Chapter 10
Hatchling
Sakura's conversation with Tsunade was as short as she could make it while still imparting all the necessary details. She told the Hokage what her mother had imparted to her, and gave her a list of the Daemons they could expect to face in the coming weeks.
Blightbringer, the slinkers, and the shades were the intelligent races, (fourtunately, there was only one of Blightbringer and the slinkers and shades were relatively few in number) but there were also a few who were decidedly unintelligent.
The wraiths were possibly the most numerous race in Elseworld. As Sakura, Ino and Tenten discovered, they could become insubstantial in a moment, which was a significant disadvantage as they could only be killed while in their solid form. Chakra could harm them in any form, but while in their gaseous state their molecules could simply shift and rearrange to nullify any damage. So, in order to kill them, lethal force had to be inflicted before the wraith changed state.
Sakura had seen how quickly they could dissolve into smoke, and unfortunately, she wasn't very confident that could be done.
Dragons looked as the storybooks described them; the wings, the claws, the scales and tail...except they weren't nearly as colourful as the stories would have you believe. Instead of the vibrant blue and red and gold that adorned so many paintings and picture books, they were a smoky grey with pale underbellies, and the males sported a black crest at the back of their skull. They were designed as the main body of Skwall's army behind his wraiths, and as such they matured very quickly, and had a natural lifespan comparable to that of a household dog. They didn't nest; instead the young were carried in the female's pouch until they were large enough to become independent, more like marsupials than reptiles.
And while the books had them breathing fire, Mikiko had 'told' Sakura that while it did emit from their mouths and looked like black flames, it certainly wasn't fire. When they hit something with their black breath, it would simply fall apart at the seams, as though they were spitting concentrated destruction (no matter how strange that sounded). They were also one of the more unintelligent races.
Stormseeker was the exception. Far stronger and more intelligent than those of his kind, he was the dragon who had tried to free Skwall all those years ago, the dragon the Faerie had battled, and the reason Mikiko had been trapped in a human form. Apparently, no one in the Faerie really knew why or how Stormseeker had become so intelligent and powerful, but it was the general consensus that it was given to him by Skwall so he could make another play for dominance.
To Sakura, that didn't seem to make much sense. Skwall's plan involving the Uchiha clan would have been well underway by then, so why suddenly abandon it to bet it all on a dragon? Still, she had reasoned that perhaps Skwall didn't intend to rise using Stormseeker – perhaps the gift of intelligence and strength simply ensured he had another lieutenant besides Blightbringer when he rose.
Harpies were another that had come straight from the storybook, at least, their true forms did. They could transform themselves into either ravens or impossibly beautiful women, but their true form was a hideous merging of both; a woman's head and torso with a birds legs and wings. The entire race consisted solely of females, and as such they sought males of human or Otherworldly origin to copulate with, and then devour afterwards. The sound of their voice could hypnotise any male who heard it, rendering them completely defenseless and utterly obedient to the harpy's every whim. Harpies didn't talk, so no one was precisely sure how these commands were communicated, but the Daemons obviously found a way.
If you were female, the harpy's voice wouldn't have any power over you, and so Tsunade's instructions were that no male was to engage in battle with a harpy, because no matter how powerful you were, a harpy's hypnosis was not something to be chanced.
So in some ways, they were lucky it only worked on males.
Satyrs were the other side of the coin. Like harpies, their entire race was only one gender, but a satyr was always male. And like harpies preyed on men, so satyrs preyed on women. Their appearance seemed part-man, part-bull, like the mythical minotaur; their torso and arms were that of a man, but their legs were a bull's, down to the cloven hooves. Their head was that of a bull, and they sported tails at the end of their spines. They seemed to lack the harpies' finesse – they couldn't change their form, and they didn't bother with hypnosis. Instead, their touch could paralyse a female, and leave her body limp and unable to move for several hours. And unlike the harpies, if the victim survived their abuse, they weren't killed afterwards.
At first, Sakura had wondered why, if these stories were true, there hadn't been any half-Daemons to date. But then the knowledge had risen from her mind, as though she'd always known it.
Satyrs were sterile, as harpies were. No offspring could ever come from the rapes committed by either species. Sakura had briefly wondered how they could replenish their numbers if they were incapable of reproduction, but soon decided it was something she was probably happier not knowing.
The battle plan with satyrs was much the same as the one concerning harpies, save in reverse. Males were allowed to fight satyrs, females weren't.
While Sakura didn't much like the idea of screaming for a man to help her like some useless damsel in distress, if it stopped her getting raped by a bull-man, she supposed she could do it.
She'd also informed Tsunade that they could expect attacks by these creatures at some time in the near future. Skwall found it difficult to appear in the human realm unless his creatures had already dominated wherever he was going to be. Skwall's world was Elseworld, and it was difficult to leave it – he'd only managed to appear and snatch her, Ino and Tenten because the area was already crawling with his wraiths; there was a nice, comfortable aura of destruction for him to slide into. The fact that Itachi was dead only added to the discomfort; it wasn't easy for a dead soul to reappear in the mortal realm.
Sakura relayed all of that to Tsunade, who would relay it to the other ninjas in turn, then she went back home for some well-earned rest.
-xxx-
"But what's he doing?" Mikiko asked. "He never attacked the mortal world before...never. Skwall always attacked the Otherworld first, so why now...?"
Cohen – the Faerie Lord – had the distinct impression that Mikiko's questions were more to cover her own anxiety than actual queries she wanted answered.
"Will the rest of the Faerie go to war if Skwall's attacking the mortal world?"
"In all honestly, I don't believe so," Cohen said gravely. "Skwall has always thrown himself at the Otherworld first – they won't believe that this isn't a false alarm. You and I may know better, but..."
He shrugged, and just for a moment, Mikiko felt a prickle of rage at her people. Rage that they were so willing to shut themselves off from the human realm, rage that they were so desperate to believe that Skwall was finally gone for good they would close their eyes and say it was lie even if he stared them in the face, rage that for all Cohen's power and hold on his people, he could not order them to war.
Only Haevyn could order the Faerie to arms, and she was gone. Another thought that sent a bolt of anger through Mikiko, this time tinged with fear. Fury at the goddess' abandonment of her people just twelve years before they faced disaster mixed with fear at what Skwall could do if Haevyn were not there to check him. While the Faerie might be able to do battle with the Daemons, who could do battle with Skwall if not Haevyn?
"What do we do?" Mikiko asked at last, sounding defeated.
"What we can," Cohen sighed. "We'll try to persuade the Faerie to go to arms, probably without success, but we'll try."
Mikiko nodded desolately. She didn't have the power needed to appear in the human realm a second time this year – not unless she were backed by the other Faerie – and to sit here, safe and helpless while her daughter wrestled against a god almost made her physically sick with terror.
-xxx-
When Sakura had told Tsunade of the Daemons and warned that they could attack soon, the medic had expected 'soon' to mean 'in a few days'. Apparently 'soon' meant that very day, as after only an hour or two of snatched sleep, she was roused from her bed by an echoing explosion that told her the village was under attack, and the battle was taking place very near her house.
Sakura did what any trained ninja would. She disregarded her own (rather exhausted) state, seized her weapons, strapped the necessary pouches of equipment to her body, leapt out her bedroom window and ran towards the distinctive noises of battle already joined. She found herself wondering exactly what was attacking them, and her answer came in the black, smoky forms that were swarming across the north wall, undeterred by the explosive tags that were going off around them.
Wraiths!
'Of course, we would get attacked by the one species of Daemon we're still not sure how to fight,' Sakura thought bitterly. 'Chakra hurts them, yeah, but if we have to kill them in their solid form...'
She threw a kunai at a wraith who seemed intent on stabbing Hinata in the back. Unlikely to succeed, given the the Hyuuga's bloodline ability and speed, but Sakura had to enter the fight somehow. The wraith turned to smoke, and Sakura watched with no real surprise as the blade whizzed through it and embedded itself into a nearby wall.
And then the wraiths realised there was someone else to fight and fell on her like a wave. Sakura pumped chakra into her hands and began lashing out left and right as though she were in some sort of free-for-all boxing match. The chakra worked to keep them from overwhelming her, but she was having no luck in her effort to deal a lethal blow while they were in their solid form. They were far too quick for her to be able to touch them, let alone hurt them.
"Sakura, what the hell are you doing here?" Naruto's voice sounded off to her right, joined by what sounded like a chorus line of his clones. "You shouldn't be fighting!"
"I'm sealed, not crippled, Naruto!" she snapped back, not taking her eyes off her opponents. "I didn't even have to stay in the hospital like Tenten and Ino!"
"Yeah, but-" Naruto cut himself off with a curse that could peel paint. "Why don't these guys ever stay solid?"
Sakura opened her mouth to comment on that, but she was cut off by a slightly wet, gut-wrenching crack. Sakura had been a medic for nearly eight years, and she knew the sound of bone breaking when she heard it. She started to glance around, trying to see who had been felled, her mind automatically flashing through several jutsus to repair broken bones...
Only to find she wouldn't need it. A smoky, yet-strangely solid, humanoid body tumbled to the ground beside her, the head hanging at an angle that left no doubt in Sakura's mind its neck was broken.
One of the wraiths was dead.
Sakura barely had a moment to wonder who had done it, before a loud, exuberant battle speech hammered against her eardrums, most of which flew by too fast for her to catch, but in which she could have sworn the word 'youth' was repeated at least three times...
Another crack, and this time Sakura caught a flash of green behind the wraith that fell.
Lee. Of course. Sakura remembered thinking that Lee would be fast enough to hit wraiths the first time she faced them, and it seemed she'd been correct.
In fact, it seemed he was the only one who could hit them. Lee was doing that disconcerting thing when he moved too fast to actually be seen (and considering they were ninja, with eyes trained to follow what a normal human's could never hope to glimpse, that was saying something), but his position could be marked by the dropping wraiths. It didn't take him very long; he just seemed to race up behind the Daemon, deal one of his concrete-shattering blows to their neck – which promptly snapped under the force – and then moved on to the next wraith before the last one had even hit the ground.
Soon, 'try to figure out a way to hit the wraiths' became 'keep the wraiths from swamping Lee while he wipes them out'.
The wraiths also seemed to have sensed that here lay a real threat to their forces, and were soon swarming towards Lee, trying to overrun him...but it only seemed to be making his job easier.
Sakura had a moment amid the pandemonium to think that if Lee got injured, they were well and truly screwed. There was simply no way anyone else could move quickly enough to do the wraiths any damage. Gai was fast, yes, but he also had ninjutsu and genjutsu to practice, hone and rely on. Lee didn't. His exclusive concentration on taijutsu meant that he'd surpassed his teacher's speed several years ago – an occasion Sakura vividly remembered simply because Gai hadn't stopped boasting about the 'student surpassing the master' for weeks.
Barely ten minutes after Lee joined the battle, all the wraiths were either dead or had retreated. She and her fellow ninjas learned that when wraiths died they first melted into a puddle of black, strange-smelling liquid, before evaporating into the air.
"That was quick," Naruto muttered, looking at one wraith that was still in the process of melting. "Hey, Sakura, do you think this stuff is okay to touch?"
"Why would you want to?" Sakura asked, while privately agreeing that yes, it had been a very short battle. In fact, the only people who'd had a chance to get involved were herself, Naruto, Hinata, Lee, Neji, and a few ninja whose faces her mind dimly ascribed to Chunins but whose names escaped her.
Yes, it had been quick. Almost too quick, in fact. Surely Itachi's first assault would have had more power behind it than that? Maybe he'd counted on the wraiths overwhelming them and hadn't factored in Lee's speed...
Still, Sakura's suspicions were proven correct when Neji, scanning the area for any remaining opponents with his Byakugan activated, suddenly jerked his head up and to his left. Sakura followed his gaze.
Dragons.
Three enormous, slate-grey monsters were whirling in the air around the Konoha hospital, using claws, fangs and black breath to systematically rip the building apart.
'Smart,' some cold, still rational part of Sakura's mind noted. 'Get the wraiths to divert our attention, then attack the hospital. Take down a lot of injured people, and make sure that those who get injured in any future conflicts will have trouble getting treatment.'
"Ino and Tenten are still in there," Hinata whispered.
Neji didn't reply – he simply leapt to the roof of a nearby building, and began roof-hopping to the hospital at blurring speed.
The others wasted no time in following.
-xxx-
Tenten would have been quite content to stay in the hospital for the obligatory overnight stay that came with a concussion, and quite happy to do so without incident, but it seemed fate had other plans.
'...and could that thought have sounded any more like Neji?' she wondered dimly as she stared at the huge, scaly head that had just, to all appearances, blown apart the outer wall of the room with what looked like black flames.
But even tired and with a nasty headache, Tenten's reflexes were superb. She rolled off the mattress – hissing in pain as the movement ripped the IV needle from her hand – and dropped to the floor, hoping the bed could provide some paltry form of cover until she could come up with some sort of plan...
A pained curse from behind her told Tenten that Ino had done the same, and her broken ribs had made her pay for it.
"That's a dragon, right?" Tenten clarified. "I haven't just been fed some really good drugs and am now seeing things, right?"
"If so, I'm seeing things, too," Ino muttered, trying to somehow move along the floor in a defensive crouch and hold her torso straight and rigid at the same time.
Claws like scythes scraped against the floor, and the metal bed Tenten had just been lying on was reduced to something resembling kindling.
The brunette seized her chance, snatching at the broken pieces of the steel frame, which had been sliced through as though attacked with metal shears. She seized two pieces that had probably served as the bed's legs – they were long, cylindrical, and the edges where they had been sheared looked sharp enough to serve as blades in lieu of her more traditional weapons. They would probably do her little good, considering her first thought was retreat, but Tenten knew she'd feel calmer about this whole situation if she had some kind of weapon in her hand.
Tenten edged slowly towards the door, one metal spike in each hand, Ino doing the same. When another clawed limb reached into the room like a cat digging around in a mousehole, blocking their escape, Tenten drove the longest metal spike into one of the toes.
It hit the scales and the edge snapped off as though Tenten had tried to stab granite. But the limb retracted, as though in surprise, and she and Ino now had a clear shot to the door.
Ino bolted into the hallway, and as she followed the blonde, Tenten glanced over her shoulder to see an eye as large as her head appear in the hole where the wall used to be. Without thinking about it, Tenten's arm raised the other metal spike, whipping it towards the dragon with the accuracy that had made her reputation as a ninja.
Tenten saw the metal drive deep into the dragon's eye in a spurt of blood and fluid. Then the eye vanished as the dragon whipped its head back, its anguished screech making her ears ring.
It might have been Tenten's imagination, but she could have sworn the she heard a 'bitch!' amid the screeching. But hadn't Tsunade told them dragons couldn't talk?
Ino's hand wrapped around Tenten's arm and yanked her into the hallway. The corridor was choked with medics and patients scrambling for the stairwell, desperate to escape the collapsing building. Through the crowd, Ino could see the distinctive whirls of smoke the signaled the Instant Transportation jutsu being used by ninjas.
'Probably getting the worst patients out,' the blonde assumed. 'The ones who aren't able to walk by themselves.' She toyed with the idea of performing the jutsu herself, but dismissed it just as quickly. Neither she nor Tenten were in any shape to unleash such a chakra-consuming jutsu.
Tenten practically fell down the stairs, the building beginning to tremble and groan as though caught in an earthquake. The brunette winced as she listened to Ino's ragged, uneven pants behind her – she didn't want to think about how painful it would be to run down flights of stairs at top speed with three broken ribs.
There was a deafening screech from outside, tapering into a low, animal moan of agony.
Tenten hoped someone had managed to injure another of the dragons. She wasn't sure how many there were, but if they all had impenetrable scales like that...fighting them was going to be difficult.
Most of the crowd was streaming out the back door like a multi-coloured river, but the kunoichis fought against the tide, struggling to reach the front doors. They soon realised they were being borne backwards by the sheer mass of people, and so jammed themselves into a small alcove provided by the reception desk until the crowd thinned.
As the people's cries began to die, Tenten became aware that there was no more screeching from outside. What had happened to the dragons? She and Ino darted around the few stragglers still stumbling to the back door, and hurled themselves out of the front as the walls around them began to fissure.
They burst into the street and ran madly down the road just as the hospital seemed to implode, falling in upon itself like a collapsing house of cards.
For long moments, stunned silence reigned. Dust billowed from the ruins like smoke and settled in the street, coating everything (including Tenten and Ino) in a light brown, powdery layer of grime. Breathing hard, trying to absorb the shock of seeing the hospital collapse in front of them, Tenten and Ino glanced at their surroundings...and found themselves hit by another wave of shock.
Two dragons lay motionless on the grass in front of the hospital, each twenty feet long from nose to tail, surrounded by the rubble from the collapsed building. And standing around the dragons was a small collection of ninja, some neither woman recognised, and some they certainly did; Hinata, Neji, Naruto, Lee and Sakura all had a hint of triumph in their stances as they looked at the beaten Daemons.
As the two women watched, Neji suddenly spun around, as though intent on storming the ruined hospital...but stopped in his tracks when his eyes landed on the two kunoichi out the front.
Neji felt his tense muscles relax when he caught sight of Tenten standing in the hospital road, a substantial distance from the rubble. He could see no blood, no overt injuries...she appeared to have survived the attack and subsequent collapse virtually unscathed.
"What happened?" Ino asked, gaping at the scene.
"The dragons were defeated!" Lee proclaimed. "With our magnificent teamwork, and-"
Naruto slapped his hand over Lee's mouth and gave his own version of events. "The head honcho, Stormchaser or something..."
"Stormseeker, Naruto," Sakura corrected. "Just let me tell them. Anyway, Stormseeker was coordinating the other two dragons to attack the hospital, but when he got this piece of metal in his eye, the attack kind of went to hell. He started flying away, but the other two stayed around, like dogs fulfilling their master's orders, I guess. Neji and Hinata leapt onto the roofs to deal with one; they gave it this double Gentle Fist thing in the chest when it flew over them, and it just sort of dropped. Naruto brought out his clones to deal with the other one, and one of his clones got into the dragon's mouth, went through the soft pallet with a kunai and got it in the brain."
"Sakura told me where to hit it," Naruto explained.
Tenten raised her eyebrows at the half-Faerie, and Sakura grinned. "I'm a medic, remember? The one who knows how to put you together also knows how to take you apart." Her face shifted into one of concern as she gazed at the hospital. "I hope everyone got out alright..."
Ino tuned out the rest of the conversation, wandering a little ways from the group to lean against the nearest pile of rubble. Her ribs throbbed every time she so much as shifted her weight, and she felt the need to internalise a little until she had the pain under control. She took even, measured breaths, trying not to move her ribs any more than was absolutely necessary. She closed her eyes and tried to send her mind away, to dwell on something else...
Except that soft chirping just wouldn't stop!
Ino opened her eyes, intending to send a vicious glare or two in a bird's direction, only to find that the noise wasn't coming from a tree.
It was coming from the body of a nearby dragon.
Ino glanced suspiciously at the scaled monstrosity. Unlike the other dragon, it had a small bulge at the abdomen, and it lacked a black crest behind its head. Something tickled at Ino's memory, something about young in a pouch...
The dragon had fallen on its side, so Ino could touch its underbelly with little effort. She slid her hands around the bulge, surprised when she felt an opening meet her fingers. So it really did have a pouch. The blonde reached in, grimacing at the still-warm, mucousy interior. She felt around...
And felt small, sharp teeth close on her finger like a steel trap. Biting back a yelp of pain and the instinctive urge to lash out at whatever had injured her, Ino plunged her other hand into the pouch, feeling the ridge of a spine, the curve of a tail...she curled her hand underneath skinny, clawed legs and lifted.
"Hey, Ino, want to hang around until Lady Tsunade gets here?" Sakura asked, moving towards her friend. "She'll probably want to examine the bodies, see if we can learn anything else about the dragons...what have you got there?"
For Sakura had suddenly realised that, sitting in Ino's hands, jaws clamped onto one of her fingers like a playful puppy, was a dragon no larger than a small cat, its scales sticky with yellowish fluid.
-xxx-
"It would probably be a good idea to keep the little rascal," Sakura said, peering closely at the baby dragon that had tucked itself into Ino's arms.
She and Ino were currently in the Hokage's office, trying to explain to Tsunade why it would be a good idea to raise the Daemon instead of killing it on the spot.
"Why on earth would it be a good idea?" the Hokage asked, watching as the dragon scoured fresh scratches along Ino's arm. "Seems a vicious little thing to me – what's it going to be like when it's grown?"
"She doesn't mean anything by it," Ino defended. "She just doesn't realise what she's doing – like a kitten that hasn't quite figured out its claws are sharp."
Tsunade raised an elegant eyebrow. "She?"
"You can tell it's a female," Sakura explained, pointing to the back of the dragonet's head. "Not even a hint of a crest."
"But it's still a Daemon," Tsunade insisted. "It's still loyal to Skwall."
Sakura shook her head. "Not exactly. Skwall may have created dragons, but they aren't automatically loyal to him. I told you dragons were like dogs – they're loyal to whoever raises them. Since this little one is still young, it's like buying a puppy from some breeders. The breeders might have been responsible for the puppy's birth, but it's going to be loyal to the ones that raise it."
"So you're saying that if we raise this dragon, it will be loyal to us, instead of Skwall," Tsunade clarified.
She sounded guarded, but Sakura could see a glimmer of excitement in her eyes as she mentally calculated what kind of advantage a dragon of their own could give them.
"And if you think we're going to learn a lot from dissecting those corpses, what do you think we'll learn from watching a dragon grow and mature?" Sakura added.
When Tsunade leaned back in her chair, Sakura could tell her teacher was already convinced. "Suppose I let the dragon stay...who's going to raise it?"
"I will," Ino offered, grinning down at the dragon as though it had never bitten her finger or gashed her arm.
Sakura found she wasn't surprised – Ino had always seemed to have an overactive maternal instinct. She had taken Sakura under her wing when they were children, had carefully repaired her shattered confidence and defended her from the taunts of others when many other girls would have simply looked the other way. The medic was willing to bet that when Ino first pulled the dragon out of the pouch, she hadn't seen a potential enemy; she'd seen a tiny creature that was now alone in the world. She'd seen something that needed her care and protection.
Ino had raised objections when one of the shinobi Sakura didn't recognise suggested killing the young dragon. She'd told them that it was baby, a child, and she wouldn't be party to the killing of children. And then, seemingly oblivious to the way the dragon was gnawing on her finger as though it were a chew toy, she'd said that she was going to talk to the Hokage, and she was certain Lady Tsunade would agree with her.
Sakura had come along for moral support, and to help formulate arguments that could sway Tsunade.
"So, what are you going to call her?" the pink-haired woman asked as she and her friend (and her friend's new charge) left the office. "Any names spring to mind?"
"How about..." Ino frowned, hoisting the dragon up to eye-level – gently, so the movement didn't jostle her ribs – and looked into the dark eyes. "Hatchling?"
"Hatchling..." Sakura rolled it around her mouth. A little uninspired, maybe...but fitting, in an odd way. "I like it."
"Yeah..." Ino gathered the dragon back into her arms, heedless of the sticky mucous that had by now been smeared all across her arms and shirt. "Hatchling...you need a bath...and I need to get a brace on, quick. Think you can fix me up with one, Sakura?"
Sakura paused mid-nod, becoming aware that footsteps were sounding through the corridor, approaching rapidly. She glanced up, and found Shikamaru marching purposefully towards them.
His eyes landed on the dragon in Ino's arms, and he groaned. "Ino, please tell me you're just carrying that thing somewhere, and the rumours about you adopting it aren't true."
'There are already rumours?' Sakura noted. 'That was fast.' But upon reflection, she decided they were probably being put about by the shinobi who'd first suggested that they kill Hatchling, and whom Ino had ranted at.
"She is a dragon, not a thing," Ino declared. "And her name is Hatchling."
Shikamaru groaned again, closing his eyes for a moment as though in frustration. "Do you have any idea how troublesome this is going to be?"
"Well, so what?" Ino snapped, clutching the dragon closer, as vehement as if Shikamaru had just insulted her firstborn child. "Lots of things are 'troublesome', I think some things are worth the trouble!"
Shikamaru took one look at her flashing eyes, her protective hold on the dragon even with the bites and shallow scratches adorning her arms and hands, and knew she was already deeply attached. Beneath Ino's headstrong and at times prickly personality, there dwelt a very soft heart. It took surprisingly little to inspire Ino's loyalty, but once gained, it was nigh-unbreakable.
"Easy," he said, holding his hands up as though to ward off an attack. "You do realise she's going to grow to about twenty feet long, don't you?"
Ino resented the implication that she hadn't thought this through, but the fact that Shikamaru now referred to Hatchling as 'she' instead of 'it' gained him points. "The house my aunt left me is right next the biggest park in Konoha – plenty of practice fields and the like. Hatchling will be fine there."
"And will you be fine?" Shikamaru asked, looking pointedly at her injuries.
"I'm getting set up with a brace for my ribs so I can go home, and then Hatchling's going to get a bath because she's so gunky..."
Sakura allowed herself a small smile as she watched Ino and Shikamaru debate the merits of taking in a dragon. It was nice to see something good come from the attack. Ino had a new – if rather unorthodox – pet, they had a chance to learn more about their enemy while she raised Hatchling, and the dragon could also be a potential weapon in their war.
Sakura was glad, because she had a feeling things were only going to get worse.
-xxx-
Sakura had set up Ino's brace and gone home again, determined to snatch a few hours of sleep before her late shift at the hospital began. Or at least, her shift at one of the buildings that were temporarily serving as mini-hospitals; since the hospital itself had collapsed, those patients most in need of care had been transferred to the town hall, and medic tents had been set up in a lot of the nearby parks to contain and treat those whose injuries were less urgent.
The brace itself seemed to be some sort of hard plastic encasing Ino's torso, fastened with soft leather straps. The more Ino examined it the more she felt as though it wasn't designed to keep her ribs in place the same way a plaster cast did; it seemed more designed to limit her movement than anything else. Ino supposed that made sense – the ribs were anchored in two places, the spine and sternum, and would align together naturally if she didn't twist around and shift them.
Which Ino was sure she would appreciate a lot later, when she wasn't in desperate need of flexibility to bathe a small, writhing dragon.
"I told you this was going to be troublesome," Shikamaru drawled, somehow managing to sound bored even as he wrestled the scaled Daemon into the small plastic tub that was probably used to wash dishes. Shizune had given it to them when Ino refused to leave the administrative building with Hatchling still covered in the sticky mucous from her mother's pouch.
So she'd been presented with a plastic tub filled with warm water and a washcloth. She'd roped Shikamaru into helping her out, saying she'd need someone to hold Hatchling in the tub while she scrubbed.
Looking at the light scratches on his arms, she found herself regretting that a little bit. Just a little, though – she wasn't sure what a nightmare this would have turned into if Shikamaru hadn't been there to hold Hatchling in place.
Shikamaru's thoughts were wandering along much the same path. Why was he doing this again?
Oh, right; Ino had asked him. And then he'd only put up token resistance before he gave in and let Ino have her way as he almost always did.
'I'm whipped,' he thought despairingly. 'If there was ever a moment that proved it, this is it. And we're not even dating – I'm whipped without any of the fringe benefits.'
The dragon let loose an ear-splitting screech as Ino scrubbed the washcloth vigorously across her back. Ino hooked one hand under the wing, unfolding it carefully and gently running a washcloth across the thick membrane.
Hatchling protested with an indignant squawk, her teeth flashing as she snapped at Ino's fingers. Ino snatched her hand out of reach, then brought her palm down on the dragon's nose in a gentle slap.
"No!" Ino growled. "No biting! Bad Hatchling!"
The dragon fell back, looking confused, shaking her head from side to side as though to shake away the sting.
"You're taking this whole 'she's just like a puppy' thing seriously, aren't you?" Shikamaru said, eyeing the blonde woman.
"She has to learn not to bite or scratch," Ino retorted. "And she has to learn now, before she's big enough to take someone's arm off in one snap."
Shikamaru reflected that Ino certainly had a point there.
The Yamanaka swiped the cloth over Hatchling's head, wiping away the last of the sticky fluid. "Okay, lift her out and set her on the table."
Grumbling, Shikamaru did as he was ordered. Ino toweled Hatchling dry, carefully sponging away the moisture from her wings and from around her eyes and nose. To her surprise, when she rubbed the towel beneath Hatchling's chin, the dragon made a high-pitched crooning sound, tilting her head back as her black eyes closed in apparent pleasure, like a kitten purring when its ears were scratched.
"Hey, I think she likes this," Ino grinned, tossing the towel to one side and lightly scratching the dragon's chin. Hatchling's crooning grew louder, and her wings fluttered weakly. "Almost like when you rub a dog's belly and its leg kicks. Okay, you can give her to me now."
Shikamaru withdrew his hands with a sense of relief – it had been no picnic trying to hold a squirming mass of scales, teeth and claws. He examined the scratches on his arms with a clinical gaze, finally determining they were nothing serious. He eyed the dragon that had inflicted them, wondering if Ino knew what she taking on. Though the scabbed gashes on her own arms and the bitemarks on her fingers suggested she was aware what she was in for.
And Shikamaru could admit, rather reluctantly, that Hatchling was kind of cute, in a helpless-baby-animal kind of way.
Hatchling snuggled into Ino's arms, the indignity of the bath and the sting of the slap apparently forgotten. She buried her head into the crook of Ino's elbow, her tail looping around the blonde's wrist as though to anchor herself in place.
"Aren't you cute?" Ino cooed, stroking the scaly body.
"Ino, she was doing her very best to cut both our arms to ribbons only a few minutes ago," Shikamaru reminded.
"You're exaggerating – she wasn't going to cut our arms to ribbons."
Shikamaru rolled his eyes. Yet he couldn't help asking, "Are you going to be able to manage?"
Ino grinned down at the dragon in her arms. "We'll see, won't we?"
-xxx-
No matter how many times he saw it, Shikamaru still couldn't help but be amused at the spectacle Ino and Hatchling presented. A dragon the size of a draft horse following a small blonde woman like a duckling never failed to make people stare.
In the three weeks since she'd been found, Hatchling had grown at an exponential rate. At first, Ino had panicked when Hatchling turned up her nose at all the food she offered, from raw vegetables to well-cooked steak, until Sakura explained that neither Faerie nor Daemons needed to eat. Mikiko dined while in the human world, true, but it was more to fit in than any real need for sustenance.
"Well, Mum explained it to me once, something about them being direct creations of gods, and the energy that goes in to create them or something, and their constant connection to the type of energy that created them, but I was only about ten at the time, so I didn't really understand anything or pay much attention," had been Sakura's explanation. "But the upshot of it is, you won't need to feed Hatchling."
Which was definitely a bonus, as it meant that the dragon wouldn't eat Ino out of house and home.
The obedience training had also been something to remember. Chouji had never laughed so hard as he had when Ino called them over to show them what Hatchling (who, at that point, had only been as big as a Great Dane) had learned.
Apparently, Sakura's comments about them being like dogs had given Ino ideas. She'd taught Hatchling the entire regime, from 'come', 'sit' and 'stay' to 'shake' and 'heel'. Though the 'heel' part Hatchling seemed to do on her own; she followed Ino like a devoted puppy, waiting patiently outside buildings she was too large to fit into until Ino emerged again.
It was like that old nursery rhyme about Mary and her lamb, except this was Ino and her dragon.
At the moment, Ino's efforts in obedience were beginning to steer more towards Hatchling's future role in Konoha's struggle. So far, her attack command was 'lilacs' (Ino had needed a word that wouldn't be thrown indiscriminately around the battlefield) and Ino was working on installing 'giddy-up' as the command to launch into flight. But this was proving difficult – it was hard to tempt Hatchling into flight when her surrogate mother remained so firmly rooted to the ground.
And it looked like they might have to get Hatchling into action soon. The spate of attacks from the Elseworld had only increased as time went on, and as yet there was no way of getting reinforcements – their allied villages were under attack as well. And there was no assistance from the Otherworld, not even some helpful hints on how to tackle Daemons. It was as though the Faerie had cut themselves off from the human realm entirely, as if hoping that if they didn't interfere, Skwall would be content with the 'mortals' and leave them alone.
Shikamaru knew Sakura was more depressed by that than she let on. He didn't see Sakura often, only when Ino had her play with Hatchling in an effort to cheer her up. But even he could see that Itachi's systematic torture was taking its toll. She had been looking steadily more harried and sleep-deprived, and seemed to be constantly rubbing her back, as though expecting to be brought to her knees with pain any moment. Shikamaru knew that Tsunade had given the medic the day off today, as she'd been kept up all night by Itachi's attempts to subsume her.
Her physical degeneration seemed linked to the deterioration of Sasuke's temper. While the Uchiha had always been stony and short-tempered, his fuse seemed even shorter these days, prone to exploding at the slightest provocation.
Not that Shikamaru could really blame him. Both Sasuke and Naruto had to be feeling helpless and frustrated (at least, that was certainly what Ino was feeling), the only difference was that Hinata had all-but perfected the art of diverting Naruto from self-destructive thoughts to more positive ones. There was no one to do the same for Sasuke.
"Shikamaru!"
Shikamaru blinked, turning around. He could have sworn that was Sakura's voice...
And it was. The medic was making her way down the street, looking so exhausted Shikamaru wondered for a moment if she was sleepwalking.
"Didn't you have today off?" he frowned.
"I need to see Ino," Sakura said, her voice sounding as though she had a throat-cold. "Have you seen her?"
Shikamaru nodded wordlessly to Hatchling, who was dozing in the alley beside the flower shop, stretched out like a gigantic grey snake.
"Oh, right." Sakura blinked dazedly, as though she hadn't noticed the dragon that practically filled the alley.
She wandered inside with an unsteady gait that made Shikamaru's sleepwalking simile seem more and more apt by the minute. Hatchling's large, wedge-shaped head swung up as soon as Sakura approached the door like a wary guard dog, but as soon as the dragon recognised Sakura, the medic was made the recipient of an affectionate nudge that nearly knocked her over.
The shadow-user frowned again, glancing down the road and then back at the flower shop, weighing training against remaining where he was and making sure Sakura was alright. Normally, he wouldn't have bothered, but she had been weaving like a drunkard...and while he may not know her as well as Ino or Naruto did, he liked Sakura; she wasn't a bad sort.
Though the fact that Ino was almost sick with worry for her friend might have influenced Shikamaru more than he'd like to admit.
So he leaned against the wall beside Hatchling, giving the dragon an affectionate pat on the nose. She butted his hand insistently, and with a sigh, Shikamaru dutifully scratched the scales underneath her chin. Hatchling crooned low in her throat, her forked tongue flickering out in pleasure.
"Hey, Shikamaru?"
Shikamaru's eyes flicked sideways. Ino was peering out of the door, looking nervous.
"Sakura told me she hasn't been able to sleep," she began.
Shikamaru nodded. "Tsunade gave her the day off-"
"Not just last night!" Ino burst out, looking as though she might crack around the edges. "She told me she hasn't been able to sleep for days!"
Hatchling, picking up on Ino's obvious distress, crooned reassuringly, her neck snaking around Shikamaru so she could nudge her head under Ino's elbow. Ino sighed, some of her tension bleeding away, and she let Hatchling continue to snuggle into her side, her arm remaining draped over a scaled head as large as a dog.
Shikamaru was alarmed, but tried not to let it show; the last thing Ino needed was another reason to get worked up again. But Sakura's dazed behavior suddenly made a lot more sense.
Ino bit her lip, and her voice was quieter when she spoke again. "I shouldn't really ask you this..."
And now Shikamaru's internal alarm went crazy. Ino's hand were clenched in front of her, her shoulders were hunched, her eyes were avoiding his, and her voice was quiet, almost subdued. She looked...meek.
The words 'meek' and 'Ino' meshed about as well as oil and water. And about as often. Something had her rattled. No, not rattled...terrified. She was practically shaking as he watched her, and Hatchling's soft croons hadn't let up once.
"Do you think you could watch the shop for the rest of my shift?"
Shikamaru blinked. Whatever he'd been expecting her to ask, that hadn't been it.
"She asked me if I thought I could do the Mind Transfer again," Ino explained, her calm voice at odds with the fear in her eyes. "To hold Itachi off for her so she can get some sleep. I said I would."
Shikamaru suddenly understood why Ino was looking so frightened. She had agreed to protect her friend from the hand of the destroyer-god, but it wasn't that she was afraid of. Ino wasn't nearly as terrified of Skwall as she was of failing. Of failing to protect Sakura and, at best, leaving her facing another sleepless night, at worst, leaving her vulnerable to Skwall's attack.
"I mean, I know you have stuff to do," she went on in a rush. "But I wouldn't ask unless it was really necessary – I know how lazy you are..."
The barb was so half-hearted Shikamaru had to fight the urge to shake Ino by the shoulders until her sharp, biting tone was restored.
"...but Sakura looks like she'll keel over any minute. Like she's not even seeing what's around her, she's so exhausted. And I know it's probably 'troublesome' and you're probably busy, and-"
Shikamaru finally realised she'd taken his silence for hesitation. "Don't worry, I'll do it."
"You will?" The unbridled gratitude and relief on Ino's face was slightly unnerving.
"Sure," he shrugged. And then, just to maintain his image of the resident lazy-ass, "It'll be troublesome, but having a sleep-deprived medic running around will be even more troublesome."
He didn't mention that when she looked at him with that lost, desperate expression, he'd probably have agreed to just about anything she asked of him.
"Thank you!" Ino screeched, launching herself forward and throwing her arms around his neck.
The sudden impact against his chest made Shikamaru list backwards, and he automatically wrapped his arm around Ino's waist to anchor her while he regained his balance.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you," Ino chirped. "You have no idea-"
Shikamaru could see the exact second when their respective positions dawned on her. But to his surprise, she didn't immediately jump away from him; instead, her cheek flushed lightly and she peeled herself off him jerkily, as though reluctant to leave.
The Nara immediately chided himself for wishful thinking and made his arm release her.
Ino spun on her heel and dashed back into the shop. When she emerged, she was pulling a bleary Sakura along by the hand.
"Shikamaru's going to watch the shop," she was telling the dazed medic. "And we're going home to see if your theory holds up and I can help you get some sleep."
Sakura nodded, allowing Ino to drag her along without protest.
Hatchling whined and nudged Ino again, not pleased with being overlooked.
"Oh, hush," Ino chided her. "I'm spoiling you, anyway. But we're going home now – Hatchling...heel!"
The dragon practically glued herself to Ino's side, as close as shadow.
"Good girl," Ino praised. "And thanks again, Shikamaru."
"Yeah, yeah," he waved it off, watching the blonde, the medic, and the dragon disappear around the corner.
He watched them go, and tried to quiet the sick sense of worry lying heavy in his gut, tried not to think about the prospect of Ino facing and battling the god of destruction.
-xxx-
With Hatchling curled in her front yard, Ino guided Sakura to the bedroom, letting her kick off her shoes and settle down on Ino's bed.
"But first, I have to ask you something," Ino said, hovering over her friend and looking so much like an overprotective mother hen that Sakura was tempted to laugh. "You've always seemed to have a sort of innate resistance to this technique...I know that I could help you fight off Itachi before, but that was when he was already trying to take over. I'm not sure I'll be able to retain a foothold in your mind if you aren't focusing on a more malicious intruder."
"I don't think that's going to be a problem," Sakura murmured, her eyelids as heavy as if someone were sitting on them. "That time in the Chunin exams...I wanted to shove you out. I think it's going to be different if I want you in there."
"Alright, then." Ino wiped her sweaty palms on her pants, and tried not to think about her previous mental battle and how much it had drained her. Could she fight Itachi off again...without Sakura's help?
'I'll have to,' the blonde thought, glancing at her friend's deadened eyes.
Ino's hand formed the necessary seals, and she transported herself into Sakura's mind.
-xxx-
Ino was bored.
Strange as it may seem, when hours ago she was practically shaking at the prospect of facing the invader again, now she was only very, very bored.
As per her previous experience, she was a mental cloud in a Sakura-sea, but this time the sea seemed...quieter. Sakura was asleep – her thoughts were resting, too.
And Ino was bored.
Though she much preferred boredom to the alternative.
In fact, the boredom in and of itself was starting to make her anxious. She was sure Itachi was about to launch another takeover attempt...what was he waiting for? As time dragged by like a slug moving through treacle, Ino wished she had a body, or at least some sort of mental manifestation of one. That way, she could at least have chewed her nails or tapped her fingers or done something to express the jittery nervousness that was steadily building within her.
The Sakura-sea around her shifted, and Ino was immediately alarmed. Had her distress somehow communicated itself to Sakura, and was now waking her up?
For waking up was what it seemed Sakura was doing. Ino felt the Sakura-sea shift again, partly withdrawing from her, and applying a little pressure. There was gratitude, relief, a hint of 'could you please leave now?', and Ino released the jutsu.
She blinked in her body for the first time in what seemed like days, and glanced at the sunlight streaming through the curtains with a heavy heart. It had been four o'clock when Ino had first initiated the Mind Transfer; it seemed Sakura hadn't even managed to catch two hours of sleep...
Ino suddenly realised the light was coming from the wrong direction to be late afternoon. She flung her arm over a stirring Sakura and seized her alarm clock.
It was ten o'clock in the morning. Ino had maintained the Mind Transfer for eighteen hours, and Sakura had gotten over half a day's worth of sleep.
"Yes!" Ino crowed, leaping from the slumped position her body had been in since she vacated it, wincing when her ribs stung sharply. They had been healing nicely, but still protested any sharp or sudden movements.
Still, even that couldn't put a damper on her spirits. She'd gone into Sakura's head, allowed her to get over a full night's worth of sleep, and Itachi hadn't attacked once.
Sakura moaned, blinked, rubbed a hand across her eyes and finally focused on Ino.
A lazy grin stretched across her face.
"I feel great," she announced languidly. "I tell you, I'll never underestimate the value of sleep again, I-"
Sudden horror flashed across her face. "Ino, are you okay? Did he attack? Are you-"
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Ino laughed, waving Sakura's concern away. "He left you alone the whole night."
Sakura frowned, and Ino could sympathise. Now that the whole 'I didn't have to face Itachi' elation was dying down, she found herself wondering exactly why he hadn't attacked.
Maybe it was only coincidence that he'd been attacking constantly in the last few days and now coincidence that he was tapering off. Maybe he remembered what had happened the last time he'd attempted the takeover with Ino present in Sakura's mind and decided to err on the side of caution.
Or maybe it was because it was Sakura he was trying to break, and when it was Ino he would be facing, he had no interest.
Sakura suddenly jumped in place on the bed, her eyes widening. Ino spun around, expecting to see some sort of attacker at her window...and instead came face to face with Hatchling. The dragon had figured out a few days ago that if she stood on her hind legs and extended her neck, she could peer into Ino's bedroom.
"Hey, girl," Ino crooned, opening the window and rubbing her hand up and down the huge cheek. "I'll be out in a minute, alright?"
Hatchling chirped, nuzzling against Ino's hand and nearly sending the blonde reeling backwards.
"I'll be out in a minute," Ino repeated. "Down!"
Hatchling dropped obediently to all fours.
"Good girl."
Ino yanked her head back in the window and beamed at the astonished Sakura. "What would you like for breakfast?"
-xxx-
Sasuke had no idea what he was doing. He'd had been keeping an eye out for Sakura these past few weeks, quite without conscious input from his brain; he'd only realised what he was doing when he noticed he was taking the roundabout route to the training grounds, the route that would take him past the medic tents outside the town hall, and he was automatically seeking out Sakura's chakra signature.
When he failed to find it at the temporary hospital yesterday, he'd found himself feeling something rather close to worry. And when he'd failed to find it again this morning, he had bypassed the training grounds, intending to go to Naruto's apartment and see if he knew what Sakura was doing.
But he'd passed Ino and Shikamaru en route, the blonde apparently thanking the shadow-user profusely for something, and his keen hearing had caught Sakura's name.
And before he could think about it, he'd butted into the conversation and demanded to know what had happened to her.
"She wasn't sleeping well," Ino said, her eyes a little wary, as though trying to determine his motives for asking. "Itachi kept attacking her – she hadn't been able to sleep for days."
"But..." Sasuke didn't like being left out of the loop. "She never said..."
"Yeah, well, that's Sakura for you," Ino muttered. "She's the sort who, if she truly suffers, she suffers in silence. Stupid Forehead-girl, the way she just smiles as though what's happening to her is nothing..."
Shikamaru made a low noise of agreement. He'd learnt that much about Sakura when he watched her reaction after Naruto told her Sasuke had gone to Orochimaru and they'd been unable to stop him.
Ino shook herself out of her thoughts and went on to explain what she'd done to help Sakura get some rest.
And so Sasuke found himself outside Sakura's house, wondering what the hell he was doing. It wasn't like he was any good at the touchy-feely stuff – that was more Naruto's department.
He wondered if he should just walk away.
But still...this was Sakura. Sakura, who always seemed to have a smile on her face, who always seemed to find something to be happy about, no matter what. Sakura, who was now suffering on Itachi's whim.
Sasuke resisted the urge to sigh when he realised that, yes, he was indeed going to knock on Sakura's door to try to cheer her up. He doubted he was qualified for the job (the man who'd broken her young adolescent heart hardly seemed like a good choice for cheering company), he didn't think he'd do a good job of it (he'd count himself lucky if the visit didn't conclude with her punching him through a wall or two), but he felt...as though he owed it to Sakura to at least try.
He'd spent a large portion of his life saying and doing things that made her miserable...what could it hurt to try to make her happy for once?
So Sasuke steeled himself, and knocked on the door.
When it was opened to reveal a surprisingly cheery Sakura, her hands glistening with moisture and a dishtowel slung over one shoulder, Sasuke's fragile game plan evaporated. He knew, intellectually, that Sakura was enduring torture on a daily basis, but he'd never have guessed it from the way she looked.
Sakura blinked at Sasuke, more than a little confused. After her first peaceful sleep in days, she'd woken feeling refreshed and distinctly more alert and optimistic. So she'd set to work on several chores she'd been letting slide for the past few days; she done several loads of laundry, she'd cleaned, she'd vacuumed...Sasuke had interrupted her in the middle of washing-up.
She'd hadn't seen much of Sasuke lately – hadn't seen much of any of her friends lately. After a good night's sleep, she could admit that the pain and fear had made her withdraw, close herself off in an effort to deal with it on her own. She'd meditated and wrestled with the seal for hours on end with no results, and she'd spent a large amount of time writhing on the floor in pain.
But she hadn't gone to anyone for help, for comfort, or even a consoling hand on her back or shoulder. She had been reluctant to go to Ino; the blonde already had enough on her plate without Sakura adding to it. Naruto's overactive protective instincts would just leave him feeling even more frustrated and helpless than he already did. Her father was still absent on his mission, Kakashi and Tsunade were being run ragged by the spate of Daemon attacks, and she wouldn't go to Lee – it might have given him false hope or led him on. And she knew just how much that hurt.
Not that Sasuke had ever led her on, really; she'd done that all by herself.
Sakura felt a sad smile pulling at her lips as she reflected on her younger self. She had been either incredibly imaginative or incredibly pathetic. Perhaps a little of both.
She hadn't gone to Sasuke because...she just hadn't. And now she found herself wracking her brains, unable to come up with a reason why he'd be on her doorstep.
But this could work. She had something she needed to ask him anyways...
"Come on in," she said, standing to the side to let him pass. "There's something I've been meaning to ask you about anyway..."
A line appeared between Sasuke's eyebrows as he tried to puzzle it out.
"It's about my seal," she clarified. "Sasuke...you're good at fire jutsus, right?"
Sasuke nodded, wondering where this was going...
"Think you could burn it off me?"