Chapter 5

Confused

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And now we wait.


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"It is the obvious which is so difficult to see most of the time. People say 'It's as plain as the nose on your face.' But how much of the nose on your face can you see, unless someone holds a mirror up to you?"

- Isaac Asimov, I, Robot


Gently, so as not to agitate the specimen held within, Sakura drew the isolated sample into her pipette. She couldn't remember the last time she had been working on such a damned difficult task. In fact, as the hours ticked away like seconds on the clock, her growing frustration began to eat at her like embers on a log. It was only a matter of time before the embers would spark a blaze, and it wasn't long before the difficult soon began to feel like the impossible. Glancing over at Shizune, she could see the petite woman stealing glances at herself as well.

Together, they had hit wall after wall after bloody damned wall. Sakura slipped out a curse yet again as she watched her sample remain unchanged. Negative. Of course.

Unbelievable.

What were they doing wrong?

"Anything?"

Sakura's green hues drifted from the vial in her hand towards the petite woman across from her, her dark orbs weighing heavily on Sakura.

"Nothing." Sakura bit out, effortlessly sliding the protective goggles away from her face.

"We're missing something." Even though it was phrased as a statement, Sakura could hear the underlying question behind her words.

Sakura rested her hand on her entwined fingers, her brow creasing in puzzlement as she softly murmured a "Yes" in confirmation. But what, she added to herself, frustrated.

Shizune's sigh startled her from her train of thought as Sakura looked up to see the dark haired woman reaching for a stack of files atop a cabinet, placed awkwardly in the corner of the stark white room. If her gaze felt heavy on Sakura, the sigh that rang in her ears was similar to a 30-pound weight being hefted onto her shoulders. She didn't know why it felt as such, and was perplexed by her own reactions to the sound of Shizune's frustration and irritation.

All they were trying to do, at least for now, was isolate the virus from the blood sample Kakashi had trusted them with. But never in a million years did she think it would be this hard, moreover it would take this long, to find it.

And then it hit her like a slap to the face. "Shizune!"

The said woman nearly jumped to the side at the abrupt call from Sakura, a curse slipping unceremoniously from her lips. It never ceased to amaze her how similar the Sanin woman was to her pink haired apprentice, and although Shizune admired Tsunade for the medic and leader she was, there were some characteristics that she could live without. This being one of them.

Casting the manila folders to the tabletop beside her, Shizune quickly made her way to Sakura who was currently digging in the bottom drawer of her workstation. "What is it?" She demanded, alarmed.

Sakura wasted no time as she grabbed another micro sample of tainted blood from the blood vile held protectively in her hands, her eyes concentrated solely on keeping the sample in its contained area where if a spill did occur, the virus would have no chance of escaping the hood that held it captive.

With upmost precision and delicacy, Sakura allowed no more than a single drop of blood to land on the glass slide before her. A few more seconds passed as Sakura prepared the slide to be viewed under the microscope, ignoring Shizune's questioning stare for the time being.

"The blood," she began, pausing to adjust the microscope to a more powerful and accurate setting, "is perfectly normal. Shizune, there's nothing wrong with it! There's nothing to isolate!" Suddenly twirling in her chair, Sakura glanced at Shizune who suddenly stiffened where she stood, slight disbelief hanging shrewdly in the pools of her eyes. Her face practically screamed "What are you talking about?"

Sakura only gestured for the older woman to have a look; her green hues alight with a hint of concealed amazement mixed with confusion.

It was as if they were back to square one. And that was where they should have stopped. So fixated on finding the invisible virus, they had completely overlooked the obvious.

The reason for their relentless failures was not due to their lack of precision and technical expertise (Kami knows the years spent by the two women on perfecting such critical skills), but because there was nothing in the sample that would ever trigger a positive result; there was no virus to be isolated.

At least not in this blood sample. It was clean, healthy, and above all, harmless. And that fact was completely disregared. Because how could an entire village be wiped away by... nothing? It didn't make sense.

How could a virus simply vanish into thin air, unless it were never there to begin with? It couldn't, could it? And what if it did? What would that mean for her? For her village? For finding a cure?

The thought put ice inside her veins. Shizune turned away from the microscope, plopping herself back into her chair, her eyebrows forming a crease as she delved herself into deep thought. It would seem that they had come to the same conclusion.

Shizune's voice was dark when she spoke next. "We need to be absolutely sure about this," she said, catching Sakura's green hues in her own. Immediately, Sakura knew where this was going. Guilt pressed firmly inside her chest as Shizune stood and made her way over to the door across from her.

She waited. There was the sound of fluttering wings and then nothing. She watched with a blank face as Shizune returned with a small pigeon clamped tightly to her side. With a nod of her head, Sakura pulled out a syringe from another drawer, drawing out a tiny amount of the blood serum.

If they were right, and there indeed was no virus lurking in the blood vile, the bird had nothing to fear. If they were wrong however…


"Lady Tsunad-!"

"Shut it Naruto!" Tsunade growled, her large caramel eyes dancing over reports from the past couple of weeks. She was so behind and the last thing she needed was yet another distraction. In her peripheral vision, she could see the blonde hopping impatiently from foot to foot.

Huffing out a breath of hot air, the hokage turned to the jounin. "This had better be good." She warned, voice dark.

Naruto let out a string of nervous laughter, scratching the back of his head in response to the Hokage's apparent fowl mood. "Actually, baa-chan, I was wondering if-"

A sharp knock on the door cut him off. Naruto gave a slight flinch at the sound, obviously not expecting it. Tsunade slammed her fist on the desk in aggravation, barking out a quick "Come in!" before standing, her hands splayed out over her desk.

Her eyes immediately softened at the sight of Shizune and Sakura.

"Shizune! Sakura! Please come in!" Then turning to Naruto, she said, "Naruto, whatever it is you want, it will have to wait."

Naruto frowned at the seriousness in her voice, taken aback by the sudden change in demeanor and sharpness in tone. All three of them could identify the urgency laced delicately in her words. He stared at the Hokage, eye's challenging for an explanation. Tsunade stared right back, however, a sharp glint in her eye that seemed to pierce through him with radiating clarity.

He gulped. He knew a leave-or-die glare when he saw one. And nobody could give it better than the Uchiha and Lady Tsunade herself. Damn she could be scary sometimes.

"Y-ya, sure thing!" Naruto huffed, giving the Sanin a half way salute before turning on his heel to leave.

On his way out however, he caught Sakura's emerald eyes in his own. She met his gaze with a smile of her own, but gave no more acknowledgement than that. She could easily read the question in his porcelain blue gaze.

With a spark of impatience, Sakura shot the blonde a slight shake of her head to which Naruto automatically translated into a "Not now."

Those three are up to something, no doubt about it, Naruto thought, his curiosity almost getting the better of him.

They waited for the blonde to shut the doors and for his footsteps to disappear down the long hallway before Shizune tossed a classified folder to the Sanin.

"We have a problem."

Tsunade eyed the folder briefly before gently picking it up, her hands robotically opening the pages and eyes skimming the reports below with acute concentration. Sakura watched Tsunade's face carefully with a held breath, not sure what to expect. Shizune and the pinkette both knew that Tsunade's expertise with medical mysteries were far more polished and advanced than there own knowledge.

Maybe she had an explanation for all of this.

"...what is this?"

Yet again, maybe even that was too much to ask for.


All his life, Sasuke has known that life was unfair.

Life was unfair when it took his family away from him, wiping the entire Uchiha clan out in a single night by none other than his older brother, Itachi. It was unfair when it allowed for him to travel the path he did all those years ago.

It was unfair when his brother faced death by his hands, when he felt the pain of his loss raging like a fire within him, seeming to eat him alive from the inside out; changing him into a person that he would remember always with a shuddering pang. It was unfair when he was treated as a stranger into the village he once called home, though he deserved it and should have expected it.

Life was cruel.

It was beautiful at times; but nevertheless unfair and unjust. He knew from his own understanding of life that it lacked any such sympathy for those who feel pain, lacked any mercy when it came to death, and most certainly had a sick sense of humor, even for him.

But even life couldn't explain why the criminals seem to live till old age, while the heroes are the ones who fall and die, still young, or why the fates, heartless and perverse in their ways, dish out a time of calm before a storm that in turn kills millions, or why, as of right now, Kakashi felt the need to hand him a bubbling baby with a navy duffelbag, telling him that it was his bloody-damned mission to watch over her for the time being.

And so, Sasuke had found himself spending most of the day trapped with a high-pitched baby on a perfect sunny day in beautiful Konoha. And to make matters even more lovely, Naruto was waltzing towards him with that cheeky grin of his.

Oh yes. Life was damn well unfair.

"Hey, Sasuke-teme!" Naruto called, hand held up in greeting. "Whatcha up to?"

Naruto paused at the top of the hill, eyes squinting in the receding sunlight. From his vantage point, he could just make out the outline of Sasuke's prominent figure siting on a shady bench with something in his arms. A high pitched squeal suddenly broke the silence of the two and Naruto's face went stark white.

"Is that...Is that a baby in your hands?!" Naruto cried, finger pointing at the tiny bundle cradled in Sauke's arms. "Why the hell do you have a baby? You didn't tell me that you were a-!"

"Enough Naruto!" Sasuke growled, aggravation leaking heavily in his sharp tone of voice. "It's not mine."

Sasuke gave the dark haired infant a heated glare as her small hands reached up towards him, grabbing a few strands of his hair in the process. His scowl only deepened when she cooed at the prize held in her fist, promptly thrusting the strands in her tiny mouth to Sasuke's dismay. He wasted no time pulling the strands out of her opened mouth and disposing them to the ground below. Annoying little thing.

Naruto's face looked like a tomato at this point, and it took all of his strength to not laugh at the scene before him. The great Uchiha turned into baby-sitter. Oh Kami.

"So," he began, his voice dancing with amusement as he moved out from the sun's glare and into the shade where he could get a better look at the babe cradled in Sasuke's large arms, "Whose baby is it?"

"Orphan."

"Orphan?" Naruto repeated, baffled. "But what happ-?"

"I don't have details, Idiot." Sasuke interjected, rolling his eyes in blatant irritation towards the blonde knucklehead. He didn't have time for this. He needed to be training or doing something more productive with his time.

"How long do you have to watch her?"

Sasuke cast a sideways glance at the blonde next to him. "Until Sakura comes back."

"Sakura?" Naruto murmured, incredulous. Well that was shocking to say the least. Because Sakura, last time he checked, was currently unavailable. And besides that, what does she have to do with this baby?

Seeing the question in his arched brow, all Sasuke said was, "Ask Kakashi, dobe."

There was another squeal and then a small hiccup from the infant, and Naruto couldn't help but beam at the tiny human. Crying babies were one thing. But happy little humans were adorable at times, no doubt about it. Sasuke only grumbled something about babies being bothersome, but he ignored it. Once an ass always an ass, he reasoned with a snicker, earning himself a dangerous glare from the Uchiha.

Standing, Sasuke grabbed the duffel bag beside him and wordlessly turned to walk away without warning, ignoring the alarmed look from Naruto.

"Hey!" Naruto barked, already jogging to catch up to the Uchiha. "Where do you think you're going?"

The glare he received was sharper than a kunai. There was a moment of silence, a heated sigh, and then, "I'm going to find Kakashi."

"Oh," was all Naruto said to that.

Together they walked in content silence. And for once, life was almost to the point of feeling normal again.

"You know," Naruto drawled after a few minutes passed, "I think she like you."

No response.

"The little squirt." He added for clarification.

Still no response.

Yep. Some things would never change it seems.


Hello all! Yes. It has been a while. Honestly, I had forgotten about this story- but having come across it once again, I couldn't just leave it as it was. So all in all- I'm back from the dead. This was written in two days total. So proud!

Please review if I should continue with another chapter, or if its too boring, or if you have any suggestions at all(: Any review will be greatly appreciated.

-Colani