Yugito slept for a grand total of 19 minutes before jolting awake and realising that not only was she running out of time for whatever sealing ritual she had to do, the tearing of the universe, telling Sasuke about the deep shit she got herself into, she had Onoki and this guy's heads to turn in for cash at the nearest bounty hunting station.
Luckily, said stations were 24-hour, because her watch (and the sky) told her it was nearing 4am. Yugito powered through her aches and pains, determined to get through the agitating list of things she had to do. She skimmed the Bingo book. The man's name was Mū. Now, she had to dig under all this rubble to retrieve their bodies.
With much frustration, she kicked at the rubble until two bodies surfaced. Fortunately, (or unfortunately, since she had to carry these bodies), you could prune lots of information from a shinobi's corpse, which may uncover a few well-kept secrets. This essentially forced Yugito to have to carry two corpses roughly a kilometre towards the nearest bounty hunting station, as proof.
The collector guy stared at her judgingly.
"You expect me to believe you are the hunter? Unbelievable." He levelled an icy glare at her.
Yugito rolled her eyes, frustrated.
"Just give me the fucking money or I'll do to you what I did to them. That'd prove it." Her voice was laced with immense anger, so the guy luckily shut up and handed her a wad of cash, muttering about how she wasted a pretty face. The money acted as an incentive for her to ignore him.
With grudging tiredness, Yugito hauled her exhausted body (plus two dead ones) back to wherever the heck Sasuke would be.
Sasuke was proud to say things were almost going well. Yugito was gone for a few days, but she informed him beforehand that she'd be back yesterday.
He ignored the sense of worry, trusting her to be fine. Besides, little could be done, since she could've been anywhere for all he knew. Sasuke was about to head outside for a walk when somebody knocked on the door.
Almost as if on cue, it was Yugito. Instantaneously after he opened the door, Yugito collapsed into his arms, burying her head into his shoulder. He ignored the two corpses at his feet.
"What happened?" She looked up at him with tired brown eyes. They struggled just to stay open.
"I'm so fucking stupid," she grumbled, then fainted. Sasuke wrapped an arm around her waist to stop her falling. He rested his palm against her forehead, confirming his suspicions that she had a fever.
If he was to hazard a guess, she overexerted herself during a fight. Judging by the wads of cash in her bag, she was successful, but still incredibly tired. Sasuke bridal-carried her towards the nearest bed.
Yugito groaned, rolling over onto her side. Her face was half-buried into the pillow, half turned towards Sasuke. That was a good nap.
"You were out for 9 hours. It's 5pm." He set down an omelette on the nightstand. Reluctantly, he reached his palm towards her cheek. The fever was gone.
"You had a fever. It's gone now," It was a question.
"It happens when I use too much Niibi chakra. I heat up," Yugito muttered. When a Jinchuuriki used up too much Bijuu chakra, they'd heat up like a laptop in overdrive. Or maybe it was just her.
"Thank you," Yugito hefted herself up, removing the blankets and bringing her knees to her chest in a huddled position. She gobbled up the omelette rather quick.
"Sure," Sasuke glanced outside the window absent-mindedly.
"What happened?" He asked. Surely, she wouldn't return in such a chaotic state if something didn't go horribly amiss.
Yugito set her plate down.
"I fought Onoki and Mū, his sensei. Onoki didn't have Dust Release, but Mū did, and he used it. Instead of dodging, I tested this chakra absorption technique I've been working on. Like an idiot. It worked, but it requires a lot of Niibi chakra. I'm fine now. Weirdly, I think I recovered quicker than normal." She seemed to ignore the rest of her train of thought.
Sheepishly, Sasuke rubbed the back of his neck. Oops. He totally forgot to tell Yugito about the whole ageing and healing thing, and not to mention the 'nature wants to kill you' detail. She previously overlooked the healing schtick, considering it was her norm.
"So, I may have forgotten to tell you something," he began, averting her no doubt annoyed gaze.
"Time-travelling stops ageing entirely and grants you a regeneration ability. Except that nature wants to kill you," he bluntly stated, giving her a moment to process this. Yugito just sighed.
"Alright then. Well, we've got bigger problems," this caused Sasuke to tense.
"I time-travelled into the past, and brought the Niibi from my time into this time," She didn't need to elaborate, because Sasuke caught on.
"We need to find the other one and seal it into me," Yugito buried her face into her hands, rubbing her temples.
"What happens if we don't?"
"I don't know. On the other hand, Matatabi said something about universal tears," That was a cause for panic. Sasuke pursed his lips.
"She said that if time-travelling happens too much, that widens a tear in the universe," Yugito set her plate down.
He recalled something the Kyuubi told him: that he wasn't the first time traveller. He didn't know what the limit was for time travel, but Matatabi wouldn't mention it unless it was getting dangerous. Sasuke dug his hands into his pockets almost apathetically.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about that. Let's just hope that no one else is going to time travel."
Even as he said that, Sasuke had to let his train of thought travel to the what-ifs and the hows. Was the future and the present he lived a result of somebody travelling into the past? The question itself made very little sense. He had no choice but to ignore the questions, since he had no way to answer them, like how he casually ignored the revelation that somebody gave Iwa the time seal.
And then he had to consider the possibility that someone, somewhere, had the answer to a question. They would never reveal themselves, so Sasuke had to reveal himself first. A plan began weaving together in his head, but he had more of a priority with Yugito and the Niibi.
"Alright," he spoke confidently, "We track down the Niibi, we seal it inside of you, done."
Yugito blinked, seeming amused.
"You can be such an optimist sometimes," she smiled. Sasuke smirked back. Neither of them addressed the hows and what-ifs. Yugito's eyes glazed over, implying she was talking to the Niibi - she said the Niibi's name was Matatabi. It was strange, he never thought they would have names, but now he felt like an arse for never even considering it.
"Snow Country, the mountains," Yugito breathed a sigh of relief. Perfect! Now Sasuke knew where the other damn monster cat was. He rose.
"Where are you going?"
He teasingly patted her head.
"I'm going to go kidnap an Uzumaki."
Omake
Warning: This is where I really start to push the boundaries between 'Teen' and 'Mature', if you catch my drift.
Itachi burst into his dad's office with a small stack of papers in hand.
"Father! I have a question," Itachi looked up at Fugaku with big, black eyes. As small as he was, Itachi knew how to get the things he wanted from adults: the pouty face.
"Of course, Itachi. What is it?" Fugaku coolly replied, sipping his green tea.
"What is a-a..." Itachi peered at the paper, squinting, "a condom?" Fugaku nearly spat out his tea. He fumbled for an age-appropriate answer.
"Fugaku?" Mikoto blinked at him curiously, walking into his office and setting down teacakes. Her smile was threatening.
"Itachi-kun, where did you learn that word?" She plucked the stack of papers from Itachi's chubby hand, reading them. Fugaku watched her read with increasing fright.
Mikoto sat them down, smiled at Itachi and spoke.
"It's like a balloon, dear. But for adults." Itachi seemed to process this response.
"What is it used for?" With every second that passed, Mikoto struggled more and more.
"Parties," she replied, "But don't use that word. When you're older, you'll find out more about them." Itachi innocently tilted his head in confusion.
"It says here that they can break. I thought balloons pop, not break. Will I get to have one when I'm older?" Fuck. Why did he become a parent?
"It's a special kind of balloon," Fugaku chimed in, "Well, I can't say whether you'll use it. Your mother and I used one, and it broke." He refrained from saying, 'it'll break again apparently', if he thought of Sasuke.
Itachi, fully satisfied, scurried out of the office, leaving a disgraced Mikoto glaring at him. Fugaku gulped down his tea nervously.
"Icha Icha Paradise! You edit it?!" Mikoto folded her arms, shocked. She seemed more shocked than angry. He was about to comment on it when she shrugged her shoulders.
"Eh, whatever. Can't be too mad. After all, I designed the front cover. Just don't let Itachi see it again," with that, she sauntered out of his office.
Fugaku diverted his gaze to a copy of the book. His wife designed this?! God, he was so glad he married this woman.