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Chapter 35: Healing
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A/N: Sorry this one is late. I got a couple e-mails demanding updates which makes me feel loved. :D
It's been a crazy month for me, what with the holidays, seeing family, working 60-80 hours/week... and my dog died :( So hopefully it won't happen again. I don't think my system can handle those stress levels more than once a year.
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The black fox appeared in a room that pulsed with power. A man who looked like a skeleton was hooked into a huge machine, his attention elsewhere.
Ears flicking madly and nose twitching he scurried behind the machine. The bars pulsed with some sort of chakra signal that was traveling outward. Tobi recognized it from various insect demons he had encountered that operated under a hive mind. The human's eyes kind of looked like an insect demon, really. Maybe it was some sort of bastard halfling.
No matter- he could follow this chakra just as well as the one from the seal. He looked for the most active- there! He whipped through not-space and ended up in a ring of shocked humans. Only some of them appeared to actually be there, as the rest were flickering chakra constructs.
"What the hell?"One that looked like a fish asked.
Tobi whipped off his fur and stood (clothed, he had the trick of it now). "Hello!" He said, bouncing a bit on his feet, preparing for battle but looking more like he was bursting with energy. "Take me to your leader?"
The one with too many piercings raised his eyebrow quizzically.
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Orochimaru was still asleep, cocooned in healing seals and chakra. Musume in a chair sat by his side, her arms crossed under her head as she lay beside his sleeping form.
A door opened somewhere in the hallway and a Musume jumped, a flash of fear running through her. When no one entered Orochimaru's room she let out a sigh of relief. She peeked over the Sannin's emaciated form quickly before hiding again.
"Gods forsaken Uchiha..." She muttered to herself. "Well, at least you have no visitors." She finished happily, ducking behind the bed when she heard someone go by in the hallway. It was really a perfect hiding spot- all of the chakra swirling in the room hid her perfectly.
She amused herself by winding chakra through the seals around Orochimaru, reinforcing them where they seemed to be doing the correct thing, tweaking them when they were doing bizarre and counter-productive things. She really began to wonder who was in charge of Chi-chan's case when she found one that seemed to be suppressing his mental status.
"Nnngh..."
Musume's head shot up and she made as if to flee, but the tangle of the seals prevented her from moving- unless she wanted to kill Chi-chan, which would be a waste of her effort thus far. Plus it would probably take off her skin and possibly a few more vital structures.
"Wha..." Orochimaru blinked, taking in the woman sitting vigil over him. "What are you doing?"
"Uh..." Musume thought desperately as she blocked a signal from going out to the head nurses' station that would notify that Orochimaru was awake. "You know I care about you, Chi-chan."
"Don't call me that." Orochimaru said weakly, coughing a bit when he started to laugh slightly.
Musume watched him, tilting her head as blood trickled out of the side of his mouth. As tied into the diagnostic spells as she was, she could tell that he had been administered an airborne poison and half-drowned. Not necessarily at the same time and certainly not only once. If she was right, it was one of Sasori's poisons. Intriguing.
Orochimaru's wheezing broke through her inspection of the poison, so she pulled it into herself for later perusal. The breathing eased with a surprised snort.
"Did..." Orochimaru started to ask, but stopped.
"Did what?" Musume asked him in confusion, a bit unnerved at the speculative look in the other's eye.
The door opened and Musume's heart stopped briefly as she twitched, not really starting again properly even when she saw it was her mate and not a rabid Uchiha.
"Oh. There you are." He said, looking at his wife bemusedly. "Why are you here?"
"Sitting at the bedside of a sick friend?" She offered, internally cursing that she would now be unable to use this spot to hide. Though the fact that Chi-chan was awake might have made it unsuitable anyway. She looked at him speculatively. If he didn't have that creepy knowing look on his face, he might not be bad company...
"It's good to see you up, Orochimaru. We will definitely need any intel that you can spare on locations, numbers and abilities." Minato nodded to the Sannin.
"I do not know how helpful I can be." Orochimaru rasped, still slightly hoarser than his usual whispery tones. "But I am at your service."
"And I am glad to find you, Uchiha-sama." Minato said, giving his wife a look that made her wince slightly. It was highly disapproving. She had known that she wouldn't really get away with it, but there was always hope... all that was left now was what he was going to do to her.
"Oh?" She asked warily.
"Sensei and I came up with this." He handed over a seal.
When Musume's hands came in contact with it, the chakra came to life within the seal pressed on the paper. Suddenly she could sense pulses of life in all directions. It took her a few moments to sort out the sensations since she was still pulling out of the last of Orochimaru's seals.
"I can feel all of the Uchiha in the entire village..." She paused. A flicker was wavering beyond the wards. "Oooo..." She started to sway as she looked farther and farther out. Abruptly she snapped back into the present when Minato snatched the paper from her hand. "Snch!"
"You were drooling." Minato said, his lip twitching. "I take it that it works, then."
"If you meant it to show when Uchiha are near, yes." Musume rubbed her eyes, which were dry for some reason.
"Would a normal person be able to tweak it like you just did?" Minato asked seriously.
"Eh... no. Definitely not. It linked up with the seals I put on them in the most interesting way, though with range it was..." Really awesome, like being in gaseous form or a higher level spirit form. Not that she could say that. "Let me have it back." She made a grab for the scroll.
"Only if you promise to give it out to the following Uchiha, who will be joining ANBU teams to sweep for Sasuke and thus, hopefully, the missing children and the base of the kidnappers." Minato flourished a second sheet of paper.
Musume looked at it suspiciously. She took it gingerly with two fingers.
"It's not a snake." Orochimaru hissed, almost laughing.
"I'd rather it be a snake." Musume muttered. Snakes were tasty. She scowled at Chi-chan when he looked inordinately pleased. She hadn't meant to compliment his totem animal or whatever, she just would rather be attacked by a poisonous reptile than talk to the Uchiha. Although... "This means we have a productive plan for getting Sasuke back?"
"Yes. Which I would have told you hours ago if I could find you. We needed to test it before putting it out there, and you are the only one who really could." Minato's smile was bordering on a smirk now.
"Hn." She grunted, which her mate properly interpreted as a combination 'thank you' and mild regret/annoyance that she hadn't known that it was safe to come out earlier.
"I could give you a snake for company when you go to talk to them." Orochimaru offered. "If you are afraid."
"Wait a minute." Musume said with a smirk. "Are you trying to sneak a snake in to me? Chi-chan! I'll have you know that I am a happily mated female."
Orochimaru blinked at her uneasily.
"Musume. He is in no condition to summon something." Minato snapped.
Orochimaru started to shiver slightly. "I can summon whatever I want to." He hissed darkly.
"We can trade summons later Chi-chan." Musume sighed, ignoring his emotional nonsense for the moment and hoping it would go away on its own. Her comment at least seemed to startle him a bit and he no longer looked quite so homicidally terrified. "Maybe you can give me a nice toxic one." That could be plan B if the Uchiha did not allow her to say anything before pouncing the second she saw them...
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"Hello!"
Sasuke looked up blearily at the man who had been shoved into his cell with him, annoyed with how cheerful the other looked. He had been through hell these past weeks. It wasn't just the physical abuse, or the horrific things they made him teach those children, or even how the children were treated like summons or machines... it was the whole fucked up craziness of this place. He didn't even dignify the other with a grunt.
"That bad, huh?" The other mused, plopping next to where Sasuke had collapsed on a straw pallet.
Sasuke looked him over, noting the thick black hair that was sticking up in odd spikes with a cow-lick at the left temple and the red eyes. The guy looked something like an Uchiha, but what kind of Uchiha had red eyes without tomoe in them? Maybe he was part of Kurenai's clan.
"Well, I would give you the silent treatment in return, but that wouldn't make much of a conversation, would it?"
"Hn." Sasuke grunted in annoyance, trying to flip over but too sore to really do it properly.
The man got up and started to pace the cell, back and forth in front of Sasuke and then, when that seemed to get boring, up the walls and across the ceiling. He finally squatted in front of Sasuke and stared at him until the teen snapped.
"What!" Sasuke growled, then coughed a bit.
"Would you mind if I practiced healing on you?"
Sasuke started to shudder violently and felt a wave of nausea slam into his abdomen.
"Wow... I didn't know that humans actually turned green! I thought that was an expression." The man mused. "Never mind the healing bit, then. Suffer through the exhaustion."
"What do you want with me." Sasuke snarled.
"Oh. Nothing in particular. You're here. I'm here. They are deciding my fate and locked me in here."
"Hn." Sasuke grunted, with a bit more interest. He rolled over a bit and sat up slowly, wincing a bit as he pulled a long cut over his shoulder-blades. "Why are they doing that?"
"I appeared to them and told them that I could defeat Uchiha Musume for them." He replied matter-of-factly. "They are trying to figure out if they believe me."
"Hn!" Sasuke snorted in disbelief.
"Well, fine, perhaps not defeat, but I can certainly neutralize her."
"I don't believe you." Sasuke said flatly.
"Do you now? I suppose I haven't given you much reason to believe me." He mused. "I am her son, you see. Everything that she knows, I know as well." He finished leaning forward, speaking in a serious, low voice. He sat back up abruptly. "Or something like that."
"You're insane." Sasuke realized.
"Hmm? You think so?" He cocked his head and regarded the young Uchiha. "I suppose it is inevitable, with my lineage. You're probably experiencing it, too, ne? The Uchiha madness." He waggled his fingers suggestively. "I think it's worse the closer to Madara you are."
"Madara?" Sasuke stiffened, remembering the stories his family had told... and the animosity that some villagers still held for the Uchiha based on the actions of that member of their clan.
"Sure. My dad, sort of. It's complicated." He sighed.
"How can someone be 'sort-of' your father?" Sasuke asked dubiously.
"On that mystical night, the kyuubi came rushing through the forest, zeroing in on Madara, who controlled the demon with his eyes! Earth flew everywhere!" He gestured with his hands in sweeping and exploding motions, making 'whoosh' and exploding noises as he did so. "And then, in that burst of heinous chakra, I formed, whole and complete, from the split skull of Madara's head!"
"..." Sasuke stared at him.
"Hahah! Your face is priceless right now." The man turned serious. "But that's actually how it happened."
"No."
"Metaphorically, it's how it happened. If you believe in reincarnation... and males being pregnant... and possibly soul transfer and time travel."
"What are you even talking about?" Sasuke snapped.
"Right." The man stood up and ran in a tight circle, then sat back down. "Well... we don't really need them, ne? Let's take out Konoha just the two of us."
"One- that's not possible. We are definitely not powerful enough. And two- I don't want to take out Konoha."
"You don't?" The man turned to fully face him, his red eyes confused. "Well, we'll fix that then. Nothing more useful in destroying a village than a prodigal son, don't you think?"
"No." Sasuke shook his head. "You're an idiot. You want to be trapped here, tortured, used by madmen in whatever horrific, child-torturing scheme they have come up with? When you could just go to Konoha and be welcomed?"
Red eyes blinked slowly at him. "Yes...?"
Sasuke's eyebrow twitched in disgust. "Hn." He grunted derisively. As if betrayal and lashing yourself to the power of another was at all productive. Sasuke knew that the power of Konoha was in the people in it, the groups and the back up. Everyone needed to be strong and support each other. He had been second all his life, back up for his brother. He knew that Itachi would be the one to do all the real work, but he relied on him to be strong so as to not distract him. Which had stirred all the myriad emotions in him, but it was currently the only thing keeping him sane and away from using his suicide pill. The hope that his older, better, brother would come for him.
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"I don't care." Itachi hissed. "We need to go. I don't care about what they've been saying!"
"Go where, 'Tachi? Be reasonable." Shisui hissed back, just as furiously. "We have no idea where he has been taken."
"I'm sure the damn toads know. We'll track one of them down and make it talk."
"Itachi..." Shisui ran his hand hesitantly on his lover's arm. "We can't leave the village, we'll be missing nin. We won't be able to come back."
"You don't have to come. But I will do anything for Sasuke." Itachi said emphatically.
Musume nearly gave herself away when he said that, though she managed to hold in the snicker.
"Itachi, please, think it through- if you do find him, then what? You are going to make him live with you as an outlaw?"
"No, I will make him stay in the village so that he has a good life... maybe if I get him to hate me he won't follow?" Itachi mused.
Musume couldn't take anymore after that. She either had to say something or she was going to start laughing or possibly tearing her hair out. "Well, well, plotting to betray the village." She said, swinging half down from the ceiling, holding onto a beam with her toes.
Shisui's startled shifting of gaze tracking her movement gave Itachi just enough warning that he did not shriek like a little girl when the voice came over his shoulder, but it was a close thing. The one eyed man still tilted slightly before regaining his hard-won balance.
"Uchiha-sama."Itachi said coldly.
"Itachi, dear." Musume smirked as she dropped from the ceiling. "If you want to hide when you are afraid, you need to not get all tense and cold like that."
Shisui moved instinctively in front of Itachi.
"It seems I can't get away from betraying Uchihas. I must be right, it is genetic." Musume rubbed her right foot against her calf. She had a bit of a cramp- it had been years since she'd clung to the ceiling without chakra. The lengths on had to go to to surprise a prodigy.
"That would make you a betrayer as well." Shisui snapped.
"Yes, it would, wouldn't it?" She mused.
"..."
"Anyway, I do have a task for you two. It happily gives you a way to go after your brother without betraying anyone." Musume handed them a scroll. "Though simply leaving the village as cause for such punishment seems a bit harsh..." Not that she minded particularly in most cases- it did result in such chaos. "The Hokage is sending out teams to look for any trail. You two have... an advantage. Only surpassed by a Hyuuga, of course."
"The Hyuuga are either non-ninja, insane or under suspicion still." Itachi noted, his face slowly defrosting as hope started to thaw him a little.
"Not all of them." Musume corrected. Though probably all of them should still be under suspicion, considering the history of poor decision making in massacre survivors. She supposed the village could be forgiven as it did not have the benefit of the Uchiha massacre for an example, but there was plenty of evidence from various other shinobi wars. Like that girl-boy-ice guy that the brat tended to encounter (and occasionally be killed by) on that kami-forsaken bridge. Yes, it had been nearly a decade... but look at the two Hyuuga heiressed- still bat-shit crazy. "But enough of them, yes."
"And they will let Itachi go?" Shisui asked, somewhat dubiously. Itachi was only technically cleared for duty.
"I think he can handle leaping about through the trees, ne?" Musume smirked, knowing that such a thing would be severely challenging to a man who could barely walk due to his issues with balance and depth perception.
"It will be no problem." Itachi said flatly.
Musume shrugged. She did not doubt for one second that Itachi would go to ridiculous lengths to protect his little brother. He was practically a constant. Generally boring, but it could be set up to trigger huge cascades of events- rather like those machines bored humans made sometimes that were incredibly complex ways to do simple tasks. Rube something machines? Pythagoras swtiches? Gas machines? Well, whatever- fun to set up with Itachi playing the part of the ball bouncing about.
"This is not a mission scroll." Itachi noted when he accepted the paper that Musume handed to him.
"No, it's not. It's something that Jiraiya and Minato worked out, which is why they have not sent out search parties until now. It will indicate where someone of our blood is nearby when held by an Uchiha. Hence putting one Uchiha on a team. Otherwise it would just indicate the others in your team." Musume explained, bored. She had said this same thing to all the other teams.
"That... could work." Shisui said tentatively.
"Yes, yes, shoo." Musume growled a bit to herself as they flickered off. All this talking to people, protecting people, warding the village... it was enough to make her want to really destroy something. It was annoying.
What was the big problem, anyway. Her kits were safe, the only kit that anyone even knew by name that was missing was Sasuke- and he always ended up kidnapped anyway. And this time there wasn't even as high a potential for pedophilia. Honestly... they had Orochimaru in the hospital. Who else was a creepy guy that kept hanging around kids and licking things?
"Hn. There is that creepy prematurely grey medic guy." She muttered to herself. Maybe Sasuke's virtue was in question after all. "Meh."
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"Gaaaaaraaaa!" Naruto whined, running in random directions to no avail. "Stop following me!"
"No."
"Don't you want to stay at home with your family?" The blond ninja cajoled.
"My father wants to kill me."
"No, no. Not anymore. I tried really hard to get him over that for you. He now realizes how much worse it could be." Naruto protested. "Also he seems a lot happier now that all those people are streaming in to fight as Godzilla and King Kong..." He mused.
"I want to go back to Konoha."
Naruto finally stopped running through the grass and turned abruptly to face Gaara, so quickly that the redhead almost ran into him. Sand sprang up to keep them apart, which both ignored.
"Why do you want to go back so badly anyway?" Naruto demanded, hands fisted on his hips.
Gaara didn't reply, though the skin around his eyes where the sand was thinner started to turn a bit pink.
Naruto's eyebrow quirked. "How did you even get permission to leave the village?"
"I asked."
"And?"
Gaara looked away briefly. "Threatened to kill him."
Naruto moaned. "I worked so hard to get him to like you a bit and you go and do that? Argh!" Naruto punched a fist in the air.
"It was more an implication." Gaara clarified.
"Whatever. I guess I can't stop you." Naruto sighed. He started to run again.
"This is not the way to Konoha." Gaara noted beside him.
"What?" Naruto protested. "Yes it is!"
"No, it is not." Gaara replied. "This way leads back to Sand."
"How would you know anyway?" Naruto pouted.
"I can feel the desert."
"Creepy, but I'll buy it." The blond shrugged. "We should probably find the ANBU that were accompanying us."
"Perhaps." Gaara agreed. He didn't point out that the ANBU had kept up with them but were hiding. Either the blond knew that and was playing some sort of prank, or he actually did not know. In the first case, Gaara did not want to be involved. In the second case, that would be pathetic and did not deserve a hint.
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Sasuke didn't quite dodge the last punch from his student. The next one took him down and the boy followed him to the ground. The creepy yellow eyes were calm as the boy prepared to beat the living shit out of his instructor.
Suddenly the boy was rising in the air. Sasuke blinked in confusion before he could see that the boy was being lifted by his former fellow prisoner. If Sasuke had not been desperately afraid for his life, he might have dedicated some energy to wondering what had happened to the other since he had been released from the cell.
"Hey! That's not fair! We were betting on how long it would take the little snot to kill the Uchiha." Deidara protested from where he was perched on the wall.
The man blinked, looking a bit confused. "You want to watch this..." he shook the kid he was holding, causing a brief flicker of annoyance to pass the usually creepily blank features, "kill him," here he gestured with the kid at Sasuke, "when he is already half-dead?"
"Sure, we need to kill him before we move out anyway. That's more fun than just killing him ourselves. Plus it proves that the little beasts are ready to deploy." Zabuza shrugged.
"You are telling me that you are going to kill my cousin and expect me to not do anything about it?" The man asked, giving Sasuke a brief, painful flare of hope.
The entire creepy cavalcade watched the unknown Uchiha without blinking, with various expressions from blank to maniacally smiling.
The older Uchiha tucked the slit-eyed boy under his arm and hn'ed in thought. "I suppose I could do that. But it doesn't really seem all that 'artistic'. Really pathetic if you think about it." Sasuke started to shake slightly. Some small part of him was still sure that his brother would be there to save him just in time. That part was rapidly dying in fitful bursts of hope.
"Hah!" Deidara cackled. "For a second there, I thought that you were going to show your true colors, Uchiha."
"No." The Uchiha said with a smirk, his red eyes becoming suddenly more intense. "Tobi is a good boy."
Deidara fell off the wall, limp.
"Thank you, but try not to damage him this close to the day." The gravely voice came from the hunched over puppet. "You have sufficiently proven your skills."
Tobi raised his eyebrow skeptically, but he put the small ninja down and shrugged. "Alrighty." The red eyes flicked to Sasuke and the older Uchiha smirked.