Forgotten

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Naruto (Shippuden). This is a story inspired by the original made up for entertainment purposes only. - Krystal


Chapter 28: Cold to Warm


Yuki woke up to a new ANBU mask and hooded cape being delivered to her. It also meant that she was going to be sent on a mission. Danzo was sitting at their dining table as walked out from her bedroom draped in her cape and mask on, ready to leave.

"They requested for backup to help those Genins who went after Uchiha Sasuke."

"You want me to believe that you want us to go help them." Yuki asked, bitter.

"Wrong. We don't support them. We are here to support to village, to protect it from harm. I was informed that Sasuke actually headed out to meet with Orochimaru in order to gain power. He is therefore an enemy of the village. I've added him to your bingo book. You are to kill him if the opportunity presents itself. However, I understand that this is your first mission with us. Therefore I'm only asking you to gather information about Orochimaru and his whereabouts."

"A recognition mission?" simply asked Yuki despite being in shock at the knowledge that Sasuke had really betrayed the village.

"Yes."

"Is he coming?"

"Of course. You are a team now. Besides... what makes you think I trust you?"

For the first time, Yuki couldn't help but agree with what Danzo had just said.

"Oh, you must be uncomfortable not knowing his name." said Danzo as he was leaving their house. "Just call him Sai."

"Does he not have an actual name?"

"I don't." said the now named Sai. "We should head out and catch up to them now. They probably are quite far from the village as they left two nights ago. Although they are Genins, so perhaps not..."

"Don't underestimate them and their will."

"Will? I don't see how that would help them move faster."

"Let's just get going."

"I was told that..."

"Sure. I'm just going to teleport myself to them. I can't take you with me, so I'll see you later." Yuki said as she waved goodbye and flashed herself out of there. This would allow her to be out of the Root's supervision for a bit and also assist Shikamaru's team if needed.


The only person who had a seal to which Yuki could teleport to was Neji. Being together a lot in the last few years, Yuki finally decided to place a seal on him when he showed care for her after she had injured herself while fighting Kisame. When he grabbed her wrist, she unknowingly decided to care for him as well. It turned out to be quite useful in this case. Her skills also improved since she last had to use the Flying Thunder God Technique. Her range widened. She didn't have to be constrained to a certain area for it to work any longer. The amount of time that was required to place a seal was also reduced. Her travel time was increased. What used to take her around 5 seconds would only take her 2 seconds to travel now. Within that time, she arrived by Neji. As she was about to greet him, she saw nothing else but an inanimate body on the ground, his inanimate body. She kneeled beside him, checked his pulse and tried to sense for his chakra. He was still alive. Yuki let out a sigh of relief. His wound was very deep. If not treated immediately, he would certainly die. He was already at the brink of death. Never had she wished her medical skills were more powerful than at that moment. She first stopped the continuous bleeding at the wound. Then, because his chakra was almost completely depleted, his body had started to die as well. She transferred her chakra to him, also maintaining, therefore, his body temperature and chakra flow throughout his body. Needing to be focused, she closed her eyes to make sure she made no mistake in the transfer.

"Why are you here..." she heard his feeble voice barely managing to speak.

"Oh you know, just passing by... Don't say anything, right now. Stay still. I can only so much until reinforcement and hopefully medics come."

He did as she told him. He, however, couldn't help but turn his head to be able to look at her. She was unaware of it. Her eyes were still closed. She tried to cut out any possible disturbances from the animals, wind, forest... It took a lot out of her to be able to keep the chakra flowing in a steady manner as her emotions could potentially get the better of her control. Neji was grateful, of course, but he was also worried. Being someone who knew loads about chakra and its flow, he knew how demanding it was for her to maintain his life in such way. It also allowed him to realize how much he meant to her after all. He had doubts about it as she wasn't very expressive of her feelings, but those doubts vanished as he saw her caring this much about him. Maybe it was simply in her nature to want to protect the people she knew, but it still warmed his heart and gave him another reason to keep on fighting for his life.

"What are you doing?" asked a familiar voice.

"You already caught up?" she asked, still trying to maintain her composure.

"I don't remember this being part of our mission."

"Does it look like I care about the mission right now?"

"Certainly not."

"You go ahead then. I'll catch up later."

"I don't think you understand what this mission entails."

"Again, does it look like I care?"

"I will have to report back to Danzo-sama later on about this."

"Feel free to do so. Now, if you would please excuse me, I really need to make sure that he makes it."

He did not leave. He stayed there with her. He didn't utter another word however. Even though he showed no compassion towards the injured, Yuki appreciated the fact that, at the very least, he realized how important this was to her. Suddenly, however, Yuki felt her energy depleting. She had been transferring a lot of her own chakra while continuously rotating it within Neji's body. She knew she had reached her limit. She could only push for a little longer. Sai walked over and placed his hand on her shoulder:

"You are going cold."

Neji's eyes widened. He frowned and wanted to stop Yuki from continuing. He then realized what she was doing. She was transferring, not only chakra, but her life force into him.

"Yuki..." he tried to say.

"Shut up." she replied. Her voice was much weaker than it used to be. "I know what I'm doing."

"Take some of mine." said Sai. "I wouldn't know how to answer to Danzo-sama if you were to die here."

"I'm surprised he cares." she said in a sarcastic tone. "Thanks but no thank you. I need you in shape if anything were to happen. Trust me, I won't die. I just need to keep this up a little bit longer. I can sense a group of people heading over. I bet you they are from Konoha."

He didn't insist. He took a few steps back to give her space. He just kept observing. A few more minutes passed and Yuki grew weaker by the second now. Luckily, the medical team arrived at that moment.

"Who are you?" one of the them asked.

"We are from Konoha. We were just passing by." replied Yuki, exhausted but still not leaving Neji's side.

"We will take over." they told her as they moved closer. "Just give us a quick idea of what's going on here."

"He was struck fatally in the chest area, tissue is missing and he was bleeding profusely. I've already stopped the bleeding, but the wound remains. His vitals were weak, but I've managed to bring back his pulse to a normal average. His chakra was depleted, but I've managed to maintain it at around 75% of his usual amount. The moment I let go, his chakra will slowly stop flowing properly, so if you could bring him back quickly to the village and let the Hokage see him right away, he would have a chance of surviving."

The medics looked shock at the amount of information they had just received. They were also impressed by how she managed to maintain him alive and concious after quickly examining the severity of the wound Neji had suffered from. They gave her a quick nod and one of them took over Yuki's spot and kept the chakra flow going. Yuki opened her eyes, finally, to look at Neji in the eyes before leaving. Through the small openings in her mask, she could see that Neji was telling her through his look only how thankful her was and how worried he was. As they took him away, his eyes were still looking at her. She was still kneeling in the same position. She waited for him to be out of sight before attempting to stand up. She barely managed. As she stumbled, Sai gave her his arm as support without saying anything. She grabbed onto it. As she did, she placed her teleportation seal on him.

"Can you go on or not?" he asked her.

"Just abandon me if I can't." she answered.

"Part of my mission is to make sure you come back alive."

"Did he tell you why he wanted me to stay alive?"

"Danzo-sama doesn't tell me much other than what my mission is."

"I really can't stand the secretive nature of the Root."

"We are not that different from the regular ANBUs."

"We always knew why we were doing things."

"Did that change anything?"

"Ha, you got me."

"Hop on." he then said.

"What?"

"I'll give you a piggyback."

"Err... no thank you?"

"I heard girls love it when guys offered." Sai said, seemingly confused.

Yuki couldn't help but chuckle. Despite him being a Root, there was something about him that felt different. The others felt cold inside out, but Sai had this warmth about him that was present without him even knowing.

"I can walk. I might slow you down though."

He didn't listen, he grabbed her wrist and spun her around. Without much strength left, she somehow ended up on his back and he rushed into the forest in that manner. There was indeed a warmth within him that she could sense as she rested against his back. She closed her eyes for a bit as she was allowed to rest. Her mind wandered off. There was so much that she wanted to know. She wanted to know whether Neji had made it back to the village yet. She wanted to know if the others were safe or if they were in the same condition as Neji was. She wanted to know more about this Sai guy. As her mind wandered in such manner, she slowly fell asleep from fatigue both mentally and physically. It was her first good sleep in a long time.


End of Chapter 28


I hope you enjoyed it.

I really wanted to give Sai a bigger role in this story. Hopefully, this is the right way to do so.

Let me know in the comments!

xox

Krystal