Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto.
Chapter 6
Operations and bugs
Two days of peace had passed with no sign of their pursuers. Kiba was healing nicely, but still restricted to extreme light duty. Sakura was looking at his stitches now. His wound was clean and nicely scabbed up with no signs of infection.
"How's your head?" Sakura asked.
"Fine."
"No headaches?"
"Ile."
"Good. A few more days and we can take the stitches out. Hinata's ointment seems to be working well." Sakura commented as she spread some more of it on his wound before binding it up again.
Kiba thanked her as he pulled his shirt back on, winching a little as his wound pulled. Sakura cleaned up her supplies before heading over to sit next to Hinata, who was grinding some of the herbs they had found into a paste.
She took out a scroll and pen and recorded the supplies she had used and what she had done to Kiba and his current condition. She had already checked on Neji earlier and he still hadn't woken up since they had started this nightmare, perhaps for the best.
Neji's condition constantly shifted. He was slowly recovering, but would relapse when the infection in his lungs would come back. The poison had yet to leave his system and it had been five days since he had been infected. She was starting to get worried. Maybe Shino's bugs could suck it out or something. She would ask him when he got back from patrolling.
The children were in the back of the cave with Iruka and the nine genin, throwing shirukens at wooden targets made from deadfall and practicing their skills in an attempt to keep them distracted from their rumbling tummies and their budding fear and homesickness.
Naruto, Shino, and Genma were out patrolling and gathering food and herbs. It was not easy feeding forty-seven people without making their presence known. Shikamaru and Temari had been able to bring down two deer yesterday. Deer around here were not big and they had not lasted long.
With no way of knowing how long they were going to be on the run, nothing went to waste. The bones were sharpened and turned into kunai and shuirken by Tenten. Shikamaru was able to start tanning the hides and was carving the antlers into weapons. She was amazed at how much Shikamaru knew about deer before remembering his family raised some.
Temari and Shikamaru were currently talking quietly in a corner, seeming to be deep in a discussion, most likely about what to do once they felt it safe to move on or what to do if they were to be discovered.
Sasuke had left yesterday to return to Konoha to see what he could learn, to get something resembling food and to gather more medical supplies and other gear they would need for long-term survival.
Tenten and Ino were currently on guard and Choji was cooking deer stew with the rest of the meat and some dried vegetables Temari had left over in her bag from when they had went after Gaara.
Lee, Gaara, and Kankurou were resting until it would be their time to scout.
A weak coughing coming from the nest of jackets and blankets caught her attention at once. She dropped what she was doing and rushed to the pile.
"Neji?" She called softly.
White eyes squinted up to look at her in confusion.
"Sakura? Where am I?" He asked weakly
Neji tried to sit up, but Sakura placed a hand on his chest and forced him back down.
"We are in a cave to the southwest of Konoha. When you got back with Shikamaru after rescuing Gaara-sama, we were attacked and forced to retreat. You have been asleep for four days.
"Don't move yet. You had broken ribs and your lung was punctured. You are currently fighting off a bad infection and whatever poison is circulating through your system hasn't showed any signs of leaving. Do you know what kind of poison it is?"
"Ile." He answered, coughing weakly again.
"Does anything hurt?"
"My chest feels really tight and my lungs are burning. I feel like I have a fever and my throat is dry."
She nodded her head as she reached into her small medical pouch and pulled out a thermometer and her flashlight.
His temperature was high so she ordered Hinata to get some water and a cloth. Hinata had dropped what she doing the moment she had heard Neji's cough.
Sakura shined her light into his eyes and ordered him to follow it. He did, though wincing as if the light hurt.
"Headache?" She asked.
"Slightly. At the base of my skull where the poisoned needle got me."
"Right. Roll over onto your side, but stop and warn me if your pain worsens."
He shifted to his side and Sakura brushed his hair out of the way to take a look at the puncture on his neck. She frowned when she saw no sign of a puncture and rubbed the area with a finger.
Neji screamed in pain, causing her, and everyone else in the cave, to jump in surprise. Lee, Gaara and Kankurou had jumped awake and were on their feet, ready to defend themselves, Gaara's suna was even swirling defensively around him.
Heart slowly slowing down, she frowned, wondering what on earth had caused him such pain.
"Neji, what happened? Did you roll onto your ribs?" She demanded in worry.
"Ile." He whimpered out. "It was my neck. A sharp shooting pain when you touched it." He answered.
Sakura frowned. There had been no mark or anything to indicate a wound. Hinata had come back by then, a look of concern on her face. Sakura got her to look with the Byakugan, but Hinata saw nothing to indicate anything was wrong at the base of his neck, than gasped when she noticed something else.
"What is it?" Sakura demanded.
"His chakra system is deteriorating." She answered.
"How? In what way?"
"More of his points are shut down and the flow is messed up."
"Nani?"
"Oi, we were able to hear the scream for miles you know." Came an irritated voice from the entrance.
Sakura looked up to see Shino, Naruto and Genma had returned from scouting.
"What are you doing, torturing him?" Naruto asked.
Sakura glared at him before turning her attention back to Neji. He had rolled back onto his back and Hinata was placing a cold compress to his forehead. He was sweating and breathing hard, no doubt the scream hurt his lungs.
Lee, Gaara and Kankurou shared a look with the Shino, Naruto and Genma before heading out to pick up where they had left off. Sakura ignored them and forced Neji to drink one of Hinata's potions used for sore throats.
"Are you positive it was a needle that got you?" She asked when Neji's breathing had calmed down a bit and he wasn't whimpering in pain anymore.
"I think it was. When I went to remove it, it had already fallen out." He answered in a pain filled stutter.
"So you aren't sure it was a needle?" She asked again.
"Ile."
"Shino." Sakura called.
"Why Shino-kun?" Hinata asked confused.
"I have a theory. The poison should have left Neji's system by now, or at least diluted since it came from an outside source, but it has stayed the same. There was no sign of a needle or puncture of any sort. So something must be continuing to pump the poison in. And the chakra system is shutting down, and I know that is not from the poison."
"There is something inside of me?" He asked with a hint of panic.
"It's only a theory."
"Nani, Sakura?" Shino asked as he walked up them.
"How extensive is your knowledge of insects and their poisons?" She asked.
He raised an eyebrow at her and sat down next to them.
"Very large." He admitted.
"Good. Is there an insects that can be used to mess up a persons chakra control and shut it down from the inside?"
Shino frowned.
"Hai, I know of a few insects that can do this, but I need more information to narrow down which one it could be."
"What do you need? I could get a blood sample and try to narrow down the poison if that would help?"
"What are his exact conditions?"
Sakura filled him in as Hinata replaced the cold compress on Neji's forehead.
Shino listened quietly to Sakura's in depth analysis of Neji's condition, separating for him what she believed to be trauma from his wounds from what she believed to be caused by this bug, but still telling him everything just encase it might help.
"His chakra holes are shutting down, and the lines are deteriorating?" He asked Hinata when Sakura finished.
Hinata reactivated her byakugan and explained exactly what she saw, starting from the neck and working her way down. Most of the damage was around his wounds and upper body.
His ribs were healing nicely and the infection was down, but without his chakra the healing was going slow. The damage to his chakra points didn't look like it was healing at all and even looked like it was deteriorating.
Neji remained silent, but Sakura could tell he was holding back panic by a thread. Without his chakra he was useless, and he had made many enemies over the years that would love to pay him back.
"Most likely it is a Chakara." Shino finally stated several minutes later.
"What is a Chakara and how do we get rid of it?" Sakura asked, dragging out a fresh notebook and turning to the fourth page in, writing Chakara at the top. "And can you draw a picture of it later?"
"Hai. A Chakara is a rare bug native to a clan in the deep jungles that act similarly to my Kikai. They burrow into the back of a persons neck and settle in at the vertebra just beneath the skin and start laying eggs."
"Eggs?" Neji asked, a hint of panic in his voice.
"The young hatch and start attacking the chakra points of a persons body by consuming it and bringing it back to their queen. The queen instigated herself into the spinal column of the host and remains there, causing extreme amounts of pain when disturbed."
"We found that out the hard way." Sakura mumbled, jolting down everything Shino said as fast as possible.
"Once the chakra of the host has been consumed, the young leave the body to find new host for them selves. Without chakra to feed on, they die."
"So that's why it slowed down a bit and Neji was able to heal some when Hinata sealed the damaged chakra points earlier. We probably killed a lot of them off when their food supply was suddenly cut short." Sakura stated.
"Hai."
"Is it fatal?" She asked worried.
Neji's eyes widened in momentary panic. This was one enemy he could not fight.
"Ile. The host will just be out of chakra as any amount made will be eating." Shino answered.
Neji relaxed a little.
Sakura was also relieved to know that her patient wasn't in any imminent danger. She had to find a way to kill all of the creatures at once without hurting Neji.
"So what if we shut all of the chakra points off and seal him?" She suggested.
Shino seemed to think for a moment.
"It is worth a try." He finally stated.
"Right." Sakura pulled out a piece of paper and wrote what they were doing on it. "Hinata-chan."
Hinata nodded her head in understanding.
"Neji, we are going to seal your chakra points in an attempt to kill off as many of the offspring as we can. Understand?"
"Hai." He answered.
"Alright. Hinata-chan."
"Gomen." She whispered as she started sealing his points, starting with the outer ones still uninfected to prevent migration and working her way in.
Her touches were feather light, but Neji still winched on a few. When Hinata finished, Sakura performed a few seals and started to check his systems to make sure no damage had been done now that his chakra was sealed.
He seemed fine and the poison, if that was indeed what it was, was slowly starting to dissipate.
"It seems to be working." Sakura commented, jolting it down on the paper she had ripped out. "Is there anyway to get the queen out?"
"You could surgically remove it." Shino suggested.
Sakura sat back and seemed to think about it.
"Hinata-chan, now that you know the queen is there, can you see it?" Sakura asked.
"I'll try." Hinata promised as she looked again.
There was an intense silence for several minutes while Hinata searched.
"There." Hinata finally said. "It's hidden between the first and second vertebrae and she isn't very big. That's why I kept missing it. It blends in. The young must be too small to see."
Sakura nodded and jolted it down on her scrap piece of paper.
"Will removing the queen have any averse effects on the host?" She asked Shino.
"It shouldn't." He answered.
"Alright."
"Do you have the supplies to do something like a surgery here?" Shikamaru asked, having been watching silently with Temari since Sakura had called Shino over.
Finally looking away from her patient, she noticed everyone but those scouting and guarding had been watching and listening silently.
"I should be able to. If it is deemed too risky, we could leave it until we get to Suna, but we have no idea how long that is going to take. Neji will be unable to heal, let alone fight, while it is still in as we are going to have to keep his chakra points sealed. The main question is; what is more important? Getting Neji in fighting condition again as soon as possible, or the large amount of medical supplies I am going to use up doing this?"
"Get it out." Neji answered immediately.
"I don't have everything truly needed for a surgery here. The best I can do it use a local anaesthetic to kill off the feeling of me cutting open his neck to get to the queen, but the queen is integrated into his spinal column so she most likely will send that shooting agony through his system again when I start to disturb her. I can't stop that and if he starts thrashing around I could do more damage then good, not to mention his screaming will be heard for miles."
"I'll put him to sleep." Naruto offered.
"That might work, but the agony will most likely wake him up." She pointed out.
"We can get Gaara to hold him down with his suna." Temari offered.
"Can you quit talking about me like I am not here." Neji complained.
"Quiet, we are thinking." Naruto hushed him.
Neji tried to get up, but Hinata and Sakura stopped that from happening with a firm hand on either one of his shoulders.
"Uzumaki." Neji hissed.
"Just blame fate for your current condition. You use to be good at that." Naruto grinned down at him.
"Enough." Sakura snapped before things could degrade. "Are we going to remove the queen or not?"
"Hai." Neji stated firmly.
Sakura looked to Shikamaru.
"It's your call." He stated after several seconds of contemplation.
"Alright. Neji, do you trust Gaara-sama enough to let him hold you down with his suna? If you thrash at a bad time I could kill you or leave you permanently paralyzed."
He was silent for several minutes before nodding his head in agreement.
"Good. Now this is what I am going to do. I am going to use a local anaesthetic to numb the back of you neck. Then I am going to have to cut my way down to the queen. Last time we disturbed her it sent you into that blinding agony. There is a good chance that will happen here again as I cannot prevent it. I am going to have to extract the queen and clean out any eggs I find. This could take a while depending on how the queen is imbedded in and you may have to live with the agony for several minutes. Understand?"
"Hai."
"Alright. For the moment just rest while I get things set up."
"I'll go find Gaara-kun." Naruto offered as he left.
"Did you guys find any food?" Temari asked Shino and Genma.
Both men shook their heads in the negative, but did hand over full water bags.
Sakura and Hinata cleaned up a flat area on the floor and laid down some blankets and one of the tinfoil emergency blankets Iruka happened to have in the small first aid kit on his belt. They would need it to catch the blood.
Sakura had water boiled and sterilized everything she was going to need, including her hands and Hinata's. When everything was set, Shikamaru and Shino moved Neji over, taking his jacket and shirt off in the process.
The circular scars on his shoulder and back mirrored the ones in the front. The only marks to mar his skin and leave silent testimony to the hardest fight of his life. His headband and wraps were removed were also removed.
"I am going to have to cut some of your hair."
"Do it."
She pulled out a kunai and shaved the back part of his head, leaving the front so he would be able to cover the shaved area afterwards.
"How do you feel?"
"My chest hurts a little and I feel like a weigh a few hundred pounds. I also feel drained." He answered.
Genma and Iruka finished hanging blankets off of some rope tied to kunai imbedded into the walls to offer them some privacy as Gaara and Naruto returned. Sakura explained what was going on and asked for his assistance.
Gaara merely nodded his head as suna poured out of his gourd and settled around Neji. Neji stiffened at first, but slowly started to relax when nothing happened. Hinata had mixed a few herbs in a bowl of boiling water and was cleaning the back of his neck where the operation was to take place with it. When she was done, Sakura knelt by his side while Hinata knelt next to Sakura, their medical supplies laid orderly out.
"Alright, we are beginning. I am going to inject the local anaesthetic first. You will feel a prick at the back of your neck."
Hinata accepted the wooden bit Kiba and Akamaru had found for Neji to bite onto if the queen started sending him pain. Neji let her put it in his mouth before Hinata sat to the side, passing Sakura instruments as she needed them.
Sakura walked Neji through each of the steps, letting him know what she was doing before she did it. The operation went smoothly as she parted the tissue and spotted the queen and what appeared to be her nest. The queen reminded her of one of those ant-lions Temari had shown her in a book of creatures in the dessert.
She cleaned the eggs she could get to out first, scraping them out and into a jar with formaldehyde to kill them and preserve them for further study. She managed to pry out a few young too, each the size of a flea.
"Alright, I am going to start on the queen now. Ready?" She asked, pausing in her work.
He nodded his head slightly, the wooden bit preventing speech.
The moment her instrument touched the queen, Neji's teeth bit down hard enough to cause splinters in the bit and he started to violently fight his restraints. Sakura worked as quickly as she could, severing the tentacles the queen had latched onto his neck before removing it and placing it in a different jar with formaldehyde.
The moment the last tentacle had been cut free from Neji, he collapsed, his breathing laboured and sweat pouring down his face. Sakura removed the last of the tentacles and eggs imbedded in his system before stitching up the cut, putting some of Hinata's healing salve on it, and bandaging it up.
"Done." She said, wiping sweat off of her own brow.
The entire procedure had taken forty-eight minutes. Her back was sore from leaning over him and her mouth was dry. She didn't complain as she and Hinata cleaned up the supplies they had used while Shikamaru and Shino moved Neji up against a wall so he could sit up and get something to eat.
When she was done cleaning up, she took her new notes and leaned up against a different wall, recording what she had done in her medical log in precise detail.
"Here, Sakura-chan."
Sakura looked up in surprise to see Lee holding out a bowl of deer stew for her.
"Lee-kun?" She blinked shocked, then noticed everyone was back and the blankets were strung up over the door to cover the light of their small campfire.
She took the offered bowl of stew and set her book aside.
"Arigato." She smiled at him.
Lee smiled back.
"I heard what you did for Neji-kun today. I wish I could have seen it. You're amazing Sakura-chan."
"It was nothing." She waved the comment away.
"Ile, it was amazing. There are few medical shinobi who could do what you did on the field without hesitation." Lee insisted.
"Arigato, Lee-kun." She smiled; taking a bite out of her stew by using a kunai to spear the meat.
He blushed slightly as he settled against the wall beside her. Sakura giggled and finished her stew.
"What are you working on?" He asked.
"The medical logs. If something were to happen to me or if I forget I can look back and see what I did to whom, when who is injured and unable to do stuff yet. I am also keeping track of our medical supplies and I am going to start that book on insects and how to counter them, hopefully with Shino's help." She answered.
"A good idea. I heard Shikamaru made you Head Medical Specialist for our little adventure."
"Hai. So, when do you think those two will make it official?" Sakura asked, setting her bowl aside and staring intently at Temari and Shikamaru.
Both of them were poring over a small map of the region, making and discarding plans of action, heads all but touching.
"They make a cute couple." Sakura giggled.
"It would do wonder for relations between Konoha and Suna." Lee agreed.
"I think Tsunade-sama may be negotiating with Gaara-sama to make it official." Sakura grinned. "I know Shikamaru-kun's mother's involved in there somewhere."
"I see. No wonder he volunteered to rescue Gaara-san."
Sakura shared a laugh with him.
"It is late, we should be getting to bed. I have guard duty later tonight."
"Shikamaru-kun said you and Hinata-chan are off guard duty unless if the situation gets desperate."
"I see." Sakura stretched and yawned. "I am going to check on Neji, then get some rest."
"Goodnight, Sakura-chan."
"Goodnight, Lee-Kun." She smiled down at him before heading over to where Neji was nestled down in a pile of Jackets, the blankets being shared by the kids and being used to block the light of the fire.
Shikamaru and Shino had helped him change into clean clothes after stripping him of the ones he was wearing and cleaning them. They had helped him freshen up before forcing him back to bed, the small amount of exertion exhausting him.
"Neji?" She called softly.
Pale white eyes opened and he looked up at her. She sat down next to him.
"How are you feeling?" She asked.
"My neck hurts." He admitted. "As does my chest. My throat is still raw and sore."
She nodded her head in understanding.
"I'll get Hinata-chan to give you some painkillers."
She preformed a few seals and ran her chakra through his systems. All signs of the Chakara were gone. His body was healing as expected of one without any chakra. She soothed the swelling in his throat and gave him a bit of her chakra to get his systems up and running again.
"Feel better?" She asked, exhaustion clearly showing in her voice.
"Hai. Arigato. You should get some rest."
"I plan to. You get some sleep to. Another few days of rest and you should be on your feet again, but don't push anything. I already gave Kiba-kun the speech, so now it's your turn.
"We have no safe house to get to and medical supplies are not that big. Do not push yourself too hard to prove some useless point. I could heal you completely, but that would leave me drained of Chakra for several days and as the only medical specialist with us, we cannot afford to run me dry when we do not know what the next minute will bring us.
"If I catch you doing any foolish heroics or pushing yourself past the limit, I can and will incapacitate you to the point were you wont be able to walk until I deem you fit enough to move. Understand?"
"Hai."
"Good. Get some rest. If you start feeling worse, wake me up immediately."
She stood up and left, walking past Hinata as she did so before crawling into a warm bed recently vacated by Ino, who was on guard duty again, this time with Choji. With only so many spare blankets, everyone had to take turns resting or sleep together like the children did.
Well, Neji is now on the road to recovery and Kiba is almost back to full health. Next chapter; Sasuke makes it to Konoha while Kurenai learns were some of the others Shinobi are being held. This was the shortest chapter I think.
I am so glad that people both hate and like Katsu, that was what I was going for. Glad I suceeded. Unfortunatly Kurenai has a lot more torture coming up, but Katsu is not an abusive man, so you don't need to worry about him beating her. He's minipultive, not dominaring.
Not much interaction between Asuma and Kurenai will be up. There will be the odd moment, but otherwise Katsu and the children will keep her too busy to spend much time with the boys. The only children under her care giving names and of any importance are Hyuuga Kiri and Inuzuka Kento. Trying to keep OC's to a minumim at this point, unfortunatly there will be a lot later on, but I will cull the ranks to a few that take centere stage. The rest will be background charactors.
Big thanks to Queen Dopplepoppleous, Dragonzair, Teal Colored Eyes, NissanNut, and The Gandhara for thier great reviews.