Chapter 3: Deployment.
Tsunade had finally managed to wrench herself away from her bed-ridden apprentice. Part of her, a large part of her, demanded that she go back. Demanded that she do what women had been doing throughout all time, damn it.
But another part of her, just as large and boisterous as its opponent, reasoned that her mother was quite capable of performing the maternal role to her young apprentice. After all, she had given birth to the girl. And, on top of that, she had work to do. Paperwork sleeps for no one.
Particularly since it doesn't sleep.
She had managed to force herself through two piles of the paperwork, with no end in sight, when Jiraiya came through the door, right behind his apprentice.
Tsunade wasn't quite certain what to do about Naruto. After all, her adoptive brother had, however inadvertently, put her apprentice into the hospital. It was a decided conflict of interests between killing him, and merely maiming him.
"What do you want?" She asked, trying not to be cold and failing. She knew that Naruto probably felt worse about this than she did, but it didn't help. It was still her apprentice lying on a hospital bed. Still her apprentice whose mother was in a near breakdown at bedside. Still her apprentice whose body was slowly shutting down from a poison running through her body. Still her apprentice whose chakra coils were beyond the hope of human repair.
Naruto flinched, as if he could hear the thoughts Tsunade had tried to keep from her voice. Something about his expression said that he didn't blame her for her anger. But then again, Naruto had plenty of practice at not blaming people for being angry with him.
Jiraiya put a hand on the shoulder of his apprentice, calming him, and signaling him to let the older ninja take over. Tsunade made a cutting gesture with the edge of her hand. "Let him say it himself, Jiraiya. If he wants to try and apologize to the wrong person, at least he can have the spine to do it himself."
"I'd rather apologize to the right person, once she's all right."
That stopped her cold. Naruto had surprised her again. He did that to people. "How do you think that miracle's going to happen?" Biting, almost as venomous as Orochimaru had been during his time in Konoha. Jiraiya winced for his apprentice. The boy shrugged it off this time, and Jiraiya inwardly applauded him. He was capable of shrugging it off when he needed to. Jiraiya wished he had been able to learn that skill.
"Because I managed to convince the fox to tell me where to find a cure."
The battery of realistic hope from the boy in front of her had Tsunade punch-drunk. He continued on, taking advantage of his opening.
Tsunade shook her head. This was worth listening to. "Where."
"Some ruins, in the forests above the monument. Half an hour for civilians, according to the bastard fox."
"Meaning about ten minutes for a ninja."
"Yep!" Naruto smiled, and for a moment, Tsunade actually believed that it was his normal, chipper grin. But no, that hell-for-leather grin was only shadowed at in this smile. It was too pained to be Naruto, yet she knew it was.
Jiraiya looked at Tsunade, and frowned. "I won't be able to go with him. I need to go dig around my information network."
"In other words, you need to go whoring."
"Akatsuki is at least two members down. That's gotta have them nervous. I need to find out what they're up to, if I can."
Tsunade nodded in agreement, before she looked at Naruto. "Fortunately, Danzou has reassigned Sai. I'll have Gai's team accompany you and Yamato to the ruins. You're leaving as soon as you're packed. Dismissed. RAIDOU! GENMA!" Tsunade said, as her hand grabbed at one of the standard mission forms in her drawer.
Naruto and Jiraiya left, as the Jounin appeared. "Ma'am?"
Not very likely that they're going to encounter any hostile nin this far into Fire country. Still, the Kyuubi is the one guiding them, which added a serious chance that things wouldn't be half as easy as they seemed. Plus there is a very strict time element to this trip. Sakura wouldn't last more than three days at this rate. Better go rank B
"I want you to get Maito Gai, Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee, Tenten and Yamato. They are needed here ASAP. Tell them to pack for a three day trip."
The jounin bowed, disappearing into the village.
Something about those ruins tickled at Tsunade's memory, as she tried to turn back to the paperwork. Sighing, she called for Shizune, and the two of them began digging through history.
How Genma ended up here was a question he always asked. Because, inevitably, he would be the one who had to get the Hyuuga prodigy, or heiress, or whoever was needed from their compound.
As he stepped into their courtyard, a Branch Family member motioning him through the doorway, he saw that Neji was, once again sparring with Hiashi. The older Hyuuga turned up one of his hands in a motion to stop, before he turned to the jounin. "Genma."
The brevity of the greeting didn't lend it any negativity, a talent that Genma always appreciated in the Hyuuga Clan Lord. "I'm actually here for Neji."
Hiashi nodded, as his nephew's eyes came up to meet those of his fellow jounin. The Hyuuga clan lord knew that this meant that his favorite sparing partner, although he would never admit it to the boy's face, was about to disappear for a while again.
"The Hokage wants you, stat. Pack for three days she said. You're probably leaving from there." Neji nodded, and turned to his uncle. As he prepared to speak, the Hyuuga Clan Lord flicked his wrist. "Go."
Neji bowed, and disappeared. Hiashi turned to the jounin messenger, and found that he was already gone.
Raidou had the easy task of finding Gai and Lee. All he had to do was listen for the screams of innocent bystanders, and the cries of the "Power of youth."
Finding them, was easy. Maintaining sanity, not so much so. As he finally managed to wedge a word in between the two sunset outlined men, he sighed in relief. That was over.
Then was rudely reminded that reality hadn't checked out of the building yet. As Gai and Lee went off to conquer with the power of youth, Raidou seriously considered cutting their youth short. Permanently.
Deciding that the satisfaction of shutting them up wasn't worth missing-nin status, he departed for his post at the Hokage's tower.
Maybe he could get her to make it an assignment? He'd have to ask her about that one day.
Team Gai and Yamato gathered in the Hokage's office. Naruto was already pacing on the roof, using the excuse of chakra control exercises. Tsunade was relieved that the other ninja had arrived. She was considering killing the very likely future Hokage at this rate.
"This'll be quick, you need to leave on this mission immediately." Tsunade said. The ninja didn't bother to sit, as Naruto flipped to the floor, facing her desk. "The mission is an A Rank. You're destination is the ruins just past the Hokage Monument."
"A-rank? I mean, the fox ain't trustworthy but still."
"Those ruins bugged me when you mentioned them, so me and Shizune went and looked them up. Turns out, that when Konoha was built, my grandfather sent a team to scout them out. Half of them died, and whatever the rest of them told him was enough that he had it declared a forbidden zone."
Naruto was impassive at this news. He had a goal, and even Kyuubi wouldn't have kept him from it. The rest of the team wasn't half as sure. "Dismissed."
The group was out of the room, onto the balcony, and off across the rooftops of Konoha.
Yamato slipped into a position beside the young jinchuuriki. "So, what's this about?" The rest of the team listened intently.
"Remember when I tagged Sakura back at Teichi bridge?"
Yamato nodded. Gai's team didn't have a clue. Sighing, Naruto gave them the bare-bones version. How he used Kyuubi's power to try and fight Orochimaru, who had surprised them by being there at all. How Sakura had rushed him to try and snap him out of the Kyuubi-induced blood-lust. How he had interpreted that as a hostile intent, and clawed her arm.
"The Kyuubi chakra slipped into her body through the wound, and now its poisoning her. She won't last too much longer at this rate. I managed to force Kyuubi into telling me where to find an antidote. He's decided to guide us."
"Oh, so the power of your youth convinced the demon to tell you!" Lee nodded, as he lunged into the next step. Naruto's laugh was not entirely cheerful, and was entirely at odds with the boy's normal attitude. They cleared the monument, and slipped into the forest. Silently, Naruto willed Sakura to hold on a little longer. He'd be damned if he let her die.