Anko was only a little nervous. She looked around the room she arrived in. It was a stone room and she was standing on what looked to be a bulls-eye.
Black-Dono was waiting with a woman in the front of the room. "Welcome to BlackIsland. This is Henchgirl, our resident potions expert. She also is one of the experts on the Port Trans."
"Mitarashi Anko, Anbu, Torture and Interrogation Specialist, Tokubetsu Jōnin, Konohagakure. It is nice to meet you."
Henchgirl took Anko by the arm, ignoring the tension and Anko's tendancy to reach for weapons. As she walked, she talked about potions, and poisons, and the best way to get information out of someone. Anko found a kindred spirit.
"And this is the infirmary. If you get hurt, this is where you go. The Doctor runs the place."
Anko looked around. Typical hospital ward with no real separate rooms. She noticed two people in the room.
"Zabuza-san! Fancy seeing you here. How are they treating you? And, Haku was it? Haku-san, are you well?" She had just seen the two just the day before.
Haku was sitting calmly and Kabuza was laying not so calmly. "Mitarashi! You have to get me out of here! This Doctor who runs this place is a sadist! After she ran her little machine over me, she began to poke me with needles, pour vile-tasting concoctions down my throat, and perform jutsus on me 'to treat your injuries.'" Zabuza's voice had mimicked someone who was obviously the Doctor. Then his voice went back to his petulant tone. "I tried to tell her I felt much better and didn't need to stay here but she somehow stuck me to the bed! You have to get me out of here!"
Before Anko could reply Haku interjected, "Now, Zabuza-sama! You know that you now feel much better. Before we arrived you could not stand or move around. Now you are almost fully functional. It is obvious that her jutsu work. You will have to be patient."
Zabuza turned his head toward his apprentice. "You just want to learn her methods. I knew I should have thought more before agreeing for you to learn from her." He turned his head back toward Anko. "Now my soft-hearted apprentice is becoming a sadist too!"
Anko giggled. "He's a ninja, it's in the job description."
Zabuza just glared, while Haku took on a serene look.
Anko was given a room and told that she was to return to the infirmary after lunch. She took the time to meet several more inhabitants. Finally, after a lunch where she found they had her favorite sweet bean soup and dango, she arrived at the infirmary. The area where Zabuza was resting was curtained off and several people were present to meet her.
The first was the Doctor, a beautiful woman with a rich brown skin and a no-nonsense attitude. Henchgirl was there as well. Haku was present – she was told he was operating under a healer's oath to keep what he found confidential – as was Black-Dono.
She looked around at the group. "Is there a reason we need this many people?"
The Doctor, as it was her infirmary, took the lead. "We were asked by your Hokage to inspect your seal and see if it was possible to remove it. Henchgirl is an expert on substances, I am expert on physiology, and Mr. Black is an expert on obscure text. Haku is learning from me."
Anko nodded. She didn't like so many people there, but she couldn't find any objections to any one of them. "What about Zabuza?"
Black-Dono shook his head. "Privacy wards. He can't hear anything."
Anko finally agreed. She sat down on the bed, not knowing what to expect.
"First, I will scan you." The Doctor took out her little machine and began moving it back and forth around Anko, especially over her neck where the curse seal was.
The Doctor looked at the readings with a little confusion. "It says here that there is curse tied to a gland which shouldn't be there. The gland has some strange hormone-enzyme combination. The hormone is adrenalin and the enzyme … looks like something you might find in Re'em blood. It wouldn't last forever, but the strength you would have while it was active would be immense. There is also some energy in it."
Harry took a look at the readings along with Henchgirl. The readings reminded him of something – he could not remember at the moment.
Finally, he decided it would come later. "Okay, now let's look at the seal."
Anko was asked to lie on her front in a special looking table which had a hole for her face. Harry moved around Anko and attempted to "read" the seal. "Wow. I need to write this out." Henchgirl handed him a notebook.
He took a moment to look at the seal again, and then began sketching page after page of notes on the different parts of the seal. In the end, it looked like a sharingan but it was actually composed of many, many characters written on different layers. Each page was a layer of the seal. One layer caused him to hold his breath. Now he remembered.
"This one layer reminds me of a certain scar which I had seen before. That scar gave the person who created it access to the mind of the person with the scar. It also made the person angry all of the time because it caused pain." The Doctor and Henchgirl knew what scar he was talking about. Haku did not. Harry was not about to enlighten him.
"Has this ever happened?" Harry asked Anko.
Anko nodded. "When Orochimaru wanted to, he could use it to cause pain. Especially when he was close."
Harry nodded as he continued making sketches. When he was done he told her she could get up from the table and said, "We're going to study all of the information and consult some texts. It's going to be at least tomorrow before we can move on – likely the day after. Until then, feel free to check the place out and meet people. I should warn you, there are people from all over our world here and they don't always have the same customs."
Anko nodded and thanked them. She then made her way about so that she could explore. Harry made his way to find the Professor and the Architect. The construction of the seal looked like a warding scheme.
Naruto was having fun. Kakashi wouldn't allow him to send shadow clones to help on the bridge, but he had little objection to sending clones to help fix up houses. There were many things needing fixed up after Gato's men had been forced to leave.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were next to the bridge training while Kakashi kept an eye out. No one expected any more henchmen, but they were being paid to do a job.
Sakura was moving through some katas. Naruto and Sasuke were sparring. "Nice hit, Teme! You didn't think that would stop me did you?"
Sasuke smirked and got ready to attack again. He felt much less broody since the adoption from earlier in the week. "No I didn't, Dobe, but it wasn't my only method." With that, Sasuke covertly created two clones of his own and had them hide themselves until Naruto created his own. He would use them to keep the Naruto clones occupied.
Sasuke then attacked again. He was enjoying the easygoing nature of the sparring and the training.
Pencil looked over the list of materials and the prices. "So, we need another supplier for the tools?"
The bank manager nodded. "Yes, Pencil-sama. After Kimura-san submitted the price list, a burning ember from the cooking pit at the restaurant next to his shop moved in an unexpected manner into a vent. There were several witnesses who saw it happen and confirmed it was completely random. The ember somehow ate through the wall and landed in the section which held the tools he had quoted price on. All of the wooden handles burned.
"When the metal portions were taken to the blacksmith to get reshod, the delivery manifest got mixed with one for the smelting furnace next door. By the time the error was discovered, it was too late. I am proud to announce that the blacksmith has named another who sells the same tools and we can get them for the same or lower price."
The bank manager was proud that he had resolved the supply issue for the job of rebuilding Uzumaki-san's apartment building.
Pencil shrugged and nodded. Working for Mr. Black inured him to freak accidents. Usually they turned out positive for Black Ink, so he was not concerned.
Kimura Takumi, shop owner of Konohagakure, was cursing to himself as he continued cleaning up from the accident. The restaurant and the delivery service had insurance which paid for the damage, but the loss of the large sale of tools that was being brokered by the bank hurt his reputation.
Kimura had just been released from the hospital two days earlier after the freak accident where he fell on some farm tools. He was now living with two fewer fingers and a bit of pain which still had to heal.
The fire accident set him back another several thousand ryo. He cursed his luck.
The two Root members moved silently to observe the construction that was taking place where the container's apartment used to be. There were a number of tents up including one large one which covered the site from observers. The large tent was sturdy enough that the weight of two shinobi should not be impossible to support.
The Root members entered the site without being seen. They first attempted to get a view of what was occurring through the large flap in which supplies were being moved in, but there were too many witnesses there. Finally they made the attempt to cut a small eyehole on the opposite side. None of their kunai or knives would cut into the silk lining underneath the surface material. The silk was like steel!
Finally, the two moved to climb up a support strut holding up the roof. Near the top was a vent hole for air, cleverly constructed so that water would not go inside. However, there was an opening. The two ninja moved silently until they were at the top.
They both looked inside and saw a very short man with odd skin doing something which caused the packages to enlarge in to stone. Before they could see where the stone went to, a sudden summer rain hit them on top of the tent. To prevent the water from dropping in and alerting the people inside, they had to replace the cover – which prevented them from seeing more. Larger rain drops fell and suddenly there was also hail.
Both lost their footing and slid heavily down the side, falling on the blind side of the tent where there was no activity. Just as suddenly as it had started, the rain and hail stopped and the sun reappeared. Both decided that this had to be report back to Danzo-sama.
Haku had been sent out by Zabuza. As Zabuza-sama was almost healed, there was little for Haku to do and Zabuza-sama said to get some fresh air. He moved out of one of the back doors that was present in his new place of apprenticeship.
He saw a clearing and moved to it to give him room to practice his ice jutsus. Just after he conjured his first ice image, he heard a squeal. He dropped the jutsu and turned quickly in a crouch. What he saw surprised him.
Several pretty girls with black hair, blue lips, and snow-like complexion were staring at him and giggling. He felt a shudder and suddenly had the image of a rabbit being chased by a pack of wolves.
Sakura moved to the guest room gingerly. Training today included sparring with the two boys. Neither considered that she should be treated as anything other than a ninja when fighting her and she was coming to appreciate that.
She was conflicted because her crush on Sasuke seemed to be waning. That meant that she could concentrate on becoming better but she had been pursuing Sasuke for so long, not doing it seemed wrong.
Besides, what if Ino-pig convinced Sasuke to go out with her? Sakura would have LOST to INO-PIG! That was unacceptable. Unfortunately Inner Sakura was not helping as Inner Sakura seemed to be thinking of other boys she had gone to school with and what they would look like without clothes. Even Naruto! Sasuke was still there too, but he was now one of many.
She groaned as she buried her face in her pillow. She hated being a teenager.
A/N: I am working on more than this story now – but have not abandoned it.
It will be closer to once a week than 3 times a week.