Continuity Disclaimer: Most of the Daybreak universe was outlined/written before the Shinobi World War arc in the manga, which I sort of stopped reading anyway. For simplicity's sake pretend everything after chapter 500-some never happened while you are reading this. I tried to make this fic canon-compliant to a point, but when the goalposts keep moving fanfic authors just have to throw up their hands and scream 'I GIVE UP' in order to get anything done. Thank you.
.oO Chapter 10 Oo.
Sasuke's flailing hand closed around a low-hanging vine, and with that lifeline he painfully inched his way out of the flood. He let go as soon as it was shallow enough for him to stand without being swept away and doubled over a boulder, coughing. After wrestling the fit under control, he staggered out of the water.
His right wrist felt like all the little pebbly bones had been removed from their place, pounded to pieces with a sledgehammer, and then slipped back inside his skin; aside from that, the river's tossing him about like a ragdoll hadn't done any serious damage. Most of his gear–save the waterlogged radio–was intact.
Gaara's body had become wedged between two boulders several meters behind, in the shallows, as if drawn to safety by an invisible string. He clambered out to the opposite bank, eying Sasuke like a cornered animal and saying nothing. His complexion was ashen and his posture unsteady; either he'd been pummeled worse by the river rocks or one of the Kiri team had gotten lucky with a poisoned blade.
Aside from the sand he had been completely unarmed… and now there was no sand.
Sasuke's left hand went to his shuriken pouch and faltered. "You're like Naruto, aren't you? I never realized there was more than one."
After several seconds of silence, Gaara found his tongue again, too battered and bewildered for violence. "Like… me?" he repeated. "And what is he to you?"
"My brother… and my best friend."
"Why? Why does he need…?"
"Everyone does," Sasuke answered.
"I don't," Gaara said savagely, desperately. A few weak whirls of dry earth rose from behind him. "If my brother ever crossed me, I'd kill him. That is how I know I am alive. I kill. I'll kill you! I'll–"
"With what?" Sasuke asked, shaking his head, as the amorphous cloud of dirt collapsed back into the ground. "Don't ask me where this is coming from, but I feel really sorry for you." He took a step back, and then another, never allowing Gaara to leave his sight.
Gaara took a stumbled forward into the water, fighting for consciousness now. "Where are you going?"
"Far away from you," Sasuke said. "You probably broke my wrist, and I don't feel like finding a way across this river to end your miserable life."
It wasn't until he could no longer see the sheen of red hair that Sasuke allowed himself to turn his back. The sounds of the forest had been muffled by the water in his ears. He took a moment to knock it out, his eyes darting after every nocturnal creature. The sharingan was amazing, but it wasn't of much more use in the dark than normal sight. With a satisfying pop, he found he could hear again.
Then he realized he wasn't alone. In the forest, someone was crying.
His first assumption was that it was a trap. He had two choices: spring it now, or ignore it and head back upstream, possibly with an enemy at his back on this side of the river. He weighed the pros and cons for a few moments and then began stealthily working his way through the underbrush.
Curled against a rotten tree stump was the kunoichi from Kusagakure that Anko had elected to scare witless before the test began. Her crimson hair had fallen across her face, and she was covered in blood and sobbing quietly into her elbows. She raised her head and looked directly at him, although he was upwind and positive he hadn't betrayed his position. She and her glasses had parted ways some time ago, leaving her to squint into the darkness.
"Just take it," she whispered, pulling a Heaven scroll from the pocket of her gray pants. She leaned forward to place it on the ground in front of her and then sat back against the tree, her arms folded over her lap. "It doesn't matter anymore. Dosu and Zaku wouldn't listen to me and now they're both sausage meat. I told them he was a demon. I told them."
Sasuke took a few steps closer. He stopped a dozen paces in front of her, not taking the scroll just yet. "Do you mean Gaara?" he asked.
She nodded. "It's just like last time. No matter how much I try to warn everyone it never helps! They know I can see it, so why don't they listen?"
"You're a chakra sensor," Sasuke murmured. He bit down on his lip, hoping he wasn't going to regret this. He wasn't sure how far downstream the current had taken him, and with night descending the forest had become almost pitch black. With one of his hands useless he could not form signs, a very dangerous position for a shinobi to be in. The blood encrusting her clothes smelled real enough, and if her teammates truly had been killed by Gaara she had no incentive to betray him for a shot at passing the test. "You can come with me, if you want. If you can lead me back to my team, we'll do our best to see you safely to the tower. What's your name?"
"Karin," she said, and sniffled.
"Uchiha Sasuke. Come on. Let's go."
"Sasuke-kun?" she said, raising her head to squint at him again. "You're sweet. I wasn't expecting that." She uncurled her fists to reveal a scrap of dirty paper in one hand and a tiny vial in the other. Before Sasuke could stop her, she uncorked it with a thumbnail and tossed the dark liquid against the seal drawn onto the sheet. "So I'm really, really sorry. Really sorry," she whispered, as smoke began pouring out of the paper she'd tossed upon the ground.
Sasuke tried to leap clear but found he couldn't, as if his feet had grown roots. "The hell did you—" he started.
"Such a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Sasuke-kun," said a voice from the smoke.
Looking into the man's eyes, Sasuke's mouth went dry from the pressure of his chakra. He recognized that face from the textbooks and television screens–the skin pale as paper, the long black hair, the sharp points of the tattoos curving down his eyes.
Sasuke was forced perfectly still, bound too tightly even to scream, as Orochimaru paced around him. A few thoughts did manage to trickle around the overwhelming terror. Orochimaru had all the grace of a serpent, but the black cloak hung too loose on his frame, and there was a subtle but unmistakable wheezing in every breath. Even as weak and sick as he must have been, this was what it felt like to face down one of the Sannin.
His white hands traced the cords of muscle up Sasuke's arms and across his shoulders. He tipped Sasuke's head back and forth, to admire his face—and especially his sharingan—from every angle. And it wasn't even desire. As revolting as that would have been, this was worse. He was inspecting Sasuke the same way a farmer inspected a piglet he intended to purchase, even going so far as to draw his jaw apart to check his teeth. To Orochimaru, he was nothing more than meat.
When he finished, he bent low over Sasuke's ear. "Beauty and power," he whispered, chuckling. "I could hardly ask for more, but it is all useless if you can't survive the seal. I do have a good feeling about you, though. You won't let it take you." He bared his teeth in a hungry smile, the canines razor sharp, and sank them into Sasuke's uninjured wrist.
As Orochimaru drew back, the paralysis broke, but the agony spreading across Sasuke's left side dropped him to his knees.
"Come, Karin. Your part of this is done," he said, watching dispassionately as Sasuke writhed in the dirt for a few moments and then slipped into unconsciousness.
"Dosu and Zaku were... were..." she started, looking everywhere but at Sasuke's motionless body.
"I know. A pity they were not as careful as you. I have more business to attend to here, but I will not leave you without a bodyguard."
He close his teeth on his thumb and knelt. A banded snake as thick as a man's waist appeared coiled on the ground. "You will guide her to the tower and see she comes to no harm. Keep yourself hidden from the Konoha genin."
The snake drew itself up to incline its head in a reptilian bow.
"Thank you, Orochimaru-sama," the girl whispered in relief.
"But of course. You never fail me."
The girl and the snake turned in the direction of the tower that loomed over the forest. Orochimaru prodded Sasuke once with his sandal and was rewarded with a groan. He linked his hands in front of him and settled in to wait.
It wasn't long before a young man stepped out of the trees with an unconscious Gaara slung over his shoulder. Although he was very slender and only a hand-span taller than the boy he was carrying, the burden troubled him not at all. Like Orochimaru, he wore a dark coat adorned with curling clouds.
"We have a mission to complete here, you realize," the man said dryly. "When I promised to help you secure a sharingan for your new vessel, this is not what I meant. If the Kyūbi's host discovers you had a hand in this boy's death—"
"But I liked this one," Orochimaru said, prodding Sasuke one last time. "You worry too much. I modified the seal to go dormant once it's rooted in his chakra system—their medics aren't going to be able to find it. If he dies, well, there are a tremendous number of venomous snakes in this forest. It would be one less bond to hold my target to Konoha when the time comes."
The redheaded man accepted the explanation with a cock of his head. He slung Gaara from his shoulder and arranged him on the ground. "Is he likely to die of this without treatment? It's a Water Country poison; I don't know it," he said, and pushed aside Gaara's sleeve to reveal a shallow cut. The edges had already knitted together, but the flesh was inflamed and a foreboding purple in patches.
"Jinchūriki are durable; his bijū will reverse the tissue damage shortly," Orochimaru pronounced, after a brief examination. He swept aside a lock of Gaara's hair to reveal the scar carved above the left side of brow. "He is an odd-looking little beast, isn't he," he commented, pausing to snicker at his own joke and then shooting a sly glance toward his partner. "I don't remember many redheads in Suna. I never asked… is that your real face, or did you take some artistic license with the carving? Aside from the eyes, the resemblance is quite uncanny."
"What exactly are you implying? I left Sunagakure years before he was born."
"Nothing much. My, my, Sasori-kun, aren't we sour today," Orochimaru answered with a raspy laugh.
"His condition still presents a slight problem," Sasori said, ignoring the jibes. "How do you plan to use your gift of ensnaring the trust of broken children while he is unconscious? You were supposed to be supervising them while I met with my contact in their Medical Corps."
"My apologies," Orochimaru said mockingly. "I find this place distracting. So many fond memories."
"Don't tell me you suffered a sudden burst of nostalgia and had to check up on your protégé?" Sasori asked.
"Hardly. Jiraiya and Tsunade had protégés. I had a lab rat."
Sasori looked back to Gaara. "My spies in Suna have reported his mental state to be extremely unstable. If we were simply to spirit him away without an explanation, his reaction to waking up with two missing-nin he has never seen before is sure to be poor. And by poor, I mean he is very likely to allow Shukaku free reign to kill us, which until you secure a new vessel could be an issue."
"You worry too much. We can ambush them on their way back to Wind Country. Hardly a major setback. Bring him farther north along the bank and I can lead his team up to find him again. They were in rather poor shape, so they might need some babysitting."
Sasori rolled his eyes. "If we must, we must, although squashing these ants bores me. We shouldn't linger too long here."
Orochimaru spared one last, hungry glance back at Sasuke. "I don't think it's necessary to trouble our dear leader with this detail, do you?" he asked. "I still fully intend to help you settle that grudge you've been nursing against the Kazekage, if an opportunity were to present itself. I would even go so far as to help you create that opportunity."
"Hm," Sasori grunted. "Taking one's revenge on a kage does tend to require a bit of assistance here and there, and I am sure you will thoroughly enjoy any chaos you manage to sow."
"I wouldn't have volunteered if I didn't think it was going to be fun."
"Our little secret, then," Sasori said, with a blank and unsettling quirk of his lips. "I may have mentioned this before, but I really do like the way you think."
-ooo-
Teams Seven and Eight had limped their way as far downstream as they could manage, breaking away from the river to make it less likely they would be spotted by any other teams. Hinata's eyes didn't encounter any trace of Sasuke, but she did find them a natural roof beneath the roots of a fig tree, large enough for three people to lay down under and with plenty of cover for the guards.
Naruto blew out a forlorn sigh and let Shino's arm slip off his shoulders, who almost immediately folded down on the cushion of grass. Even their slow pace had left him panting with exertion. "Why do we have to stop now?" Naruto asked.
"Because I–" Shino said, and stopped to sniff. When he brought his fingers to his nose they came away smeared with blood. "This seems… ominous," he murmured.
Sakura glanced at his bloody face and her lips drew back in worry. "Could you move your coat out of the way?" Sakura asked him. "I need to check the dressing."
Shino complied, and Sakura gasped–the amounts the cut on his thigh were leaking had gone from unusual to unlikely to absurd. The blood had soaked through the bandages and then fabric of his pants, and showed no signs of stopping. Sakura fished more gauze out of her pack and wrapped the injury again, as tightly as she dared.
"Did I not bind it right?" Hinata asked, mortified. "I'm so sorry!"
"No, Hinata, the job was fine," Sakura assured her. "It should've closed by now; this wasn't your fault."
Sakura flipped quickly through the mental files from her Academy days—the units on anatomy and physiology had been among her favorite subjects. "I think the blade was treated with some kind of hemotoxin," she explained. "Some of them disrupt clotting factors so victims bleed out from what should have been minor injuries. I don't suppose your bugs could...?"
"No," he said, shaking his head. "My father's colony can neutralize some poisons, but the specialized breed is very delicate and difficult to control. It isn't given to Aburame genin not in the medical track."
"Shino…" she began quietly, "if you keep moving I'm afraid you might bleed to death."
He took a long breath in and a long breath out, and in an almost painfully even voice, said: "I find this information distressing."
Kiba bent over Sakura's shoulder, wincing at the way it compressed his injured ribs, and whispered behind his cupped hand. "I think that's Shino-speak for 'I'm scared shitless I'm gonna die'," he translated.
"That isn't what I said," Sakura shot back. "Kiba, get out of my face, you're not helping. Healing this is going to be tricky with so many of the platelets in his blood destroyed, but if I have an hour or so to concentrate I think I can do it. Theoretically."
"We don't have an hour," Naruto put in. "Gaara probably broke Sasuke's right hand. He can't make handsigns. He can't even hold a kunai. If someone or something finds him he's screwed, and I can't just stand around while–"
"I am not suggesting you do," Shino said. "My insects have not had any luck locating the scent. The one I tagged him with was almost certainly washed off in the flood or drowned. While I do not want to split up considering Kiba and I are too seriously injured to adequately defend ourselves, I see no other option if we want to find Sasuke before morning. Hinata, are you certain the Suna team is not a threat to us?"
She nodded. "They're along the river, on the opposite bank. They're barely well enough to walk and in no shape for another fight."
"You and Naruto backtrack to the river to sweep for Sasuke," Shino ordered Hinata. He looked to Kiba. "Would Akamaru be willing to accompany them?
The dog nodded his head yes and trotted over to sit at attention next to Hinata's ankles, his tail swishing in the grass.
"Guess that's a yes," Kiba said. "Leaving Sasuke out there injured and alone doesn't feel right to us either. He might be kind of a dick, but he's our dick."
"Keep radio contact," Shino told Naruto. "If you do not find your brother before dawn, return here, and avoid all other genin cells. To risk sacrificing two more team members to save one is not a logical course of action."
"No promises," Naruto said. "You managed to take down those two from Suna without losing anyone, so as weird as you are, you're not a bad captain–I admit it." He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned over Shino. "But where Sasuke is concerned you can take your logical courses of action and shove them up your butthole… sir."
Shino, as usual, didn't dignify this with any comment.
While the orders were being settled, Hinata's cheeks had gone progressively pinker and pinker, although it was so dark no one else noticed. "I-I don't know if I can..."
"Your injuries were minor, were they not?" Shino asked.
"Yes, but..."
"And you have not begun experiencing the symptoms of overusing your byakugan?"
"No, but..."
"Then I am confident you will be able to find Sasuke."
-ooo-
Although Akamaru had not yet mastered the ability to speak human language, the puppy's guidance proved to be invaluable. He kept his nose to the leaf mould and his ears perked as they carefully made their way back to the river. He could pick apart the tapestry of sound created by both their enemies and the unseen creatures scuttling about their lives. Most of all, the paths of criss-crossing scents let him read the pitch black surroundings like a map.
Most of the animals in the training ground weren't dangerous unless provoked, and several times Akamaru made wide detours around trees and thickets that looked the same as any other. After Naruto nearly got a faceful of corrosive mist after annoying a cranky-looking black beetle the size of his fist, he did at least manage a word of thanks to their canine guide.
"Can't you go any faster?" Naruto asked urgently, as they went creeping along the crumbling, muddy riverbank.
Akamaru cocked his head quizzically, then turned back to the invisible trail he was following. It took him up a tree root and down again, around a boulder, and in a complex zig-zag around a clump of toadstools.
"So was that a no?" Naruto prodded.
Akamaru looked down his muzzle at Naruto and made a noise halfway between a groan and a sneeze.
"I-I think he's just trying to be careful," Hinata mumbled. "If he were to miss something it would take us even longer to find Sasuke, and I don't want to leave… um…"
Naruto paused to judge a leap over the slippery rocks. "Hinata… if you didn't want to come help me, why did you?" he asked, grabbing a sapling to steady himself after the landing. He turned back to offer Hinata a hand over the same gap. "That's why you're being so quiet, right? You're worried about Shino and Kiba? You don't have to be. I promise Sakura-chan's taking good care of them."
Hinata drew her hands back against her coat and tried nonchalantly to rub her sweaty palms dry on the fabric, unwilling to put them in his.
"Did I say something wrong?" Naruto asked.
"I..."
"Naruto-kun, you... I..." she swallowed convulsively. She ducked her head and brushed past him, only exhaling once her back was to him. "I-I should concentrate on searching for Sasuke-san."
"You're totally right. I talk too much. Zip it up. Got it."
Hinata stayed in the lead as they continued in silence. She kept her byakugan activated and did not once turn around.
Naruto followed gamely after her. Thinking about all the horrible things that could have happened to Sasuke made the space under his breastbone ache. Sasuke was a strong swimmer and a strong fighter, but the river in spring, its waters high and wily with melting ice, was a dangerous adversary. Unable to secure a foothold on the turgid waters, even jōnin had drowned in it.
The present company wasn't doing much to shake loose the gristly possibilities. The Hyūga heiress, as far as he could tell, had never really liked him. In the Academy, she had a habit of turning strange colors and scuttling away whenever he opened his mouth in her presence. She avoided sparring with him. She would never sit near him at lunch, instead opting to huddle in a corner of the classroom with her hood up and cast him funny looks under the brim.
The only conclusion Naruto could draw from all this was that Hinata thought he smelled and was too polite to say it to his face.
It would explain why she usually looked like she was about to faint whenever the possibility loomed that she might have to touch him. He scrubbed his hands as clean as he could on his pants, and was about to take a surreptitious sniff of his jacket when he remembered she could see everything he was doing straight through the back of her head.
Hinata suddenly stopped short.
"What?" Naruto said to the back of her hood.
"I found Sasuke-san," she whispered. "About four hundred meters to the east. He's unconscious."
Naruto slapped his hand onto the switch at his neck to open the radio channel. "Hey Shino, you were right. Hinata did it."
It was Sakura's voice that came pouring through the earpiece instead. "You did? Is he okay? I... sorry, I made Shino give me the radio while he got some sleep—I managed to close the wound, but he's lost a lot of blood and isn't doing that great. He made me promise to tell you 'not to do anything you will regret while unsupervised'."
"Sasuke's out cold, but still alive," Naruto passed on. "We're bringing him back to camp. Search team out." He dropped his hand to his side and gave Hinata an encouraging smile, who'd finally deigned to peer at him around the pile of fabric that made up her hood. "Sakura says Shino says don't do anything dumb. Ready?"
"Mm."
Naruto forced himself not to sprint forward as Akamaru stealthily followed the winding track of Sasuke's lingering scent, ever mindful of an ambush.
"Can you smell anyone around?" Hinata asked the puppy. "Are they still here?"
Akamaru nodded an affirmative to the first question and a negative to the second, urging them forward with a small yip. The scent trail ended in a small clearing with a rotting tree stump in the center. The phosphorescent mushrooms sprouting from the soft wood of the trunk cast an unearthly glow over the body curled up beside it.
"Sasuke...?" Naruto whispered, breaking cover to run to his brother's side. He almost cried out with relief when he felt a pulse still pounding in his neck. It was far too fast, and his face was damp and flushed with fever, but he was alive. He pulled Sasuke onto his back and tried gently shaking him awake, to little effect. He groaned and his eyelids fluttered half-open for a moment. Then he became unresponsive once more.
"He's burning hot," Hinata said apprehensively, brushing her fingers across his upper arm. Her brows furrowed. "And th-there's something wrong with his chakra system."
"Wrong? Wrong how?"
Hinata pushed aside the stained cloth bracer to reveal two puncture marks on his wrist. They were clotted with dried blood. "When someone is sick, their chakra flows differently. Their energy goes to fighting the infection. But this... it's almost like... like the infection is in his chakra pathways, spreading out from this. I-I've never seen anything like it before."
"We'll figure it out later," Naruto said. "Help me get him up?"
With Hinata's help, Naruto managed to arrange Sasuke's inert form across his shoulders. His thighs were aching before they'd halfway returned to camp, and his brother showed no signs of awakening. They returned to their chosen fig tree unmolested, thanks to Hinata's guidance. Sakura let out a cry and ran to them when they emerged from the brush, helping Naruto ease Sasuke down to the ground.
"Hinata said he was poisoned. Is there anything you can do for him?" Naruto asked her.
"Snakebite?" Sakura whispered to herself. She chewed on her lip. "Not really. Without knowing what bit him, all I can do is try to bring the fever down and hope he comes around."
-ooo-
Sakura put the wet rag aside and rubbed her eyes. She'd fallen asleep with it clenched against her chest, and now there was a damp patch on the shoulder of her dress. She rolled over and pushed herself up to her elbows. The canvas they'd thrown over the root structure made for a cramped and uncomfortable tent, but it had kept off the worst of the rain after the sky opened up in the early hours of the morning. Naruto was still asleep, curled up in a miserable ball on Sasuke's other side.
The two holes at his wrist had been cleaned and dressed to the best of her ability, but there was little she could do for the raging fever beyond damp cloths and prayer. Nothing in his condition had changed. His temperature was still dangerously high, and he thrashed and groaned in his sleep as if caught in an unending nightmare.
Outside the curtain of vines and roots, Team Eight was having a very heated discussion in muffled whispers. Sakura paused before sitting up fully, listening with her breath held tight.
"I-I don't care how logical it is, I'm not leaving Naruto-kun," Hinata said forcefully. "None of their team can detect an ambush like I can."
"We have the scrolls we require and Team Seven is out of immediate danger," Shino pointed out. "If Sasuke does not regain consciousness soon, we will all forfeit our chances of reaching the third round. The longer we wait, the more difficult breaking through at the tower is likely to be."
"I know," she said. "I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you both, I promise."
There was a rustling of cloth as Shino shifted his weight against the treetrunk. "My personal desire to pass the test is not the reason I have suggested this. My parents would likewise be disappointed, but I believe they would understand the circumstances under which I chose to deliberately fail. I am not so sure that would apply to your father. In truth, it is you who are sacrificing a great deal more than myself or Kiba."
"I overheard you talking with Kurenai-sensei," Kiba said, sounding miserable. "This is your whole future on the line, not just a stupid promotion. If you lose the position to Hanabi—"
"It wouldn't matter," Hinata murmured. Her voice was flat, resigned. "She's better than I am—it's going to happen sometime. Everyone thinks she ought to lead the Hyūga after my father is gone."
A sniff, from Shino. "In the interest of accuracy, you should note that I do not," he said. "You are thirteen years old and it is my understanding that Hyūga-sama is in excellent health. It is possible—even probable—that you would gain the skill, confidence, and wisdom necessary become Clan Head long before he would have to relinquish the position to you."
"I think so too," Kiba said. "I don't really know how to say this without being really rude... so I'm going to be really rude. Your dad's an asshole. All he does is tell you you're weak and worthless, but—"
"Kiba!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know you're supposed to respect your elders and everything, but he doesn't respect you! Not even a little! So what if your little sister is better in the ring? You're smart and determined and you care about your clan more than anything. I'm starting to be able to beat my sister when we spar, and nobody thinks she shouldn't be in line to head the Inuzuka. She's a great veterinarian and people respect her for what she can do, not smack her down for what she can't."
"Hana-san isn't like me," Hinata whispered. "I'm not good at anything else, either, so I've already decided. It'll be better for the Hyūga this way."
Kiba sighed. "Did you even ask Hanabi what she thought about this mess? You practically raised her since your mom got sick, so what makes you think she's okay with how—"
"It's. Better," Hinata insisted. Her voice was crackling like ice in the spring thaw, threatening at any moment to allow the tears to seep through the fractures.
"Hinata, you're…" Kiba murmured gently. "All right. Fine. Have it your way. But if you need somewhere to crash after we do get out of here, you know you're always welcome at my place."
"T-thank you, both of you. If we don't make it by the time limit, we try again in six months."
Sakura deliberately kicked over the empty water bottle near her feet as she rose and ducked out of the hollow. Naruto started at the noise and sat up, knocking his head against a root.
"Ouch," he said loudly, rubbing at the newly minted bruise on his forehead.
Team Eight's conversation broke off abruptly as Naruto scooted out of their makeshift tent. Hinata started and began blinking furiously, her face downcast. The three of them were crouched in a tight circle on a patch of bare ground–lighting a fire to chase away the chill was too dangerous. Akamaru held watch on a downed branch with his ears perked and his nose high to the breeze. Dawn was breaking over the Hokage's mountain, though little of the light had filtered down to the forest floor.
"Good m-morning," Hinata said. She pushed forward a container of high-energy trail mix and the least offensive flavor of protein bar. "It's the best I could manage for breakfast. Is Sasuke-san any better?"
"Did you save this one for me?" Naruto asked quizzically, unwrapping Hinata's offering.
She nodded.
Sakura helped herself to a handful of the dried fruit and nuts. "Not that I could see," she said, chewing the tart, salty mixture without relish. "He's still delirious. What about you guys?"
Kiba looked down at his belly. "Rib's still busted. Doesn't hurt as much, though. Thanks."
"I believe I have recovered somewhat as well," Shino said. "Although Akamaru and Hinata noticed something strange while they were patrolling. Do you both find it odd we have not been attacked once since we set up camp here? Three of our members are injured, and by appearances we are two of the weakest teams and hence the most tempting targets."
"I thought we were just lucky, and what do you mean 'strange'?" Naruto asked.
"There's somebody... something out there," Kiba explained. "Akamaru found a dead Konoha genin with a single senbon through his throat, and his teammates dead a few dozen meters away without a scratch on them. There was a really strange cluster of scents around them... almost like a weapons shop—steel, machine oil, wood, and glue–and a lot of something sort of bitter-medicinally, too. For a second I thought it might've been that guy's puppet from Suna, but puppets have puppetmasters, and Akamaru said there wasn't another human scent anywhere but those other poor bastards that had already bitten it. It was all over the clearing where you found Sasuke, too."
"I saw him for a second," Hinata said in a near-whisper. "Mostly he kept out of my range. He looked human, b-but... wasn't. His body is made of wood and metal, but there's still chakra running through it somehow. Most of it's tangled up in a ball in his chest. On the outside he looked like a teenager, maybe a little older than us, wearing a dark coat with a high collar. I didn't remember seeing him in the written examina... Sakura-san, is something wrong?"
"He's wearing... could you tell if his coat has a pattern of red clouds on it?" Sakura asked, breathless.
"If I keep my byakugan going for too long things start to get fuzzy, but...yes, now that you mention it, I think they were clouds. Why?"
"Hinata…" Naruto said. "Is the Suna team is where we left them? Are they still alive? Is Gaara with them?"
She reactivated her byakugan and searched for a few moments. "Yes. They found him. The girl is keeping watch, but it doesn't look like anyone bothered them last night either." She grit her teeth, trying to milk a few more meters out of her range. "There's another team of dead genin near them, too."
"You can't be serious," Naruto murmured. "How'd they get in here? Shouldn't the Interception Team have…?"
"They didn't the day Iruka-sensei died, either," Sakura pointed out. "We need to get a message to the Hokage. It could be connected, and if it is–the entire village's security system has been compromised. Once was a fluke. Twice is a conspiracy. Someone is definitely after Sasuke."
"Yeah," Naruto said, and turned away from the rest of the group. "That's what it looks like, doesn't it."
"I can do it," Shino offered, reaching into his belt pouch and withdrawing a minuscule scroll case. It was fashioned from a slice of reed, covered with loops of thread, and came bundled with a short pen with a minuscule nib. "My kikaichu can take it to my father."
"How about: Tell Hokage. Akatsuki in village. Critical threat," Sakura said. "Would that fit?"
Shino uncapped the case and carefully printed the message on the curl of paper stowed inside. "It does." He screwed the lid back on and allowed a few off the beetles to lift the precious message from his outstretched palm.
"You're sure he'll really take it to the Hokage?" Naruto said, as the beetles and their cargo disappeared between the shadows of the trees. "The release forms said we weren't supposed to send out any messages."
"I do not exaggerate, and he trusts my judgment," Shino said. "If I say there is a critical threat to the village, he will assume there is until proven otherwise."
Sakura looked away. "I wish my parents trusted me like that."
"Most of the village thinks we Aburame are strange, even wholly without feeling, for the strictly rational way in which we strive to interact with each other," Shino said, and added, tilting his head slightly towards Hinata. "What I find strange is how much pain my comrades endure because their families do not do so."
-ooo-
It was Naruto's watch. No change. Their guardian angel in Akatsuki had piled up a significant number of corpses at the perimeter of their camp. Most of them had been from Konoha, which made Naruto's stomach twist uncomfortably. But he was far too skilled to reveal himself, and a 'thanks but no thanks' simply would not have sufficed. The day was cold, dewy, and unpleasant, numbing fingers and toes and setting their teeth to chattering.
All that could be done was wait. Wait and think. They were both activities Naruto did not find comfortable.
Mei Terumï had warned him–they would meet again. Was that to be this soon? What did Akatsuki want from him? If it was only the demons he and Gaara held locked inside their bodies, why not take them both now, by force, when separated from the powerful shinobi that would move to defend them? Were they behind the abduction attempt on Sasuke and therefore responsible for Iruka's death?
If they were, he felt he ought to hate them. That made them the enemy.
That was how it worked, wasn't it? There was a circle drawn around the Us–his fellow genin and their teachers, his family, his clan… the whole village. Everyone outside the circle was the Them–foreigners, criminals, missing-nin. Inside the circle was the right side. The Good Guys. Everyone knew that.
Akatsuki's client on that mission to the western mountains had been a drug smuggler of the most vile sort. Who knows how many lives would have been destroyed by those intoxicating seeds if they'd completed it? It was evil. The whole thing was evil.
And yet, the members of Akatsuki he had met had been honorable, even merciful. They were reluctant to take lives. They cared for their own teammates no less than any follower of the Will of Fire. And after learning about the horror that was the Kirigakure graduation exam, he had a hard time blaming them for fighting the current Mizukage or fleeing from his reach when they'd lost.
It wasn't as though Konoha was above those sorts of mission, either. There had been days, when Itachi had still been in ANBU, that he returned home enveloped in a heavy cloud of silence and shame. He spent long sleepless nights talking to their parents or Kakashi in the study, and never let a word of those conversations leak around the screen where curious young ears could snatch them. He hadn't understood then, but now….
Naruto pinched his arm, hard, trying to shake off the boredom and anxiety and fatigue that had sent his mind wandering on watch.
The sun continued tracing its lazy arc through the clouds, its light as unsatisfying as weakly brewed tea. He was still stewing in confusion and worry when Kiba's voice snapped his attention back to the situation at hand.
"Company!" he whispered through the microphone. "Four o'clock. Sounds like they've got dogs... but there aren't any other Inuzuka testing besides me. Must be ninken from another village."
Naruto held his breath and concentrated for a moment. "Yeah. I hear it. Sakura-chan and Hinata and I'll take them," he said. "Don't get yourself any more messed up than you already are."
Ducking into their makeshift tent, Naruto roused the other members of the team. Hinata scrubbed the sleep from her eyes and activated her byakugan.
"It…" she began, cocking her head. Then she released the dōjutsu and heaved an enormous sigh of relief. "It looks like Shino's message got through. It's a chūnin medical team."
A few moments later, an enormous, ash-and-cream Akita Inu came crashing through the underbrush, a woman in Konoha green hot on his heels. She ignored the genin's nest under the fig tree entirely and dove into the thicket where Kiba was crouched in hiding, and instead of the clash of weapons he heard Kiba say: "Nee-chan? What are you... Yeah, I'm fine, just don't hugaaaaah–stop, stop that hurts!"
Another man, also in Konoha green and accompanied by a dog almost identical to the first, arrived shortly after. His milky, pupil-less eyes and the cloth wrapped tightly around his forehead identified him as a member of the Hyūga Branch House.
Hinata finished untangling herself from the roots and branches and went to greet him. Shino and Sakura ducked out as soon as she was free.
"Kaito-san?" she asked incredulously. "Did my father ask you here? I don't want you to get in trouble with the Hokage for breaking the test rules."
"It's all right, we're here on the Hokage's order," the older Hyūga explained. "When he received your message, someone convinced him to suspend the Exams and send teams in to corner the infiltrators. Uchiha-sama asked us to keep an eye out for Team Seven as a personal favor, so I can guess who did most of the persuading. She's so good at it, it's almost frightening."
"So my father didn't send…?"
Kaito bowed his head. "No, Hinata-sama. He may have been given another assignment, I'm not… I should really see to Sasuke-kun." He paced forward and frowned. "Um… Hana? Hana, really, stop that, it's just a rib fracture. I can fix him up back at the hospital. Would you report in while I assess the other patients?"
Hana reluctantly stopped fussing over the massive bruise on her younger brother's torso and activated her microphone. Kaito bent under the canvas to lift the unconscious Sasuke out of the roots and laid him out where the light was stronger. Naruto folded down on his knees on the other side, feeling like he was in the way but reluctant to be anywhere else.
"Captain?" Hana said. "We found them. Teams Seven and Eight were together." She paused with her hand on the mike, listening, and then smiled briefly at Shino. "Yes, sir. Your son looks like he's going to be just fine."
"My father is here?" Shino asked.
"He's captaining our team and on his way," Hana said. "Since you can sort of walk I'm going to assume all that dried blood on your pants is much worse than it looks."
"Yeah, Sakura patched him up last night," Kiba said, from the ground where his sister's pack was licking him with enthusiasm. "Is she ever handy to have around."
"The blade was poisoned–some kind of anticoagulant. It took me a while, but I did finally seal off all the severed blood vessels. Oh, and I saved one of the kunai so you can take a sample to the lab for analysis." Sakura extracted one of Kankurō's ringless knives from her belt pouch, which she'd wrapped carefully in a long leaf and many turns of wire.
Hana accepted the leaf-wrapped blade and gave Sakura an appraising look. "How long have you been doing this?"
"You mean since I started training as a field medic? Um," she stopped to count back, "just under six months, I think."
"Wait," Hana said, raising her palms to Sakura in disbelief. "You mean you started studying medicine six months…?"
A pair of Aburame appeared at the perimeter of the rude camp, interrupting her. The final triplet, matching the other two dogs that were currently clustered around Kiba, arrived with them.
"Shimazen!" Kaito called to his Aburame teammate. "This is your department—looks like he's been poisoned. The only injuries are a lot of superficial contusions, a sprained wrist, and this puncture wound on his arm. There's not much I can do for him."
The older of the pair stopped beside Shino. Aside from the addition of a thin mustache and some crinkles around his mouth, they were almost identical–even the two pairs of hands stuffed into two pairs of pockets.
"Your injury is not severe?" he asked.
"No, Otō-san," Shino said.
"I am relieved."
Kiba wiped a large quantity of dog drool off his hands and whispered to one to one of them: "If you were ever wondering Shino gets it all from…"
Shimazen joined the other medic at Sasuke's side and removed his dark glasses, tucking them into one of the many pockets adorning his coat. He peeled back Sakura's bandage to examine the mark, then began taking his vital signs. "What are his symptoms? How long has he been unconscious?" he asked the genin.
"When we found him he was already out; that was last night," Naruto said. "The only thing wrong with him is that he's feverish and won't wake up."
"Nothing else? No easy bruising, difficulty breathing, blue tint to the lips or extremities, vomiting, seizures?"
Naruto shook his head. "There's been someone with him all the time since I brought him back to camp. We didn't see anything like that."
"And what's this mark at the bite location?" Shimazen murmured. "This doesn't make any.…"
"What's wrong?" Kaito asked. "Can't you give him the antivenin?"
"No, I can't. That is the entire problem. I am familiar with every venomous snake native to this area, and his symptoms don't match any of them. Judging by the distance between the puncture marks, the creature itself would have to have been about a two or three meters long. The only species whose venom could produce an effect even remotely similar doesn't grow much longer than my forearm. And.…"
"And what?" Kaito prompted.
"The faint bruises between the puncture wounds," he whispered. "It sounds patently ridiculous, but what they almost look like to me is human dentition. Which is—"
"Crazy, considering it's more likely some sort of summon that bit him, and that the species doesn't really matter since bringing his fever down does," Kaito interrupted. "You can obsess over the toxicological details once he's safely tucked into a bed in the ICU."
"Or a summon," Shimazen added a touch sheepishly. "That does make more sense."
Kaito pulled a roll of paper from the pouch on his back and unfurled it, laying the epicenter of an elaborate seal over Sasuke's forehead. A circle in the center went from red to green.
"We're still in transport range. Good. Hana, take the other pole. Receiving bay is clear." He pulled himself sideways to lay his hands on the stylized outlines of two outstretched palms. Hana crouched and did the same on the opposite side. "On three, two, one…"
The black symbols on the paper flashed violet, and the paper fluttered as Sasuke disappeared. "Who's next?"
Shibi extracted a hand from his pocket and offered it downward.
"I am capable of walking back," Shino said.
"I can see that, but that does not mean you should," he said. He knelt and pulled Shino up with a hand under his shoulder. "Let the medics do their jobs."
Limping forward, Shino reluctantly let himself be arranged under the long strip of paper, and the two medic-nin repeated the procedure. Hana looked up at the pile of dogs (and Kiba) and cleared her throat.
"Me?" Kiba said. "Naw, I'm fi–"
"Kiba, shut up and get your ass on the grass," Hana ordered. "We're still inside the most dangerous training ground in Konoha. If something worse were to happen to you on the way out Ka-chan would rip me a new one."
The dog with a faint scar across its muzzle laughed. "Truer words were never spoken," he said. "We'll bring Akamaru to visit you if you're admitted, but I doubt they'll be keeping you long." He shoved Kiba forward with his shaggy head. Sighing, the boy got up to do as his elder sister asked.
With the wounded seen to, Shibi brought his hand to the radio at his neck. "This is Aburame Shibi to all squad captains. I have located teams Seven and Eight." He paused to listen to the radio chatter for a moment, then said: "Yes. Their targets may have been your sons. The medical team has already transported Sasuke to the hospital. You can meet him there."
-ooo-
The first thing Sasuke noticed was how deliciously warm and dry he was, which was ruined as he realized there were tubes in places it was unspeakably uncomfortable for tubes to be.
Itachi was sitting in the chair next to his bed, doing paperwork on a clipboard perched on his crossed legs. The pen stopped its steady march down the paper, and he looked up. His eyes were bloodshot, and the perpetual shadows beneath them much darker than usual, as if he hadn't slept in days. Sasuke had only seen this look directed at him once before. It had been in the hospital that first time, too, when a nasty cold had somehow turned into pneumonia and his temperature had shot up so high the nurses had looked like they were melting. When he'd finally come out of it, he'd awoken to the same face. It was the only time in his life he could recall Itachi looking frightened.
He tossed the papers on the table and shifted to the bed. "I think your fever's finally broken," his brother said, briefly pressing his hand against Sasuke's forehead and cheeks. "How are you feeling?"
Sasuke pushed himself up, blinking his gritty eyes. There were wires trailing off the bed, hooked into various machines that contributed a sickly greenish glow to the incandescent lights illuminating the room. He knew exactly where he was now—the intensive care unit at Konoha hospital. He'd spent long enough here, waiting for his mother to awaken after her battle with Madara. The bare white walls still filled him with dread.
"Okay, I guess," he said. "Thirsty?"
Itachi rose to fill a plastic cup with water and handed it to him. "Slowly, or you'll make yourself sick."
He raised the cup toward his lips and winced at the sharp pains in both wrists. He glanced at his left hand. "I remember how I sprained the right one, but…."
"You were... poisoned. You don't remember?"
"No," Sasuke answered, taking a quick bodily inventory. Aside from the generally weak, shaky feeling that accompanied severe chakra drain, and the stabbing pain in his wrists, nothing hurt worse than it had before he'd been knocked out. "I remember fighting Suigetsu, but after the Suna team showed up I got separated from Naruto and Sakura. After that it's just... nightmares." He drained the cup in smalls sips and handed it to Itachi to place on the bedside table.
The door opened to reveal Naruto clutching two cans of soda in his fingers, which he immediately dropped on the floor to pounce on Sasuke for a back-cracking hug. He managed to dislodge the cardiac monitor lead that Sasuke had conscientiously refrained from pulling off, sending the machine into a fit of frantic beeping. Sasuke was too shocked to react at first, but when Naruto didn't let him go, he attempted to work his elbow into Naruto's face to peel him off. "What the hell? Get off me!"
As soon as Naruto did, Sakura graced him with a hug of her own, complete with welling eyes and sniffling. Sakura he didn't try to push off, since he was now rather troubled that not one but two people had felt it necessary to give him a tearful embrace upon his waking up in a bed in the ICU.
"I don't feel that sick," Sasuke said, confused. "Why are you all fussing over me like this? It's not like I almost died or any... thing..." he said, trailing off at the stricken looks on the faces of his teammates.
"Your heart stopped," Naruto said, his voice unsteady. "Nobody could figure out what was wrong with you, and… and your heart stopped."
The door opened again and a nurse poked her head in. "Whew... now that's what I want to see when one of my monitors starts pitching a fit," she said, smiling at the sight of her fully lucid patient sitting up in his bed. "Let me get that reset for you." She replaced the lead on his chest, then pushed a few buttons to quiet the machine. "The doctor will be in to check you over in a moment. Can I get you anything? Pain medication? Another blanket?"
"No, thanks," Sasuke said. "Doesn't hurt too bad. I'm fine."
After the nurse had left, Itachi gently pushed Sasuke back against the pillows.
"Alright, fine..." Sasuke began, glaring at the ceiling. "Does somebody want to tell me how I got here, what day it is, and why I feel so lousy? I figure we flunked, I'm just not sure how."
"We didn't flunk," Naruto said, pulling up a free chair and perching upon it backwards, his chin on his forearms. "The Exams were suspended."
"The exams were what? Why?" Sasuke asked, shooting upright.
Itachi extended his first two fingers and planted them between Sasuke's eyes. He sighed in annoyance, but let himself be lowered back down. "We suspect Akatsuki infiltrated the village," Itachi said. "As to what they were attempting to achieve here… I do not know, but I cannot imagine it would be to Konoha's benefit." He glanced briefly at Naruto, an unspoken message of caution for him alone. "The Hokage is recalling Jiraiya-sama—if there is anyone besides myself who could stand on equal footing with one of them, it would be him."
"What about finishing the tests?" Sasuke asked. "Are we just out of luck for the next six months?"
"Tenten-san said they might be resuming them in a few weeks in Sunagakure," Sakura volunteered. "She talks to everybody."
"Good. I've always wanted to see what that place was like," Sasuke said.
Itachi shook his head. "Absolutely not. The medics still have not identified what bit you and have been unable to isolate the toxin in your blood or tissue. The effects of poisons are not always instantaneous, nor readily apparent to medical diagnostics. If it has caused delayed organ damage and you have already left Konoha, you would almost certainly die."
"But we can't enter except in cells of three!" Naruto exclaimed. "This isn't fair."
"Leaving aside that you are expecting anything in life to be fair..." Itachi said archly, "you can find a third member from among the other Konoha genin who have already seen their teammates promoted. It happens frequently and is perfectly acceptable to the exam proctors."
"Then we'd be saddled with a loser and Sasuke would be stuck as a genin for another six months, which is stupid because he's better than both of us," Naruto muttered into his arms. He raised his head to look his teacher in the eye. "We're testing together."
"I cannot allow that," Itachi said. "Sasuke can use the time within the village as a training opportunity."
"So it's risky," Sasuke said crossly. "I'm a ninja. Risky is everything we do."
Itachi's fingers curled into the hospital sheets. "Sasuke," he said, quietly and with palpable intensity, "you nearly died."
His brother's concern had gone from touching to smothering, and from somewhere Sasuke mustered the energy to get angry. "But I didn't. How do you ever expect me to get stronger if I have to live my whole life wrapped in cottondown? You promised you'd stop doing this to me, and you haven't!"
"What are you talking about? Of course I want you to become a strong shinobi," Itachi whispered, taken aback.
"Right," Sasuke muttered. "Of course you do." He fixed his brother with a penetrating stare, his sharingan flaring. "You know the problem with being the best liar in Konoha? No one's going to believe you on the off chance you're actually telling the truth."
Itachi's expression remained perfectly level, as it always did. There was only the barest shuddering of the muscles in his throat, a disharmony in the steady rhythm of his breathing. Sasuke had never been able to scratch his brother once, in all the times they'd sparred together, but…
"I should tell Ka-san you're awake," he said, rising from the bed. "I doubt she's sleeping yet." He turned away and shut the door behind him.
"I should be going too," Sakura whispered, beginning to collect her things. "I'll be back when visiting hours open tomorrow. I'll bring you something to read." She paused at the doorframe, smiling wanly. "Good night."
Naruto sat down on the edge of the bed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Do you really think he..."
"He doesn't do it to you," Sasuke said. His head was starting to ache, and he was feeling childish but still deeply angry. "Before you came to live with us, it was all I could get out of him, and it only got a tiny bit better afterwards: 'not today, Sasuke', 'you're not ready, Sasuke', 'it's too dangerous, Sasuke'. After ten years of that, what am I supposed to think? He was an ANBU captain when he was our age."
"Yeah," Naruto agreed. "He was. But I've never seen him look at you like that before. You might as well have gotten up and punched him in the gut."
Sasuke winced, briefly ashamed. "The only way I'm testing is if we go over his head. Can you ask the Hokage to override it? He never says no to you, not when it's something important."
"Okay. I'll try."
-ooo-
"Is Sasuke recovering well?" the Hokage asked Naruto, once they had been properly settled into the warm embrace of miso paste and roast pork. No matter how busy he was, if Naruto looked at him right somehow there was always just enough time in his schedule to take a quick break at Ichihraku.
Naruto paused with an enormous mouthful of noodles halfway in and halfway out, resembling nothing so much as a very earnest cuttlefish. "That's why I want to talk to you," Naruto said, after sucking down the strays. "His wrist is still a little stiff, but other than that he's totally fine." He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "But Itachi-sensei isn't letting him reenter the Exams. By the time we'd actually have to leave I know Sasuke'll be back one-hundred percent."
"Ah."
"You can make anybody under your command to do anything you want, can't you?" Naruto asked. "Can you order Itachi-sensei to let him compete? It feels wrong to make him wait. He was the one who took charge of everything in the forest, and… I can't say I was happy about it, but he did a really good job as captain. He ordered Sakura and Shino and Kiba and Hinata off the field when he realized none of them would be a match for Gaara. That order probably saved all of their lives. If that doesn't make him chūnin material, I don't know what does."
The Hokage put down his chopsticks and folded his hands on the counter. "I can order Itachi to do that, yes. But I do not think I will."
Naruto's face fell. "I'm not leaving Sasuke behind. I thought you would understand."
"Now, I never said you should. Naruto, if you still want to be the Rokudaime, listen closely, because this is important." He leaned in closer. "Any leader can order the soldiers under his command to do things they don't want to do. A great leader doesn't have to."
"What do you mean?" Naruto whispered, delighted to be receiving this precious parcel of wisdom.
"It's something for which you have rather a gift, actually. If I were to order Itachi to allow Sasuke into the Exams, he would do it. He wouldn't even argue. But some part of him wouldn't understand why, and he would resent me for it, whether he realized it or not. As Hokage you must expect people to disagree with you, but to have your close advisors resent you can be poisonous, both to your friendships with them and for the village as a whole. However, if I make a carefully worded request, and explain my position, Itachi may very well decide to allow Sasuke into the Exams of his own free will."
Naruto screwed up his brows, thinking hard. "I don't get it," he announced, and lifted another enormous clump of noodles to his mouth.
The Hokage laughed his gravelly smoker's laugh. "Your understand more than you think… you understand without even trying."