Chapter no.118

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The strong feed upon the weak, it's such an obligingly simple rule. Sunagakure had been weak and had used the opportunity of the chunin exams to take their place amongst the strong. In a world built upon violence, bloodshed, and war, the only option you have is to be strong. Only the victors are allowed to live...this world is merciless like that. However, they chose to betray the wrong village.

The Suna/Oto invasion, that would later become known as the Konoha Crush, had failed miserably. Over three-quarters of the invading Suna and Oto forces had been decimated over the course of battle. Most notable of these deaths were Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Temari, and Sabaku no Kankuro. The loss of Suna's jinchūriki was an important achievement due to the fact that jinchūriki were known to be the strongest weapons for each of the villages.

That isn't to say that Konohagakure had escaped the conflict without any casualties. Kiri only had a handful of its shinobi within Konoha's walls and none of them had been fatally wounded. Konoha faced many casualties, nearly half of their forces had been lost during the invasion. However most of those who had lost their lives in the line of duty would have their names engraved on the memorial stone and were mentioned during the mass funeral that was held, nothing more, nothing less.

This was the truth behind the Will of Fire. Shinobi whom had lived and died for their village would only be remembered by the people closest to them and by the name that was engraved into the memorial stone. Is that how their loyalty was rewarded? Wives, husbands, lovers, children, and families were left with holes in their hearts, because the duty to protect one's village was more important than their family. Was it really worth it?

It had been a week since the invasion and the fallout was worse than expected.

Much of the village had been destroyed by Orochimaru's snake summons before Jiraiya and Obito had gotten a chance to stop them. The Northern walls of Konoha had collapsed and that section of the village had been host for where those monstrous snakes ran rampant through.

The entire village had been the battleground for guerrilla warfare and large scale shinobi battles. The area that had suffered the most damage was near the chunin exam arena where the fighting had first broke out. Numerous people had met their ends at this once bustling stadium, shinobi and civilian alike. All in all, the village looked like a war-zone.

At least, that was what the scene had looked like a week ago.

Currently, the village was being rebuilt by all its occupants. Both shinobi and civilian pitched in to help speed up the rebuilding. The northern sector of the village had been personally rebuilt by Yamato, a shinobi whom was capable of weilding the Shodaime Hokage's Mokuton. Those shinobi whom excelled in doton were doing their part to repair the walls that protected Konoha and to smooth out the land where the earth had been scarred from the numerous battles that had taken place.

While there had been utter chaos the first few days after the invasion, things looked like they would be returning to normal quicker than expected.

Currently in the Hokage's office, Naruto was standing alongside Satsuki, Hana, and Haku. Natsuki and Narumi were in the room as well, but they were sitting on the couch rather than standing alongside the other genin. It was clear to all the other genin in the room as to what that meant.

Sitting behind his desk was Namikaze Minato, the Yondaime Hokage...well at least for now. He had made a full recovery since his near death like state a week ago, minus the missing left arm. He was staring at Naruto with a bit of pride, but mostly suspicion. Naruto sighed inwardly, it seemed that the man hadn't forgotten about his recently revealed abilities, even after he had just returned from death's door.

Obito and Kakashi were also in the room, standing behind their former sensei. Obito was present because it were his genin that were requested to come to the Hokage Tower, along with him. Kakashi was here for some reason that was unknown to him, though that didn't stop him from reading his Icha Icha Paradise novel and giggling perversely ever few minutes.

Kushina was sitting on the couch alongside her daughters with a worried look on her face, though she also looked up to glance at her wayward son every once in a while. She was probably worried about Nawaki.

Ah Nawaki, he had been an interesting topic as of late. He was still cooped up in the hospital, though he was out of critical condition, he still needed to recover. Minato and Kushina had turned white as a ghost and nearly had a heart attack when they found out that the Kyuubi had ripped itself out of Nawaki's seal and merged with Natsuki. His current condition also wasn't a very appealing sight, though they couldn't feel pity for him since he brought it upon himself.

Kushina, Natsuki, and Narumi had all seen the real side of him just a few days ago.

They had realized just how messed up their family was when he started trying to order them to release him so that he could kill Naruto for what he did to him. His inferiority and superiority complexes finally made themselves fully known as he continued to make threats he couldn't back up due to him loosing most of him power due to the Kyuubi ripping himself from his body. Nawaki had about the same level chakra reserves as an ordinary genin now. Though, that didn't stop him from trying to attack his family when they refused to comply with his demands. He was currently strapped to his bed, like a prisoner, to prevent anymore violent outbreaks.

It was made clear that he wasn't mentally stable at the moment. Or perhaps he had always thought like this and the recent events only pushed him to his breaking point.

It was only then did Kushina truly realize how terrible of a parent she was. She had no idea that her son acted this way nor did she know where she went wrong. Kushina had been left a hollow shell of herself these past few days as she went through every memory she had with her children to figure out where everything went to hell. She didn't find an answer...perhaps she was never doing things right to begin with.