Author's note: Feeling like crap and I'm going to regret the late hour for sure, but have the next chapter!

Thanks to the following reviewers: 666snoopy; Fictionlover87; kiralacus0518; leighd1314; solitare1; Guest

Warnings: Some drama; Danzo deserves his own warning

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Kishimoto owns it.

I hope you'll like it!

Chapter 17

Father's ashen face greeted him the moment he drove the car inside the compound. The second Sasuke got out of the car, father's face tightened when he caught sight of Sasuke's bloodied arm. He thought it had stopped bleeding by now, but he wasn't sure and he didn't dare to move his arm too much yet.

If father had already looked ashen at seeing Sasuke climb out of the car, all bloodied, the look on his face couldn't be described when Anko got out of the car next, dragging Deidara out with her.

"All of you to Tsunade, now." Father's voice brooked no argument and for once Sasuke wasn't about to protest either. "Sasuke, we'll talk soon."

He felt both drained and jittery, relieved and sick, and on automatic pilot he trudged after Anko and Deidara; only vaguely aware of Naruto and Gaara bringing the motorcycle to a stop near the garage. Deidara's arm was no longer bleeding, hadn't been since it had been cauterised back there, but that was the only positive thing that could be said. He hadn't said one word during the drive back here; not even the slightest whimper. Sasuke wanted to believe that everything would be all right with the older blond, because the man had always been feisty, but up until now he had never been attacked to the point of losing a goddamn limb.

Sasuke thought he was going to be sick again; the sour sting of bile disgustingly hot in his throat when he swallowed harshly.

Both Tsunade and Sakura appeared the second Anko kicked open the door and to both the women's credit their eyes only widened a notch before they took control over the situation.

"Anko, get Deidara into this room; Sakura will take a look at you after. Sasuke, you go wait in that room; Sakura will be with you shortly," Tsunade ordered.

Sasuke slipped into the appointed room while Anko shuffled after Tsunade, literally dragging Deidara along at this point. He listened to their muffled voices as he took a seat on the bed, ignoring how uncomfortable the thin mattress was. That minor discomfort was nothing to the absolute shitstorm they had been in today.

Right as he dragged a hand across his face, the door opened and Sakura walked in, tying her hair together.

"What exactly happened?" Sakura asked briskly and carefully grabbed his injured arm. "Doesn't look like the cut is too deep," she mumbled.

"Shit happened," he replied wearily. "The town wasn't as empty as we thought it was. Ended up getting knocked out, my arm cut and got kicked in my back when I fought back."

She winced before walking over to the cabinet next to the door, retrieving disinfectant from it. She twisted the cap off and poured some of the content on a white pad, returning to Sasuke to wipe the wet cotton pad across the cut. It started bleeding slightly and the burning sensation created by the disinfectant had Sasuke clenching his teeth together. She used two more pads before the bleeding stopped and then covered it with gauze.

"Can't really check your kidneys here; as long as there is no blood in your urine, you should be okay in that regard. Just as long as you don't start feeling worse," she said before raising one finger in the air. "Going to test how bad the blows to your head were. Follow my finger without moving your head, okay?"

"Sure," he agreed and started tracking her finger when she started moving it back and forth.

"Just keep following my finger like this," she instructed in a low voice as she focused on Sasuke's eyes. "Feel any discomfort when you do this?"

"No, nothing," he answered and kept tracking her finger as she moved it from left to right, going up and down, switching to diagonally before she drew a couple of circles in the air.

She lowered her finger then, nodding to herself. "I'm going to touch your face for a bit, okay, see if I can feel anything amiss," she warned and started pressing her warm hands cautiously against his jawline and his temples.

He would suspect her of using this examination as a weak excuse to touch him freely, but her eyes were focused on whatever she was checking for and a contemplative frown cleaved her forehead in two. She had her lips tightly pressed as her fingers prodded his temples. She could still be flirty at times, attempting to push the boundaries somewhat but here, in Tsunade's practice, she was just as professional as the older blonde woman.

After she finished her examination, she stepped back and pushed some pink strands out of her face. "As far as I can tell you don't suffer from a concussion," she stated. "Of course, this would be better done with a scan, but beggars can't be choosers I suppose. It might be for the best if you stay the night here for observation."

"Any idea how Deidara is doing?" Sasuke questioned, ignoring her last comment. Unless he was about to keel over any minute now, he wasn't interested in spending the night here.

"No idea," she grimaced, shaking her head. "I'll go check up on him. I've got to take another look at Anko-san anyways; might as well do that now."

She walked out of the room, leaving the door ajar on her way out. Sasuke saw some light spreading out across the floor in the hallway, but he couldn't tell from which room the light was coming. It had to be either Anko's or Deidara's room; there was no way to tell when remaining in this room.

As he listened to the vague noise of a car being driven, he wondered what had happened to Yamato's body. Others had probably taken him away already to bury him. They wouldn't have to worry about him returning as a zombie; Naruto had taken care of that with his precaution.

The door being pushed open had him startling, tensing up a bit. He immediately relaxed, however, when he saw it was Naruto. The blond man slipped silently inside, appearing strangely vulnerable with the way he hunched his shoulders. He lingered within the shadows for a couple of seconds before he walked over to the bed, worrying his lower lip between his teeth.

"Gaara's waiting outside. So what's the diagnosis? Bad? Good?"

"As far as she could tell I don't have a concussion," Sasuke replied. "Unless I grow worse or start pissing blood I'm good to go."

Unfortunately he would definitely feel the blow to his head and the kicks to his lower back for a while at least. It made him wish he could have got his hands on those pieces of shit before Naruto and Gaara had arrived. He would have paid them back a hundred fold for the vile shit they had pulled.

"I guess that's the best possible outcome we could hope for," Naruto smiled wryly. He turned sombre immediately; his smile melting away like snow near a flame. "I'm sorry we couldn't be there sooner. If we had, maybe Deidara wouldn't have lost his arm and Yamato might not have - "

"That's not on you or on Gaara," Sasuke interrupted him sharply and narrowed his eyes. "They were the bastards who attacked us; you and Gaara are the ones who saved all of our arses. Don't apologise when you prevented the rest of us from getting killed."

"I guess," Naruto mumbled, but didn't look completely convinced.

Sasuke concealed a sigh, shifting slightly on the bed, and wondered if he could get away with leaving the practice already. Father had said he wanted to speak to him, but Sasuke had no idea whether that conversation would take place tonight still or tomorrow. For now he shifted his attention to more pressing matters.

"How come you showed up actually? I hadn't expected to see you at all – though I'm far from complaining, of course," he added.

Naruto pursed his lips tightly and sat down on the chair across from the bed. He balanced on the edge of it, clearly not wanting to get comfortable here. He weaved his fingers together, resting them on his lap, and replied, "You hadn't shown up yet when evening arrived. So I asked Gaara to join me and went after you."

"There was no real reason for that, though," Sasuke said and furrowed his eyebrows. "We could have been later because we were held up or something."

Of course the only holdup that could still occur nowadays was either a group of aggressive humans or a group of hungry undead, so it was a feeble defence he realised dismayed.

Naruto shook his head and rubbed the back of his neck. "No, you'd promised to be back before evening and I know you wouldn't break your promise. Got a bad feeling when evening started to fall and I still hadn't seen your car, so I went to get Gaara. After all this time on those godforsaken roads, I've learnt to trust my gut instinct," he said, smiling cynically.

"So did you get permission to leave then?" Sasuke inquired and couldn't help but feel quite sceptical about that. "I think the others would have just assumed we got held up. It wouldn't be the first time that that would happen."

"Correct, that's exactly what they assumed," Naruto confirmed; his fingers twitching for a moment. "The gatekeepers refused to let us go, though, and the Board decided that we would be risking our lives for nothing."

That sounded about right.

"You still showed up, though. Did you two sneak out?" Sasuke asked worriedly.

If they had, they might be in trouble now because the Board members didn't take it well when people sneaked around after Kabuto's betrayal. Even though Naruto's instincts had obviously turned out to be right, the Board wouldn't consider it as such. Father probably would, if only because he would be grateful to not have lost yet another person of his family, but the others? They might give Naruto and Gaara shit about this.

"Not really," Naruto said evasively and huffed. His gaze drifted towards the window for a moment before he focused on Sasuke again. "Both Gaara and I might owe your brother some defence classes for the kids in a couple of weeks."

Sasuke's eyebrows shot up. "You actually convinced Itachi to use his – wait, stupid question, sorry," he cut himself off and shook his head at his own stupidity.

Naturally Itachi wouldn't have minded exerting his influence in order to open the gates. He obviously trusted Naruto enough to approve of him as Sasuke's boyfriend and if Naruto had said something felt off, obviously Itachi would have acted on that immediately.

"Yep, he got the gates to open, Gaara and I borrowed the bike and off we went. Had to cut the bike before we reached the town, though," Naruto said chagrined and curled his hands into fists. "We had no clue what we were going to walk into and if there were other people involved, we didn't want to set them off with the noise of the bike. In the end we were too late for Yamato and Deidara," he muttered bitterly; his voice dripping with self-loathing.

He was startled when Sasuke folded his hands over his fists, forcing him to unfurl his fingers one by one. Sasuke tangled their fingers together before Naruto could curl them up into fists again. "You did end up being on time for Deidara and the rest of us," he said softly and peered into tired, blue eyes. "If you hadn't shown up right then, we would all be dead now, no doubt about that. I'm just sorry you and Gaara got the burden of their deaths piled on you. Neither of you should have been forced to deal with them all."

Naruto shrugged half-heartedly and turned their hands around, squeezing Sasuke's fingers softly. He gazed down at their hands contemplatively. "I don't care about them," he stated firmly. "I'd do it all over again if that means keeping you safe. Not the first time Gaara and I had to deal with such arseholes, doubt it'll be the last time either."

"Thanks for listening to your instinct," Sasuke murmured and lifted up Naruto's hands so he could press a kiss against his knuckles.

"Yeah well, wasn't about to let some douchebag take you away from me." He wavered them; a flash of insecurity darkening his eyes. "Did it – do you think less of me because … Gaara and I stayed until the zombies showed up?"

"No," Sasuke responded immediately and his fast reply had blue eyes widening with wonder. "You did it to keep us all safe. There's nothing wrong with that."

Naruto didn't reply, but he smiled softly; the slightest hint of a blush painting his cheeks. They bent towards each other simultaneously; their lips touching in a soft kiss, of which the pressure quickly deepened. Naruto surged forwards; one of his hands landing on Sasuke's shoulder, bearing down. The sound of footsteps coming closer had them breaking apart, but their position was apparently still intimate enough that it made Sakura blanch slightly when she entered the room. Her eyes flitted from one man to the other, clearly shocked, before she composed herself visibly.

"Anko-san got the clear to leave," she announced and stroked a loose curl behind her ear. "She was the least injured out of you three. Tsunade-sama is still working on Deidara-san, though. She's worried infection will settle in."

"We didn't exactly have a choice," Naruto mumbled and sank back down on his chair, scowling at the floor. "It was either cauterisation or having him bleed out completely."

"The cauterisation helped," she replied soothingly. "But with burns of that severity there's always a possibility of infection, especially in a case like this one. He'll have to stay here for a while under observation."

"Did he say anything yet?" Sasuke asked worriedly; his mind flashing back to Anko's murmuring in the backseat of the car on the way home. No matter what she had said, however, Deidara had shown no reaction whatsoever.

"Nothing yet," she sighed; her shoulders slumping. "Given that he lost his arm on top of what you all went through … I'm afraid it'll be a while before he will make a full recovery."

"Shit," Sasuke cursed and closed his eyes momentarily.

For all that Deidara could get on his nerves at times, with his stupid jokes and his stupid bets, he hadn't deserved having his arm cut off before getting nearly assaulted. Would he be able to bounce back completely from this nightmare? Sasuke's first instinctive reaction was to say yes, of course Deidara would bounce back soon because he always had done that, no exceptions.

Except this time he had been brutally attacked. Except this time he had been mutilated to that point he would have to live the rest of his life with only one arm left. Would he be able to adjust to a life with a missing arm? Could he make a full recovery after all this?

Only time would tell.

A second pair of footsteps approaching the room made Sasuke look up. He didn't miss the way Naruto tensed up when father appeared behind Sakura; his solemn gaze finding Sasuke first. The relief in his dark eyes was almost palpable when he saw his youngest son sitting up and fully responsive. However, his face turned utterly unreadable when his eyes landed on Naruto next.

"You okay, Sasuke?" Father questioned and turned to glance at Sakura when she straightened her shoulders.

"He's doing fine considering the circumstances. No immediate signs of a concussion. He's fully responsive and could perform all the actions as instructed. As long as his urine doesn't contain blood, he's as fine as he can be given what happened," she rattled off immediately, slipping into her doctor's persona.

Father inclined his head thoughtfully. "That's at least something akin to good news tonight," he mumbled. "Thanks, Sakura-san, for your medical help."

She reddened a bit. "Just doing my job. I'll go see if Tsunade-sama needs my help," she said flustered and flitted out of the room as soon as father stepped aside.

"You didn't just show up to check on me, did you?" Sasuke asked resigned, having recognised that particular look.

"That was actually my main reason for coming but no, it's not the only reason," Father replied, sounding apologetically. "I'm afraid the Board wants to talk with both Naruto-san and Gaara-san about their trip. I already told Gaara-san about this; he's waiting outside."

"Can't that crap wait until tomorrow?" Sasuke demanded irritated. "For fuck's sake, it's almost eleven! Don't they have better things to do?"

"I know, Sasuke, you don't have to remind me," Father said wearily and rubbed his forehead. "Trust me, I'm not a fan of this late meeting either but they won't give up. They want to talk to them now."

"It's all right, Sasuke," Naruto soothed when Sasuke opened his mouth to protest again. He stood up, cracking a lopsided smile. "Expected this to be honest. Rulebreakers get called to the principal, I guess. Don't want them to start feeling useless now, do we?"

"For what it's worth," Father spoke in a measured voice, but his eyes were intense, "I can't express how grateful I am to you and Gaara-san that you decided to ignore our orders and left anyways. Thanks to you two, my son came back to me alive and I can't thank you enough for that."

"Well, you could say I had some emotional investment in getting him back as well," Naruto mumbled and squeezed Sasuke's hand once more before he turned around, rolling one shoulder. "Right, let's get this over with. Got other, more interesting things planned than being scolded by the principal."

"You should be at home right now, resting," Itachi chided quietly but he made no move to remove Sasuke from the room.

"I'm fine," Sasuke muttered and crossed his arms. "I'm not going to let Naruto and Gaara be here on their own when they're the reason we're still alive. The Board is being a twat about this for no reason at all."

"Told them I was the one who authorised the trip but they insisted on hearing their versions as well," Itachi sighed, leaning into his chair.

"Wonder if they would still pull this bullshit if it had been anyone else coming for us," Sasuke mumbled darkly.

Currently they were in the official Board room; a name it had received around a year ago. It was really nothing more than a large office room in a building that used to house a shop selling stationary ware. Now the ground floor was used as storage and the floor above it contained two rooms; one of which had been transformed into a meeting room for the Board. The furniture had been set up to imitate a courtroom with two rows of chairs in the middle and a large heavy table placed in the front middle of the room.

Father sat in the middle as the de facto leader with Shikamaru's mother, Nara Yoshino, on his right; Hyuuga Hiashi on her right; old lady Chiyo on father's left and Danzo on her left.

Seeing them all lined up at this late hour of the night – they were past midnight by now – Sasuke couldn't help but suspect that it was specifically Danzo who was acting difficult about Naruto's and Gaara's trip. Danzo had always been the most difficult member of the entire Board, the most stubborn about getting his way exactly as he wanted. Not to say Chiyo was less stubborn, but she was more gracious at least, willing to take a step back when required. Both Hiashi and Yoshino weren't fond of rulebreakers either but they were willing to take circumstances into consideration – something Danzo refused to do if they didn't meet his world vision.

Sasuke still couldn't tell why Danzo was on the Board when the old bastard loved nothing more than to behave as difficult as possible. A darker part inside of him sometimes dared to question why Danzo had managed to survive the breach but Sasuke's own mother hadn't. Fate had a cruel sense of humour.

"We have now heard both Itachi-kun's statement and Fugaku-san's," Danzo began pompously; his dark eyes piercing and unforgiving as he attempted to stare down both Naruto and Gaara.

Attempted to being the keyword here, because neither Naruto nor Gaara were impressed by the small display of powerplay, judging by Naruto's quirked eyebrow, Gaara's bored face and their relaxed postures. Both their clothes were still stained with blood; they hadn't even given them a chance to change into something clean before summoning them both, which only pissed off Sasuke even further. Could all of this really not have waited until the morning?

"We have yet to hear yours, however," Danzo continued, narrowing his eyes when it dawned on him that neither man was easily intimidated. "We would like to hear why you decided to ignore the rules and head out without permission. Sasuke-kun, Itachi-kun, feel free to return home. We will gather the testimonies of your group in the morning, Sasuke-kun."

Sasuke smiled thinly. "No, thanks, I'm good here. I'll wait for them to be finished."

"I stay here in case you're still left with questions after they are done," Itachi smiled blandly. "We wouldn't want any questions to be left unanswered naturally."

Hiashi visibly had to stifle a smirk, which was further proof that Danzo was the one behind this bullshit. It could be considered a miracle that he hadn't insisted on turning this into a public spectacle.

"All right, let's get this over with," Chiyo grunted and stomped her cane on the floor. "Some of us would like to enjoy some sleep before the morning shines bright and early again. You boy, either one of you, doesn't matter, tell us what happened."

The 'boy' comment made Naruto scoff but after exchanging a look with Gaara he nonetheless started explaining, "Sasuke's group was supposed to return before evening. Once it started to turn later and later and their car didn't show up, I got a bad feeling. I went to get my friend and told the gatekeepers that I needed to borrow a bike and go out to check on them. They refused point blank."

Naruto paused and from his position Sasuke saw his gaze roaming from one Board member to the other as Gaara leant back comfortably against the seat behind him.

"As you very well know," Naruto continued in a measured voice, "this Board also refused to let us leave on the grounds of me being unreasonable and too quick to panic when the group could just be held up somewhere. Gaara and I decided to say fuck the Board - "

Yoshino nearly choked in her sip of water and Danzo's eyes narrowed dangerously.

"And go to someone who I knew would listen to me without declaring me insane," Naruto went on. "We went to Itachi, told him I had a bad feeling about this because the group still wasn't back yet and he authorised the gatekeepers to open the gates for us. We borrowed the bike and drove to the town in question."

He took a deep breath and linked his hands behind his back. They were trembling slightly and Sasuke wanted to get up and gather him in his arms, embrace him tightly and let him know he was there for him, but he couldn't do that now. It wouldn't help either of them. So he stayed seated instead, silently fuming about this ridiculous display, only slightly mollified when he saw Gaara discreetly touching Naruto's wrist.

"We turned off the bike before we reached the town because we had no clue what we were going to find there and if there were other people present we didn't want to give away our presence. We spotted the fire the enemy had created and went in that direction, figuring that even if the group wasn't there, we could at least find their whereabouts through the enemy."

His face darkened then, the next words coming out gnashed between his teeth. "When we came close enough, we saw Deidara on the ground with his arm cut off, Anko about to be raped and Sasuke was the next one who was about to be mutilated. Yamato had already died by the time we got there. We killed the group, left them to rot, told Anko to cauterise Deidara's arm and then we got the hell out of there before the dead could catch up."

He spread his arms then, Gaara discreetly retreating his own hand, and cocked his head to the left, gifting the Board a mirthless smirk. "As it turned out, my gut feeling was, of course, correct and we managed to bring everyone back before even more people could get killed. You're fucking welcome. The end."

"And that welcome is even more than you lot deserve," Gaara added scornfully.

"Show us some respect!" Danzo snapped. "You might have aided the group but that does not give you two the - "

"Respect is earnt, not given," Naruto cut him off abruptly. "And you have done shit all to earn my respect after dismissing me like I was some hysterical nutjob."

"And you certainly don't earn mine when you treat my friend like that," Gaara said unimpressed.

"You two have to understand," Yoshino said patiently, "that we can't just let anyone leave purely based on a gut feeling. We can't risk putting more people in danger when we have no clue what we're up against."

"I want to bet Gaara and I spent more time on the road than all of you combined," Naruto said and narrowed his eyes. "If you think that breach was bad, you have no idea of the shit people are capable of doing to each other. So here's a tip: why not actually listen to somebody with experience on the road instead of treating them like a goddamn child?"

"Following your gut can get you killed as well," Chiyo commented. "Not exactly the smartest way of going about things."

"Clearly it is, though, considering we found the group before even more got killed," Naruto smiled thinly. "You're welcome by the way for that. Would have been pretty awkward explaining to the rest of the people here why this group got slaughtered when it could have been easily prevented by listening to me."

"I do not like your tone," Danzo said and his eyes were practically shooting daggers by now. "Do not forget you're here because we allow you to stay here. We can easily kick you out."

"Danzo, no need to go that far," Hiashi said warningly.

"Want to kick us out? Go ahead, not much of a threat like you think it is," Naruto shot back, crossing his arms.

"Far from it even," Gaara murmured, his eyes turning half-hooded. "Would certainly save me a headache or two."

"Do you really want to leave the compound, Naruto-san?" Father asked, frowning.

Naruto paused; his blue eyes flickering towards Sasuke for a few seconds. "I've got someone here so I'm not in a hurry to leave. With that said, I don't appreciate being threatened either. If you think you can control either me or Gaara, you're sorely mistaken." He turned around and grabbed his jacket to shrug it back on.

"I'd suggest you go ask the last person what happened when they thought they could threaten us, but well, they're dead by now so fat chance of that," he said cheerfully. "Now I've got better things to do than stand here, such as changing clothes that don't reek like blood and getting some goddamn sleep."

"You have not been dismissed yet," Danzo spoke coolly even as Chiyo rolled her eyes in exasperation.

This time Gaara spoke up, a current of danger lacing his voice. "Sorry, were you under the impression that Naruto and I take orders from you?"

Naruto smiled but nobody could ignore the dangerous tint to that smile unless they were a complete idiot.

"We don't answer to you. Naruto agreed to tell you what happened and I agreed to show up to this travesty, but that's all. If you don't believe us, that's entirely on you," Gaara said clipped. "I'm warning you now, however, our patience only goes so far."

Naruto took over again. "I'd say have a good night, but frankly you managed to ruin this night even more than those fuckers already did so congratulations for that, really. Please do not call for us ever again."

He and Gaara left the room together, slamming the door shut behind them so roughly Sasuke swore the doorframe actually creaked in protest.

For a long moment it was silent until Chiyo piped up, "I like them. They've certainly got spunk!"

AN2: Got to love Chiyo LOL

Please leave your thoughts behind in a review; should you spot any mistakes, please point them out to me.

I hope to see you all back in the next chapter! Please stay safe and take care of yourselves!

Cuddles

Melissa

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