I'm updating a bit early because it fits my schedule better. Expect another update about two weeks from tomorrow. Other than that, no comments except to point out that there are responses following the chapter as usual. I found one of them rather interesting.
Chapter Fourteen: Connections
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Sakura asked abruptly, breaking the silence. Ino glanced at her as if disinterested, her voice light but her words completely serious.
"If you're thinking we're going to be attacked soon, then yeah, I'm basically thinking that."
"I guess yet another house is going to get destroyed," Sakura sighed. "We really blow up a lot of stuff, don't we?"
Kicking off the wall behind her, Hinata hurled herself across the room. She caught herself on the opposite wall, sending tile sliding to the floor and making the room shudder. Sakura was about to say that her action was pretty excessive, when abruptly the wall Hinata had been standing against erupted in flames.
It fell apart a moment later, dozens of warriors flooding in to attack them. They wielded a variety of weapons, and immediately attacked the three of them working in close conjunction. Obviously a rag-tag bunch of assassins, but a rather large bunch.
Without shifting her eyes Hinata saw Sakura finish several hand seals and blinked in surprise. Her jutsu was incredibly fast. Chakra flooded out from Sakura, covering all of the warriors. The next moment they were all stumbling, collapsing to the ground and lying still without movement. Ino joined Hinata in her surprised blink.
"What was that?"
"A stunning jutsu," Sakura grinned, flipping back a lock of pink hair. "It convinced their brains to shut down oxygen flow for just a second, so all of them fell unconscious. It's great for using on large crowds. We should capture a few of these and make sure they can't kill themselves. When Sasuke gets back we can wake them up and question them. I'm sure he'll be happy tha-"
Before she could say any more, one of the supposedly unconscious warriors whirled to his feet, both arms flashing. Several thin strips of paper struck Sakura, who cried out in surprise. The next moment she exploded in flame, but her body dissolved to mist and the flaming notes dropped to the floor.
Sakura appeared on the opposite side of the room, on her knees and panting. If I'd been a split second slower that would have gotten me... Two of the other bodies were rising as well, evidently unaffected by her jutsu. Great. She should have considered that there would be better shinobi among the group.
Ino struck first, send a kunai hurtling toward the shinobi who had attacked Sakura. He tossed another sheet of paper into the air. It exploded in a wall of flame that deflected her kunai. After that, Sakura couldn't afford to watch any more, because one of the other shinobi was hurling a katana at her. The third dropped what looked like a bomb among the unconscious assassins; realized what he intended to do, Hinata somersaulted past him, snagging the bomb and hurling it away.
Then the battle was closed, and there was only the moment.
Back flipping, Hinata barely avoided the fist of the third warrior. His long, flowing red robe swept behind him with his movement. It was covered in images of flames, but the flames seemed almost alive. Ducking around his next punch, Hinata touched a hand to his shoulder and sent a surge of chakra.
As she had feared, his robe completely negated her attack. Her soft touch wasn't enough to even move him, and the warrior merely smirked broadly. His laughter was cut short when Hinata dropped back to one arm and kicked him squarely in the chest. This blow made him hurtle backward, crashing through the wall and into the yard.
Leaping after him, Hinata realized abruptly in midair that something was wrong. Her opponent was on his feet, and the wind seemed to be catching his robe strangely. Abruptly one of his flames leapt, off his robe, flashing through the air directly toward her face. She barely managed to twist out of the way of it and land.
The instant she did so, she felt something hot snap around her leg. With a slight gasp she realized that more of the flames had dropped from his cloak, making a line of fire across the ground that now held her in place. It burned, but not as badly as a real fire did.
Before she could react, two more lines of flame snaked out from his cloak, binding her arms in place. Raising his arms, the warrior pulled more flames from his robe into the air about him, balls of fire burned around each of his hands. Smirking, he burst off the ground toward her.
Just before he could smash his hands onto her face from either side, Hinata moved. Breaking away from the flames that bound her arms, she slid kunai to her hands and slashed in a broad x shape in front of her. Sensing the attack at the last second, her opponent managed to throw himself back slightly. She still slashed through the front of his robe and traced lines of blood across his chest.
Growling in anger, the shinobi couldn't manage anymore than landing on his feet. All the flames on his robe immediately burst around him in a spiraling inferno, but Hinata leapt away from him, to the middle of the yard.
Of the most importance was avoiding getting skewered by the katana. This Sakura did by kicking it away just before it reached her. Of secondary importance was avoiding her opponent's follow up... but it didn't come. The other woman was standing some distance away, apparently focusing on some jutsu.
At that moment cracks appeared in the ground about Sakura's feet. Steam began issuing from them, and on instinct Sakura leapt away. From a further distance and with more time, she realized that she had been wise to do so. It wasn't steam; it was a very dangerous poison.
Her opponent blew, sending the rising cloud flooding toward Sakura. Clapping her hands together, the pink-haired shinobi sent a burst of chakra into the air. If this didn't work, she was pretty much screwed. Otherwise...
Winds whipped about her dangerously, and the cloud of steam was shredded into strands that moved on either side of her. Obviously annoyed, her opponent hurled something that Sakura easily dodged. When the small object struck the ground, however, it exploded in a green puff of smoke. Probably poison again.
Once more, the winds blew the poison away before it could reach Sakura. Flicking back a lock of pink hair, she smirked at her opponent.
"Sorry, you lose." Keeping her protective winds circling about her, Sakura carefully stepped back to the middle of the yard.
A sheet of paper flew just past her head, and Ino instinctively dodged it. This was a mistake, she quickly realized, as her opponent had expected that and had already hurled another note. It exploded in conflagration that lit a tree on fire; the shinobi watched his destruction carefully.
Ino's kunai bit into his back bloodily, and he fell forward. He managed to catch himself with one foot, but she was already striking with her other kunai. This one, however, merely skewered a piece of paper that abruptly appeared where he had been moments ago. Before she could let go of it the paper exploded.
Collapsing on the opposite side of the yard, Ino growled. This guy was really annoying and he didn't let up. She had already injured him several times, and he wasn't showing any sign of slowing down. Whatever chakra his flaming notes required, he seemed to have a great deal of it.
Both off them attacked at the same moment. Ino launched a wave of shuriken that sliced past her opponent, leaving blood trailing in the air but not managing to actually kill him. He had merely thrown two kunai, but at terrible speed. They sped toward her face and she managed to catch them only barely in time.
The next moment both kunai exploded, sending Ino falling back again. Instantly another explosion rocked the place she had landed, but she had expected the technique. Spinning in the air above, she landed in a fighting position in the middle of the yard.
As one, the three warriors charged the three female shinobi in the center of the yard, each aiming to finish their battle. Midway through the charge, a shadow appeared above the clearing. Everyone had a single moment to look up and see Sasuke suspended above them, eyes gleaming with red light.
He shot to the ground just before Ino's attacker. The man tried to slow down, but it was to no avail. Flowing like water, Sasuke dropped back with one forearm on the ground and smashed his sandal directly into his opponent's jaw. Instantly the shinobi was flung into the air with a painful crack and landed with a thud.
Meanwhile, Hinata still had to deal with the warrior attacking her. There was an aura of flame around him, and he was striking at her brutally, as if he did not expect to be attacked in any way. Indeed, the flames would shield him from most attacks. But only most of them.
Hinata's palm smashed into his chest, where his robe flapped open. His chakra twisted dangerously and his heart stopped in one instant. For a moment he remained on his feet, then his eyes rolled to the back of his head, the flames on his robe and in the air about him faded, and he dropped to the ground. She bent down to him, checking to make sure that he was actually dead, and then rose to her feet.
Certain Sasuke would be victorious, Sakura instead focused on her own opponent. Having halted her run, the shinobi paused for a moment, then hurled a pouch that exploded in midair. Only a shower of dust-like particle rained down from it. For a moment Sakura paused, watching them, a strange expression on her face. Slowly the particles drifted through her shield of air.
Then she snapped her hands forward, and the chakra bound wind surrounding her rushed forward. The dust washed over her opponent, who choked and then collapsed backward. For a moment there was silence as the four remaining shinobi stood alone on the battlefield.
"We did it!" Ino crowed, fairly jubilant. She shifted beside Sakura and elbowed her with a smirk. "You'll notice that Sasuke saved me, not you. I guess that says something about who he-" she cut off abruptly, noticing Sakura's ashen face. "Is... is everything alright?"
Sakura collapsed to the ground the next moment, only barely being caught by Ino. Immediately Sasuke was beside her, eyes narrow as he considered her condition. In one swift movement he lifted Sakura from Ino's arms.
"Some of the poison got in her system," he told them curtly. "I can't stop it from spreading."
"Wh-what are we going to do, Sasuke-kun?" Ino asked, eyes wide.
"Find Matthew-san," Sasuke answered, already leaping away. Ino followed him quickly, jumping along the path he had taken. Throwing one of the still living assassins over her shoulder, Hinata followed them. At top speed Sasuke raced from rooftop to rooftop of the town, toward the hospital.
When they arrived, they found the hospital surprisingly full. Every chair was filled by someone, all of them looking fairly critically injured. Hinata had to wonder if perhaps the assassins had attacked more people than just them, but Sasuke ignored them completely, striding directly toward Matthew's office.
He opened the door with his foot, and Matthew instantly looked up at him, eyes narrow.
"She's been poisoned," Sasuke said immediately, setting Sakura down in front of the desk gently. "It has already spread throughout much of her body. Can you do anything?"
"Well, without knowing th-"
"Do anything?" Ino interrupted. "How is he going to do anything? This was a shinobi-created poison! How can conventional medicine cure that?"
"As I was saying," Matthew stepped around the desk and knelt down on the floor beside Sakura, "I can't know the poison so I can't use an antidote. Conventional wisdom states that one should use unconventional tactics at such a point." As he spoke he rolled up his sleeves midway up his arms.
"But what are you going to do?" Ino demanded. She seemed like she was about to say more, but she abruptly cut off, because of what happened at that moment.
Matthew raised both his hands, and green energy lit up around his fingertips. It seemed to course down his arms and collect at the very ends of his hands. The next moment, while the others watched in surprise, he gently touched his fingertips lightly to Sakura's stomach and forehead. A soft hum began and ended rather quickly, and for a moment Sakura and Matthew were both bathed in green light.
"That should have neutralized the poison," Matthew told them, voice coming heavier than it usually did.
"How much can you use chakra?" Sasuke asked him. Matthew gave a nervous smile and scratched the back of his head.
"Is that what you guys call it?" There was a pause in which Sasuke looked down at him expressionlessly, then the shinobi nodded.
"It will suffice for now. Thank you."
"Well, as a doctor it's my oath to preserve life," Matthew answered. "I really don't like to see death."
"Wh... what's happening?" Sakura's eyes had flickered open, and she was glancing at the others blearily. Matthew offered her a hand up, which she took without really thinking about it. For a moment she wobbled on her feet, but then her eyes focused. "Did he save me?"
"That's the long and short of it," Ino answered. "I'm glad you're alright… you big oaf."
"I don't want to be the one to interrupt you," Matthew said, coughing into one hand, "but there are some business matters we really should take care of first. Obviously, I'm not going to charge you for my assistance; I don't want to be linked to you in any way. But there are a lot of people out there waiting for their time, and I'd like to at least put on a show to handle this properly."
"Fine," Sasuke said. Hinata blinked at him, slightly confused. His tone was extremely terse, and he was on edge. There was something that was confusing him, but she couldn't tell what it was.
"I have the proper paperwork in the other room," Matthew told them, moving through the door. "You'll have to sign a few things and wrap up business and then you can go."
They went into the other room, where instantly the eyes of all the other patients were upon them.
"It will be all right," Matthew told them with a slight smile. "Someone will be with you in a moment." He moved to the table and pulled up several papers. After fishing around in his pockets for a moment he shrugged sheepishly. "I forgot to bring a pen. Let me go get one."
He turned and entered his office again. The door closed behind him, and instantly Sasuke's gaze snapped to the others.
"Kill everyone in the room."
The order was startling enough that there was a slight delay before they could obey. Hinata acted first, touching a palm to the head of the nearest sitting man and slaying him instantly. Sakura hesitated with her kunai, unable to make herself attack.
Suddenly she saw a flash of steel and chakra, and realized that the man nearest her was not only uninjured, but also wielding a large blade that had been hidden by illusion. No longer hesitating, she sent her kunai into his skull and sped into the attack. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hinata and Ino attacking as well.
It was over almost immediately, the four of them now standing in a room of corpses. There was an uncomfortable pause, and Ino spoke up first.
"I realize that they were all assassins," she said to Sasuke, "but how did you know? What if we had killed a bunch of innocent people?"
"There wasn't any doubt," Sasuke answered darkly. "Matthew-san was dropping hints about it in the entire conversation. I knew for certain that there was an assassin immediately, but I wasn't sure who it was, or if any of them were innocent bystanders. What clinched it for me was when he had to get his pen."
"I don't get it," Sakura told him bluntly. "What does that mean?"
"Do you really think someone with his level of intelligence would forget something?" Sasuke asked. Sakura's eyebrows rose.
"Not that you are to blame," Matthew entered the conversation, emerging from his office and wiping his glasses. "You were unconscious during most of the conversation, and my technique unfortunately slows some nervous functions temporarily."
"The shinobi we brought with us," Sasuke addressed Matthew immediately. "What is his condition? We needed him alive."
"I ensured that he will be unconscious until we wish him to wake. Furthermore, he had a poisoned needle by his arm and a pouch of poison in his mouth. Both items were removed."
"Good. I'll want to talk to him fairly soon."
"If you say no, it will be alright," Matthew told them slowly, "but I have a request for you. I can't stay in this town any longer. After this incident, they know who I am, and they'll be coming after me. I don't want to put anyone here in danger."
"So... you want to come with us?" Sasuke finished his thought. "I suppose that you would pull your weight. Can you run?"
"Probably not as fast as you, but a good deal faster than a normal human," Matthew told him. "If you go slowly I might be able to keep up."
"Very well." Sasuke turned away, then sat down in one of the now empty chairs, folding his arms. "Don't think that I completely trust you, but for now this will suffice. Our path might have more to do with yours than I originally thought. We'll be going soon, as soon as we can properly question our captive. Get ready and we'll begin as soon as possible."
"I'll be ready in ten minutes," Matthew responded, readjusting his glasses. "If you wouldn't mind, could you clean up this room? I'd rather people not be left wondering why there are so many dead bodies in my wake."
"Yeah, I can handle that," Sakura nodded. "It's the least I can do in return for saving my life, right?"
Those of you who prefer plot-oriented chapters over character-oriented ones will likely be pleased by my next update, as a bit of the excessive mystery will be removed. I'm sure you've guessed at some of the things to be revealed, but hopefully it will still interest you.
Regarding how long it is until Lee's appearance: without checking, I'd say about six chapters.
I'm very glad to hear from a variety of people that they found Hinata's thoughts in the previous chapter effective. That was probably the most important shift in terms of characters and I was worried it would go poorly.
Regarding Nanthakon's review: Thank you for your kind words. I assure you thatthe sasuhina element will not be ignored for the rest of the story. Now, as for your guess at gender... sorry, I'm rather male. But thank you for the guess; it is validating to know that an actual female thinks I did a convincing job. I intentionally limited the number of scenes narrated by Sasuke for another reason: it forces readers to know as little about what he is feeling as Hinata does. And while I'm addressing you directly, I don't mind lengthy reviews at all.