Shikamaru took a deep breath before he even touched the medic squad office's door. He couldn't take Temari's words out of his head.
"I guess I may really like him. I mean, he's a great guy, isn't him? But… I feel like we've been so far away from each other and for so long that-"
'Who was she talking about? Perhaps a Suna's shinobi? She's been away from Suna for a long time now… is that why she cried yesterday? Because she misses some-' Shikamaru shook that thought out of his head. As soon as he'd crossed that door he'll have to work and he shouldn't have anything in his mind but what was related to his current mission.
As soon as he opened the door, a sweet voice welcomed him.
"Hello, Shika!" Tomoko was wearing her white lab coat and was carrying some bottled samples "How's your day going?" she was having troubles carrying all those bottles so he ran to help her.
"Let me help you with that" Tomoko gave him some of the bottles. They put them on a table and then Tomoko started classifying them "Is there any new information about the illness?"
Tomoko adjusted her glasses and looked at him again "Well, remember that information that Naruto sent about the girl with the sharingan? Apparently that information was not so accurate. Yesterday came in a report from one of the special squads sent to protect the villages, it says that the girl doesn't have a sharingan but a rinnegan!" Shikamaru couldn't believe it, another annoying rinnegan user was causing troubles again. "But, wait. There's more, it is said that the rinnegan is just in her right eye and that in her left eye she has a byakugan. Even though it is not still confirmed, this could explain most of the so-called symptoms that the victims have shown-"
"Tenketsu*!" Shikamaru suddenly shouted. "She attacks the pressure points of her enemies' chakra pathway system to make them feel sick!" Tomoko smiled.
"Yes! If she really happens to have the byakugan, most of the symptoms shown by her victims would be explained, though the reason why they don't seem to heal would be still unknown." Tomoko was looking at Shikamaru with a really sweet smile in her face.
"Why are you smiling then?" Shikamaru had never understood Tomoko's persistent smile, it was like if she was hiding something. Normally he would've just ignored it, but they had plenty of work to do, the reason why the symptoms could not heal were still unknown, people were still dying and she was smiling as if the work was done… or maybe it was that he just wasn't in the mood.
"Well, I'm happy because we may have made a real progress today, don't you think?" Tomoko smiled again.
"Maybe you're right" Shikamaru grinned. He had to relax a little bit "Let's check the docs to see if our theory fits the facts. I'll also make sure to send a warning to all the squads to be aware of not being touched by that girl at any cost and to ask them to send any information that could confirm that she has a byakugan in her left eye" Shikamaru was on his way to the door when he felt a grab on his back.
"Wait!... May I ask you something?" he turned and saw Tomoko standing there with a serious expression on her face. He nodded. "Are… are you and Temari-sempai da…dating?" he could see clearly how Tomoko's face went all red, but her question triggered Temari's words in his mind again.
"I guess I may really like him. I mean, he's a great guy, isn't him?-I guess I may really like him. I mean, he's a great guy-I guess I may really like him. I mean-I guess I may really like him-I may really like him-really like him…"
Shikamaru felt… felt something breaking inside of him. He was angry. He was sad. He was hurt. Even though the answer to that question was now clearer than ever in his mind, he was afraid of saying it out loud. "N…no… we are not" Tomoko's eyes lit up.
"Great!" she covered her mouth and her face went red again. "I… I'm sorry. I just wanted to ask you…" she cleared her throat "would you go out with me one of these days?" Shikamaru was stunned. He hadn't expected that, what would he say? Then, another thought crossed his mind 'Could Temari being dating someone at Suna?... It is pretty possible, judging by her words. Also, she is older than me, why would she be interested in going out with someone like me? If she wants to go out with an older guy, fine. I can date a girl too.'
"I don't see why not"
"Great!" Tomoko even clapped her hands and jumped out of happiness with her cheeks still red. "Don't worry, I'll make sure to send the messages" and she was out of the room faster than a dog chasing a kid in a bike.
As soon as Tomoko was gone and the door closed behind him, he collapsed. Tears wanted to go out of his eyes and holding them in made his heart ache even more, so he let them out. He couldn't understand anything. For the first time since his dad's funeral, his head was a mess. How could something so irrelevant and that he had known all along could cause him such pain? He wanted to be with Temari, but at the same time he didn't want to see her or think about her for a while.
Eventually, he stopped the tears, but the ache in his chest seemed to have arrived there to stay.
*Tenketsu literally means "pressure points"
"WAKE UP, YOU TWO!" Karin screamed. The sun was still not visible on the horizon when Naruto and Sasuke jumped out of their futons.
Sasuke looked first at Karin and then turned to Naruto on his left. "Why were you sleeping, dobe?!"
Naruto completely ignored Sasuke and was yawning when Karin intervened "I woke up like two hours ago, couldn't fall asleep again and sent him to sleep. I'm feeling better and it was about time for me to keep watch, but that's not important right now. We need to go now if we want to find that little bastard before noon." Naruto and Sasuke looked at each other blankly. She seemed like a completely different girl. "Are you comfy sitting down there?" she said kindly "Come on! You hadn't even told me the whole plan yet" and the kindness was gone. They both took their things as fast as they could and they had left the village even before the sun rose. When they got to the outsides of the village they stopped to talk about their 'plan'.
"THERE'S NO PLAN!?" Karin was furious. "Then what are we supposed to do?! Walk around hoping we can find her before she attacks again?!"
"Do you have a better plan? Because I'd love to hear it" Naruto said.
"I don't know… why don't we split? We would be covering more-"
"Don't you remember what she did to you?" Sasuke said. "If we split and you-" his face felt warmer so he corrected himself quickly "I mean, if one of us gets knocked down like that, how is it going to be better than just remain together?" Naruto crossed his arms, proud as if he had said it.
He was right, Karin knew it. "What about splitting and look for her in the surroundings of the village? That way we could use our wireless radios to steadily communicate with each other. I mean, that girl can appear and disappear at will anyway so I think it would be good if we stayed close to the village just in case she appears around here"
"Wow. She even came up with a better plan than yours, Sasuke" Karin gave Naruto an angry look cause he was underestimating her but Sasuke just smirked, getting his wireless radio out.
"Let's go" he said, and the three of them split in different directions. Sasuke went to the west, Karin to the northwest and Naruto to the southwest. "Remember, anything you see, anything you hear you have to tell us, got it?"
"Yeah" Naruto said. They waited for Karin's answer but it never came.
"Got it, Karin?" Sasuke repeated.
"Yeah, yeah… we got it" she sounded as a teenage girl responding to her parent's dumb question after a scold. "Just pay close attention to your surroundings and let us do the same. If we have something to repor-" she suddenly stopped.
"Karin?!" they both said.
"What the-?!"
"Naruto?!" he had just said that when out of the blue she appeared, sitting in a tree in front of him. Sasuke stopped.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Sasuke Uchiha, the traitor from Konoha" she was swinging her legs happily now. "What are you doing?! Did you really agreed with your comrades in splitting? I think now there's no need to tell you that it was the worst choice you could've made"
"What did you do with them?" Sasuke took out his sword and was ready to fight.
"Oh, don't worry. They're both on a genjutsu. Apparently the red hair is pretty clever cause she knows she's trapped in a genjutsu, unfortunately I cannot say the same about the blond boy but, don't worry, it wouldn't be of use anyway. They're gonna be there till I want them out, so you could say we have plenty of time to talk" she took off her hood. Now he could see clearly the rinnegan in her right eye but he couldn't see her left eye because it was covered with her hair. "That's right, I'm an Uchiha" she smiled, and a chill ran down Sasuke's spine. "I guess you could say we're distant relatives"
"What do you want?" Sasuke asked. He was trying to come up with any plan to help his friends.
"I'm glad you asked! I'm here to take you with me" Sasuke's doubtful face seemed to being entertaining her. "Yeah, you know, since we're both Uchiha and your whole family is dead now that you killed your broth-" Sasuke reached her before she could finish that word. He had her by the neck with his Susanoo for a second, but before he noticed, she was gone. "How rude!" he couldn't see her, it was just her voice now "You didn't even let me finish! Hopefully if you can only hear me you'll listen to what I have to say" Sasuke was looking from south to north, wondering who he should go looking for first. "I knew you would want to go to the rescue of your friends as soon as I was gone. Don't worry, it doesn't bother me, just make sure to choose wisely now because you may only be able to save one" Sasuke was trying to ignore her, but he knew she was right.
"Kuchiyose no jutsu!" two big hawks appeared in front of him. He got up on one of them "We're going northwest, you already know Naruto, so go southwest and bring him to us" both hawks got up in the air in less than a second.
"Wise move, I have to say. Anyway, as I was saying before, since you have no family left and Konoha is the one to blame, what about you come with me and together we avenge the whole Uchiha clan?" Sasuke remained quiet. His priority was to find Karin, and he knew that the more information he could take from the girl, the easier it could be to beat her. "No answer yet, huh? Well, I bet you're pretty worried for your girlfriend's life, aren't you? Don't worry, she'll be fine. She's being a good girl. On the other side, your blond friend could be having troubles right now… what are you gonna do about it?" she laughed loud and in a frightening way. Sasuke's mind was full of horrifying thoughts he couldn't put in place. The inner battle against his head and his heart wasn't helping him. He couldn't come up with a plan, he could just have faith in the decisions he'd made by now and in the ones he would eventually make…
