Chapter 66

[Naruto Uzumaki]

"I hate this," He said, his face twitching as he stopped himself from grimacing.

"Hn," Sasuke grunted from beside him, their eyes locked not on each other but on someone else in the room.

Eiji, to be precise, who laid on the hospital bed, unmoving and pale. Sometimes they would wonder if he was actually dead, with his skin so pale and the black veins still present everywhere in his body. Those were the worst moments and why everyone in the group always visited with someone else. They didn't want to be alone when seeing their friend in the state he was in.

It was like a twisted joke, really.

Their plans had worked, everything had gone well. The Invasion had been stopped, casualties were said to be… reasonably low, or at least that's how Kakashi had told it to their team. Everyone in their group had escaped the whole disaster fine.

Everyone except Eiji.

The one that had made the most plans, the one that had probably done the most, at least in their group… Why was he the one that was in a coma? How was that fair?

'What good is having this power if it still wasn't enough?' Naruto couldn't help but wonder. The Fox's chakra had made him stronger, faster, more durable. He'd been able to fight the woman, Yugito, together with the Swordsman, Zabuza, his name was, but… He should have been able to fight her by himself, shouldn't he? They were almost the same thing. She had a different demon, but it was close enough, right?

Why was she in so much more control than he was?

Naruto wracked his brain ever since, trying to come up with a way to work better with the Fox chakra. However, the fight during the Invasion was a one time deal, he knew. He was keeping his promise and working on his Mindscape, as Eiji had called it, making it into something much nicer than a sewer. It was hard, but he'd made a deal with the Fox and Naruto Uzumaki didn't go back on his word.

Now though, he couldn't use that again to get the Fox's cooperation.

With that in mind, he'd started talking more with the Kyuubi to try and see if there was a way he could get it to help him. Not an easy task to set himself on, that was for sure. The damn furball was always in a bit of a mood. It was either "I'll eat you and all those you are about!" or "Why should I care about my jailer?" or somewhere in between those. Still, Naruto was nothing if not stubborn and he knew it. He'd been dealing with angry and annoyed people his whole life. He'd put up with the Fox's attitude if it helped him be stronger the next time he needed to be.

This was the last time he would have to see one of his friends in a hospital bed like this, that Naruto swore to himself. He'd much rather be the one that was on the bed. He felt so… helpless just sitting there and looking at him.

"Time will be up soon," Sasuke reminded him.

"Right," Naruto nodded stiffly. "Same place?"

"Hn," The Uchiha grunted in response.

And that was that.

That was their routine, more or less. They went to the hospital, then they went to a training ground, usually with Sakura if she wanted to join, which she usually did, and then they would do D-rank missions in the afternoons. Kakashi-sensei had agreed easily enough after they voiced what they prefered to do.

Where they'd been eager to do C-ranks before, now they preferred the chores for a very simple reason. Those missions were short and they were always inside Konoha. That meant that they would always be close by if Eiji woke up. 'When, when he wakes up,' Naruto corrected in his mind.

At least the chores didn't feel so pointless anymore, so there was that. After all, many D-rank missions those days revolved around helping the village recover from the Invasion. Moving rubble, repairing houses, helping make and deliver food, etc etc.

"Eiji said you were training in the Mindscape thing," Naruto said as they walked out of the hospital and he saw his teammate tense up. Feeling more than a little nervous himself, he kept on, if only so he wouldn't regret his decision. "I'm doing that too," He admitted.

"..." The Uchiha remained silent for a long moment but Naruto saw his eyes move towards him occasionally. "Why?"

"Because of…" He looked around, to see if someone was close. Nobody was, but he was suddenly hesitant to say that in a public place. "I'll tell you at the training grounds."

"Hn."

"I just… I thought maybe we could work on that together?" He finally managed to say what he wanted. "I… It's very difficult."

"Eiji makes it sound easy," Sasuke said then, almost grumbling and Naruto felt his lips quirk up.

"I know right?" He asked, indignation clear in his voice, although that was contradicted by the grin that had formed on his face. "The bastard goes on and on like it's the easiest thing in the world."

"Hn," Sasuke grunted and Naruto took that as an affirmation. The Uzumaki pretended to ignore the way the Uchiha's lips quirked up the smallest bit. There was no use in pointing that out, he knew.

Getting anything resembling a smile from people in the group always felt like a victory to him though. His efforts to cheer everyone up were often joined by Chouji and sometimes Ino, since they were the most cheerful of the bunch. Although, it was hard to succeed when even they had trouble smiling sometimes.

The group had been somewhat divided since graduation. It was normal for them to meet up and for there to be a member that couldn't go because of training or missions. They'd gotten used to that with time.

Now though, it was like all that didn't matter. Everytime they would meet, they felt the glaring absence of one of them. Every day that passed like that became worse instead of better.

Naruto turned his head towards where the hospital was. Sasuke, next to him, didn't comment. Moreover, he himself turned towards the same direction and the Uzumaki wondered if he was thinking the same thing as he.

'Wake up soon, Eiji,' He thought, imagining that his brother could hear him.

[}-o-{]

[Anko Mitarashi]

"No news," She informed with a distant tone.

The two spiders in front of her sagged, disappointed. It would have been comical, with the spider the size of a building doing that, if not for the circumstances. Neither Kumohoshi nor Shirakumo had returned to their summon realm after finding out about what happened to their contractor. They refused to do that, apparently, until Eiji woke up or there were, at the very least, positive news about his state.

Anko had been surprised, really. She'd never heard of summons being so… concerned for their contractor. Even less so seeing as they were spiders of all things. Although, considering that most of her experiences were with the Snakes and they were the clan that actually wanted to serve Orochimaru, she guessed she wasn't the best judge for that.

"You are still puzzled by our presence here," The Chief Spider spoke then, after a moment of silence. Anko had to admit, at least in her own mind, that being stared at by those eight big, beady red eyes was more than a little intimidating. Especially when they were on such a massive, very dangerous creature.

"Are you, Anko?" The smaller Shirakumo spoke, tilting her head in an adorable motion that shouldn't be possible by a spider of all things. It contrasted even more with the very frightening sight of her mother. How these two could be related was beyond the Tokubetsu Jounin. "Why though? Eiji is a friend of the Spider Clan."

"Because she doesn't understand what that means," Kumohoshi answered her granddaughter's question for her. "And she didn't know about that to begin with. I'm afraid we may have forgotten to mention that while worrying about young Eiji."

"Oh… I, um, didn't forget… I just thought you should be the one to tell her," Shirakumo mumbled, turning her eyes away from the other two. 'It's adorable that she thinks anyone will believe that,' Anko thought to herself, a smile almost forming on her face. Almost.

"Eiji helped our clan with two people we had marked as enemies of the Clan. That is only done to those who have wronged us in an unforgivable manner, those who we've decided must die," The Spider declared. "The only reason we haven't already tried to kill Orochimaru is because he's wronged your people in much the same manner. He must die in the end though, after you are done with him. We'll make sure of that."

The way she spoke, she was stating a fact. Orochimaru would die if the Spider Clan had any say in the matter. Anko shuddered to think what would happen to her if she were in a similar situation. Maybe she should count herself lucky that the Snake Clan didn't quite see her as an enemy on that level.

"Eiji was a key element in our revenge. He gave us the chance and even took part on the death of one of said enemies himself, however indirectly," Kumohoshi continued, bringing to Anko's mind her meeting with Asuma when the Jounin had approached her to deliver her student's sword to her, since he was… indisposed. She'd hated that day. "For that, our Clan owes him."

"I'm sure he won't see it that way," Anko pointed out with a wry smile that didn't last long.

"And I'm sure you are right," The Chief Spider nodded, a weird sight even after knowing her for months. "Fortunately for him, he doesn't have a say in the matter."

"So, is there anything you two need over here?" Anko asked, rocking on her heels. "I want to look at Orochimaru some more, it's always good entertainment," She joked with a grin.

"He'll be ok," Kumohoshi replied, completely ignoring her question and the Mitarashi froze. "Our contractor is stronger than most think he is, and that is saying something. He'll wake up."

Anko's shoulders sagged and she took a painful breath in. Those days, it seemed like she always had a knot on her throat, sometimes tighter sometimes not but it was always there. 'I should have been there,' She thought every time.

She almost wished Eiji had never succeeded in breaking Kabuto for his information. If they hadn't had that, they wouldn't have placed most of their defenses and ninja on the village borders. After all, they had had a good idea of the Snake's plans. Except they didn't. Kumo's inclusion and the Nibi Jinchuriki's sabotage had not only decreased their effort's results but they had also made it so that a bunch of Genin was about the only thing that had remained near the arena.

And that was why Eiji had to fight Killer B alone for as long as he did.

To add salt into the wound, the only help her student had gotten was someone from one of the villages that were attacking them. Furthermore, Eiji had been the one to convince him to do so. Where had she been through all that? Half-way across the village dealing with the Kumo nin that had taken everyone by surprise.

By the time she'd arrived at the arena again, the fight was all but over and her student had laid on the floor, unresponsive.

"It wasn't your fault," Kumohoshi spoke again and Anko looked down, seeing Shirakumo had approached her.

"Eiji wouldn't blame you," The small, white spider told her.

"Doesn't mean I can't blame myself," Anko replied with a smile that held no mirth nor happiness. "What kind of teacher isn't there when their student is in danger?" That was a question she'd been asking herself a lot. How many times had Eiji needed help and she'd been next to useless?

"You hold the Snake Contract, do you not?" Kumohoshi asked then and the Tokubetsu Jounin turned to her, confused. By the tone of her voice, Anko had the distinct impression that the spider was smiling. A smile she was sure didn't bode well for someone.

[}-o-{]

[Kurotsuchi]

'Why am I here?' She wondered, looking around at the white walls and the window of the room. Kurotsuchi pointedly refused to look at either of the boys currently with her. She also stubbornly ignored the fact that she was in there for one of said boys.

After all, she was inside Eiji Satou's hospital room.

As if the fact that she had wanted to visit the comatose boy wasn't confusing enough, Kurotsuchi had found another, much more inexplicable occurrence when she crossed the door. Gaara, his name was, the brother of the ones that had helped her with her attackers during the Invasion. He was also the son of the Fourth Kazekage, which made his rather controversial participation during the attack even stranger.

He was also the one that had tried to kill her in the forest during the Second Test...

At least that explained why there seemed to be extra security outside the room. Kurotsuchi was sure that there was also someone or something in the room too. She couldn't see Konoha leaving the unconscious boy alone in a room with two prominent foreign ninja, let alone one from a village that had attacked them. Even less so if that boy seemed to be rather prominent himself.

"Why are you here?" Gaara's question snapped her from her thoughts and she turned sharply towards him. He wasn't looking at her though. Instead, the boy was staring at the Satou's lying form. For a moment, Kurotsuchi wondered if that question had even been directed at her. "Why did you visit?" Well, that answered her unasked question.

"I heard he convinced you and your siblings to help," Kurotsuchi started as an answer. "They helped with my battle, along with one of his friends," She explained, waving her hand towards the boy lying on the room's bed. "So I just… I guess I wanted to thank him, even if he is still unconscious," The girl finished, looking away. While that much was true, it also didn't feel like the current answer and she couldn't help but wondered why.

Two times now had Eiji Satou saved her life. Three if she counted the Uchiha and the Suna sibling's separately. Did the addition of the spiders count? Kurotsuchi found herself increasingly more frustrated the more she thought about that.

She hated that she'd needed help, that she'd needed saving like some princess in a children's story. 'Some genius I am, huh?' She thought, her lip twitching up in a self-deprecating smirk. She couldn't even be angry with Satou, since he'd been looking out for his village, not for her, just like he'd said in the forest.

She almost snorted, remembering that conversation had taken place shortly after he'd saved her from the other boy in the room. Which was why she refused to look at him for long. His sole presence reminded her about how she almost died by his sand during the Second Test.

'Why am I staying in the room with him?' Kurotsuchi wondered. 'Why don't I just go and come back some other time?'

"Why are you here?" She asked back instead.

"Because I'm his friend," Gaara answered, taking her aback. That certainly wasn't the kind of answer she'd expected from him. Then again, he seemed to be remarkably different from the ninja she'd met inside the forest. Was that Satou's doing too? "I was told it would be something a friend would do."

Now that fit her mental image of him a little better.

"So you aren't here because you were concerned?" Kurotsuchi asked, although she wasn't even sure why she did so.

"I guess in a way I was," He answered this time, sounding as unsure as his words did. "If he doesn't wake up, I won't know what having a friend is like."

Kurotsuchi didn't know how to feel about that. Should she pity him? She didn't think so. She wasn't surprised that he didn't have friends if he'd always acted like he did at the beginning of the Chunin Exams.

On the other hand, she kind of understood him a little better then. Not on the friendship side but on how he felt about Satou not waking up. After all, if he didn't, then Kurotsuchi wouldn't be able to repay him for saving her. That possibility infuriated her a lot more than the fact that she'd needed saving in the first place. She didn't want to owe anyone.

"Are you here because you are concerned?" Gaara asked then, and she could only blink, surprised. Why was he sending that question back to her? She'd already given a reason, hadn't she?

"Didn't I already say why I was here?" She asked with a frown.

"You say that it was because you wanted to thank him," He nodded. Kurotsuchi didn't know if the fact that he hadn't once let his eyes stray away from Satou was unnerving or just weird. "If you wanted to do that, wouldn't it be better to just wait for him to wake up to do that?"

To that, she didn't have an answer. Once again, she found herself annoyed. That was happening to her a lot, she realized.

It was all Satou's fault, she was sure.

Kurotsuchi would be sure to give the boy a piece of her mind once he woke up. Honestly, how did he even manage to be so incredibly infuriating while also doing nothing wrong? Maybe it was a Bloodline or some-

"Are you a friend of his too?" Gaara asked this time, apparently having decided that she wouldn't reply to his question. Wisely so, because she didn't know the answer herself. "Are you here because of that?"

Kurotsuchi blinked a few times before his mind pieced together that question with what he'd said before, about being told visiting was something a friend would do. She opened her mouth to deny that before pausing and closing it. For the first time since she entered the room, her eyes moved towards Satou, lying there, silent, pale and sickly. Then her eyes moved towards the Suna nin and back to the reason they were both there.

"I guess I am."

[}-o-{]

[Hiruzen Sarutobi]

The Hokage was almost amused by the state his old friend was in. Danzo seemed to grow more restless as time passed and his student's condition remained unchanged. It would have been amusing, really, if it weren't for the fact that a restless Danzo was a dangerous Danzo. That translated into increasingly worse deal ideas for Suna and Kumo.

While they had the support of Iwa and Kiri, Hiruzen didn't want to risk angering the other Nations too much. Contained as they were, he had no delusions that the Raikage and the two Jinchuriki could break out of their "cells" at any time. The only reason they weren't doing just that and going back to their village was because that would be a bad idea for everyone involved, them included.

On the other hand, they would cause trouble if Konoha pushed them too much, and that was precisely what Hiruzen wanted to avoid.

Still, he understood. Danzo wasn't the only one that wanted their attackers to face punishment. The Hyuga Clan was out for blood too, since they had been specifically targeted by Kumo again. This time, they wouldn't content themselves with the diplomatic way and Hiruzen couldn't fault them for that. He supposed he should just be happy that the clan was now more supportive of their alliance with Kiri after one of their ninja helped during the Invasion. He should thank Eiji for that, since the Nara Heir had told him about all of the Satou's plans during that day.

Even Danzo had been happy with his student's decisions, even if the one regarding the Mist grated on him a bit.

After all, Eiji had promised Kiri that he would pass Nuibari on to one of their ninja eventually. Returning the Legendary Sword to their nation in a traditional way that wouldn't have him killed. More than one would grumble at the loss of such a weapon for Konoha, one such person being Danzo. Regardless, Hiruzen commended the boy for that, he might have decided to eventually give up an incredibly powerful weapon, but doing so he'd gained an equally incredible amount of goodwill with the Mist. Even the Shimura couldn't deny that it was a good trade.

Moreover, if anyone wanted to complain despite that, then they could take it to all the people in the Council that had benefited from that decision. The Hyuga, the Nara, the Yamanaka, the Aburame, all of which had their heirs all but saved with the intervention of the Kiri ninja. Moreover, when someone tried to point out that their heirs had joined the fight out of their own volition, they had pointed out that if they hadn't the people of Konoha would have had to face two Jinchuriki that were in synchrony with their Bijuu. That usually shot down any argument since no one wanted to be the one to face that.

Hiruzen himself wouldn't tolerate anyone speaking badly of the Satou's decisions, be them the Sword Trade or reaching out to the Suna siblings. After all, his plans had also seen the Hokage himself getting much needed help in a time of need. Even if the fight outside of the barrier had been going in their favor, Hiruzen hadn't been optimistic about their chances inside it. He shuddered to think what Orochimaru would have unleashed on the Leaf after the Kages were no longer able to fight the resurrected… individuals.

Even if Hiruzen had gone for Plan B and used the Dead Demon Consuming Seal… What would have happened to his village afterwards? With no leader, would their seemingly budding alliances with Kiri and Iwa be lost? Would someone pick up quickly enough to save those? He trusted Danzo with a lot of things, but even the Shimura himself thought he was more of a last resort for the position than an actual candidate. He was just too used to the shadows to be in such a public position.

Hiruzen owed the Satou, but, more importantly, Kohoha owed him.

"Maybe you could get those Jinchuriki to help ours gain the same power they have," Danzo spouted then, breaking the Hokage from his thoughts. "God knows they owe us something, Hiruzen."

"That's actually a good idea," Hiruzen nodded, being completely honest. It was probably the only good idea Danzo had given for a while, since he'd gotten increasingly more vicious with his demands. "Speaking of, I have another one."

"Oh, do tell?" The man replied with a raised eyebrow. Hiruzen could imagine him hiding a sneer, probably thinking that he was going to say something about a more peaceful arrangement. Something that Danzo didn't like hearing one bit.

Fortunately, Hiruzen wasn't going to say something about that… for now.

"I'll send Jiraiya after Tsunade," The Hokage announced, the decision already set in his mind. That brought his old friend to a stop as he narrowed his eye and stood straighter. Hiruzen was sure he knew exactly why he had decided to bring his other student back. After all, she was known for two things, terrible luck when gambling and her medical prowess.

They were in need of one of those to repay a loyal ninja of their village.

"This isn't only about the Satou," Danzo stated more than asked as his eye narrowed even more, staring at him suspiciously. Hiruzen simply smirked. It seemed he'd been caught.

Maybe his friend had the time to prepare a heir from a young age, but he didn't have that benefit and, if recent events were anything to go by, he needed to have someone ready to take the mantle from him. Maybe even take it immediately. He was getting too old to continue in the position. He had passed the title on to Minato for a reason, after all.

Hopefully they would be prepared if anything like the Invasion happened again.

Apparently, that was not to be. Both Hiruzen and Danzo tensed when they felt two rather powerful individuals approaching his office. They would have been much more nervous if they hadn't known it was Mei and Onoki. However, the fact that their chakra seemed to be in a turmoil didn't precisely fill them with confidence.

"We have a problem," Was the first thing the new Mizukage announced once she stepped through the door. And if her words weren't ominous enough the expressions on both her and the Tsuchikage certainly were.

'I really need to retire,' Hiruzen thought to himself, hiding a grimace.