All's Fair in Love and War
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

VI

Shī was about ready to electrocute something. He'd been over it a hundred times, looping through farfetched theories and inventing the most implausible explanations for why he couldn't figure it out. There was a flaw in Zetsu's transformation jutsu, of that he was certain. How else would Naruto have been able to pick out the clones? No, he was just overlooking something, that was all.

He kept coming back to what the blond Jinchuuriki had said about Zetsu being 'incomplete'. First of all, that made absolutely no sense. Sure, he was a clone of one half of the original Zetsu, so in a roundabout way it made some degree of sense. But it wasn't enough. The transformation technique was almost perfect, so much so that it continued to baffle even the best sensors in the world. Whatever weakness the technique concealed, it was doing a damn good job of it.

"They're incomplete," he muttered to himself as he scanned the corpse again.

It looked like Zetsu, had Zetsu's composition, and Shī would have never believed even for a moment that this thing had assumed the appearance of a Hyuuga. But the few remnants of its chakra all screamed Hyuuga. It was damn well frustrating, and Shī was sorely tempted to roast the thing with a well-aimed thunderbolt.

"Oh my god. That's—!"

Sakura's voice snapped him out of his dark thoughts, her shriller-than-normal tone making him wince. If this was another fluke...

"What is it," he said tiredly, turning to look at her hunched over a small microscope.

"It's... It's—!"

"What. What is it?"

Sakura leaned back from her microscope, and Shī came face to face with the most radiant smile he'd ever seen on another person. Ever.

It was a little bit scary.

"I figured something out!" she squealed.

It was Shī's turn to crack a smile. She looked really pleased. It was sort of a welcome sight after the usual doom and gloom atmosphere of the medical camp.

"What did you figure out?"

Sakura looked like she couldn't find the words to explain herself intelligibly. She had to force herself to take a deep breath. "Okay, so you know how we discovered early on that Zetsu's more plant than human? It bothered me at the time, but I couldn't figure out why."

"I'd say it's disturbing no matter how you look at it."

She ignored him. "Anyway, it was a long time ago, but I once had to examine Yamato when he was poisoned on a mission—"

"Who's Yamato?"

Sakura seemed a little taken off guard by the sudden interruption. "Oh right, you wouldn't know. He's one of my squad leaders. Anyway, that's not important. What is important is that the structure of Zetsu's DNA is almost identical to his."

Shī fixed her with a deadpan look. "You're telling me that your squad leader's also a giant Venus flytrap? What are the odds."

After a moment taken to digest the fact that he was actually being facetious, Sakura laughed. Shī smirked at her reaction. He couldn't resist, which was unusual for him. He never joked with anyone he wasn't very familiar with, but she seemed to go along with it. Perhaps it was because they were stuck in this hopeless war situation together. He'd heard from older shinobi that war had a tendency to create bonds between people that couldn't be replicated in any other situation. They were precious bonds that ran deep, nigh unbreakable. The idea that extreme cruelty and tragedy could actually bring two people together was discomfitting, to say the least. Sakura launched back into her explanation, and Shī shoved those unneeded thoughts to a dark corner of his mind.

"We haven't really had any time to work on this autopsy with everything else going on, but now I realize why I didn't notice it before." She stepped aside and indicated the microscope. "Take a look."

Shī, now more than a little curious, wordlessly took the space Sakura had previously been occupying and peered through the powerful magnifying lens. If he didn't know better, he'd say he was looking at plant cells. He was about to tell her just that when something caught his eyes.

What is that?

"There's something weird about this. It doesn't look like the samples from the corpse," he said, pulling back to look at Sakura.

She grinned deviously. "Exactly. That's the sample you were scanning. I didn't think it would make a difference on the cellular level so I didn't check it before now, but it's completely different."

"It's an amalgamation of human and plant cells held together by chakra. Zetsu's chakra," Shī mused aloud.

"Yes and no. See, Yamato has access to Mokuton, the First Hokage's nature affinity," Sakura began.

"He what? Are you serious?"

Everyone knew about the First Hokage's terrible bloodline limit. It could create worlds and destroy them just as easily, if the history books were anything to go by. But it was a power unique to him; none of his descendants possessed it. For someone to manifest it now...

"How is that possible? Are they related?"

Sakura's expression darkened. "Not exactly. Orochimaru injected him with the First Hokage's cells, and Yamato happened to be a match. Apparently, Orochimaru went through fifty or sixty test subjects before he found a compatible host."

Shī frowned. More Konoha shinobi doing unspeakable deeds... Sakura seemed to pick up on his thoughts.

"Before you say anything, let's get back to Zetsu."

Shī didn't argue; he was too interested in this new discovery. "So what are you trying to tell me?"

"Shizune and I already guessed that Zetsu and Yamato were similar on the cellular level when we examined this corpse originally. Neji's chakra altered it enough to make the connection weak, though. This sample," she indicated the microscope again, "was grown under controlled conditions without Neji's chakra infecting it."

Shī's eyes widened, understanding dawning. "They're identical, aren't they. And that means it's not just a similarity between Zetsu and Yamato, but also between Zetsu and—"

"—the First Hokage," she finished.

They stared at each other for a suspended moment, each digesting the underlying meaning of their simultaneously drawn conclusion. Sakura's eyes were alight with excitement at the discovery, and Shī wondered if her eyes had always been so bright. Had spending too much time walking through the corridors of the dead dulled them so much? Had it dulled him too?

"Zetsu is a living clone of the First Hokage," he said, dazed.

"Yamato's Mokuton is just a shadow of the First Hokage's. Even if he's Kabuto's prisoner, I think it's pretty unlikely that he'd be able to power a whole army of Zetsu clones by himself. So it's only logical—"

" —that Kabuto must have access to Senju Hashirama's DNA—"

"—just like Orochimaru did. He's using it to power the army!" Sakura enthusiastically finished their collective deductions.

Shī shook his head. "Unbelievable. That's why there are so many of them. No wonder they're so resilient."

"No wonder they can copy other people's chakra so effortlessly," Sakura added. "Hashirama was the most powerful Senju that ever lived. His life energy was said to be incredible. I'm not surprised that Zetsu can manipulate chakra to overpower his own when he wants to if he's channeling the original."

Shī nodded, his head swimming with these new revelations. There was a lot to process and analyze. It was time to look for any hidden clues. He turned and searched for one of the medical journals he and Sakura had been using to record their findings, already starting to jot down notes.

"I'm going to find Shizune and let her know about this," Sakura said. "Headquarters will want a report too. This could be a major step toward eliminating the Zetsu army."

Shī nodded absently, already too absorbed in recording all of this to acknowledge her properly. "I'll be here."

Sakura didn't pester him. She knew exactly what medic-mode did to a person. It would be better for her not to interrupt him. After the telltale rustling of a discarded lab coat, Shī heard her leave, her footsteps light and fast fading. Alone, he rubbed his eyes and willed his mind to focus. Everything was running through his head at a million miles an hour, and it was all he could do to make sense of it without jumping ahead faster than his pen could write.

He couldn't be sure how much time had passed as he hastily scribbled page after page of raw facts and branching theories that would have to be discussed with Sakura later. This was definitely progress, but it still wasn't the answer he was looking for. His pen halted its frantic journey across the page and Shī stared at his writing. He flipped through the fresh pages of notes, reading through what he'd written and trying to fill in the remaining pieces of the puzzle.

"What am I missing?"

The answer eluded him. He got the same feeling as when he was tracking an enemy who danced just beyond the furthest limits of his sensing range, a shadow flickering out of the corner of his eye. If he could just see a bit more clearly...

...plant and human cells laced with foreign chakra...First Hokage's living clone...life energy...can manipulate foreign chakra to overpower his own...

Shī stopped mid-sentence, rewinding to reread the note he'd just skimmed.

Zetsu can manipulate foreign chakra to overpower his own, even suppress it entirely.

"Overpower his own," Shī repeated aloud. An idea began to bloom in his mind. He shot out of his chair and turned back to the microscope holding the sample of Zetsu's untainted DNA and chakra. With enough care not to break it, Shī removed the glass slide and slipped it inside a metal container. It was no bigger than a stick of gum. Concentrating, he poured his sensitive chakra into the sample, memorizing the feel of Zetsu's chakra.

A little more.

He clenched his jaw, forcing his chakra to probe deeper and deeper until not only could he feel Zetsu's chakra, but he could also envision the cellular structure. It was a deep-tissue sensing method he'd developed by combining sensory techniques with his knowledge of delicate medical ninjutsu meant to be used only in situations of absolute security and calm. Time and silence were required to make effective use of the technique, making it virtually unusable in combat settings where scans lasted only milliseconds and time was ally to none.

He took a good twenty minutes to memorize the structure, and that was making good time. Not wanting to miss even the most miniscule detail, Shī turned the unique energy over and over again to be safe, until even when he withdrew his intense observation he could still feel it acutely. Dark eyes opened slowly, his vision a little blurry from the intense burst of chakra. He reached out a hand to support himself on the stainless steel examination table where the cadaver still rested. At the sight of it Shī didn't bother to hide his distaste.

"Suppress it entirely," he whispered to himself.

Fuck it.

Fingering the small metal case that housed the untainted cell sample, Shī turned his focus to the dead clone itself. As always, he was inundated with a rush of Neji's now familiar chakra signature, weak as it was within the corpse. And as before, he couldn't detect anything else—

"There."

If he hadn't been holding onto the case he surely would have missed it. Paranoid that it may have been a fluke, he performed the scan again. It wasn't.

"Oh my god..."

Shī performed the scan a third and fourth time. Each time he did it, the flaw became more and more glaring.

"It's like they're incomplete or something."

Naruto's words finally made sense. Zetsu was an incomplete clone. Whereas traditional clones were meant to be exact replicas powered by a fraction of the original's chakra, the Zetsu clones literally transformed into their targets. But that transformation was imperfect. As seamless as it appeared superficially, the original's chakra still lay dormant under the surface, no matter how suppressed. Otherwise, the clones wouldn't function at all.

No one can completely transform into another person.

"I did it," he said, incredulous. "I can sense the difference."

The only thought on Shī's mind at that moment was that he needed to find Sakura and tell her immediately.

"Sakura, if this is true, then it's a monumental breakthrough," Shizune breathed.

They were currently power-walking to the communications tent. Sakura wanted to report to Shizune before liaising with headquarters. It was a matter of protocol and hierarchy, but she also felt that Shizune deserved to hear it from her first. Shizune had been in the middle of an emergency surgery at the time, so she'd had to wait a while until the older kunoichi was finished to break the news to her.

"At the very least, we can assume that Yamato is still alive," she said as they rounded a corner and emerged outside.

Shizune nodded. "Yeah, thank goodness for that. But there's no other explanation for how the Zetsu clones can sustain so much damage. It must be the First Hokage's unfiltered DNA. No one else could match that kind of raw power."

Sakura's expression turned grim. "Kabuto obviously took more from Orochimaru than just his cells."

Shizune didn't respond, but her troubled look said more than words could. The older medic and Kabuto had been close before the latter turned rogue. Sakura didn't know the details, but she knew enough to understand that Shizune felt personally affected by Kabuto's ultimate defection. Sakura felt bad for bringing it up.

"I just meant that... The First Hokage's cells—"

"I know, Sakura," Shizune said, masking her feelings. "I guess...we all sort of have a Sasuke, you know?"

A long time ago, Sakura would have clammed up at the mention of Sasuke in such a way. But seeing the look in Shizune's eyes, she knew the older medic meant to convey empathy and understanding, not a personal attack. Besides, Sakura was better than that.

It's just a name.

"Yeah, I know."

They were nearly at their destination when Hina stepped out of the tent. The redhead was making a beeline for the pair.

"Hina," Shizune said. "How are your rounds coming? Any problems?"

"Hm? Oh, not at all," she responded. "I wanted to talk to you about something though. Both of you, if you have a minute."

"We were actually on our way to the communications tent to report to headquarters," Shizune said.

"Shī and I made a critical discovery about the Zetsu clone," Sakura said.

"Oh! What kind of discovery?"

"It's kind of complicated. After we talk to headquarters we'll fill everyone else in," Shizune said, already motioning Sakura past.

Hina moved to stop them. "Is it dangerous? Should we be concerned?"

"Oh no, nothing like that—" Sakura began.

"Because we can't afford another infiltration," Hina continued. "It would be too devastating for the medical division to lose any more Jounin medics."

Sakura frowned. She definitely did not want Hina or any of the other medics getting the wrong idea. Inciting panic amongst an already high-alert camp was the last thing they needed.

"Really, it's nothing you have to worry about," Sakura said. "We just have to get the information to headquarters."

"It's just that everyone's been very tense since the last attack," Hina said. "Who knows what would have happened if Uzumaki Naruto hadn't shown up?"

"Hina," Shizune said, her tone gentle as she put a reassuring hand on the redhead's shoulder. "I assure you, this is nothing that concerns us directly. We're safe—"

Sakura didn't catch the rest of what Shizune said because in that moment a blinding golden light all but burned holes in her retinas. Hina's and Shizune's forms evaporated within the brilliant light, and Sakura felt her hair stand on end, electricity crackling in the air around her. A familiar but disturbing feeling tingled in the air around her as her eyes attempted to adjust in the aftermath of the bright flash. Nothing seemed to have changed. Hina and Shizune were still standing there, also looking dazed, but something was definitely not right...

Genjutsu?

With practiced movements, Sakura channeled her chakra and broke the illusion around her. The world rippled and cracked, peeling away until all traces of the mirage were gone. The sight that greeted her nearly gave her a heart attack.

"Shī! What are you doing!" she cried.

Shī's hand, which held a kunai, was embedded into Hina's chest to the hilt. He held her shoulder in a death grip, electric sparks dancing across his knuckles as Hina stared up at him with a look of unadulterated horror. Shizune was slumped on the ground, unresponsive.

No... Another Zetsu clone!

At the sound of Sakura's voice, Shī's dark eyes flickered briefly in her direction. "Sakura—"

"H-Help me, Sa...kura," Hina wheezed, her eyes glazed with fear and pain.

Without wasting another moment to stop and think, Sakura summoned chakra to her fists in preparation for battle as she stared, stunned beyond words, between Shī, Hina, and the fatal wound in Hina's chest.

"What have you done?" she said, advancing.

Shī looked a little shocked to see her talking to him, but he blinked it away. "Sakura, listen to me. This isn't what it looks like—"

"Get back!" Sakura bit out, preparing to slug him in the face.

In the split second when Shī shifted his attention to her fist, something very strange happened. Hina stopped wimpering and placed her palms flat against Shī's chest. With whatever strength remained in her, she shoved him away. Shī stumbled. It was all Hina needed.

"Die!"

Hina's hands transformed into tree roots and launched at Shī with incredible velocity. It all seemed to happen in slow motion as Sakura watched Shī try to dodge the attacks. Medical ninja were trained never to get hit, but at extremely close range there was no way he'd avoid it completely. Sakura threw herself at Hina just as one of her root hands caught Shī in the arm, piercing through his shoulder. Miraculously, he'd managed to avoid the second projectile attack entirely.

As Sakura closed in on 'Hina', her sharp mind rapidly processed what had happened. Even before Hina's normally dark green eyes bled a sickly yellow and her skin turned too ashen to be entirely human, Sakura understood that she'd made a grievous error.

So she didn't hesitate when her glowing fist connected with the Zetsu clone's face.

The squelch and crunch of her fist pulverizing Zetsu's face gave Sakura more satisfaction than should probably be considered healthy. She didn't let up until they crashed into the ground, and the earth erupted all around them in a deluge of rock and dirt.

It took a few seconds for the dust to settle and Sakura to regain her bearings. Her breathing was labored in the aftermath of the adrenaline rush. This was becoming far too commonplace, she thought grimly as she reclaimed her now sticky green hand and shifted until she was no longer straddling the very dead Zetsu clone.

"Sakura," a voice called nearby.

"Shī," Sakura said, moving to his side in an instant.

He was kneeling and had already started healing his shoulder to staunch the blood flow. They locked gazes and Sakura momentarily lost the ability to form words. A second sooner and she would have pummeled his head instead of the real imposter's. It had all happened so quickly...

"You broke my genjutsu," he said, irritated.

"Huh?" Of all the things he could have said just then, this was the last thing she'd been expecting.

"How?"

"I...have a genjutsu affinity," she blurted out.

"...Oh."

Oh?

Oh?!

"Wake Shizune. She needs to know," he said.

"Know what?"

His gaze flickered to the mutilated Zetsu clone and hardened. "How I finally figured out how to sense them."

Author's note: OMFG everyone check out the gorgeous fanart that Stefanie92J drew in all her talented brilliance! The link is in my profile, and it's the confession scene from the last chapter.

ACTION. More to come. You know me, and you know it's going to get real. Thanks to the logged out reviewers this time around: anonymousx, AlynDMiracle, guest, and dude. Love.