Sasuke awoke to the sound of heavy coughing. He looked over to see that Sumato was now practically lying on top of his sister, unable to keep himself upright any longer while caring for her. Kanja still lay there, very still – just what you'd expect from someone who had experienced the trauma that she had. Sasuke hoped that there would be a future for her. She had been unconscious for such a long time and who knows what damage really had occurred.
Damn, he thought to himself. Maybe if Kanja had been the only person down, perhaps then he and Sumato could have made their way slowly to a nearby town. He was steadily recovering, thanks to Sumato taking care of him. However, now it seemed that Sumato was steadily getting worse and Sasuke wasn't about to risk their lives dragging them outside with the hope that a town was nearby. Even a day's journey away, Hidden Mist was still a red herring of sorts. It was a day away for three healthy shinobi, not one who still wasn't fully recovered, a badly injured one and one who was definitely falling into the depths of illness even as he sat there.
At least if someone from the Leaf were looking for them, they might spot his mark, a signal to any who might know him that he was near. Sasuke had placed several of them in the vicinity outside of the cave. This was the one action that Sumato had failed to so while Sasuke was still unconscious.
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"Kakashi, over here," said Pakkun who had stopped dead on a nearby tree branch.
"What is it?" Kakashi said stopping to stand on the same branch next to his summons.
"What is it, Kakashi-sensei?" asked Naruto barely giving the jounin any time to question Pakkun before asking.
The three younger shinobi stopped a few branches back and waited for Kakashi to say something.
"Three tomoe?" said Kakashi, looking at the symbol.
"There is a strong scent here," noted Pakkun. "It was most likely Sasuke Uchiha who carved these."
"…well, he did put them in a tree where only shinobi would see them," noted Kakashi. "They must be close." He turned to face his squad. "Keep your eyes and ears open. Someone left mark here that looks very much looks like it may have been Sasuke. The three of them are most likely around here."
Sakura, Sai, and Naruto all nodded in the affirmative.
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Sasuke had rescued Sumato from resting on top of his sister's body and lay him down on the blanket that was laid out beside her. Sumato spent as much time by his sister's side as he could, even when sleeping.
"Thanks, Sasuke," the boy said weakly. "I don't think I'll be much help right now," he croaked out. "Not only am I sick, but I am so tired right now."
Sasuke could see how much Sumato still wanted to contribute. After all, he had been in charge of their altered squad for a few days at least. Now, he was as useless as Sasuke was just a few days ago.
"You rest, Sumato," said Sasuke. "I'm going outside to see if there are any animals running around. We're getting a little low on rations and whatever we catch will get us that much further."
Sumato barely nodded, then closed his eyes.
Sasuke exited the cave and started walking. He thought it best to pick the one direction he really didn't know that much about – the direction towards Hidden Mist. This way, he could kill two birds with one stone – look for meat as well as scout out the area a bit more to see what was in front of them.
He didn't see too many animals – it was daytime and most of them knew better than to be out and about in the sunlight. Sasuke had started to test his body a bit by starting off slowly on the ground, then transitioning to running, and finally jumping from branch to branch in the trees. He saw small rodents scurrying about which were hardly worth the effort in terms of food. When he looked up, he could see small birds flying in the sky. They probably weren't worth the effort either.
Having explored for a couple of hours, Sasuke decided to circle back. I guess we'll be eating rations again, he thought to himself. They were by no means desperate for food yet, but another week of living out here with two sick genin might eventually mean those rodents or birds could potentially be worth the effort in the future.
Sasuke jumped from branch to branch thinking back to his academy days and Iruki-sensei's class on survival training. There would be times when food would be scarce, and for one reason or another, a shinobi might have to stay in their present location – sick or injured teammates was the most likely example. "I didn't think I'd ever have to think about this again," he said aloud as if Iruka-sensei was standing right next to him. "Thanks, sensei."
Sasuke neared the cave once again. He guessed that he was probably only a few minutes away when something off to the right caught his eye. He jumped in the direction of what he found and landed on the ground near it. Well, I'll be…
There was a decent-sized lake not too far from the cave. He looked into the clear water and saw fish swimming around. He smiled. I know what we're eating for dinner tonight, he cawed to himself. I should check on the twins first though. I've been gone a few hours already…
Sasuke turned towards the cave and started running once again. That's when he heard it…a ghastly scream. Sumato…
Sasuke made a beeline towards the cave. As he got closer, he activated his sharingan to ensure that he could see everything around him and that there were no surprises approaching. He knew he heard Sumato scream, but as of now, he didn't know anything else that was going on.
He got to the cave and sprinted in. Too many people…there are too many people in here, were the first instinctive thoughts he had.
He drew a kunai.
"Wait! Sasuke, wait!" shouted Kakashi who blocked Sasuke's kunai with his own. "It's us!"
Huh?
Sasuke kept his guard up for a few seconds more as he looked around the dim room. He could just make out Kakashi's face. Over there next to the wall was Naruto. Sai was kneeling by Sumato and …
"Sakura," he muttered looking at the woman he loved. She was kneeling by Kanja just about to apply medical ninjutsu to her.
Kakashi snapped out of their locked eyes. "Sakura, start working on the girl."
"Hai, Kakashi-sensei," she agreed.
"Sasuke!" shouted a flustered Sumato. "Are these really Leaf shinobi?"
Sasuke looked at Sai's flustered face. "Yeah," he said kind of snickering. Based on what he was currently seeing, Sai must have been looking right at Sumato when he woke him up. There's nothing like seeing a creepy-looking stranger only inches away from your face when you first open your eyes after sleeping. The funny thing was…Sai looked just as bothered by Sumato's reaction. After all, he was just trying to help.
"Sumato, that's Sai," Sasuke said explaining who these people were. "This is my first squad leader…kind of like your Rida….Kakashi-sensei."
Naruto stepped closer. "This is Naruto Uzumaki."
"The Naruto Uzumaki?" Sumato asked.
"Yep! That's me!" Naruto said joyfully.
"And that person over there helping your sister is…Sakura Haruno," explained Sasuke.
"Wait, your Sakura Haruno?" aske Sumato.
Sakura looked over at Sasuke a bit confused. "What did you tell him Sasuke?"
"Yeah, that's her," he replied. "See what I mean?" He laughed.
Sumato snickered a little as well. "I do!"
"What?!" Sakura was getting irritated.
"It's too easy to make you paranoid," said Sasuke. He walked up to her and placed his hands on her back as she kneeled in front of Kanja. "It's good to see you," he whispered into her ear so only she could hear.
Sakura blushed as she continued her work.
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Within the next 24 hours, everyone had made it to the Village Hidden in the Mist. Sakura had successfully stabilized both Sumato and Kanja so that they could be transported with little risk. Sasuke even got a small dose of her healing chakra just to bring him back to full strength.
Sasuke carried Sumato and Kakashi carried Kanja to the village. The time spent traveling flew by as Sasuke filled in the rest of Team 7 about what had happened in Cloud as well as what had happened after they left Cloud. Their stories merged when Kaksahi interrupted and told Sasuke about finding the last surviving shinobi of the four that attacked him and burying him and his three comrades on the way to find him and the twins.
Sasuke also found out where Rida had ended up since her body was not laying where it had fallen during the battle...while Sumato was in the cave with an unconscious Sasuke and Kanja, a few Mist shinobi had happened across her body and returned her to their village. An immediate message had been sent to the Hokage and Rida's body was already on its way home via the normal channels.
Sasuke acknowledged that they would probably never know for sure what those four rogue shinobi were after, but that the most likely target was to kidnap the twins and either use them for their own purposes or kill them so the Leaf couldn't utilize them. One thing they all agreed on, however, was that the four shinobi were most likely not from one of the five major Hidden Villages. The peace that had been forged as a result of the recent war was not only new, but it was strong. It was highly unlikely that a major village would turn against another so soon.
It was in the middle of the following day when seven Leaf shinobi approached the Village Hidden in the Mist.
As anyone would have expected, they were greeted just in front of the gates by the two guards who were on duty.
"Are you Sasuke Uchiha by any chance?" one asked the raven-haired shinobi with the small Uchiha symbol on his shirt.
"Hai," he answered.
"Thank goodness," the guard replied. "The Mizukage has been worried. You were due here quite a while ago."
Sasuke thought that it was a strange statement to say since the last time he had seen the Mizukage, she wasn't too happy to see him. They were fighting against one another as the Five Kage Summit was literally falling apart due to the infiltration of Iron by Tabi as well as Zetsu."
"I have orders to bring all of you to the Mizukage's office immediately upon your arrival," explained the guard.
Kakashi took the lead for everyone and nodded his acknowledgement.
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Her office looked surprisingly similar to Lady Tsunade's office in Hokage tower. Mei Terumi was known to be gifted not only in jutsu (its hard not to be with three chakra natures under your control) but also in diplomacy and common sense. In many ways, she reminded Kakashi of Tsunade…though Tsunade would always win in the temper department.
"Welcome," the Mizukage said once the five Team 7 shinobi entered the office. "I take it your comrades have been delivered to the hospital?"
"Hai," answered Kakashi. "I know we were supposed to come here immediately to greet you, but I hope you can overlook the slight diversion we took to allow our two young genin to get proper medical treatment."
"Of course," Mei answered. "I take it you five are well then?" She asked the question looking directly at Sasuke.
"Hai, M'Lady," he answered knowing she was directly addressing him.
"Would you do me the kindness of telling me how you were to turn up on this village's doorstep less than an hour ago? There was quite a ruckus surrounding you, my young Uchiha."
Kakashi, Sakura, Naruto and Sai all looked at one another noting that the conversation seemed to be turning into a one-on-one with Sasuke and the Mizukage.
"Would you like us to leave?" asked Kakashi trying to avoid the awkwardness as much as possible.
"No, my apologies," Mei answered the leader. "I just have not seen Uchiha in quite some time and thinking back…well, he seems has changed much."
"I'm a bit confused," admitted Sasuke bluntly. "Your guards said that you were very concerned for our well-being when we arrived here. However, in my experience, most of the villages and their leaders do not trust me until I've proven myself in their eyes by spending time on missions in their village. I'm not sure if you distrust me or worry for me as an ally."
"My dear Uchiha…I must admit, a little of both," said the Mizukage. "I trust the Hokage and when she sent me the message that she wanted to send you here, I was extremely skeptical at first. It actually took me quite a bit of time to get back to her because I wasn't sure if I wanted you here in this village or not. However, I was convinced by some of my own advisors who were aware of your time in both Sand and Cloud that I should allow you in for your test. It was the least I could do for Tsunade. When I heard that not only you, but the other members of your squad had disappeared, I feared the worst."
"You did not think that I kidnapped them myself?" asked Sasuke knowing what some people's knee-jerk reaction had been.
"When I decided to put my trust in the Hokage, it was a complete trust. I generally do not change my mind once it is made up," said the Mizukage. "Until I heard otherwise, you were were still to be considered a precious shinobi serving under Tsunade. The fact that you are here leads me to believe that Tsunade was correct and that you have, in fact, redeemed yourself."
"Thank you," said Sasuke appreciating her faith in him.
"I'd still like to know what happened though…especially so close to my village," added Mei.
"Of course," said Kakashi before he began to tell the story once again.