Sorry this took so long. I was busy and rather unmotivated. Shorter chapter as well, although it is eventful, so that should make up for its length.
Chapter 8: Changeover
Shikamaru stood frozen in the door, trying to process the information he had just heard. He'd been called a genius all his life, always being able to analyze a situation instantly. But now, his mind had frozen, for the first time in his life he couldn't think of anything.
"W-what," Shikamaru stuttered, thinking he had heard wrong.
"I'm. Pregnant." Temari repeated, slowly so that the so called genius could process the information.
"H-how did that happen?" Shikamaru stammered, his mind not working completely.
"Well see, it's not that complicated. A man sticks his…"
"I know, I know. It's just, is it…mine?" Shikamaru asked quietly.
"Who else's would it be?"
"Bu-Bu-Bu…" Shikamaru continued to stammer, unable to form a complete sentence.
"Are you sure you're a genius?" Temari joked, amused by Shikamaru's reaction to this news.
"Yeah. But. Uh, what are you going to do?" Shikamaru asked.
"I don't know, that's kind of why I told you. Maybe that big brain of yours could think of something." Temari answered.
"Have you told Gaara or anyone else yet?" Shikamaru questioned. He had come back into the house now and closed the door; going back and sitting down at the table.
"No," Temari responded, quietly now. She had only found out a couple of days before she had left and wasn't quite sure how she felt about it yet. Presumably it had happened the last time she had come to Konoha about a month and a half ago, although she couldn't be absolutely positive; she had made it a habit of visiting Konoha as often as possible.
To Temari, it felt sort of strange being scared of telling your brother, your younger brother at that, that you're pregnant. She wasn't quite sure how he would react. It was of course, a pretty normal thing for a woman to get pregnant. Maybe he would be mad that she wouldn't be able to go on missions for a while, as she was one of the strongest in the village and she was often relied on to do some of the toughest missions. What Temari thought Gaara would be angriest about was the fact that the father was someone from another Shinobi village. It was considered rather taboo to have a relationship with someone from a separate village; as if something went wrong between the two villages it would be a bad thing to have contradicting about what side you wanted to be on.
Of course Temari would tell Gaara eventually. He would find out whether she told him or not. She just wanted to tell the father first and get his reaction. So far Shikamaru's reaction had been rather neutral; he didn't seem angry or happy about the news.
After a long awkward silence Shikamaru stood up from the table and headed for the door again.
"You're leaving already?" Temari asked, sort of surprised Shikamaru would leave so quickly after hearing this kind of news.
"Yeah, I have to get the Hokage's tower to work, I'm late as it is," Shikamaru replied, trying to avoid eye contact with Temari as he didn't want to get persuaded into staying longer.
"Well, I kind of though you would stay a little longer and help me think through this."
"Sorry, I really can't, I have to go now," Shikamaru said back quickly, trying to get out as quick as possible. "I'll try to think of something while I'm gone."
Temari sighed; Shikamaru was really such an idiot when it came to relationships. "I'll probably be gone when you get back. I've stayed to long as it is; I just needed to tell you."
"Oh," Shikamaru said as he finally opened the door and prepared to leave. "Well then I guess I'll see you some other time. Be safe."
Shikamaru was gone now, the door swinging shut behind him, leaving a silent Temari behind him. Temari sat at the table still, contemplating what to do now. She figured she should gather the few things she had brought and head back, although she really had hoped that Shikamaru had thought of some grand solution to this problem, although she knew there was none and cursed herself for calling this a problem.
Looking down at her still flat stomach, fingering around her navel, Temari stood up and prepared to leave. She wondered where her life would go from here; she had never really planned on something like this happening. But more then that, she wondered what the being inside her would be like, and what its future held.
xx
"This is disgusting," Ino murmured, bringing her hand up to cover her mouth and nose. The scene in front of her and Sakura was grotesque. The disease had spread and in an effort to contain the disease they had moved all the sick people into a few of the open wards in the Hospital. But the wards had filled up quickly, the sick people overflowing from the cramped rooms.
Now Ino and Sakura stood starring into one of these overcrowded wards, trying their best not to gag on the horrid stench. The rooms twenty beds had filled up almost instantly once the spread of the disease had exploded. In the twenty beds lay twenty sickly people, their flesh rotting, vomit and blood covering the previously white sheets. When the beds had all filled up, cots and mats were brought in to accommodate the new cases that were constantly flowing in. Now there were more then fifty people in the room meant for twenty and only a few nurses and doctors to tend to them; as many of them had fallen ill as well.
Luckily Sakura and Ino remained in relatively good shape. They were both completely exhausted from being so overworked and were famished, as the only thing they had dared to eat this entire time were rations they had brought. But neither of them had contracted the disease and were for the most part, sane.
Right now, there were currently almost completely out of options. Like they had planned, they had spent every waking moment looking for the source of the disease but had found nothing. It was impossible to locate something that they couldn't even see with a microscope. The only sure way to locate the source would be to conduct an experiment with healthy people to determine where the disease from but not only was that morally wrong but there were very few healthy people left.
They had also received word from other villages that the disease had spread there as well. As of right now there was nothing they could do for them, as they had to concentrate on this village, as it was hit the hardest so far. But if they couldn't contain this disease now, it could soon spread to the entire fire country—even Konoha. Running out of ideas the two medics had set a timeline. If they couldn't locate the source or cure this disease in three hours, they would quarantine the town and stop anything from coming in or out of the village in a hope it would stop the disease, or at least slow it down.
The morgue would soon be overflowing when the disease hit full swing in all these sick people. So far it seemed as if it took a couple of days for the disease to kill someone; possibly a little longer in a younger, otherwise healthier person.
After a few more moments of starring at this morbid scene, Ino finally reached her limit and walked out of the room, heading back to the lab where she had previously been working. She had tested just about everything she could think of and had come up with nothing. Sakura had joined her in the lab as well to test everything else and also work to find a cure, although her attempts had so far proven just as futile.
"The tissue and blood from the cows have turned up nothing," Sakura said grimly, as she finished up some tests after they both had arrived back at the lab. A foreboding gloom hung over the room as the two continued to test and retest everything.
The two remained silent for a while now, going about their work. After retesting a sample of some crop from the fields of the village, Ino slumped back into a chair and took a deep breath, looking over at Sakura. "So where do you think this came from?" Ino asked.
"If we knew that we wouldn't be here testing everything," Sakura grumbled.
"That's not what I meant," Ino spat back, sensing the patronizing tone Sakura had used, "I mean where do you think this disease came from originally? Did it evolve from some other animal disease or is it some man made bacteria?"
Sakura sat down now too, giving up on her current specimen for the time being. She hadn't thought much about things from this perspective yet, as she had been too busy just trying to find out a cure. "Well from what we have seen so far it seems like it would be manmade. There are no known bacteria that occur naturally that are this small and that we wouldn't be able to combat. But is its manmade that means…"
"Exactly," Ino interrupted, "It means that someone spread this disease in the hope that it would cause an epidemic like this."
"But who would want to do something like this?" Sakura wondered, "What would someone gain by destroying a town like this? As far as I know this town had no enemies or rivals, there isn't much anyone would gain by its destruction."
"So then maybe their true goal was something else," Ino continued, "Maybe they planned on having the disease spread and…"
Ino stopped suddenly, her eyes going blank, a light sweat breaking out.
"Ino, are you okay?" Sakura asked worriedly.
Ino didn't respond, she just continued to stare blankly forward.
"Ino?" Sakura said, getting up and walking over to her oddly acting friend.
Again, Ino didn't respond. She remained silent still, starring straight at the wall. Gradually she started to tremble, her whole body shaking.
"Ino!"
With one more large convulsion Ino vomited, spraying blood and bile all over the lab floor before collapsing out of her chair and sprawling out on to the floor.
"Ino!" Sakura yelled out in horror, bending over, trying to shake her friend out of her current state.
Ino remained unresponsive still, breaking out in a cold sweat on the ground, her shake worsening.
"Ino, please don't do this," Sakura begged. She prayed that this was exhaustion. Quickly, Sakura checked Ino's vitals and removed the large lab coat she had been wearing so she could get a better idea of what was wrong.
"Oh no," Sakura gasped as she looked down at Ino's no exposed stomach. On her stomach was a dim red rash, slowly spreading to the rest of her body.
"Ino!"
xx
Off in the sound country, Kiba, Hinata, Akamaru and Shino move quickly and silently through the trees, heading towards where the bartender has just informed them that Sasuke is.
"Sasuke better be there or I'm going to kill that bartending bastard," Kiba grumbled, "I gave him practically a months pay for that information."
"Well it is the only lead we have, at the least I'm sure we will turn up something useful at this base," Shino replied, hoping his teammate didn't throw another fit.
"How can you be so sure," Kiba barked back, "He seemed pretty desperate for money, he could have easily just given us random coordinates and stolen our money. Well, my money. You guys should really reimburse me for some of that; I shouldn't have to be the only one that suffers to get information."
"Hinata, can you search a kilometer ahead and see if anything unusual is there," Shino said, changing the subject.
Hinata nodded and activated her Byukagan, scanning ahead of them. If the coordinates they had received were correct, then the base should be close, although it was not one that had had marked on their map and they had no reconnaissance pictures so finding it could prove to be difficult.
"No, there is nothing unusual," Hinata replied after thoroughly scanning much of the area and finding nothing abnormal.
"Keep an eye out for anything-" Shino started to say.
"Hey! Don't change the subject!" Kiba growled, "I think you guys should pay me some for being able to get this information."
"According to the bartenders information the base should be about a half a kilometer to the east of here," Shino continued, ignoring his aggravated teammate. "Keep quite and be cautious."
"Hey! Stop changing the subject!" Kiba yelled, infuriated by Shino's behavior.
Again Shino ignored him. He had said to be quite and he didn't intend on being the one that disobeyed his own command.
"I see something," Hinata whispered suddenly, coming to a stop on the nearest branch. "About three hundred meters east there is a strange mound of dirt concealed between several trees."
Kiba and Shino both strained to see what Hinata was talking about but couldn't get a line of site because of the dense foliage. Now, letting Hinata lead the way, the four moved very cautiously towards what hopefully would be the entrance to Sasuke's current location.
After several torturously slow moving minutes, the four finally arrived at the strange mound of dirt, examining it from a safe distance.
"It seems pretty abandoned," Kiba commented after not being able to locate any guards or pick up any strange scents.
"It's possible that he's not here anymore," Shino said, "The bartender said that he had heard some of the sound nins talking about this place about a week ago, that leaves plenty of time for him to leave if he really was ever here at all."
"That bartender better pray that something is here or else I'll beat him up worse then those sound nin did," Kiba mumbled, getting disapproving looks from both his teammates and even Akamaru.
"There does appear to be an entrance," Hinata said, interrupting Kiba's rant, "There are no traps on it, it just appears to be a wooden door in the mound."
"We should approach this cautiously," Shino said, "There is still a chance that Sasuke is here, we can't risk being detected by him."
"Okay, then let's get searching," Kiba exclaimed excitedly, hoping that this seemingly impossible mission may actually end in success. Although he still feared the worse, they would find nothing and he would be out a good portion of his money.
The four jumped down from the tree and approached the entrance. The mound of dirt was about as tall as any one of them and sure enough under a thin layer of leaves laid a simple wooden door. Shino slowly approached the door and pulled it open, revealing a long ladder leading down to a cave below.
"You guys owe me for this," Kiba said, still unhappy about his teammate's unwillingness to compensate him. Again he got no response from his teammates but was too excited to really care at the moment. Without another moment of delay, Kiba jumped down into the dark cave below, followed soon after by his teammates.
xx
Not to far off in the sound country, the cruel dictator of these lands rapidly made his ways through the many trees, heading back to his previous base. He was content with how things had turned out with his little expedition and just hoped that everyone else had gone according to plan while he had been away.
As he drew closer to his destination, Sasuke let his hand glide over the object in his pouch, the reward for all his hard searching and research. While he wasn't quite sure if all that effort would pay off in the end, the thought of what could happen if it did was enough to make all of him content for the moment.
This takes us one step closer to our ambitions.
"Shut up," Sasuke demanded, still remaining calm though. Why did that bastard have to be so annoying? He was useless now, he should go away and rot like the piece of trash he is.
I wouldn't tell me to shut up; I'm more apart of-
"Shut up," Sasuke repeated again, still calm. The annoyance didn't have time to respond, Sasuke had repressed it with an overwhelming amount of chakra.
Now temporarily free of any interruptions, Sasuke finally arrived at his destination, jumping down from the trees he had been traveling on; landing next to the entrance of his current home.
xx
"We should split up again," Shino said, observing the four main passage ways that lead off of the main atrium that had landed in.
Kiba and Hinata both nodded and wordlessly chose which pathway they would choose. Shino took the one straight ahead, Kiba the one to the right, Akamaru the one behind them and Hinata the one to the left.
More cautiously then ever before, each of the four made their way slowly down their respective hallways; their senses heightened as much as possible. Although the place seemed to be abandoned they still moved slowly and alertly; it would be just like Sasuke to have his own base, not wanting to surround himself with people he considered weak.
Much like the other bases, each hall was lined with door which opened to abandoned rooms and closets. The place seemed completely deserted, almost more so then the first base they had searched.
Kiba groaned quietly as he reached the end of his hallway, finding absolutely nothing: no information, no clues, no Sasuke.
Hinata as well had reached the end of her hallway. Much like Kiba she had found absolutely nothing, although unlike Kiba she was partially glad she didn't. She had always feared Sasuke, she didn't know what she would do if she came face to face with him as an enemy.
Shino too came to the end of his hallway, finding nothing unusual. Shino carefully examined the dead end he had come to before concluding there was nothing. While he was disappointed that his search had turned up nothing, he knew if Kiba's turned up nothing as well he wouldn't hear the end of how he had to waste his money for useless information and how they now owed him money.
Back in his hallway, a depressed Kiba examined the end wall, trying to determine if there was anything behind it. After a few minutes he came to the conclusion that he truly was at a dead end and breathed a deep sigh of disappointment. He had really hoped that this would lead somewhere, but it seemed like they weren't any closer to completely their mission then they ever were. "I'm heading back now," Kiba whispered into his headset, "Nothing to report here."
Hinata, coming to the same conclusion, turned to go back as well. "Nothing to report here either."
"Nothing here," Shino repeated, also starting to head back.
In his hallway, Akamaru had also made his way to the end, nothing unusual there either. "Nothing," he said plainly into the custom headset he had had made for him. He too now headed back towards the atrium.
"You guys owe me," Kiba whispered into his headset, disappointed with the results of their search. He walked back slowly to the atrium, head hanging low with disappointment.
Suddenly, Kiba stopped in his tracks. This smell… Where was it? Behind him? How?
"Long time no see…Kiba, right?"
Slowly, Kiba turned to face the source of the voice. "You're…"
"Is there a reason you are standing next to the door to my room?"
"Sasuke…"
Well, hoped you liked it. Tell me what you think.
