Recommended Story: 'Naruto vs Sasuke The Aftermath' by Kingkakashi

Chapter Two

After running as fast as they could with two unconscious tag-alongs, Kakashi, Sakura, and Hinata finally made it back to Konoha. A few other search parties had already gone out to locate the other members of Shikamaru's team and brought them back, making this group the last to return. Chouji and Neji were in the worst condition, with Tsunade herself overseeing Chouji's treatment and Shizune overseeing Neji's. Kiba and Lee both needed to stay in the hospital one night, maybe two, to recuperate, and Shikamaru's finger injury was already treated enough that he was only still the hospital by choice now, since he was waiting to hear how his friends were.

Because of this, the staff was stretched a bit when Kakashi came to the hospital, but he got ahold of an unprejudiced doctor who would stabilize Naruto before he got worse. Kakashi, Sakura, and Hinata refused to leave the room until they got a sign that Naruto was in the clear or not. Kakashi's clone took Sasuke to the prison hospital, since they would be the best at ensuring he didn't get out anytime soon under his own power. The clone even left orders to keep him locked up until Kakashi or Tsunade said otherwise and to disregard any orders from anyone else.

Naruto was bandaged, stitched, connected to tubes and machines, and unconscious, but by some unfathomable reason, he was still alive and even breathing under his own power. "Well, he should be in the clear now. All that's left to do is keep him nourished and on painkillers, and wait until he wakes up. He'll probably feel like hell but at least he'll be alive." The doctor told the others.

"Thank you Doctor. I hope you don't mind us waiting here for him to wake up." Kakashi replied.

"No problem. Now, I think I've earned a coffee break. Bye." The doctor said before leaving.

The three shinobi turned to Naruto, as if they thought he would open his eyes any second now. So far that was not happening.

An hour later Tsunade had a free moment and decided to go check on Naruto, whom one of the nurses informed her was brought in and stabilized but showed no activity.

When she got to the room, she saw Kakashi, Sakura, and Hinata sitting around keeping an eye on Naruto, each with a drink in their hands. "Please tell me how Naruto is." She started.

"By all facts, he should be dead, but somehow is still alive." Kakashi answered. "I don't understand it, but I am certainly glad it's true."

Tsunade's eyes widened, and she immediately began a diagnostic scan jutsu over the blonde boy. "His pulse is steady, he has some broken bones that are mending, some torn muscles that are doing the same..." She paused, looking like she was now seeing something rather unpleasant. "Signs of damage to internal organs? Missing epidermis on multiple areas on the torso but lower layers of skin growing in? Low blood pressure? What happened to him? Did someone drive a pike thru his chest?"

"Not exactly a pike, but yes." Kakashi regretfully admitted. "And... it was done three times."

"THREE TIMES?" Tsunade shouted, causing Sakura and Hinata to jump back.

Kakashi sadly nodded, unable to make eye contact. "Sasuke used the chidori technique, something I regret teaching him, on Naruto twice... and... he tricked me into striking him a third time."

Tsunade had never seen the technique, but on her trip back to Konoha Naruto had described it to her as a lightning sword his sensei used for close range kills. He sounded like he hoped to learn it once they got back to Konoha. "Tell me where the bastard is so I can punish him accordingly." Few had any doubt what exactly she had in mind.

"He's in the prison hospital right now with the caretakers there ordered to place him in a cell once he's stable." Kakashi answered. "You should know Hokage-sama, I saw a strange chakra at work in Naruto's wounds, and I don't mean the chakra you're thinking of. This was a completely different one."

Tsunade was instantly alerted, and glanced over towards Sakura and Hinata. "Could you two please leave the room for a moment? This is going to be a classified talk."

The girls nodded and left the room. Tsunade looked back at the one-eyed jounin. "Continue."

Evening came and Tsunade was worn out. The last thing she wanted to deal with was an emergency council meeting that she didn't even order. In fact, she was strongly tempted to use her hokage authority to call it off and tell them all to wait a night on whatever it was they wanted to yammer on about. There was only one thing that made her want to go now in the first place.

The summons note, which read 'Tsunade Senju, you are hereby ordered to attend a council meeting at 6:00 PM tonight and drop whatever previously scheduled distractions you may have at said time. Failure to comply is not an option and will result in penalization.'

Tsunade was pissed and offended to read that. To think someone had the audacity to actually order her around as a subordinate and not even leave a name for themselves. Whoever sent this needed to be taken off their high horse and have said horse shot, and that alone was why Tsunade was going in the first place.

She got there and saw everyone else was there too and talking in a heated debate. Hiashi, Shikaku, Tsume, and Chouza looked like she felt, irritated and wishing they were anywhere else, preferably with those who were still in treatment. Some of the other members on both sides looked irritated too, like they agreed that this could have waited another day.

One of the civilians saw the slug sannin approach. "Hokage-sama, is it true that the fox has already endangered the lives of several of our shinobi?"

Tsunade sent out so much killing intent right then it almost felt like she was trying to summon the Manda equivalent of the slugs. "Listen good everyone, I am NOT in a good mood right now. I do NOT appreciate being interrupted when I'm working to save people's lives. I do NOT appreciate people ordering me, the hokage, around like they outrank me and demanding I attend meetings that I DID NOT CALL! AND I do NOT appreciate those meetings starting BEFORE I EVEN SHOW UP!" She paused to glare at each and every person there. "Now, first thing first, who here thinks they can demand I show up here or get punished if I refused?"

No one answered, prompting Tsunade to cross her arms. "That oh-so-kindly-worded request didn't write itself people. Answer me now!" Still no one answered. "Fine. Since no one here has got the balls to admit it, give me one damn good reason why I shouldn't declare this meeting adjourned."

Summoning up their courage, Homura spoke first after clearing his throat. "Hokage-sama, not to make light of the grave insult to your authority, but there is a subject being discussed already that you should help settle." He paused until he was certain he had her attention. "It has come to our attention that the mission to retrieve Sasuke Uchiha from the clutches of Orochimaru was a success, but there is question regarding if Naruto Uzumaki went too far to ensure success here."

Some of the civilians looked like they wanted to shout out derogatory comments about Naruto, but held their tongues since Tsunade was already ready to beat the crap out of someone who crossed her. A wise choice, since her next choice of words were quite angry. "How exactly did this come to your attention?"

"We asked our friends in the Anbu about why four genin, one chuunin, and a couple of jounin were sent out of the village all of a sudden." Koharu answered.

Tsunade frowned. "Anbu reports are confidential and not meant to be open access to anyone who happens to ask."

"We heard that the demon brat took the last Uchiha out of Konoha to kill him and pretended to be part of the search party to avoid suspicions. Is that true Hokage-sama?" Another civilian asked, changing the subject.

Tsunade glared. "Let me guess, you're either assuming that, or you heard that from someone you know full well hates Naruto. Doesn't anyone here actually want to here the truth, or does everyone just want to speculate and rant anti-Naruto propaganda?"

No one answered, but everyone did look curious about the details of the mission. Tsunade, still irritated, decided to get this over with. "Now, since everyone's so damn curious, here's the real facts about what just happened. Now, during a strange breach of security, four jounin level shinobi from Orochimaru's forces came to Sasuke Uchiha and convinced him to go with them to Orochimaru's side. Once I learned of this, I send out a team of jounin ninja to intercept them, but also requested chuunin Shikamaru Nara to assemble a second team to stop Orochimaru's men and bring the Uchiha back. Today I learned they succeeded in their objective, but several of those involved are undergoing major medical care to stabilize them so we cannot currently gain more details on what happened on the field."

"So the Uzumaki boy is not to blame for all this?" One of the more sensible civilians asked. She was a middle-aged brunette wearing a yellow shirt.

The civilian next to her, an older man with a pot belly and black hair, looked at her angrily. "You're an idiot if you believe that Shinju. Can you really believe that four enemy ninja got in and out of the village without being noticed, and got taken down one by one by mere genin, and that the last Uchiha would desert the village his ancestors helped to create?"

She glared back at him. "It makes more sense than the Uzumaki boy betraying us now by after fighting for us during the invasion rather than against us, or that the Uchiha would leave the village simply because one person annoyed him. If you all admit he's petty enough to leave the village because he can't stand being one-upped, then why do you respect him so much?"

"Sasuke Uchiha is not petty! He was abducted!" A different civilian shouted.

"Then why are people accusing Naruto of being responsible if you admit that?" Shikaku asked.

Koharu was the one to answer. "We found out that Sasuke is now is the prison hospital. Clearly he was unfairly attacked and Shikamaru says Naruto was the one to go after him personally after the others in the group were occupied elsewhere."

"Are you unaware that Naruto himself is in the hospital too? And suffered three direct chidori hits? A move known only to Kakashi Hatake... and Sasuke Uchiha?" Tsunade asked.

"Why is he not dead yet?" One of the civilians asked. "He should be executed for endangering the Uchiha like this."

There were a few murmurs of agreement, but before it could grow into a large cry for Naruto's death, Tsunade slammed her hand again. "Where the hell do you get off making such a demand? By all accounts, you're punishing him for doing his job."

"His job was to bring Sasuke back, not to endanger him." Koharu countered.

Tsunade glared at the older woman. "Sasuke had no restraints against endangering naruto. So was Naruto not allowed to defend himself or subdue Sasuke with force if he refused to comply?"

Tsume snarled at the civilians trying to come up with an excuse to justify the situation the way they wanted to see it as. "Enough you idiots. If Sasuke actually wanted to come back like you think, then why didn't he fight back against the Oto nin? You all claim he's the best in his age group, yet nothing was done until we sent out other genin to do something about it. So you have to admit Sasuke's either not as strong than you give him credit for, or he was trying to get away with them."

"Even so, Naruto Uzumaki must still be punished for what he did." One of the more stubborn civilians stated.

Tsunade was even madder now. "That is not the point, and I think you all are deliberately missing that to avoid the real issue here. On what grounds do you have to justify such a course of action?"

"We need to make it clear to the boy that we will not tolerate him using the fox's power to endanger our more prominent shinobi." The same civilian replied.

Tsunade arched an eyebrow. "And what gives you reason to believe Naruto used any of the fox's chakra in the first place?"

"How else could he survive having three terrible wounds when one alone is enough to kill? The sand-using boy from Suna survived one and we all know he's a mosnter, so how else do you justify the Kyubi brat still breathing?"

"Why isn't someone killing him right now so we can be done with the son of a bitch once and for all?" A different civilian bitterly asked.

Tsunade punched the wall, creating a large crater. "First of all, Naruto will not be punished for doing his job, which was to bring Sasuke Uchiha back by any means necessary. Punishing him for that will accomplish nothing other than creating hostility in all the ninja, who will fear what they may have to endure if they succeed or fail their own missions. Second of all, Shikamaru Nara was the one in charge of the team and gave Naruto the order to go after Sasuke solo while he and all the other members were otherwise unable to continue on their objective. That does not deserve punishment, but if you're so damn convinced it does, then Shikamaru Nara deserves punishment too since as team leader he is responsible for what the team does."

She cast Shikaku a glance to show she didn't agree with this but needed to get the point across. The Nara head understood completely.

Danzou surprised everyone by being the next to speak. "Hokage-sama is completely right. Naruto Uzumaki should be reminded to better control himself, and maybe some measures should be taken to help ensure that, but downright punishing him will cause more trouble than good."

That shut the civilians up. Danzou had always been sympathetic to their needs and concerns, but if he refused to take their side they lost a big factor in getting the results they wanted. He in fact was one of the biggest reasons they never got any ninja to actually kill Naruto, since he needed Naruto alive in order to use him.

Tsunade looked relieved. "Good, now that that's settled, Sasuke Uchiha does deserve punishment as he was not under orders and acted against the village. Whether you believe he left voluntarily or not, he was close to being acquired by Orochimaru and thus having the sharingan used against Konoha. It's likely that the snake will send more for him, so Sasuke needs to be kept out of sight to prevent anyone from taking him or him being able to leave a second time."

The shinobi all saw the wisdom in that while the civilians found it hard to argue that.

"I will determine Sasuke's punishment after hearing from the retrieval team to get all the facts in. If anyone tries acting before I declare anything official on anyone involved, they will be imprisoned for the rest of their life without bail or parole. No exceptions! Now, unless there's anything else on the agenda, I'm going to end this." Tsunade continued. No one said anything. "Good. Now go home people."

Kushina arrived at the Valley of the End. "Naruto's been moved." She said, not seeing him anywhere nearby or even detecting any traces of him other than his blood on the ground. "Hmm... someone was here and took him away. Probably back to Konoha. I guess I better go there. Damn, it'll take me till noon tomorrow at least to get there."

Still eager to see her son as soon as possible, she headed in the direction Konoha was. After a few minutes, she had to stop. "What's this?"

"You wished to see me?" A male voice asked, his face hidden from view by a mask and most of his upper body obscured by shadows. All that could be clearly seen of him were his black pants and blue open-toed shinobi boots.

"Yes. To put it simple, we want Tsunade out of office now." One of the three people meeting this hidden man said.

"She is not doing her duties properly and is turning blind eyes to the real threats while calling others threats instead." A second person added.

"And if that wasn't bad enough, she's trying to give the shinobi ideas that they don't have to work for the civilians, but rather we must submit to them. The nerve of her. The shinobi are here to be our servants, not the other way around." The third voice stated.

"You are aware that I'm a shinobi right?" The hidden man replied. "Why should I do as you ask and turn against the strongest one in the village just because some cowards are afraid of her?" His tone clearly showed he wasn't against the idea, but he was going to require some incentive before he did as asked.

The first voice sighed. "Every shinobi is a mercenary, meaning pay the right price and they'll do anything." They held out a bag full of ryo coins and bills, easily full with two years pay for a jounin.

The hidden man took the sack and checked to ensure it wasn't a fake bribe created by a genjutsu. Such a thing was not uncommon in underhanded situations such as this. "I think I can work something out. Though be aware that I will not be able to act until tomorrow. An operation such as this requires careful strategy, not impulse, and more manpower than I alone can provide."

The second person nodded. "Do what you must. Just ensure Tsunade is out of the picture and the Kyuubi brat is in hell where he belongs. We will take care of the rest."