It was a few weeks after the meeting with Kurosuchi, and Kiba and Akamaru were just getting back from a mission out in Island Country. It wasn't too hard of a mission and nothing bad went wrong, but that didn't change the fact that Kiba was sore, tired, and cranky. Team eight could have gotten back to the village a whole day earlier if bug-boy hadn't slowed them all down searching for a special water spider while they were in Island Country. Kiba just wanted to get back into his own bed and sleep for a week. Maybe that would cheer him up.
The next morning, Kiba's mother woke him bright and early to feed the dogs in the kennel because she had to go off on a mission for the Hokage in Rice Country. 'Well,' thought Kiba, 'so much for sleeping in for once.' Kiba fed the dogs and then ate breakfast with his sister. He couldn't see why she couldn't have fed the dogs, but decided not to ask in case she was in a bad mood, like always. After a hearty breakfast of eggs and sausage and a giant glass of milk, Kiba decided to take Akamaru for a walk in the forest. They hadn't had a chance to do that in a while since they had been out of town, and he kind of missed the woods.
After running around the forest for at least an hour, Kiba thought that he would go to the Hokage and check up to see if his teams would have any missions in the next few days. On the way, he met with a few friends at the ramen shop. Naruto was talking with Lee inside, so Kiba decided to at least stop in to say, hi. After ordering a drink and hanging around chatting for a while, Lee and Naruto both left to go and spar for a while. Kiba said his goodbyes and went again to the Hokage's office. Once inside, Kiba saw that there were not many people in the office at all. Even the medical staff that usually came here in-between shifts at the hospital was not present. On his way up the stairs to the offices, Kiba saw Sakura heading down and in a very rushed manner. Sakura barely looked up at Kiba, gave a very quick "Hello," and then was off like a flash running towards the hospital. Becoming a bit confused, Kiba walked a little faster to the Hokage's office and knocked on the door. When there was no answer he knocked again, this time harder. Again there was no answer. Kiba looked for any notes around the door incase Tsunade left one to say she was on break or something. When he found none, he went to look for anyone who would know what was going on. Downstairs, Kiba found two medics rummaging through a big file, so he asked them if they knew where the Hokage was. "Are you kidding? She's at the hospital. We've all been busting our asses after the accident!"
Kiba was scared for a second. "What accident? Was anybody hurt?"
One of the medics looked up again at him. "Have you not been here the last few days? We needed to give about five organ transplants to some patients at the hospital who've just back from a mission that went wrong. We were running out of time and didn't have any donors, and finally we got a break and found one. After the transplants, everything seemed fine, but then it turns out that the donor didn't die of natural causes like we thought, but was diagnosed with some strange poison. We have no idea when she got poisoned, but now the organ transplant patients are starting to die, we've lost two already. Hopefully we can keep the other three alive."
The medics both ran out towards the hospital. Kiba wished he could help in some way, but knew it was worthless. At least he knew there were highly experienced medics working with them, and if there's any chance of success, it lay with them.
Kiba had gone back to his home and decided to wait for morning to try and find Kurosuchi. He'd ask about how the patients were doing when he saw him. But when the morning came, Kurosuchi still wasn't out of the hospital. Word from the nurses told Kiba that another of the patients had died. Kiba was worried about the patients, but there was nothing he could do, so he went to find his teammates to see if they would do any training with him.
It wasn't until the next day that the nurses told him that Kurosuchi had gone home finally. The last two patients had survived, all because of him and Lady Tsunade. Kiba thanked the nurses and ran to see Kurosuchi at his house, but then realized that he had no idea where Kurosuchi lived. He instead decided to go see Sakura, who, as Tsunade's apprentice, would have had a great hand in the whole deal. Maybe she would know the details and maybe even where to find Kurosuchi. He rushed to Sakura's, Akamaru beside him, and started knocking at her door. There was no answer, so he tried again. again there was no answer, so he went around to the side of the apartment building she was living at, and saw that the light was on in the room he assumed was hers, so he went back to the door and tried knocking again, this time adding a, "Hey Sakura! It's me Kiba, so open up!"
Kiba heard someone stomping towards the door and stood back as the door flew open to reveal a very tired looking Sakura. "WHAT!?" she screamed angrily.
Kiba sort of froze up for a second; not knowing really what to say, but finally decided on, "So...How are you doing?" He gave a slightly uncomfortable chuckle and Akamaru just whimpered and hid behind Kiba with his tail between his legs. Sakura was a very scary person when she was tired and angry.
Sakura looked Kiba in the eyes, then said, "I have not slept for the last 20 hours, and in the last 3 days, I've had about a total of 6 hours of sleep. I hardly have the strength to stand here, so please leave me to my bed!" She then started to close the door.
Kiba caught the door before it closed and said, "Wait! Can you just tell me real quick where I can find Kurosuchi then?" Sakura looked at Kiba again, but was too tired to tell him the rules about not giving out information about the other nurses and doctors. She instead thought that since she knew Kiba was a good guy, and that she could get to sleep faster, she gave him quick directions to Kurosuchi's house. Kiba quickly thanked Sakura and apologized for waking her, then ran off to see if Kurosuchi was a little friendlier.
Kiba reached Kurosuchi's house in no time. He lived quite close to the hospital, and was in a nicer district than Kiba was used to. He climbed the steps to the housed addressed as Sakura told him, and was surprised to see the front door ajar. Kiba knocked on the open door and called for Kurosuchi before entering, but there was no answer. Feeling a bit uneasy, Kiba decided to go inside to make sure Kurosuchi was all right. He took of his shoes upon entering, and couldn't help but notice how clean the living room was. Everything seemed so organized and taken care of, it was surprising that a somewhat young ninja-guy lived here. Kiba tried calling for Kurosuchi again before continuing into the house. He walked into the kitchen and was shocked to see a complete mess. After just leaving the cleanliness of the living room, this disaster was the last thing Kiba thought he'd see. Pans were scattered everywhere, the fridge was open and looked as though a bomb had gone off inside, and all the dishes were shattered on the floor. Taking a closer look at the scene, Kiba concluded that there was probably no struggle or fight because of the lack of blood, but that maybe somebody broke in. Kiba was starting to worry a bit more, and he walked towards the stairs, hoping to find Kurosuchi in a bedroom sleeping or something. Kiba went from door to door, opening them slowly and peeking in, worried that whoever broke in might still be there. He reached the end of the hall, and opened Kurosuchi's bedroom door, and when he looked inside, he almost screamed.
Kurosuchi was sitting on his bed, wearing nothing but a pair of very worn shorts. Nailed to the wall with a kunai was a large official looking document with 3 scalpels thrown at it. Kurosuchi himself looked almost dead: pale, thin, and not moving. Kiba then saw Kurosuchi's hands. His hands were so cut up and bruised that it looked like he had been punching a brick wall. The cuts on his hands looked like they might be infected and like they were not treated for hours with the blood drying and crusting over the wound. He also noticed a large amount of blood coming from Kurosuchi's chest. Kiba quickly went to him and tried to talk to him. He asked what had happened and what was wrong, but Kurosuchi was just staring at the document on the wall. Being so much closer to Kurosuchi, Kiba was able to see 3 semi-deep slashes in his chest. Kiba started to panic. He had minimal skills in medicine, and he didn't know what to do. He grabbed a scroll from his pouch and quickly wrote a very short note that read, 'Kurosuchi in trouble. Come quickly!' he handed the note to Akamaru and told him to give it to Sakura. Akamaru wined and his ears went down along with his tail. "I know she's scary right now, but Tsunade will probably be worse and I don't know how to find Shizune, Sakura is the best chance Kurosuchi has. Now go!" Akamaru whined once more, but then grabbed the note in his teeth and ran out of the house. Kiba continued to try and speak with Kurosuchi, but Kurosuchi just wasn't listening. He just kept staring at the paper on the wall. Kiba looked at the paper, and read that it was the diploma from the medical schooling Kurosuchi had received. Kiba started wondering why Kurosuchi would stare at this, but was unable to think of anything before Sakura was there.
"What happened?" she almost yelled.
"Well," Kiba started, "I don't really know. We came by to check on him and he was right here. He hasn't moved yet." Sakura looked at Kurosuchi for a short while, then wrote a small note on the same scroll Akamaru had given her. "Take this to Lady Tsunade. After you do that, I want you to go home and wait for us to call you. I don't want you to get in the way." After such a stern little statement, Kiba could only nod slightly and tae the scroll. He ran as fast as he could towards the Hokage's mansion, and all the while he prayed.