To Love and to Love Again Chapter 36: Brother
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER AND AUTHORS NOTE: I do NOT own Naruto. The awesomeness of the Naruto Manga and World is the creation of Masashi Kishimoto. This is Purely Fanfiction. All things Medical in this entire fanfiction should not be taken as serious medical advice or facts. PLEASE CONSULT AN ACTUAL DOCTOR FOR ANY MEDICAL INFORMATION/QUESTIONS. THANK YOU AND ENJOY!
"His mission was to kill her."
Naruto decided to think before shouting; a first for him. Sasuke wasn't just saying that to get a rise out of him, and Sai clearly didn't kill Sakura. But the question still lingered. Why would he say that?
"How did you come to learn that?" Naruto asked with an uncharacteristic calmness.
"I have my ways," Sasuke answered.
"You have your ways. That's all you're going to tell me?" he said narrowing his eyes.
"Do you understand what I'm telling you?" Sasuke asked patiently.
"Why don't you spell it out for me," Naruto said, retaining as much control that was humanly possible. All it took was the right push, and he could have a relapse right here. "Unlike you, I've met the man. I knew Sai and I know he never would have done that to her."
Sasuke, sensing the gaps, complied. "You knew of the protection detail placed on her when she was sixteen," he stated. Naruto nodded. "Didn't you ever question why an Agent from Black Ops was needed for something like that?"
Naruto was about to shake his head, but stopped himself. "Yeah, but only for a split second. Like I said, Sakura was and still is a high priority target for vengeance. Kakashi has a lot of enemies and she was his only weakness. Regular protection didn't cut it when she came close to dying at one point."
"So they put a Black Ops Agent on her," Sasuke continued. "They chose a very specific Agent for that; an Agent, who up until that point had virtually no identity."
"They thought it was necessary, though no one could have imagined the direction that assignment could have taken," Naruto mumbled, not knowing how to put his thoughts into words. But then the weight of his words finally began to sink in. Sai didn't kill Sakura… but he was supposed to which meant…
Naruto sat up straighter as the revelation stuck. "Son of bitch! It's ROOT. They wanted her dead!" he yelled. "I gotta call this in," he said reaching for his communicator. Sasuke laid his blade across Naruto's throat, stopping all his movements.
"I told you…it's being taken care of," he said. "They aren't going to get away with this, but the minute you notify anyone they'll escape."
"How the hell are you taking care of it from here? Kakashi has to know what's going on. They all have to know!" Naruto said desperately.
"Think before you act," Sasuke ordered. "If they go hunting for the dirty Agent, who's to say that he won't tip off Sound and warn them of an incoming attack? We'll lose them," he said fiercely referring to Sakura and the children. The Sound Organization had no qualms about abandoning works in progress, even human works, for death.
Naruto shoved the kunai away from his neck and slammed his fist into the console. "Dammit…," he muttered. "So ROOT's not only responsible for Sakura's life, they're in cahoots with Sound? Son of a bitch!" he huffed once again. "How the hell could something like this happen? How could a sworn division of the agency turn like this?"
"It's the consequence of one botched mission and the agenda behind it," Sasuke answered. "Everything comes back to Sai."
"He protected her," Naruto insisted. "He never would have killed her."
"But that wasn't how it was supposed to go down," Sasuke said. "We're not going to mince words here. Sai was an assassin. His only mission was to kill for the CIA. He had done it countless times before in the name of ROOT. Sakura wasn't supposed to be any different to him," he said with frustration. The knowledge that Sakura's life was that close to an end hit him like a thousand senbon needles piercing his skin.
"But she was," Naruto said after a stretch of time. "Sakura may have saved herself, just by being herself."
That was one of the thoughts that had been haunting Sasuke. He knew of the pull that Sakura held over his own heart. Therefore he knew, even a heartless assassin would fall prey to her pull. "He couldn't stop," Sasuke continued. "Not after he made his choice. ROOT wanted her dead dobe and you have to wonder why. What would happen in the event of her death? Who would it affect the most? That's what you need to ask yourself."
"Kakashi, hands down," Naruto answered.
"And what does Kakashi control?"
"The CIA," Naruto said before the big picture formed in his head. The annoyance of having Sasuke spoon feed him the information didn't have time to linger as the reason was made clear. "Someone wanted Kakashi out of the way."
"Enemies were always trying to get to him through his daughter," Sasuke said. "What better way to destroy a man than attempt the very same thing and make it seem like it was done by an enemy? That was Sai's true purpose. And who controls ROOT?"
"Danzo…," Naruto practically growled the name. "But if Sai killed Sakura then Kakashi would have known it was him."
"Not unless they killed Sai as well. Disposable agents," he repeated. "That's what ROOT is all about. Sai would have known that. He would have gone along with that…but he didn't."
"So Sakura's love not only changed him…it saved him from himself," Naruto concluded.
A few beats of silence passed. Sasuke couldn't keep his curiosity out of his mind. "Do you believe his affection was genuine?"
Naruto glanced at him before he answered.
"I do," he answered. "You have every reason to be weary of him, especially since you say he was supposed to kill her, but keep in mind that he did save her life countless times. He took his mission from Kakashi to protect her seriously at least. And Sakura loved him. She always will."
Sasuke grew increasingly anxious to hear what else he had to say. He was finally learning of the man that had first taken Sakura's heart.
"He asked me to take care of them if anything was to happen to him," Naruto continued. "He was always aware of the dangers of his secret life, even after he quit the CIA to be with them. The agency had no choice but to let him go, and threatening him wouldn't work. Sai was one of our best, and more than capable of going underground with his family. Kakashi didn't want to lose Sakura or her new baby so he relented. Sai loved her. There was no question about that."
Sasuke's antagonism towards the man known as Sai turned to steel, and for good reason.
He didn't dare go back to Sakura's house after he left to find information about Sai, even though he knew that photographs had to have been in her possession. After searching every archive he could think of, turning up blank after blank after blank, he finally found a picture of the man that had always been in the middle of it all.
He had stared into the face of Sai. He might as well have just looked in a mirror.
Slight differences be damned! This was the man? This was the man that first held her heart? A nearly perfect copy of himself?
Rage was all he could feel. He thought back to the very first moment he had ever laid eyes on Sakura, all those months ago in his office. He remembered thinking how green her eyes were…and just how wide they were with what he now knew was shock. When she saw him for the first time, she wasn't really seeing him. She saw Sai. And how could she not?! How could he blame her when he himself was stunned by the resemblance?
He didn't blame her. He couldn't! But that didn't stop the raging jealously that consumed him. Thoughts of Sai holding her, kissing and loving her, having her whispering his name in the heat of passion and finally giving him a son; all for the man that was supposed to be her end filtered through his mind.
Sasuke wanted to hate him. He wanted it more than anything else at the time, but he couldn't even do that. Not when he knew Sai was the only thing that kept her alive and had given her Sora. He just couldn't hate him for learning to love her; something he had succumbed to as well.
But it was apparent that Naruto didn't have his facts straight about the man.
"Sai never quit the CIA dobe," Sasuke said after gathering his thoughts. "Remember, ROOT designed their Agents to be expendable, and Sai was no exception. They used him for missions and he had no choice but to do them, because now they had something to use against him."
"Are you telling me they threatened his family?" Naruto asked incredulously. He didn't see much of Sai in the two years that followed that night, but he had never heard of him doing anymore missions for the agency.
"The division he was working for wanted Sakura dead," Sasuke explained. "Suddenly he defies them and keeps her alive. ROOT knows better than to touch her after that, but now Sai's a liability. He knows too much. At the same time they can't exactly get rid of him themselves. Sai would see it coming and dodge them, so they compromise. They'll leave his wife and son alone so long as he still does their dirty work. He had no choice."
"Those bastards..," Naruto growled. He thought back to the day Sai asked him for help. Sai's behavior the day Sora was born made more sense now.
"I entertain death every day I'm out there," said Sai. "And now my greatest weakness was born only hours ago….There's a reason why Danzo is so against family ties in ROOT…I need to know that I can count on you, should anything ever happen to me."
That was why Sai pleaded with Naruto to look out for his family. He wasn't afraid of former enemies. He was afraid of ROOT and that bastard Danzo. Sai knew better than anyone what ROOT was capable of. Knowing the dirty waters that ran within the agency was making Naruto sick. Sai really had little choice in the matter. But then, it might explain one other question that had yet to be answered. "How did he die?"
Sasuke waited a beat. "Even I don't know how that happened. Root was in league with Sound. By the time of Sai's death, the former Sound organization had already been disbanded for years. But I wouldn't dismiss the possibility that ROOT had a hand in keeping Sound alive, at least until it was advantageous to them."
Naruto was reeling on the inside. There was so much to keep up with, and everything was crossing over with something else. Finding Sakura and the kids was going to be challenging. It was then that a thought had struck him.
"What else do you know about Sai?" he asked carefully.
"What I just told you," Sasuke answered. Naruto turned to him, assessing whether that was all he knew, or if he was holding something back. Naruto had only just noticed that Sasuke spoke about the perp as if he had no connection to Sai. He didn't know after all.
That's gotta be a first.
"I guess there's something you missed after all," Naruto mused.
Sasuke gave him a glance, narrowing his eyes. "And that would be?"
"Sai has a brother…" he said, letting the statement linger. Sasuke didn't show any reaction.
"Sai had a brother," Sasuke clarified. "Both were recruited into ROOT, and the brother never made it out. The only time that happens is if they didn't survive the training."
"Understand this," Naruto started. "Sai still has a brother; a living breathing brother that's been a part of this mess from the beginning. The CIA has the proof, but we're missing the motive. We think the brother is the one responsible for all this."
Sasuke was silent for a few minutes, letting the statement linger. Naruto didn't know what was going through his mind, but it was clear he wasn't expecting that. It was frustrating because up until this point, Sasuke was putting a lot of the pieces together for him. That fact that he wasn't aware of the brother just made the guy more of a wild card.
"…But….you know that he isn't the one don't you?" Naruto asked. "You know who's really responsible for all this, and there's no way you would miss a major detail like Sai having a brother. So that means it's someone else."
"You're sure about the brother." Sasuke stated.
Naruto nodded. "You…really didn't know about him?" he asked, only to receive silence. Sasuke's eyes remained emotionless, but the inside of his mind was processing this new bit of info. If the brother was alive then that added a new crossroad to this mess.
Naruto knew Sasuke was done spilling any more info. When he got contemplative like that, it usually meant he was in the process of piecing things together. He had known the guy long enough to know that much. But while he was doing that, Naruto needed to give the agency something to push them in the right direction. He needed to know what Sasuke knew.
"Where are they?" he asked again, referring to Sakura and the children. "Who really took them? If you won't tell me where we're going then at least tell me who's doing this. Give the agency something. You know we're going to need them to back us up. Even you don't have all the answers."
Sasuke didn't have to look at him, but he knew the dobe and better yet, he knew and trusted one person in the CIA that would cover the other matter he had on his mind. With that security in mind, he consented to at least throw him a bone.
"Yakushi," he said. Naruto tilted his head, racking his brain to recall that name. "Kabuto Yakushi. Start from there."
"Kabuto Yakushi….," Naruto muttered before busting out his communicator. "That's all they'll need," he said, connecting to Kakashi and bracing himself for the wheels they just set in motion.
Shikamaru continued to concentrate on the display as it sorted through the names of the men filtered out from Sakura's past. Finally, one name highlighted.
"And it's down to one now. What do you guys think?" he asked. Neji, Lee, Kiba, Ino, Tenten and Hinata lifted their eyes from the analysis to take a look.
"I know that guy," Neji said after a moment. "It's…"
"Kabuto Yakushi," Kakashi stated walking into the vicinity. Heads turned to see their Commander putting his communicator down. He had been in the infirmary with Anko after he learned that Itachi had rendered her unconscious before escaping.
After relaying the Intel about a possible dirty Agent, Anko all but kicked him out after she drilled it into his brain that she and the baby were fine and to do his damn job. It was at that moment when he received Naruto's message. He made good on his promise after all. "According to Uchiha…and apparently our own analysis…" he said glancing at the face on the screen. "…that's our perp."
"That creepy bastard," Tenten said shuddering. "He was at the Gala. I remember him being there."
"That had to be the first attempt at taking the kids," Tsunade said as she also came into the room after receiving the message as well. Anko practically threw her out of her own medical ward, but Tsunade recognized the signs she was emitting, and knew the onset of labor wasn't far away. She made sure Shizune was nearby to handle that.
"And I'd say he fits the profile we were talking about," Shikamaru said as he accessed any information they had on Yakushi. "Say's here he was found as a child in an abandoned city way up north. He was taken in at an orphanage in the surrounding area where he stayed until he was about ten. He disappeared after that and resurfaced as a med student in Tokyo U in the same graduating class as Sakura."
"That has to be the guy," Kakashi said. "The years of missing tracks could be the time where he came across Orochimaru."
"He fits the type," Tsunade thought as she walked up to the data displayed and sifted through the info rapidly. "He was orphaned, intelligent, needing a role in life; the perfect subject for Orochimaru to lure into apprenticeship. He crossed paths with Sakura around the time we took down Sound. Whether he was fixated on her at that point is yet to be distinguished. Sai was alive at the time."
"It gets worse," Shikamaru relayed. "…he's was a biogenetics major that's been globe-trotting for the better part of the last five years. His last known location was China."
"Shit," Kiba cursed. "You think he has any intention of taking them all the way back to China? We've kept our tracking teams within the greater Tokyo area. We never considered him taking them out of the country."
"I don't think he would do that," Neji piped in. "If he's the cause for Japan's abductions, then it wouldn't make sense logistically for him to transport them back to another country. He's still here somewhere."
"We need to find them quickly," Tenten said as she assessed the topographical map once more. "The weather is not in our favor and it's getting worse. Massive thunder and lightning storms are rolling in as we speak."
Kakashi furrowed his brow. "Shino has got to have something more by now on that tracker."
As if on cue, the screen before them highlighted Shino's alert. Shikamaru opened up the channel of communication, displaying Shino in the lab.
"We've got a location," Shino said getting straight to the point. "Not only that, I've managed to configure a signal from the second device and pair it with faint signals from Naruto's disabled tracking chip, allowing me to trace both receivers. Uchiha is on the move, and heading straight towards the perp's hideout," he said displaying the information before them.
"Nice work Shino," Kakashi said before connecting his communicator to Asuma and Guy.
"What's the news Kakashi?" Asuma asked. Guy could be heard rambling in the background.
"We've got a location," Kakashi informed. "Ready the teams and prepare for infiltration. Those remaining will focus on locating Itachi Uchiha and his possible role in all this."
"You leave Itachi to me," Tsunade said. "The rest of you are to help in the mission."
Kakashi nodded in agreement as he made his way out of the room. Everyone, save for Tsunade followed. Something had caught her eye not long ago, and she was careful not to blurt anything out. It was time to start digging.
"Here," Shin said handing the neatly wrapped package to his brother. The younger dark haired one looked up in surprise at him, before accepting the package.
"What is this?" he asked
"Open it."
"It's a sketchbook," his brother said in wonder.
"You've always wanted one brother," said Shin. He had forgotten his brother's name after they were both found in an accident somewhere. Both their memories were spotty, but after being here in ROOT for so long it didn't matter anymore. He was just happy being called brother.
"I'm going to put drawings of us in there," his brother declared. "It can be a story about you and me!" he exclaimed happily.
"Show it to me when it's done. Promise me, man to man that you will," said Shin.
His brother smiled. "Yeah!"
...
"Brother, I have a drawing I want to show you later," said his little brother enthusiastically as he sketched on the floor.
"Eh? What is it?" asked Shin.
"It's not done yet...so can you wait a little longer?" he asked.
And so he had waited. He had seen his brother working on a drawing in the middle of the book, but was forced to leave him before he was able to complete it. Shin had never seen what his brother had drawn…until now.
Shin opened the door to her chambers and slipped inside before locking it. Her eyes were closed, but her uneven breathing said she wasn't asleep. She blearily opened her eyes and closed them again when she saw it was him.
He grabbed hold of the restraints on her wrists and pulled them off, shocking her out of her stupor. She didn't have time to do anything else as he grabbed hold of her shoulders and hauled her up before him. She saw red in his eyes and immediately sought to protect herself anyway she knew how. He looked crazed.
"Where did you get this?" Shin asked holding up Sai's book before her. "Why do you have this book?" he yelled as his hand dug into her right arm. She twisted in his hold and managed to pull free before his other arm swung around and pulled her back against his chest. His arms held her in a vice grip, his breathing harsh and unsteady in her ear as he spoke.
"Don't push me Sakura," he said menacingly. "Answer me. Where did you get this book?"
Sakura glanced down at the book that had fallen near her feet. It was the book she found in Sai's possessions; the one filled with drawings and information pertaining to the CIA. She didn't know what caused him to behave this way, but clearly something in the book had set him off.
"Answer me!" he yelled, increasing his grip on her. His arms were like two metal bars pressing into her body. She was completely subdued. The hostility in his voice made the choice to cooperate for her.
"It…belonged to my husband," she said. "Let go of me."
"You're lying!" he said turning her around and pushing her against the wall so she faced him. "Don't you dare lie to my face! I want to know exactly where you found this book. Did your father give it to you? Did that bastard Uchiha have it? Where did you get it?"
"It was in my own attic among my husband's things!" she screamed. "What? Did you miss it when you went raiding through my house? Get off of me!" she yelled before bringing up her knee in an attempt to subdue him. He was quick to catch her and pin her arms and legs down with his own body.
"Who was your husband? How did he get a hold of that book?" he demanded.
"It belonged to him!" she shouted. "I don't know how he got it but that book was his! I found it at home! It's been with me ever since he died!"
"That's impossible!" he shouted.
"What are you talking about?"
"That book should never have been in your husband's possessions. It's impossible for him to have had it."
"How? How would you know that?" she asked. "I don't know where Sai got it but why would it be impossible for him to have had it? What's wrong with you?"
"I know it never belong to him…" he said increasing his grip on her, making her flinch. "…because years ago, I gave this very same book to my brother! Now tell me, why the hell would your husband have my brother's book?"
"What?" Sakura asked, confusion swirling in her head. "How would I know?"
"He was your husband. You should have known everything about him," he countered.
"I didn't know anything about anyone in my life!" she shouted as the strength from her anger surfaced. "Everything I have ever known for my entire life was a lie! My world came crashing down on me only a few damn days ago! You know all this. That sick bastard Kabuto knew about this. Everyone knew the truth but me! Even my own husband lied to me, and they thought it was all to keep me safe," she said laughing darkly at the sick truth. She was losing it. "And look where I ended up."
He assessed her psychological state as she went from laughing to crying in a few seconds. He released her wrists and stepped back. She slumped against the wall and tried to gather her wits.
Shin tried to control himself as he thought about the situation. His shock at discovering the book prevented him from remembering that everything she said was true. The truth was kept from her on all sides. How was she to know anything about CIA activities? She claimed her husband took this book, and Shin knew that he was CIA.
He crouched down before her as she looked up at him from her position on the floor. She had gathered herself he thought as he saw the steel return in her eyes. She was tough; he'll give her that much. But he needed to get to the bottom of this, and soon. He picked up the book and held it before her.
"Your husband," he began. "He got this from somewhere. It didn't belong to him."
Sakura looked at him with exasperation and exhaustion in her eyes. "And how would you know that?" she asked. "It's just a book. It has Sai's name in it. It has his handwriting in it. Why are you so insistent that it's not his?"
He simply opened the book, and turned to the page that told him the truth. He held it out before her.
Sakura stared at the two pages. She saw those drawings before when she repeatedly flipped through the book. She never gave it a second thought as she was too busy reading the info Sai had written about the Sound Organization. This was proof that the book belonged to Sai.
She tilted her head to the side and gave him a wry smile. "That's your proof?" she asked with amusement. She took the book from his hands and turned it to face him. "It's my proof. It proves what I've been telling you. This is my husband's book…and that's my Sai," she said turning it to face him and pointing to the page with his brother on it. "There's no way this belongs to your brother."
Shin stared at the drawing as the blood in his veins froze.
He looked back at her when she turned the book to look at the drawing herself. Her gaze lingered over the drawing of his brother longingly. Her hand moved over it in a weak caress.
She was telling the truth. But that was impossible! The implications were just completely impossible! It couldn't be! There was no way her husband was the owner of that book… because that would mean…
"What did he look like?" he asked quietly. Sakura looked up at him questioningly. "What did your husband look like?" he asked again.
"Sai looks just like this," she said indicating the book. "It's his likeness. He drew this himself. He was an artist…he loved to draw, just like our son…," she said stopping when the expression on his face changed.
Shin was frozen in place as the bottom dropped from his stomach. He felt as if everything was tilted of its axis. She believed herself to be telling the truth. She didn't understand the ramifications of what she was saying to him. This couldn't be true.
And then he remembered the boy; how that nagging feeling plagued him since he first saw him.
Sakura didn't understand what had him behaving this way. The look on his face was frightening. She glanced back at drawings, trying to see what he saw. It was a picture of Sai, no doubt about it. What was so confusing about that? Her eyes skimmed the next page of the other figure holding hands with…
Her eyes locked onto the other drawing. She didn't know how she missed the connection before, but it snapped back into place sending a jolt of electricity running through her veins. It looked familiar, because it was a drawing of the same figure that Sora had been creating in his own drawings.
Sai was holding hands…with the man who was right in front of her.
She looked back and forth between the drawing and him, her breath picking up the pace as the connection was being made.
Shin saw the truth forming in her eyes when her green irises widened in both shock and horror. He knew then that everything had just gone to hell.
"It's….it's you?" she whispered. "This is you," she said when Shin's eyes locked onto hers.
He stood up abruptly and bolted out of the room before locking it. Sakura didn't even have time to react, let alone escape. She was frozen in place.
Shin made a beeline for the lab. It was insanity. It was pure unimaginable insanity to think what he was thinking; what was beginning to make less sense as time passed. But everything else began to connect.
If this was true, there was one way to make damn sure there wasn't any mistake. He opened up the lab and snuck into the back, making sure that no one saw him. He didn't pay attention to the activity that was going on, but simply began to sift through the paperwork that was there.
The door opened and one of the lab rats spotted him. "Hey your not-" he didn't get to finish as Shin lunged and knocked him out in a split second. He closed the door and dumped the body in the corner. He went back and found the file labeled with the project name.
He pulled it up from the computer and accessed the blood work done on both of the kids.
He pulled up the boy's info and saw as his DNA strand highlighted before him. Shin wasted no time puncturing his finger and letting the blood drip on the comparison slot in the machine next to him. He pressed start for the analysis to begin and waited in the highest tension as the machine began to process his DNA. It took a full thirty minutes for the process to occur.
Thankfully, no one else had happened to come into the room within that time. The lab rat on the floor had woken up, and before he could utter a single shout, Shin had him subdued again. He dumped the body in the corner again just as the computer signaled the completion of the analysis.
Shin launched himself at the computer and the results of his DNA displayed. He selected the boy's DNA and initiated a comparison.
Shin felt his heart stop when several strands illuminated themselves in a genetic match.
The boy was of his blood. The boy, whose face had him reaching in the back of his memory since the very beginning, now made the connection.
He was the son of his brother.
Sakura jumped when the door opened again. He had come back and saw that she was still in the same spot on the floor where he had left her. Shin wasted no time making his way over to her and pulling her up off the floor.
He watched her stare at him in disbelief. She, who had known his brother and given him a son, was trembling in his arms in utter confusion.
Sakura snapped back to her senses and pulled away from him as if his touch burned her.
"Who the hell are you?" she hissed. "What is the meaning of this?" she asked holding up the book, which she had not put down for even a moment. "Who are you?"
"We haven't got much time," Shin said. "Listen to me Sakura," he said stepping towards her.
"Don't come anywhere near me!" she shouted. "Stay away from me. You broke into my house. You tried to kill me and you tried to hurt my son. You took my children away from me and you want to kill Sasuke and you're playing this sick game with Kabuto. Who are you, and why are you here next to my Sai?"
"It's true," he said accepting what it was. "It's all true. That bastard…" he said referring to Kabuto. "That monster must have known all along. That's why he didn't want me anywhere near that lab," he said, more to himself than to her.
"What are you-"
"He's was my brother," he whispered. "He's is my brother…"
"Who…"
"The man you married. He was my brother," Shin declared.
She reeled back in sheer shock. The denial was quick to follow. "No he isn't," Sakura yelled. "Sai had no family and he never mentioned a brother. You're lying!"
"Sai…," he said letting the name linger in his head. "So that's what they called him," he said in a tone Sakura couldn't identify.
She was about to scream in all the confusion that surrounded her, but Shin grabbed hold of her arms and held her in place.
"Listen to me Sakura and listen well," he ordered. "I am not lying. You married my brother. You had his child. It's the truth."
"Sai had no family," she insisted. "He would have told me if he did."
"Sai never knew I survived. He thought he had no family because he thought I was dead," he stressed. "And for all purposes I should have been dead. I know you don't believe me, and there's still so much you don't know but it's the truth. We don't have any time. I need to get you out of here."
"But…how…," Sakura's mind was reeling.
"I'm sorry," he said, making her look up at him in shock. "If I had known…if I had any idea…," he was finding it hard to form the words. "I'll kill that bastard Kabuto for this. I swear I will. But I need to get you and the kids out."
He made sure the door was locked before tossing something in her direction. She caught it and saw that it was the clothes she had been wearing when she was captured.
"Get dressed," he said. Sakura was in no condition to argue with him and quickly slipped into her pants and red tank with the circle on its back over her nightgown before sliding the gown off. She tossed the nightgown aside and pulled out the gloves from the pants pocket.
Shin watched her try to get them on. Her wrists were still red and swollen from the restraints, and he found himself shuffling through the cabinets for supplies. "Hold out your hands," he said.
Sakura looked at him questioningly before he took her hands in his and began to tend to her wrists. He cleaned the skin with alcohol, hanging on tight when the burn had her pulling back. She watched as he applied more ointment on them before wrapping each wrist with white gauze.
She studied him, letting his words sink into her brain. He didn't look very much like Sai. It was hard to believe him on the genetic side. But when she looked back into his complexion and focused on his bones structure, Sakura could see a few similarities. She also knew that he was ill.
Now that she paid attention, she could see the subtle signs of a weakened body. His whole demeanor had changed since he cornered her with the book. He was in shock, just as she was. And now he claimed he wanted to help her. It was too much to take in, too much to follow. But still…if this was all true, if he really was who he said he was…then…
"You really are Sai's brother…," she whispered. He finished wrapping up her wrists and began putting the gloves on her. She held his hands back when he finished, forcing him look at her. He didn't know how to process the emotions he could see dancing in her eyes. "And you're ill…," she added.
Shin took a mental step back at the fact that she was able to assess that much just from looking at him. A gifted doctor indeed, he thought before his defenses were raised. He couldn't afford to waste any time, especially on himself. Now that he made his choice, it was only a matter of time before Kabuto found out. And when that happened, his time was limited. He knew his body would begin to weaken soon and he needed to get them out of here before that happened.
"We need to move," he said, taking her hand and leading her towards the door.
"What's your name?" Sakura asked, stopping him just before they reached the door. He looked at her a moment before deciding to answer.
"…Shin."
"Shin," she whispered. "…SHIN!"
She surprised them both when she threw her arms around him and held on tight. He didn't know how to react. Pulling her off him was impossible. The woman had strength like no other. She was crying into his shoulder as if he were family.
Sakura didn't think to process his past crimes or to hold anything against him for now. The moment she was able to believe him was the deciding factor. This was Sai's brother…his brother; someone who knew of Sai's past.
Shin was the final piece in all of this. He was the one who could make sense of it all, and he was also affected by this somehow. But the small glimmer of hope in her heart was all that was keeping her together at the moment. She held on to him tight.
"We need to get moving," Shin said, not knowing how to handle her. Sakura clung to him for a moment more before pulling back.
"There's no reason why you would make this up," Sakura reasoned. "And we will talk about this later. For now, help me get my kids out here."
No sooner had the words left her mouth did the sirens erupt from the intercom.
"Clock starts now," Shin said before grabbing her hand and pulling her out into the hall. "They're in the lab, and the place is going into lockdown," he said glancing back at her, surprised to see that the fatigue had been replaced by fire.
"Bring it on," she said fiercely.
AUTHORS NOTE:
Stuff!
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