AN: I actually managed to get it done before Tuesday claps yay me!
I tried my absolute best and I actually don't think its all angst. Yay!
Gomen if it's blindingly obvious what is going to happen from the start but it was the best way I could come up with.
Enjoy
Unmasked
Chapter 12- Kazekage
"Kazekage-san" Sakura nodded in greeting as she approached the Suna party in the meeting room of Hokage tower, running a hand through her slightly damp hair and straightening her uniform.
It was half seven in the morning, but there was quite a gathering in the room from both villages. Gaara and Kankuro were talking with Tsunade in the middle of the room while Temari stood beside them with a bored expression, staring off around the room.
"Sakura, how nice of you to turn up finally" Tsunade stared down at her sarcastically
"Gomenesai Hokage-sama" she smiled back politely then turned back to address Gaara again "It's been a while"
"Hai, we must talk"
"I think there may be a few more people you must greet first, but I'd be delighted if my work allows me the time"
"Sakura…" Kankuro groaned "do we really need the formality?"
"Apparently" she nodded over towards Tsunade pointedly
"Well, I'll leave you to it." Tsunade said, having got the hint, and walked off to address a few of the older medics from Suna.
"You must be tired from your journey. Have you been told where your party is to stay?"
Gaara nodded "Some have made their way already."
"We would too if it wasn't that somebody" Kankuro signaled to Temari "wanted to say hi to someone"
"Who?" Sakura asked the older kunoichi
She didn't reply, still scanning the crowds so Kankuro answered for her with a smirk "who do you think? It's the same every time we come here"
Sakura sighed with amusement "Temari, Shikamaru is at home looking after Asumu. You probably won't see him for a while."
Temari rolled her eyes at her and gave her a superior glare "don't think you know everything Haruno. At least some of us actually have standards"
"Oh yeah, Tsunade told us you were dating Inuzuka" Kankuro joined in with a laugh "Did you lose a bet?"
Sakura didn't let any of it get to her because she knew she wasn't really dating him. Instead she gave them a straight, stoic expression and crossed her arms over her chest.
Gaara was also keeping a firm straight face but was showing the beginnings of an annoyed twitch in an arm he held by his side. Containing it, he merely shifted his eyes to Kankuro without moving his head and said calmly, "Are you jealous?"
Kankuro stopped laughing but Temari continued her amused smirk as Gaara turned back to Sakura. "I'm bored of this. Can we go elsewhere?"
"Hai Kazekage-san" she smiled politely and led him off, leaving his ill-behaved siblings behind.
They quickly found a small room away from the crowds and slipped in side, sitting down in a few of the chairs strewn inside.
"it's amazing just how many of these rooms there are in here. I never figure out what they are used for." Sakura sighed
"You look tired" Gaara noted, scanning his eyes over her critically.
There had once been a time when him looking at her like that would unnerve her, but they spoke too often for it to bother her now, "so do you"
"I always do"
"Yes, well so do I at the moment. You of all people can understand my insomnia surely"
"Do you want me to empathize with you? I won't"
"No, I'm not… oh never mind; we have important matters to discuss."
"Hai, the presentation on Thursday is really just for show as far as I'm concerned. You must be nervous"
"Truthfully it is my first public event like this in Konoha, but I'm a professional, so I'll cope."
"Are they making you attend the dance aswell?"
"Hai, there really is no way out. It's such pointless frivolity… I'd much rather be working"
"I couldn't agree more. It's too typical of Temari"
"Well, I can't guarantee how long this reprieve from medical work will last for me, but the medics under me have promised me the next hour." She reached into the satchel she had been carrying around and produced a number of sheets for him to look at "here's just a few of the basics, I have much more but I wouldn't want to bore you with the details"
"What advantage do these techniques have?"
"They aren't techniques, just simple remedies. Initial tests have shown a 95 success rate, so they are yet to be perfected, but in terms of funding the plans couldn't be better."
"There is a lot here" Gaara noted, scanning over the details of the top sheet "how long have you been developing this?"
"I suppose the ideas have been there since I was studying to become a medic, but it was over the past three years I actually started to make investigations…"
"Just out of interest, are you working on any more current projects?"
"I have another firmly established in theory, but it'll be tricky getting permission to run a trial, and will almost certainly take decades to develop"
"Sounds big"
"Not really. I've been researching into bloodline traits, partly out of curiosity having never had one myself. I've been looking at stored blood samples within certain families to try and single out what it is that decides whether someone should inherit the trait or not. So far I believe I have been able to isolate the gene within a number of families, but I believe the only way that gene therapy could work is if a certain element of tissue from someone who already has the trait is transplanted so that it isn't as unstable as a full gene replacement. Gomen, I'm rambling…"
"No, go ahead, I'm intrigued"
"Well, theoretically, if the technique is successful, the genes should even be able to be passed normally to offspring after about a month. This could potentially solve the difficulties of bloodline traits being lost in the future."
Gaara sat back in thought "this is guilt over Uchiha, is it not?"
"Maybe it is…" she began to fiddle with her uniform but withdrew her hands quickly "but the technique is still very useful if it works. I would really hope to run a trial, but for ethical reasons, it's difficult to get permission, or to get a volunteer on either part. You see, it would need a donor with a bloodline trait in the first place to pass it on."
"Unless you tried it on Hatake"
Sakura froze at the mention of his name. It wasn't that she hadn't thought about asking him, in fact, the whole idea for the technique was based around his Sharingan eye. It should theoretically enable him to use the eye more freely and without pain, along with possibly giving him the capability to enable and disable the trait in both eyes. Not to mention being able to pass on the Sharingan to his children… their children.
No, the reason why she froze was just that she had managed to keep him out of her mind for long enough to calm her nerves; now that he was brought up again, she didn't know how to react. Knowing that it was too late already, with Gaara's capabilities to detect emotion, she gave him a weak smile before trying to regain her concentration.
Gaara thankfully picked up on this signal and focused back on the sheet in front of him "So that explains why it would take decades. You would only be able to determine the success by whether a child showed evidence of the bloodline trait."
"Hai, and that's not going to happen anytime soon" she said without thinking
"Nani?"
"I mean, uh… as I said, with getting permission for the trial… it won't be soon"
He shifted his eyes over to give her a knowing glare before getting back to the information. "Haruno, could you explain this for me?"
"Sure, which…" she was about to ask what she could help with, when the door swung open and Shizune burst through panting.
"Sakura, you are needed"
"Excuse me Kazekage-san" Sakura sighed as she stood up to face the flustered woman.
"Of course" he nodded
She stood a little closer to the door to keep it quiet "What is it? Can't it wait?"
Shizune shook her head "It's an emergency"
"I could guess that by myself; otherwise you wouldn't have dared interrupt my important discussion with our guest. How serious is it?"
"Life and death Sakura, your choice"
"Fine," she turned briefly to address Gaara "Gomen Kazekage-san, I won't be long if I can. I will attempt to contact you as soon as possible to explain whatever you needed"
"It is understood" he nodded
Sakura followed Shizune through the hospital, muttering under her breath "this better be as serious as you…"
She stopped in her tracks as she spotted the crowd of medical personnel around a room along the corridor. Knowing automatically that this was where she would find the emergency she walked up closer and took a deep breath.
"Alright, anyone who doesn't need to be here get back to work now!" she barked and the crowd turned to face her. she stopped three medics to help her with the patient.
Those named went inside the room in preparation while everyone else moved off to other parts of the hospital.
A few people looked faint as they left and shook their head at her. It wasn't the first time she'd seen those looks… they wanted to abandon hope and preserve their chakra for more hopeful cases.
When she entered the room, the three medics she named had similar unwilling expressions, which didn't settle her own unease. If it's bad enough to pull me out of a meeting with the Kazekage, it has to be bad.
As she looked over to the 'patient' she couldn't even tell what rank he was or what age or anything. The top and back of his head were covered by a black bandana and his face was dripping with blood, making him completely unrecognizable.
The material of his jacket was shredded to reveal wounds beneath and he looked like he at least had broken ribs, if not more unseen injuries. A closer check revealed a wound consistent of a Katana being run all of the way through from the base of the rib cage, obviously having just missed the heart.
She could see why a lot of medics would give up hope, judging by the failed attempts to stop bleeding and find ways to monitor his vitals without disrupting his many injuries.
From what machinery they could hook up, she could tell that his life signs were failing already, but she had seen much worse than this on several occasions, so she barely flinched. At least he has all of his limbs…
She didn't dare think about whom it was, just snapping on her professional attitude as Shizune turned to her with a frown.
"What do you think? Do you want to try?"
"I never don't. Every life is worth it." She turned to the three medics "Hitomi-kun I need clean equipment; the rest of you, help clear up the wounds." Then she addressed Shizune again "How long has he been like this?"
"Approximately seven hours according to his team"
"They carried him?"
"Hai"
"So he may have some aggravated spine injuries. Once he is cleaned as much as possible and I have patched the wounds as much as I can, I want to perform a scan to make sure nothing has been affected that we can't see properly, so can you make sure the specialist is informed please? That's it, get on it now!"
Once they have begun to work, she heard voices from the door, speaking in whispers.
She held her hand still on top of the biggest wound with a cloth to absorb blood and glanced up at them to see Kurenai talking to Shizune seriously outside the door, casting nervous glances into the room at the man.
They're back… she almost began to feel relieved and happy, until a thought struck her.
Kurenai was here, in the hospital, at this room.
Her eyes went wide as she stared back at the man and curiously took a step forward, ignoring the others as they worked silently around her.
She reached out hesitantly to the edge of the bandana. Hooking it up a little she saw nothing but blood-tangled hair.
A little further and a flash of silver strands sent her heart flying so hard into her throat that she almost choked.
The mangled form beneath her, for the eighth time, was her old sensei, her friend, her boyfriend and soon to be fiancé; or that was the plan…
In any normal situation, she would have just got on with it, but something about it made her freeze with fear. She had seen it before in grieving families, where you were too emotionally jarred to do anything about whatever it is that is jarring you.
She barely noticed the curious glances she was getting from Shizune and Kurenai as she suddenly found herself unable to see very well. About to stumble backwards she reached out a hand to steady herself against the bed where Kakashi lay and gasped as it collided with his own limp, outstretched palm.
Just as she felt herself nearing that point of no return, the machine at her side started to beep in alarm, shocking her back to the firm reality that if she didn't get to work right that minute, he really would be lost to her and not only would she be stuck with grief, but also with the guilt of knowing she could have done something about it.
She found it hard to see him once again as just an anonymous body, but she tried forced herself into that frame of mind. No matter how much effort she put into it though, the moisture continued to fall down her cheeks and she didn't know whether she'd be able to continue.
AN: Mwah ha ha ha ha. This is going to be a horrible cliffhanger I'll leave for weeks.
Gomen but I am going to be far far away from my laptop for a long time after this, enjoying myself in not so sunny and gloriously wet northern England. Woo!
I hope this made up for the flop-osity of last chapter. If it didn't, make some useful suggestions on how it could be better.
Hehe chapter 13- unlucky for kakasaku? I have aprox 1600 words written for ch 13 but it's non-sensical atm so I'll edit it when I get back. Maybe. Maybe I'll submit it before I go, I don't know, but the cliffhanger currently is too tempting.
I also hope that the suna trio aren't too bad, seen as I haven't even read fanfics for them, so it is all guess work, except some elements of Gaara, to which I credit my wonderful friend Obsidian Blood who is a complete otaku. luffs ya hon. Xx
Anyways… don't kill me for deserting you. I will regain schedule if my inbox is full to the brim with shiny messages.
Stay shiny and show the luff
XX Belizma-chan XX