from Academy to Anbu by theriku260

chapter 38

Broken bones. A concussion. A torn ACL and the muscles surrounding his stomach shredded. Another bone shard narrowly missed the spine and had to be brought out. Tsunade healed them all to acceptable levels, praying he survived the shock and blood loss. She had force fed him three blood replenishing pills, but Jinchuurikis could be tricky in what their bodies accepted as blood.

Finally feeling satisfied when Naruto looked like he would be healed within a couple of days, she stopped the chakra flow. Any more forced healing could be counterproductive in the long run, the body not understanding that it was already healed and didn't need to do anything.

Tsunade took a deep breath, refusing to let the sticky blood covering her lead to a break down. Shizune still needed her, and Orochimaru was gone (at least she hoped so), so Naruto could lay here without being attacked.

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune's voice rang out across the clearing, and never had a voice sounded so much like heaven. Tsunade whipped her head around, eyes already assessing her apprentice. The girl Tsunade raised was covered in grime and blood, carrying Naruto's useless cat, but she was alive. There did not appear to be any lasting damage.

"Shi- Shizune" Tsunade choked out. Her tears began flowing as her apprentice reached her and dropped down in a crouch as the cat curled up with Naruto. Already Shizune's hands were glowing green, analyzing her for injuries. "Where? What happened to Orochimaru's lackeys?"

That was the big question, one that would decide if they could go back to town or if Tsunade carried Naruto as they ran to the village; who knew if Orochimaru had more people waiting for the others to return and report?

"We killed them- well, all but Tayuya." Shizune said. Tsunade's brow furrowed.

"Tayuya?" Tsunade was bad at names, but it sounded like the female Oto nin.

"Er, sorry Tsunade-sama, I meant the female. Angel-chan here tore into her however, and I don't believe she will last long. She's probably already dead. The others… well those summons are fierce!"

Tsunade sighed in relief. "Good. Just to be sure we'll leave for Konoha as soon as the brat wakes up."

"You? The village?" Shizune looked so confused. Tsunade smiled and scoffed.

"Of course, we have to go back to the village- they can't even survive a pesky invasion without me! Why, back when I was a genin, invasions happened monthly."

Perhaps things would be okay.

"Hey!" Angel yowled suddenly, as if realizing something. "Naruto isn't a brat- he's the only reason you won, I bet." Her smug look when Tsunade didn't outright deny it only added fuel to the fire.

Perhaps they wouldn't be until Tsunade 'accidentally' made the feline mute. Naruto wouldn't even have to know, right?

In Konoha, with Dragon/ Shisui…

Shisui overlooked the various progress reports that were pooling into his office hourly. Honestly, if he wasn't already on the path to blindness (thank you, Mangekyo Sharingan), the Hokage position would make him need reading glasses within the year. Why couldn't his shinobi learn to write legibly? His ANBU could, though Shisui supposed it was due to the handwriting practice he enforced on all recruits- having sloppy looking penmanship was such a chunin thing to do.

So far, the village was faring well, all things considered. The academy was being used as a station for the students and injured genin to get assignments that assisted in rebuilding the village. Yakumo Kurama was set to undergo the unsealing within a month, allowing them to train another genjutsu specialist (something they desperately needed). His shinobi were taking double or triple missions, one right after the other, and even the genin were pulling their weight with extra D and C ranked missions in addition to reconstruction projects. By the end of the week they could hold their village wide memorial, letting everyone move on with their grief.