Chapter Text
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Nothing in Akemi’s life had prepared her for the number of casualties that inundated the halls of Konoha Hospital. Having lived through the Third Shinobi War, she’d seen the atrocities invited on civilians by passing armies, but she’d never been in a position to have to pick up the pieces on such a large scale.
Ultimately, the large number of injuries meant they had no choice but to triage based on need. The simplest were cases of walking wounded, those whose injuries were not life threatening in any immediacy. The next were delayed cases, patients with serious injury, but unlikely to die within the window of twenty-four hours. After that, priority cases involved patients who would only survive if lifesaving care was issued without delay.
As Akemi walked the now overcrowded emergency room, she walked past several of the most heartbreaking cases – the expectant. An expectant patient was named as such because, “They are expected to die no matter what.” It wasn’t that they were simply left off on the side without care, but the care was palliative because no realistic level of lifesaving care would change the outcome – severe full body-burns, severe cardiac trauma, and more.
In at least one case, a mother had brought her child to Akemi after their house collapsed during the blast in the eastern district. The mother had carried her injured child halfway across the village, holding a rag over the child’s head wound the whole time; Akemi had to tell her that the child had likely died on impact. That could have been Hinata, or Hanabi, or Neji!
“Akemi!” Tsunade’s desperate voice called, “OR three, now!!!” the pregnant Sannin yelled as she flew by.
An ominous feeling sank in Akemi’s gut as she ran to catch up. For Tsunade to be risking such activity was risking a miscarriage. Someone very important is in OR three. She ran, fully braced to see Hiashi, Naruto, Hinata, or some other familiar face. As she crossed through the doors, she froze. “MINATO!!!” Minato’s face was a veritable hellscape of bruises and cuts.
“Lady Akemi!” Konohamaru shouted, “Help him, PLEASE!!!”
Akemi remained glued in place. The man who protected the village, the man who married her and Hiashi, and the man who was godfather to Hinata lay dying in front of her; and she was whole inadequate to the task. “Akemi, I need your hands, dammit, this is beyond me at the moment!” Tsunade barked.
“Tsunade?!” she spoke dumbly.
“Dammit,” Tsunade scrutinized a series of CT images, “he has a depressed occiput fracture,” she changed the series to a different set of films, “and at least two lower lumbar vertebra that are fractured!” She stared at Akemi with her coppery eyes, “If we don’t move fast, he’s paralyzed at best, dead at worst!”
“Lady Akemi, please!!!” Konohamaru pleaded again.
“Tsunade… I can’t… I’m not ready for something like this!” Akemi stared at Minato, blood leaking from his ears and nose.
“You’re the only one who can!” Tsunade said, setting a small clone of Katsuyu on Minato, “The amount of chakra it will take from me will likely kill the twins, if not me in the process.”
“Mom,” Hanabi placed her small hand over Akemi’s, “you can do this; this is what you trained for since becoming a shinobi!”
Akemi closed her eyes and remembered her mother and grandmother. She remembered the white fox that appeared to her the night she had used the Spring of Fertility Ritual – the night she and Hiashi conceived Hinata. And she remembered countless frightened mothers begging for her help through labor. It’s no different than delivering a baby! “Kids, you have to leave; I need to conecentrate!” she said, feeling her chakra flowing as she prepared for something she was wholly unready for.
“But…” Konohamaru protested.
“But nothing!” she commanded, “I need absolute concentration! That means you wait outside until I’m done!”
“Come on, Konohamaru!” Hanabi dragged him from the room.
Akemi stood at the head of the table, cradling Minato’s head delicately between her fingers. Inari, guide my hands as you have the many times I’ve guided a birth with your blessing! Pale blue chakra began emanating around her fingers as she closed her eyes. As her chakra found the broken segment of occiput, the dangerous amount of pressure on Minato’s brain became evident. Concentrate. Tsunade placed her hands on Akemi’s shoulders, “Take your time, talk to me.”
“The fragment is pressing against his occipital lobe, and he’s suffered a severe concussion already as a result.”
“Any sign of intracranial bleeding?”
Akemi felt deep, feeling the slightest bit of relief that Minato wasn’t bleeding into his brain. “Not as of yet.”
“We have to pull the fragment off and set it back in position,” Tsunade whispered.
“Tsunade, I’ve never dealt with this kind of injury; if I slip I could kill him!” she protested.
“And if you freeze up, he will die.”
No pressure! Akemi began feeling the margins of the bony fragment. As she touched the margin, she, herself, experienced an incredible stabbing pain in the back of her head that almost made her separate from Minato. In her years as a midwife, Akemi linked chakra with mothers to help them deliver babies. As part of the effect, Akemi had experienced the pain of birth countless times before and since having her own children. Unfortunately, as a medical-nin, she had yet to master the art of suppressing the shared sensation the way others had.
Akemi grit her teeth and held on. Her chakra gripped around the fragment and tugged. As she did, the sensation of a jagged piece of glass stabbing her in the back of the head twisted. Can’t give up, not after everything he’s done for you and your family! Akemi moaned in agony as blood slowly began streaming down from her nose. After what felt like an eternity, the fragment pulled free, and she delicately repositioned it in the skull, all while ignoring the increasing stream of blood down her face.
“Almost got it!” Tsunade encouraged as she wiped blood from Akemi’s nose and mouth.
The bone slid into its proper position, and Akemi pressed the margins of the fragment together with the rest of the skull, forcing them to fuse. As the bone rejoined, Akemi finally allowed herself to breathe normal as the sharp, stabbing sensation in the back of her head eased. Deep, heaving breathes provided little relief as she stared at Minato. You’re only half done!
Akemi death-gripped the table as she stumbled toward Minato’s core. Tsunade also steadied her as she dragged herself to Minato. “Tsunade, I need him on his side, carefully!”
Tsunade nodded, moving around the table. With careful coordination, they shifted his body on his side, careful not to twist his damaged spine. Akemi lifted the back of Minato’s shirt and jacket. His lower back was covered in a massive patch of black and blue. Even without chakra, her bare hands assessed the contour where bone had crumbled under pressure. Again, she reached out with her chakra. “Okay, there are multiple failures of the pars and posterior neural arches at L4, L3, and L2! There are multiple nerve roots being compressed.”
“We have to get the pressure off, and reform the structure, Akemi; you know what to do!” Tsunade gently massaged her shoulders.
“This is going to hurt, a lot!” Akemi swallowed.
“I’ll be here to hold you up,” Tsunade reassured.
Akemi braced herself as she connected her chakra to Minato again. Searing pain burned at her back as the muscles in the small of her back contracted violently. “Ahhhh…AAHHH!!!” she screamed as tears flowed past her floodgates. Despite the incredible sensation of being snapped in half, Akemi winced and maintained her contact to Minato. The pain was every bit as severe as childbirth.
Akemi stared at the rearmost section and forced the posterior neural arches back into the proper shape. “AHHHH,” she screamed, blood again began dripping from her nose. Akemi chewed her lip, again willing bone to reform itself into the appropriate shape an alignment. Short, sniffling, breaths followed as she struggled to get air into her lungs. Several short, painful breaths ensued, but she pushed through the pain. The pars began fusing together between the neural arches and the vertebral bodies.
As bone reformed, the pain failed to abate. “Tsu-Tsunade,” she broke contact with Minato, falling to her knees.
“Akemi!” Tsunade guided her down.
“The bone is reformed, but there is considerable trauma and inflammation around the spinal nerves,” she heaved.
“I’ve got it from here, Akemi,” Tsunade assisted Akemi to her feet and then to a chair. “Just stay here and take five,” Tsunade left her in the chair as she called for assistance in getting Minato admitted to the main hospital. Akemi could do nothing but stare, tears dripping from her eyes as a team of nurses and orderlies took Minato away. Akemi sank back in the chair, knowing that even with the best medical care, he was far from out of the woods.
Aching pain swirled Naruto as he limped alongside Hinata. Even with Nine-Tails and his own naturally quick regeneration, the pain where he’d been impaled on Pain’s spikes gnawed incessantly. For that matter, he still felt the significant discomfort where he was still stabbed in the right arm with one of the spikes. He pushed the pain away, entering Sage Mode, “We’re close!”
“Na-Naruto-kun,” Hinata reverted to honorifics, “we have company.”
“Naruto,” a familiar, authoritative voice called. They turned to see Hiashi Hyūga, Shikaku Nara, and Inoichi Yamanaka racing to catch up to them.
“What are you doing?” Shikaku demanded.
“I found Pain’s true form nearby while using Sage mode,” he answered.
“Then stand back and we’ll take him on,” Hiashi said.
“Father, wait!” Hinata protested.
“Wait for what? The man destroyed a huge chunk of the village! Tens of thousands are dead now because of him.”
“I need to talk to him,” Naruto said.
“TALK!?!” the trio responded in confusion.
“Naruto, are you out of your f*cking mind!” Inoichi didn’t hold back, “He’s probably killed your father and you want to talk?!?”
“Inoichi!” Naruto growled, “How many parents and children have died in the past hundred years because people were too proud to settle their differences by talking!” Naruto straightened up despite the pain he felt, “Part of the reason my father’s reign has been so successful is he didn’t go reaching for a blade the first-time things went bad! He wanted cool heads to prevail. He wanted me and my generation to grow up in a world more peaceful than the one he’d grown up in! If we go in there and carve Pain up like a turkey, there will just be someone like him to replace him, to avenge him!” Naruto balled his fist up, tears streaming, “Then everything my father lived for, everything he may die for, will be lost!”
Hinata gripped him tightly, keeping him upright when his knees threatened to buckle. “Father, please, let us try!” she said.
“All right,” Hiashi nodded, turning to the other men.
“If you think you can talk him down,” Shikaku nodded faintly, “do what you can, kid.”
“You two are serious?” Inoichi protested.
“My son believes in him, and that’s good enough for me.” Shikaku said.
“My daughter trusts him, as do I,” Hiashi nodded. He turned to Naruto, “You have your chance, but if I sense either you or Hinata is in danger.”
“I’ll keep her safe!” Naruto protested, “Please, let my mom know where we are; she is coming with someone.” Naruto turned away with Hinata and they continued their march.
They had crossed into a set of woods just beyond the barrier when he saw it. The tree was a clever disguise, but Naruto could sense Nagato’s presence. “We’re here,” he extracted the spike from his arm. For a moment, he exchanged a glance with Hinata, “Honey, if you think this is not worth it…”
“I believe in you, my love,” she cut him off, “just as I’ve always believed in you.” She pushed away a strand of his spiky hair and caressed his cheek. “Lord Jiraiya and your father believe in you, and I know you’re the child of destiny they think you are. Now is your chance to prove it!”
“Way to put the world on my shoulders,” Naruto grinned slightly before becoming serious again. He wasn’t sure if he believed in destiny or not, but Himawari came back in time to change his destiny. That was proof enough to remind him how important his actions would be. “Here we go!” Naruto pulled out a Kunai and slashed at the tree, revealing it to be a clever camouflage. He tore open the sheet of material, spilling light into the interior room. “Hello, Nagato,” Naruto said as he stepped through the newly created portal.
“Naruto, wait!” Hinata called out as she readied to protect him from the room’s two occupant’s. One was a girl holding a series of rolled up papers, and the other was a withered skeleton of a man.
“You must be Konan,” Naruto said, “My Grandfather told me about the two of you.”
“Did he, now,” Nagato spoke with a raspy voice. “So you finally have come to do what he couldn’t?” Konan began forming her papers into jagged spikes.
“I came to talk,” Naruto replied.
“Talk,” Nagato grinned, “talk is cheap!” A series of spikes shot from the apparatus holding him upright. Hinata and he dodged and batted several attacks aside. “If you’re trying to provoke us,” Naruto heaved, “it won’t work!”
“You’re arrogant,” Konan said.
“I had a good teacher,” Naruto replied, “just like you.”
The girl and the withered man paused, shock across their faces, “What do you know about him!” Konan sassed.
“I know he thought you’d grow up to be beautiful, Konan,” Naruto replied, then turned to Nagato, “and he told me he thought you’d change the world, Nagato.” Naruto nodded. “I don’t think this is what he had in mind.”
“Your grandpa as you call him, was unbearably naïve, just like you. Tell me, “the man focused his Rinnegan on Naruto and Hinata, “why shouldn’t we do to you what we did to him?”
“You were a man who believed in peace, once at least, were you not? That was why you formed the Akatsuki, was it not?” Naruto asked.
“That was before reality kicked in…”
“Before Yahiko died,” Hinata added, “Jiraiya told us the story. It broke his heart, thinking you all were dead. It broke it worse when he saw what you’d become,” she added.
“Nagato, my mom came from the same village your family did. We are of the same bloodline! She was one of the last true Uzumaki, and she has every right to hate the other villages for what they did to our village! She learned that the past was gone, and that butchering the other villages – Kumo and Iwa – wouldn’t bring back her village or her clan!”
“You hypocritical morons spout peace, but you’ve only brought war to whatever you’ve touched!” Nagato hissed.
“And do you think slaughtering a village, most of them civilians, would somehow change that?!” Naruto retorted sharply, “Do you think it would make the other villages see you as any less of a threat!”
Nagato’s expression shifted in shock, “You really didn’t have a plan, did you? What were you going to do after everyone here was dead? Destroy the next village, and the next one after that until you were sitting on a mountain of skulls all by yourself?”
“Had you just given yourself up…”
“Obito, or did he call himself Madara, promised that you could have everything you wanted?” Hinata chided. “What did he promise you? Your body? Your dead friend? Peace in the Village Hidden in the Rain?”
“The damn fool can’t give any of it to you, any more than he can hope to bring about peace with his stupid Eye of the Moon!” Both Konan and Nagato’s eyes opened wide in shock, “That’s right,” Naruto said, “the damn fool is being played. The Eye of the Moon won’t save anyone. It will cause the world to fall asleep and never awaken! You wanted to bring peace to the world; instead, you’ll be the one who helped destroy it!”
“Nagato…” Konan turned a horrified look to Nagato.
“What about the army of white clones in Amekagure? He said he could defeat them if we just got the Tailed-Beast!”
“Why do you think he wears that mask, Nagato?” a voice called from the entrance. Everyone turned to see Jiraiya, “He is part of one of those monstrosities!” Mom entered the hideout soon behind him.
“S-Sensei?!” Nagato choked, tears running from his eyes.
“I thought I taught you better, but I guess it’s my fault for leaving you when I did. I knew I should have come back for the three of you,” he said.
“Nagato,” Kushina spoke, “my husband and I lived through much of the same things you did, and we’ve lost countless friends and family along the way. Jiraiya taught us that loss was no reason to give up.”
“He believed in you,” Naruto said, “He believed in my father. And now he believes in me.” Naruto nodded, “We can end this madness, we can break the cycle of hate!”
“I… I wanted to change the world… I wanted to see the fighting stop!” his Rinnegan eyes turned a dark, sad purple.
“And you still can!” Naruto shouted, “It’s not too late to do the right thing! Call off your Paths of Pain before anyone else dies! Help us stop Obito and Madara from enslaving the world in an unending dream! If we work together…”
“You’ll have to do it without me,” Nagato brought his hands together in an unfamiliar hand seal. “Prove me wrong, and bring peace to this world, kid!” The withered face cracked into a smile.
“Nagato, NO!!!” Konan protested.
“Sorry,” he gasped, “but I’ve gone too far down this path to be able to turn back.” Nagato strained as if manipulating some unseen object, “I can revive everyone I’ve killed. Everyone who’s death I’ve been responsible for.”
“Nagato!” Konan cried.
“Sorry, girl,” he smiled, “but this is where my story ends, how I want it to end.” He turned to Naruto and spoke with an exhausted voice, “Tell your buddy he has a curious surprise waiting for him.”
“My buddy?” Naruto asked perplexed.
“Sensei,” Nagato’s fading eyes locked with Jiraiya, “I’m sorry I failed you!”
“You saved everyone you destroyed,” Jiraiya activated his Sage Mode, “and you made the right choice in the end. Maybe that is enough for all of us!”
“Good-bye.” Nagato’s head sagged lifelessly.
Konan began sobbing, collapsing to her knees. In a brief moment of composure, she summoned a long swath of paper from her pocket and focused it into a blade. She turned the blade on herself, preparing to run herself through the stomach. “I don’t think that actually will solve a damn thing,” Naruto recognized Kakashi’s voice. “I know it didn’t for my father.”
Konan dropped the blade and sobbed, “What do I do now?”
“Konan,” Jiraiya spoke, “I can’t fix what happened while I was gone.”
“Sensei! Yahiko and Nagato are dead!!! What do I have left to live for!!!”
“They both dreamed of a world at peace, so did you. That dream doesn’t have to die just because you fell off the path for a while,” Jiraiya said.
“I… I have to go,” she got up, “back to Amekagure”
“Konan, don’t go!” Jiraiya pleaded.
“My people are suffering, and it’s my fault!” she protested.
“Konan, you said the white clones already are in Amekagure, how bad?” Kushina asked. The girl said nothing; she stood crying. “Dammit, how bad?!” Kushina insisted.
“It’s already overrun!” she sobbed. “I thought if we took the tailed beast we could free my village, my people!”
Naruto exchanged a hard look to both Mom, Kakashi, and Jiraiya. “Konan, we can’t change the past…” he started
“But we can stop making the same mistakes,” Hinata completed. “Stay in the village! Take time to find out who you are! The Akatsuki are gone!”
“Who would let me in!” she cried.
“My husband will see to it,” Mom said.
“And until you know where you want to end up,” Hinata added, “The Hyūga Clan will host you!”
Naruto gestured to the black jacket with red clouds the girl wore, “Throw off the shackles of hate, learn to be who you are supposed to be, what Nagato and Yahiko wanted you to be!”
“Kiddo,” Jiraiya broke in, “I screwed up!” He extended a hand, “Do you think you can give an old man a second chance to do things right?”
“O-okay…” she cried, removing the jacket with the Akatsuki markings. She wore just simple robes beneath. She walked unsteady as she took her sensei’s hand.
Naruto let out a sigh of relief, feeling his legs ready to give out. Hell of a day. Hinata squeezed him closer, “Let’s go home,” she said.
“Yeah,” he said weakly.
“Kushina,” Kakashi spoke up, “go on ahead and check on Minato! I’ll get them back to the village!” Mom nodded and disappeared out through the exit to the outside.
Naruto began to stumble as the extent of both injury and exhaustion began to take him down. “Easy,” Kakashi knelt down, “just rest on my shoulder. I got it from here, son.”
“I thought you said I was getting too heavy to carry,” Naruto laughed.
“Nah,” Kakashi laughed, “after today, I think you’ve earned it – fighting Pain, convincing him to revive the village.” He turned to Hinata, “You going to be okay?”
“I’ll be fine,” she said as they walked through the woods to the edge of the wrecked section of village.
As they crossed into the village, a small crowd gathered, staring as they walked on toward the hospital. As they moved closer to the village center, the crowd began growing larger and larger. There was some chanting, but Naruto’s exhausted brain couldn’t compute what was being said, “Hinata, what… what are they saying?” he asked.
“They’re cheering, silly,” she laughed, “cheering for you!” Naruto felt himself being lifted from Kakashi’s shoulders and being tossed in the air. “Ahh!!” Hinata screamed as she joined him in being thrown skyward. He could hear the crowd chanting their names as they were both thrown aloft again. They’re cheering for you, too, babe!
Kushina stood in the bleak hospital room, staring at the now thoroughly bandaged form of her husband. He lay in a hospital bed, his mop of spikes matted down under a mass of bandages encircling his head. A mess of IV tubes and monitoring leads crisscrossed his body. “How bad?” she asked, turning her attention to Akemi and Tsunade who stood behind her.
“It’s too soon to tell,” Akemi said, “The coma could last for days, easily.”
“And the damage to his spine could make his recovery a prolonged process,” Tsunade added.
“Dammit, how bad!” Kushina demanded.
“Kushina,” Akemi whimpered, “there is a chance he may suffer temporary or permanent paralysis of both legs.” She began crying, “There is no way to tell until he wakes up!”
The words emptied Kushina’s guts, leaving her hollow. The man she loved, the father of their son, was barely clinging to life, and there was nothing she could do but wait. The door opened, revealing Kakashi and Shikamaru, both looking weary and exhausted as they took in the sight of Minato. “All the preparations have been made, Lady Kushina,” Shikamaru came to rigid attention and bowed.
“You may dispense with the pleasantries, Shikamaru,” she shook her head. “I’m afraid it will be some time until we transfer my husband to the Hyūga Compound.” The compound was one of the few buildings sturdy enough to be fully intact near the center of the village. With the significant damage to the Hokage’s Mansion and the outright destruction of the Namikaze-Uzumaki house, Hinata wasted no time offering the compound as a temporary headquarters for the village.
“I’m afraid” Kakashi spoke, “that is something we need to talk about, urgently, Lady Kushina!”
“Goddammit, what’s gotten into both of you!” She howled at the two, “Now is not the time to treat me like a widow in waiting! He’ll get better quick, you’ll see!”
“Lady Kushina,” Shikamaru bowed his head, “while I have every faith in your husband’s recovery, the village council and the Fire Daimyo agree we cannot leave the office of Hokage empty at such a critical moment.”
Kushina’s eyes opened wide as she turned her attention to Kakashi. “You can’t be serious!”
“Lady Kushina, the village cannot be without leadership, and the vote was already held unanimously.”
“Fine,” she huffed in a sour mix of anger and frustration, “I’ll support whatever decision you make as Hokage, just stop bothering me while I look in on my husband!”
“I’m afraid, the council found me unsuited to be Hokage, Lady Kushina. Apparently, they were worried by my near brush with death as well as my status as an expectant father,” Kakashi bowed his head deferentially, “They chose an alternate candidate who was well-experienced and not in such a compromising situation.”
“Well, dammit! Who then!” she roared as her hair flailed behind her.
“You, Lord Fifth,” Shikamaru bowed in unison with Kakashi.
Lord Fifth!!! Kushina froze, “No, you can’t be serious!”
“Kushina,” Kakashi spoke, “Naruto is too young, Jiraiya and Tsunade are both preoccupied, and there is no one else more familiar with the situation we’re facing.” He put his hands on her shoulders, “Lord Hokage, it has to be you, no one else is as uniquely qualified to steer us through the coming storm.”
Kushina stared back at her husband, clearly going nowhere fast. She stared at Akemi and Tsunade, both of whom nodded in approval. Fate rarely calls on us in a moment of our choosing. “All right, I will do what is necessary!”
“Lady Hokage,” Tsunade spoke up, “I’m sad that it happened this way, but I am glad there is now a woman Hokage, and it is you! Hokage Kushina Uzumaki!”
“Here, here!” Kakashi and Shikamaru said.
The door to the room opened, and a significantly pregnant Kurenai entered the room. “Kushina! Shikamaru!” she cried hysterically.
Shikamaru and she rushed to the crying woman’s side, “It’s all right, we’re here!” Kushina said. “Is something wrong? The baby?!” Kushina felt ice crossing her veins.
“Sh-Shikamaru!” she stammered, a sobbing mass.
“Lady Kurenai,” he stared desperate, “what’s wrong, why are you crying.”
“Not all people crying when they’re said, lazy bum,” a gruff voice rounded from the door. Kushina knew the voice. Not possible, he’s dead! A haggard, but definitely alive Asuma Sarutobi rounded into the door frame.
“S-sensei!!!” Shikamaru shivered, now gripping Kushina for support.
“I’d ask for a cigarette,” the man smirked, “but I’ve been dead once already. I think I’ll try to avoid something that might kill me… again!” Asuma’s laugh was unmistakable. Kushina blinked to be sure she wasn’t imagining him. As she did, she felt Shikamaru slump against her.
“Steady him down!” she commanded as Akemi assisted the boy to the ground and Tsunade used the room’s call button to signal the nurse’s station for help. Through the swirling mass of emotions, Kushina stayed standing as the nurses arrived. Part of her wanted to faint as well, to wake up in a hospital bed and be told everything in the past five minutes was a bad nightmare and her husband would resume office in a few days. The Hokage protects the village. The Hokage can’t fall to pieces when she is needed. She stood firm, knowing there were hard days ahead. She turned back to her husband. I’d give this all up to have you awake and here right now. I’ll keep the village safe; I’ll keep our son safe! I promise!
