Chapter 12—Reserves
Tsunade gritted her teeth against her exhaustion and the pain in her head and concentrated on her last defense. The diamond on her forehead burned with a purple light and bled out across her face in twisting black lines. "Yin Seal: Release," she murmured. The lines vanished and a great reserve of chakra poured into her tired body. She directed it immediately to her collapsing defense and Inoichi's progress was blocked so abruptly and with such force that he staggered back from Tsunade and fell to the floor.
"Inoichi, are you okay?" One of the ANBU members going by the name Taro hurried over to help him up.
"I'm all right," Inoichi said, but he was slow to stand. "I wasn't able to break through. I can't keep up with it now that it's using her chakra reserves as well. There's no way I can fight that anymore." He relied heavily on Taro's support as he spoke, his body weak from expending so much chakra.
"It's all right, you've done enough," another ANBU said. "We can bring someone in to take over for you. We'll break through eventually."
Tsunade wasn't listening. She slumped in the chair, finally able to relax now that the barrage on her mind had stopped, but her head still throbbed and there seemed to be a buzzing in her ears that made it easy to tune out the conversations around her. She didn't want to think. She just wanted to sleep.
Taro helped Inoichi out of the room and another ANBU followed to retrieve his replacement.
"You should have stopped sooner," Taro said as they made their slow progress up a narrow flight of stairs, Inoichi falling short of breath after only a few steps. "It's dangerous to expend so much chakra at once."
Inoichi shook his head but could not articulate any further response until they had reached the end of the stairwell. "I had to do whatever I could," he finally said, his determination still clear through his fatigue. "How could I… do any less when Lady Hokage is in even greater danger than I was?"
As he was saying this, Jiraiya passed them in the hallway. He had just been to Tsunade's office only to find Shizune gathering her things to go home. It was the middle of the night and she had been working all day, covering for Tsunade. When Jiraiya had asked where Tsunade was, she insisted, a little too intently, that she did not know. She was nervous. Worried.
Jiraiya had been leaving the Hokage's Residence when he overheard Inoichi's comment. He stopped mid-step as the words sunk in.
"What did you say?" Jiraiya turned abruptly and hurried back a few steps to get ahead of Inoichi and the two ANBU members. "What's going on?"
"Master Jiraiya…"
"Where's Tsunade?" he demanded, feeling a tight sense of urgency creeping up within him.
The three stared back at him and gave no answer. He quickly focused in on Inoichi.
"Inoichi, what happened?" Jiraiya asked, his tone soft and serious.
Taro spoke immediately then. "Please, Master Jiraiya, we cannot answer you. Let us pass."
For a few moments, they stood at a stalemate, but then Inoichi's strength wavered and his knees gave out. Taro had to catch him and hold him up to keep him on his feet. At this, Jiraiya reluctantly stepped aside and with a soft "Thank you," from Taro, the three continued past him. "It's better you don't know," the other ANBU added quietly.
Jiraiya held back the urge to grab the masked man and slam him into the wall, to force him to tell what he knew. Instead he remained very still until the sound of their footsteps had faded with distance. Then he turned and ran in the direction from which they had come.