CHAPTER TWO: Blessing in Disguise

Were born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone.

―Orson Welles, Paradise

Uzuki Yugao kicks her feet back and forth and watches the sun as it just begins to peek over the horizon, its rays slicing across the still dark sky. Somewhere close by, a bird shrills into the quiet morning. A smile slowly creeps upon her face at the sound.

With a content sigh, she hops off the branch she's been waiting in and lands silently on the leaf covered ground. She pushes her porcelain cat mask around to the back of her head and cups her hands around her mouth. A series of high pitched chirping sounds filled the air, almost indistinguishable from a sparrow's call. She leans against a tree and waits, her smile growing and she almost feels giddy, though she would be hard pressed to admit it.

The faint crunching of leaves comes from her slight left and despite all of her shinobi instincts going off, she doesn't move to attack or defend herself. A few seconds later a raspy cough comes from the same direction.

Yugao can't help it; she lets out a small laugh. "Darling, I would be able to sense you coming even if you were a million miles away."

The crunching of leaves gets louder and a moment later a Konoha shinobi appears from the dense trees.

"Yugao," Hayate says, an affectionate smile on his face.

Yugao walks up to the man that makes her feel like the luckiest kunoichi in the world. Warm, strong arms wrap around her waist as she buries her face into Hayate's shoulder, inhaling his scent. They weren't normally so open with their affection, even alone; Yugao with her strict ANBU training always just beneath the surface and Hayate with his discomfort of being physically close to another person due to his illness. However, they haven't seen each other in over three weeks, both of them busy on their respective assignments. And even though Yugao had returned to Konoha two days ago, this is the first time she has had an opportunity to meet with him.

She couldn't remember when it had happened exactly, but some time ago they had mutually agreed that no matter what, after a mission they would meet as soon as possible at this particular tree. The tree where they had first met each other. The tree that Hayate had bluntly told her he loved her under. The tree that she had cried in, held in his arms, after he told her that his illness couldn't be cured. The same tree under which they had vowed to never leave each other's side. It was their tree. And once again it was providing her with a sense of comfort as Hayate silently held her against his chest.

No words needed to be spoken to each other. I missed you. Don't leave me. I was scared this would be the one to take you from me. I love you. It was all heard without either of them having to say a single word.

As always, Hayate is the first to pull away but he grabs one of her hands and glances upwards.

Yugao smiles, a seeming constant around Hayate, and they both jump up to sit next to each other on one of the thicker branches, leaning their backs against the trunk. They sit together in silence, only interrupted by the occasional cough from Hayate, just soaking up the presence of one other and reassuring themselves that the other was alright.

It wasn't until the sun completely breaks free from the horizon that the silence is broken. "I wasn't that bad. I think I got about two meters closer this time before I made a noise," Hayate says.

Yugao glances over and sees the relaxed, almost bored expression on Hayate's face. It had taken her a while to decipher his 'I'm-serious' face from his 'I'm-joking-around-with-you' face.

"Oh yes, I suppose it's a common mistake to get you and an elephant confused," Yugao says, carefully keeping her voice and face blank.

Hayate's dark eyes slowly slide over to look at her. "Very common. You're the third person this week to mistake me for some kind of obscenely large animal."

Hayate's deadpan expression is the last straw for Yugao and she bursts into laughter. It was a well-known fact among the jounin and other high-ranking ninja in Konoha that Gekko Hayate was probably the worst shinobi ever at stealth; his chronic cough only adding to the problem. Yugao would never admit it, at the risk of wounding the man's pride, but it had been Hayate's complete and utter helplessness at sneaking around that had first attracted her to him. Still, as much as she thought it was one of his more enduring characteristics, she also feared it. Yugao just knew his inability to be stealthy would be the death of him. At the moment however, it only emphasized Hayate's adorableness; another thing she would never say to his face.

When she finally got her laughter under control, with only a few giggles slipping through, she looks over at her lover. His lips pull up into a small smile and his tired eyes twinkle with mirth and affection. Even after all this time they've been together, it still stuns her that someone could look at her with such affection.

"So did I miss anything worth mentioning?" she asks. She hasn't been in the village for over a week and like every other shinobi in the world she likes to gossip, or 'be in touch with current events', to put it more professionally.

Hayate tilts his head back and stares at the brightening sky for a moment. The light emphasizes the bags under his eyes and she wonders when the last time he had a decent night's sleep was.

"Nothing particularly noteworthy. Asuma still thinks he's being discreet about trying to get Kurenai's attention, Gai is still Gai, Genma and Anko left a few days ago on a mission to Kumo and should be back by tomorrow, Ibiki's added to the betting pool for how many genins will become chunins this year, Hokage-sama's still about two weeks behind on his paperwork, and Kakashi's AWOL again." Hayate says, leaning his head back to rest against the tree trunk.

Yugao holds back a sigh and restrains herself from commenting on the Copy ninja. The man was eccentric at best and just plain crazy at worst; even by shinobi standards. Though she will admit that she prefers his carefree jounin attitude more than when he had been her strict and aloof ANBU captain. It had been a shock to anyone who even remotely knew the jounin when he had passed a genin team a few months ago. Even more surprising were the kids that consisted of Team 7: a pink-haired joke-of-a-kunoichi, the Last Uchiha, and the Kyuubi container. It was quite possibly one of the universe's greater jokes on humanity.

"Oh, and apparently Kakashi has entered his team into the Chunin Exams," Hayate says, turning his head to look at her reaction.

"That's…unexpected. It's unusual that a jounin-sensei enters their team into the Exams so soon after they've graduated from the Academy. Then again, this is Kakashi-san we're talking about."

"Hmm," Hayate gives a small shrug, "Asuma and Kurenai also entered their teams. Must be some kind of bug going around." He gives a husky chuckle followed by a cough and then goes back to staring at the sky.

Yugao's eyes widen. "So all of the new genin teams are being entered?"

"Yeah, they're calling them the Rookie Nine. Their jounin's have an awful lot of confidence in them. At least it won't be boring."

"Geez," Yugao sighs. "Those poor kids are going to be slaughtered."

Hayate chuckles softly. "And I haven't even told you the best part yet; Ibiki-san is going to be the proctor for the first stage of the Exam."

Yugao flinches. Now she knows those poor rookies are going to be steam-rolled, hell, she knows full-grown jounin who tremble after a minute alone with the Head of the Interrogation Department. She leans forward to look at her partner. "Jeez, what is Hokage-sama thinking? Who are the other proctor? Hopefully they won't be so…intense."

Yugao watches as Hayate's head tilts to the side.

She mirrors his movements.

He gives a small smile.

She raises an eyebrow.

His smile grows and the corner of his eyes crinkle.

She sits up straighter.

He nods, then coughs.

Yugao slaps his shoulder lightly. "You're just now telling me! Congratulations! Which part?"

If there was one thing she loved the most about the sickly jounin it was his ability to understand her. It was rare to find someone who could understand you on such a level but for her and Hayate it was almost second nature to read each other's movements. It was a times like these; when they could talk to and understand each other without having to speak a single word that she knew with all her heart and soul that they were meant to be together. Warmth spreads through her chest as Hayate lets out another raspy chuckle followed by a cough.

"Sorry, Hokage-sama just informed me yesterday and it's the third stage, the finals." Hayate pauses for a moment and stares at his hands, clasped in his lap. "I'm…nervous. But I'm excited too." He glances at her from the corner of his eye and gives her a hesitant, shy smile.

Yugao smiles at him and tries to convey all the love that she feels for him into that one smile. She knew he still had trouble speaking about his emotions, not used to someone caring about what he felt. She gently cups his cheek in her other hand and turns his face until he is facing her. "I'm so proud of you Hayate. You have no idea how amazing you are," she says, feeling her face heat up.

It was only right that she put herself out there after he had made the effort to tell her what he was feeling. Of course, the subsequent blush that Hayate is now sporting didn't hurt either. She stares into his dark eyes a little while longer; loving everything about the man, even the permanent bags under his eyes. They only look away from each other when Hayate inevitably coughs.

Yugao loses track of how long they sit there in their tree, holding hands and watching the sun rise higher and higher into the sky, Hayate periodically coughing. When the sun is almost directly above them, Hayate speaks again.

"I've been thinking about something for a while."

Yugao lets out a noncommittal hum. Hayate's grip on her hand shifted and tightened. Nervous? He let out a series of coughs. Yes, he was definitely nervous about something. Hayate only coughed more than twice in a row when he was anxious or nervous about something. Yugao shifts her attention until it's entirely focused on her lover.

"Well, it's nothing concrete, but I've been thinking about, you know, maybe," he coughs, "joining ANBU." His voice loses momentum at the end, his whole body tensing up.

Yugao stares at him in shock for a moment before smiling. She was certain that Hayate was more than good enough to join ANBU, his kenjutsu was beyond superior, and it would be easier to spend time with him if he was in ANBU with her. She squeezes his hand and opens her mouth to encourage him to go through with it when something stops her. Something wasn't right.

Yugao quickly pulls her mask back around to cover her face and silently jumps down to crouch on the branch directly below them, switching to her ANBU persona. A second later Hayate joins her on the branch: sword drawn, eyes narrowed and alert, his breathing slow and even.

He gently taps her knee once. What is it?

Yugao spreads her senses out, her chakra sensing among the best in the village, and tries to pinpoint what exactly it was that had alerted her that something was wrong. She makes a sharp movement with her hand. Not sure.

A few seconds later Hayate shifts closer to her and jerks his head in a half circle and taps his ear. Listen around us.

She nods as she realizes what it was that had alerted her. The wildlife: the bugs, the animals, and the birds were all in an uproar. As far as she could tell, every living thing within a half mile was upset about something, but what? What were they sensing that they couldn't? She taps Hayate's knee once. What's going on?

He makes the same sharp movement she had just made. Don't know.

Yugao silently draws her sword and jerks her head down. Hayate shakes his head no. She glares at him; his stubbornness wasn't exactly helping here. He gently taps her blade and glares right back. For a few seconds they're locked in a glaring match. But then Hayate's eyes soften and turn pleading. Her glare falls and she closes her eyes. She reluctantly nods.

A rough, calloused hand takes hers and places it over something warm. Yugao opens her eyes and sees that Hayate has placed her hand on his chest; right over his heart. He smiles at her, her favorite smile the cheater, squeezes her hand and quietly jumps down to the ground.

Yugao sighs, she should have known he wouldn't put her in danger while he was around; even if she was more than capable of taking care of herself. She quickly jumps over till she's at the furthest protruding branch and looks down to watch the tokubetsu jounin.

Hayate was crouched low with his sword held out to his side, slightly in front of him. He takes a few steps forward and tilts his head to the side, listening.

Yugao nervously chews the inside of her cheek. In some ways, Hayate was the worst thing to happen to her. The few times that they had fought side-by-side she had always lost her ability to stay analytical and calm, too consumed by worry. Hayate made her human and being human could get you killed in a battle. Even though she knew Hayate was more that capable of handling himself, she couldn't stop the butterflies from fluttering in her stomach and the knot from forming in her throat. She knew that if something were to happen to her beloved, she would never be the same.

So when Hayate suddenly dropped his sword and fell to his knees, an all-consuming panic gripped her and her stomach turned. She opens her mouth to scream for him, years of shinobi training completely disregarded, when her voice catches in her throat.

She can't breathe. Where had all the air gone? She drops her sword, vaguely hearing the soft 'thud' it makes as it hits the leaf-strewn ground, and rips her mask off. She's suffocating. She claws at her throat, desperate to get some oxygen into her lungs. What the hell was going on? She can't feel her chakra. She can't do anything. She frantically looks down to the ground to Hayate staring up at her, his hands also grabbing at his throat.

An almost primal urge washes over her: she has to get to Hayate. She needs to be with him, he was in pain and she needed to do something, anything, to stop his pain.

Yugao stumbles off of the branch and falls to ground, landing ungracefully on her hands and knees with a loud 'thump', the loss of her chakra throwing her off balance. She tries to call out her lover's name but there's nothing in her lungs so nothing comes out. But Hayate knows, always knows, and is already dragging himself over to her. She desperately grasps at him when he comes within reach and a panic, a mind-numbing fear, starts to overwhelm her as her entire chest starts to burn and her vision starts to blur.

Hayate's hands grab at her, gripping the front of her uniform, and drag her the rest of the short distance to himself. He falls sideways, pulling her with him, and lays on the ground, on his side, facing her. Somewhere in the back of her mind she registers the sound of crackling, like the air is being charged with electricity.

Yugao pulls at her uniform collar with one hand, and squeezes Hayate's hand with the other. She stares into his eyes. Even with half her mind drowning in panic she can focus on the face less than a foot in front of her. She hates what she sees.

His usual tired eyes are wider than she thought possible, filled with fear and desperation. His mouth gasping open and close in a futile attempt to get air. Yugao doesn't want to see this face.

She squeezes his hand impossibly tight and he squeeze back just as hard.

Black, a darker black than she has ever seen before, slowly creeps into her peripheral vision and she has the insane urge to laugh. Of all the ways she had imagined dying, she had never thought she would die so close to home, incapacitated by some mysterious force taking her chakra and all the oxygen from out in the open. But then again, it could be a lot worse. At least she has her love with her. And as much as she hates the thought that Hayate was going to die too, she can't help the selfish thought that at least she would be leaving this world with him at her side. Her lip twitches upwards and she thinks something wet is trailing down her face.

All she can see is Hayate's face. His eyes have calmed down some but she can still see a deep pain there. He awkwardly shuffles forward and presses his forehead against hers.

Yes, Yugao thinks, there are worse ways to die than this.

The black has almost completely occluded her vision, but she can still make out Hayate's eyes. They're glossy and a darker brown than she has ever seen before, but no tears fall from them.

The black has consumed everything but a pinpoint when the ground shakes and air is suddenly shoved down her raw throat. Her lungs burn in protest as oxygen is forced into them and even more tears pour from her eyes. She greedily gulps in the newly returned air as Hayate pulls her up into a kneeling position and into a fierce hug.

She rests her head over his shoulder and wraps her arms around him, clinging and trying to ground herself. She can hear the rough, wet coughs coming from Hayate in between his gasps and grips his hair with one hand while rubbing his back with the other. Her chakra runs through her system again and it's like a balm to her soul.

They stay that way for what feels like hours and when Yugao finally gets her breathing under some semblance of control she clings tighter to Hayate and starts to cry, uncontrollably, like she never has before. The panic still grips her heart, nowhere near as strong as before, but still there nonetheless. She can't seem to stop as ragged sobs escaped her sore throat. She wasn't crying because she had almost died, she was shinobi, ANBU for crying out loud, she had accepted the fact that she had a high probability of being killed so young, but it was the full realization that Hayate had almost died that made the tears flow. If he had died, she didn't know what she would have done. Logically, she knows that she would have been dead too so it wouldn't really matter, but she can't stop the horror from building up at the thought that she would have never again felt his arms around her or see his eyes brighten up when he saw her.

Hayate's hands move to her shoulders and push her back so that they were face to face. His eyes greedily roam over her, drinking in the sight of her as Yugao does the same to him. His hands suddenly go to her face, holding her cheeks almost too tightly.

"Yugao…" he whispers, his voice hoarse and broken.

Yugao heart clenches at the sound, even as she relished in his tight hold on her.

"God…" he says in the same tone and Yugao's mind goes blank as Hayate's lips are suddenly pressed against hers.

Wait. Hayate was kissing her? Hayate never kissed her, at least not like this. Sure, they had kissed before, they had been dating for over a year now, but it usually took her a good ten minutes to get the stubborn man to cave in, and even then it was only just a quick peck. His fear of making her sick combined with his hesitance over even dating his former kenjutsu student made it difficult at best to get him to make any kind of physical contact with her. His physical interactions with others were practically nonexistent.

But now...now Hayate was kissing her, kissing her like he was starving. Like she was the air that they had recently been deprived of. And God it was good. Yugao never would have guessed that Hayate was so full of raw passion; for that was the only way to describe the way that he was kissing her.

His dry lips push insistently against hers and she eagerly replies. A hand slide from her cheek to behind her head and he grips her long purple hair in a fist, pushing her head closer. Yugao feels a warm, wet tongue trace her bottom lip and with a she shiver she opens her mouth for him. Hayate sits up a little straighter and pushes his tongue into her welcoming mouth, eagerly tracing every corner.

Yugao has no idea how she has lived so long without this and she is quickly becoming addicted to this more forceful side of her lover. She lets Hayate ravage her mouth for a bit before running her own tongue along his. Her lungs start to ache for oxygen but this time she welcomes the feeling, having no desire to stop. Their mouths fight for dominance and she shivers a little harder when Hayate refuses to back down and becomes even more forceful, gripping her hair tighter and pulling her impossibly closer. Yugao has never been so turned on in her life and she has never wanted Hayate more than she does now.

Her shudder seemed to have alerted Hayate to something because he's suddenly jerking away from her, nearly falling over backwards in his haste. The abrupt loss of his lips disorients her for a moment. She looks up to see what startled him but all she sees is Hayate, eyes wide with shock and shame. She frowns and was about to ask what's wrong but he starts talking before she can even open her mouth.

"Yugao! Oh, oh, I'm so so sorry! I don't know –cough- what came over me! We almost –cough- died and then I go and –cough- and do that! I'm so sorry! I wasn't –cough- thinking!" Hayate rambles frantically, his hands hovering in front of him as if he didn't know what to do with them. His cough gets steadily worse as his distress increases.

"Hayate!" Yugao calmly yet forcefully says.

She needed to calm the man down before he made himself even more sick. The extended period without air they had just experienced certainly could not have been good for his health, and his frantic rambling was only exacerbating his cough. Hayate immediately falls silent and stares at her with worried eyes. A year with Yugao had taught him to listen to that tone.

"I'm sorry," he whispers one more time, his voice filled with so much self-loathing that it shocks Yugao for a moment.

"I don't know why you're sorry," she says, her voice slightly hoarse, "I've been waiting a long time for something like that. Though I admit that I could have done without the whole 'almost dying thing'." She let out a soft chuckle as a faint blushed spreads across Hayate's cheeks.

Hayate stiffens and looks around, suddenly on full alert. His actions bring the current situation back to the forefront of Yugao's mind. Amazing how just a kiss, albeit a mind-blowing one, from Hayate can distract her from the fact that something had almost just killed them.

Hayate slowly stands up, still coughing, pulling Yugao up with him. They stand back to back next to their tree. Yugao once again stretches her senses out and searches for anything nearby. They both stiffened at the same time.

Blood.

The distinctive, coppery smell of blood assaults her senses. A second later she catches the scent of burning flesh.

"A fight?" Hayate whispers without turning around.

"Maybe. Someone or something is either dead or dying. Less than eight hundred meters at three o'clock?" she mumbles back.

"I'll take lead. If it starts to get hard to breathe you get the hell out of there and go to the Hokage and inform him of the situation. No exceptions, is that understood?"

A pause, a cough, and then Yugao reluctantly mumbles affirmation.

They both know it's a lie. Yugao would die right beside him without a second thought. She wouldn't be able to abandon him. They both prayed that whatever had caused the air to disappear is long gone by now.

Hayate starts walking towards the smell of blood and Yugao follows from a pace behind. She observes the tense set in his shoulders, the agitated air around him, and knows that it's not just because of whatever they are about to face. If they don't die before they get back to Konoha she will have to corner Hayate to get him to tell her what's wrong. She has a pretty good idea that he's more tense about the kissing than the almost dying part.

Yugao internally sighs. If anything, the kiss had been a heat of the moment thing but now he would most likely be even more reserved than before. If that was the case then she will just have to force him to see that she wasn't afraid to be close to him. Already she was itching to kiss him again, as inappropriate as it would be in the current situation. Who knew almost dying would have helped to advance their relationship?

Hayate stops and holds his hand up. Wait .

Yugao stops and berates herself. What the hell was wrong with her? She is going into a potentially lethal situation and yet here she was, fretting over her relationship like some love-struck twelve year old civilian. How shameful. She takes a deep breath and slips her ANBU mask and persona into place.

Hayate goes over to a nearby tree and runs his hand over the bark. Yugao narrows her eyes as she sees what had given him pause. The tree looked like someone had repeatedly slashed at it with a sword. The sword slashes, too wide to be from a standard sword, went all the way up to the very top of the tree. She looks around and sees that all of the surrounding trees have similar marks on them; one of the smaller trees having been cut all the way in half. Had a battle taken place here?

Yugao taps the back of Hayate's hand twice to show she's seen everything and they continued on. After about one hundred meters Hayate slows his pace down. The trees around them now have more than slash marks on them. The great trees that Konoha was so well known for were partially uprooted and leaning against each other; as if some great force had passed by and knocked them over. They were all leaning away from the direction that they were heading in and as they continued to walk Yugao had a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that things were about to drastically change, for better or worse.

Another hundred meters in and the proud trees had bent completely to the will of the unknown force and were now lying flat on the ground. Yugao and Hayate had to leap onto the trunks and jump from fallen tree to fallen tree in order to continue forward. The smell of blood and burnt flesh was now overwhelmingly strong and Yugao was thankful that her ANBU mask was blocking at least some of the stench.

Hayate suddenly stops on one of the larger fallen trees and crouches down, drawing his sword out. Yugao lands directly behind him and lays her body out flat so that if anyone were to look directly at Hayate they would'nt be able to see her. She sneaks her hand out to touch Hayate's foot.

She taps once. What is it?

Hayate doesn't move for a moment but then reaches over and, on the hand that's resting against his foot, draws an 'X'. Stay here. He jumps forward before Yugao can protest.

She quickly sits up into a crouch, ready to attack at a seconds notice. It was her job to watch her partner's back and she would be damned if she let something hurt him again. Yugao scans the surrounding area, searching for the best possible escape routes and memorizing the terrain so she won't get caught by surprise if they have to fight. There was nothing worse than a shinobi tripping over a rock or a root in the middle of a life-and-death fight.

"Yugao! Come here!" Hayate shouts, his voice strained.

Yugao quickly jumps towards where Hayate's voice had come from, drawing her katana in mid-air. There's a clearing a few meters ahead of her and her eyes widen in shock behind her mask.

Every single tree has been completely decimated, the only sign that there had even been trees there before were periodic scorch marks on the ground. In the epicenter of the now-barren area there is a crater at least fifteen meters in diameter. Yugao kneels down to feel the ground. It's still hot from whatever had burned the trees.

"Hayate?" she calls out, not seeing him anywhere in the clearing.

"Down here!"

She runs over to the edge of crater and look into it to find Hayate crouching down in the middle of the hole, leaning over something, his sword laying on the ground next to him. Yugao hesitates a moment when she realizes the smell of blood and burnt flesh is coming from whatever Hayate is hovering over. A flash of irrational fear shoots through Yugao at the thought of Hayate being so close to something that smelled so strongly of death.

What the hell was wrong with her? The way she was acting was more than likely going to get them both killed because she wasn't concentrating. Even in the past when they worked together, it was never this bad.

Yugao jumps down into the crater and runs over to Hayate, doing all she can to suppress the urge to gag at the overwhelming stench. When she's close enough to see what he's leaning over, she can't hold back her gasp.

"Is he alive?" she whispers.

Yugao has seen many dead and dying bodies in her young life, being in ANBU, she has been the cause of many of those bodies. She has seen the cruelty with which some missing-nin dealt with their prey. She has seen bodies mutilated, burned, and scattered. She could cut off a target's head and have no qualms about it if it meant protecting Konoha. But this, this was on a whole new level for her. The man lying in front of her, at least she thinks it's male, looked like he could be the embodiment of the phrase 'through hell and back'.

The most prominent thing about the man was that his skin was barely there. It looked like someone had taken a knife and meticulously sliced the first few layers of his skin off; all that remained was a pink and red splotchy, mockery of skin. It looked to be the work of some new jutsu that she had never seen before or a highly skilled medic-nin, probably on par with the Sannin Tsunade-hime in terms of skill. Surprisingly though, the man's clothes, or what was left of them, were still on him. She doesn't see any hitai-ate on him to identify where he was from, if he even was a shinobi. It was impossible to tell what his torn clothing could have originally been. Though why anyone would attack a civilian so viciously was beyond her.

Looking closer Yugao notices that there were also burns sporadically scattered along his body, barely visible among the raw skin. In fact, it looked like his whole body had been electrocuted, in some places the skin was even smoking, no doubt the main cause of the awful smell. Lacerations and stab wounds also littered the man's body. The largest being a deep stab wound in the center of his chest. It looked like it went clean through him.

When Hayate doesn't respond, Yugao jerks her head up. He was staring at the body before him with serious eyes and a clenched jaw. Slowly, he reaches out and places his hand over the man's neck, searching for a pulse. Yugao can't blame him for the grimace he makes when he touches the raw skin on the man's throat. His hand flinches back almost as soon as it touches the man.

"He's alive!" Hayate says in disbelief.

Yugao stares at Hayate for a moment. There was no possible way that the man was alive. The hole in his chest was definitely a fatal wound, and if by some miracle he had survived that, the extent and degree of the burns covering his body would have killed him. But Hayate wouldn't lie; he had never lied to her before and he certainly wouldn't lie about something like this.

She looks down at the not-dead man's face again. Now that she's over the initial shock of seeing his injuries, she sees it. There is just the slightest movement beneath his eyelids, it was barely there but it was enough.

Yugao's ANBU training finally kicks in full-throttle. Thank God her Captain wasn't here or else he would have kicked her ass six ways to Sunday for being so unprofessional. "Hayate. Run back to the village and grab the first med-nin you see and then run back this way. I'll carry the man and run in a straight line towards the village until I see you and the med-nin. If we don't see you before we reach the village we will wait outside the gates, we will not bring an unknown into the village. We'll have the med-nin see if they can stabilize him. If he's a lost cause then at least we will have tried. If we can stabilize him then we'll bring him to the hospital and into the secure ward until we learn more about him. He could be a potential enemy nin; however we cannot just leave him to die. If he is an enemy nin he could also have valuable information and as Konoha shinobi we cannot allow this opportunity to pass."

"Let me-".

"No, I was training earlier today and am running low on chakra. I won't be able to make the run back to Konoha as quickly as you will." Yugao pauses for a moment. If it was anyone else she would just pull rank on them but she could never do that, not to her lover.

Hayate looks at her with a small smile; her favorite smile again. "Don't you dare be late Yugao," he says and is gone in a whoosh of air.

Yugao looks down at the mutilated body with a grimace. She is not looking forward to carrying the man however far it will take to meet back up with Hayate. She looks over the body again and tries to figure out what the least painful way for the man to be picked up is. In all honesty it was going to hurt like hell no matter which way she picked him up. If he was even conscious enough to feel the pain, or if he even had enough nerve endings left to feel pain.

Yugao carefully slides one arm under the man's shoulders and the other under his knees. It is only as she is lifting the man up that she realized how light he is, realizes how small the man is. Without wasting another second she sets off as fast as she dares, trying not to jostle the man too badly, towards the village.

As Yugao jumps out of the crater, runs pass the decimated trees, pass the uprooted trees and towards the slashed trees she can't help but ponder over what exactly had caused that much destruction. It looked like some kind of explosion had gone off, the man in her arms being the epicenter. Had he been attacked? Or had he been the one attacking and just lost after killing his enemies? As far as Yugao knew, to cause that much damage it would take at least three ANBU in their top form. Her eyes dart to the man she's carrying. Whoever this man was, he certainly had powerful enemies.

It's not even five minutes later that she feels two chakra signatures approaching; one which she knows as well as her own. How had Hayate managed to run all the way to Konoha, find a med-nin, and run back? Yugao slows down until she comes to stop in a small clearing. She is gently laying the man down on the grass when Hayate bursts through the trees, a blonde man behind him.

"Inoichi-sama!" Yugao says, standing at attention and bowing slightly. She glances at Hayate out of the corner of her eye.

He coughs. "He was patrolling outside of the gates and a Yamanaka is as good as any med-nin," Hayate says with a careless shrug that was belied by the tightness around his eyes as he glances Yugao over.

"Is this the man Hayate-kun was telling me about?" Inoichi says, kneeling down beside the burned body without hesitation.

Yugao kneels down opposite of him and bows her head. "We found him alone approximately four hundred meters westward in a field after Hayate-san and I went in search of the cause of an unknown jutsu that we got caught it. The surroundings were completely destroyed showing signs of what looked to be an A class or higher battle. When we got there the ground was still warm from a jutsu and his body was still smoking which leads me to believe that the battle had just ended. He was unconscious when we arrived and has not woken up since. Estimated time since discovery: eight minutes."

Inoichi absent-mindedly nods and hovers his hands over the man's body. He rests one hand over the man's forehead but then pulls it away with a frown. His hands start to glow green and he runs them over the man's chest and stomach but stops after a few seconds, his frown deepening. He sits back on his heels and bites his lip, staring hard at the man's face.

"Inoichi-sama?" Hayate asks, coming over to stand behind Yugao. He rests a hand on her shoulder.

The head of the Yamanaka clan doesn't say anything, just continues to stare at the man with a frown. Yugao doesn't know what's going on but she knows that if the man doesn't get treatment soon he really will die. So why in the world was Inoichi-sama just sitting there doing nothing?

"From my preliminary observations I gathered that around eighty percent of his body has sustained second or third degree burns. There are over a dozen visible lacerations, most likely kunai made. There is a large, fist-sized hole to his anterior right chest that goes to his posterior chest; an injury which was no doubt the cause of his punctured right lung. Multiple abrasions cover his trunk and extremities with no discernible pattern. He is covered in an abnormal amount of blood, most of which I believe is not his. Dried blood indicates that he was wounded or inflicted wounds somewhere between two and three hours ago, the fresh blood indicate less than fifteen minutes. There's blood in his middle ear, indicating a basilar skull fracture. It's impossible to tell how exactly many bones have been broken or muscles pulled but I can confidently say that the right half of his rib cage is shattered and his upper lumbar spine appears to be broken, possibly his thoracic spine as well," Inoichi says quietly and quickly, not looking up as he speaks. "Physically this man should be dead." His voice gives no indication of what he is thinking.

"But he still has a pulse! He's still alive! Why aren't- forgive me Inoichi-sama, but why aren't you healing him?" Hayate says.

If Inoichi heard Hayate he doesn't give any sign. "Physically this man should be dead three times over ," Inoichi says. "It is literally impossible for someone to be alive right now. It is simply not possible for the human body to withstand this kind of damage and still be breathing afterwards."

Yugao's eyes widen as the implications of his words hit her. She involuntarily takes a step back. So this man…wasn't really a man? What was he? Hayate's grip on her shoulder tightens and he voices her question.

Again, Inoichi doesn't respond right away. "I'm…not sure. Either something is blocking me from reaching him mentally or," another pause, "there's nothing up there for me to reach."

Hayate coughs. "So what do we do?"

Inoichi makes a hand sign and mutters a jutsu under his breath, too low for Yugao or Hayate to hear. He then mimics Yugao's earlier actions and picks the man's frail form up, holding him carefully in his arms.

"We take him to Konoha and report what's happened to Hokage-sama. I've placed a sleeping jutsu on him in the event that he should wake up before we can properly situate him in the village. Let's go." Inoichi says, his tone offering no chance for questions.

Yugao and Hayate follow a pace behind the Torture and Interrogation Specialist. In Yugao's opinion, placing a sleeping jutsu on the man was a little extreme, but then again, surviving a hole in the chest was a bit extreme too. She glances over at Hayate who's branch-hopping alongside her. He looks over at her and gave her a warm smile; and suddenly, everything was okay. Because even though they both felt it, felt that something big was coming, that things were about to change, they still had each other. As long as she could look over and see Hayate smile at her, she could take anything that the world threw at her.