The Mark

Anju was beginning to understand why so many shinobi hated hospitals. Waking up, Anju found herself in a plain white room that she recognised as one of the hospital rooms. Something about her felt weird. It was like she was feeling two things at once. Tired and awake, hungry and fall; happy and sad, it was all too much and was causing a major headache. I'm going to kill Itachi when I see him! She cursed in her head. To make things worse her neck felt itchy and no matter how much she tried to ignore it grew worse. Unable to resist the huge urge she began scratching her skin, feeling a little better. But as the door creaked open, Anju ripped her hand away so no one could see, only for the itch to grow worse. A flash of pink entered the room, even with the clip board in from of her face; you could clearly see it was Sakura. The medic was so absorbed in her forms that she never realised that her friend was awake until she reached the bed.

"Nice to see you too." Anju moaned, annoyed that she was being ignored like this. Sakura's whole body went ridged and slowly, the head looked up from its reviews and green eyes landed on the woman sitting on the hospital bed. The next thing the Uchiha was aware of was being hugged to death but a skinny woman with inhuman strength that was carrying a baby that must weigh a couple of pounds by now. "Sakura… Can't b… breath." She managed to gasp when the universe was merciful to allow a little bit of room for her wind pipe not to be completely crushed.

"Oh sorry." Sakura apologised, pushing the long bangs of hair out of her eyes and beamed. She was practically glowing right there on the spot; pregnancy looked good on her. Tadashi must have been thrilled.

"How's Tadashi?" Anju commented, suddenly remembered her brothers last known condition.

"He's very well! Back in perfect shape and working overtime to catch up with work." She shrugged but a smile of contempt stayed on her face. A sigh of relief escaped her chest, Anju was happy to hear her brother was okay. "Naruto will be happy to see you awake." The medic added and this new piece of news made the Uchiha sit up a little straighter.

"Naruto! He's here!" Anju cried out excitedly and jumped on to her feet, hoping to see him but was restrained but the medic.

"Wait a second!" Sakura cried out with a firm grip on her friends shoulder. "It's not safe for you to be up and about, your charka mix hasn't completed…"

"My what!" The patient demanded, wanting to find Naruto and the itch on her neck wasn't helping her mood. As if to answer the question, the pink haired woman picked up a mirror and held it in front of her. At first, Anju saw nothing of any interest; until she looked down at her throat. Black ink now marked her pale skin, curves and straight lines joined together to make strange patterns and pictures that made no sense to her. Now she was defiantly going to kill Itachi! She had asked for answers not a cheap tattoo; at least it kind of looked pretty. But the question now was, why was there? What had that rogue ninja done?

Why didn't I have him burned or jailed like any normal person would do? Anju cursed herself as she sat on her bed an hour later still examining the weird marks left around her neck. Sakura had said it should disappear in another month or two which the Uchiha was glad to hear but the problem was it would still be there; but invisible. She didn't know what was worse, waking up seeing it every day or knowing it's there but not being able to keep an eye on it. Frustrated, Anju began itching at her neck, the ink prickled at her skin still. Placing the mirror on the bedside table and tried to focus her mind with other thoughts. But no matter how hard she tried, she could not busy her thoughts and soon found her fingers curling around the handle of the mirror and looking at the artwork again. From diary to seals, Itachi seemed to be nothing but to obsess over the secrets that the former Akasuki member had. I need to get a life! Anju told herself forcefully but still her weird and wacky self-refused to see reason and soon found herself staring at the marks again. Finally, annoyed with herself, she through the mirror cross the room, hearing it break into a million pieces somewhere and buried her head beneath the pillows. The door opened and once again Anju cursed her actions, she wanted to be left alone.

"Go away." She muffled loudly into her pillow but it work to no avail as she heard the footsteps approach. She was surprised next when she felt a familiar mouth kiss the side of her cheek. Jumping to a sitting position, Anju wrapped her arms around him and clung on to him for dear life. Never again did she want him to leave; never. But she knew such a request would ever be granted to her so she settle to living every moment with him. "Tell me this is real and not some stupid dream." The Uchiha begged, feeling on the urge of tears bubbling in her eyes. Naruto laughed and kissed her on the forehead.

"I'm not now and I haven't been since you fainted in front of Bee." He sniggered and Anju suddenly went ridged. As if I didn't feel like an idiot already! She moaned inwardly to herself but despite that she couldn't help but laugh. Honestly, she felt too happy to being with her lover to care much at the moment. Reaching up, she grabbed his lips and kissed him hard on the lips. Naruto responded instantly and soon he was pushing her back on to the bed. "Oh Kami! I missed you." He breathed heavily into her ear as her began kissing along her jaw line and down her neck. But as Naruto reached the base of her neck, something painfully sharp suddenly stabbed Anju in the neck. She gasped in agony and shoved her boyfriend off. Jerking upright, she clutched at her neck; it hurt a lot. Gently, Naruto moved her hand away so he could examine what might have hurt her and stopped dead. The tattoo on her neck was alight, it looked like the black ink had turned into fire.

"Grandma Tsunade!" Naruto yelled, as Anju just sat there in pure horror.

It was weird being in this situation. Almost as if the whole scene was like some kind of face off. Anju told herself not to be stupid. Itachi had finally agreed to tell her everything she wanted to know but for her ears only. The mark he had left on her neck was beginning to fade slowly but it still itched a lot. Exhaling, the woman let a deep sigh and continued to stare out the window. This one allowed her to see the back garden and was fascinated by the way the flowers that had installed earlier of the reconstruction had somehow thrived, despite the cold winter months. The wilderness had no one to tame it and the plants were left to run wild over other parts of the garden. At the moment, she was busying her time by debating with herself on whether she should get someone to come in and trim or just leave it as it is. She had just decided to leave it when the door opened and Itachi was escorted in by a member of the nursing staff and took shinobi's watching him intently. After he was settled into one of the chairs, she shooed them away, glad to see that the two men were respecting her request and left to guard the outside of the door. Itachi was the first to talk.

"I see Naruto is still in a bad mood with me." He mused to himself, the tired features of his face suddenly enlighten by a small smile. Knucklehead! Anju secretly cursed to herself, a word she had recently learned from Sakura. Right now, she could just imagine the blonde pacing back and forth in the hall way, his ears alert. Despite the fact that she told him not to worry he still insisted on waiting outside. But in all fairness she couldn't blame him. Look at what happened last time she had been left in a room along with him.

"Naruto doesn't keep grudges." Anju argued, regardless of telling herself earlier that she was just going to keep the conversation short and sweet. "He just worries too much about the people he cares about."

"Understandable." The rogue ninja replied formally. Then came the silence. Both of them seemed to be debating whether they should start or allow the other to speak first.

"Did they kill the babies just because they were half breeds?" Anju suddenly spoke, shattering the glass barrier between them.

"Yes, along with those born with deformities." He added coolly, as if something like that was normal. She guess being a part of ANBU and the Akasuki does change a person. Another silence followed.

"And even though it's a wild long shot, I could be a descendent of Eri." And Madara, Anju thought inside but didn't want to admit it out loud; ever. It made her blood turn cold just thinking about it. The rogue seemed to take a hint and just nodded in reply.

"So what is this all about?" Anju demanded, moving the collar of her dress so she could see some of the mark.

"It's a seal I created that implants all my techniques and my charka into you." Again the room is silent as Anju digested the information. It all seemed surreal to her, once again her mark started to itch violently. Why? The thought wondered in her mind but she did not think she was ready to ask it. On the other hand, Itachi did. "Sasuke grows more powerful by the day, you'll need all the help you can get. I fear they have something special planned for you." The last note was said with a quiver in his throat.

"What plans?" Anju asked, hiding her hands under the sleeves of her dress, so that she could not see her own shaking hands.

"I don't know." Was his reply.

It wasn't until a few days later that Anju realised that Tadashi was purposely avoiding her. Every time she tried to hang out with him he was always busy with work, which was understandable since the hospital had become quite full recently but now his shifts were working endlessly into the night, just so he didn't have to have dinner with her. So the Uchiha decided to tackle him in his most vulnerable position. Sakura was more than happy to lend a spare key for the back door as she snuck in one early morning, waving to her friend as the pink medic made breakfast and snuck up stairs. Anju had to supress endless waves of shivers, covering her mouth as she tried to hold back her laughter. Tadashi singing in the shower; why didn't she bring a video camera? He had a lovely baritone voice but that didn't make the girl hesitate. Tip toeing into the bathroom, she got a solid grip around the curtain and yanked it aside.

"Hey bro!" Anju beamed, whistled Tadashi jumped to the side and wrestled the curtain away from her.

"Anju! What are you doing?" He snapped, trying to look angry while he was still trying to cover himself up and stop his face blushing. All the Uchiha could do was roll her eyes in response; it wasn't like she hadn't seen a naked men before.

"Sakura just wanted me to tell you that breakfast was ready and to be down in five otherwise she'll kick your ass." Anju beamed back at him and happily skipped back down stairs to find that her friend had gone and had left a note in her place. The pink haired medic had been kind enough to leave some pancakes left for them and some freshly cut fruit. Making herself comfortable, the woman instantly dug into the food, piling layers of carbs, three different kinds of berries and honey onto her plate. Usually she wouldn't eat so much but ever since Naruto had come back that woman felt the constant need to replenish her energy; not to mention that one scary imagine in the mirror she had looked at and saw that she had lost too much weight.

Five minutes later, Anju heard the creaking of the staircase and soon enough her brother appeared fully dressed, using a towel to get rid of the access water from his hair. As soon as he entered the kitchen he seemed a bit confused to not find his girlfriend in the room. He looked right, then left, then straight at her.

"That was cruel." He stared at her but a smile still played on his lips. He wasn't angry about the whole shower scene, Hansuke had done worse things. But even Anju agreed that lying about threats from Sakura was low even for her. Nevertheless, the little sister just beamed back at her older brother and patted the seat next to her. Surrendering to the nosy growl of his stomach, Tadashi accepted her invitation without resistance and helped himself to the identical combination of her breakfast, only his had fewer layers. They talked for a while about the usual stuff like they used to do but Anju could not help but sense that he was acting guarded around her; which was very unusual. She had heard that he had been acting a little strangely after being rescued from Madara and that the only two people he talked to about the incident had been Tsunade and Ibiki. Now that she thought about it, did the Hokage's worried expression have everything to do with the information they shared. It could all just be a coincidence, since the Hokage had a million things to be worried about. If Ibiki was here, it would add up her conclusions. The one thing she hated about her brother was that he seemed to have a sixth sense. Just as Anju was about to ask him what was happening before he interrupting her.

"I can't tell you anything, Hokage has ordered S class on this." He stared at her before tucking back into breakfast. All Anju was shot him an annoyed look.

Even though she had a serious amount of work to do, Anju somehow managed to convince herself to skip the paper work for the day and watch Naruto train. She was excited to see how much his skills had advance since the last time she saw him and wondered if he actually had fall control over the nine tails like everyone else. Sitting on a branch next to Yamato (who was there encase of an emergency) the two watch, Kakashi, Jiraiya and Bee set up the training ground for Naruto, who stood below her performing a warm up. Since Yamato wasn't in a talkative mood, Anju used the few spare moments to herself, she admired the toned muscles of her lovers back. He must have felt her staring because he turned to look at her and winked, sensing her devious thoughts. Embarrassed, the Uchiha looked away with her cheeks burning bright red. She heard him laugh and cursed herself for acting like a silly teenager. She was saved from any further embarrassment when Kakashi called Naruto over to begin.

"Naruto has sure come a long way since I first saw him." Yamato smiled, speaking for the first time since his arrival apart from the small greetings.

"I know, just as I think he can't get any more powerful, he does something else!" Anju replied, buzzing with excitement, as she waited. The three older men gave instructions on what the jinchuuriki needed to do. With the help of her sharingan, the Uchiha understood that the tasks her had to preform were charka control excises, similar to tree walking. But this time he had to lift blocks gently one on top of the other without knocking the tower down. Naruto pouted as he was disappointed that he couldn't fight anyone yet but then seemed to take the new challenge into a new light. Bee was the only one who stayed near him, as his control over the eight tails was the only thing that could stop the Kyuubi from getting out of control. The two other men dropped back to where she sat, standing in the same place where the blonde had been standing a few moments ago. After a quick prep talk from Bee, Naruto was ready to get started. Charka blazed around him in a magnificent yellow light. Anju gasped, as she tried to with stand the density of the power that flowed off him in waves. The shinobi's first attempts of piling the large bricks were a complete failure as he either used too little which could not pick up the rocks or too much which seemed to just throw the boulders into the air. Nevertheless, the energetic youth persisted and soon found himself slowly placing one block on top of the other. By the end of training, Naruto was able to use at least over three quarters of the material before the tower lost balance and fell over.

"Argh! I was so close that time!" Naruto whined loudly staring at all the rocks as if he was hoping that lasers would shot out of his eyes and blow it up. Where does all this energy come from? Anju thought to herself. She had just witnessed probably half of the strength of the Konohagakure army and yet this limited amount of power was still coming.

"Okay Naruto I think that's enough for the day." Kakashi's monotone voice was muffled by the sound of his book in front of his face.

"Oh come on Kakashi sensei!" Naruto pleaded like a five year old. Anju couldn't help but laugh at his childishness, if Sakura had been hear she would have whipped her friend back into shape. But the sudden movement in the shadows caught her attention and instantly activated her sharingan. With her vision now intensified she could make out the slight figure of a person hidden among the trees. Tapping Yamato on the shoulder, she indicated to what she was looking at. Even with the sharingan the wood user was able to see what she saw. Leaving the rest of the group to bicker with Naruto, they spilt up. Keeping to the cover of the trees as they snuck up behind. Yamato acted first, pulling branches for a nearby tree to trap his legs, while Anju used acted from above and used three wires to secure his hands and his neck, pulling him up slightly so he was unable to perform any jutsu's, while at the same time lessoning the flow of oxygen through his body. The shinobi was completely immobilised. Turns out it was one of the white clones.

"Bastard." Anju hissed, spitting in his face. She was getting fed up with this. Soon an ANBU unit arrived and took him away for questioning, hoping to secure details of Madara plans. Everyone was beginning to get restless with his sudden quietness. They were all desperate to know when this nightmare would end.