Sakura woke to darkness.
It wasn't the first time in her career she'd opened her eyes to nothing but a dark room, strapped down on a table and in pain. It was likely the first time she knew what had happened right away, though. Her mind felt sharp, and she wondered if someone had forgotten to drug her.
Sakura stilled her breathing and listened. Other than the steady dripping of a pipe somewhere out in the blackness she heard no one nearby. She took a moment to test her muscles and joints; she felt no breaks or cuts, so she counted herself lucky. Her chakra felt depleted, though. She couldn't so much as summon a flicker of fire to light the room.
She tensed to test her restraints. Whoever had strapped her down knew their businesses; there was no give to the shackles holding her down. Still, Sakura tried to work them to get some wriggle room. If she could wear down one bolt holding her to the table, she might slip a belt.
"You're up a little earlier than I expected."
Sakura's blood ran cold. She knew that voice - would, could, never forget it.
Fingers danced across her hair. She twisted away from them like they were hot coals, but her restraints held firm. The room filled with an electric buzz for a moment and then blinding fluorescent light poured in.
Yakushi Kabuto smiled down at her. He laughed as he ducked the glob of spit Sakura sent at him and moved back to the head of the table. His tepid hands held both her cheeks, keeping her still.
"I have the feeling you aren't pleased to see me," he said. "I, though, am very pleased to see that you've survived so long. It lets me take pride in my work."
Sakura weighed the futility of trying to spit in his face again. "Fall on a kunai," she finally growled. "You're supposed to be dead. Danzo said he killed you."
Kabuto didn't answer that. His hands prodded at her temple, her ears, her jaw. Sakura felt chakra enter her body and recognized it as one of the sensory jutsu that medic-nins used. Kabuto was silent as he continued to probe, ignoring Sakura's squirming. He went from her head to her chest, then down to stomach, stopping at the faded scar from her liver transplant.
"Already healed up. Superb. I can't see any lasting damage to your body." He was clinical in his examination which somehow felt even creepier than his normal self. This professional side of Kabuto was something Sakura wasn't used to.
The metal door to the room opened on oiled hinges. It was hard, but Sakura lifted her head enough to see that it was Chika who walked in. The old woman was still in her simple robes, but there was a worn Suna headband on her now. Her little puppets were nowhere to be seen, but Sakura knew she was probably just as deadly without them.
"Is she still an acceptable vessel?" Chika asked. She didn't look down at Sakura as she shuffled over.
Kabuto pulled his hands back. "Of course. Everything is as Orochimaru explained. Her body has matured perfectly for the procedure."
"What are you two talking about?" Sakura demanded, but they both ignored her. Chika nodded and Kabuto activated a mechanism on the table, which turned out to be a rolling gurney. Chika led and Kabuto followed, pushing Sakura through the room.
Sakura realized they were underground when the door opened to a large, shadowy cavern. An enormous shaft pierced the center of it and pipes spilled down like a steel waterfall. She had seen something like this only once before in her life - the Yamato Works.
It was becoming clear that Chika was intimately familiar with the layout of the area. Once or twice Sakura caught sight of faces watching from the cavern walls - Suna-nin. If the entire Yamato Works had fallen, Konoha itself wouldn't be far behind. On her last visit, ROOT had told her they had created it for rapid deployment during an invasion. If Suna had it, they could isolate sections of the city at will.
Chika turned at a random door lining the edge of the cavern. From where she was, Sakura could see Kabuto's face - his lips pinched, and he seemed troubled.
"I'm not the only prisoner here," Sakura whispered, low enough that only Kabuto could hear her. This time he glanced down at her.
Sakura hadn't been expecting any real response to her needling, but Kabuto hunched down. "All of us are prisoners in some way, Sakura-san. The difference is I'm working for a way out."
Was that supposed to be supportive? Sakura waited for the older boy to explain further, but his eyes went forward again and he was back to ignoring her.
The new room was dimmer than the last, cast in a green, wavy light that shimmered against the walls. Farther in Sakura saw what the light was coming from - glass tanks upon glass filled with a green fluid that looked like dirty pond water. She couldn't turn her head to look deeper into the room, but Chika was leading them through the rows.
It was a horror show. Half-formed bodies, or just parts of bodies, floated in the tanks. Gnarled faces, mouths open in twisted screams stared back at Sakura. Some had been neatly dissected into chunks that orderly floated side-by-side while others looked like someone had taken a chainsaw to them.
Chika stopped in front of a formidable-looking iron door at the back of the room. Kabuto's expression grew colder when the woman held up her hand to the door and it opened. She turned and caught the expression.
"Thought your little experiment was still a secret?" She smiled and the grandmotherly face was terrifying against the green glow of the tanks. "I was elbows-deep in innards and dissections before your master was even an idea in his father's head. You are fumbling around like a child in the dark."
Kabuto didn't manage to fully master himself. His face smoothed out, but his own smile was sardonic. "Of course, Chiyo-baasama. And after I learned so much from your grandson, I couldn't pass up the chance to work with you."
Something in that killed Chika's - Chiyo's - mirth. She glowered and stormed through the door. Kabuto gave Sakura a cheeky wink and pushed her in after the woman.
This room had fluorescent lighting, but there was also the green cast to the walls. Sakura could get her head up off the gurney enough to see that the room only had a handful of tanks. All but one of them were empty, but Sakura couldn't twist her head enough to see whatever horror lurked in there.
There were also several hospital beds. The one Kabuto wheeled next to held none other than a still-unconscious Gaara. He entire body was twitching, like there was something under his skin trying to burst out.
Chiyo rolled up her sleeves. "You'll assist me. Prepare the vessel."
Sakura didn't understand what the woman was talking about, but she realized that it wasn't good for her. She was probably this 'vessel' they kept talking about and what was a vessel if not to put something into it? She felt a flicker of chakra and grasped at it. She coughed up a plume of smoke that caught the attention of both of her captors.
"She's recovering sooner than I expected. We need to move it along if we hope to finish before we have to drain her chakra again."
The old woman frowned. "Do it."
And then, before Sakura could gather herself for another attempt at a fireball, Kabuto formed a seal and put his hand into her head.
She thought it was only his chakra at first until she could feel his fingers swishing through her head. His wrist was getting tangled in her hair and he clicked his teeth. Oddly, out of everything else happening to her, Sakura saw no blood.
His fingers closed around something and tugged. If Sakura could have stopped screaming long enough to form a rational thought, she would have likened it to yanking a stuck kunai out of mud. The sensation when Kabuto finally ripped it free was disturbingly pleasant.
"And there you are," Kabuto cooed. He was holding a seal, also bloodless. It had the kanji for 'soul' on it.
Sakura's head flopped to the gurney as if she were a doll tossed aside by a bored child. Kabuto turned the seal over in his hand, curious. "I'm surprised that Suna didn't add anything when they discovered it," he wondered.
Chiyo huffed. She cut Gaara's top off and exposed the soft outline of a sealing jutsu on his stomach. "They wanted to, but I convinced Rasa not to. I guessed what Orochimaru was offering, and I wanted to see how far along his own research was." She wryly looked up at the teen. "But it wasn't his research, was it?"
The small seal, the trap that Kabuto had used to bottle a human soul, was set aside on the operation tray. He met Chiyo's eyes and held up his finger. It glowed with chakra. "I built it off of Orochimaru-sama's research, but I surprised him with the results."
His finger lightly pressed down on Sakura's forehead. The girl's skin rippled like he'd disturbed the surface of a pond. Then, with the steady power of a plant shooting out through concrete, her body exploded. Restraints snapped like rubber bands and her clothes burst at the seams as her body's hidden form sorted itself.
Chiyo leaned over the table. "I've never seen one in person," she murmured, sounding impressed. "How did you acquire one?"
"Your grandson. Although we have gone our separate ways, he proved interested in this collaboration. He provided the samples for copies of my notes."
Kabuto lifted one of the creature's sickly, pale arms. It weighed almost nothing, but there were chords of muscle-like fibers underneath its "skin" that gave it surprising density. With enough familiarization, though, you could move through its substance as if it were water.
And Kabuto was very familiar with the biology of a victim of the Infinite Tsukuyomi and the God Tree. Orochimaru and he had been experimenting on them for years.
"I can't imagine an army of these overrunning the world," Chiyo said, staring down at the unfortunate monster. "What our ancestors faced..."
Kabuto smiled. This time he kept it from being patronizing. "Thankfully for us there are still a few in the world. Now, we have a weapon to create, do we not?"
The old woman came back to herself. She looked at him, eyes full of suspicion, and then down at the tag he had saved. "I have to admit that one thing confuses me. Why are you still clinging to that soul? Wasn't it only kept to ensure proper maturation of your final product?"
She gestured to the last tank in the room. "Compared to what you have done so far, I expected more brilliance from your side projects."
Kabuto followed her eyes. "Well, I can have a few simpler things I'm working on, can't I?"
"Are you growing a conscience?"
The question drew an honest laugh from the teen. "I sincerely hope not, Chiyo-baasama. Now, shall we transplant the demon from the Kazekage's son before ROOT discovers us?"
Chiyo cursed Rasa under her breath. "Just give me a damn scalpel."
Loyalty 35
"Wrap it tighter!" Anko hissed. Ino tugged again, drawing a gasp from the woman, and made the mistake of letting the bandage go slack. "God damn it! Tighter! I don't care how much fucking noise I'm making!"
This time Ino yanked hard enough to make the woman choke down a scream. Anko said nothing about the rough treatment, but she shot Ino a nasty look.
Across the alleyway, Gai frowned. "It is a poor student that does not react to the pain of the teacher. There is no need to be so hateful, Mitarashi-san," he said. Beside him, his little clone furiously nodded his head.
Anko crunched down on a clotting pill, ignoring the jounin. Ino, though, made the mistake of looking straight at him. He quickly looked away.
"She's not my teacher," Ino muttered, even though talking still made the horrible cut along her jaw throb. The Suna-nin in the training ground had nearly killed her, if not for Anko tackling him at the last second. It was also why, despite all the abuse, she was still with the woman.
Whatever illusions she'd had of the village or its situation had shattered in the day since the attack. There were hundreds of Suna-nin in the village and they were far more coordinated than Konoha. The Hokage Tower had gone silent and the jounin leadership was gone. Ino hadn't seen another jounin other than Anko until they'd met up with Gai and his student, Rock Lee.
Like Team Eight, Gai's team hadn't been together when the attack hit. The girl on their team hadn't been with them and the other boy, a Hyuuga, had ran off to the Hyuuga compound. That was hours ago, and he still hadn't come back.
Making everything worse was that they had lost control of the rooftops. It was suicide to go above the streets. On the ground, in the buildings and between them, Konoha-nin still held out. Suna was paying for every step, or so Gai had said.
That didn't mean much to Ino. She finished tying off Anko's bandage and slumped down against the side of the building. She didn't even care that the woman double-checked her work and made more than a few adjustments - Ino knew she was the dead weight of the party. Gai's student was ten times her better. He could run and jump and actually be useful in a fight. He had even saved her life during an ambush a few blocks ago, kicking a kunai out of the way before it could hit her in the chest. Ino didn't even bother thanking him because if she kept track of all the times people had saved her life in the last day, she'd be counting forever.
As had become her habit during lulls in fighting or running to survive, she reached into her battered kimono and pulled out the Benri tree paper. Now she didn't hesitate to push some chakra into it and was rewarded when it crumpled up in her hand. She drew back her chakra, and the paper smoothed back out. The first time she'd seen Ino do it, Anko had told her what it meant - lightning nature. Ino been so hesitant to learn anything outside of what her family taught. Now, she wondered if she would've been more useful if she'd branched out.
I bet Sakura isn't feeling this useless, Ino thought. The girl was a complete mess of a human, but she wasn't useless. Not anymore. She wouldn't mention it to Anko, though. The woman hated it when she mentioned Sakura and it felt wrong to vent about their stupid feud when the village was falling to shambles around them.
She was rapidly learning that reality didn't care about Yamanaka Ino's inferiority complex.
Suddenly there was a strong hand on her shoulder. "There is no reason to lose heart, Ino-san," Lee whispered (as much as he could; the boy was loud). In his other hand he was holding out a dirty handkerchief and Ino was surprised to feel tears sliding down her face. Embarrassed, she snatched the dirty rag and wiped them away.
"Sorry," she mumbled. She scratched at the ripped wrapping covering half the lower part of her jaw; another new habit. "I was thinking about someone."
"I'm sure your teammates are fine!"
Ino let out a puff of air. Her teammates. She hadn't thought of them in hours. Somehow that made her feel worse than getting caught crying. "You're right," she lied. "Shikamaru is smart enough to get Choji out of any mess that Asuma-sensei couldn't. Thanks, Lee."
The little kernel of gratitude made the boy smile, and it was infectious. She hadn't smiled since the invasion had started. When he walked back over to Gai, the man gave him a not-so-subtle thumbs up.
They were almost goofy enough to make Ino forget they could all die at any moment.
Anko rolled her shoulder, testing out her adjusted bandage. During the first attack at the training ground one of the Suna-nin had blown a hole through her with some kind of fuuton. This was the first time they'd slow down long enough to fix it and Anko almost seemed back to her old self.
The woman looked up at the sky. She frowned and looked down at Ino. "We're moving, kid. I'm not spending another night out here with no cover when we're so close to the hospital."
"We just stopped," Ino complained. "And Gai-sensei -"
"Isn't coming with us. He has his own mission," she snapped, angry.
Across from her, Gai solemnly nodded. "We must go forth to find our teammates and save as many civilians as we can. That is our job now, until the Hokage decides differently."
Anko's jaw clenched. "And I keep telling you it's possible he's already dead. For all we know the entire council is dead. You need to start making exit strategies." This sounded like an argument she'd already fought before.
Gai got to his feet and brushed himself off. "If we hear anything from the Hokage," he said, ignoring Anko's suggestion, "we will try to get the word to you!" The pair stared at each other for a second, Gai's cheery, smiling face against Anko's scowl. The ANBU broke first and turned away with a clipped curse.
"Come on," she hissed and stormed down the alleyway. Ino hurried to her feet, gave the pair of taijutsu specialists her thanks, and ran after the woman.
It was becoming clear to Ino that Anko didn't have many social connections to the rest of the village. Ino's father had mentioned the woman once or twice, almost always in the same breath as Ibiki. Something happened in the past to Anko and it had affected her career, or something like that. Ino had the feeling that Anko's ANBU promotion was recent, though, so things must have worked out for her.
Until she got saddled with me. Not for the first time did Ino wonder if she wouldn't be better off making her way alone. They had been in several fights and most of Anko's injuries had come from protecting Ino. In the grand scheme of things she was just a genin from a secondary clan. She wasn't a Hyuuga or someone actually important. She wasn't Sakura, who was apparently some big-wig in Oto. She wasn't even her dad at her age; he had already been a chunin and fighting in a war by himself.
"Catch up!" Anko snapped at her and Ino pushed herself a little harder to stop causing the woman problems. That's about all I can do for her, Ino thought.
They stopped at the end of the alleyway and Anko waved Ino back. She poked her head out, scanning the span of road they would have to cross. The main hospital was a little over three blocks away, but Suna-nin were getting more and more frequent the closer they drew to the center of Konoha.
Suddenly Anko flattened herself against the alleyway. "Shit. There's a Suna team three buildings down, across the street." Stress coated the woman's words and Ino knew the woman had to be getting tired.
"Maybe we should split up?" Anko sharply looked back at her, and Ino shrank back. "I mean, that would confuse them, right?"
"The only 'confusion' would be how fast they would gut you like a fish." Anko shook her head and edged closer to the alleyway. "Give me a second to think."
Ino looked back to where Lee and Gai had been; they were gone already, so they would have no backup. Anko was by herself. Ino wracked her brain, trying to remember something helpful from her training. Asuma had spent weeks on unit coordination between the family jutsu in Team Ten, but looking back on it, Ino realized how careful he'd been to not say one jutsu was greater than another, and no one had ever asked what to do if one of them were suddenly rendered useless. It was no help. The Academy, though...
'Always remember your core strengths and weaknesses and what you can bring to a team.' Mizuki-sensei said to his group of bored senior-year students. 'If you can fight, fight. If you can't fight, escape and get help. If you can't escape, distract and create an opening.'
Of course, Mizuki had turned out to be a village traitor who was rotting away in the depths of the ANBU secret prison, but the advice was still solid.
Anko was still silent, staring out into the street. To most anyone she would look calm and controlled, but Ino was good at reading people - the woman didn't know what to do. They had to cross this road to get to the hospital.
Ino darted past her before the woman realized she'd been steeling her nerve. Ever the professional, though, she didn't yell after Ino; it would mean absolutely nothing if she did.
A kunai ricocheted off the cobblestones in front of Ino. She dove to the side as another two hit where she'd been standing. Another just cut her arm and then one more buzzed her head, slicing a thick cord of ponytail.
"We've got a live one!" someone shouted, and laughter followed him. "First one to wing her gets an extra ration bar."
The kunai and shuriken fell like rain after that. For the next minute, they kept Ino in the middle of the street, dodging half-hearted attempts at skewering her. Anko had already disappeared by the time Ino worked up enough nerve to look back at the alley. She didn't know if the woman would support her or if she'd simply left. For sanity's sake, Ino assumed the former and kept her mind on not getting crippled.
It became clear when one of the ninja tired of the game. Ino screamed as a kunai expertly and cleanly cored her calf, going in and out with the same effortless precision. Before Ino could even finish collapsing to the ground, the jounin was standing over her. He grabbed a fist-full of her ponytail to kept her standing.
"You aren't from the group at the hospital," the man said. He hadn't been the one shouting and laughing. Without preamble he slammed his foot into Ino's wounded leg, drawing another shriek from the girl. "Where is your operation cell? Who dressed that wound?"
Ino clenched her mouth shut, but she was screaming again when the man slapped her across her cut jaw. She felt the weak scab that had been forming split open again and fire raced across her face. "Your cell information," he repeated, voice even and barely audible over Ino's own sobbing. His hand came up again and Ino tried to jerk away from him like an animal, hair snapping from her scalp.
The Suna-nin wrenched Ino's head as he leaned sharply to the side. Anko's armored boot came down right where his head had been and she snarled, flowing and twisting into a spinning backhand that prompted him to raise his free hand in defense.
He released his grip on Ino's hair and the girl flopped to the ground. "I don't need you anymore," he said, but he hadn't let her go. Only Anko's quick reflexes saved Ino from a shuriken to the back of the neck.
The tiny lapse allowed the man get inside Anko's guard. His hands flashed in the sunlight and came back red. Between each of finger of his fist was a shuriken, most dripping either with blood or skin. Anko's neck was a mess of bleeding cuts and tears, but she was still on her feet and breathing. Ino cried out again as the jounin kicked her solidly in the stomach. There was no maliciousness or glee on the man's face; her suffering was a means to an end. Each kick from him and squeal of pain from her broke a small bit of Anko's concentration. Finally, after the third such kick, Anko rushed him.
But this time Ino held firm. She wrapped her body around the Suna-nin's leg and clamped down through the pain, even as a swipe from that shuriken-covered fist raked deep across her shoulder and several of the blades stuck fast in the meat of her back.
Before he could recover, Anko was on him. The Suna-nin tried one more horrible, sob-wracking tug to free his leg before he was finished. Warm blood spilled across Ino's body. A moment later and she cried out as the full weight of the collapsed man landed on her like a log.
She was only vaguely aware of Anko pulling her across the street into the safety of another alley. The woman was grasping her neck, but it did little to stem the steady flow of blood from seeping out between her fingers. That, at least, kept Anko quiet. The rage behind her eyes stayed there, bottled, as she pulled.
Ino lingered on the edge of unconsciousness. Whenever she started to feel it seep in, Anko was there with a hard slap. Her leg was pure fire, scraping over the rough street for what seemed like miles. Anko had her by the scruff of the neck, dragging Ino. She was muttering to herself - mostly nonsense strings of curses, but Ino was sure she heard some kind of instructions there. Or maybe a plea. She wasn't lucid enough to make sense of either.
Finally, finally, Anko's eyes widened with relief. She stopped pulling and Ino twisted around. She let out a fresh sob when Anko lost her grip and Ino's head bounced against the street, but strong hands were there a second later. Someone scooped her up. Warm hands, clutching almost too tight.
"Get her inside! I've got Mitarashi!"
Ino curled tighter into the warm body jostling her around. The pain in her back was blinding; the pain in her leg would have drawn screams if her jaw could open that far.
Someone ran their hand through her hair. "Be brave for me," they said. Ino's eyes cracked open, and she saw long, flowing hair. It tickled her nose. "You need to cut your hair," Ino muttered. "Let me braid it later."
Something sharp pushed into her arm and Ino didn't bother fighting it. Compared to her other pains, the needle was a small one. Her head turned fuzzy, and the pain started to pull back from her active mind.
Ino turned her head further into the person holding her. "Thanks, Sakura." She cracked an eye open and the girl's features started to settle over the hazy silhouette. Ino smiled and reached her hand up to Sakura's face. "You feel scratchy," she slurred.
"How much did you give her?" Sakura asked. She sounded worried. Stupid Sakura, always worried about what other people thought or what they did. People were horrible outside of a few good ones and she needed to worry about herself for once.
Sakura ran her hand through Ino's hair again and the blond giggled. The hand stopped and drew back fast when Ino tried to lean into it with her cheek.
"You're blushing," Ino cooed. Or tried to. It came out as a drugged slur. "And you used to be softer," she complained as the drugs finally, blissfully took hold and sent her into unconsciousness.
Inoichi and Shikamaru eyed one another, then the medical ninja who'd just given Ino another dose of morphine. "She needed it," he said, perfectly professional.
"Of course," Inoichi agreed. His face had flushed when Ino'd reached up and cupped his jaw. He looked over at Shikamaru. "She's been given a full, adult dose of drugs," he said, looking firmly at the boy. Shikamaru quickly nodded, and he politely ignored the shaky breath Ino's father let out.
The medic-nin was still working on Ino. Shikamaru knew the feeling of being poked and prodded; he was glad that Ino was at least unconscious. He'd gone through throat surgery conscious, since he'd lost too much blood to get put under. clean bandage across his throat and a few more scars across his back where Chika's puppets had gotten him. Choza, he knew, was in a much worse state.
He tried not to wince when the dirty bandage covering Ino's face peeled back. Inoichi's face hardened as he saw the ruin that was the girl's jaw. The medic's hands lit with the soft glow of chakra and he peeled back the jagged skin to work on the muscles there. As gory as it was, Shikamaru watched with amazement as the skin started to knit together right across from him. Soon all that remained was an angry red scar that ran from Ino's lip to her ear.
The slight mark was a sharp contrast to the look on Inoichi's face. Shikamaru had rarely seen his unofficial uncle angry, but there was nothing but fury in the man's eyes as the medic rolled his daughter over on her side. It was worse there; something had shredded Ino's back, and she was bleeding on the bed.
"Instead of standing over my shoulder, go get me a towel to put under her back," the medic snapped. Inoichi had started to crowd him. "There's nothing here I can't fix. If you want to help, get her sandals off when you get back."
That was when Shikamaru saw that Ino's ankle was a swollen lump under her bed sheet. Inoichi's jaw clenched when he cut off his daughter's sandals and Shikamaru had finally found something he couldn't look at. The nasty, swollen ankle looked like his finger when he'd broken it as a kid, only a hundred times worse.
The medic finished with Ino's back and rolled her back over. His face tightened when he saw the ankle. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two hyorogan, soldier pills, and rolled them between his fingers thoughtfully. He popped one into his mouth and put the other away.
The chakra on his hands flared when he bit into the pill. He reached out to Ino's ankle and ran his fingertips all along the bulb. "Grab me a pan," he said to Inoichi, pointing. When it was on the bed he pulled out a scalpel and cut several thin slits on the bulb; clear fluid and blood poured out. All the while his chakra was blanketing the deflating bulb, healing, Shikamaru imagined, the bone underneath.
Ten minutes later Ino's ankle was only swollen a tiny bit. It was still a mess of red and purple bruises, but now her foot was pointing straight up instead of flopped to the side. "Don't make her walk on it for another few hours," he said, sounding exhausted. When he tried to stand his legs shook like jelly and he fell back into his chair.
Inoichi put a hand on his shoulder. "You saved my daughter," he said, low and sincere. "Take a minute. I'll order you if I have to."
The medic laughed and pushed Inoichi's hand away. "I can't be ordered around by the regular forces during times of war, but I appreciate the thought. I have half a dozen more cases to go before I can take a break." This time when he got to his feet he was more solid; he only wobbled a bit as he walked around the foot of Ino's bed and toward the door.
He paused at the doorway, using the frame to hold himself steady. "Don't think about what someone says under anesthesia too much," he said. "Take care of yourselves."
Inoichi frowned after him and Shikamaru was more than smart enough to make a comment himself. He was doing his best to forget everything Ino had slurred when Inoichi brought her in, too; Ino could terrify in her own right.
Though, thinking about Sakura brought back all sorts of uncomfortable thoughts. She was gone. Kidnapped. Whatever Suna wanted her for couldn't be good. Chika had gone to a lot of trouble to grab both Gaara, who was apparently the Kazekage's son, and Sakura. That made her a lot more important to all of this than Shikamaru had first thought.
He owed Sakura for saving his life. That needled Shikamaru more than anything else. He didn't want to track down whatever mystery surrounded her, nor did he want to be a hero, but he owed her a debt.
If Inoichi had been able to pay more attention to the situation, then he probably would have noticed all the supplies Shikamaru had been gathering. A pack of bandages here, some tools and weapons there. The hospital had become a rally point for the Konoha resistance, so while he was helping the medics where he could, Shikamaru was also helping himself to anything the patients brought in with them to get fully supplied. The question now was finding a good time to slip away.
"Bad time?" The voice came from the doorway and Shikamaru still hadn't gotten used to the relief he felt at the sight of his father, alive and well. Shikaku gave his son a knowing smile, but that dropped when he saw Ino.
"God, I didn't know it was that bad. I just debriefed Mitarashi."
"She was my daughter's handler in ANBU." Inoichi shifted, thoughts twisting behind his pale eyes. "She saved her life, a few times I think, getting here. She's in surgery still."
Shikaku walked in and put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "Ino's a fighter. She looks good, for what Mitarashi said they went through to get here. There's a dead Suna team two streets over that we got some intelligence from. Ino helped with that."
"I don't need a pep talk, Shikaku." Inoichi was firm, not rude. Shikaku nodded and stepped back. "Tell me - are we ready to move yet?"
Move. Inoichi and Shikaku had been talking about it ever since Choza and Shikamaru had shown up. There were about eleven battle-ready ninja and a handful of medic-nin who were being worked to their limit. Attacks were becoming more and more frequent, but if that Anko woman had gotten rid of a few then there was a chance he could slip through the Suna offense. Activity had shifted from defense of the hospital to longer scouting missions. The main resistance was at the tower.
Shikaku glanced at him and Shikamaru tried to look small and comfortable. He didn't know how innocent he looked, but his father frowned.
"Let's move this discussion. I'm sure the kids want some peace for as long as they can get it." He motioned for Inoichi to follow him and gave Shikamaru a look. Like he knew exactly what the boy was thinking.
Sorry, Dad.
That night Shikamaru got out of his cot. Most of the other ninja and civilians in the room were too drugged or too stressed or too burnt out to care what he was doing. He reached under his pillow and took the pilfered weapons pouch. From under his mattress he withdrew a civilian backpack full of what rations he could grab, along with his medical supplies.
All the guards were looking out, not within. He knew their habits and their respective ranks and he'd prepared as much as he could. His original set of clothes were ruined, so he'd traded some of his food for replacements. The clothes he'd bartered for were dark and solid colors - probably as good as it would get with a civilian's clothes.
He gave his neck a roll. The medic had warned him to take it easy after the surgery, but what was the point of that when there was a war? When his mother and father were fighting? Haruno Sakura was a piece of this, somehow. Suna wanted her for something. Denying that to them could only be a good thing.
Something caught his sleeve.
"Where are you going?" Ino's (lucid) eyes stared at him through the darkness. He hadn't thought she would even be awake yet. Her grip was strong and Shikamaru reminded herself how sharp Ino could be when she put her mind to it.
"Just stretching my legs," he said, but he knew she didn't buy it. Ino's eyes zeroed in on his backpack and weapon pouch. "Okay, so I'm not just stretching my legs. I have something I need to take care of."
He pulled away from her. Ino stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "Something you need to take care of? There's a war out there, in case you didn't notice. People are dying and you want to just run off?"
"I'm not running off. I'll be back soon. I've just got to do this." Shikamaru fought back a groan when he heard Ino's cot shift in the darkness. "You're not coming," he added, firm.
Ino rolled her eyes at him. "Split your supplies with me," she ordered, and after a moment of glaring, Shikamaru grudgingly handed over his bag. Taking Ino was stupid and irresponsible, but he knew he needed help.
But he looked down at her leg. "Can you walk on that?" he asked, pointing to the massive purple bruise visible even in the near-darkness. In response, Ino gave her leg a shake. The limb seemed fine enough, and she could even put weight on it and walk. And if it came to fighting, it wouldn't matter if Ino was 10% or 100%; they'd both be dead either way.
The kimono Ino had been (oddly, in Shikamaru's opinion) been wearing was a lost cause, but she had spats on under that and an athletic shirt. She stole a tee shirt on their way out of the room from a hamper of clothes in one of the hospital's laundry rooms and slipped it on; she put the rest of her weapons in the backpack Shikamaru passed to her.
"Are we going to go find Choji?" Ino asked. They were staying inside the building until they could find a side door that wasn't being watched.
Shikamaru shook his head. "I know where Choji is - he evacuated this morning with the rest of the Akimichi. Choza made sure he got out of the village the second they firebombed my family's compound."
He suddenly waved Ino back. Both of them pressed up against the hospital wall as a tall shadow crossed the hallway junction they were about to walk into. Shikamaru kept them there for a few seconds before daring to look down the hall. "All clear," he whispered.
Ino let out a breath. "Then what are we doing?" she asked. "Asuma-sensei?"
"Suna grabbed someone on my way here. She saved my life a few times, so I figure I owe her. And she might be the key to this invasion."
That vague answer only bought him a handful of moments before Ino worked it out. "You're doing this for Sakura?" she hissed. "No way. I'm not putting my neck out there for her!"
Should you really be saying that after all that stuff you said earlier? Shikamaru wanted to ask, but he didn't need his teammate to throttle him. Instead, he tried, "She's important in all of this, Ino. Suna ran an operation just to catch her alive. A Suna-jounin even let himself get burned to death to do it. Something is wrong there."
Ino still acted like she'd swallowed something sour, but she was listening. "You know I have a point," Shikamaru pressed as they headed toward the loading area of the hospital. "She's at the middle of this invasion. Her and her village. We have to get her back from Suna."
"It's like you've fallen for her or something," Ino grumbled, but she was keeping up with him as they snuck into the loading dock. She knew he was right. And, deep down, she probably wanted to save Sakura even more than he did.
Only, when he tried the door, it wouldn't budge. He stood on his tiptoes to look out the window to look out the window in it and saw nothing blocking it; it was just locked.
He looked to Ino. "Have a bobby pin?" he asked, half joking. Ino's hair was loose.
Something dropped onto the floor in front of him with a metallic tink. Both he and Ino looked down at the little key sitting at his feet.
"You've convinced me, kid."
Ino jumped like a frightened cat and Shikamaru felt like someone had just dumped a bucket of ice down his shirt. He turned and came face-to-chest with none other than Mitarashi Anko, the special jounin that had come in with Ino. She was looking down at them with an almost predatory grin.
Ino let out an angry huff of air. "Don't do that!" she snapped. "Crazy psycho woman!"
Anko rolled her eyes. "Great, they fixed your mouth. Did I tell you how much easier you were to get along with when you could only move your jaw an inch at a time?"
Shikamaru hadn't picked up the key yet. "What did you mean, I've 'convinced you'? Aren't you going to tell my dad what we're doing?"
"What else would I mean by that? You have a good argument. I agree with you - Suna can't have her."
Something about the way the woman said that rang a warning bell for Shikamaru, but Ino elbowed between the two of them and glared up at Anko.
"You can't kill her."
Anko's lips pursed. "Your friend just said Suna wants her alive as some kind of war goal. You think you can just grab her and get out alive from the types of ninja they'll have guarding her?"
Ino didn't back down. "You still owe me," she reminded, although Shikamaru had now lost track of the conversation. Anko owed Ino? For what? From when?
"ANBU owes you. If ANBU is even still around," she countered. "They were probably the first ones targeted and wiped out to a man. Why should I do anything?"
"If ANBU isn't around, then what are you? Just a special jounin?"
Anko and Ino stared at each other for a long moment. Long enough that Shikamaru started to get worried the woman would raise the alarm, and they'd lose their chance. But, remarkably, it was the woman who turned away first. She whispered a quiet, "Well fuck you," to Ino, but bent down and grabbed the key she'd dropped.
She unlocked the door. "Come on, you brats. There's a rotation back here in three minutes and we've got to be gone before they realize something's up. Now, where are we even going?"
They turned to Shikamaru. He didn't understand what had just happened, but he wouldn't tell a special jounin, or an ANBU, apparently, that she couldn't help them on their dangerous rescue mission. "Underground," he said to her. "Somewhere underground. They took Sakura into the sewers."
And then Anko cursed again. "You damn brats are really getting a field trip today. Follow me and stay low."
As Anko led them away, Shikamaru shared a frightened, worry look with Ino. He did not like the way the woman had said 'field trip'.
Half an hour later, when Anko moved aside a particular manhole cover and revealed a deep, dark hole that seemed to swallow what little light the moon was giving them, they both realized they would discover things about Konoha that might have been better left buried.