Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, or anything associated with it whatsoever. Alas, and woe.
Journey Through Night
Chapter 4
The early morning in the desert city of Sunakagure no Sato was cool and gray. The sun had not yet risen beyond the barrier of the limitless horizon of sand and the last vestiges of the blanket of night had not yet been lifted from the open skies filled with the sighs of the breeze, leaving the world below enshrouded in sleepy shadows.
Sakura had been up for an hour already.
Like most shinobi, she had been trained to subsist on a few hours sleep per night less than a civilian, four and quarter hours a night was a typical sleep cycle. If necessary, she could go days without sleep at all before she experienced a decline in her cognitive abilities. Despite the urgency of the situation in Suna, it was not advisable to push the limits of their efficacy while sleep deprived and thus she and the rest of the team whose health she was assigned to defend had slept.
The twitter and tweets of the desert fowl were distinctly different than the songs and choruses of the Konoha songbirds to be sure. Sakura found herself comparing the differences as she leaned against the stonewall of the hospital and slurped down the coffee she had been provided with. Unlike most other situations the young medic had been presented with during her assignment in the desert, about this latest discovery she could be certain.
Coffee in Suna was strong. She needed to remember to not request that it be black next time. She also needed to note the variety so she could recommend it to Shizune for the rare occasions when Tsunade-shishou coerced her into going out drinking with her. Shizune was more intimidating than Ibiki-san when she came to work hung over.
The rosy haired kunoichi lowered the cup from her lips and concentrated on what her rounds with patients had revealed. As she had been informed, there were no identifiable causes of the illness. She had pushed her diagnostic abilities to their limits in her attempts to uncover even the slightest clue that had been previously overlooked to no avail. Her medical chakra had traveled from her hands into the patients as it normally did, flowed into their own chakra networks, rippled over internals organs, seeped into the most minute capillaries and fragile aveoli, coursed through the blood from the tips of the toes to the innermost crevices of the brain and found absolutely no foreign tissue or organisms, abnormal metabolic activity, growths, atrophies, or any toxicities outside of the documented wasting.
The exertion had left her weary and contemplative. The only thing she had noted was an oddity in the chakra itself. Temari had offered to let Sakura examine her, which Sakura had accepted with great reluctance due to the dubious propriety of the act given Temari's social rank.
Sakura had pulled the curtain for privacy and settled herself into a chair next to Temari's hospital bed as the older kunoichi lay out to be examined. She tried to force the knowledge of Temari's significance to Konoha Village's greatest ally out of her mind and not think about what Tsunade-shishou would do to her if she caused an international incident.
Temari regarded her with a wry grin as the medic visibly composed herself. "Relax, Sakura-san, you'd think you never examined a patient before."
Sakura caught herself and smiled nervously. "Not one that could result in the collapse of crucial diplomatic ties if I screw up."
Temari barked out a laugh. "What are you going to do? Give me an accidental sex change?" The brusque blonde laughed again at Sakura's rapid blush, which clashed violently with her hair. "If you can do that and make it look like an accident, you can examine Kankuro next."
Despite Temari's joie de vivre, her internal systems were beginning to show signs of distress. All her major organs were not functioning at the levels to be expected in a young and healthy kunoichi who had never suffered a major injury, and the liver and kidneys were all beginning to show signs of activity that indicated they were straining to keep up with demands of processing the byproducts of increasing cell death. On the contrary her extremities showed no signs of damage, as the medic would have expected.
There was, however, an interesting variation in one her systems that caught Sakura's attention. She frowned slightly in concentration and withdrew her diagnostic chakra back into her own teeming chakra network.
"Temari-san," Sakura asked, looking the other young woman in the face, "I detected an odd perturbation in your chakra, a kind I haven't seen before." Green eyes sparked with interest. "Is it something familiar to your medical staff?"
"Yes and no," Temari replied pulling herself up to kneel on the hospital bed and face her colleague. "The perturbation has been noted in infected patients before, the greater the chakra capacity, the greater the ripple effect, as is usual." Temari looked to Sakura who nodded in agreement. Some diseases occasionally indirectly effected the metaphysical chakra network through their effects on the internal organs the lines interacted closely with.
"But," Temari continued, "this particular pattern is new." She looked at Sakura curiously. "Is it like anything you've encountered before?"
Sakura shook her head, strands of pink hair swinging about her face. "I haven't, but it's consistent with the echoes one commonly sees from distress in the organs. Essentially, it's only telling us what we already know."
Sakura took another sip of the coffee, vaguely wondering if the java was going to make her hair stand on end. Something in the back of her mind was telling her what she had discovered was significant, but she couldn't determine how. Knowing that an illness that attacked the major organs caused secondary change in the associated chakra network was not an earth-shattering discovery. It was like noting colds gave little kids a runny nose.
Still, she couldn't shake the feeling it was significant, she just didn't know why. She shifted her weight so she was standing fully upright and looked down the smooth sanded hallway bustling with doctors, nurses, aids, and messengers. This portion of the hospital had been quartered off to ensure the staff could move freely to work and not have to step over the infected cluttering the hallways in other sections. Just beyond her sight, Sakura could sense the huddled ill, suffering and clinging to dying hope.
She would solve this, she just didn't know how yet.
*****O*****
Kiba had decided the desert was a sucky place to live. What was wrong with people? It was hot, the sun was blazing, and sand got into everything, including between his sandals and his feet where it rubbed maddeningly. Did Suna shinobi use chakra to keep it a bay? He bet they did.
The team was traversing over dunes and barren rock marked with the occasional mass of thorns that passed itself off as a plant. The area outside Suna was a combination of smooth desert just beyond heavily fortified rocks walls and a labyrinth of gullies, canyons, caves, and washouts from the infrequent heavy rain. Coarse desert sands, broken gravel, and chips of stone crunched under their sandals as they passed from roasting sunlight to cool shade when passing underneath overhangs.
Kiba was glad to give his eyes a break from squinting against the sun reflecting off the pale sands as he and Akamaru darted into a shallow, smooth walled cave that must have been created from the flow of water in the bend of an ancient river.
The salt crystals from his drying sweat clinging to his short dark hair were beginning to itch. He took out his water bottle and poured some into a collapsible bowl for Akamaru before dampening a cloth to wipe his neck.
Guided by Matsuri, they had been exploring the landscape around Suna for anything suspicious the Suna shinobi may have missed. There were certainly enough nooks and crannies to hide away small items or evidence, but neither Shino nor Neji had found anything and he and Akamaru hadn't found any scents aside from those left by the Suna patrols or native fauna.
Suna had a lot of lizards, he now knew.
It had been a long shot to begin with, but without any evidence in the infected persons or the city proper to investigate, checking the desert was necessary.
A soft thud and flash of turquoise cloth against the brown landscape told Kiba Matsuri had found him.
"Are you alright, Kiba-san?" she asked concernedly as she peered into the small cave.
"Yeah, we were just taking a break," he replied, repacking his gear. Back to the salt mines.
Rimshot.
*****O*****
The light coming through the large picture window in the office of the Hokage was dull and grey. Clouds had moved in over Konoha, not particularly heavy, but just grey enough to threaten rain. A few light drops made the faintest of patters as they struck the carefully polished glass.
Ton ton grunted and snuffled to herself as she watched the weather outside while Tsunade focused on the two dispatches she had received from the team in Suna, one written by Neji and one written by Sakura. Her eyebrows sunk low over her golden eyes as she intently processed the information in the reports.
It was good to know Gaara had done his best to provide the team with free reign in Suna, although the severity of the problem remained deeply alarming. Equally troubling were the facts surrounding the investigation of the illness itself. Sakura had been her student long enough to know exactly what information to include and how in a report to tailor it to Tsunade's liking, and the Sanin rapidly absorbed everything Sakura had sent for her to know.
Which was why she was increasingly getting the urge to find a convenient boulder and pulverize it clean out of existence.
Idiopathic illnesses and mysterious ailments with unknown causes were unavoidable in medicine. The human body was far to intricate and complex for everything that could go wrong to be easily picked apart and understood, but an entire village, small city truthfully, should not be experiencing common systems without an identifiable cause, let alone a pathogen that could not be detected.
A highly infectious contagion and environmental toxicities were the most likely answers, but neither of those could be confirmed or denied. Both Sakura and Neji had mentioned the possibility of a jutsu being the cause, but that idea was almost as ridiculous as that of an invisible germ.
The Hokage put down the letters as she finalized the plans in her mind. She would have Shizune assign a team to dig for information in Konoha's own medical archives, and advise Sakura to continue investigating the possibility of a jutsu. Based on the information about Suna's hospital instruments and her own experiences with Suna's medical prowess from the Great War, if a pathogen or an environmental cause couldn't be found, someone was hiding it. Given the amount of time Suna had dedicated to poisons, she wondered if this could be a left over biological weapon that had been activated. If that were so, the young Kazekage would have to rely on the candidness of his military personnel in charge of classified experiments. She wished him luck with that.
She should ask Sakura if that possibility had been explored in the next communication.
Tsunade was readying to summon Shizune when there was a knock at the door to her office.
"Tsunade-sama? Your appointment has arrived," Shizune herself announced as she slowly opened the large door and looked around the edge.
The blonde allowed herself to make a face at the news since only her assistant could see it. That guy.
"Let him in," Tsunade called out in her best no nonsense, authoritative voice. "Also, I have new instructions to give you once this meeting is concluded."
"Hai," Shizune answered with a quick nod of her dark haired head as she stepped aside to let in a man wearing spotless white robes and wearing a severely arranged straight back hairstyle.
The man treaded soundlessly into the room and bowed with impeccable execution and politeness. "Hokage-sama, thank you for being graciousness enough to take time out of your busy schedule to speak with me."
"Hyuuga Hiashi-sama," Tsunade answered without the politesse, "what can I do for you?"
*****O*****
The various shinobi and occasional civilian employee bowed respectfully as their Kazekage walked past them in the stone hallways of the Tower. Gaara noted the respect as he passed, starkly aware of how different the response to his presence was versus the experiences of his childhood, even if the gestures were only a matter of ceremony.
The heavy fabric of the white robes on his shoulders swung slightly with the dwindling movement as he came to a stop outside of the office that had been allotted to Sakura. He tapped lightly on the door and waited for a response from the kunoichi behind it. Years of necessity had honed his ability to keep his emotion carefully hidden behind the appearance of a smooth surface, but underneath his emotions churned.
He had heard whispers in the dark as long as he could remember. People spoke more softly at night, in hushed tones. Sometimes because they were tired, sometimes because others near them were resting, sometimes because they did not want to be overheard. Snatches of conversation, soft words, murmured thoughts and hopes. Then the night would become quiet as all those voices faded into sleep. He had often wondered what it would be like to fall asleep that way, to rest. To close the eyes to the world and feel your breath slowing, the body become heavy, and not feel the cold creeping into the sluggish veins, the prickly frost that hardened into daggers of slicing malice that rushed the brain and screeched and scrapped against the insides of the skull with a harsh grating sound.
Soft hair, he could see that, framing such a delicate face, but her eyes were glinting like steel as she faced him. A cheong-san, red like the waterfall that gushed unrestrained from a gaping gut wound in a fallen opponent, but the eyes were green…
…blue…
Flashes of memory that broke through the claws digging into his mind, tearing trenches into his consciousness as the Shukaku fought for control.
The Shukaku still hated her. Loathing slithered along the outskirts of his mind, but could not find a way in.
There was a rustle of activity around the Kage as people passed by in the corridor, but from the door across from him he detected nothing.
Gaara blinked. He knew she was within, her unique and unforgettable chakra signature was definitely present. His eyes widened marginally at the emergence of a distressing possibility. Had she fallen ill?
His pale hand flexed with unnecessary force on the doorknob as he opened the door to her office and quickly looked for the petite kunoichi's distinctive hair. He spotted her, and stared.
Sakura was at her lantern-illuminated desk, completely and totally engrossed in the words of the documents in her healer's hands. The dark fan of her lashes half hid her eyes as she squinted in concentration, her nose almost wrinkled with focus. She had no idea he was there.
How bizarre for a kunoichi to let her guard down so. She was quite remarkable in more ways then one.
"Haruno-san."
Pink hair whipped through the air as Sakura spun her head to look at him, somewhat chagrinned.
"I knocked," he informed her gently.
"I apologize, Kazekage-sama," Sakura said, recovering her composure swiftly. She seemed to suddenly remember the paper in her hand. She slammed it down unto her desk and stood up from her chair. "Did you need something? Am I needed at the hospital?" She looked concerned.
"No," he said abruptly, then realized he needed to reassure her. He had inadvertently caused her to believe there was a medical emergency "That is not why I am here." She looked politely puzzled but stiffness in her spine told him she was annoyed that he had upset her for no reason. This was going poorly. "I would like you to come to dinner this evening."
He was relieved when she relaxed and smiled at him. There was much he wanted to discuss.
"Of course. Kankuro-san already told me about the dinner," she said.
What?
"What?" Thoughtlessly.
"Kankuro-san told me about the dinner he set up so we could talk with each other about something other than the mission," she laughed slightly. "He said Temari-san told him to do it to minimize the possibility of overwork and fatigue." Her warm smile widened in a friendly manner. "He didn't tell me you were coming as well."
"I will be there," he told her. What an awkward feeling this was. He would have to find her to speak with her alone another time.
He also now needed to go find Kankuro.
And assign him extra hours handling the Council's messengers.
*****O*****
"These are finally sprouting there mature leaves," Uzume-san noted, one gloved finger extended under the rich green of the large new leaves dwarfing the paler green buds beneath. "The Traveler's Chew doesn't carry much of its unique stimulant until it sprouts these." Uzume-san lifted the leaf slightly so Sakura could see the distinct difference in the vibrancy of color and distinctness of the veining.
Sakura was genuinely glad the Director had been willing to see her again and explain the properties of the plants she wasn't as familiar with in greater detail. Wind Country was a very large country, with sections largely uninhabited and rarely explored, and with some of the more distant tribes owing only a confederation type allegiance to the daimyo's central authority. Therefore, the flow of goods and knowledge was not as vigorous as it was in Fire Country, and many of the plants Uzume-san had introduced her to not only were incompletely understood in her home country, some were practically unheard of. The Traveler's Chew was a high altitude herb that stored a stimulant chemical in the leaves that promoted chakra production when chewed by humans. The side effect was the body could be tricked into going without food, ceasing to produce it's own chakra, or lose all ability to regulate metabolism, resulting in severe health risks to users.
"We're hoping studying this plant might help us develop a more efficient soldier pill," Uzume explained, removing her hand from the burgeoning seedling. The rich soil in the greenhouse was a much better growing environment than the wind blasted bare rock face it was adapted to growing on.
Sakura nodded in understanding as she took in the details of the delicate sprout. She was going to have much to relay to the Konoha Hospital's pharmaceutical division. They were going to be begging Gaara-sama for permission to send in research teams.
Uzume looked through the screened roof at the position of the sun to gauge the time. "Sakura-san, it's approaching my tea time." She looked with a warm expression at the kunoichi still bent over the seedling. "Would you care to join me?" she invited.
Sakura straightened herself and nodded to the older woman. "Thank you. I would like that."
It turned out for all of her knowledge of exotic plants, Uzume-san liked her tea very basic and simple, which was a relief to Sakura after her experience with the coffee. Uzume had set up a simple table and two stools to enjoy her tea without having to exit the greenhouse. Not only was in practical, but the atmosphere was much more pleasant and refreshing than the air outside.
"Uzume-san," Sakura said as Uzume sipped the matcha from her cup. "You said you were Temari-san's nurse at one time. How did you become the Director here?"
"Temari-chan," she answered with an affectionate smile that made eyes sparkle and the lines beside them crinkle. "Temari-chan was my last charge. My own two girls are grown, married, and off living their own lives," she said wistfully. Then she gave a mock frown. "Still no grandkids though." She laughed and Sakura made a soft laughter like sound to humor her. "I don't know if you know this, but Temari-chan is an enthusiastic amateur botanist," the former nurse finished with a motherly pride.
"I didn't know," Sakura replied honestly. "Has she been so all her life?" she asked as she took a sip from her cup.
"Oh, yes," Uzume declared with a downward wave of her hand, a 'don't be silly' gesture. "From the beginning." Her sparkling eyes darkened slightly as her thoughts turned inwards to memory and her smile was tainted with touch of sadness. "Just like her mother. Their personalities, their talent with the Iron Fan." Her head tilted to one side. "She is a lot like her mother in many ways," she said softly.
"Her mother?" Sakura prodded gently. She knew nothing about the wife of the previous Kazekage outside of what she had learned in her Civics classes at the Academy. She had been a Suna kunoichi, had not been a Suna native, and had died giving birth to her last child. She had been little more than a footnote.
"Karura-sama," Uzume-san said nodding absently, mostly in her own thoughts.
Yup, not a Suna name, although Gaara was not the kind of name typical in Suna either. They sounded like they were more northern.
"She was wonderful, Karura-sama," Uzume said as she flicked her eyes up to Sakura's, sincerity shinning in them, before she looked at the delicate porcelain cup cradled in her worn hands. "She loved her family so much, and she tried so hard to care for them. She never thought about herself. And she tried so hard to protect them all. So hard! She never gave up. She even tried to protect Sunamaru-sama from himself." The woman sighed tiredly, her shoulders sagging.
Sakura sat across from her in awed silence, her cooling tea forgotten. She was certain it was not any of her business to her this, but Uzume-san seemed to be unburdening herself, as though this was something she wanted to say but had no one to say it to.
"She was nothing but a refugee from the ghetto to so many, a second class citizen looked down on and laughed at, but she worked to support her mother and that tragic brother of hers. Her whole life was tragic, but she was always trying to help others." Uzume looked to Sakura again. "I was hand picked by her to help them raise Temari-chan. She loved her dearly and did everything she could to bring her up safe from others manipulations." She looked down again. "Then the Ichibi got loose... It… his mind…" she faltered. "And her poor brother was never the same again. I was the only one left who could watch over Temari-chan for her. To keep my position I had to keep my head down, even when I saw all that was happening. I couldn't protect the other two. Oh, Gaara-sama."
The salt and pepper head turned towards the transparent glass of the walls of the crystalline greenhouse. Beyond it was the featureless desert sky. "I couldn't help him. Sunamaru-sama was so suspicious, I would have lost Temari-chan."
She returned to facing forward, though her dark eyes were still downcast. A ghost of a smile touched her lips. "I think she would have been proud of the woman Temari-chan has grown to become." The smile faded a bit. "Kankuro-kun is rough, but he is outgrowing some of it. And Gaara-sama," she hesitated, a smile that was at the edge of tears emerged. "I thought I had lost him. He was so far gone, but then," she looked to the astonished Sakura, "your team came along, and it was like everything I prayed for came through. I know that you were only defending your Village and your teammate, but thank you." She smiled genuinely, remorseful and grateful. "Thank you to you and to Uzumaki Naruto-san."
Sakura was overwhelmed. Completely. And humbled into near silence, but she managed to get the words past her quivering, struggling lips. "Whatever I can do, Uzume-san."
*****O*****
Chakra trickled down through the network in her calves, through her ankles, and to the soles of her feet as her sandals touched the rocks that formed the natural fortress protecting her Village. Matsuri leaped from boulder to boulder, ricocheting off one rock face and landing lightly on the next before vaulting forward to land just in front of the guards at the Village edge. The guards watched the rest of the squad and Akamaru land in the sparse sand on the rock before stepping aside to let them through.
She was panting lightly and reached for her canteen, wanting a quick drink before she talked with Neji-taichou. Their squad had scoured the sands and used the kekkei genkai and unique family jutsus of the nin from Konoha but they had been no more successful then the squads lead by Temari-sama. Neji-taichou was a remarkably composed person, calmly in control at all times, but she was beginning to read his subtle facial expressions. After so much time being trained by Gaara-sama, she was pretty good at seeing beneath the surface. He was finally feeling frustrated. Now that the novelty of her assignment had worn off, she was beginning to feel that way again, too. She was busily wracking her brain for another option to explore. She didn't want Neji-taichou or the others to feel like they needed to ask someone else. It was her assignment, she'd be so humiliated and she didn't want to let Gaara-sama down. She had one good idea left, but she'd have to sell it without looking dumb when they all got there.
She had paused in the shade of a watchtower within the city walls, and as Kiba and the bug guy finished drinking, she looked to the Neji to make sure he was listening. Better get right to it; her captain didn't do small talk.
"I can think of one other place that holds the possibility of being the source of the outbreak," she said. Neji was looking directly at her, Kiba finished his water with a gulp before leaning forward to listen better, and the bug guy just kinda stood there like he always did but she sure he was listening. "The underground river that feeds the well at the OT breaks the surface north of the city at what is known as the Quicksand Oasis. The area is like it sounds; full of quicksand pits from where the river doesn't quite come through, and the pool of water itself is really shallow. It would be difficult to get anything into the flow period, and the sand is a natural filter, but it's always a possibility."
Please buy that.
To the young genin's instant relief, her captain nodded in acknowledgement and Kiba made a noise of interest in the back of his throat. The bug guy shifted his weight from one foot to the other so she guessed he was interested, too.
"How far away is the oasis?" Neji asked her.
"A few hours across open sand there and back," Matsuri answered, picturing the giant stretch of grainy and dusty nothingness in her mind. "To account for investigating and rest, and getting past the quicksand pits, we should consider it an all day trip."
The stately Hyuuga nodded again. "We shall visit the oasis tomorrow. We'll leave before sunrise to avoid traveling during the hottest part of the day."
Cool. That was pretty painless.
"Let's all go get cleaned up," Kiba said as Akamaru chewed at sand grains stuck to the pads of his large paws. "We have that dinner to attend this evening."
"Right," Matsuri agreed as she turned to leave for her home. "I'll see you all there." As she began to hop across the rooftops, she thought to herself there was no way she was showing up at a dinner with the Kazekage-sama, Kankuro-sama, and multiple honored guests this funky.
Gross.
*****O*****
Shizune flipped the page of the journal she was reading to bring herself to the next chapter. The pages of the huge volume were crisp and stiff, the book so rarely used and so well preserved in the vaults of the temperature and humidity controlled archives that despite its age it was in near perfect condition.
Shizune's dark eyes rapidly skimmed over the entries, efficiently assimilating reports carefully inscribed by a dutiful hand almost a decade ago. The volume was filled with reports of unusual injuries caused by jutsus during the war, focusing on unique, unusual, or inexplicable damage. As she moved from one detailed entry to another, it become more and more obvious to the kunoichi that there was nothing more revealing in this book than there was in any of the other complied reports she and the other shinobi busily raiding the archives had come across. Although the shelves were high enough to inspire vertigo when one needed to climb the ladder to the highest shelves, the books densely packed enough that they put up a fight one someone tried to slide one of their number free, and the rows of packed shelves so long one could get disoriented walking through them, so far there was nothing in the books that could be considered helpful outside if ideas and theories that had already been considered.
Shizune flipped the cover of the oversized tome closed with a swirling puff of dust and stood up from her chair. She fit her hands around the edges of the book and lifted it to her chest to return to its place in the shelves. She shivered lightly as her blood began moving trough her limbs again; the air in the archives was slightly cool for the sake of the leather, paper, ink, and glue.
Normally, she would not be attending to such a task herself, but Tsunade-sama's mood this morning had sent everyone out of her path. Tsunade-sama was hot tempered and direct by nature, and had a very low tolerance for BS. Since the vast majority of paperwork that crossed her desk was just that, she was typically aggravated to the point of hair-trigger detonation by mid-morning. It definitely did not help that Hiashi-sama had come by for an appointment the day before. Shizune hadn't been surprised when the man had shown up for a personal conference or short notice, his hubris loved the show of privilege, but the amount of time the two had spent behind the closed door suggested he had made himself more of a well-connected and highly influential nuisance than usual.
She turned a corner in the stacks to find Shikamaru focusing with his usual moderately alarming intensity on a few scraps of information the chuunin squads that had been assisting her had compiled and left for the perusal of the recognized genius. If the borderline scowl on his face said anything, he was no closer to new information than they had been before they descended into what the chuunin in the Hokage's administrative offices called "The Huge Bat Cave o' Books Nobody Actually Wants to Read".
"Have you discovered anything new?" she asked. He may not have an answer, but he might have had an insight.
Shikamaru had just lifted his focused gaze from a list of statistics to acknowledge her when a shuffling in the nearby concrete stairwell caught their attention. A fast and light series of steps preceded the appearance of a very frazzled looking, light haired kunoichi, who swung to a stop and adjusted her glasses before looking to Shizune and, upon seeing Shikamaru, blushing madly.
Shizune smiled politely as Shikamaru visibly wilted, a grimace on his face. She had to sympathize. Although Shiho was friendly, upbeat, and an enthusiastic worker, she was, and there was no other way to put it, at the very fringes of eccentric.
The chuunin had an exceptional talent for spotting patterns and ciphers and had been tapped for code breaking. Shizune often felt concern for those that had to be trained under Ibiki-san, but Shiho had responded in positively.
To be mild.
"Ibiki-san?" echoed breezily, blinking rapidly behind her large spectacles. "Oh, he's just a big teddy bear!" she finished airily; and then she was distracted by a nearby shiny paperweight.
Shizune was relieved in one-way, and deeply concerned in a whole new way.
The light-hearted chuunin fairly floated over to the desk Shikamaru was situated at, still blushing madly.
Here we go…
*****O*****
Shiho was thrilled to see the wonderful and manly Nara Shikamaru at the desk, bent over the piles of documents, focused, intent, demonstrating once again why he was a true man, one to be admired, sought after, and treasured.
There was a display of butterflies on the wall! Look at the butterflies! The one was a really pretty shade of blue. She liked blue.
Oh, Shizune-san was down here, too.
"Shizune-san, how are you?" she greeted politely, smiling at her even though her eyes were drawn to Shikamaru. So focused, so dedicated.
His hair was coming loose from his hair tie. Why did he wear it in a ponytail anyway? That was a more feminine hairstyle right? Well, not him obviously, but why didn't he just cut it? She could give him her stylist's name. She needed to go get her split ends trimmed. Would Shikamaru notice her split ends? Oh, she hoped not.
"I am well, thank you," Shizune answered.
Shizune-san was always so perfectly polite. Wow.
"And you, Shikamaru?" Shiho said to Shikamaru, trying to act nonchalant. Oh, he was impressive, so amazing.
"Meh." Shikamaru leaned his jaw onto his hand and sighed. "So, you've been assigned to our group, huh?"
He looked moderately displeased as she nodded vigorously. Did he doubt her abilities? She hoped not. Were people telling him bad things? Were people gossiping about her? Who would gossip about her? She didn't think Shikamaru would listen to that. Did he? Maybe he spoke to Ino-san and she said something. Ino-san gossiped a lot. In fact, last week…
"I'll show you were I left off," Shizune said, setting the large book she had in arms down on the desk. "I just finished reviewing the field reports from the final skirmishes during the last of our engagements during Water County's civil war."
"Alright," she replied brightly. Time to get to work! "I'll find what you need. Count on me!" She'd find what everyone else overlooked. It's what she did best.
"You're wasting your time."
Shiho and Shizune both looked to Shikamaru in surprise at the plain, flat declaration. He was neither angry, nor frustrated; only soberly confident. He muttered to himself briefly, before inhaling deeply and sitting up straight in the chair. He looked Shiho right in her eyes, somehow looking straight through the obscuring lenses to her face.
"If there was something to find, we would have found it." He was cool and composed, a statement of simple fact. "Whatever the missing piece of information is, it isn't here. It's with Neji and his team in Suna."
He regarded the two kunoichi; Shizune's dignified silence was a tacit agreement, and Shiho's confusion was slowly fading into remorseful acceptance.
"It depends on them."
*****O*****
Shino was moderately surprised to see Sakura had arrived from the hospital at the ornately decorated dinning hall allocated for the dinner before rest of the team. He had anticipated she would require a summons. Sakura was known to become engrossed in her work to the exclusion of other activities. He assumed one of their hosts had reminded her of the engagement to assure her punctuality.
Green eyes looked up from the polished surface of the long table as the rest of her team, Matsuri, and Kankuro-san filed into the large dinning hall. Sakura mentally catalogued the people coming in through the doorway and noted there was one fewer than expected.
"Is Gaara-sama not coming?" she asked Kankuro as the group pulled out the ornate chairs to sit at the heavy wood table.
Kankuro returned her question with a slit-eyed grin as he sat at the head of the table. "He was called away to deal with some Kage business. I often sort through messages from the Council, and I found an interesting error in the paperwork of a spice merchant that required his attention and he decided it could not wait."
Shino's objective analysis of his own personality and mannerisms lead him to conclude he was not prone to intimidation, yet he found himself nominally disconcerted by the undercurrent of vengeance behind that smile.
"Perhaps his evening will be as diverting as our own," he offered blandly.
"The Kazekage-sama offers his apologies for not being able to attend," Matsuri stated formally, not wanting them to think Gaara-sama had been rude because she forgot to relay his formal regrets. "He has arranged for us to enjoy a traditional meal and hopes that we will be able to fully enjoy the best of Suna's hospitality and that it will not be tainted by these difficult times."
Kiba waved a hand dismissively as he sniffed at the air. "That's all well and good. Just feed me."
The meal as it was presented proved most satisfactory of the senses. His study of traditions associated with other villages had provided him with information related to both cuisine and dinning etiquette. Suna meals when presented for guests were elaborate affairs. He was appreciative of the amount of carefully prepared and presented platters of rich and aromatic courses, and the amount of time and effort that might have been diverted to observe such a tradition. As the serving dishes and individual plates were set before them by the staff, Shino carefully filtered through the rules of decorum he had read over and tried to establish which accepted phrase of gratitude would be most fitting before they began the light conversation that would accompany dinning. Matsuri was uncomfortable with him and Kankuro would most likely not be concerned with decorum anymore than Kiba. Perhaps he should say something polite to Sakura to begin the polite dinner conversation.
"So, Matsuri," Kiba said casually as soon as the last waiter quietly left, speaking to the girl on his left as she waited for permission to begin, "why didn't you bring your boyfriend with you?"
Neji, who was sitting on Kiba's right, simply closed his eyes as Sakura's jaw dropped in shock and Matsuri began to flush deep crimson. Shino sighed internally.
He should have anticipated such an occurrence. It was a secret theory he entertained that having been raised by a single mother as well regarded as special jounin Inuzuka Tsume, and following in the shadow of a prodigious kunoichi sister, had caused his teammate to compensate with excessive machismo.
Or as Ino once stated, "He's totally freaking obnoxious sometimes."
Indeed.
"Do not feel obligated to respond Matsuri-san," he attempted to reassure her apologetically. "As you know by now, the Inuzuka carries a very immature since of humor."
"Aw, come, we're just having fun." Kiba smiled and clapped his arm on Matsuri's near shoulder twice as the young girls blush deepened at being the center of attention while Kankuro, seemingly indifferently, began putting grape leaves on his plate and passed the dish to her with an unnecessarily loud clatter.
Sakura decided to rescue her.
"Kiba, just because you can't keep a girlfriend doesn't mean you should go after Matsuri-san," Sakura said primly before a feral grin broke through. "Don't waste her time, you have no idea how high her standards are."
"Tch." Kiba responded with an eye roll as Matsuri appeared to sink into her chair and attempt to disappear. "I dated your best friend remember? What was that about low standards?"
"Ino is not my 'best friend', and you two deserve each other," she countered as she grabbed a piece of flatbread.
"You can keep that shrew, you have any idea how big the bill for that date ended up being?"
"Perhaps we should converse on another topic?" Shino suggested mildly. There ornate meal was cooling rapidly, and he wanted to try the winter melon neatly sliced on the plate beside him.
"That would be appropriate," Neji agreed, clearly worrying about how such a discussion might reflect on his leadership over his team.
"Oh, no, I want to hear this," Kankuro said evilly before practically purring, "I remember Yamanaka Ino."
The tone in that statement had Matsuri looking to Kankuro curiously while Sakura made a face like she eaten spoiled kimchee. She needed to divert this quick.
"But that's just one bad date." That resulted in a huge payoff for me. "It isn't nearly as interesting as what happened when that merchant tried to arrange a marriage with Tenten," she said.
Shino noted Neji's face going carefully blank as he discretely took a bite of desert fowl. He was sure it would avail him not.
"Yeah, we never did get the full story on that," Kiba said turning to the Hyuuga. "On our last mission to the Rice Country we saw the guy. He was still green and warty and still walking funny." He snickered. "The local kids were calling him Frogman."
"What did this Tenten-san do?" Matsuri asked eagerly, leaning forward over her plate of greens.
"Simply dissuaded a suitor," Neji replied succinctly before calmly sipping his tea.
"She did a lot more than that!" Kiba declared with a grin full of toothy fangs. "But that's what you get for trying to get married, right Shino?"
"For me the topic is academic. I am already married."
Had there been any crickets nearby, the chirrups would have echoed in the silence. He felt his eyebrows nit together over his shades in annoyance.
"I'm kidding." He turned his hooded head so Kiba would know he was glaring at him from behind his opaque lens of his goggles as Kankuro burst out laughing and Matsuri tried to hide her giggles behind her small hand. Kiba rolled his eyes back into his head at being punk'd.
"Why would I not inform you of such a momentous decision?" Shino demanded peevishly. Honestly.
Neji sighed to himself as his medic nin's poorly smothered laughter came out in strangled snorts over her falafel. It was going to be a long evening.
*****O*****
The speed of their movements over the dunes created a breeze that cooled the skin. The sun was rising to its zenith in the sky reflecting brightly off the paler colored sands of the northern reaches of the deserts.
The northern extremes of the dunes slowly gave way to the hard packed dust of the open wasteland. The first of the stubborn scrub brush that grew in the baked earth would be at their feet soon, and within eyesight was the sparse and scrubby grass that marked the beginning of the steppes. Past that was a thin strip of green, arable land that was nourished by the snow melts before the sheer vertical cliffs and dagger like peaks of the mountains that marked the border with the Earth Country looked darkly on the horizon, casting the land in view in an unrelenting rain shadow.
The streams of snowmelts that came off of the forbidding range descended underground and flowed beneath the sand towards Suna, only coming up to breach the surface once.
"Here's where it gets bad," Matsuri called out to the squad as she leapt lightly from one patch of whispering, shifting sand to the next. "Remember, the river shifts all the time so you have to pay close attention to spot new pits."
Although the team had carefully reviewed maps and been briefed on how to spot the quicksand pits before leaving the Village, there was no such thing as too much caution. The Quicksand Oasis was in fact numerous shallow pools of water over quicksand, a few deeper pools over more quicksand, and even a few spots only marked by a slight darkening of the grains by lurking moisture. A few stubborn plants and several large boulders left behind by a long since melted prehistoric glacier completed the scene.
Neji hesitated to use his Byakugan due to the painful glare reflecting off the dwindling sands, instead using his normal vision and maintaining a steady flow of chakra to the soles of his feet should he overlook a patch of quicksand. Fortunately, there was no wind today to throw up grit and impeded ones vision.
Matsuri, who was in the lead, vaulted with practiced ease from one patch of solid ground to the next until she arrived with a graceful landing on one of the most prominent boulders, a splash of turquoise among the limitless stretch of brown and tan.
"This boulder is right in the middle of a solid spot," Matsuri explained as the other shinobi and large nin dog landed on the rock beside her. "From here you can see the whole Oasis and the occasional game trails." Matsuri looked back and forth on the ground nearby. "Doesn't look like there are any right now," she observed.
A few quick words of organization and the squad spread out to search through the treacherous terrain.
Neji scoured the surroundings, the material of his distinctive Hyuuga robes fluttering as he jumped from one patch of solid ground to the next. He scanned the ground for footprints, chakra signatures, or any lingering marks from jutsus. The Oasis had been investigated thoroughly earlier, but as the most unguarded possible source of the illness, and especially one tied to the original source of outbreak, it was paramount to carefully analyze everything. The constantly changing nature of the landscape made the task both easier and more complicated; long term jutsus would be destroyed unless they were maintained, increasing the possibility of detection, yet cleverly concealed jutsus would leave even less of a trace.
He could see Kiba and Akamaru investigating one of the larger quicksand pits. The large hound was as near to the edge of the water as he dared tread, and Kiba was using chakra to walk onto of the thin film of water.
"Got something."
Kiba reached down into the pit, soaking the sleeve of his light jacket, and pulled up a heavy chain, at the end of which was a metal box.
"Looks like one of the nomads boxes," Matsuri called out from her location a couple of pits away. "They live on the steppes and keep some of their perishables in the cold waters here."
Neji funneled chakra to his Byakugan, scanning the box carefully. The team had been told by Baki before departing that the nomads of the steppes were an autonomous people who had little interest in the business of Wind or Earth. "Did you send anyone to speak with them?"
"Yes. The nomads were actually mildly offended that we thought they would have any knowledge of such things and not mention it to us in Suna. We have trade routes through their territory that they appreciate for the flow of goods and information," Matsuri was confident in her information, her expression certain. "They don't care about our politics, but they do try to maintain friendly relations. They also see us as allies against the occasional bandits that go after the caravans and their tents."
The team had been told of the bandits as well; ne'er do well riffraff, far too unsophisticated to be behind the illness.
The box was full of berries, and carefully designed to be totally waterproof. It was not what they were looking for. He looked at Kiba to communicate his conclusion and the chuunin lowered the box back into the pit as Akamaru began to carefully look for odd scents near a different quicksand trap.
"Has there been a change in the water table recently?" Shino called out from his perch on a smaller boulder rooted in another part of the oasis, his grey coat blending in perfectly.
"Not really," Matsuri called back. "This is the time of year when the major snow melts are finished and the flow of water goes down." She was watching Shino kneel down to get a closer look at something. "Is that what you mean?"
"Then the edges of this rock were previously submerged," Shino observed, a note of concentration in his voice. Neji instantly turned his whole focus towards the bug user. Shino's tone suggested he had discovered something of interest.
"What have you got, Shino?" Kiba called out as stepped back onto solid ground.
"The locals insects have dug under this rock where the soil has recently dried. There is a pattern of chakra on the underside of the rock indicative of a seal."
Neji sent chakra to his feet and powered towards the boulder with enough force to send sand flying in an arc behind him. He landed on the rock and focused with his Byakugan until he found the pattern being carefully excavated by Shino's bugs as they tried to uncover the entire pattern for him.
A series of intricate curves and curls were clearly visible, etched into the rock, practically glowing with the amount of chakra pulsing through them. He quickly committed the pattern to memory, memorizing the complex layout.
"That is definitely a seal," Neji confirmed. "A strong and active seal at that."
"Really?" Matsuri gasped as she landed awkwardly beside him. The boulder had limited level surface area. "It's on the underside rock?" That is weird a place for a seal. "Is it in the water still?"
"Yes," Neji and Shino answered simultaneously.
"The water has only receded enough to uncover one fifth of the seal," Shino continued.
"A seal of this type would not require total contact with the object of effect to maintain its activity," Neji finished, the slight frown marring his face unavoidable while discussing the topic.
"Wait," Kiba called from a patch of solid ground across from the rock, "the seal is acting on the water?"
"Incoming!"
Neji grabbed Matsuri by her shoulder and yanked her with him as he threw himself away from the rock. The series of rocky projectiles he had detected on the outskirts of his Byakugan slammed against the boulder, shattering the top of it. Shino, who jumped in the opposite direction, rolled to his feet and pulled out a kunai. On their other side, Akamaru and Kiba dodged an up-thrust through the sand from a subterranean boulder.
Earth style. Rock nin. At least two, chuunin or better. Try to capture one alive for interrogation.
Neji focused his vision through the Byakugan towards the direction of the original ninjutsu as he and Matsuri landed in the dust. Releasing her, he found the glimmer of chakra supporting an illusion. The enemy was blending in with the terrain. They were undoubtedly intimately familiar with terrain, and may have had time to evaluate their four-man squad. They were at a tactical disadvantage.
Best to be efficient and follow they plan they had put together before arrival in the event of an ambush. Neji hurled a handful of shuriken towards the glimmering veil.
"There!"
A moment later, using their clan ninjutsu, Kiba and Akamaru crashed into the sun-baked earth in a geyser of dust and debris, and Neji saw two shadows jump from the impact point. No shinobi captain would place all his units in one location. There was at least one more. Where were they?
A movement underground. Suddenly he wished Sakura had come along on this excursion. Following the path of his opponent tunneling through the earth, Neji set up a trap, trusting Kiba and Shino to follow the others while Matsuri watched him for cues.
*****O*****
Shino immediately dispatched his swiftest allies to locate their opponents. Judging by his movements, Neji was tracking an underground foe. He made no signals to suggest there was a third potential threat other than two pinpointed. He followed Kiba with half his senses while keeping an eye out for any unnoticed dangers.
The Inuzuka and Akamaru were herding the two ninja dodging their repeated bombardment back towards the center of the oasis. A moment later, the sound of a large detonation reached his ears followed by a strangled yell.
Neji had found his target.
Shino calmly watched the two unknown shinobi circling towards him as they dodged repeated impacts, when one veered away, narrowly missing being impaled.
Shino blinked as he realized the movement was not merely to escape the assault. He Konoha nin disappeared in blur of motion and grabbed onto their Suna guide by her upper arm.
He pulled Matsuri out of danger as another barrage of spears made from rock slammed into where she had been standing, her eyes on Neji and not the danger. She squeaked in dismay and twisted to look at him as they landed outside of the impact zone.
"The color of your uniform draws attention," Shino informed her calmly, and saw her pale in realization. "You are the easiest target, be more watchful, focus on not being harmed."
Matsuri, embarrassed, nodded her head rapidly.
Shino returned his attention to the shinobi who had attacked them, standing precariously on the thin film of water over a quicksand pit. The man was panting; his jutsu was taking a toll on him. Shino narrowed his eyes behind his glasses as he noted the man was not dressed in the uniform of a Rock nin. He directed his gaze towards the hitai-ite on the unknown ninja. He felt a single eyebrow rise in inquiry.
"Matsuri-san," he said firmly, drawing her attention. "Do you recognize that hitai-ite?"
He felt her weight shift behind him as she leaned forward for a good look over his shoulder as the man began a new set of seals. She stiffened.
"No way," she breathed in surprise. "Shino-san, that's-"
She was cut off as they threw themselves backward to dodge a fresh assault from rock surging up from the exploding sand beneath their feet. As they landed a safe distance away, a familiar voice boomed in his ears.
"Yeah baby! Now we're getting somewhere, Shino!"
Kiba chased the second of the two nin, who had been attempting to attack Shino and Matsuri from behind while they were distracted by the first, into a stretch of well-concealed quicksand. The second nin floundered in shock, and was immediately beset by a snarling Akamaru.
In front of them, the first nin, still facing Shino and Matsuri, started to move to a new position and stumbled. His feet were partially sunk into the water and the suction of the sand below continued to pull. Panic swamped his features, face blanching visibly.
"Your chakra is being drained," Shino calmly informed him. The time the foreign nin had spent stationary had finished him. Waiting to set up his trap with his partner had given Shino's destruction bugs time to converge on their designated target. "Soon you will be unconscious." It was a simple fact. "Surrender or die."
Outside of his field of vision Shino heard a sharp yell from Neji, one of frustration, followed by an unfamiliar voice shrieking:
"Retreat! Go!"
Instantly, Shino was using a burst of chakra and propelling himself towards the nin being drained of chakra by his allies, only to see the man's hands blur through a different set of seals. A wall of solid rock burst upwards from the ground in front him, blocking Shino's path. A heartbeat later the nin's chakra signature had vanished.
He heard a series of muttered oaths as Kiba approached him from one side. His opponent had also successfully disengaged, but Akamaru was carrying a section of torn armor in his slobbery maw, and appeared quite pleased with himself. Neji wasn't far behind.
"They knew of the Byakugan." Neji was speaking through gritted teeth. "As soon as I set him up for Juuken, he bolted."
"Clearly, we were more than they anticipated encountering," Shino noted.
"Who were those guys?" Kiba asked, swatting at sand clinging to his pants, as aggravated as Neji at loosing his target. "I've never seen that insignia before."
Matsuri shifted uncertainly as she looked out at the desert that covered the retreat of their attackers. "Those hitai-ite were from the Gold Country."
*****O*****
Sakura sat at her desk in her room, her fingers threaded into her hair and her mind viciously milling the evening's revelations. Her teams return to the Village after the desert reconnaissance had resulted in an emergency meeting that had left her head spinning. She had been summoned from the hospital to find the entire team, Baki-san, Kankuro-san, and the Kazekage himself seated in the main conference room.
The news of the attack itself was surprising, by the allegiance of the foreign shinobi, even more so.
"Gold Country?" Sakura echoed. She hadn't heard of the country since her classes at the Academy.
"Definitely," Matsuri said, nodding her head emphatically. "No doubt."
"The former Gold Country was divided between the Wind and the Earth during the treating signing at the end of the last shinobi war." Neji turned to Baki. "I was unaware there were any remaining factions attempting to restore the former government."
"There aren't, at least none that have made themselves none in over a generation." Baki's worn face was thoughtful, his dark gaze internal as he considered the implications.
"I do not wish to impede the proceedings," Shino interrupted, "however; I would like to know more about the Gold Country. I am not certain the overview we received at the Academy will be sufficient for the current situation."
"Yeah, what he said," Kiba added, looking perplexed.
"The former Gold Country was at the border between our Country and the Earth to the north," Baki informed the foreign shinobi. Sakura saw Kiba lean forward over the conference table to hear better. "The country was surrounded by the mountain range and wind blasted wasteland on three sides, leading to geographic isolation. It was rich due to the abundant gold deposits that gave it its name, but a small minority held the wealth. Without resources, the population remained small, and the country depended upon mercenaries for protection because it's own nin were so few.
"When the war broke out, the Earth Country tried to conquer and absorb Gold Country, and the small country hired our shinobi for support." Baki sighed slightly, as if reflecting on a dismal memory. "At the end of the War, as part of the peace agreement between us and the Earth, we divided the country. The Earth took the majority of the country including it's mines, and we accepted sovereignty over the southernmost extreme, where our nomadic allies live, in exchange for maintaining access to the trade routes and passes through the range.
"But," he continued, "even though the government was dismantled, a few of the members of the lower class who had suffered during the war but never shared in the Country's wealth began a guerilla effort against the Earth forces." His eyes darkened. "They were crushed in months, and not heard from again."
A moment passed in the hall as the information was absorbed. Kiba asked the natural question.
"Why did they comeback now? What do they have against Suna?"
"We're going to have to find out," Kankuro said, his cynical eyes unusually focused. He looked to his younger brother. "Gaara, I want to take out another party as soon as we're done here."
Gaara, who was expressionless and calm, slid his eyes over to the puppet nin and nodded. He turned his eyes to Matsuri. "The seal?"
"Neji-taichou and Shino-san provided this replica," she pushed forward a leaf of parchment inked with an intricate seal. Sakura leaned forward to get a closer look. "Baki-san has already had copies sent out for analysis."
"Do you have copies of this pattern in your archives?" Shino asked Baki.
"Perhaps," he responded, and Sakura waited for the 'but' she could her coming as she scanned the seal. "But we have no one left in Suna who is a true master of seals." The admission seemed both embarrassing and shameful for the proud guardian of his city. "I'm sure our teams will do our best, but the head of the Squad didn't seem hopeful. The seal was unfamiliar, possibly unique to the lost Gold Country."
Sakura felt his concern as well as his unspoken statement. There may be no way to decipher the seal. Without cracking its code, there was no way to know its exact purpose, how it worked, or even if it was booby-trapped. Examining the seal on the original rock would be both tricky and dangerous. There was also no way to improve understanding of the rare seal if proved unprecedented.
"Gaara-sama," she said, and the Kazekage turned his whole face towards her to listen. Part of her noted that was odd. Usually, he just shifted his eyes. "I would like to write to Tsunade-shishou and include a copy of the seal for review by our own experts."
Gaara nodded his ascent, not moving his eyes from her face as he did so.
"Kazekage-sama, if I may," Neji interrupted, turning his white eyes to the Kage, "the Hyuuga clan has extensive knowledge of the Gold Country shinobi from the time in our history when we were adjacent to the nation."
Sakura felt her eyes widen in recognition. Before the first Hokage founded Konohagakure, the Hyuuga lands were in the northwestern portion of the Fire Country. If she could say anything for the Hyuuga, they were meticulous in the study of the shinobi arts. They would certainly have detailed records in their private clan libraries.
"I would like to write a letter to my clan, bearing the seal, asking for permission to have it compared to our acquired information," he finished. Sakura could almost feel physically what he left unsaid. Few collectively knew more about seals than the Hyuuga clan, and for terrible and horrific reasons.
"Permission granted," Gaara rasped. He smoothly turned his head with the blood colored hair to look at the only medic nin present. "Do you know of any way the seal could be responsible for the illness?"
"I haven't heard of anything like this," Sakura responded honestly, her mind rapidly going through the vast amount of medical knowledge she acquired over the years. "Seals have never been used for illness. Chakra can't be used to cause disease, and even if it could, there is no way to either maintain that much chakra, or control it over such a distance."
Every word was true, and yet she couldn't help but feel there was something else she couldn't think of. She just could not think of it! Mentally, she growled.
They had been dismissed to their various tasks. She had returned to the hospital and told Tetsubin-sensei and Temari-san what had been reported and discussed in the meeting. To say Temari had been furious at being bed ridden while they were under attack was an understatement, and she agreed with what had been concluded; Kankuro needed to head into the desert with a team to hunt down the foreign shinobi while the Sand's few knowledgeable shinobi worked on the copy of the mysterious seal.
After checking in at the hospital, she come back to her quarters to think. Her head was pounding. Somewhere in her mind, the answer was there. Blood rushed around inside her skull, roaring in her ears and triggering a migraine.
There was no way to control chakra over a distance like that, and no way for it to cause illness, it just didn't! She was sure if she consulted face to face with Tsunade-sama she would agree. Her temples were throbbing. What was she not seeing here? That seal had to be involved in Suna's troubles, but how?
Genjutsu could strike at a distance, but that was simply using chakra to manipulate blood flow to cause illusions by preventing or forcing overwhelming oxygen levels in the brain. If that were a body wide phenomena in the infected, they would know.
Also, chakra couldn't cause physical damage at that distance. Very talented medic nin could wield the chakra scalpel meant for surgery as a weapon, and of course there was the Juuken of Hyuuga, but that was at very close range. Elemental and medical chakra could only be focused over a short distance before it dissipated into natural chakra.
She snorted to herself. There was just no way. She rolled her head on her shoulders, trying to loosen tight muscles. The only time she had ever heard of something like that was…
Green eyes shot wide open. The knowledge slammed into her consciousness so hard, it was like a physical impact in her skull, pitching her forward in her chair as she sucked in the breath that had been knocked out of her.
She knocked her chair over as she scrambled to her feet, her sandals digging into the stone floor as she ran towards the door to the corridor.
"Neji! Matsuri-kun!" she yelled as she slammed the door open, pink hair whipping through the air as she turned her head rapidly left and right.
"Neji! Shino! Kiba!" Where the heck were they?
"Sakura, wha-" Kiba didn't have time to finish his sentence as Sakura appeared in his face.
"Kiba! I know what's happening! I know what the disease is! How it's moving!" The dedicated medic was almost vibrating with energy.
"Sakura, I can barely understand you. What are-"
"KIBA!" the massive strength of her chakra surged into her flexing hands as she grabbed the lapels on his jacket and pulled him to her, an angry grimace on her face and fire blazing madly behind her eyes. "I've solved it, stupid! Get everyone and meet me at the hospital!"
She flung him the direction of Shino's room and took only a step down the hall before seeing Neji striding towards her, accompanied by a bleary eyed Matsuri sporting a bad case of bedhead.
"Neji! I understand! I know what the illness is, how it's moving, how to stop it," she declared as a slightly disoriented Kiba rapped his knuckles on Shino's door.
The Hyuuga, ever composed even in the face of an almost wildly excited Sakura, narrowed his eyes in concentration, taking in her every word. "Are you certain? What are we to do?"
"Yes!" Sakura declared with such conviction Matsuri flinched from it. "I've got it. I need to see Tetsubin-sensei right away and talk with Gaara-sama right now." She began leading Neji and the bewildered Matsuri down the hall towards the hospital.
"Sakura!"
Kiba's cry, hoarse with terror, had Sakura spinning on her heel and sprinting back to him at the door without thought. All the blood in his face was gone and his expression was twisted in horror.
She ducked under one of the strong arms braced on the jamb as she looked into Shino's room, and only training in the bloody flood of combat injuries allowed her to keep her cool.
Blood was trickling in rivulets off of Shino from seemingly everywhere, pooling onto the floor and spreading in ghastly stains through his clothes. He was on all fours in agony, where his scattered allies, scrambling in confusion or dying, surrounded the crimsons puddles.
Shino's goggles had fallen from his face to land in bloody puddle with a splatter, revealing his eyes. It was a horrendous time for Sakura to realize he had the most beautiful, almond shaped hazel eyes she had ever seen.
"Sakura," he croaked, blood streaming down his face, into and from the mouth heaving for breath. "We're sick."
*****O*****
End Chapter
Preview of Upcoming Chapters
Shizune scrambled to keep up as Tsunade strode purposefully down the hall, geta clacking sharply, the paper flapping lightly in the breeze she created. Her apprentice had almost caught up with her when she stopped cold in the middle of the hallway.
"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune gasped breathlessly. "What does Sakura's letter say?"
She peered over Tsunade's shoulder to see a figure clad in white, looking completely at ease. She couldn't see Tsunade's face, but she could almost hear the barely suppressed sneer in her voice.
"Danzou."
*****O*****
His expression was glacial, and only another Hyuuga or a talented jounin would have caught the haughty disdain in his eyes.
"Hinata-sama, you ask this illustrious council to deign to grant aid to a member of the Branch Family who is failing in his duty to represent this noble clan and bear the shame that would follow acknowledging this failure," his words were almost whispered, his voice silky, yet tremendously heavy with subtle reprimand and disapproval. "Explain to us, why should we bear this indignity at your request?"
*****O****
Shiho blinked puzzledly behind her glasses as she raised her eyebrows in confusion. A seal expert? Who? There weren't many to begin with. Was Hokage-sama recalling Jiraiya-sama? But he could be anywhere and how long would it take him to get to Suna and wasn't he supposed to be in hiding anyway and…
A figure landed lightly in the frame of the open picture window behind the Hokage's desk. Gloved hands braced themselves against the upright portions of the frame while the person pivoted her hips to keep her bent knees pointed modestly to one side. A breeze caught the tail of the tan trench coat, causing it to flap and flutter, and the sunlight reflecting of the dark hair was almost as bright as the cheerfully fanged grin on the kunoichi's face.
"'Sup?" Anko greeted.
*****O*****
The tail end of the jutsu caught Sakura as she finished her last handspring; knocking her from the rock she had aimed for as her grip was forced loose. She twisted in the air; automatically attempting to right herself, to bring her feet beneath her, as the force sent her crashing to the cave floor. The uncontrolled fall terminated in a painful impact onto the broken and jagged rocks of the floor below.
Gaara watched her crash with pure jade eyes, hard and cold. Rough sand curled in whispering tendrils, softly asking to seek opponents with razor sharp susurrations.
It was rare occurrence these days when he and the Shukaku both wanted blood. He shouldn't waste the opportunity.
AN: Hello, my wonderful readers! Man, this is a beast of a chapter.
Next week, instead of a Friday update to this story, I will post the second of the two side stories addressed in the dinner scene. The first one is Tengo la Camisa Negra and is already up on my profile. The next story, about Tenten, will be posted next Friday. Chapter 5 will be up the Friday after that.
Gaaras1Girl gets the credit for the upcoming scenes preview. It is a thank you for the awesome reviewing she does. Every single chapter!
I am very grateful for any reviews I get. I genuinely appreciate the feedback. I find it invaluable and it keeps me inspired.
Review if you like it!