Disclaimer: While the idea of MABU is mine, the characters are not my creation as much as I wish they were. I do not own Naruto.

Time Line / Spoilers: This takes place during the time skip and contains spoilers for events pre-time skip as well as a few just slightly post-time skip. The MABU universe diverges with canon events by not completely following post-time skip events. This fic does not contain spoilers for anyone up to date on the Japanese Anime.

Warnings: Language, Violence, Sexual situations, Sex of a probably Hentai and Yaoi nature. Same basic warnings as "Water Runs Red".

Additional note: Apologies for the long delay. I am back to writing this story, and think I have now gotten it past the part that was being difficult. The new update schedule is going to be alternate Fridays. If the writing starts moving fast enough, it will switch to weekly.

Beta by: Nobiki & Dawitch

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Sand Stained Red – Chapter 7

Izumo woke up once again in his Suna hospital bed. He turned his head to look over towards the young kunoichi sitting in the chair that had been brought into the room. He knew that she was a large part of the reason he could feel the burning pain in his leg, and he was very grateful to her. "Thank you, Ten-Ten. I did not even hear them enter to change the meds."

A smile spread across her face at the sound of his soft voice. She had grown to accept the fact that she could not tell when he was awake or asleep from his chakra patterns. Even Neji and Gai-sensei did not hide their patterns as well as the Chuunin she was guarding. "You were very tired, Izumo-san. I removed the same pain killer as before once the medics left."

He carefully sat up as the younger girl helped him. "I need to get ready for the meeting today with Kankuro-san and Gai-san." He started to unbandage his wounded leg. It was a painful looking collection of raw flesh and still painful burns. Izumo tentatively moved his foot in circles, seeing how well he could bend his foot and move his ankle with the injuries. Moving like that caused some of the half-healed wounds to reopen, and the girl carefully dabbed away the ooze and blood.

As they were testing how well he could move, the doctor who had been taking care of him during his stay, entered the room. The Suna Medic-nin strode into the room without knocking, walking straight over to his patient to see how badly the man had irritated his injury this time. He was obviously displeased that his patient was not following the direct orders to not use his leg. "I guess I will have to heal that some more before you injure it more." The man had spent too many years treating shinobi to be surprised that the leaf-nin was pushing it.

Izumo bowed his head to the doctor, "My apologies, and thank you very much." He watched as Dr. Komeda inspected the wounds, carefully manipulating the joints to check their movement before he began to let chakra flow into the leg, healing the tissue as his hands traced along the inflamed flesh. Ten-Ten watched the doctor work. She kept any mistrust of the man for being a foreign nin hidden behind a mask of rapt attention.

When the doctor removed his hands from the injured leg, the flesh was still pink and raw, but the wounds were mostly closed. Izumo tentatively set his weight on the leg. Testing how well the joints now moved, he took a few hesitant steps. It was painful, but he could stand it. He looked at the doctor as he bowed, "Thank you very much, doctor. You have been informed about …" He let himself trail off; if the doctor had been informed, he would know what Izumo was talking about.

"About your upcoming departure, yes of course." He also kept his words vague so as to not give away more information than necessary. "Considering everything, we will be performing a procedure tonight to heal your leg further." With a glance to the young kunoichi, he left the room, not even bothering to check the IV bag. He knew she had been tampering with the medicine. It was the only explanation for the injured man being as awake as he was.

Ten-Ten was looking at Izumo as if expecting him to explain that exchange; however, the older man only smiled. "I need to get ready, Ten-Ten-chan. Gai-san will be escorting me to a meeting in a very short time. Perhaps when I return, I will be able to help you with your scroll." His tone was calm as if he were just stepping out for lunch and not for an important meeting about what was sure to be crucial information -- if the secrecy involved was anything to judge by.

A frown flicked across her features as she moved to gather the pieces of his uniform. If she needed to know, she would be informed. She was still only a Genin and was well aware that sometimes she could not be told plans. The only thing about this that had surprised her was how much her scrollwork had progressed with only a few short hours of instruction from the injured man. She was now much more confident with being able to store her weapons in the scrolls and draw them out easily.

When Gai arrived, she was just handing Izumo his vest. With a quick bow to her teacher, she watched the two men leave. She had been hoping that she would be taken with them; instead, she was simply told they would return soon. There was nothing she could do then except wait and work on her scrolls. Perhaps, when he got back, Izumo would be able to help her some more.

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Kankuro spent the night readying all three of his puppets. He wasn't sure when they would be leaving. Tentatively, it would not be until the chuunin in the hospital had endured another procedure or two, but he had long learned that being ready was the best course of action. Traps were set, poisons refreshed, and antidotes packed. He stayed up late, carefully adjusting the delicate mechanisms of the puppets that his jutsu required.

The meeting was not until noon, so he was still able to catch a few hours of sleep between finishing his work on the puppets in the wee hours of the morning and having to be at the meeting that afternoon. Shortly before he had planned on getting up for the meeting, he woke to the sound of his sister knocking on his door. Her chakra signature was well known to him after the years spent being Gaara's watchers. Letting her in, he quickly started to pack up everything he had prepared the night before.

Temari stepped into her bother's mess of a room without comment or nicety. "Do you think the Leaf is telling the truth?" She leaned against a wall, since every flat surface was covered in small bits of puppeteering mechanisms.

He looked up from wrapping Karasu in bandages to frown. "It seems our brother believes him. Whether or not I do is not important." He strapped his favorite puppet to his back. He had more work to do on Karasu before leaving the village, so it was senseless to seal him in a scroll just to pull him back out again.

Temari shrugged, "I didn't ask what little brother thought, I asked what you thought. You've been poking around with that doctor. What do you think?" She leveled a glare at her brother, her green eyes narrowed to slits as she watched him.

Kankuro shrugged, "Nothing the Leaf-nin has said so far has been proven false. Everything we have discovered seems to confirm the man's story. However, I don't trust him. He's hiding too much, and this whole secret organization thing - that I don't believe."

Temari smirked as she held out a scroll, "You might want to read this on your way to the meeting. It seems Father had hidden information collected on this Leaf organization."

"Information?" Kankuro frowned at his sister as he walked over to grab the document from her hands. "Give that to me."

She huffed as he took the scroll, "Whatever. Talk to me before you leave though." She stalked out of the room, leaving him to look at the information she had found.

Kankuro unrolled the scroll as he stalked towards the meeting room with Karasu strapped to his back. As he walked, his frown grew. According to his father's information, twenty years ago, a single female MABU operative had infiltrated Suna and had stolen information which Fire Country then used to their advantage in the war with Rock. The loss of information had caused a breakdown in relations between Wind and Rock since the leaders of Rock Country had assumed that Suna had been working with Konoha to betray them. (1)

It was not until years after the end of the war that Rock had finally admitted that they did not have any proof that Wind had actually worked with Fire. Kankuro scowled as he stormed down the hall. He had not been involved in the hostilities that had erupted between Rock and Wind, but his father and uncle had both been drawn into the near-war and the years of tension. This organization the Leaf Chuunin worked in was responsible for decline in power of his country. This was not welcome news.

He slammed the door of the meeting room open to see that Izumo and Gai were already sitting at the table in the room. The scroll that Temari had given him was safely back in his pocket. He had no intention of giving away what he had learned, but neither would he act politely. These Leaf-nin were in his country. He had every intention of making them feel like the outsiders they were.

Izumo looked up as Kankuro arrived, his dark blue eyes flickering over the puppet user. There was no sign of the Kazekage yet, but Izumo unrolled the map he had quickly drawn, then stood, ignoring the fact that he was injured. With a quick, polite bow to Kankuro, Izumo gestured at one of the empty chairs. "Kazekage-sama should be here very soon."

Kankuro's eyes narrowed, the Kabuki makeup only making his expression seem even more threatening. Instead of taking the seat, he leaned against the wall, impatiently waiting for his brother to arrive.

The two Leaf shinobi ignored the action, instead merely sitting at the table as Izumo made a few minor alterations to the map. When Gaara walked into the room, Kankuro immediately moved to his brother's side as both Sand shinobi walked over to the table. Gai and Izumo stood as the Kazekage walked into the room, bowing as a sign of respect.

Izumo looked at Gaara, his dark blue eyes glancing from one brother to the other before speaking. "We have a course of action determined. I will be leaving tomorrow with your designated representative." At that point, his eyes glanced at Kankuro. "We will be running a small team, with only the Hyuuga from Gai-sensei's team. Gai-sensei, along with the other two members of his team, will remain here to keep an eye out for whoever is spying for Sound, as well as to cover for my disappearance from the hospital.

This was not how Izumo wanted a mission like this to start -- one MABU member and two people that had never before dealt with MABU matters. One of them was even a foreign shinobi. It was the best he had right now, and it was better to bring them than to go back into that place alone.

The briefing was finished. Izumo's hand-drawn maps of the village in question were passed around and the decision to leave the following morning before sunrise was made. They would leave dressed as Sand shinobi on a routine border patrol. Once the meeting was over, Gai and Izumo walked back to the hospital room. The older Jônin looked over at Izumo, "Neji and I will return in an hour. He is a fine shinobi. He will serve you and the village well."

The tiredness of the MABU operative was obvious as he nodded. "I know. He'll be a Jônin before long, and accepted into ANBU if that is his desire." He gave Gai a soft smile as he bowed his head. He still had some time to help Ten-Ten with her scroll before his guard would change and he could get some sleep.

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In the dead of night, three shadowy forms left the main gate of Suna. The official records showed that they were nothing more than a routine border patrol. They moved quickly. No one watching would know that one of the three was wounded. Every stride through the shifting sand sent pain radiating through his body, but he would not slow down. This was too important.

The thought of Orochimaru controlling the power of a Jinchuuriki kept the man running as fast as he could. It was enough that the one-tailed demon was in the control of Suna; for a force like that to be controlled by Sound would mean a massacre like the night of the demon fox attack. Izumo could not let that happen, even if preventing it killed him. His family had been slaughtered by the fox demon; he could not let history repeat itself.

It would be well past dawn by the time that they reached the town where they would base their operations. Long before they arrived there, the trio had stripped from their shinobi clothes and dressed as travelers. Their base of operation was set up in a hotel room not far from the Suna border, but still well into enemy territory. Few traveled to this area of the world, and ever fewer of those traveled for legal purposes. Three cloaked travelers did not raise much suspicion. They were just another group of shadowy figures in a town made up of shadows.

Izumo had not wanted for his partner on such a mission to be Kankurô. However, that was the only option. He moved through the bars in town with the Sand-nin as his shadow, the Hyuuga boy watching them both from the outside. He ignored any judgments the two were making about how he gathered information, and simply concentrated on getting the information they so desperately needed.

Three nights. Three nights was all it took before he found what he was looking for -- a loose-tongued man drowning in scars and loneliness who knew where Orochimaru's base was. It was delicate work extracting the location and details, but Izumo was very good at delicate. Facts were teased out with a combination of truth drugs and alcohol, but perhaps the most lethal weapons at the MABU agent's disposal were his soft voice and softer hands.

He sighed as he slipped from the man's bed. He paused, not saying anything into his radio. He knew there were two pairs of ears listening, but he needed a moment before he faced them. This was not a hotel he was in tonight; this was someone's apartment, their home. He glanced at the sleeping body in the bed. The man had fallen in with a bad crowd and had been useful to Orochimaru, just like how many others? He opened his dark blue eyes that he had not even realized had been shut and started to get dressed. The man had been gentle with him, soft and caring. Those were the ones that were hardest. The targets that slapped him around and forced him, those he did not feel guilt over. The ones that actually were gentle and cared were the ones that made his job difficult. He scrawled a note, saying he would meet the man at the same bar in two days. It was a lie, but it would buy them time to hit the installation.

When he left the building, two other people moved to his right and his left as they walked back to the cheap hotel they were based out of. They would get a few hours of sleep, but in the morning, they had a target to destroy. Neither teen said anything to Izumo about how he had obtained the information. They were both shinobi; they could not fault any methods that got results like that. They walked in silence, and Izumo's mind drifted. They needed to finish this mission so he could talk to Kotetsu, explain things to Kotetsu. Hell, Izumo just needed to see Kotetsu again, the rage that had caused him to take this mission in the first place long since faded.

The three filed into the room. There was much to do before they left the following morning. They would all be getting to sleep late, but the mission was more important than rest. All too soon, the sun would rise and they would be pressing farther into enemy country.

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Back in Suna, a young kunoichi had watched two comrades and an ally fade into the desert. She still stood watch in the hospital room. Everyone acted as if the injured Leaf-nin were still in the room; however, now it was empty. She continued to work on her scrolls, this time without anyone to help her. The room was strangely quiet without the reassuring presence of the Kamizuki. She had not even realized how he had made things seem safer, as if someone knew exactly what was going on and how to control it.

Now, she was in a strange hidden village, full of people she could not trust, and who did not trust her. One of her team was gone too, leaving her with only one teammate and her sensei, and he was gone almost all the time. He never told her or Lee what was going on, instead hiding his lack of an answer with a long speech about youthful curiosity. She sat in a chair looking out the window. The red sky loomed as another dust storm approached. She missed the clear sky and smell of the fresh forest that permeated her home. She could not relax here; the feeling of dread hung over her here. With luck, the mission would soon end and they would be on their way home – all of them.

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FYI for people who want to know, the operative who ran that mission twenty years ago was Kotetsu's mother, it is mentioned in a drabble about his background http:// scribblesitm. livejournal. com/ 11699.html (remove the spaces)

Thank you for reading. As always, I would appreciate if you took a moment to write a review.