DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN NARUTO OR ANY ASSOCIATED CHARACTERS

Yes, I know. I'm not gonna make the promise of being back for good this time, but I did manage to find some free time for once and grind this out. A bit short, but I'm sure you all won't mind. It has been a while, after all. Anyways, hope you all enjoy, drop a review with your thoughts!

Chapter 26 - Aftermath

Obito released Rin's waist as soon as they reappeared out of the Kamui dimension. He'd grown quiet, mostly due to the fact that though he'd realized he loved Rin, he hadn't quite worked out in what capacity yet. For now, having her back to normal was enough.

He took a half step to the side to create separation from Rin, who was looking at him intensely, a question floating behind her eyes. The Uchiha shook his head. "We'll talk later. Not now."

He shot off without a word, more pressing matter requiring his attention, as well as hers. They couldn't afford to get distracted by personal matters, as the state of the village was unknown. Obito's first plan was to make their way back to the staging area, because the sounds of battle had ceased, meaning that they'd either won or lost the battle entirely.

Obito could practically taste the worry that wafted off of Rin for every second that they were away, but when the pair passed two sets of sentries on their way to the square, it brought relief, meaning that they'd bested the enemy, even if it was only temporary. Obito slowed to a walk when they entered the busy square, so as to not get in the way of the more important jobs going on at the moment. Medical ninja were currently in the process of what looked to be transporting the more critically injured to the hospital itself, while cases that had been treated already were being returned to the square. Chunin and Genin seemed to be largely directing this process, as most of the Jonin were either manning the sentry posts or were tending to other matters.

Obito stopped when he saw the man from Kumo, the one with the headband that rhymed, seated under an awning. Rin drew alongside him, but he simply nodded, knowing that she would join the efforts of the medical ninja in treatment. But before she could take off to find the person in charge, Guy came barreling through the crowd and practically crushed both of their ribcages in what felt like a chakra-infused hug.

"I'm so glad the pair of you are safe! I knew your flames of youth wouldn't be extinguished so easily!"

When Guy put the pair down, Obito took a moment to catch his breath, annoyance covering his features. "Guy, what happened?" he asked.

"Lord Hokage and the Raikage managed to capture their jinchuriki, Gaara, as well as the Kazekage himself. Once the Suna shinobi got word of that, they pretty much surrendered. They did set up a camp about five miles outside of the village walls, likely to wait on an update regarding the pair of them," Guy explained.

"What about the Oto shinobi?" Rin questioned. "Seems likely that Orochimaru himself was leading them, right?"

Guy nodded, a grave look crossing his face. "He was. Itachi managed to defeat him, but he was injured in the fight. Obito…it doesn't look good. He's in one of the priority rooms at the hospital last I heard."

"Then I'm heading there now," Rin said, not letting either of them get another word out before she was gone.

"There's something else. You remember Zabuza Momochi? They hired him for this fight," Guy said.

Obito's eyes blazed, fist clenched at his side. "I figured he'd have more sense than that. Where is he?"

Guy jerked his head towards the Torture and Interrogation department. "In a cell, the opposite end of the Kazekage and his kid. The Raikage is in there as well. Apparently, he doesn't want to let the Kazekage out of his sight."

Obito motioned for Guy to follow him, the pair approaching the Kumo shinobi, who took them in from behind his sunglasses. "Yo, what can I do for you, fool, ya fool?"

"Looks like you didn't betray us," Obito plainly stated.

"Betray us?!" Guy exclaimed. "He was practically instrumental in protecting the main gate, as well as the rear guard! His flames of youth took down the boss summon of Ryuchi cave!"

"That so?" Obito said, eyebrows raising slightly. "The village owes you a debt then. What did you say your name was again?"

The Kumo shinobi rose to his feet, one eyebrow shooting upwards as he began to rap. "Eight Tails, that be me, I'm the rappin' Killer B. Wheee!" he finished with one hand up in the air, two fingers raised like bull's horns.

"Right," Obito remarked dryly. "In any case…."

The Uchiha held out his hand in a show of respect, gesturing for B to take it. But the rhymer shook his head, holding one hand out as a fist. Obito nodded in recognition, closing his hand and meeting the other man's knuckles. To B, that seemed to be the end of the conversation, as he drew his seven swords, lined them up in a row, and began to sharpen them one by one.

With that matter concluded, Obito met Guy's eyes. "A little strange, that one," he said quietly as the pair walked away.

"That may be putting it mildly, but his flames of youth are unrivaled!" Guy proclaimed.

"Speaking of youth, you haven't seen my students, have you?"

"Well, Sakura's been participating just as heavily as these medical shinobi, even though she doesn't know any medical ninjutsu. She'll make a fine medic one day. But Sasuke, he's unconscious."

Obito became tense at that, but before he could ask, Guy held a hand up. "As far as anyone can tell, he's fine, but he witnessed Itachi's fight with Orochimaru. When Lord Hokage brought the two of them back to the square, he was already unconscious, and he'd apparently been bleeding from both eyes.

Obito's eyes widened with recognition at what had occurred. "So he's….He's fine. At least, he will be if Itachi pulls through. What about Naruto? Is he around? If there's one shinobi i can always count on to be uninjured, it's him."

Guy's tone turned somber at that statement. "Actually, Obito…Naruto's doing the worst out of all of them. He and I were fighting Kabuto and Zabuza, but I was occupied with Momochi, and Kabuto, he…he lacerated Naruto's spinal cord. The poor kid can't feel his legs anymore."

Obito froze in place. His breath grew deeper as he tried to calm himself, and his hands clenched so hard that blood began to flow from his palms. He lost the internal war, however, and unleashed his anger by shattering the entire street-facing wall of a nearby house in one punch. The blow probably cracked a few of his knuckles, but he didn't even feel the pain due to the amount of rage flowing within him.

He took a few more deep breaths to try and calm himself, which didn't really work, but Obito wouldn't be shattering anymore buildings due to the small crowd that had formed around them, all trying to get a glimpse of the commotion. Ignoring the throbbing in his hand, Obito set his gaze straight ahead. He knew that there was nothing he could do for any of his students at the moment, so sitting by Naruto or Sasuke's bedsides would do absolutely nothing for anyone.

"Come on," he growled to Guy. "We've got some business to take care of."

Sasuke woke to a bandage wrapped around his eyes, rendering him blind. The ambient noises around him gave him the indication that he was outdoors, or at leat in a tent of some sort. He sent a chakra pulse to map his surroundings, or at least give him a general sense of what was going on around him. He sat up and swung his legs over the side of his cot in one motion, but before he could leap to his feet, a pounding in his head hit him like a sack of bricks. He audibly winced and raised a hand to his temple.

"Don't strain yourself!" a feminine voice chastised as Sasuke felt two hands on his shoulders, pushing him back down to the mattress.

"Sakura? What happened?" Sasuke asked.

Before his teammate could answer him, Sasuke's mind filled in the gaps for him, recalling every bit of information from the arena fights up until the point where he lost consciousness. His chest began to heave, his breathing becoming rapid and shallow. He sat up again, much quicker this time, ignoring the pain in his head as he reached up to undo the bandage that covered his eyes. He ripped it away from his face and tossed it onto the bed behind him before turning to face Sakura.

He grasped her shoulders with both arms and shook her, squinting because of the lack of adjustment to light. "Sakura, where's Itachi? Is he alright? Say something!"

His pink-haired teammate looked down at her feet, not meeting Sasuke's gaze. "I…I'm not sure. He was in critical condition the last time I saw him, but they were all taken to the hospital No one knows if he's going to make it, but Rin-sensei is at the hospital operating on him right now."

Sasuke didn't give her a chance to take another breath before he was out of the tent and on his way to the main hospital building as fast as his legs could carry him. Granted, this wasn't very fast, as the pain in his head coupled with his exhaustion and lack of chakra meant that he was essentially just stumbling until Sakura caught up with him and allowed him to use her as support.

They carried on that way for the few minutes that it took them to reach the hospital from the Hokage's tower, where the majority of the tents still were. When they reached the hospital doors, Sasuke detached himself from Sakura and threw the doors open so hard that the glass would have been shattered if it hadn't already been missing. He used the wall for support as he made a beeline for the nearest receptionist, but he was stopped by a rough hand on his chest.

"I know why you're here."

Sasuke looked up, face to face with Minato himself. The Uchiha took an involuntary step back, but clenched his fist in resolve. "I need to see my brother. I need to know that he's okay."

Minato shook his head. "Itachi is still in the operating room. Rin arrived some time ago and is doing what she can, but it's too early to tell."

"I have to see him!" Sasuke protested once again.

"No!" Minato snapped. "Find other ways to make yourself useful to others until word of your brother makes its way to you. You are not the only one with things at stake right now, Sasuke," he said before brushing past the Uchiha heir and entering one of the hospital rooms.

Sasuke watched him with an incredulous look on his face, which quickly turned to anger. "He doesn't get it. How could he? It's not like he's lost a family member today."

"Shut up, Sasuke."

The Uchiha whipped around to see Sakura, a look on her face that he'd never seen before. "You have no idea what you're talking about. Take a look around you before making assumptions like that."

With that, the pinkette left a dumbstruck Sasuke alone in the hallway, entering the same room as Minato. Having to practically shake himself off, Sasuke wondered what could possibly warrant Sakura following the Hokage. Swallowing his pride, Sasuke moved to stand in the doorway of the room that the pair of them had entered. What he saw made his blood run cold.

There, on the bed, unconscious, was Naruto.

Obito was still seething when they let him into Zabuza's cell. Normally, Ibiki and Inoichi would be in charge of interrogating prisoners of this caliber, but they were currently occupied with the Kazekage at the moment, so Obito took matters into his own hands. It also helped that Anko, who met them at the door, wouldn't get in his way. Guy entered the cell with Obito, but knew he would be leaving this matter to his rival.

The Uchiha didn't even glance back when Anko closed the cell door behind them, sticking her arms through to lean on it and watch the proceedings. Zabuza met Obito's gaze for all of three seconds before averting his eyes.

"Look at me," Obito growled.

When Zabuza's eyes rose once again, Obito continued. "What did you tell me would happen if we ever meet again? Oh yeah, you said you'd be fighting on my side. So why in the name of Kami do I get a report saying that you were being paid by the enemy to attack my fucking village?"

Zabuza closed his eyes and shook his head. "You wouldn't understand."

"I wouldn't understand what exactly?" Obito demanded. "That you're a greedy little bastard who only cares about the highest bidder? People like you make me sick. You might have had a shitty life but grow up, this is your chance to finally do some good."

"I said you wouldn't understand," Zabuza repeated, more forcefully this time.

Obito took a step towards Zabuza and crouched to get right in the former Kiri shinobi's face. "I understand many things, Momochi. One of those is that one of my students was severely injured and may never walk again, much less be a damn shinobi ever again. You know where that happened? In a fight with Kabuto Yakushi and you. Now you'd better start explaining some things quickly, or Ibiki and Inoichi aren't gonna have anything left to interrogate."

Zabuza leaned back, running a hand through his hair before resting the back of his head on the cold concrete wall. "They took the kid, Obito."

"Haku?" Obito asked, brow furrowing.

Zabuza nodded. "I thought I didn't care about him, that he was just a pawn to help me take over Kiri, but when they took him, I realized I couldn't endanger him. They were holding this over my head, Uchiha. That's why I fought for them. I had no choice."

Obito sat back on his heels, relaxing from the imposing presence he'd been putting on before. He bowed his head slightly, nodding a few times as his anger subsided by a small margin. His sharingan met Zabuza's eyes again. "Then we've both lost students. Once things clear up around here, I'll do what I can to help you get him back. But you'll be spending a few days at the very least in this cell."

Zabuza shrugged a shoulder in indifference. "Been in worse places than this."

Obito rose to his feet and turned to leave without another word. Anko slid her arms off of the cell door and unlocked it to allow he and Guy to leave before Zabuza spoke again.

"Hey Green," he called, referring to Guy. He held a thumb against his temple. "Hell of a kick."

Guy smirked in thanks, nodding to the Kiri shinobi before following Obito from the cell. Anko closed it behind the pair and walked after them until they came to the common room. She gave a toothy grin to Obito, placing her hands in her coat pockets as she did so.

"That was hot, Uchiha. The head honchos over there could learn a thing or two from you," she said, referring to Ibiki and Inoichi.

Obito rolled his sharingan and turned his attention to Guy. "He was telling the truth, at least. I don't see any other reason for him to turn against Konoha, not even just for money. That's a bad bet for anyone, especially given the fact that there isn't a war going on."

"I agree. Besides, he sort of let me get the jump on him once he saw Naruto go down. He knew that their plan all along was to capture Naruto, and he let me stop Kabuto before he ran off with him. I suspect that's why he made it seem convincing, was because they were holding this Haku kid you two were talking about. If he were a common mercenary, he would have just surrendered or fled entirely, not willingly get captured."

Obito nodded in agreement while massaging the wrist of his injured hand. Ever since his rage wore off, the pain in his knuckles had increased to a dull throb. Anko regarded him curiously. "Did you mean what you said? About helping him get the kid back?"

Obito shrugged. "What's the alternative? Leave the kid to Orochimaru's experiments? You better than anyone should know that we can't do that."

Anko grit her teeth at the comment, but a respect was gained for Obito. It seemed that his Genin team had changed him for the better. Before, he wouldn't have cared about some child from a clan in another village, but ever since he took on this batch of students, Anko noticed that he seemed to care more. Not just about students, but more about life. She supposed that it was mainly because of his students, but they were changing Obito in more ways than one.

"I will aid the pair of you if it comes down to it," Guy reassured. "But for now, the village requires our attention more than he does."

Obito nodded. "Agreed. Come on, Guy. We're going to see what Suna wants."

"Without Lord Yondaime's approval?" Guy asked incredulously.

Obito shrugged. "I don't even have to check on him to know he's at the hospital with Naruto."

"Even so," a new voice interrupted, much deeper than either Guy' or Obito's. "You are not authorized to negotiate on behalf of this village."

Obito nearly smiled for the first time in over a decade when he saw the old and tired form of Hiruzen Sarutobi standing in the doorway. His armor was scratched in several places, and he had cuts that left his clothes tattered in some places, yet he still looked intimidating, his presence commanding the attention of everyone in the room.

"Lord Sandaime," Guy bowed.

Obito opted for the less formal greeting. "Where have you been?"

Hiruzen's mouth was set in a hard line. "I had to battle the Reanimation Jutsu of Lord Tobirama, the Nidaime Hokage. Only, the irony was, I was fighting the Nidaime himself, as well as Lord Shodai. Orochimaru used the Reanimation to use their reincarnations to keep me occupied. I was just lucky that the jutsu clearly was imperfect, as they were significantly weaker than they should have been, which allowed me to seal them after some time."

Obito's sharingan regarded the former Hokage with an unchanging expression. The old man liked to be humble, but he was one of the handful of people left in the village that could still give Obito a run for his money.

Guy, on the other hand, was the opposite of subtle. "Oh yeah! Lord Sandaime's flames of youth still burn brightly, even into the twilight of his career! How inspiring!"

"The point still stands, Obito," Hiruzen continued, ignoring Guy's hopeless chanting about the Flames. "You are not authorized to negotiate on behalf of this village without the Hokage's approval."

"So come along, you're a Hokage," Obito rasped as he brushed past the former Hokage and into the village streets. The sky had turned a dark orange with streaks of pink and purple as the last few rays of daylight cast long shadows across the village.

"I was a Hokage, Obito Uchiha. There is a difference," Hiruzen said as he fell into step next to Obito.

The Uchiha looked Hiruzen up and down with the sharingan. "Yet you're still coming along."

"Someone has to keep you in line."

Rin removed the gloves that were stained with Itachi's blood and tossed them into a waste container before making her way out of the operating room. Itachi was to be taken to an isolation ward, where he would be given the opportunity to recuperate. Unfortunately, Rin didn't have high hopes at all.

She secretly hoped that Obito would be waiting in the lobby for her, as she could really use a break from the constant bustle of activity. As nice as that would be, she knew that Obito was more than likely too busy to have any sort of downtime at the moment. Not to mention the fact that due to his tendency to close off his emotions entirely, he would most likely avoid the coming conversation for as long as he could.

Sighing to herself at her rotten luck with men, Rin passed through the lobby and into the hallway across it. She quietly turned the first handle on the left and pushed the door inwards. It clicked shut behind her, but that small sound was all it took for the three conscious occupants to whip their heads towards her.

She gave an uneasy smile that was meant to reassure them, but now that she thought about it, it was probably more for herself than anything. Shaking that feeling off, she folded her hands in front of her and looked directly at Sasuke, trying to ignore the unconscious Naruto.

"I have good news," she began. "Itachi's operation went well, and he's stable for now."

Sasuke practically threw himself towards the door, but Rin shot her arm out and blocked his path. "Unfortunately, he has yet to wake, and has been moved to an isolation ward to recover, so he won't be taking any visitors until I've seen improvement in his vitals."

"What's the bad news?" Minato asked quietly.

Rin raised an eyebrow. "I didn't say there was any bad news."

"You didn't have to."

Rin lowered her head, the gravity of the situation forcing her to clear her throat. "The bad news is that during the operation, we discovered signs of trauma to the internal organs. We decided to run some quick tests, and what we found was not positive in the slightest. Sasuke….Sasuke, I'm afraid that your brother has a terminal illness that no one in this hospital has ever seen before. The few of us that are trained in advanced medicine have no clue where to begin to treat this kind of disease."

Sasuke sunk back into his chair and buried his hands in his face. Sakura went to hima nd tried to comfort him by wrapping her arms around his shoulders. "Will he ever wake again?" he asked through his hands.

Rin took a deep breath and glanced at Minato before answering. "The truth is, we're not sure. His body was previously using most of its energy to fight this illness, to slow its effects. But with this grievous of an injury, his body will see that as more of a priority, which will likely allow the illness to rapidly grow worse. What's more, Itachi appears to have suffered partial blindness in his fight with Orochimaru."

"The Mangekyou," Sasuke whispered.

"What?" Rin asked, straining to hear.

Sasuke shook his head. "Nothing. Thank you for coming, Rin-sensei."

Rin bowed slightly, her eyes sliding to the side to meet the silent gaze of Minato. "Walk with me, sensei?" she asked.

Minato rose from his seat and followed Rin from the room, leaving Team 7 to itself. The pair walked in silence for a moment as Minato allowed Rin to lead the way out of the hospital. The sunset breeze felt like a pleasant change from the stuffy air in the crowded hospital.

"Naruto's injury is severe, as you already know," she began, voice soft to convey her sympathy. "And I know that you would wish for an operation to attempt to fix his legs. But, to put it mildly sensei, I am the best medical kunoichi in this village, and I cannot say that there is a reasonable probability of success. I have seen the scans of his spinal cord. It is severely damaged. So much so that were I to operate with the intent of fixing the damage, the slightest margin of error imaginable could lead to Naruto losing his life, not just the use of his legs. Is all of that really worth it to you?"

Minato stopped in his tracks. Rin carried on for a few more steps before she realized that he had fallen behind. She wheeled to face him, but gone was the confident, charming, sweet man that she had come to know as her sensei. Here was a broken man, distraught over an injury sustained by his child that he blamed himself for.

"I want Naruto alive, Rin. But how am I supposed to face my son for the rest of his life, knowing that I chose not to save his legs? How am I supposed to face him, knowing that his dream of being a Hokage has come to an end?"

Rin stepped forwards and wrapped her arms around her sensei, allowing him to bury his head in her shoulder.

"You move forward together, sensei. Your son is strong, stronger than you, even. He gets that from his mother, no doubt about that."