Rotted Rowan

Loyalty

Fanart used was created by Lammington on deviantART.

Disclaimer: The beautiful story of Naruto belongs to Kishimoto, as do all his characters. Naasica is the only character that belongs to me.

Warning: All warnings were addressed at the bottom of the second chapter.

Beta: Cyndaquil123

"Some men just want to watch the world burn."

-Alfred

"What happened to Batman?" Tsunade asked. She squatted down in front of me, her warm brown eyes colored with concern.

I just shook my head, looking mournfully down at my bat. He was ripped open, stuffing coming out and his left eye was missing. Tsunade made a tsking sound as she gently lifted the creature from my hands. "Don't worry, little sapling, I'll have him fixed up in no time. One of the perks about being a medic is being an awfully good sewer."

I smiled shyly at her. Then, hesitantly, I reached forward and kissed her cheek. "I love you, Nee-chan."

Tsunade's eyes widened, and she blushed. She smiled back at me, and then kissed the top of my head. "I love you, too, Imouto."

. . .

. .

.

After school, I told Kakashi I had to head home early for some private training with Kushina. So Kakashi and I told each other we would see each other tomorrow, and we went our separate ways. Kushina would be out on a week-long mission starting tomorrow, so she wanted to teach more about fūinjutsu and give me some practice materials before she left.

Hopping across the rooftops, when I neared home, I was stopped by an ANBU kunoichi.

She appeared in front of me, kneeling down. Her voice came out distorted through her mask and she spoke in a monotone voice. "Danzō-sama requests your audience tomorrow night."

My eyes narrowed minutely. Before I could give her a response, she vanished.

"Madara will want to hear about this," I thought, feeling a chill settle in the pit of my stomach.

It had been a little over a month since I had started sleeping there. Kushina never noticed my absence, for which I was thankful for. I was also starting to feel better - stronger. It was a good thing Madara had caught me before the sleep deprivation left more permanent marks on my psyche. I was lucky that the damage was repairable, and even more so that Madara did not seem overly bothered by my foolish mistake. It was already rather shameful that I had been so poor of mind, I actually believed what I was doing was okay.

Kakashi and I had continued our training under Minato without any hindrance under that month. We both felt ready for the academy exam, as did Minato and Kushina.

I lingered a moment or two longer than necessary on the rooftop, uncertain of where this new development would take me.

I knew that the Hokage had been putting together a training regime for me to develop my Wood-Style. I figured he would not offer the regime for me until after I had graduated, but perhaps he had simply entrusted such to Danzō? In this time period, Sarutobi trusted Danzō.