Chapter 19

Hospital Visits Part 2

I didn't get fancy with the title. Oops. This is the last chapter of Arashi lounging in the hospital before she goes to check on Naruto. Oh, and there's more Kakashi here.

Out of anyone in Team 7 to have wound up in the hospital down the hall from her, she never would have thought it would be Sasuke. What was more alarming were the ANBU stationed around him. She remained in her room and tried to get a reading on how he was doing. From what she could tell, his chakra system was in a state of upheaval. When she focused on more minute details with his system – which was tricky to do from their current distance from each other – she was able to pick up on a single spot that was causing his turmoil. It reminded her of the mark that Anko carried, but newer and not as stable. She could tell there was something in place, contending to keep it in check. Her hunch was that another seal had been placed over it. She wished she could get a better analysis on what was happening.

Orochimaru had, indeed, laid claim on him. Arashi pulled her knees up to her chest and mulled over the Uchiha's situation. For what reason? To force him to become a follower or a test subject? No matter how she thought of it, the ruse seemed inefficient and not worth the effort, but it was serious enough that he had his own guard. She felt that there had to be more reason than recruiting people from within Konoha's ranks. Sasuke was talented, but there had been more exemplary prodigies produced by their village.

But there's only two Uchiha left and he's the easier target.

Arashi had a hard time believing the Sannin would have come back and faced the dangers involved just to target Sasuke like a collectible item. From the information she had, it did not make sense. Each question generated another question. There was more going on. There had to be.

Not far away, she could sense Orochimaru lurking. He had made no move to close in on Sasuke's location, but it still left her on edge. With how easily he could eliminate anyone in the hospital, she felt defenseless. She caught herself observing every chakra that came near, exhausting herself as the day went on.

Her skin tingled as she picked up on Kakashi approaching. Ahh, well, it's good that he's here to visit his student.

Instead of walking by her room, he paused and poked his head in. When he saw that she was awake and staring at him, he closed his eye in a smile. "Hi."

"If you're looking for Sasuke, he's right down that way." She pointed.

"Thank you." He released the smile and stepped into her room. "How are you holding up?"

"I'm doing good. Pretty tired and my ribs are tender." She admitted. "I'm sorry that I didn't come through on giving you updates."

"Don't worry about it." He drawled.

"Still, I'm sorry." She reiterated. "I would have preferred getting to chat with you."

"Well, at least you've had time to catch up on some reading?"

The kunoichi eyed some of the books her mother had left. If not for being trapped in a bed, she never would have read them. "I guess you could say that. These aren't really the best, though." He glanced at them. In his hand was a copy of Icha Icha Paradise. It was the first out of the Icha Icha series. "You should leave that copy of Icha Icha with me so I can read it."

His eye widened a fraction, but he tried to play it off. "Mah, why would I do that? I'm reading it."

"But if you let me read it, we can talk about it." She countered.

"W-well," he stammered. "I'm sure when you get out of here, you can pick up a copy for yourself."

Arashi pursed her lips. "But then I might not have time to read it! And you have it right here!"

The Jounin held the book against his chest, protectively. "Why the sudden interest?"

"You seem to like it." She replied. "I'd like to see why."

"The plot and characters." He answered.

"Ah, I see." She grinned. "I'd love to check it out so I can see what kind of plot you like."

"This isn't a book meant for young girls." He deflected.

"I'm of age." She huffed. "Just in case you haven't noticed, old man."

A slight hint of red crept above his mask line. His signature jolted with embarrassment, which only served to deepen the grin on her face. He broke eye contact and cleared his throat. "Well, ehh, I wanted to talk to you about Sasuke."

The change in subject made her want to pout, but she dropped it. She was curious about what was going on with Sasuke, as well. "Oh?"

"Orochimaru left some sort of seal on his neck. I did what I could to suppress it, but I would like your opinion."

"Sure thing. I don't know if I'll be able to actually do much with it, though." She sighed. "I was able to take a brief look at the one that Anko-san has and it's something else."

Arashi watched as he worked his jaw in thought. "I don't expect you to be able to contain it or remove it."

"So, check over the work you've done to make sure it's suitable?"

"More or less."

Arashi doubted he needed her input. Fuinjutsu might have been one of her specialties, but there were others with such a talent. She was confident that Kakashi had done a sufficient job for what they were forced to work with. Still, his choice to ask for her input meant something. Whether it was a vote of confidence or a friendly gesture, she did not care. She was being included.

"I have no objections. When would you like for me to take a look? Now or when he's a little more stable?"

The Jounin rubbed at his jaw and hummed. "Whenever you'd be up for it. I trust you to not do anything that would be dangerous to him."

"Maybe here in a few minutes. I'm waiting on them to bring me some food and I'd like to eat first. Nothing they've brought me has been great, but at least it's something." She shook her head. "You should've smuggled something nice in for me."

He snorted.

She began to say something else, but in quick succession – one, two, three – all of the ANBU stationed in Sasuke's room were snuffed out. Her spine stiffened. There was a signature still in the room, but it was not Orochimaru. It was someone else. It resonated like Konohagakure.

"Kakashi-san," she gasped out.

His eye darkened. "What is it?"

"Sasuke's in danger!"

Without wasting a second more, Kakashi dashed out of the room. Arashi jumped out of the bed, grabbed her IV pole and ran down the hall after him. Kakashi was quicker than she was and made it to the room before she did. Instead of running in, he created a shadow clone and stationed it at the door. He gave Arashi a look and motioned for her to stay back. She nodded. Once he was satisfied, he made his move. Not wanting to repeat the travesty that was her last battle, she stopped next to the door and stayed out of sight with his clone. Right off, Arashi noted something off about the active signature in the room.

It doesn't have enough chakra. Just enough to function. Not quite a clone, but not the one that did this.

The first voice that she heard was a young man. Possibly around her age. "I have to give it to you, Kakashi. Stopping my attack by striking from your blind spot? But you'd better ready at least ten of your men next time."

"You're not an ordinary Genin, are you?" Kakashi asked. "You caught a whiff of me and immediately readied your weapon. You're quite impressive."

"I'm not all that." He replied.

"What do you want with Sasuke? I may have to capture and interrogate you, depending on your answer."

"Can someone like you be capable of doing that?"

Kakashi's signature bristled at the barb, but he did not take the bait. "You're the son of the chief of Konoha's medical corps, aren't you? Your name, was it, Yakushi Kabuto?"

Arashi's mouth pressed into a line. She had never met the captain's son before in all of her time in the hospital or dealing with other medical shinobi.

"Are you affiliated with Orochimaru?"

Kabuto's voice dripped with amusement. "If you arrest me here, you might never be able to prove my connection to Orochimaru."

"Shut up and confine your answers to my questions."

"What if I say 'no'?"

"I'm the one asking questions. Now give me some answers."

"You'll find out before long anyway if you let me go, so can you make an exception just this once?

"You willful little brat." Kakashi shifted his stance. "Don't mess around with adults."

"Don't be so arrogant." Kabuto replied. "The circumstances are in my favor."

She felt him move closer to Sasuke. Tension filled the air. Kakashi's signature was wound tight, ready to spring into action.

The first move was made and in a second the Jounin had disarmed and pinned his enemy to the ground. The instant that he was on the ground, chakra flared inside one of the corpses and it jumped to its feet. Arashi braced herself as it dashed through the door to escape, but it halted when it came face to face with Kakashi's clone. The Jounin began to close in, thinking that he had Kabuto trapped.

Knowing that this was also not his actual body, she yelled out, "Kakashi – this isn't him!"

Kabuto's body came to life with the sound of breaking glass. He threw himself through the window and dropped to safety. Kakashi did not pursue him.

A moment of silence passed before the Jounin called out to her, "Do you know Kabuto?""

Feeling that it was safe enough, she entered the room, pole in tow. "No."

"Is Orochimaru nearby?"

"Yes."

He fixed a hard look on her face. "How close?"

"Close enough that he might have been able to watch what just happened. He's probably been staking the area out, but he's not actually gotten any closer." She focused. "He's moving away now."

Kakashi released a long breath. "Good."

Now that she was inside, she was able to see the corpses. Arashi held the back of her hospital gown in place with one hand and knelt next to the body that bore Kabuto's face. This was the guy that had helped Team 7. The Jounin lowered to the floor by her side and examined the body with her. Tilting the man's face revealed a set of stitches hidden by his jawline.

"It looks like he already had someone's face altered to look like his before he came in here. All he had to do was overlay it and stitch it into place. Maybe seal it on with some chakra. Looks sloppy up close, but he did this in seconds. Right after killing these three like they were nothing." She murmured. "This guy's unreal."

"Not to mention using Shikon no Jutsu to manipulate the corpse to do his bidding while he took the place of one of them." Kakashi added.

Arashi chewed at her lips. "I'm afraid I'm out of my league with this."

The Jounin snorted.

The kunoichi stood and glanced over at Sasuke. His vitals were elevated but not enough for her to be concerned. "Was he here to take him?"

Kakashi shook his head. "I don't think so. He attempted to attack him with a scalpel and then used him as a hostage against me."

"I see." She stood next to the Uchiha and prodded at the mark on his neck. "I'm guessing that you need to get more men in here. At the very least, we need people in here to clean up and take these bodies away."

"Yeah."

"I'll watch him."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "And what will you do if he comes back while I'm away?"

"I don't know. Accidentally flash him when this gown inevitably comes undone and hit him with this pole." She replied. "I'm not exactly good for much else right now."

The Jounin rubbed his temples and left the room. It did not take long for him to return with more shinobi. As she suspected, she did not believe there would be much else she could do for Sasuke with the cursed mark. Kakashi had done well in trying to contain it. When she was confident she was no longer needed, she returned to her room to wait. Arashi noticed the Jounin's copy of Icha Icha sitting on the bed. Her eyes widened. Even with the drama that pulled him away, she doubted he would simply forget one of his favorite books in her room. Especially not after she asked him to lend it to her.

Her cheeks burned. Did he decide to let me read his copy?

Hesitantly, she picked it up and turned to the first page.

Arashi was well invested in the plot by the time she caught Ibiki and Daisuke's signature approaching from within the hospital. She marked where she was, closed the book, and placed it down on the table beside her, next to the now empty cup. With the time remaining, she smoothed her hair, made sure she was presentable, and relaxed into the pillows to give the appearance of resting. There was a seed of paranoia in her mind that her Sensei would try to get her involved again, but she hoped that Hiruzen had already communicated that she would be laying low for a while. If not, she would breach the subject. As flattering as it was that Ibiki wanted her to be involved with their functions, she had a different mission to focus on.

Ibiki entered the room with Daisuke on his heels and towered over her. While she and her teammate were not short in stature, their Sensei was tall enough to make them all feel small. He had a way of making a space his. It served him well and was something that Arashi envied at times.

"Sensei," she greeted him and began to sit up.

He held up a hand to stop her. "No need to move."

She nodded and looked over toward her old teammate. "Hey, Daisuke."

"So, we need to have a talk about you going into that forest." Daisuke sniffed. "Stop it."

Ibiki crossed his arms and gave him a stern look. For Daisuke's credit, he managed to shrug it off without shying away. He had grown much more accustomed to the interrogator's presence since working under him in ANBU.

She laughed to lighten the mood. "Yeah, I think that's sound advice. Thank you for the painting, though. It's lovely."

The sour attitude that he carried with him gave way to a genuine expression of concern. "I'll paint you more if you promise to not do something like this again." She sighed and did her best to look apologetic. "You're not even supposed to be in combat."

"I never tried to get involved in combat. I think I just did a poor job hiding. Didn't run away fast enough."

"Where was Anko?" Daisuke spat.

Arashi was unsure of what Anko was doing during her encounter with Orochimaru. She assumed that she had things she was dealing with, as well. "Honestly, it happened really quick. We never stood a chance."

"I'm going to find her and tell her off." Daisuke decided.

"Enough." Ibiki ground out.

Daisuke dropped it, but Arashi could still see an angry glint in his eyes. She did not blame Anko for what happened. Risk was part of their profession and the decision to bring her was not a stupid or pointless one. At least, it would not have been if they were going to be able to retaliate against the Sannin. As they stood, they were stuck in limbo.

"I'm sorry that I haven't been around to help as you wanted, Sensei." Arashi apologized.

"There's no need to apologize. More important things have come up." He replied.

"Yeah. I guess they have." She agreed. "Sandaime-sama has advised me to keep my head low and to stay as uninvolved as possible."

Ibiki nodded. He showed no sign of being surprised. She assumed that he was aware of the Hokage's decision concerning her. Daisuke's expression implied that he had questions, but he kept them unspoken. He had already pushed his luck with their sensei once. "It's regrettable that we won't get to further use you. Not yet, anyway." The jounin commented. "There will be other opportunities."

"Yes, Sensei."

A smirk tugged at his lips. "Some of them might even have the benefit of not getting you stabbed or left to die under a tree."

It was rare for Ibiki to be playful with his words. She laughed in surprise. "Where do I sign up?"

"Sure as hell not in the Forest of Death." Daisuke informed her.

Arashi rolled her eyes but ignored him. Keeping her attention on Ibiki, she asked, "Sensei, how did Naruto's team do? I have no idea who passed and who failed the second part."

"Well, we had too many people pass." He replied. "We held an elimination round. Your brat and the Uchiha passed. Their kunoichi did not."

She squinted. "Too many passed?"

"Talented kids this year." Ibiki chuckled. "Also didn't have a team pulling the stunt you all did or we wouldn't have had to worry about it."

Arashi and Daisuke exchanged a look. She was about to respond when the sound of something tapping on the floor caught her attention. Her attention was drawn to a signature outside the room. A man stood in the doorway, peering in at them with one exposed eye. He was elderly and appeared to be frail with much of his face wrapped in bandaging and his weight being supported by a cane. An X shaped scar was etched into his chin and what she could see of his face was creased with wrinkles.

"I hope I'm not interrupting." The old man commented.

For the first time since knowing him, Arashi caught Ibiki's signature fluctuate with unease. Surface level, he was unaffected. His voice was the same rough, gravel when he replied, "You're not, Shimura-san."

"Good. I'd like to have a word with your student over recent events." He stated. "And I believe you both have other duties to see to as members of ANBU."

Daisuke started to protest, but Ibiki silenced him with a barely perceptible shake of his head. "We'll speak again soon, Arashi."

There was a mixture of respect and wariness in how her Sensei reacted. It served as a better warning than any words could have. This man was not to be underestimated or disrespected.

Arashi pursed her lips as the old man entered and they left. "What can I help you with, Shimura-san?"

"I don't expect you to know who I am." He commented. "My name is Shimura Danzo. In the past, I provided council to the Third."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." She replied.

He smiled but it did not touch his eye or reverberate in his signature. "Your father used to work under me before retiring. It's good to see that he was diligent in raising you to be a capable shinobi."

"You flatter me."

He waved her statement away. "I don't know if you realize how fortunate you are to be alive. Despite the Third's attempts to keep things quiet, people talk and I have connections."

Every instinct she had told her to be wary of this man. "Things could have very easily turned out differently for me in that encounter. I'm thankful to be able to return to my family once I'm released."

"As you should be." He eased into a chair. "Do you mind if I stay for a while? I'd like to know the kind of woman that outsmarted a Sannin."

And that's it for this chapter. I kinda cut it short because I've been sick for a few days and I'm exhausted. We'll pick up with a little more from Danzo and then get Arashi to chasing Naruto (and eventually Jiraiya) around.