Mine

Sorry this is late. I had trouble with writing it and I’m still not sure if I’m satisfied with it. My slave driver, er, I mean, friend lL0tus said she liked it. Hopefully you all like it too.

Mine

Chapter 15: Revenge

Sasuke adjusted his pants back on properly, feeling sated after his impromptu "need" to balance Naruto's chakra. He sighed contently, watching Naruto. His eyes were glazed over from the genjutsu that he was still experiencing. Naruto had said that he wasn't really in the mood to have sex, so Sasuke had created an illusion for him that would be more relaxing, and Sasuke decided to leave Naruto in the illusion as long as possible. The illusion merely projected Sasuke giving Naruto a full body massage, something that would stimulate his body, and hopefully relax him at the same time.

After Sasuke had finished straightening his clothes, he also readjusted Naruto's clothing. Sasuke double-checked over Naruto's body, making sure that his one-sided lovemaking hadn't hurt Naruto any more than he already had today. He shook his head, frowning. Today had been strange. And long. It felt never ending.

Sasuke placed his hands together forming the ram seal.

"Neiri no Jutsu," Sasuke whispered as he removed the genjutsu and forced Naruto into a light sleep. Sasuke placed his hand gently on top of Naruto's head and smiled slightly. He remembered Naruto once asking if Sasuke knew how to do the force sleep technique like Gaara. He had asked back before Naruto and Sakura had even started dating. Sasuke had explained that "Tanuki Neiri no Jutsu" wasn't very useful to learn unless the user wanted to put himself to sleep like Gaara. Sasuke had gone on to explain that "Neiri no Jutsu" was more effective for a ninja's arsenal of different types of jutsu. Naruto had asked Sasuke to show him how to do it, and Sasuke had merely smirked, performed the jutsu, and promptly put Naruto to sleep with it.

What had Naruto expected? How else would Sasuke have shown Naruto the jutsu unless to use it on Naruto? Sometimes Sasuke truly wondered at Naruto's intelligence and his thought process. Sasuke's slight smile turned into a frown as he thought about today. He was still trying to work out why Naruto would become suicidal. It was ridiculous, unheard of for Naruto. And it made Sasuke's heart ache that Naruto would want to leave him.

Yet Naruto had apparently thought that he had good reason. Naruto had said that Tsunade had told him that Sasuke was Sakura's murderer. Why would Tsunade do such a thing? What proof did she have? He hadn't done it! Sasuke needed to find who had killed Sakura so that way Naruto would not need to worry about it. After all, revenge was more Sasuke's forte than Naruto's.

Sasuke checked over Naruto once again, making sure that Naruto was truly asleep. He knew that Naruto could wake up very easily under the jutsu instead of actually allowing Naruto's body to fall asleep on its own, and he feared Naruto might wake up before Sasuke had any answers to help ease Naruto's emotional pain. Sasuke was sure that Tsunade must have given Naruto some sort of pain medication, and that should be working now, but Sasuke doubted that Naruto would have been able to sleep with all his emotional pain.

Naruto looked so peaceful as he slept. Sasuke's hand gently played with Naruto's hair before he withdrew his hand and exited from behind the makeshift private "room." It had done the trick. Naruto hadn't been able to see Sakura, and Sasuke hoped that he would get some answers for Naruto about his Sakura's death before he awoke.

Glancing at Sakura's body once more before he left the room, Sasuke entered into Tsunade's office, shutting the door quietly behind him.

"He's sleeping," Sasuke said. Tsunade didn't respond to him immediately. Tsunade sat behind her desk as she filled out some paperwork. Shizune stood nearby looking extremely nervous.

"Good," Tsunade said, finally turning her head to respond to Sasuke's statement.

"Naruto told me that you said that I killed Sakura," Sasuke said angrily, getting right to the point. Tsunade looked like she was about to say something but Sasuke cut her off, continuing. "First of all, I did not kill Sakura. We may have had lots of disagreements in the past, but that doesn't mean that I would kill her. She was my former teammate after all, and I would never do something like that to hurt Naruto." Tsunade looked at him skeptically, and Sasuke wondered if he should have chosen his words differently as he had at one point and time almost killed Naruto. He had changed though!

"I know it wasn't you-"

"Then why the hell did you tell Naruto it was me?" Sasuke demanded.

"I didn't!" Tsunade said, rising from her chair.

"Naruto said you-"

"That wasn't me who told him. Someone else changed into a henge of me and then told Naruto you had killed her," Tsunade said. Sasuke didn't know what to say to that revelation.

"What?" Sasuke asked breathlessly. "You mean someone else knows of Sakura's death and blamed me? Why on earth would someone do that? And who did it?"

Tsunade didn't say anything. She sat back down at her seat and continued to finish writing at her desk. Sasuke pressed his lips together, hoping Tsunade was merely thinking, and not ignoring him, but he wasn't patient and he wanted her to talk to him. Shizune moved slightly, the movement catching Sasuke's attention. He turned his head to look at her, noticing for the first time that she seemed more than nervous. She seemed fearful. Cocking his head to the side, he glanced between Tsunade and Shizune.

"No one else has been informed of Sakura's death," Sasuke said slowly. It wasn't a question. Clearly no one else knew. That wasn't right. This entire situation wasn't right. "Why hasn't anyone else been informed? And if anyone else hasn't been informed, who pretended to be you?" Sasuke asked slowly.

"People will be informed. I'm writing up a report now," Tsunade snapped. "Be patient."

Sasuke fumed. It was clear to him that something wasn't right about the situation, and Tsunade's behavior was telling him that what he was missing was obvious. He cursed at himself when it finally clicked in his head what was wrong with the situation.

"Why aren't you upset about Sakura's death?" Sasuke asked Tsunade, his voice deathly quiet. He knew that he was not mourning Sakura's death openly, but he was still showing more concern over what had happened to her than Tsunade was. Even Shizune seemed to care more about Sakura's death.

"The need to secure Naruto's safety came first, wearing off the shock and pain," Tsunade said, just as quietly. Sasuke could tell there was truth to her words, but the way she said what she had made Sasuke wonder nonetheless.

"What are you doing about the security breech?" Sasuke asked.

"Security breech?" Tsunade repeated, clearly confused.

"Yes. Clearly there must have been a security breech if someone impersonated you and told Naruto about Sakura's death and that I killed her. Who impersonated you?" Sasuke demanded. Tsunade frowned, pressing her lips together. She looked thoughtful for a moment. Sasuke idly wondered if perhaps Naruto had run into the Tsunade imposter elsewhere, but as Tsunade had seemed to know about it, he assumed that she must have been aware of it. He watched as Tsunade's eyes flickered over to Shizune. Shizune looked at Tsunade before lowering her eyes.

Sasuke looked back and forth between the two women. The look they had shared had been quick, but Sasuke had seen the implications in it anyway. He turned toward the dark-haired assistant.

"You impersonated Tsunade, didn't you?" Sasuke growled angrily at Shizune. Shizune merely looked at him, her eyes sad.

"I didn't know what to do," Shizune mumbled. If Sasuke hadn't been so enraged at the fact that her lie had made Naruto hurt himself, he might have actually understood where she was coming from. It was always easier for someone to hear that they had an answer to how a person died, and even better when there was someone to blame. Sasuke knew from personal experience that it had been easier for him to hate Itachi than to feel the sadness of his family's death.

Shizune telling Naruto that it was Sasuke who had killed her was a way to at least alleviate Naruto's doubts about Sakura's death, and it also acted as an emotional diversion by keeping Naruto angry at him for supposedly killing Sakura instead of sad and depressed about her death. Though Sasuke hated to admit it, for those few who knew what he had done in order to keep Naruto alive the past few years, and then the lengths he had gone to keep Naruto for himself, Sasuke seemed the likeliest candidate as the person with the most probable motive to want Sakura dead and out of the picture.

"How could you jump to a conclusion like that without detaining me first? Didn't you even stop to think if that had been the case the threat I could have posed to Naruto? That put Naruto at risk!" Sasuke was outraged. If she had truly suspected him, her first priority should have been to capture him. Clearly she didn't find him a threat, at least not now, because neither she nor Tsunade had made any moves to try and subdue him, nor had they made any outright accusations at him. "Blaming me unnecessarily not only caused Naruto to hurt himself, but it has lost us valuable time we could have used to figure out who actually killed Sakura! Your oversight has hurt our overall chances of bringing Sakura's killer to justice as soon as possible!" Sasuke snarled angrily.

Shizune looked extremely pained, his words clearly having an affect on her. She seemed almost close to tears. Her reaction surprised Sasuke. Shizune was acting as though she really felt sorry for not doing her job in order to find Sakura's killer as soon as possible.

"Yelling at her will get you no where," Tsunade said to Sasuke. He looked over to where she sat her desk. She was right. Yelling at Shizune, as much as it felt good to get his anger out, would only delay finding out who had killed Sakura. He was about to ask Tsunade what she knew, but she was no longer looking at him, her hand sweeping across a sheet of paper, writing the report up. Hopefully what she wrote would help the shinobi assigned to find Sakura's killer. And of course, he would request to be put on the team that went in search of the murderer.

Tsunade looked tired, and he didn't blame her. She'd just spent several hours making sure that Naruto was okay. He actually bad for saying she didn't look upset about Sakura's death; she did seem drained.

During Sasuke's musings, Tsunade had finished her report as she began to fold up the paper on her desk. She opened a desk drawer and fished through some papers before Sasuke saw her pull out an envelope. Once again something about Tsunade's actions seemed off to him. Mission reports didn't need to be sealed in envelopes. Even if they were top secret, standard mission procedure clearly dictated that top-secret reports were to either be coded or to be written and sealed in a scroll as per security standards.

Sasuke figured that Tsunade was probably just tired and that's why all of her actions seemed off. Hoping to try and at least save herself the trouble of having to take the report out of the envelope, Sasuke decided to inform her of her error in a gentle manner to make up for how snappish he had been to her. (That, and in her tired state, Sasuke idly wondered if she would just snap in a fit of rage if he crossed her any more.)

"Do you want me to file that mission report? No need for the envelope," Sasuke said, trying to nonchalantly let her know she was making a procedural error. Tsunade looked at him skeptically.

"It's not like you to sound so nice. And this is a special kind of mission report," Tsunade clipped. Sasuke just glared at her. See if he was ever nice to her again.

"What are you going to do about Sakura's killer?"

"You're jumping to conclusions as though Sakura's death was murder," Tsunade said. "As I told you before, her death is under investigation. As of right now, it appears that her death may have been suicide," Tsunade said quietly.

Sasuke was stunned at this revelation. The gasp Shizune gave indicated this was news to her as well.

"Suicide? What? Why?" Sasuke asked. Tsunade banged her hands on the table and glared at him.

"We don't know why, you little twit, that's why it's under investigation!" Tsunade yelled angrily.

THUD. THUD. THUD. CRASH!

Sasuke, Tsunade, and Shizune all turned their heads as one as they heard the thuds and proceeding crash resound from the room next to them.

"Naruto," Sasuke breathed, closer to the room than either of the other two. He ran into the room and flung back the curtain he had placed around Naruto earlier for privacy.

Naruto's mouth hung open, a snore rumbling from him. Sasuke frowned, looking at Naruto. Naruto's right arm was hanging off the bed near the end of a small table with various medical equipment and whatnot sprawled out across the floor. Sasuke could only assume that Naruto had flung his hand out and he had knocked several things over.

"He just knocked some things over," Sasuke said quietly as he felt Tsunade and Shizune approach from behind.

"Indeed. He must be exhausted if that didn't wake him," Tsunade said as she and Shizune began to pick up the fallen items that Naruto had knocked down. Watching as Shizune and Tsunade quietly reorganized the items, Sasuke silently walked back towards the door, making it look like he was going to exit the room. He kept his eyes on Tsunade and Shizune as they tried to make as little noise as possible to prevent Naruto from waking up. He thought they were being unnecessarily quiet, as the crash hadn't woken Naruto up. Sasuke was being silent too, but he did so to avoid the other two in the room from seeing what he was doing.

Sasuke turned to look at Sakura's body, carefully examining her outward appearance. She seemed to have been dead for some time, as indicated by the slight smell of bodily decay barely masked by a strong disinfectant aroma. Sasuke's eyes darted along her body, and she didn't seem to have any noticeable bodily alterations. Perhaps she'd been killed with poison. That certainly would give Tsunade cause to believe that she committed suicide. Yet that didn't make sense to Sasuke at all. Sakura didn't seem the type. Tsunade had been informed that Sakura was coming back to Konoha, and she had even told Naruto. Why would Sakura commit suicide if she had intentions to return?

No, suicide didn't seem likely. Besides, Shizune, at least, had told Naruto that Sasuke had killed her. Why she would choose him to take the blame he had a few suspicions, but it was likely that Shizune suspected foul play. She had probably examined Sakura already, which meant she might know the cause of death. Sasuke also had a feeling that even Naruto, who was so easily moved by words, would need some sort of proof to believe that Sasuke had killed Sakura.

Shooting another glance at Tsunade and Shizune, Sasuke turned his eyes back to Sakura, noticing the strange way in which her hair was swept to the right side of her neck. Shizune had been looking at that area earlier.

And then Sasuke saw it. Sasuke could just see the edges of discoloration that indicated there was a wound to the back of Sakura's head. It looked like it had been cleaned, but the way that the wound hadn't healed normally clearly indicated that she had either already been dead at the time the wound was inflicted, or that it had been the cause of death.

Shooting another glance at the two women in the room, he finally exited and returned to the Hokage's office, waiting for them to come out into the room so he could discuss Sakura's death with them.

They had lied to him, he was sure of it. A wound like that could not have been self-inflicted upon Sakura. There was no way that suicide had played a part in Sakura's death: her wound was plenty proof enough that someone had killed her.

Yet why would Tsunade lie to him? Why all the secrecy? Why had Shizune said it was Sasuke? Why?

Sasuke paced in the room, waiting for them to re-enter, his thoughts a whirl. The only explanation that could come to Sasuke's mind was something unthinkable. The only possible reasoning that Sasuke could think would cause them to lie to him, for them to be so secretive led Sasuke to one conclusion, one that made him hope he was wrong.

One of them had killed her.

Sasuke was fairly certain that Shizune was no match for Sakura when it came to a one on one fight. She also seemed to be more concerned about covering up who had truly killed Sakura. That ruled Shizune out.

Which meant that Tsunade had killed Sakura.

Connecting the dots, it made sense to a point, but he couldn't establish a probable motive, though other indicators were present. For starters, Tsunade hadn't seemed upset that Sakura was dead. She seemed reluctant to answer his questions about her death. Shizune had apparently impersonated Tsunade and told Naruto that Sasuke had killed Sakura. Shizune was therefore looking out for Tsunade, but Tsunade seemed a bit upset about it. Had Shizune acted without instructions?

Sasuke watched the door, pacing more frantically back and forth. He tried to will his mind to find another solution to this puzzle, but he couldn't think of any. And what was taking Tsunade and Shizune so long to just rearrange some silly things that had fallen? Tsunade wouldn't hurt Naruto would she? But she had seemingly killed Sakura so did that mean she was capable of wanting to hurt Naruto? No. She'd just spent hours trying to repair his leg. Yet what reason did she have to kill Sakura?

That was the part that wasn't making sense. Tsunade would never kill Sakura unless she had to, unless Sakura had become a threat.

Sasuke's hands were shaking, his mind in a whirl. There were so many questions, so many what ifs that when Tsunade and Shizune finally emerged from the adjacent room that he picked up a chair and threw it across the room in his anger and frustration.

The loud crash made Shizune and Tsunade freeze in their tracks and both of them looked at him as though he had gone crazy.

"What is the meaning of this?" Tsunade asked taking deep strides to come close to Sasuke, waving her finger angrily in his face.

"Did you kill Sakura?" Sasuke snarled, his voice dangerously quiet. Tsunade's eyes widened, her shock plainly evident on her face. Sasuke didn't even need to hear her next words to confirm his suspicions as her reaction told him everything.

"It was a sad necessity," Tsunade said, her voice hard and cold. Sasuke saw Shizune give a frightened look between Sasuke and Tsunade, but Sasuke only barely noticed her.

"Necessity?" Sasuke hissed. "Necessity?" he repeated incredulous at the indifferent tone that Tsunade used.

"It is unfortunate," Tsunade said, though she didn't sound at all regretful.

"How could you do it? How could you be the one to kill Sakura? You should die!" Sasuke yelled angrily, his entire being filled with rage. He didn't understand how a master could kill off her apprentice without so much as a hint of regret. It was disgusting.

"I should die?" Tsunade asked incredulously, her voice much quieter than Sasuke's. "You don't know what you're talking about. Calm down Sasuke," Tsunade said coolly. Sasuke couldn't believe his ears. Why was Tsunade acting so calmly? Had she gone insane?

"Are you insane? How could you kill her Tsunade?!" Sasuke demanded, his voice rising in his anger. Tsunade was about to respond when there was a loud crash in the room next to them. Sasuke turned his attention toward the noise.

The next thing Sasuke knew, he felt hands on his shirt as incredible strength sent him soaring across the room. He barely managed to cover his head as he smashed into the window. It shattered upon his impact, and Sasuke screamed in pain as he felt broken shards of glass digging into his exposed flesh.

He grunted as his left shoulder banged heavily upon the roof that was a waist's length below the Hokage's window. His body rolled along the roof that he had often climbed on to reach the Hokage office from her window rather than the door, and he was grateful for its existence.

Sasuke flung out his hand, chakra already concentrated to his hand as he flung it toward the roof to help prevent him from falling.

It slowed his fall but only for an instant. His hand recoiled in shocked pain as he felt shards of glass enter his palm. His body instinctively jerked away from the cause of the pain. Sasuke went to put his hand out again, knowing to ignore the pain in order to override his instincts, but as he thrust out his hand, his chakra filled palm was met with air as he fell off the room, his body thrown into free fall.

Time seemed to slow as he twisted his body in midair, glass shards falling with him as he fell. Sasuke managed to twist in the necessary position his body needed to be in, grateful that he was a shinobi as a lesser man may have been killed by such a fall.

"Ugh," Sasuke grunted upon landing in a crouched position upon the hard pavement. His feet slipped on the shards of glass that had landed before him, and he could feel the prick of more glass where his hands had braced himself from the slip.

Sasuke took a deep breath, steadying himself, mentally checking over to feel if anything was broken. Nothing felt out of place from the fall, but he could feel the blood flowing from his scraped hands and from where the glass had embedded into the side of his neck. He reached up and pulled a few pieces from his neck, wincing. They hadn't gone in very deep, but they stung like hell.

Standing up, he shook his body, letting the small fragments of window fall from his clothing, clinking to the ground.

"Damn it," Sasuke cursed as he ran from the Hokage tower, knowing that people would need to be alerted that Tsunade had lost it. He had to make sure they were people that were friends with Naruto, and would do anything, even go against Tsunade, if it meant making sure that nothing else happened to him. They would need to be people that would be angered at Sakura's death more than he had been and almost as much as Naruto had been.

Sasuke left to find them quickly, knowing he didn't have much time, idly cursing himself that he had isolated himself from most other shinobi except for Naruto.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"He rolled off the roof," Shizune said sounding worried as she looked out the window. She stood on her tiptoes, trying to see the ground below the roof that jutted out from beneath the roof, but she still was unable to see the ground below.

"He's a shinobi, he'll land fine," Tsunade said, unconcerned with Sasuke's care. "We need to get out of here now," Tsunade told Shizune.

"Tsunade-sama, we can't run from this! You're the Hokage. We-"

"Then you stay, and I will leave. I killed a former subordinate without any justifiable cause. I will be tried, found guilty, and stripped of my title."

"Tsunade-sama, you can't just leave-"

"Of course I can. Though you should to stay. You've done nothing that can't be explained away as trying to bide more time to see if I was the killer. Everything is in my report anyway. I've named Naruto as my successor as Hokage," Tsunade said, as she began to rummage around in the drawers of her desk, pulling out a knapsack and shoved several items into it.

"Have you lost your mind?" Shizune asked. Tsunade ignored the question.

"Sasuke will probably be coming back in here, and he may bring others. You need to inform them of what happened. Stay here. Goodbye Shizune," Tsunade said as she leapt out the gaping whole in the window. Shizune yelled out for her to stay even as Tsunade slid gracefully along the rooftop below the window, using the glass to make her high-heeled shoes slide easily across the surface. She gave a graceful leap from the end of the roof to the next closest roof. Shizune watched as Tsunade got smaller and smaller as she jumped to further and further rooftops.

Tsunade was well out of sight by the time Sasuke and three others came filing into the room, even if it was only a few minutes later. Sasuke had lost no time in rounding up the people he thought he needed help from.

"Sakura's body is in there!" Sasuke said, as he pointed to the adjacent medical room. Three shinobi ran into the room, shinobi that took Shizune a moment to recognize as Kakashi, Yamato, and Sai. Sasuke didn't bother to follow them as he had already seen the proof.

Shizune merely stood where she was, her nervous expression finally turning into that of a trained shinobi, completely devoid of emotion.

"Where's Tsunade?!" Sasuke bellowed at Shizune.

"She ran," Shizune said, not bothering to lie. Things were getting way out of hand, and she wasn't sure what to do anymore. She figured the truth was best.

"Naruto's also been hurt!" Kakashi's voice called from the room.

"His leg was damaged. He should be okay," Sasuke called, not removing his gaze from Shizune.

"He seems to have fallen and hit his head. It's bleeding." This time Sasuke did turn his head in worry. With being thrown out the window, he had forgotten about the noise in the other room that had distracted his attention away from Tsunade.

"What?" Shizune asked, worriedly. She began to move, and Sasuke looked at her, not sure if he wanted to trust her entering the room with Naruto. She had caused a lot of damage, but she also seemed like she was at a loss for what had really been going on. Shizune had stayed, which said something about her character, but what exactly he wasn't sure. He didn't stop her as she walked past him into the medical room, clearly intent on helping a patient. She was a doctor, and he had a feeling her doctoral instincts told her she should help Naruto. Sasuke followed, anxious to see if Naruto was okay.

"I'm hardly in Konoha any more, and when I do come back, something strange is always going on," Kakashi murmured. Sasuke turned to look at him as he walked over to where Sakura's body lie on the table. Sasuke looked at Naruto even as he responded to Kakashi.

"A lot has been going on the past few years," Sasuke said, his voice quiet. In all honesty, he hadn't seen much of Kakashi in a long time, and it had been a bit strange when he had hastily found and informed Kakashi that Tsunade had apparently killed Sakura. Kakashi had seemed surprised, but he had had the sense not to argue and follow Sasuke to see if he was right.

Sasuke looked around, watching the scene as though from a distance. He'd practically shut himself off from the rest of the shinobi world except for missions with Naruto, and he felt as though he ought to say something more to the others in the room. He faintly recalled that the last time that Kakashi had made an attempt to contact him was years ago when he had offered to spar with Sasuke during his six-month probation period. Of course, Sasuke had not let anyone spar with him, not even Naruto for a time. That had been before Tsunade had called him into her office and given him the most bizarre mission he had ever heard of in order to save Naruto's life. Even so, Kakashi hadn't questioned him when he had asked him for his help today. Going to Yamato and Sai had been easy with Kakashi helping to round them up.

Kakashi didn't seem at all perturbed with Sasuke, and he was grateful. Sasuke knew that Naruto still kept in contact with most everyone. He, on the other hand, seemed to think of Naruto, and Naruto alone in his world. Other people seemed to fade away as long as he had Naruto.

"What happened to Sakura and Naruto too?" Kakashi asked Sasuke. Before Sasuke responded, Shizune answered.

"Tsunade-sama wrote a letter explaining everything," Shizune said, her hands alight with chakra as she began to heal Naruto's injury. Kakashi turned and left the room, clearly intent to retrieve the letter.

"Is Naruto okay?" Sasuke asked, anxiously. He knew that Naruto had a hard head and that it surely wasn't life threatening as it had stopped bleeding even before he'd come into the room, but he couldn't help but ask.

"His head's fine, but as head wounds always bleed a bit, I wanted to make sure he was okay since he has already lost a fair amount of blood," Shizune explained.

"He wouldn't have lost any blood if you'd just told him the truth," Sasuke accused angrily. Shizune stiffened at the comment but didn't say anything.

"We don't have much time for this. You asked us here to help deal with Tsunade, and she clearly is not here. We need to track Tsunade before she gets too far away," Kakashi said, interrupting any argument Sasuke may have tried to start with Shizune. Kakashi reached into his pouch and pulled out a rolled up scroll. He placed it in his hands, making a few hand signs before he unrolled the scroll, a pack of dogs appearing before him.

"Wait – no!" Shizune said. "Don't track her. Please," Shizune said.

"Shizune, something is not right with Tsunade. Sakura's death proves that. She's a danger to herself just as much as she is a danger to others. What Tsunade explains in her letter seems outrageous, and it has me wondering at her sanity," Kakashi said, his voice more clipped than usual.

"There were circumstances behind Sakura's death," Shizune said, and she turned her eyes to Sasuke. Sasuke merely returned her look.

"I just read the letter. The reasoning leads me to believe that our Hokage's mental stability has left her," Yamato said, stepping in, obviously agreeing with Kakashi.

"Follow Tsunade's scent," Kakashi ordered his dogs as he indicated that they should sniff the Hokage's chair for her scent. Within moments the dogs had gotten her scent and jumped through the window. "Yamato, stay here with Naruto and Shizune, but send one of your clone’s with us so we can inform you of what is going on. The less people that know about the situation the better. We need to find Tsunade. If things are not sorted out, and Tsunade is not here when people learn of what she has done, well, we need to be the ones to find her, not anyone else..." Kakashi shook his head. "Sai, Sasuke, come with me," Kakashi said as he jumped out the window. Sai followed behind him. Within seconds, Yamato had created a clone that followed next.

Sasuke felt a slight ripple of guilt at the entire situation. It was easy to blame Tsunade and Shizune, but if he had just told Naruto how he felt all those years ago, Sakura would never have married Naruto since Naruto returned his feelings. Sakura would never have angered Tsunade so much that she attempted to hurt her and flee Konoha a year ago-

Sasuke inwardly groaned. How could he have forgotten that? Sasuke wondered if perhaps Tsunade had held a grudge against her former protégé for the attempt on her life. That would be a good reason for probable cause. Sasuke understood how the desire for revenge could build up over time.

There were so much that Sasuke didn't want to think about that kept popping up in his mind. The only thing that he focused on as he made to follow Kakashi and Sai was that too many people would question the validity of just a letter left as Tsunade fled her position of Hokage, indicating she wanted Naruto to be successor. Some people wouldn't believe that without her verbal consent. Sasuke just hoped she didn't do anything foolish before they found her.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

"Naruto! Naruto! Wake-up!"

Naruto only distantly heard his name, as though someone were calling him from far away. He suddenly felt a light shaking to his shoulder, and realized that someone was trying to wake him.

"Wake-up!"

Naruto groaned, waking up feeling groggy, yet again. His head hurt and so did his leg. This time his memories came back to him quickly. Too quickly for his liking. He sat up, his head spinning slightly.

"Take it easy," Yamato said gently.

"Yamato-taichou!" Naruto said as turned his head in surprised, wincing at the pain the movement caused. "What are you doing here?"

"Waking you up. Sasuke, Sai, and Kakashi-senpai are detaining Tsunade-sama. They need your help," Yamato said quietly.

"Did she really kill Sakura?" Naruto asked quietly. Yamato was quiet for a moment.

"It seems that way. You've been unconscious for some time. Tsunade left, and they caught her, but things didn't go so well. We need you right away," Yamato informed quietly as he grasped Naruto's arm, and helped Naruto get down from the medical table he was on. Naruto was only half aware the Shizune was there, looking at Yamato uncertainly.

"What happened?" Naruto asked with his voice filled with dread. He gasped in shock as his feet hit the ground. His leg didn't hurt any more, but his right leg felt like it had sunk too far to the ground, his left leg buckling at the unexpected sensation of being so off-balance. Yamato either didn't notice, or thought it not important enough to mention. He picked up his pace as he ran down the hall, his hand still on Naruto's arm. Naruto winced at the discomfort he felt in his leg as he ran. Yamato gave a brief description of the skirmish between Kakashi, Sai, Sasuke, and Tsunade, leading Naruto downward through the Hokage Tower. Shizune followed, looking concerned.

Naruto realized that Yamato was leading him down toward the holding cells of the Hokage Tower.

"Tsunade didn't want to come back. They managed to get her unconscious – though Sai's arm is broken as a result – and brought her back here. She just started to wake up when they got her in a cell. And, well, this is what's happening since I dispelled my clone," Yamato said, his voice trailing off slightly as he and Naruto entered the detainment cell.

"Is she okay?" Shizune finally asked, concerned.

Naruto gasped, taking in the picture before him. In the cell Tsunade stood against a wall, her hand clutching a kunai that pointed at her own throat. A dark-red tag was attached to the kunai, indicating that it would discharge poison through the blade upon impact.

Sasuke stood with his blade pressed not against Tsunade's throat, but rather her hand and the kunai, the slight angle of his body indicating that he was preventing her from hurting herself. Naruto saw Sai and Kakashi standing at the edges of the cell, and he wondered why they weren't trying to help.

"She said she wouldn't do anything until she had spoken with you," Kakashi said, as though reading Naruto's questioning gaze.

"I'm not taking any chances though," Sasuke said.

"Naruto," Tsunade said, her eyes landing on him, her face more calm than he had seen in a long time. "It's time for me to die. I killed Sakura, don't you want me gone?" Tsunade asked.

Naruto opened his mouth, not sure what to think. He brain was still trying to process the fact that Tsunade had been Sakura's killer. He felt a twinge of guilt as he realized it had been easier accepting Sasuke as her killer.

"Tsunade-sama, what are you saying?" Shizune said, tears dreaming down her face.

"She's talking madness. Clearly she's not well," Sai said quietly. "I read it from a book. Her symptoms are obvious that you've snapped."

"You're not well," Naruto agreed as he looked at Tsunade, not even understanding what the words meant, but feeling that something was not right with Tsunade, though he hadn't read that in a book. "You would never hurt Sakura. Even after she hurt you, you would never...something's not right. It doesn't make sense," Naruto said, his voice pleading.

"You can bring her back right now," Tsunade murmured, her hand clutching the kunai. The tag attached to it seemed to flitter with no breeze present in the room, the black of the forbidden ink writing contrasted against the white rice paper backed with the thicker dark red paper outlining its edges. Shizune looked appalled at Tsunade’s words.

"Bring her back, what do you mean?" Naruto asked.

"By her, I mean Sakura, and by bringing her back, I mean I could bring her back to life. My life for hers," Tsunade said. A wave of understanding seemed to ripple through the room at what Tsunade was implying. The forbidden technique that required a human body in exchange to revive a person from the dead. It was unthinkable to do, and she didn't even know how to do it – did she?

"Do you even know how?" Naruto asked quietly. Sasuke turned to him, looking slightly shocked. Sasuke wouldn't have expected Naruto to ever consider such a possibility. It made his chest tighten to think that Naruto would want Sakura so back to pull Sakura back from the dead via Tsunade's body.

"Yes, I know how to," Tsunade murmured. "I didn't realize you'd miss her so badly. I didn't realize that you weren't happy," Tsunade said, her eyes darting over to Sasuke, as though implying Sasuke couldn't keep Naruto happy.

"What do you want Naruto?" Sasuke asked, his sword pressed firmly against Tsunade's hand.

"My body type is just the same size as hers. It's even used to the same techniques. I trained her after all," Tsunade offered, tears streaming down her face. The tears contrasted with the set look she held. "Isn't it about time I went to them? Back to my Dan. To my little brother Nawaki, and my comrades."

"It certainly would avenge Sakura's death," Sasuke murmured. Naruto looked at Sasuke and Tsunade, and then turned to look at Kakashi, Sai, and Yamato, the three clearly not sure what was going on, but not willing to butt into the conversation. Shizune was sobbing quietly.

Naruto lowered his head, wiping at the tears that suddenly sprang to his eyes, feeling that this was all his fault somehow.

Naruto turned his face up, his breath catching with the sudden sobs that shook through his body.

And at last, Naruto knew what he wanted.


Next Part: Epilogue


The Epilogue is almost complete and will most likely be out Sunday or Monday. Wow...it's almost over. Please let me know what you thought of this chapter! ~ Jelp