasengann and the Kage-bunshin, on the admittance day. Salad couldn't understand what could make the man kill his own family. Or why Mama had told Papa to go back to Konoha. Didn't she trust Papa? She shivered, remembering Mama's last words to her. She knew Mama would do anything to have Papa back, and that Mama didn't want her. What would happen to Salad if Papa went to jail or something else happened to him?

"Papa? Please… please don't go to Konoha," she asked, wiping her tears with her sleeves.

"Come here, kid," Juugo called, and she went to sit on his lap. "Don't worry, nothing wrong is going to happen," he soothed her, but she shook her head firmly.

"If you go back to Konoha Mama won't let you leave her side. Please, please don't leave me," she pleaded, and Sasuke stared at her.

"Why do you say that?" he asked, and Salad lowered her tearful eyes.

"She cast me out because she thought you were mad at her because of my bad eyes," she explained. "She told me to go live with granpa and granma because she loves you more. Please, father, don't go, I like living with you," she murmured.

Sasuke closed his eyes, his head spinning with all the information.

'What the hell did you do, usuratonkachi?' he thought, running his hand through his hair.