Chapter 15: Love Conquers All

As I pulled Sakura to her feet, my entire body ached. The lightning attack had left my bones feeling empty and my muscles leaden. One of my fingers would occasionally twitch, responding to a lingering spark. This was only slightly less painful than that time I set myself on fire, but at least then I had the Hyuuga girl's cream to speed up my healing. Which reminded me…

"They took Hinata," I told Sakura.

"And the little kid," Naruto added.

Kakashi said, "It turns out that the Cloud ninja are willing to kidnap a child and are still bloodline thieves. Which can only mean one thing…"

"We're the good guys again!" Naruto shouted.

I'm pretty sure they practiced that while Sakura and I were unconscious. Still, our return to the side of good provided just the morale boost we needed after being beaten up by a smaller and less experienced team.

"It's so quiet," Sakura murmured. The lightning had done her a lot of good. She seemed calm. Eerily calm. I hadn't sensed the slightest trickle of killer intent from her since she'd woken up, and she wasn't exhibiting any of her normal facial twitches.

Night had fallen while we were out of commission. If we waited until morning, they could escape or call for reinforcements. Luckily for us, they were weighed down by an injured teammate, a prisoner, and a young boy.

All we had to worry about were a few twitchy limbs. I walked towards the door, eyes straight ahead. "Let's go."

The client hurried in front of me. "You ninja are not leaving me behind again."

"Ma'am," Sakura said. "This is very dangerous."

Nene's lip trembled, and she sniffed loudly. "I don't care. I will not sit here, waiting and worrying, not for one moment longer."

"We might not have much time," Sakura said. "If we have to wait for your carriage—"

Nene straightened her back, tilted her chin, and said, "Carry me, then."

Naruto ended up with the noblewoman draped across his arms, digging her long fingernails into his jacket. He always gets the worst jobs because we know he'll complain no matter what we tell him to do.

"I just don't understand how we lost," Sakura said. "We had more people, and two of us are chuunin."

I raced beside her. "They caught us by surprise."

Naruto said, "I should've used my explosive tags, but I didn't wanna make the cave collapse. Next time those Cloud ninja make a move towards Sakura or Hinata or anybody, I'm blowing them up no matter where we are."

Nene reached up to slap him across the face. "You will not. They're probably in my house. All of my things are in that house…and so is my son!"

Kakashi spoke with detached thoughtfulness, as if pointing out an oddly-shaped cloud. "I've noticed that you always mention your son last, like you forget about him. Have you considered that that's why he hates you?"

"My son is always the first thing on my mind," Nene said, "but he is being kept safe by two whole teams of ninja. My mother's antique vase has no one."

We arrived at the Iijima mansion, mingling with the outer wall's shadows. Naruto asked, "So, what's the plan?"

We all turned towards Kakashi, who said, "You know, I hadn't really thought about it."

We then turned towards Sakura, who was busy stroking her forehead and humming to herself.

When they turned to me, I said, "Break through the nearest window, keep extra Narutos in the shadows, and try not to get the client kill…"

I paused, eyes sweeping the lawn in search of strange shadows or a hint of movement. "…Naruto, where is the client?"

Inner Sakura POV

Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap, tap, tap. Goro Iijima stood, making his way towards the balcony door. Not wanting to break cover, Inner Sakura said, "Sir, are you sure you want to do that?"

Both of her host's teammates groaned, and even Yugito-sensei silently sighed. The puny Iijima seemed to grow a foot as he turned to her. "Young lady, I am the owner of this household, and I will not be ordered about."

"Even if you're going to let in the enemy?" Inner Sakura said.

"Yes"— Goro sighed, deflating to his normal size—"Even if I'm letting in my ex-wife."

Tap.

Goro stormed over to the balcony doors, throwing them open and shouting, "Nene, did you have to tear up all the Parrot's Beaks? Do you know how rare those are?"

"Of course I know," Nene cried. "You used my connections to find them, remember?"

An orange flower smacked him on the forehead. "Will you stop it for one instant?!"

"Just"—she threw another—"fulfilling my needs. Men aren't the only ones with those."

"Oh, that isn't even remotely the same—" Goro cut off as Naruto used his shoulder as a handhold. The rest of her Outer's team launched themselves through the balcony doors.

Goro's jaw flapped open as he looked from the room's interior to his ex-wife pouting below. "Ninja! Foreign ninja in my home!"

Nene crossed her arms, still clutching a Parrot's Beak. "You're the one who brought ninja into this. I would have been perfectly happy sticking with mercenaries."

Yugito fell into a defensive stance. "Suku, watch Akihito."

"Ugh, why does it always have to be the kunoichi watching the client? I wanna fight." Inner Sakura charged towards Sasuke.

Chigau grinned widely. "Heh, well, if Suku doesn't want to relax…"

Inner threw a punch that would have cracked Sasuke's arm in half, if it had landed. "Yakeru can do it."

"…or Yakeru can do it, that'd be funnier," Chigau continued, intercepting her Outer as she rushed at the eight-year-old target.

Yakeru said, "I'm the strongest member on this team, why should I have to watch the kid?"

"Just do it, Yakeru," Yugito bit out as Kakashi meandered towards her.

"Think about it this way"—Inner Sakura smirked—"Nobody else is gonna guard your little kidnapping victim, so you have to do it."

Yakeru stomped in front of Hinata and Akihito. "Fine. But you better get those Sharingans for me, Suku."

She dodged Sasuke's attack. "Working on it."

When the time was right, Inner Sakura would blow her cover, steal the kid, and fight by her fellow Leaf nin. While she had the opportunity, though, she was gonna beat up Sasuke.

That jerk had spent years ignoring, insulting, and avoiding her Outer, and the girl was always too busy sighing over him to notice. But Inner Sakura noticed, and she would make sure the bastard paid for every crime with blood and bruises. She pulled Suku's mouth into a feral smile. "You have no idea how long I've wanted to break you."

Sasuke stared at her with his usual, bored expression. "We only met six hours ago, when I was pretending to be a flower salesman, so I'm gonna guess slightly less than six hours."

Inner Sakura stuffed down the killer intent thrumming through her chakra pathways and said, "Yeah, that's about right."

Then, she rushed forward and made Suku's barely-developed muscles work.

The Cloud kunoichi had completely changed her taijutsu style between fights. Her earlier movement had been acrobatic and bouncing. This new one was more reminiscent of the Konoha Academy's standard style, albeit clumsy and with slightly more focus on offense.

It isn't too odd for a taijutsu master to know a second or even third style, but she was only a genin. Besides, most ninja would switch techniques mid-battle, throwing the opponent off at a crucial moment.

As Suku leapt over my sweeping kick, lunging for my face, I theorized.

Could she have learned Sakura's taijutsu style after such a short fight? In Konoha, taijutsu prodigies were easily identified by their ridiculous jumpsuits, but here they wore no such uniform.

Yugito was throwing explosive mice at Kakashi, while a masked Sakura had recently proven that Chigau's lightning defense did nothing against man-sized swords. The Naruto hoard had split into two groups, with one half charging Yakeru and the other half circling Nene and Goro. The pair had not stopped arguing at any point during the battle, stopping to breathe only when the other was yelling.

"You impregnated my favorite maid," Nene said.

Goro threw his hands in the air. "We hadn't shared a bed in six months. What did you expect me to do?"

"Rut around in someone who I wouldn't have to see every day."

"You could have fired her."

"She was twenty and unmarried and my stupid husband got her pregnant. Do you think I'm some sort of monster?"

He glanced down at the flowers coating the balcony beneath him. "Well, I'd be lying if I said it never crossed my mind."

Throughout that entire conversation, they had yet to look at either the ninja flying through their parlor or the child hiding behind a bound Hinata Hyuuga.

"Shh, it's alright. Nobody will hurt you. I mean, well, n-n-nobody gets paid if you get hurt, so I don't think they will." Hinata reached out to pat the boy's hand, but she couldn't quite reach it. She tried to tug at the ropes around her, and her fingertips glowed slightly.

I turned my attention back to my fight as the arc of Suku's punch adjusted to my dodge, hitting just barely. My first thought, after a moment of utter blankness, was that she'd just broken my nose with a glancing blow. My second thought informed me that a new punch was only an inch from breaking the rest of my face.

It was at that moment that a delicate vase smashed into the side of Suku's head, sending her stumbling. As Nene wailed, I followed the blue strings wrapped around the vase's shards to its source: Hinata Hyuuga, still tied up but looking much more cheerful about it.

Kakashi slammed Yugito against a wall, holding a kunai to her throat. "Well, it looks like we've about finished this battle. Any interest in surrendering?"

Yugito said, "I've rigged this whole place to explode."

Everyone in the room paused in their battles to stare at her. A Naruto said, "So you're the one who did that."

Kakashi inched the kunai away from her throat. Yugito continued, "You're all going to leave. Now. If you don't, I'll start setting them off one by…"

"Don't you dare!" Nene and Goro shouted at once.

They stared at each other for a moment, then Goro said, "This is my very expensive house here, with all my very expensive things in it—"

"Also our son," Nene said.

"Also our son," he agreed. "If you set off one single bomb, I will be meeting personally with the Raikage to complain."

Nene grabbed his arm, tilting her chin imperiously. "And I'll be right behind him."

"Thank you, dear," Goro said, patting the hand on his arm.

"Any time, darling."

The battle resumed shortly afterwards, when a bloodied Suku swept my legs out from under me, and a Naruto clone released Hinata. As we fought and grabbed the target and fought some more, the Iijima couple whispered among themselves.

"Enough!" Goro shouted.

Nene said, "We've talked it out, and we've decided we can work this out without hiring any more trained killers."

Goro added, "We are no longer in need of your services."

"Ah," Kakashi said, spinning his kunai around his finger. "I see how it is. Only the team that lives gets paid."

I formed my first hand seal, Suku cracked her knuckles, Yakeru recharged his fists, Sakura heaved her sword upward, and the client's ex-husband raised his hands in the air. "No, no, no, no. Nobody needs to fight, everybody gets paid. Just please leave."

I think we were all a little disappointed by that. At least, my team seemed disappointed. Chigau had some pretty deep cuts, Yakeru's knuckles were badly bruised, and Suku seemed to have pushed past the point of muscle exhaustion through sheer force of will. Yugito, meanwhile, had been deflated since the clients had shouted her down, despite Kakashi's assurances that, at some time or another, all good senseis had tried to kill their genin, client, and everyone else in sight.

"So that's it," Sakura said. "We just go home?"

Chigau relaxed as she sheathed her sword, releasing his nerves with a breathy chuckle. "Seems kind of anti-climactic, really."

Suku rubbed the back of her head. "Uh, this is kinda embarrassing. But I'm a spy."

"Right, sure you are," Yakeru said.

"Dammit, Suku"—Yugito rubbed her forehead—"If you want to retire from being a ninja, we have programs for that."

Suku said, "No, seriously. I was possessed, and I never stopped being possessed."

"She's telling the truth," Sakura said.

The Cloud kunoichi walked closer, held out her hands, and crumpled. Suku then glared at her teammates as she dragged herself to her feet. "You idiots!"

"I know you're a Yamanaka now," I said to Sakura, "but how exactly have you been walking around without a soul?"

Kakashi hummed. "My father used to say that all women do that."

Sakura released a puff of killer intent and beamed. "Actually, I have two souls because my hair's pink."

There wasn't much left to do then but leave, so we strolled toward the balcony, stopping when Akihito grabbed Hinata's sleeve. "Take me with you!"

Hinata said, "I-it's a very long journey. Maybe you should ask the Cloud ninja?"

"I already did. They didn't want me because I don't have a bloodline."

Kakashi leaned forward to peer at the boy. "Are you sure you don't have a bloodline?"

"Sometimes you don't find out until you're older," Sakura said. "So you have to keep an eye out for little things. Like maybe your eyes don't match or your forehead is freakishly large."

Akihito flattened his ears self-consciously. "Uh, no, I don't think I have anything like that."

Kakashi reached down to pat his head. "In that case, your parents love you. You should stay with them."

His eyes darted towards Nene and Goro, who were sobbing in each other's arms. "But they're crazy."

Sakura laughed. "If you want to avoid crazy people, then you definitely shouldn't be a ninja."