Thank you all for reviewing! Enter the medics. No more creepy hallucinations with dead people :)
Chapter 4: Investigation
The medics did finally come.
It was just as the snow was beginning to let up that figures garbed in dark, soaked cloaks bearing the Konoha emblem burst into the cave, a team of four which barreled over Kakashi and forced the three genins back, Kakashi's dog Bulk bounding in behind them. Everything was a whirl of confusion and panic as the three conscious members of Team Seven found themselves manhandled, injuries roughly inspected even as Naruto tried to fight the medics off and direct them to Kakashi.
Two of the medics had gone straight to the jounin, pushing down his mask without hesitation and shoving the antidote for the poison into his mouth while searching him for any other injuries, hands already glowing green in preparation.
And then they were headed back to Konoha, Kakashi collapsed in Shizune's arms as she left her team behind. Sasuke's bad arm was immobilized by a jutsu and Sakura's arms were wrapped around a medic's neck, while Naruto, Kyuubi's Chakra having done its work over the night, was well enough to go full speed back to Konoha. He was almost able to keep up with Shizune and her load, but it ended up not mattering, because when he sprinted in the hospital short of breath and nearing exhaustion mere minutes after Shizune had arrived, he was informed by none other than Tsunade that he was just going to have to be patient. Kakashi wasn't stable, she'd said, and treating the dangerous Copy Nin when he was in such a state was best left to professionals. She'd told him he'd be fine and grinned carelessly.
But she didn't understand. She hadn't seen Kakashi call him Minato and sob and try to claw the Sharingan out of his own head. How could she say he'd be fine when she hadn't seen that?
"Sakura- Naruto- Sasuke-"
"Brat, calm down. Hold still, will you?"
"Sakura- Naruto- Sasuke-"
"I said calm down, Hatake Kakashi. Your team is fine. Now, calm down, ninja of Konoha."
The use of his full name, the reminder of who he fought for, it all served Tsunade's purpose of trying to snap him back into the present and get him to focus, but what really calmed the panic in Kakashi's eye was the promise that his team was fine. His fevered gaze shut and the darkness overtook him again, but his team was fine, and that was all that mattered.
Sasuke's hospital room was darkly silent. Team Seven was sober and hesitant, all three members present not actually grounded in anything but the memory of the long night with their sensei. Sasuke, groggy from medication and in for a surgery on his arm that would take place the next morning, stared blankly at the wall, more than a little out of it but still silent as ever, and even Naruto wasn't talking.
They were all waiting for news on Kakashi's condition, but they'd already been warned it would be at least another hour.
Abruptly, Naruto stood. He turned and moved quickly to the door, only stopping when Sakura called out to him.
"Hey, Naruto. What's going on?"
"I'm going to find those people. Rin, Minato, and Obito. They sounded like his friends."
Sakura and Sasuke exchanged a look. Kakashi hadn't exactly been coherent, and his one-sided conversation had barely been understandable, most of the words slurring together and being lost in his weak wheezes that masqueraded as breath, but from what little they had been able to gleam, those three people were dead.
They still didn't stop him from walking out the door.
"Hey! Um… Bushy-brow's sensei!"
Gai didn't know if that supposed to be a compliment or an insult. But he'd drawn plenty of both- or, perhaps plenty of the latter- with his appearance, and he had long ago decided to take such ambiguous jibes as compliments. So he turned around with a smile to see Kakashi's most energetic student standing behind him, a look of curious urgency on his face, seeming as if he hadn't slept in a day and could use a bath. "Yes, Naruto? To what do I owe the exquisite pleasure of a meeting with one of my rival's cute students?"
Naruto blinked. There were many things that didn't make sense about those two sentences, and that included the enthusiastic manner with which they'd been said. The man looked as eager as if this was the climax in the most suspenseful movie of the year. Naruto shook it off and placed his hands firmly on his hips; he had a mission, and, odd or not, this man was going to help him accomplish it. "You're that guy from the Chuunin Exams. You're Kakashi-sensei's friend, right?"
"My eternal rival? Of course! We are the closest of comrades!" Gai pointed at himself with his thumb proudly and smiled a smile so sparkly it hurt. "Why do you ask, Naruto? Is there something-"
"Who are Rin, Minato, and Obito?"
Naruto's blunt question did quiet Gai, but he wasn't expecting it to make his eyes go wide and his mouth drop open before he recovered his composure. Gai frowned deeply and stared down at him with a strange look in his eyes, one that made Naruto wish he had just gone and asked Iruka, like he'd been planning to.
"Naruto, where did you hear those names?"
The careful way the question was phrased, the suddenly subdued tone to Gai's voice- neither fazed him. Naruto just shrugged. "Kakashi-sensei got sick on a mission. He started talking to them when he was unconscious, and it sounded like they were his friends, and he's hurt so I thought they would want to know."
Gai paused, seeming suddenly serious. "Ah," he said with a heavy exhale. "I see. Now I understand. That is a question I'd advise you ask my rival, but when he is injured, he becomes so full to the brim with youth that his patience runs thin from inactivity, and if you test him, he can be a sight that is frightening to behold! Nevertheless, I can not answer your question, Naruto; those are not my stories to tell, and I would never break my Kakashi's confidence in me in circumstances such as these."
Naruto blinked. Only about half of what the man had said had made any sense at all, and, even then, it hadn't been the answer he'd been looking for. He stared dumbly up at him for a few seconds before he started up again, flailing about a bit in concern.
"But, you said my eternal rival is hurt! Tell me, how is his condition? Is he as youthful as ever, or…?" He trailed off, and when Naruto was too dumbfounded to speak, he began to weep openly. "Oh, no! Do you mean to say that he is… he is dead? Or is is the Sharingan? Naruto, I can not take such suspense when it comes to my ever youthful rival's welfare! Please, you must tell me!"
Naruto stared blankly. He wondered if such a man could really be a good friend for Kakashi- he couldn't see how their personalities would match at all- but when his loud cries grew even louder, Naruto spoke just to put an end to the sobs and the confused looks that they were earning him. "Kakashi-sensei's fine, Bushy-Brow's sensei! And so is the Sharingan! He's just sick because he was poisoned. And the bastard gave us the antidote instead of using it on himself. And I don't know, I think his eye's fine… he got his hand in there once for a few seconds before we managed to pull it out, but, well, it seemed okay at the time."
This seemed to alarm Gai, though not much. "What? Kakashi tried to- he tried to take out his own eye?"
Naruto shuddered, thinking back on it now. They'd torn Kakashi's bloodied hand back in horror to find the fingertips already stained scarlet, with the always-red eye now filling with blood from his attempt at clawing it out of his own skull. "Yeah. It was pretty scary. I mean, he had a high fever so he wasn't in his right mind and all, but…"
Gai appeared stricken, then horrified, then whirled around and ended it all with a dramatic thumbs up and a smile that was far too white to be natural. "Do not worry, Naruto! That is nothing for the power of youth! I will run forth and speak with the Hokage, and I will ensure that he recovers his youth fully! That's a promise!"
Naruto didn't have time to reply before the man had turned and sprinted down the street so fast he was nothing but a blur. Which was somewhat good, because he Gai had left him speechless.
"That's it!"
Sasuke and Naruto both looked at Sakura in surprise at her sudden exclamation. She snapped her fingers and stood excitably, seeming energized for the first time since they'd finally come home to Konoha that morning. "Minato! I knew I recognized that name from somewhere!"
"You know who Minato is?!" Naruto exclaimed eagerly, jumping to his feet as well, eager to know who Kakashi had mistaken him for. "Come on! Spill, Sakura-chan!"
"Well, it might not be the same one. Sensei never mentioned his clan name." She shrugged, then shook her head. "But this has to be it. Namikaze Minato, the-"
"-Fourth Hokage," Sasuke finished. He sighed, shaking his head. "Well, that's one old friend we won't be contacting."
"Hold up!" Naruto waved his hands, gesturing for them to stop talking as he moved forward. "Kakashi-sensei called this Minato guy Sensei! No way was his teacher the Fourth Hokage! He was alive years ago; Kakashi-sensei would have to be ancient!"
"Baka! The Fourth only died thirteen years ago. And Sensei's still pretty young. …Actually, the ages almost match up, I think."
Naruto grimaced and scratched his head, trying to figure out how old Kakashi was in his head before the implications of Minato's real identity hit him.
"So… that means… he's dead."
"That's what we've been trying to tell you, dobe."
Naruto shot a glare at Sasuke and stuck his tongue out. "Shut up, Sasuke-teme!"
Sasuke just rolled his eyes, clearly aggravated and too tired to bother continuing the insipid argument with Naruto. "Anyway, about Obito. The name sounds somewhat familiar… I'm positive I've heard it somewhere before. But I can't place it."
"Oh. So, just like me and Minato, Sasuke-kun. Don't worry; I'm sure if you think about it for long enough, you'll remember!" Sakura smiled brightly- a bit too brightly, in Sasuke's opinion- at him, and he rubbed his aching head. The name Obito had been bothering him for hours, but all he could remember was something vaguely negative had been associated with whoever Obito was. Sakura and Naruto didn't seem to have the slightest idea as to what he was talking about- for Naruto, that was expected, but if it had been covered in the Academy, Sakura would've at least remembered who he was. She was good for that much, certainly.
Sasuke closed his eyes, thinking hard. Just where had he heard that name…?
"I'm worried. He spends more time with Konoha ANBU than with the Uchiha Council... I think they're trying to compromise him."
"There hasn't been an Uchiha like him since that bastard Obito. Stupid kid. That outsider should have never gotten those eyes in the first place; if Obito had lived, he would've been exiled for that. He's no Uchiha, not after that."
"Well, he's dead. I still have my suspicions that Sakumo's kid was a lot more willing for that transplant than the file said, but the Hokage refused to give the matter any more consideration. Hn. He's being played, just like the rest of them.
Sasuke watched as his father shook his head at his mother knowingly, a dark look in his eyes. His mother just sighed. "Well, that matter has been settled almost ten years. Enough about that. We're supposed to be talking about- Sasuke! What are you doing?"
Sasuke opened his eyes with a low gasp. Uchiha Obito… now he remembered that conversation. It hadn't made any sense at the time; later, he'd asked Itachi who Sakumo and Obito were. His brother had simply looked at him oddly, then said they were both heroes in their own right, but he hadn't really given him any more information than eavesdropping on his parent's conversation had.
Later, he had tried to do some digging on his own, only to find that Uchiha Obito's name was nowhere in the archives- the archives that pre-genin such as himself had access to, anyways. And, without a clan name to go by, Sakumo had been just another dead end.
Combining that overheard conversation with what he knew now, though…
His parents had implied that Obito had somehow transplanted his Sharingan into one who was not an Uchiha. That conversation had taken place about eight years previously, when he was five; Kakashi hadn't been twenty yet, not if his estimation of his age was anywhere near accurate. And his parents had implied that the transplant had taken place over ten years previously. Kakashi had probably been about twelve, thirteen...
Could it be…?
Was Obito the Uchiha Kakashi had gotten his eye from?
Sasuke raised his head and cleared his throat, drawing Naruto's and Sakura's attention. Wherever Kakashi had gotten his eye from was none of their business; that an Uchiha matter, and he intended to investigate it further- alone.
But the matter of Obito was still Team Seven's business.
"Obito's dead," he said gruffly.
Sakura gave an exclamation of surprise while Naruto's eyes widened. The blond was halfway up and out of his seat, accusing finger already raised to point at him when Sasuke continued, not wanting to listen to Naruto's half-baked accusation that he didn't know what he was talking about. "I remember where I heard his name. My, uh, parents were talking about him… he's been dead for a long time. Like Minato."
Naruto sighed loudly, deflated. Sakura appeared crestfallen as well, their hopes at finding Kakashi's friends all but dashed. Sasuke suspected Rin was dead as well, but he knew Naruto would never believe him unless he gave any proof- even if Sakura sided with him, which she would, because she was always did. Sasuke was rather sure the kunoichi would side with him if he tried to argue that the sky was green and the grass was blue.
Suddenly, the door to his hospital room opened and in stepped Tsunade. Her hair was limp, half of it escaping from one of her usual low pigtails, and she looked a bit tired, her shoulders low and her skin pale, her look one of exhaustion.
Naruto bounded to his feet and rushed over to her, grabbing the Hokage by the wrist and tugging on her arm, hard. "Tsunade-obaachan! Obaachan! Is Kakashi-sensei okay oh my gosh it's taken so long is he all right Oba-"
"Get off of me, brat." Tsunade tugged her arm free of his grip so roughly that the blond tumbled to the floor and she stepped over him, disregarding his wail. "You two. Visiting hours are over. Sasuke needs to get some rest and you being here isn't helping that. You also didn't sleep last night because you were taking care of that immature brat of a sensei."
Sakura stood even as Naruto scrambled to his feet, the kunoichi bowing slightly at the Hokage. "Tsunade-sama. Is-"
"How's Kakashi-sensei?! Is he okay?! Tsunade-obaachan tell us!"
Tsuande glanced down at Naruto with a raised eyebrow. "Huh? You mean nobody told you?"
When the three shook their heads in confusion, she groaned and smacked a head to her forehead. "Worthless medi-nin in training. Kami. I'm sure he's doing this to spite me. Well, how will he like two weeks worth of midnight shifts?" She gave a wicked smile, apparently not noticing how worried the three still were.
"Tsunade-sama, you look really tired," Sakura began hesitantly, trying to mask her worry. "Did Kakashis-sensei's healing take that much to… I mean…" She trailed off anxiously and bit her lip. If the greatest healer in the all of the Five Nations had been this tired out after treating her sensei, it couldn't be good.
To her surprise, Tsunade rolled her eyes and kicked the door shut with her heel so hard it almost broke off the hinges. "No, I'm tired because apparently, Genma, Raidou, Asuma, and Kurenai think it's funny to take on an S-classing missing nin without calling for reinforcements from ANBU. They also must've thought it was absolutely fucking hilarious to scare those two lovey dovey chuunins at the gate half to death by wondering in with arms half torn off and bleeding eye sockets and holding in their own damn guts. Do they just assume that medical ninjutsu is a fix-it-all magic trick and all we do is snap our fingers to bring them back from the dead? Do they have any idea how close they cut it? Jeez. I've had it up to here with my insane, suicidal jounins treating their health like some kind of disposable toy. Actually, they treat it like a food wrapper to be discarded. And that includes your brat of a sensei."
Team Seven was mildly overwhelmed by her sudden rant, all three staring at the Hokage in surprise. The blonde stood fuming against the wall for several moments before she shook her head harshly and turned her attention back to the genins. "Sorry. That stuff is none of your business. Usually I reserve such things for Shizune and my sake. Hmm… guess I was tireder than I thought. That sake in my desk is sounding reeeeal good about now…"
"Hey!" Naruto grabbed at Tsunade's wrist again when she turned to leave, seeming to have forgotten entirely about Team Seven. "Wait! What about Kaka-sensei?!"
"Oh. Right. Him." She shook her head and yawned widely. "He's fine. Been fine for hours, actually. I told the kid playing medi-nin to tell you three that. He'll be out of this place sooner than you, Sasuke."
Sasuke grunted while Sakura sighed, slumping with relief, and Naruto dropped into a chair and yawned, exhaustion finally showing. For the first time since Kakashi had collapsed the night before, all three genins finally dropped the facade of being in control and relaxed, so heavily tired that Tsunade's stern order for Sakura and Naruto to get out didn't even faze them. She had to haul Naruto to his feet by his ear for his drooping eyes to open and glared down at him.
"Both of you, out. You can come back and see Sasuke and Kakashi tomorrow, but tonight, I want you both home and resting."
Naruto groaned loudly and Sakura had to resist the urge to admonish him for his complete lack of respect in front of the Hokage. She blushed, mortified, and opened her mouth to apologize for him when Naruto suddenly straightened up, as if he'd remembered something very important.
"Oh! Oh! Obaachan!" he exclaimed. "Wait! Do you know somebody named Rin? We want to find her for Kakashi-sensei but we don't know who she is."
Tsunade's tired eyes narrowed at the name, and she glanced between the three before her with suspicion before she shook her head. "Where on earth did you hear that name?"
Naruto pouted. "Gai-sensei said that, too. What's this deep, dark secret about Rin and those other two? How come no one tells us anything? Kaka-sensei started talking to Rin last night and we wanted to track her down! It sounded like they were friends. But then we couldn't find her because we don't know who she is."
Tsunade paused, then just shook her head and pointed for Sakura and Naruto to leave. "Rin isn't here, Naruto. And I don't think it's a good idea to mention her to Kakashi."
When she left, Team Seven was only more confused- and determined- than before.
