Bodyguard of Azula by Deus Swiftblade

Chapter 4: Memories and Questions

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or The Last Airbender

"Talking"

"Thinking"

"Bijū/ spirit talking"

"Bijū/ spirit talking"

(Location: Konoha)

Both Team Asuma and Team Guy stood in the Hokage's Office, having gotten the request to come urgently. Tsunade looked at them from where she sat. "I'm grateful that you all got here quickly." She said to them.

"What's the problem, Lady Tsunade?" Asuma asked. Even though he and his team had been summoned right away, he remained relaxed. To him, this was just another mission.

"As you all very well know, a month ago Team Kurenai set sail for what we have always known as the Bending Countries. They were given an A-rank mission to protect someone." She began to explain.

"We know that part." Chōji said, remembering seeing that team off. "So why did you call for us?"

"When they met up with the person and his group, they were going to rescue a friend from out of a city by trading him for someone else." She sighed before continuing. "When they went to do the trade, they encountered Naruto Uzumaki." She watched as everyone digested the information.

As she did, she remembered what had happened when the Fire Daimyo arrived at Konoha. She had sent a messenger hawk to him just before he left the capital for Konoha. She requested that when he arrived at the village, he order an investigation into Naruto Uzumaki. When he arrived at Konoha, the Fire Daimyo did just that (which, admittedly, she found odd at first. The Daimyo had always stalled and delayed when it came to things like that). He ordered that everything about the young shinobi was to be looked into. That meant his records were to be studied and interviews of people who knew him were to be made (with the exception of Team 7, as those would probably be biased). The entire process took about two weeks, during which it was discovered that the records for each mission Naruto was on were falsified. They were made to look as if Naruto did little on the mission while Sasuke took most of the credit. The men the Fire Daimyo had put onto the investigation brought this to the attention of Tsunade, who immediately called a council meeting and had asked that the Daimyo attend.

When the council meeting began, she told both the Shinobi council and the Civilian council about the falsified records before demanding that the Civilian council explain their actions. They objected, saying that she had no way of proving that they had actually falsified the records. That was when she pulled out her trump card. She showed them the mission record for her retrieval. It stated that Naruto was attacked and knocked unconscious by two Akatsuki members. They would have taken him away had it not been for the intervention of Jiraiya and Sasuke. After chasing the two away, the three of them continued looking for Tsunade. As they did that, Jiraiya had taught Sasuke the Rasengan while doing nothing to help Naruto. The record continued on like that, praising Sasuke while barely mentioning Naruto,

When she had finally finished reading, Tsunade told them that she remembered that mission differently. She remembered Sasuke being sent back to the village after being injured and that it was Naruto trying to learn the Rasengan. She also told them that no shinobi was stupid enough to tamper with a mission record that dealt with a potential Hokage. She then ordered the ANBU in the room to bind the Civilian council. Once they were bound, she ordered Inoichi and the members of his clan who were there to read their minds. He did so and the end result was discovering that not only had they falsified the records, they had bribed the teachers of the Academy to torment and ignore Naruto as well as tamper with his grades (the only teacher who refused to take a bribe was Iruka Umino). As soon as Inoichi reported this, Tsunade stripped the councilmen of their positions and status with the full backing of the Fire Daimyo. New council members would be picked out later, once everything had settled down. Later, the Fire Daimyo officially declared that the ruling for Naruto's banishment was void because of the Civilian council's blatant hatred for the young shinobi and their falsification of his records.