So sorry for the delay on this chapter. Not only do I have final exams but my internet is really shitty at the moment. However here is chapter five of The Ones Who Suffer.

I definitely don't own Naruto or any of its content….Sucks

Without further ado, unto the chapter.

Six months through the hell that was known as the Torture and Interrogation Squad and Sasuke Uchiha was finally deemed 'non-threating' enough to be allowed for probation. The light burned his eyes and ached his pale skin as he looked at the sun for the first time in half a year. His hair was longer and dishevelled, lips dry and cracked. Scars ran across his majorly thinned build as he staggered onto the street. Looking up, he found three pairs of eyes staring back at him.

Kakashi Hatake looked towards his student with disappointment and a slight amount of pity. He did not expect Sasuke to come out of this unscathed but he certainly didn't anticipate the boy to be a literal husk of his former self. All of the drive and passion he once saw in the last Uchiha's eyes (dark as they were) now seemed like a distant memory as they now took on a dull hue.

Sakura Haruno gasped as she saw the state her teammate was in. Was this really Sasuke? How could they treat him like this? Her inner self started to bellow in rage as she visualised the torment that her crush had went through. How dare they? She was going to raze this building to the ground if she had the chance to. They were going to feel the pain they inflicted on him tenfold.

Naruto- no, Ino. Ino Yamanaka stood in the place where his teammate should have been. Her face was similar to Kakashi's but instead of major disappointment there was a look of slight fear and rage. After hearing what happened to Shikamaru and the near death state she found Choji in, not to mention how Sakura berated Naruto (even though not trying to object), she started to wonder if the person she once saw in the Uchiha was just a mirage. After a while of thinking and getting stronger, she realised that the boy was just not worth it.

If he would go so far as to team-up with someone like Orochimaru then Sasuke was just a time bomb ready to go off. His excuse of being the last Uchiha had long since run dry. Naruto was alone for most of his life and he didn't turn out that way, at least the Naruto she used to know.

The Uchiha saw all of this and did something that managed to surprise all three onlookers; he broke down. Sasuke Uchiha cried his heart out, his head in his hands as he fell in a heap on the side of the street. The three looked on in shock until Sakura came back to her senses, rushing to help her teammate up all the while trying to get him to calm down. Her efforts went unanswered as he passed out in her arms.

"Sasuke!" Sakura tried to wake him up only to be stopped by her sensei. A shake of his head told her all she needed to know as she took him up and carried him to his appartment, only the sensei followed suit.

Ino however was still in shock at what she saw. Was that really Sasuke just now? How did the prideful and stuck up brat become such a train wreck of emotions? How did six months of interrogation turn him into…that? She looked towards the building, remembering the stories her father had told of his time in the T&I department, only now did she fuly understand just how effective and terrifying the techniques were in the right hands.

But if it would make her stronger, and help prevent something like that happening to her team again, she'd try anything. So taking a deep breath, she stepped inside. Only to be met face to face with Anko Mitarashi. The tokubetsu jonin looked surprised at first, but then her face turned into a cocky smirk.

"Looks like Inoichi's brat finally decided to get serious huh?"

Sasuke woke up clutching at his chest and gasping for air. His face covered in sweat as he looked around the room. There was light, good. That meant none of the psycho's were in charge of him today. He heard an 'eep!' to the right of him, turning around slowly he found a bright-pink Sakura, who moments prior definitely wasn't trying to lay atop him as he was sleeping.

"Sakura?" The boy asked, almost surprised that she was here….where exactly was 'here'?

"H-hi Sasuke-kun." She replied, trying to gain her composure. The way she sounded made her feel like a new Hinata, at least the old Hinata. After hearing what happened between herself and Naruto as well as his defection, the Hyuga did everything in her power to ignore anyone besides her clan; especially team seven. When Sakura tried to confront the girl about it, she earned a rage filled Juuken Strike right in her chest. Not a strong one, but one that managed to put her in the hospital nonetheless.

"Where am I?" Sasuke asked, snapping the pink haired girl out of prior thoughts. Right, she needed to focus on Sasuke right now.

"We're at Kakashi sensei's house. I didn't know where your apartment was and my house is really full at the moment." 'and really messy' She thought as she looked over his frame. He was so frail that it was difficult to even think this was the same Sasuke, but the curse mark on the base of his neck said otherwise.

"Ok….Where's Naruto?" The Uchiha asked causing Sakura to wince and look towards the ground. Honestly it was harder than she thought it would be to say Naruto left. Even if she knew he was, sometimes it felt like he was just off on a mission, ready to bring that stupidgrin and ask her on another date.

"Uzumaki Naruto is now a B-class missing nin of Konoha." A new voice stated. Kakashi Hatake walked into the room with the same look of disappointment on his face. This time it wasn't aimed at Sasuke however, but at himself and his failure for not focusing on his team as a whole.

"What? There's no way the dobe would ever leave this place. The hell are you talking about." He tried to get up, but with the waterworks and his passing out Sasuke barely had any strength to move.

"Don't push yourself, and no, you don't know Naruto's entire story."

"What is there to learn? Isn't he just an orphan?" Sakura said, making Sasuke narrow his eyes. What was their sensei not telling them?

"Yes, Naruto is an orphan, but that is not the complete story." Kakashi said, holding up a finger. "There is one main secret about him that this village keeps, and sadly that secret makes him one of the most hated persons in Konoha."

'What could cause an entire village to hate Naruto?' Both of the students thought simultaneously as they waited for their sensei's answer.

"He's a Jinchuriki." Ao stated as he looked towards Mei. The woman had bags under her eyes ever since Chojuro had died. She seemed to drown into work even worse as she forced herself to stay awake.

"You told me before Ao, and I understand. It still changes nothing unless he tells us which bijuu he's holding." In truth, Mei was told of Toaru's Jinchuriki status before she even met him, thanks to her second in command's byakugan eye. She didn't care however, and saw him as a person instead of a new weapon to defeat Yagura, honestly she didn't think it would help since the fourth Mizukage had full control of his own tailed beast.

"He still hasn't told us anything about Chojuro's death." Ao said. "Like it or not Mei we need answers, you can't shelter him forever.

"And I don't need to!" Mei snapped. "Once we finish this war Toaru will leave Kiri. As long as he helps to take down Yagura, I frankly don't care what happens next." Leaving no room for discussion, Mei told her second in command to leave the room.

The scowl on Ao's face deepened as he walked through the underground bunker. How could Mei not see it? This boy could be their greatest asset, all she had to do was be a bit more 'suggestive' and that could put the Jinchuriki in the right direction. Opening a gate leading to the prison cells. Ao walked in a room that had Toaru chained to the floor.

His clothes were torn and bloodied, but yet not a single scar was left on his skin. Ao watched on as the boy just stared at the ground, not having made any movement since Chojuro's demise. Scoffing, the man crouched down to eye level and took the patch off his constantly active Byakugan.

"I wonder what's been going on in your head these past two months. We're going to raid Kirigakure in a week, you know. Yagura will fall, but so will Mei, and in the chaos of it all I will be the only one worthy of the title of Mizukage." A small chuckle escaped his lips as he tried to find a movement, a twitch, anything to tell that the container didn't entirely go 'blank'. Seeing nothing of the sort, the man got up with a silent "pathetic", and left the boy to rot. What he didn't see however, was the slight smile that etched across the face of Menma, a smile that turned into a maniacal grin as a single thought entered his mind.

"I'll see you all in a week then."

Hanabi Hyuga was on the floor, panting as she slowly tried to get on her feet. Blood was dripping from her lips and fingers as she struggled to not throw up. This was the most treasured day of her life, the day she would finally defeat her sister and become the head of the main branch. Unfortunately things were not going as planned.

Surprisingly, her sister was winning. Not only that, but she was destroying her in every way possible. Never before had Hanabi seen her sister this ruthless, this destructive, she was acting like any other Hyuuga now.

Finally getting up, the younger sister rushed towards her opponent, clashing for but a mere moment as she was hit with an Air Palm straight to the chest, sending her flying into a wall of the dojo. Unable to hold back anymore, a wave of bile and blood escaped her mouth and washed onto the floor. Even some of the Hyuga members turned their heads away, unable to watch the brutality that was being committed right before their very eyes. Neji himself was gritting his teeth in anger, very close to losing the already fickle faith he began to have in his uncle.

"Give it up Hanabi." Hinata Hyuga stated from the opposite end of the dojo. Her hair had lengthened and her assets were just starting to develop. None of that mattered, as the Hinata once known as the shy and soft spoken girl to friends and family, had now become a more 'traditionalized' member of her clan.

She was cold, dark and unforgiving. Her face was either set to a neutral display or a glare that sent chills down your spine. Today however, she looked triumphantly at her sister with a prideful grin as she knew this battle was over.

Hanabi coughed out the remnants of her stomach and stood up once more. She got in a Jyuken stance once more and lunged towards her sister, the words of "never!" escaping her lips as she tried to use the Eight Trigrams- Thirty Two Palms technique. Hinata was already in position to counter and retaliated with the same technique herself. Both combatants went blow for blow, trying to find a slip in the other's defence until a minor slip from Hanabi caused a tenketsu on her left arm to be closed off, rendering it useless.

Hinata went to end the fight with a blow to her shoulder. What she didn't expect was for Hanabi to jump in the way of the attack, taking the strike right above her heart, stopping it almost immediately. Her body ragdolled into the air and slammed into the ground, bouncing off of it a few times before finally coming to a stop. The crowd of onlookers still mostly had

stoic looks on their faces. It might not have been a pretty battle, but it finally signified who the next head of the clan would be. The elders were more outward with their emotions, smiling and expressing praises to Hinata for a battle well fought.

Hiashi spoke no words as he picked up his now deceased daughter. He just didn't have a clue in what to says. Should he tell the muderer of her own sister good job in becoming a clan head? Or should he hate the only child he had left? He tried his best to forgive her, but Hanabi's dead body always served as a reminder to what she had done. Still, he couldn't hate her, because he was the one to create her in the first place.

Hiashi had always wanted Hinata to be tougher, stronger, less like the stuttering scared child she used to be. That was why he pushed her to her extremeties, even going so far as to allow Neji to take out some of his frustrations onto her (through fighting, you perverts) before calling the match in his favor. It looked like his plan had finally worked, but this was not the end result that he had hoped for.

Naruto. The reason for his daughter's change was not because she had snapped under the pressure, or because she wanted revenge on the way the clan treated her, but because the one she loved had left the village. Only to have his name to be happily forgotten because the 'kyuubi' was finally gone.

He carried Hanabi's body to the cremator. The elder hyuuga almost looked at his clan head with sorrow. Even though no emotion showed across Hiashi's face, the elder knew that the pain of losing one's child was a thing no parent should ever go through. With a silent nod, he took Hanabi from the clan head and placed her in the furnace.

There would be no funeral held for the youngest daughter. As far as the main family was concerned, Hanabi died as a branch member, regardless of the seal. To the branch members, it was a biased sense of justice to them that the head could finally feel some of the pain they did. Of course it wasn't all of them, but no one was going to defend or accuse Hiashi because of the set of kanji on their forheads, preventing them from ever going against their wishes.

Hinata sat in her room as she continued to look at her hands. She had just killed her own sister, one of the only persons in her life that she could consider being close to. Memories flashed through her head as silent tears ran from her eyes. She didn't mean to, but how could she say that to a corpse?

She gripped her knees. Why should she feel sorry? In all the times Hanabi and her fought no one said anything when she lost. No one dared to even look at her, not even her own father. To them she was just the weak 'Hyuuga princess', the one destined to be put in the branch family by a child 3 years younger than her. Well she sure showed them! She was sure that if Naruto was here, he would agree as well. She had won, and that was the end of it.

Steeling herself, she exited from her room. Tomorrow was the day that she'd be stated as the head of the clan, and as such, she would not cry over the loss of a branch member.

Hinata Hyuga would not be seen as weak.

"..Bullshit." Sasuke Uchiha said as his sensei finished explaining Naruto's story. Kakashi's eyebrow rose in suspicion, beckoning the boy to go on.

"I still think it's bullshit that he left. He brought my ass back to the village only to run away himself? I swear, I'm going to drag him back here and make him suffer just like I did!" He gritted his teeth.

"You haven't changed at all have you?" Kakashi's gaze turned serious. He wouldn't allow Sasuke to walk that path again by any means necessary, even if it meant the death of the last Uchiha. Sure he would never want to harm his student, but as a shinobi of Konoha he would ensure that nothing came to harm his village.

"I have changed. I'm a failure right now, and while the dobe is probably getting stronger at who knows where, I'm stuck to a bed for the time being; so that's why-" Sasuke managed to get off the bed and kneeled, bringing his head as low as he could. "I'm begging for you to train me again Kakashi! I probably don't have any right to call you sensei anymore, but I promise that I'll bring Naruto back home. All I need is some time and training to prove myself. Please!"

This was a sight to see. Whatever Ibiki did to the boy clearly had some impact, and for the better it seems. Sasuke was no longer the arrogant little prick that he was (well.. maybe a little) and the gesture alone proved it. The Uchiha never asked, only demanded what he thought he had a right to, which was anything he wanted. This small act of humility would probably make the old version of him die by just thinking it, maybe there was hope for the Uchiha after all.

Subaku no Temari walked underneath her mansion. Applying her chakra to a wall it suddenly opened to reveal an enclosed room with a bound and chained Gaara. The Ichibi Jinchuriki had his head down and was looking slightly thinner than when he was captured. Aside from the marks of the chains constantly rubbing against his skin, he looked relatively fine.

"You….look well….Lady Kazekage." Gaara said in a hushed tone, watching as the leader of Suna slowly walk around the circular room.

"I can't say the same for you brother." A scowl ran across the red-haired boy's face as he glared at his leader.

"We are not family. You gave up that chance the very minute you stabbed me." Whether he meant it metaphorically or physically, the words caused her to wince nonetheless.

"We can still be a family, I just want you to stop this nonsense about leaving the village. The council is either asking me to force your cooperation or seal the Shukaku into another jinchuriki, at the rate this is going I can't keep you safe forever; just join me, please."

"...I've stopped thinking about leaving." Temari's face softened as a light smile appeared, only to disappear as she stared into eyes not belonging to Gaara, but to the Ichibi.

"I'm going to tear this village to the ground. I'll murder everyone and watch the life leave your eyes as I take everything you hold dear. I promise that all of the pain you caused to me will be returned ten- no, a hundred fold. And then when it's all over, I'll watch with satisfaction as I rip your heart from your body." A maniacal grin formed across Gaara's face, causing Temari to back away as sand started to rise around the boy. Unfortunately, the chains began to syphon the bijuu chakra from him, causing the boy to scream in pain as shocks ran through his body immobilising him. After a few minutes, the Kazekage sighed in relief and released a breath she hadn't known she kept in. With a shake of her head, Temari walked out the room, stating a simple 'Goodbye Gaara' as she walked back to her office.

Words- 3337

Pages- 7

This is basically a filler chapter since I didn't really want to write the events of the Kiri war just yet. I also went back to the Leaf and Sand just to check up on a few people.

Hanabi is dead. This is mainly a factor of her humiliation due to a more ruthless Hinata and her not wanting to become a branch member. Also, she's a child, regardless of her strength I don't think Hinata would lose unless she severely held back against her sister. I just showed what I thought would happen if she went all out

Hinata's change in personality basically comes from what I said before. She knows the truth about Naruto and what he went through. Not only for them to be glad that he left but also because she slightly blames herself for not trying to reach out to our protag sooner. What will this cause for the Hyuga clan I wonder?

Finally made an update to Gaara. He's doing relatively fine as you can see. But I really want to emphasise the crazy that'll happen to the five great nations later on, so keep on the lookout will you?

The Invasion of Kiri is in a week. What will be the outcome? Will Ao really kill Mei? How does Menma tie into this? Or will Yagura be able to prolong his regime?

Find out in the next chapter

chao~