Another chapter is here!
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Hiruzen Sarutobi rubbed his eyes with his good hand, feeling the wrinkles shift along the corners as he sighed. Seven men killed, ten injured, among them his son. Despite all of the precautions he took, it still ended with so many dead just to allow Itachi to keep his cover.
Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma would hopefully be able to recover, and he had sent the message for the Anbu Officers pursuing the two Akatsuki members to retreat, which kept the toll down further. But young Sasuke getting word and slipping out of the village to chase after him was unacceptable. No doubt there would be repercussions later on.
As much as he wished he could say that no one was at fault—that every party was doing their duty as a shinobi—it felt so hollow as the lives taken and ruined added to the corpses mounted on his back. They just kept piling up. How soon before they would finally bury him?
He reached for his pipe, a thin string of smoke coming up from the opening. It soothed his frayed nerves as he inhaled deeply. Basking in the tobacco fumes caressing his lungs, he looked out over the village in mid-reconstruction.
Times like these made the hat feel so much heavier than before. Or perhaps the weight was always there and he was only now realizing how heavy it is. His brush with death had left him far feebler than he would want to admit. The chakra that long permeated his frame was slow to replenish itself, his age becoming more evident.
His rumination was interrupted when his aide sent word that Jiraiya had returned with three people in tow. That had been quicker than he expected. He extinguished his pipe and then allowed the group to enter.
"You can drop the Transformations now," he told Naruto and who he presumed was Tsunade after the doors shut. Sure enough, once the brief puff of smoke vanished he had all four of them in front of him. "Welcome back, all of you. I trust there were no complications on your end?"
"Nope, it all went smooth," Naruto said. "Not bad for my first mission as a Chuunin, huh? Shizune-nee even helped me out on practicing the Rasengan! I've almost got it now!"
The Hokage briefly glanced towards Jiraiya while Naruto was rubbing the back of his head and smiling. The slight shake of his head told the older man enough. He didn't know about his father.
And, given the timing, it wouldn't be ideal to tell him either. "As much as I would like to congratulate you on that, I'm afraid there's been a bit of an incident, Naruto." Better to get the bad news out of the way first and from him, rather than let him learn second-hand. "Sasuke Uchiha and Kakashi Hatake have been hospitalized from an attack."
No sooner that the words came out did Naruto's expression shift from elated to shocked and then worried. Just like that he ran out the door to go check on them, leaving the adults to watching his fleeting back before the door closed shut again.
Jiraiya was the first to speak. "Old Man, it wasn't because of why we took him in the first place, was it?"
He nodded and sighed. "An unfortunate turnout that could have been much worse. That can be discussed later." He walked over to the two women. "I have to admit I was worried you wouldn't come willingly. You both look well."
"We sincerely apologize for not responding earlier, Hokage-sama," Shizune said, bowing her head. "If I had known at the time of your last message what would have transpired, I would have tried to convince My Lady to allow me to return to help in whatever way I could earlier."
Tsunade, on the other hand, looked as unremorseful as possible as she stood there with a slight pout. When she felt the weight of his eyes on her, she extended her hands. "Let me see your arm."
He did so and she gently slid back the sleeve to reveal the scar from where it had been reattached. A gentle green chakra coated the arm, sinking into the flesh. Silence permeated the room for a solid minute as her eyes reflected the glow of chakra. Then it dimmed and she exhaled softly as she let him go.
"Like I thought, there's damage on a cellular-level," she said. "They rushed it, but, even with my finer control, it would have gone unnoticed if I didn't know what to look for. Unfortunately, even Shizune can't do anything about it now."
"I consider it the smallest of prices to pay defending my home and correcting my mistakes," he said. "Though it is good to see that your skills in diagnosis haven't diminished after all this time. I trust Jiraiya told you why I wanted you back?"
Her lips pursed and she crossed her arms. "You want to help me, or something like that. Right?"
"Call it righting past wrongs, if you must," he said as he made his way back over to his seat. "You should not have been left alone with your grief for as long as you had been. There's so much that you could have done over the years that were hampered because I didn't make more of an effort, so I wish to correct that with the time I have left."
"I don't want it to be public knowledge that I'm here," she said.
"That's fine for now." He'd already made arrangements with that in mind. "It'll take time, but everyone will be better for it. But first, I need to ask if there's another matter you and Shizune can help me with…."
[0-0-0]
Stupid, I'm so stupid, Naruto thought to himself as he bound over the rooftops. He had been so elated at completing his first mission as a Chuunin and nearly getting the Rasengan down. Yet, while he was doing that someone hurt his teammate and Sensei.
Who was it? That question lingered in the back of his mind as he moved faster. Sasuke wasn't weak. They'd worked together to take down Gaara, who they knew wasn't a pushover. And Kakashi definitely could handle himself, he'd seen that. So who was it that could have done this to both of them?
"Boss!" Naruto paused when he heard the familiar voice from down on the street. It was Konohamaru and his little friends. There were bright smiles on their face as they waved towards him with both hands.
"I'll play with you later, Konohamaru!" Naruto yelled. "I need to get to the hospital!"
He looked a bit upset, which made sense since Naruto hadn't been around with him a lot between training and the mission. But Naruto was in a hurry. He would make time for the kid later on.
Naruto also knew that there was paperwork and a debriefing that needed to be done post-mission, but his body moved on its own. So much for trying to be a professional after becoming a Chuunin. He hoped that the Old Man wouldn't be pissed about that.
When he reached the hospital, he went up to the desk and asked what rooms they were in. The person manning the station checked the list to see he was one of the allowed visitors, probably because he was in the team, and then gave him the two room addresses. Naruto decided to visit Sasuke's first since he was closer.
Sakura was there, sitting in front of the window as a breeze blew through the room. Her reddened-eyes shifted from Sasuke, who was lying still beneath the sheets with a slight frown on his face, towards him. They briefly widened in surprise before she began to move.
The sight still made his stomach fall. Naruto entered the room and shut the door. "Sakura, I'm so—"
He didn't get the words out. Not before Sakura circled around the bed and embraced him in a hug. It took a second before he registered her body was shaking too.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
"…You weren't here," she said softly, between sniffling fits. "No matter how hard I looked, I couldn't find you. No one knew where you were, and I thought something bad happened to you too."
Naruto brought his arms to the small of her back to return her embrace. He carefully chose his next words as he remembered the nature of the mission. "I was out with one of the other Jounin for an assignment. I can't tell you anymore than that. I want to, but it's the Old Man's orders."
Sakura was slow to pull away and wipe her tears with her thumbs. Teammates or not, she knew that if he really was ordered to keep silent on it then it wouldn't be right to push that any further. "But you're okay, right?"
"I'm fine," he said.
"Good." She turned back to Sasuke. "Because I'm tired of watching the people I care about keep getting hurt, Naruto. Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, and Kurenai-sensei ended up like this about two days ago, and Ino mentioned that Asuma-sensei got hurt too."
That was unnerving. He imagined that Kiba was ready to go hunting for blood and only a lack of information was holding Shino back. And while he didn't know Asuma all that well, he was still the Old Man and Konohamaru's family. They had to be taking it hard too. "Who did it?"
"I don't know. The only people who saw the attack aren't saying anything about it, Hokage's orders. But, from what I can figure out, whoever did this used a Genjutsu strong enough to leave three of them like this. Ino's Sensei was injured physically, so there had to be two people at least."
She shook her head. "Still, it doesn't make sense. Kurenai-sensei is a master of Genjutsu and both Sasuke and Kakashi have the Sharingan. Yet whoever did this to them got them all so easily that it's scary."
"So someone hit them with a Genjutsu so hard that it put them in the hospital?" He grimaced at that. "I know that they can be used to create illusions, but from how you put it this is something else entirely. Is that even possible?"
"When she was teaching me, Kurenai-sensei mentioned that a strong enough Genjutsu can cause physical damage to the body," Sakura said. "She mentioned there was a clan in Konoha that had a bloodline limit that could do it once upon a time, using illusions so powerful that they caused the brain to reflect the damage onto their body. But this is different. It caused psychological damage—the sort of thing that strains the mind and can shatter it into pieces."
"Will they wake up?" he asked cautiously. "Can't they send someone from Ino's Clan to do something? They specialize in that, right?"
"I asked her, but she said that they can't send Yamanaka into someone's mind if they've undergone a certain level of psychological stress for medical reasons. It can do more harm than good, so they have to find someone who can heal that sort of thing or wait until they wake up on their own."
Sakura brought her hands up to her hair, fingers tensed from the sheer frustration. "Lee, Sasuke, Kakashi-sensei, Kurenai-sensei—I'm tired of watching all the people who help me end up like this, Naruto."
Naruto didn't say anything to that. He understood it to some extent, like when Iruka took a Giant Shuriken in the back for him and when Karin ended up being covered in markings from the Cursed Seal on her. But he couldn't advise her on what to do.
That was when the door opened and two people stepped in. One of them was Shizune, who pressed a finger to her mouth. The other was a woman with long, dark hair that fell down her back—the Transformation that Tsunade put on herself. She touched Sasuke's forehead and her fingers glowed with a soft light.
Sasuke began to stir away, dark eyes fluttering open for a moment. Then his eyes closed and his head lolled. His breathing shifted, leaving his chest to rise and fall a lot more noticeably than before.
"Let him sleep," Shizune told the pair as the disguised Tsunade promptly walked out of the room. "Dealing with the psychological damage is one thing, but his mind needs rest to fully heal."
"What about Kakashi-sensei and others?" he asked.
"She's going to help them now." She crouched down to place a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Just keep the fact that we're here a secret, okay? And remember to go to do the debriefing with the Hokage."
He nodded as she rose to her feet again and then walked out of the room. That left Naruto and Sakura alone again. The latter was looking at Sasuke's sleeping face, which had taken on a more placid expression.
Sakura sighed in relief at the sight. "…Thank you, Naruto," Sakura said after a pause. "I heard what she said, so I won't pry. But I know you had something to do with it, so thank you."
"I'm just glad that they helped." He rubbed the back of his neck in thought. Shizune had been helping him with his technique during their trip back and she seemed nice. But the other woman had been cold and curt to even Jiraiya. He guessed the Old Man had a way of making her help easily enough.
Still, if they could help Kakashi and Karin then that would be enough for him. "I'd better go back to the Hokage's Tower. See you later?"
"Sure," Sakura said.
[0-0-0]
Seven-year old Karin hummed as she sat in a field of flowers that reached as far as her eyes could see. In her hands was a crown that was slowly being woven to fit on her head. Another pair, one made of yellow flowers and one made of red, laid next to her. She couldn't recall why or when she made them, but looking at them pulled at her heart in a good way.
Her flower-weaving was brought to an end when a man with blond hair appeared in the air in front of her. He looked around for a moment before locking eyes with her. Then he touched down on the field.
She backed away from the tall stranger. "Who are you?"
"Miss Uzumaki, I need your whole attention," he said. "Though I hate to pull you from your 'Happy Place,' the Hokage has given me orders to carry out and you should be conscious enough to register why I am here."
In an instant, gone was the seven-year old, innocent child. In her place was the real Karin, the spy and traitor to three villages instead of one. "What's going on?"
"You have been in a medical coma since the day you were retrieved from the forest after the Invasion," he explained. "In order to seal away the Cursed Mark on you, we need to wake you so that it can proceed. However, I've been told that the process will be excruciating and came to warn you beforehand so that you may brace yourself."
His words brought to mind that event. She recalled stopping Naruto from killing Sakura, telling them where Sasuke was located. And then Naruto bit into her.
"What happened to Naruto?" she asked. "Naruto Uzumaki, is he okay? He should have been in the forest as well."
"I am not personally familiar with that individual, but all the Genin that were in the location we retrieved you from were secured and the battle with the Jinchuuriki had no causalities."
She exhaled audibly at that. If something had happened to him, she wouldn't have been able to calm down. "Good. Good."
"Getting back to the matter at hand, you are on the verge of waking up so they are beginning the sealing process. Due to the nature of the seal, there will be a backlash from the attempt and it will be dependent on your own willpower. You need to focus your mind on something to aid with the sealing process."
"Like what?"
"Some sort of image or visualization to aid you," he said. "A person or object you can cling to and will only be able to obtain should the sealing work. You need to use it as an anchor for the technique to work."
"Okay, that sounds simple enough." All she needed to do was think of something she could hold onto if she remained free of the Cursed Mark. "I should be able to manage that much."
"Then I will take my leave." He floated into the air again and then faded away, leaving her alone.
Karin sat back down in the field of flowers and looked down to the flower crowns that came in pink, red, and yellow. The colors that her younger-self chose made so much more sense now that she was aware of it. The pink would be hers for obvious reasons, young and able to pass as a lighter shade of red, which was her mother's hair color.
The yellow had to be Naruto's then. That loveable goofball she fell in love with. He was probably the only good thing in her life at the moment, waiting for her in the waking world. She grabbed his flower crown and held it close to her heart.
The change happened abruptly after that. All of the vivid hues of the flowers dulled, going from an entire spectrum of bright colors to ink-black. The clear and sunny sky was suddenly filled with storm-clouds laden with tendrils of stygian lightning. Thorned vines snaked from the ground and then coiled around her body from every conceivable angle, the thorns piercing her flesh like poisoned nails that brought with them an indescribable pain.
She screamed as she braced the flower crown tighter, the sole spot of color in the otherwise pitch-dark world.