(AN: Madara Uchiha has some swaggy hair, y'all. I do agree with Fictionlover87, though; Ino is a close second. Anyhow, let's get into this next chapter!)
"Akami Tengi will be in the hospital for no less than three weeks, even with our best Med-Nins working on him."
"It hasn't been that long since he was taken to the hospital."
"Our shinobi work quick," Dragon spoke.
Nanashi snarled at the man, "Easy to do when we're not all dying out in the field, huh?"
"The war is over, Nanashi. That is something you need to learn. You had a year of peace before being sent to Blood Prison."
"I had three months."
The Hokage blinked at her.
"I was sent to the Border, remember? Six months in Frost killing "Missing Nin" and "bandits" then another two and a half months in Grass, where you ordered me to attack a camp with four other Jonin. Two of us survived after slaughtering children. I broke down and had to be drugged and dragged back to Konoha. Minato-sama is the only one who defended me, who fought against throwing me in a mental hospital."
"And now you idolize him so much that you would try to cripple a man simply because his son failed his Genin test."
"Are you serious? Did you not watch the match or something? I heard two nearly identical retellings of that match. It's bullshit that you would believe he didn't deserve to pass."
"Which is why he will be put into the reserves until next year."
"So that his potential can be squandered?"
"Do not think I don't know what you are doing, Uchiha."
"And what's that." She leaned back as his glare intensified.
"You're dodging the real question," Dragon added.
She opened her mouth, but Hiruzen beat her to it. "Your obsession with Minato Namikaze."
"That has nothing to do with wanting to help Naruto." A half lie, but she turned her eyes to the ANBU, "And why is he here for this."
The man scoffed. "You think I wouldn't know his son? That I wouldn't spend my life making sure my men protected him."
Nanashi snapped her fingers and leaned forward, finally realizing who she was talking to. "Atsushi Hyuga, the Bright Wind of Konoha. Minato Namikaze's teammate under Jiraiya and the only Branch Hyuga to ever lose the Cage Bird Seal. No wonder hearing you talk pissed me off so much." He nearly crippled her in an ambush due to bad intel when she was 13. If she hadn't learned Medical Ninjutsu, the doctors wouldn't have been able to save her spine.
"Now you know a third-S-ranked secret." The Hokage said.
"Yeah. I heard he was on a long-term mission in the Land of Marsh. So why reveal yourself to me, huh?"
"That is a need-to-know information."
"More chances for me to slip up, I guess. But that's nothing. I know a dozen that could easily send this country into war again. Hito, Watanabe, The Land of Honey incident. Need I go on?"
"No," Hiruzen said, a forlorn look gracing his aged face.
"So, whether or not I'm obsessed with Minato aside, what I did was for the good of the Village."
"I think you just wanted some blood."
"Why? Because I'm drenched?"
"Still clinging onto that title?"
Nanashi laughed, "Yeah. Yeah... it certainly fits still, does it not?"
"And your legacy continued with Itachi as well."
She snarled at the man.
He raised a brow. "You taught him how to weave layer upon layer of Genjutsu, did you not? Even though you never unlocked your Sharingan, you were still a master. Your one true love, no?"
"Taijutsu is my one true love. Genjutsu simply helped me to survive. And so what if I taught Itachi? He turned around and stabbed me in the back anyhow."
"Ah, yes. He wiped out the clan—"
"I don't give a rat's ass that he slaughtered the clan. Most of them needed to go, I admit that. The children, he should have left alone, but the adults? The Council, the Elders, Fugaku? No, I mean when he lied to Fugaku after I trapped him in a Genjutsu."
"A lie?"
"Nothing that matters now." She waved him off.
"I believe it does, seeing as how you're teaching Minato's son the same things. Trying to make him into another... weapon, as you put it."
Nanashi scowled once more. "I'm not trying to make him into a weapon." She turned her head down to the floor, clenching her fists in anger.
"He already knows multiple elemental jutsu."
"I knew dozens by his age."
"And you were raised as a weapon for war."
"He needs strength."
"He needs a childhood."
She snapped her head up, a grin forming on her face. "He's had a normal one for the last year. Meanwhile, in all the previous years, he has had beer bottles thrown at him and insults slung at him from either side of the street. You can't say he deserves a childhood when you've done nothing but make sure he suffers."
Hiruzen stood at that point, anger in his eyes. "I'm warning you, Nanashi Uchiha."
"Oh? Are you finally going to put me out of my misery!" she stood to meet him. "Go ahead. Do it! I only live right now to spit on my clan's hopes of coming back!"
"One more slip up, Uchiha. One. More."
"Might as well kill me now."
"Kill you? Now, why would I do that? You've spoken openly about how much you hate Blood Prison. Why don't I simply send you back there?"
"Bastard!"
A hand on her shoulder forced her back down as she gnashed her teeth at the man. "Calm yourself, Uchiha."
"Bite me." She spat.
"Your hands are trembling." The old man noted.
They were, but Nanashi clenched her fists, digging her nails into her palm.
"You're sweating as well. Tell me, Nanashi. Have you had anything to drink today?"
She bit her tongue.
"Any since yesterday evening?"
Still, she kept quiet.
"You're going through alcohol withdrawal, aren't you?"
"Answer him, Uchiha."
"It is fine, Dragon. I suppose I will let you leave soon so that you can... indulge yourself." His face was grim as he looked upon her. Like she was a failure. He wasn't wrong, but... at least it wasn't Minato looking at her like that. "Tell me first, Nanashi. What is it that I can do for you?"
"What?" She froze at the words.
"You spent your time in prison. Yes, you came back early, but you still did your time. So what is it that I, as the Hokage, can do for you? What will it take for you to stop this self-destruction."
"You've spent this entire meeting breaking me down?" Nanashi's eyes were wide at the man.
"And you have for myself. Everything that was done was for the good of this Village. Yes, some information was wrong or warped, yet because of your sacrifices and the sacrifices of others, we won the war with far fewer deaths than we should have lost. It hurts me to see someone who gave everything they had to this Village, who sacrificed so much, to now wallow in the gutters. It hurts. I try to make sure all of our veterans are taken care of, Nanashi, and... I had assumed your drinking and wastefulness were simply to get back at me. But for the last several months, I see that instead, it was merely a coping mechanism."
"I—Stop." She felt something prickle in the corner of her eyes.
"What can Konoha do for you, Nanashi. I do not care for your last name; I only care for the Eight-year-old girl that I sent into war."
Silence reigned in the office, and Nanashi could only glare at the man before her as her hatred festered in her heart.
Naruto walked up and down the halls of the hospital as Sasuke followed close behind.
"Good, two more trips, and we'll get back to the room."
"Then can I leave?" Naruto whined.
"Shut up, dobe. If you need to stay longer, then you'll stay longer, got it."
Naruto made a face at the boy but continued limping down the hall. "If you can finish these laps, I think you'll be good to go, Naruto-san." Said boy grinned at the supposed doctor in training, Kabuto Yakushi, the formely adopted son of one of the Village's Medic Corps Captains.
"Ne, Kabuto, why did you want to become a Doctor?"
"A Doctor? No, I'm sorry, I'm afraid that's not what I want. I'm actually a Genin and am training to become a fully fledge member of the Medic Corps like Nono was."
"Sasuke's training to be one as well!"
"Shut it, dobe."
"Truly?" The older boy smiled at him. "That's surprising. I think there's only been one or two Uchiha in the Village's history that become Medic Nins."
"Really? So Nan-chan's really one in a million?!" Naruto grinned.
"Nan-chan?"
Sasuke elbowed the boy, but the blond simply continued speaking. "Yeah, Nanashi Uchiha! She's awesome and has been teaching Sasuke everything she knows!"
"Nanashi Uchiha... why is that name familiar..." A grimace formed on the boy's face, and Sasuke huffed.
"She's a great teacher. Plus, she's an amazing Medical Ninja. She had to heal Naruto when the other doctors refused to properly treat him, simply because of his healing bloodline."
"Ah, a bloodline, was it?" The smile was back on the boy's face as he stopped outside the room. "That is certainly fascinating. Perhaps sometime you'd be willing to help me with my own work, Naruto-san. You as well, Sasuke-san. Though your help would be more learning Medical Ninjutsu from myself. I'm sure Nanashi is a fantastic teacher, but a second opinion never hurts."
"Hm..." The Uchiha heir frowned.
"It would also give me the experience needed to teach more later down the road. Perhaps when I become a Jonin and take on a team."
"That would be awesome!" Naruto gave a thumbs up.
"I'm glad you enjoy my dream, Naruto. Now then, why don't we get all the paperwork finished, hm?"
By the time Naruto finally fell onto Sasuke's coach, he was exhausted. His limbs burned, and his chest still heaved. But thanks to Nanashi, he was at least home... or what he wished he could call home.
"Nanashi isn't back yet," Sasuke muttered.
Naruto rolled over, ignoring the twinge in his chest, and asked. "Did you speak with her this morning?"
"She said she might be busy in the Village all day. Something about a meeting with the Hokage. I think—Yes. She mentioned the incident last night with your doctor."
"Man... I really wish she and the old man would learn to get along. I'm sure if they sat down with each other, they'd learn they have a lot in common."
"Really?" Sasuke quirked a brow. "The Hokage and the local drunk?"
Naruto opened his mouth with a frown, only for Sasuke to hold up a hand.
"I don't mean anything by it, but it's true. Nanashi... she's a drunk. Nothing more, nothing less. She's getting better, far better, but—"
The front door slammed open, and Nanashi quickly walked through the entranceway, an unopened bottle of sake in one shaking hand, with an old, tattered band in the other.
"Nan-chan! You're back."
She continued into the room, her shoulders shaking violently. Sasuke frowned as he noticed a large bruise on her cheek. "Nanashi?" He asked.
Naruto swung off of his seat and stood, a question on his tongue.
"I—" She cut herself off.
Sasuke walked over in worry, Naruto at his heels. They looked at the band in her hand and realized something. "Is that a Headband?"
It was very old. The fabric was tattered; several strands stuck out from the stitching holding the metal plate, and it had several deep knicks and cuts. Yet the Konoha seal stood distinctly in the middle.
"Nan-chan? Who's headband is that?"
Sasuke wanted to know as well and gently grabbed the woman's arm, guiding her to the couch. She was shaking bad now, and he couldn't tell if it was due to the Alcohol, or lack of it, or from sheer nerves. "Nanashi, we're here for you. What's wrong."
"I—" She paused once more but soon started speaking slowly. "The Third he—"
"What did Jiji do?" Naruto frowned.
"He made me a shinobi again." She looked down at the headband once more. "Gave me... He..."
"Nanashi?" Sasuke asked.
"This is my old band... I'm a Shinobi again... a Genin."
(AN: It's a shorter chapter compared to the last one, but I do hope you all enjoyed it. Got a little more background for Nanashi. Seems she one-uped Itachi when he was a child, and Fugaku and the elders weren't too happy with that. And now Naruto has a Genin friend! Even if she's 25. Anyhow, let's get this next chapter rolling! But first, the question of the chapter! What is your favorite Bloodline in the series? I'm disallowing The Sharingan and Rinnegan from that of course.)