Cover (Double Time)
"Arrival in Past & in Hospital"
'Italic' – Normal thoughts
'Words' – Naruto talking to Kurama in mind
[A.N.:] / [W.M.:] – Author's Note / Word's Meaning
'Bold Italic' – Kurama's Thoughts
'Bold Words' – Kurama talking to Naruto in mind
Disclaimer: Naruto is not mine. I wish he was. I wouldn't have minded Sasuke either when he was not being a revenge-obsessed brat, that is.
Minato's POV:
"Minato-kun, I would like you & your team to patrol Eastern side forest. I have got reports of a disturbance, even though it is common during wartime, but the nature of murders was disturbing."
Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, explained while handing the mission scroll over to Minato. "I will look into the matter, Sarutobi-sama." I pocket the scroll and turn towards my minions... um, my slaves..., no, I mean my genins.
"Okay guys, we meet at East Gate in two hours." With that my genins began to fill out of the Hokage Office. I was about to ask for more details on the matter when I notice one of my slaves. . . students, I meant one of my students was looking at me expectantly. I guess he wants to know the details too.
"Go on Kakashi, I'll brief the mission on the road." I don't know exactly how bad things are going to be but I'll like to spare them nightmares if I can help.
With an affirmative nod, Kakashi too made his way out. We waited till we're sure that he was out of hearing range.
"So, how bad the mission is?" I asked. There is no use skirting around the bush.
"Here, this is YOUR mission scroll; I want to know everything you find or suspect, even your wildest guesses."
"Do they manage to get the bodies?" I have a bad feeling . . . . . .
"No, there were only organs and blood, lots of it. It seems they have taken the skins of all their victims. Be careful, Minato. It just might not be . . ."
I gave him a determined nod and made my exit.
The place reeks of blood & gore . . . there were few other smells too but they got overshadowed by the coppery smell.
"Goodness sake! What the hell happened here? There so much blood, the ground is soaking wet & painted red by it." Obito exclaimed softly, disturbing the tense silence.
"Sensei, please tell me that we aren't searching for the 'thing' that caused this bloodbath? This one's the13TH clearing that we came across that's like this . . ." Rin is scared I can tell, even though being a Medic-Nin she is more used to with gruesome sited than the boys. This must still be giving her shivers of disgust.
"Ugh, I can't stand this." Obito suddenly turned around and emptied his stomach on the ground. I repressed a sigh, 'I wonder how Kakashi is coping . . .' I glanced over to my last student to see how he is dealing with this, what I saw confused me a little but then worry took over.
He was looking towards the deeper parts of the forest. I started making my way towards him when abruptly he started making seals. Looking closer I realized he was summoning his nin-dog, 'must be to scope out the area. (Sigh) He is so detached that it worries me sometimes.'
"Sensei, there seems to be a body in the next clearing towards north-east." He said uneasily. And with that, everyone became tensed for any possible attacks, when none came after some time, we made our way over to where Kakashi pointed a body lay.
Upon reaching the clearing we notice that it was different from others, instead of blood-soaked ground littered with every human organ possible, it was scared with slashes and burns around the area. And at one corner, under a tree, lay a body.
From where we stood it was clearly a female body. A very naked female body covered with blood, pieces of fabric hanging from her which covered not even an inch of her body. I quickly & quietly gesture Rin, our female member, to check the body. Both the boys have busied themselves in scouting the clearing, consciously keeping their backs to Rin and her charge. 'Ah! I can only guess their reasons for showing sudden maturity.' Feelings conflicted between pitying them & sweatdropping.
Rin, when I turned back, had covered the body as much as she could. I sighed in relief and walked towards her. Even though I am happily engaged to a very beautiful red hair kunoichi & was forced to familiarize with female anatomy. I hold enough respect as a man to give privacy when needed, even if it is a dead body, though I would hope not 'coz from the looks of it she is just a girl barely in her teens.
"There is a pulse but faint. She has chakra exhaustion all of this blood is hers... She seems to have strange markings on all over her body. Everything seems to be working properly other than few broken ribs & few puncture wounds." Rin diagnosed the situation to me in almost emotionless voice. But even though I am no doctor; not even a medic-in-training like her, even I can sense a big, very big, 'AND' in the air. Either she doesn't want to say something or she is dreading to examine any further. And I concluded that it's bad.
"Okay, get ready everyone; we are heading back to the village. She needs medical support immediately. I'll use Hiraishin to teleport there before it's too late for her."
Rin looked relieved but hurried to prepare the girl for transport. "I'll secure her for the ride. Who –"
"Place her on my back; Sensei won't be able to hold her while doing Hiraishin." Kakashi cut her off with an answer, almost like he could read her mind. Obito was uncomfortable enough to not jump at the chance to play hero and so kept quiet. He walked up to his teammate (& a self-proclaimed rival) to take his bag off him and help Rin secure the girl on Kakashi's back.
At first, Rin seems hesitant to the idea, but with time running out for the girl she made quick work and placed her on Kakashi's back.
"All right, hold tight." While going through the required hand signs (and mentally groaning for still needing it) only one thought was going through my mind, 'Why would she hesitate...'. With the last hand sign in place, we vanished from the crime scene.
24 hours later, Rin's POV:-
I walked down the corridor towards my last patient of the day. She was in the room 205. I remember that to be highly guarded private rooms in the Northern Wing of the hospital. I wonder why am I allowed there? Being just a Genin or a medic in training doesn't sanction it; normally.
As I stood in front of the room, the chunin guards there asked for my Nin-ID and permission papers before letting me in. I walked inside; closing the door behind me & saw my patient was covered from head to toe in bandages. But saw no sign of chakra binds or restriction seals placed on or around her. So, this is no prisoner but an important person or someone important to an important person. I walk around the bed and took a look at her chart. What I saw shocked me but didn't surprise me. This is the same girl that my team & I recovered yesterday. As I continued reading her chart I found my earlier diagnosis was very poor. She seems to have multiple broken bones throughout her body. Her heart failed multiple times during the operation that she underwent yesterday. The marking on her was similar to seals on a storage scroll. She also seems to possess a large chakra reserve which is found sucked dry. Some of the markings resemble a fox, a toad, a wolf and a phoenix. Which are assumed to be tattooed? It is also noted here that she seems to have an incredible healing rate. And due to that even though there is no sign of injury in/around her private & no foreign DNA, She is declared a rape victim as foreign chakra residual have been found.
'Huh! That is exactly what I wanted to be wrong about. She is . . . she is so small, barely a teen. This is such a cruel world for girls.'
I was about to finish examining when the door opened quietly and came in three people; my genin sensei Minato Namikaze, his sensei & one of three Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya, and Hokage-sama himself. I was mildly surprised about the late visit but figured it must be something important. I bowed to them as a greeting and looked towards my sensei for my orders. I don't know whether I am to stay or to leave. For some reason, I don't want to leave this girl in presence of any male population alone. But as a good ninja, I know not to let my emotions take the upper hand.
"Rin-chan, I see you were examining her. So, what is her condition?" I was startled out of my thoughts by the sudden question.
"Ah, right. When we brought her here, It was found that she has multiple . . . . ." I parroted all my findings and almost everything the chart says. But I found it difficult to tell them most dreaded of all without feeling the pain in my heart.
"And?" It seems Jiraiya-sama has caught on my hesitation at saying something. So, I forced myself to take a deep breath and continue.
"And even though there is no injury or foreign DNA presence is found in her. It is highly possible that she has been . . . raped." I said averting my eyes to the ground feeling oddly weak. Here I am standing before a girl who was barely a year or two younger than me but possibly stronger than I.
"Rin, if there is nothing that claims it so, why do you say that?" I glanced sideways at my sensei then turned to my Hokage to explain it further.
"I didn't say that there is nothing. We found foreign chakra residual in her, which is enough of a proof." I feel so exhausted with all this.
There was deafening silence after that. I wanted to be out of this room. And I was relieved when sensei excused me.
"And don't forget, we have a team meeting tomorrow early in the morning." I never miss team meetings & sensei knows it too but I understand his want to lighten up the tense mood so I replied back anyway, loudly.
Back inside the hospital room, the loud exchange didn't help much to change the tense atmosphere.
"We should move on too. Sarutobi-sensei, I say we wait two more days, if she doesn't wake up, you can go forward with Inoichi. It's best to know her mental condition before mental probing if the diagnosis is right."
"I agree!" Minato quietly agreed while looking at the still bandaged body.
"Okay, I wouldn't want to damage her further either. . . It's a shame our world doesn't even recognize the difference between a child and an adult anymore. Minato, I am going to assign her to you. If she doesn't have any guardian, & even if she does, make sure to keep close contact with her and the people around her. Of course, one she wakes up that is."
"Hai, Sarutobi-sama!" 'I would have done it even if you hadn't asked.'
Another chapter is done. I'm having problems with writing Kakashi's part. I don't want to jump-start their relation given that Kakashi is an observant person. Also, this is supposed to be a song fiction and I'm having a little problem with including songs in it.
Anyways please read and review.
