Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.

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Chapter Fifty-Two

Aftermaths

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Naruto stared worriedly at the Hokage as he sat on the near-throne. The old man seemed to have aged dramatically since the invasion, a new line appearing to form on his forehead each time the revised damage assesments were updated.

"Thank you all for coming." Hiruzen finally said. "Although we have survived an attack the likes of which has never before been contemplated, we have not done so unscathed."

On the side of the raised stage, Terumi Mei and Shimura Danzo sat, watching him intently and Hiruzen nodded to them.

"Although Suna has betrayed us, we are not without allies. Uzukage Danzo has overseen the rebirth of Uzushiogakure, a village that now boasts its own Jinchuuriki. Mizukage Mei has brought Kiri out of the years of civil war that rent it asunder and now Kiri has joined our ranks also."

Mei nodded with a proud smile on her face as Hiruzen continued.

"Make no mistake, though. We have been wounded. Over half of our shinobi are casualties at this time, with almost a third of those being either killed in action, or wounded beyond their ability to continue as frontline shinobi. Fortunately one of my ninja suggested placing the injured shinobi in charge of educating our academy students, allowing us to rotate the able-bodied teachers into positions that are currently understaffed. That process is underway even as I speak."

Naruto smirked proudly at how Ino's idea had proven itself.

"Our civilian losses were also severe." Hiruzen sighed. "Almost a tenth of our civilian populace is dead despite the best efforts of our ninja and the shinobi of our allies. Many clans are mourning loved ones, the Uchiha being most heavily hit during the attack.

"But we survived and we shall rebuild! Many of our ninja have proven themselves worthy of promotion, and so they will be promoted, allowing us to rebuild our forces once more! Our allies have agreed to help us with any missions near their own lands, allowing us to deploy our own ninja more effectively, allowing us to gether the resources we need in order to recover from yesterdays events and rise once more to stand with our allies as equals! As… friends…"

For a long moment, the assembly hall was quiet enough that Naruto could almost feel everyone's determination, then Hiruzen spoke once more.

"For now, I ask you to go forth and aid in our recovery. Put aside any pride you may have and help those less fortunate than yourself. Rebuild our walls, fix our roofs, re-pave our streets that we may once more stand on our own two feet... or foot and crutch in my case, ready to defend our allies as they are ready to defend us.

"Dismissed."

The assembled Jonin, Tokubestu Jonin and Chunin filed out of the hall, but Naruto remained behind. Once the hall was clear, he walked up to the dias and bowed.

"You asked me to remain, Hokage-sama?"

"I did." Hiruzen said with a sad smile. "I have a mission for you. We are calling in a favour owed to us by the Land of Wave…"

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Ino quietly edged into the temporary morgue where a pink-haired kunoichi was slumped in a chair set between two tables, each with a fabric-covered body.

"Sakura?"

Sakura slowly raised her head and Ino internally winced at the sight before her. Sakura's eyes were rimmed with red from weeping, while dark shadows showed that she hadn't managed to get any sleep. Her dress was rumpled and creased while her hair was tangled and matted with dried blood.

Ino carefully approached her best friend, moving slowly to avoid triggering any violent reactions from her, then gently laid her hand on Sakura's shoulder.

"Sakura…" She whispered. "You can't stay here. You need to rest."

Sakura stared at her uncomprehendingly and Ino crouched slightly to meet her gaze.

"Sakura… you need to come with me." She gently ordered. "Come on."

Ino slowly pulled Sakura to her feet, then slipped an arm around her so that Sakura was supported on her shoulder.

"…ino…"

"Shush, shush." Ino whispered. "Come with me, Sakura-chan. Come on."

Sakura staggered forwards and Ino concentrated on not letting her friend fall.

"Come on." She whispered. "I'll be with you at their funeral. First, though, you need a long soak and a shoulder or two to cry on. Come on."

Trying to comfort Sakura, Ino led her away from the the bodies of her parents.

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"I will be leaving tomorrow." Danzo stated as he accepted the saucer of Sake that Hiruzen handed to him. "I am afraid that I will be taking my ambassador with me, but I shall find another to take her place."

"Only an idiot would leave a Jinchuuriki in another country." Mei agreed. "Just before I came here, we finally managed to locate our other Jinchuuriki and persuaded him to return. It was probably the most nerve-wracking thing I've ever done, and I faced down Yagura."

"My spies told me." Danzo said. "You wore only a skimpy bathing suit, took no weapons and ordered him to kill you if he thought you were being less than honest with him."

Mei nodded. "It was the only way to persuade him we were serious. He's now one of the teachers at Kiri's academy. He teaches lessons in morality and neccesity."

"Something that all ninja should know." Hiruzen agreed. "Will you be departing tomorrow as well?"

Mei nodded, then took another sip before looking at Danzo.

"If you could arrange for one of those message-tubes to be sent to me, it would aid communication between us." She stated. "Obviously, you will place security seals on it to prevent future Mizukages from trying to copy it for their own usage."

"I will have one delivered within the month," Danzo nodded, "Although I shall probably ask for one of my old friend's ninja to deliver it in the interests of speed."

"Uzumaki." Mei nodded. "Zabuza-kun was convinced that he could have taken him if he'd known who he truly was, then Naruto sent Orochimaru fleeing in that forest of yours and Zabuza went very… thoughtful."

"I'm promoting him." Hiruzen said before draining his saucer. "All the way to Jonin, may all the Kamis forgive me."

"Will be capable of it?" Danzo asked and Hiruzen shrugged.

"Probably… but to be sure, I'm about to send him on a training mission with Jiraiya once he gets back from his current mission. We need Tsunade back."

"I'll have my sources looking out for her." Danzo said. "Last I heard, she was in Tanzuka Quarters, but that was a month ago. And yes, old friend, I always try to keep track of the more important shinobi."

"I didn't say anything, old friend, but it's good to know you haven't abandoned all your old ways." Hiruzen shot back and Danzo raised one hand in a signal normally used to concede a match.

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Naruto landed in front of a large house and blinked several times as he stared at it.

"Wasn't this place… smaller?" He wondered, then his sensors picked up a fast-moving form headed straight for him. Spinning, he froze as he identified the new arrival.

"Naruto-san!" Inari shouted as he cannoned into Naruto.

"Inari." Naruto greeted the energetic youngster as he returned the hug, then he stepped back and shed his armour. "Is your grandfather around?"

"He's down by the bridge, building the new outpost." Inari grinned. "Come on!"

Naruto smiled at the eager boy as he was led down the path and onto the main road. Looking round, he gave a satisfied mental nod.

"This place is certainly busier than the last time I was here."

"Yeah!" Inari chirped. "We're getting ships from all over the place. We even got a couple of ships from Shinpitekinaishi no tochi and they're weird, they don't use chakra! Before they came here, they didn't even know what it was!"

"The land of mystical stones?" Naruto mused. "Interesting. I've never heard of them before."

"Yeah, one of our ships was blown off course and discovered them" Inari shrugged. "'parently they're fighting a war with themselves, so we're now getting all their fugitives. You should see the ships they're helping us build, they're made of metal!"

"But… I didn't think metal floated." Naruto said in shock and Inari laughed.

"It does and the ships can be huuuuuuuuuuge! With the weapons they brought, something called guns, no pirates will be able to take them…"

"Meaning that Wave will get even richer because the cargos will be safe in their new ships." Naruto realized. "Brilliant."

Inari smirked.

"These… guns you mentioned." Naruto asked. "What are they?"

"Oh, they're long tubes that fire a ball of metal so fast that it sounds like a whip as it goes past." Inari supplied. "It takes a while to reload, though. They need to pour in something called gunpowder, ram it down, put the ball in, push that down, light the string, put more powder in a little dish on the top and then put the burning string into it to launch the ball. They can do maybe three shots a minute. The huge ones on the ships are called cannons and they can only do two shots a minute because they're so big."

Naruto relaxed slightly. A weapon that could only fire three times a minute was no match for a trained chunin or above, let alone a skilled Hyuuga.

He'd still make sure to report it to the Hokage, though. He didn't want his friends being blindsided by the new weapon.

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Hinata swooped down from the sky, the bound and gagged form of Gaara in her arms. Timing her arc carefully, she released Gaara on just the right trajectory to send the protesting genin through the topmost widow of the Kazekage's tower before banking and flying away.

#Mission accomplished.# She sent to Ino.

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Rasa's reflexes allowed him to catch the shape that had been thrown through the window. With a smirk, he recognised his youngest son who had obviously been too much trouble for Konoha to restrain and quickly pulled off the gag before slicing through the ropes.

"Report."

Gaara stared at him or a long moment. "They took mother…"

Rasa blinked as a feeling of horrified realization settled into his gut, feeling similar to the time that he had swallowed a double-handful of snow as a dare while still a genin.

"…what?"

"Mother is gone." Gaara said listlessly. "She doesn't protect me… someone took her from me…"

The feeling of horrified dread intensified and Rasa slumped into his chair.

"Gaara…" He managed, "Can you still control sand?"

Some of the sand around the room stirred as Gaara tried. "It's hard… hard…"

Rasa stared in horror at his youngest child.

"They took the Ichibi from you without killing you?" He whimpered. "I thought that was impossible to do! Konoha has two Jinchuuriki now?"

Gaara nodded.

"Konoha has the Kyuubi and the Ichibi?!" Rasa half-screamed and Gaara shook his head.

"Uzu has Mother now..."

Rasa froze. "Then… as well as the Kyuubi… who else do they have?"

"The Nanabi."

Rasa felt himself greying out in panic. Konoha had the strongest and third-strongest Biju while Suna no longer had even one.

"…fuck!"

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"Of course we'll come and help." Tazuna said as the elderly man by his shoulder nodded. "We owe Konoha for liberating us and our new arrivals know that we do, we'll head out in two days time, so we should be there in about a week and a half."

"Thanks." Naruto smiled. "Oh, Ino sends her regards… well, actually, her exact words were tell that old drunk he'd better be looking after Tsunami-san and Inari-kun."

"Little spitfire, that one." Tazuna chortled. "We'll do this at cost, we owe Konoha more than we can repay. We'll need feeding, though."

"Not a problem." Naruto said with a smile. "Ichiraku's is still intact, so that's the best place in Konoha ready for you. Is that a ferret?"

"It is." The man said, shifting his grip on the squirming animal. "His name is Nerugui and mine is Kahiko. It is an honor to meet one of the saviors of Wave."

"His grand-daughter has taken over the books for me." Tazuna added. "She's great with numbers."

"I'll have Konoha send an escort for you." Naruto promised and Tazuna grinned.

"Great! Hey, send the snake lady, willya? She makes a super drinking partner."

"Gramps!" Inari scolded. "You know that mom told you to cut down on how much you drink!"

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Authors Afternote – As you can see, Konoha was severely damaged by the attack, but is recovering.
And with a Jinchuuriki in its ranks, Uzu is now a true power to contend with…