Disclaimer: Do not own Naruto.

Identity

Even though a lot of time has passed since the last time I saw it, the awe has not lessened one bit. Nine of its tails thrashing about destroying anything in its vicinity, the blood curdling roar and the pressure of its malicious chakra… it still inspired the fear and respect in me, even after all these years. What happened Kushina…?

The ANBU captain behind me was saying something but I managed to catch only a bit of it, "…arutobi-sama will be leading the attack from the east. You were asked to hold the west side with the men under your command. We are to hold till Yondaime-sama arrives."

"Get all the Uchiha with an active sharingan in the lead. Tell them to work together and try to put it in a genjutsu. The Hyuga will be in charge of evacuation, they are authorized to use the secret village tunnels. The rest of us will split into two groups… one under me will support the Uchiha, the rest will be under you captain in evacuation support and as our backup."

I didn't wait for the confirmation… I couldn't. This had to stop before Hashirama's dream burns to the ground.

"Suiton: Rasenshuriken."

"…ikaze-sama. Oi! Old man can you hear me?" The bright light that was being flashed in my eyes and that familiar gruff voice chased away those bad recollections as I was pulled into the present world. I opened my eyes to see my tormentor and savior pocket a flashlight as she checked me.

"Nice to see you too, Tsu-tsu. Where am I?"

"Where else… Konoha hospital of course. Two Namikaze in the village at the same time, I must be dreaming in my bed after having some excellent sex." Tsunade spoke all the while passing chakra through my legs which I noticed had gone numb.

I groaned listening to her crude language. I turned my head a little to see the other Namikaze, the village's Hokage, staring at me. So it has begun already.

Several hours earlier:

Why is it that I always have to do the heavy lifting. I have been carrying an unconscious Menma on my back for three hours now and we were still more than half a day from Konoha.

Why couldn't we be the ones to escort Gaara and the rest of the Sand shinobi back to their village, while Gai's team carried the prisoner back to Konoha. Gai and Lee would practically revel in the opportunity of having a decent exercise(by their standards).

This time I was in the centre of the group carrying Menma on my back, Sasuke and Onee-chan flanked me while Sensei led the group.

"Sensei, we need to setup camp and rest. Nawaki's getting tired and I think it will be dangerous to move on the trees, now that the sun's already set.", seeing me beginning to protest, my sister shot me a look that shut me up immediately.

Hearing my sister speak, Sensei stopped on his next leap forcing us to stop behind him.

"No fires, we will remain in the trees and we rest till dawn. We will bind the prisoner like before on the branch I am standing on. I will take first watch, Sasuke next, then Sakura and finally Nawaki since he needs to rest the most. Those of us who are resting will surround the target, as they rest, ready to ambush if the need arises. Nawaki help me bind him, Sakura check his status and Sasuke keep a lookout.", Sensei finished giving us our precise orders as he took out chakra reinforced wires again for the second time today.

My teammates were unusually quiet as my sister checked Menma's condition after we finished securing him.

"What's wrong, Sakura?", it was Sensei who broke the silence in the group.

"Is it right to treat him like this. We should have at least let him explain himself before just knocking him out and carrying him to the village like a common missing nin. What if he really turns out to be an ally?"

"Like I said before Sakura, we cannot be sure. Just because Gaara's team met him on a mission and was helped by him after he introduced himself as an ally of the Leaf, we cannot trust him. I will not endanger my team based on someone's word.", Sensei reasoned with onee-chan, who still didn't look convinced.

My sister had been the only one in our team to protest our treatment of Menma. Except for her, Gaara and Temari we had all decided that waking him up when he was healthy would be too risky for us. Since the Leaf was in charge of the mission, Gaara and Temari's reservations with the decision was ignored and Sakura-neechan was simply outvoted.

Onee-chan nodded and then left to look for a resting place still unconvinced. Sasuke and I noddded to sensei as we too moved to find our resting places.

"What's wrong, Sasuke?" he was a little too quiet even by his standards.

Sasuke and I were rivals but I still considered him a friend, a brother even, and considering the clans we hailed from that was quite an achievement. The only time when there was any actual animosity beteween us was when he had tried to defect to Oruchimaru, but it has been years since we got over it. Some people even compared our friendship to that of Hashirama and Madara, although I sincerely hope that we don't end up like them.

"We were like bugs to him. He was poisoned and even then we hardly scratched him." Sasuke's cool voice broke me out of my thoughts. He didn't need to explain, the thought had been bugging me too.

We stopped on a branch as I spoke up, "We were just caught off guard you know. Who knew he could make water clones without handseals." Sasuke nodded but from his faraway look I understood that he was far from placated. Sasuke hated to be overshadowed and feeling outmatched, having lived under the shadow of his brother his entire life.

"Alright." He sighed before speaking with a smirk, "Now get out of here, I found this branch first."

"Bastard." I grinned, patting him on his back I jumped off to look for my own place.

It was Sasuke's turn to carry Menma. I was to his right, Sakura-neechan who was still quiet was to his left and Sensei was leading. The sun was alredy setting when we caught the first glimpse of the village west gate. I breathed a sigh of relief. This was one of the most, if not the most, exciting and tiring missions of my twenty year old life.

We found Izumo and Kotetsu on guard duty with a captain of the police force supervising. I grinned seeing this, because it seemed the slackers had an Uchiha captain and had no time to goof off. The dark pupils of the captain shifted to its blood red majesty as he asked for our identities. The sharingan was quiet a lie detectorand a captain was quite adept in using it. I have never succeded in lying to Sasuke while he had his sharingan trained on me.

Sensei requested for an escort to take us and our prisoner to the hospital, and to also inform the Hokage of our arrival. Five minutes later a full Uchiha police squad, comprising of four members, dropped around us as we moved for the hospital. The captain at the gate had already finished calling the hokage tower on his radio by the time we were leaving.

The secure wing of the hospital was an extension of the main building but had a separate entrance. By the time we arrived the wing was ready for us. Sensei requested for a S-rank holding room. Having already witnessed Menma's prowess neither I nor my team was surprised on hearing this. The police squad dismissed themselves as an ANBU squad took their place.

According to protocol, the Director of Konoha's medical wing has to be present during the medical checkup of any high A-rank or higher ranked prisoner. Kaa-chan must have left for the day for she would have been here by now if she was in the hospital. My suspicion was confirmed when I heard the receptionist trying to relay the message to get Okaa-chan to the hospital on her radio. Being the son of the Director really gives you some insight into the protocols.

We were taken to the third floor, the hospital wing itself was five storeys tall, and the entirity of the floor was reserved for S-rank prisoners. The room we were taken to looked more like a vault than a hospital room. The door was made of four inches of solid steel, the entire room was filled with supression seal arrays which were deactivated for the time being and it lacked any outlet to the outside world save for a small vent and the door. The bed was bolted to the floor and Menma was promptly shackled to it after being laid. A supression seal was slapped on his forehead just for extra measure by the medical team who had come to check on his health. By the time everything settled down the four ANBU and my team were the only ones left waiting patiently for the Hokage and the medical director.

The Hokage along with his sole advisor and Okaa-san entered the room when I was checking the sunburns on the exposed part of Menma's face, burns which only he had got among us all. Maybe that's why he is covered up entirely.

Okaa-san was the first to notice Menma lying on the bed, she froze midstep prompting her companions who were chatting among themselves to turn and stop too.

"Sakura, report!", Okaa-san barked hurrying over to Menma's bedside.

I was startled on hearing her tone, but to my credit I recovered quite quickly.

"I have put him in a reduced functional state. The rate of his vital functions are low but they are not damaged. It's been approximately twenty seven hours since I put him in this state.",I replied trying and succeeding in keeping my voice calm.

"You fools… you bloody fools.", Okaa-san kept mumbling under her breath as she ran a diagnosis on Menma.

"How many people saw you bring him into the village, Kakashi?", Hokage-sama asked Sensei with a pensive look on his face.

"My secretary informed me that team Kakashi have arrived at the west gate with a S ranked prisoner and that they were going to the hospital with a full Uchiha police squad. So, I think the better question would be, who didn't see them?", Otou-san said before Sensei could reply. Father's expression did not put me in any peace. He is a very cheerful man and I have seen him with such a solemn expression only a handful of times before.

By then me and my team were sure that we have fucked up royally because Menma really appeared to be an ally of the leaf. The only thing left to find out was how important of an ally he was. Nawaki was fidgeting continuously in his place, something he did when he was very nervous, his snow white hair appearing a little more wild with passing time. Sasuke and Sensei stood with stoic expressions but even they could not suppress their anxiety.

"He is alright, but I don't think he would be very happy to wake up in chains and that too in his own village.", Okaa-san spoke up from the opposite side of the bedside as she removed the supression seal.

"Remove the chains Tsunade, I will take you and him to the clan reserved section.", Hokage-sama said before turning to Otou-san, "Jiraya-sensei, we will be going on ahead. Bring team Kakashi to the clan section with you."

With that he moved to place his hands on the shoulders of Okaa-san and an unchained Menma before disappearing in an yellow flash.

The ANBU had slipped out of the room sometime during our conversation. So, my team and otou-san were the only ones currently occupying the room.

I was the first in my team to regain my voice, "Otou-san, who is he?"

"I will not sugar coat this Hime. You and your team are in deep trouble. Your actions have hurt the Leaf and may even lead to the death's of a few.", I was sure that my face has lost all colour, "The Council will most likely be convened to decide your fate, so as of now team Kakashi is being removed from active duty and put under suspension. I will give you some time to gather your thoughts, I will be waiting in the clan section of the hospital."

As the door closed behind father I became aware of the gloomy atmosphere in the room, my insides did not feel any better. I had warned my team but they didn't listen.

"Fuck!", I heard my brother yell before slumping into the abandoned bed. Fuck indeed…

"I warned you all but you didn't fucking listen. I asked you all to atleast listen to him but you didn't listen!", I felt my voice rise higher with every word. Anger was the only way for me to vent under pressure.

"Calm down, Sakura", Sasuke said. That bastard had the gall to ask me to calm down…

"Calm down? Calm down?! You were going to fucking behead him Sasuke.", I was hysteric by then. Sasuke glared at me but I glared back.

"Enough.", Sensei's calm voice cut through our tension. Nawaki had opted to stay out of it.

"Stop fighting among yourselves, I think I taught you better than that.", Sensei glared at us for extra measure before continuing, "I will take responsibility for all actions, you don't need…"

"You can't do that Sensei…!", Nawaki's panicked voice interrupted Sensei.

"I can and I will. I was the team leader for the mission, besides you all are still young and a lot to do. I can't possibly stand by and watch the careers of my cute little students end, can I?", he finished in a soft tone, giving us his famous eye smile in the end.

When we reached the executive cabin room in the clan section of the hospital, I didn't even see Otou-san standing there waiting for us. The name on the door had all my attention, and the chill that ran down my spine reminded me of my fight with Haku. I was sure none of my team mates were faring any better.

Namikaze Naruto, Clan Head (Namikaze).

Honestly, why did we even accept that mission?

A/N: I honestly don't have any excuses for being so late, trash me all you want. Thank you for all the reviews, please keep reading and leave a review (even 'HI' would be appreciated)