White

12.

"What's wrong with him?" she asked the doctor readily. "What's wrong?"

"I am so sorry, but the scan showed it clearly…" He looked at a picture again. "He has…cancer."

Mikoto gaped. "WHAT?"

The doctor's head lowered, "I'm so sorry, I don't know how we could have missed it," he said, perhaps wanting to say 'you' instead of 'we'. Itachi was fast asleep now from the medicine. "It's in the last stage," he explained. "The most deadly form."

Mikoto was not sure exactly where she was or why this was happening all of a sudden, "Fugaku…" she murmured, "Where is my husband…"

.

Sighing heavily as he exited the building, he was nearly run into by several Uchiha, all talking at once, "Oh, sir!" they said. "The hokage is in danger!"

"Huh?" Fugaku looked at them.

"Yeah! In the crystal ball, weird stuff is happening!" said another.

"Slow down, what sort of weird stuff?"

"Sandaime-sama! It's a different Sandaime-sama!"

"What the hell are you three talking about?"

"He saw in the crystal ball, Minato's jutsu failed!"

"But Minato is with his team, near Kannabi."

"No he's not! He's with this weird masked ninja!"

Fugaku stared at them as if they were talking about a weird graphic novella.

"It's true! Danzou saw it!"

"Lady Koharu, too!"

"All right, all right, so what's the problem?"

"Minato's jutsu went all wrong! The theory is, the time is wrong!"

"The time?"

"Yes! The time!"

Fugaku brushed passed them, annoyed by their incessant indefinable talk.

"Oh, and sir, sir! They found Tsunade-sama, Jiraiya had knocked her out cold before they got very far!"

"…What are you talking about now?" demanded Fugaku.

The three looked at each other, petrified all of a sudden.

"What?" said Fugaku.

Finally one of them spoke, "How's your son?"

"…Absolutely fine…What the hell are you three playing at?"

The three backed off slowly.

"Come back here…" Fugaku threatened, "What have you done to MY SON?"

.

Tsunade wondered what Jiraiya's problem was. She became very worried. She decided to follow him. Luckily he was in such a rave he left the obvious trail. "Shizune, go back to the village," she had instructed, "Find out what the hell is going on."

"Yes ma'am."

.

Orochimaru was still a little confused.

.

Meanwhile, Orochimaru had awaken near the Land of Waves.

"How strange."

.