So... I'm back. Five months since the last update. Damn, time sure flies doesn't it?
Anyway enjoy
Blast from the Past
XxX
Four years ago when Naruto first fought Kimimaro, he had his ass kicked so hard he was sure his ancestors felt it.
Four years later, he was getting his ass kicked so hard he was sure his ancestors were feeling it.
There was something to be said about history repeating itself but Naruto couldn't find it in himself to appreciate it as he was smashed through some filing cabinets. He rolled away as Kimimaro's bone whip gouged chunks off the floor, followed immediately by a spear impaling him to the wall.
Thankfully he had managed a substitution just in the nick of time. The sacrificial play of his clone just allowing him enough time to get close enough with his rasengan. Unfortunately Kimimaro's unnatural reflexes allowed him to raise his bone whip in his path.
Instead of redirecting it Naruto allowed it to meet the whip head on. The rasengan disintegrated the construct like a wood through a chipper. But just as he was about to turn him into processed meat, Kimimaro, in an impressive feat of dexterity managed to grab his arm by the wrist stopping the rasengan from going any further while attempting to spear him.
Naruto managed to avoid getting skewered by intercepting the blade with another rasengan with his free hand. This one was however comparatively weaker, but had enough juice to grind away the tip of the lance and deflect it so that it just grazed his arm and allowed him to immobilize the offending appendage in with his own.
Naruto found himself locked in a stalemate with his opponent. More often than not, it was something he preferred but right now he wasn't making much progress.
Naruto hated to admit it, but Kimimaro was stronger and faster than him and to make matters worse master of a bloodline geared towards countering his strengths.
There was only one thing left to do.
Get creative.
He jumped and used the momentum of his landing to lift Kimimaro off his feet. He thoroughly relished the look of surprise on the albino bloodline user before smashing him to the floor. Unfortunately Kimimro had a surprise of his own up his sleeve as he twisted mid-air and landed on his feet.
Naruto barely had time to process the trouble he was in before Kimimaro turned the tables on him and threw him away like a ragdoll. Naruto somersaulted mid-air and landed on the opposite wall. He now held two large four-bladed evil windmill shuriken in his hands which he threw at his charging foe, who not only dodged them but also managed to slide under the ninja wire that connected the two.
Naruto met him mid-air trying to catch him in a headlock, but Kimimaro ducked under him before generating another bone-whip and wrapping it around his throat and slammed him on the floor, putting him half a foot through solid concrete. Naruto felt the wind knocked out of him even as his the whip tightened around his throat depriving him of those precious gasps of air that would at best give him a few more seconds.
"Windmill shurikens? Really?" Kimimaro deadpanned as he pinned him down with his foot while choking with the bone whip, "is that really the best you could do?."
Naruto gasped as he struggled to breathe, Kimimaro loosened his hold just enough to allow him to speak, "What was that?" he said crouching to hear what he had to say.
"Those... weren't... shurikens... asshole."
Naruto allowed himself a smirk of just as he watched Kimimaro's eyes widen as his now untransformed clones attacked with a big ball rasengan.
XxX
"Fucking bloodline users," Kohaku grunted as Sakura popped his shoulder back into its joint. In the last fifteen minutes he had dislocated his knee, had one of his lungs punctured and had his jaw broken... twice.
If it weren't for Sakura he would be dead ten times over as she not only healed his more life threatening injuries but also kept him in the fight.
"There," she said, a little pale from her exertions, healing him taking its toll on her, "that should do it for now," she popped in a soldier pill gaining a little colour back.
"Any ideas on how to get through that armour of hers?" he asked, "Because I don't think I can get over the indignity of death by 'pink' crystal of all things," he grimaced at the word as if finding it particularly distasteful.
"Really?" Sakura snapped, "that's what you're worried about?"
Kohaku chuckled, though there was nothing remotely funny about their situation.
"How long do you think it'll take her to find us?" he asked.
"I'd rather she doesn't," she said, "but you can tell when she approaches right? I mean you are a sensor."
"It's a little more complicated than that," Kohaku was hesitant to reveal the extent of his sensory abilities. His own complicated feelings for the girl notwithstanding she was still a ninja from another village.
"Are you gonna elaborate?" Sakura demanded.
"I sense fluctuations in chakra," he said giving in, "though if I spend enough time with someone I can memorize their chakra signature."
"Is that how you recognized me back at the hospital?" she asked tentatively.
Kohaku nodded wondering how she would take having confirmed of that bit of information.
"Look, for what its worth," Kohaku assured her, "you didn't blow your cover."
"Yes," Sakura gave him a sceptical look, "I did."
"Okay... yes," he conceded and saw his companion's face get darker, "but what I'm trying to say is, it wasn't your..." the more he talked the more he realized that he was making things worse.
He was, however, fortunately or unfortunately interrupted that as at that moment a huge tremor rocked the building.
"What was that?" Sakura asked as she tried to regain her balance.
"Reinforcements I hope," he said.
"Aww," once again the voice of their enemy, this time dripping with mock jealousy greeted them, she was walking upside down on the ceiling as she approached them, "looks like Kimimaro found playmates of his own and seems to be having way more fun than I am," she dropped down a few feet from them.
"Has anyone ever told you that you're completely psychotic?" Kohaku retorted as he and Sakura got to their feet.
"Never to my face," she said, "wonder why that is?" she added even as her fingers lengthened to form pink crystal claws.
"A wonder indeed."
"I hope you're not expecting your friends to get here," the woman said studying her newly formed claws with satisfaction, "Kimimaro doesn't screw around."
"You clearly don't know my friends," Sakura said grimly, as she took up a defensive stance.
The crystal release user seemed to consider Sakura as if noticing her for the first time.
"You know you remind me of someone," she said, ''someone I failed to kill not too long ago and let me tell you there aren't many of those running around."
"Forgive me," Sakura scoffed, "but I'm finding it really hard to care."
"It can't be," the woman's eyes widened in wonder, like a kid who just found their long lost toy, "it is you!" she exclaimed.
"Sakura?" Kohaku said tentatively.
"Yeah?"
"You wanna fill me in on this?"
"I would," Sakura said hesitantly, "if I knew myself."
"Now doesn't that hurt my feelings," Guren pouted, "I was sure I made more of an impression the last time... Unless..." she trailed off.
"Unless what?" Sakura demanded.
"Careful Sakura," Kohaku warned as he felt Sakura get agitated by the woman's words.
"Damn," she laughed, "the old man really did a number on you didn't he? But to be honest its a mystery he left you alive at all."
"What are you talking about?" Sakura shouted.
Kohaku was getting worried. Guren was trying to get into Sakura's head and from the looks of it she was succeeding.
"I could tell you I suppose," Guren said nonchalantly as she tapped her chin, "but it won't do you much good now will it?"
"Let me guess," Kohaku said, "because you're gonna kill us."
"Top of the class," the crystal release user applauded mockingly before she charged.
XxX
Sakura ducked under a swipe of a crystal blade and retaliated by putting a kunai through Guren's thigh. She made contact. Unfortunately it felt like she was stabbing a block of marble and it left her jarred and completely open to the retaliatory kick that made her see stars.
This was the point where she should have been dead.
Fortunately she wasn't alone. Kohaku, Kami bless his soul, had managed to get behind their adversary and was now in the process of choking her using ninja wires while dragging her away from Sakura. He jerked her around, smashing her head on the walls.
The third time he did so however, she managed to use her feet to get leverage off the walls to switch the momentum and flipped him over her shoulder smashing him on the floor. She would have skewered him, if Sakura hadn't interfered and pulled him away just as her blade pierced the floor. Screaming in rage she tried to slash at Sakura who leaned back as the crystal blade caught the tips of her hair. But just as Sakura was sure her next stab would be through her heart the woman was yanked back as Kohaku had the presence of mind to pin the wire around her throat to the opposite wall with a kunai.
Instead of freeing herself she just placed her hands on the floor as pink crystals erupted from the floor. Kohaku made some rapid hand-seals and was just about quick enough to raise a makeshift shield of out of the floor. It didn't stop the technique but slowed it down enough to allow them to get out of the way.
The combination of the techniques however was enough to cause the collapse of the already fragile structure and the floor gave way.
Sakura and Kohaku slid down doing their best to dodge the falling debris but before they could land, there was a cascade effect in place as floor after floor kept collapsing under the added weight of the preceding floors.
After what felt like an eternity Kohaku's feet hit solid ground, but that brought no relief as he ran for his life to avoid being buried, eventually leaping to avoid the last of the falling rubble. Just then a single thought rang through his brain jolting him towards the mass of collapsed structure.
No no no no.
He stared helplessly at veritable mountain of concrete in front of him.
"I think..." Kohaku turned sharply towards the voice to see Sakura a few feet from him gingerly holding her left arm looking a little worse for wear but otherwise fine, "we lost her."
His relief however was short-lived as a massive slab of concrete exploded outwards missing the two of them by inches, followed by Guren fist encased with pink crystal extended grinning psychotically.
"Boo!"
Sakura felt her bones crack as she blocked the punch with crossed arm, the force of the blow sending her sliding back. Sakura reached into her pouch and fumbled around until her finger slipped through the last kunai.
This wasn't hers.
The blade was dull and slightly misshapen as if someone had taken a hammer to it. It probably won't even fly straight. Then why was...
"If you're in trouble without any backup, just throw it."
"It just might save your life."
Meanwhile, Kohaku had engaged Guren and wasn't doing so well. In fact she was now holding him up by one arm the other she had turned into a blade prime to stab him.
It was now or never.
She threw the kunai harder than she had ever thrown anything in her life and watched helplessly as it bounced off Guren without so much as scratching her.
It did get her attention though.
Guren turned around and threw her a mocking smirk as she went through the motions.
All Sakura could do was watch.
XxX
Naruto used a rasengan to clear the debris he was trapped under struggling to get his breath back. Every muscle in his body was on fire and he was sure his lungs resembled a couple of cement bags by now. He tore off a piece of his jacket or rather what remained of it to use it as a makeshift towel to wipe off the mix of grime, dirt and blood from his face.
In hindsight using a big ball rasengan might not have been the best idea. Backlash from even a regular rasengan could be devastating. Well at least he put down the albino bone-release freak. No way he survived that, he noted with satisfaction as he observed the tonnes of debris barely a couple of yards in front of him.
He had barely finished that thought when a spike exploded out of the rubble, Naruto crossed his arms to shield his face exposing the rest of his body. The force of the impact threw him off his feet. He landed hard but he fought through the agony to get back on his feet quickly on his guard again.
His danger senses worked on overdrive as the floor exploded upward bonse spikes jutting out of them, Naruto somersaulted his way away from them barely avoiding being skewered.
Naruto's leaned back not quite avoiding the spike that cut through his cheek and shaved a part of his right eyebrow before embedding itself on the roof. .He barely recovered when he found himself dodging another another missing his foot by inches before executing a timely substitution saved him from resembling a human kabab. He kept backing away until his back hit the wall.
Naruto shut his eyes in horrified anticipation and waited.
And waited.
And waited.
Finally he cracked open an eye.
"Waahhh!"
This was the stuff nightmares were made of. In front of him was Kimimaro. Or to be more precise half of him. He seemed to be in the process of... melting out of a bone spike?
The top half of him was hanging lifelessly, looking like someone had put him through a meat grinder.
Naruto made a clone who went to check if his adversary was still alive. The only way he was going within hundred feet of him was if he was a corpse.
"He's got a pulse boss," the clone said, "its weak but its there. Bastard probably won't last long though."
"Put him out of his misery," Naruto said, "and then burn the body."
"Think that'll keep him from coming back to life again."
"Dunno, but damn if I don't do everything to avoid a rematch."
"You mean I do everything so you avoid a rematch," his clone noted dryly.
"Just do what you're told," Naruto barked.
It was at this moment that there was a distraction in the form of three figures appearing simultaneously in front of him. He knew two of them, one better than the other.
"Hey Sakura-chan," he greeted his flummoxed teammate while the other two were heaving over the contents of their stomachs, "you threw the kunai and you aren't... " Sakura chose precisely that the moment to join the other two and start...
"... throwing up," he finished lamely.
"What..." Sakura gasped, ''the hell?"
"I was hoping my recent modifications to the seal would stop the nausea," he explained, "looks like it needs more work. The company was unexpected as well."
"You think?" It was impressive how much venom she managed to convey with her tone while she was still struggling to stop herself from heaving.
Before Naruto could reply he felt a powerful surge of killing intent directed his way.
"I'm gonna feed you your entrails!" the other woman screamed the last word as she struggled to her feet but failed as another bout of nausea overcame her.
Naruto wondered what her problem was. She really looked like she was about to follow through on her threat. And how did she even come to the conclusion that her current situation was in any way his fault?
"Well well," a new voice joined the fray, "quite a mess you've created here Guren."
A delicate looking bespectacled youth directed a mocking smile at the woman. The fact that he got here without any of them the wiser of it put him at a threat level above even Kimimaro.
"Kabuto?" Sakura said uncertainly as if not quite believing what she was seeing.
The man turned his curious gaze to his teammate as if trying to place her and then his eyes widened slightly in recognition, "I have to say brown hair becomes you, though I rather prefer the real colour of your eyes Sakura-san."
"Stay out of this four-eyes," Guren snarled at the recent arrival, "I don't need your help."
"Clearly," the man said turning away from Sakura, "but I'm not here for that, we've new orders and it seems Kimimaro could use a little patching up."
Naruto turned to the unconscious bone user and to his horror he wasn't there anymore while his clone was immobilized courtesy of a huge snake at least six feet in length who then squeezed hard enough to dispel it.
"Well," the woman smirked, no sign of her earlier fit of rage, almost as if she flipped a switch, "seems like you live to fight another day after all."
"Yeah," Naruto was getting tired of being treated like a non-entity, "why do you people seem to think you'll just be walking away after everything you've done?"
"Please tell me I can at least kill this one," the woman pleaded, "I swear I won't take long."
The bespectacled man seemed to consider her request for a minute while he studied Naruto like a piece of puzzle that didn't fit.
This man was dangerous.
More than Kimimaro.
For some reason this man who bore a closer resemblance to a librarian than a shinobi was making him more nervous than Kimimaro and the psychotic woman put together.
"You had your chance," he said shortly, before moving to turn away.
Naruto was having none of that. A lot of shit had gone down for it to just end like this.
Thankfully the Kusa jounin felt the same way. Kohaku met his eyes and gave him a near imperceptible nod and that was all Naruto needed.
The jounin attacked the new arrival rapidly running through seals raising three earth pillars to trap the man, while Naruto went to engange the woman, creating six clones. Just as Kohaku was about to plunge his kunai into Kabuto's heart Naruto realized that they had miscalculated.
Faster than a cobra's strike a blade extended from beneath Kabuto's sleeve piercing the Jounin's abdomen . Meanwhile the woman was making short work of his clones, he had already lost three of them and he would lose the rest and since his impromptu teammate had been incapactated he would essentially be outnumbered three to one. Sakura didn't seem in the condition to be able to help in a fight.
It was time to do what he did best.
Improvise.
This was gonna hurt.
He got one of his clones to substitute with Kohaku, and then gritting his teeth he made the ram seal, causing his remaining clones to explode.
XxX
XxX
"He's not looking good Naruto," Sakura warned him as they ran.
"We just need to get to a safe place first," Naruto told her as he adjusted the unconscious jounin on his back
"He's dying," Sakura said urgently.
"I thought you'd fixed him up," he shouted.
"So did I," Sakura replied, "the sword must have been coated with some sort of toxin with a delayed action time."
"Shit!" Naruto swore, "we should probably drop him outside their mission centre. He'll be their problem then."
"I doubt he has that long," Sakura said, her voice uncharacteristically grim.
"Is there anything you can do?" Naruto asked her and to his surprise he saw her hesitating. It wasn't strange to see her having doubts, but if there was one thing Naruto had learnt about Sakura in the short time he had known her was that she was a damn good medic and if she was having doubts about Kohaku's chances, it didn't bode well.
"Sakura!" he yelled and Sakura flinched.
"Ye... Yes," she stammered, "I think there's something I can do."
"Okay," Naruto nodded, "so what do we do first?"
"Find a place where we won't be disturbed," she said a little more resolutely.
XxX
Naruto led her to a dilapidated old barn which looked like it was one good gust of wind away from falling over. He proceeded to make a makeshift gurney using a combination of some broken planks and ninja wire while she rummaged in her own pack to see if she had anything that would help.
Sakura examined the Kusa Jounin who was drifting in and out of consciousness.
His blood pressure was dangerously low and his pulse was thready and further examination revealed that his very chakra was now turning against his body. Her heart sank. This was the most aggressive poison she had ever seen. Mere extraction won't save Kohaku's life and none of the antivenom she had on her would work.
There was only one thing left to do.
She would have to use that technique again.
Shizune sensei's brown eyed stare had all of them pinned to their seats. Despite her position as the assistant to the leader of one of the greatest military organizations in the world and the duties that said position entailed she took time off to address the aspiring medic-nins once a month. She was lecturing them today on the ways to treat a poisoned patient.
"...Now there are poisons which target specific organs or more often than not, an entire organ system and then there are toxins designed to affect the chakra system in addition to you'll never find a toxin which, in addition also target the chakra system. Can anyone tell me what the course of action should be in this case? Yes, Yamanochi-san," she said pointing to one of the raised hands in the crowd.
"The Ying-Yang Balance Restoration Technique," the trainee said.
"That's a good answer," Shizune said, "but I think someone in the group disagree... yes?"
It took Sakura a moment to realize that Shizune was addressing her.
"Ex... Excuse me?" she stammered.
"Why is it that you think that is the wrong course of action?" the Hokage's assistant asked.
Sakura wasn't expecting to be called out like that. She hated to be put in the spot but it seemed like she wasn't about to get out of it without
"The technique's too... " she hesitated, "complicated?"
Sakura cursed herself inwardly. That sounded really lame, even in her head and she actually said it out loud. Judging by the round of chuckles among her peers they were in agreement. It was with some difficulty that she fought down her blush of embarrassment.
"Complicated? I see," Shizune said coolly evidently not impressed, "is that all?"
Sakura took a deep calming breath, "The technique is efficient enough for targeted treatment, when one knows what the toxin is and that is not always possible without using a battery of tests all of which take more time than any treatment would."
"Go on," Shizune encouraged.
"A better alternative would be to use the Delicate Illness Extraction Technique," she continued more confidently, "followed by plasma replacement."
"The Delicate Extraction Technique is an outdated technique and the plasma replacement technique is a hell of a lot more time-consuming than the Balance restoration technique," the chunin Sakura was contradicting scoffed derisively.
"Shizune-san!" a frantic medic interrupted them.
Shizune for her part didn't hesitate and immediately rushed out, leaving the rest of them confused and bemused.
Sakura was the first to move and the rest followed her as she tailed Shizune and the medic who were busy wheeling an unconscious shinobi through the hospital.
Sakura saw Shizune turn pale, "Get the Hokage!" she shouted.
The command was so unexpected it caught everyone off-guard.
"Now!"
That finally got the people moving.
Thirty seconds later the village leader walked in, flanked by a quatret of Anbu guards. Green cloak still billowing behind her, an after effect of the shunshin she had executed to get there post-haste. Her hat covered half of her face. The urgency of the situation barely allowed them the luxury of basking in the presence of their venerated leader.
What she did next, however, more than made up for it.
Sakura popped a blood replenishing pill in preparation for the procedure. The Hokage hadn't needed to do so when she executed the technique. Sakura had an inkling as to how she did it, but then there is a difference between knowing how something is done and being able to do it.
Knowing how its done had in fact made Sakura appreciate the complexity of the technique even more and had elevated the status of the Hokage in her eyes even more so.
She knew it was beyond her, so she used an alternative.
It was a crude alternative granted, but it was effective nonetheless. She plunged one end of an IV line into her arm pushing the other into Kohaku's.
Now came the tricky part.
She channeled healing chakra through her blood into the Kusa shinobi's. The damage was extensive. If she had delayed the treatment by even a few more minutes he would be beyond all help.
He might still die as a matter of fact.
She could feel her chakra repairing the damage. The technique allowed her to be thorough but there were some downsides. One of the major ones being that it could potentially kill her.
Converting so much of the ying component of her chakra for healing could lead to potentially fatal issues for her. Already she could feel herself over-extending and she barely repaired a third of the damage.
She was tempted to take a soldier pill, but that would only make matters worse. While it would more than make up for the chakra requirement, it would throw off the finely honed control required to maintain the technique.
Soldier pills were meant to boost the combat effectiveness of fatigued nin in the battlefield by not only pumping excess chakra into the coils but also stimulating adrenaline production, which admittedly, was what one required when fighting for one's life but more a hindrance when saving someone while using a forbidden technique requiring absolute control.
She ignored the sweat which was making its way down her brow even as it made it down to her eyes.
Her control began faltering as she felt the strain of the technique build. She grit her teeth and persevered, she could not afford to fail.
She would not fail.
Not again.
Darkness started bleeding into the corner of her eyes the more she pushed herself.
She was barely halfway done when she began to lose consciousness. If she didn't cancel the technique she would perish along with the man she was so desperately trying to save. But before she could, she realized it had gone away from her.
She had put off cancelling the technique for too late.
She didn't even have the energy to feel despair as she felt herself slipping.
Only now... she wasn't anymore.
The darkness threatening to overcome her was now fading away.
Her puzzlement was only exceeded by her amazement, as she felt the chakra that was now boosting her.
It was more rejunevating than a chakra pill, better than her coffee during a night-shift.
It was... intoxicating.
"Hey Sakura-chan," a strained voice broke her out of her reverie as she turned to see Naruto one hand on her back and he other holding a ram seal, beads of sweat forming on his forehead from the effort of transferring his chakra into her.
"Don't mean to rush you and all, but could you hurry this along?."
Mortified, Sakura refocused on her task and was surprised by how fast much faster she was proceeding despite struggling to control the chakra. Before long Kohaku was breathing easier and his pallor becoming healthier and so was she.
When she was sure he was out of danger she cancelled the technique and hurriedly turned her attention to Naruto who was still keeping up a steady supply of chakra to her, veins throbbing and eyes bloodshot from the effort. He was breathing heavily and didn't even seem to be aware of his surroundings anymore.
Sakura moved away breaking her connection with him and stopping the flow of chakra. Sakura had to catch him before he collapsed on the floor.
"Can't... stay," he gasped in her ear, "need... to move."
"We can't!" Sakura protested, "not with Kohaku unconscious and you in the condition that you're in."
Naruto reached into his pockets and to Sakura's horror brought out a blue pill. Before she could stop him he bit into it.
"Are you crazy!" Sakura said frantically, "you've already damaged your chakra coils with that technique you used back at the hospital, helping me certainly didn't do you any favors and that soldier pill is only gonna make matters worse."
"Ugh!"Naruto visibly shuddered, "tastes like puke."
"Are you even listening to me?" Sakura demanded
"It's alright," he assured her, "I just had enough to keep me on my feet, see?" he held up the soldier pill he just bit into showing her that there was still nearly two-thirds of it left.
"Even that is enough to put stress on your already strained coils," Sakura said refusing to be deterred, "what you just did might have shaved years of your lifespan if not decades!"
"Beats shaving off the rest of 'our' lives," he said, "because that's what might end up happening if we don't start moving now."
"What about him?" Sakura said uncertainly, jerking her head towards Kohaku.
"I'll be fine."
Sakura turned to her previously unconscious patient to see him struggling to sit up. Sakura rushed to him to help him up.
"You need to leave," he told her, "I don't know what will happen to you if you were caught."
"By Kusa or Oto?" Naruto asked rhetorically.
"At this point," the jounin grimaced, "I'm not sure there's much difference."
"For what its worth," Naruto said sympathetically, "I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what?" Kohaku retorted, "turning my home into a battlefield or the fact that Konoha's mistakes have turned Kusa into the playground of a mad man?"
"Actually," Naruto said, "I was apologizing for the ass-whopping I unleashed on you earlier. "
After a moment of tense silence, Kohaku smiled, "You got heart kid, I'll give you that," he said as he struggled to sit up, "Take the southern route," he said, "with some luck you just might avoid the patrols and anyone else sent to look for you and once you make it pass the woods you should be safe... from Kusa and Oto at least."
Sakura didn't like the way he said the last bit and judging by the way Naruto's face turned grim, he didn't either.
Sakura bent to plant a kiss on his cheek, "Thank you," she said, "for everything... I just wish..."
"Me too," he squeezed her arm reassuringly, "now go."
Sakura walked out of the warehouse to find Naruto waiting for her.
"You didn't have to leave you know," she said, "but I appreciate the gesture."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," he said even as he broke into a light sprint.
Sakura rolled her eyes but let it go in favor of more pressing concerns, "So, what's the plan?"
"You know there's something that's been at the back of my head," Naruto said squinting hard as if trying to remember something, "bothering me like an itch I just can't reach."
"What is it?" Sakura asked tentatively getting the feeling she would not like whatever it was that he had to say.
"Where are Kakashi and Sasuke?"
XxX
Kabuto couldn't remember the last time he was caught off-guard. His intellect was both a gift and a curse.
A gift because it allowed him to stay ten steps ahead of everyone else in the game.
A curse because it made things so... boring.
It was hard to enjoy the game when everyone else was playing catch-up. He had learnt to enjoy the little things. Things like seeing Haruno Sakura again.
Did he expect Konoha to infiltrate Kusa?
Yes.
Did he expect them to use the unassuming genin he had met all those years ago?
No.
She had come a long way from the unassuming genin he had befriended during that fateful chunin exam all those years ago.
But what really got him was the blonde kid who nearly took out Kimimaro all on his own and then executed an impressive albeit near-suicidal maneouver to allow his comrades to escape.
He didn't remember him. He looked the same age as Sakura and Sasuke and yet he was definitely not a part of their graduating class or any preceding that.
Kabuto would have known. It was his job to know after all.
And yet, he came out of nowhere.
Whatever the case, he was a new variable and for a change Kabuto had no idea how his involvement would change things.
It made things... interesting.
"I'm gonna rip his fucking spine off, wrench open his guts and feed his entrails to dogs!"
Unfortunately not everyone felt that way.
His volatile colleague upturned a table, smashing it against the wall. Kabuto had learnt long ago that it was a good idea to just let Guren vent when she was like this.
Sure it always meant broken furniture and loss of few unfortunate grunts on occasion but none of the damage she did was irreversible. Still he would prefer if she could vent elsewhere or when he wasn't engaged in a something that required his full attention.
"Maybe this is not the best time to say this," Kabuto said without taking his eyes off his task, "but can you have your temper tamper elsewhere? I'm actually in the middle of something important."
Guren grabbed him by the collar forcing him to look at her heavily scarred face courtesy of those exploding clones, "Why didn't you just let me hunt down and kill that blonde bastard?"
" 'I' didn't let you do anything," Kabuto said as he adjusted his glasses which had been left a little askew by the woman's actions, " 'you' were following orders, just like..." he motioned to the work he was currently engaged in, "I am."
"I'm following orders alright," Guren hissed, "just not sure where they're coming from."
"If you've got something on your mind," Kabuto noted with some satisfaction that the vitals were beginning to stabilize, it would have been a pain to start again, "you should just say it. Better avoid that ulcer."
"Very well then," Guren said squaring herself up, "I think you're a manipulative bastard and I don't trust you."
"Please don't hold back," Kabuto said, "tell me how you really feel."
Guren scowled at his flippant tone but continued, "You're up to something that has nothing to do with what Orochimaru-sama wants and once I find out what that is," she moved closer to him in what he considered a pathetic if amusing attempt at intimidating him, "you better watch your back."
"Appreciate the warning," Kabuto smirked, " in the meantime," he pointed to the unconscious suspended form in the recovery tank he had been working on, "Can you give me some space? Am working here."
Shooting him one last venomous look she stormed out finally leaving him alone. He fiddled with the controls for a few more minutes before being satisfied. He should be waking up any second now.
His efforts bore fruits when the figure opened its eyes. Kabuto watched as the fluid was slowly drained and the chamber opened with a hiss.
Kimimaro's naked form stumbled out as he removed the oxygen mask, collapsing on the floor. Kabuto wrapped him in a towel and led him to a gurney.
"I... failed," those were his first words as Kabuto helped him lie down.
"On the contrary," Kabuto assured him, "you performed admirably my friend. Orochimaru-sama is proud of your efforts."
"But... " Kimimaro protested, "I lost."
"That's inconsequential," Kabuto shrugged it off, "we achieved what we set out to do and that's all that matters."
Kimimaro seemed mollified by those words or at least not as agitated as before.
"Who was he?" Kimimaro asked, "the one who defeated me."
"I don't know," Kabuto admitted, "yet."
"He said I was supposed to be dead."
That immediately caught Kabuto's interest, "Did he now?"
"What did he mean?"
"Nothing you should be worried about, " Kabuto told him, "just focus on getting better, Orochimaru-sama will need your services soon."
Invoking Orochimaru had the desired effect as the bloodline wielder seemed to rein in his curious questions and allowed Kabuto to sedate him.
Now that Guren and Kimimaro were out of the way he could start on getting some questions answered.
Kimimaro had given him a vital clue regarding the blonde shinobi's identity. Apparently he was one of the two survivors of the mission that wiped out half of Konoha's most prominent rising bloodline users.
That gave him a place to start.
Now all there was left to do was find out where it led.
Poor Team 7. Just can't seem to catch a break can they? At least they are dishing out as good as they are getting so there's that.
Anyway, that probably ends this mission, or to be more precise, the Kusa portion of it is now just gonna extend onwards into... well you're just gonna have to wait to find out.
Hope you guys enjoyed the bait and switch I pulled with the Hiraishin. Even if I wanted to, and I really don't it is a little early in the day to give Naruto an army annihilating jutsu.
Anyway don't forget to leave a review.
Until next time.