Chapter Twenty-One-
The first thing Sasumi did after she was half carried out of the room, was throw up. She fell to her knees and emptied her guts onto the white tile floor. The problem was that there wasn't much left in her stomach and after the first few seconds she just gagged and coughed.
"Sasumi!" Naruto cried, grabbing her bad arm.
Sasumi blacked out.
When she woke, a few hours later, she was lying in a familiar bed in the hospital. She reached out with her right arm and pushed herself into a seated position to the protests of the other occupants of the room.
"Sasumi-san," Hanada-san chided, "You shouldn't be sitting up…"
Sasumi swallowed and looked around the room. Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Kakashi were also there. No one else. She exhaled and let her shoulders relax. She looked down and saw that she was wearing her own pajamas and her arms were heavily bandaged again and her neck warmer was secure.
It was what was sticking out of her good arm that made her freeze. It was a tube, a very ordinary thing you'd see at a hospital and if Sasumi was thinking clearly, it would have made sense to her that she had an IV in her arm.
The last time she had had an IV in her arm was when she had fainted of hunger. She had understood why she was in the hospital and had been worried about more important things to care. However, now, after spending countless days thinking she was back in the Rain, Sasumi was terrified. Her entire body gave a jerk and she moved her bad, left arm without thinking to pull it out. Get it away and-no more poisons and chemical, please, no-
"Sasumi!" Naruto yelped, grabbing her arm to stop her.
Fear. He was touching her. She hated it. Too close. Get away, get away, get away-
"Sasumi?" Sasuke said, frowning slightly, "What are you doi-"
She struggled to get out of Naruto's grip, pain making it's way up and down her arm, and any second she'd break, and scream, and-
"Sasumi-san!" Hanada-san said putting her hand lightly over the IV, "Listen to me a second."
It is only then that Sasumi realized that she felt lightheaded and was out of breath. At the same time, she realized that there were five people crowded around her and she scrambled back in a vain attempt to get away.
"Sasumi!" Hanada-san said almost harshly, "Look at me."
Hanada-san gripped her shoulder and Sasumi automatically looked at her.
"Listen to me, okay," she said, sounding kinder all of the sudden, "We're here to help you, alright. This IV," Hanada-san rubbed her arm soothingly, "is going to help you. It's adding nutrients and fluids into your body that you don't have a lot of and you need to get better. Do you understand me?"
Sasumi couldn't speak and just stared at her.
"Do you understand me? Just shake or nod."
Sasumi nodded and Hanada-san released her and she slumped against the headboard.
"Oi…" Shikamaru said, speaking for the first time, "Are you okay?"
Sasumi lifted her right arm up to cradle her head and took four deep breaths before answering.
'I'm…fine," she said finally, closing her eyes so they couldn't see how scared she had been, "I just…" she trailed off and suddenly wanted to bury herself in the blankets and never come out.
She fell asleep soon after that, and when she woke up, she was touched to find that all of them were still there. The sun appeared to just have gone down and Sasumi guessed that it was about seven.
"…Tsunade-baa-chan had better do something about that asshole, 'cause Sasumi still hasn't woken up yet and-" Naruto was saying.
"Er…'baa-chan'?" Kakashi inquired.
"Well, Ero-sennin said she was about the same age as he is so she's old, you know!?"
"Don't ask," Sasuke told him, "Just don't."
"Pfft," Naruto said dismissively, "I explained it to him before you walked in when we were here last time, but he's too stupid to- OW!"
"Say that again, moron?" Sasumi could hear Sasuke smirking.
"You asshol-"
"Hey, stop it, you two," Hanada-san said severally, "There could be people trying to sleep!"
"…at quarter after eight?" Shikamaru asked in his usual bored tone.
Sasumi decided to save him from Hanada-san's wrath (the poor boy had no idea what he was getting into) by turning over in the bed and sitting up.
"Sasumi!" Naruto said cheerfully, "You're awake! We've got food!"
"And it's actually not ramen," Sasuke said sarcastically.
"Shut up, bastard," Naruto said and then winked at Sasumi, "He's just mad because my ultimate master plan worked!"
"'Ultimate master plan'?" Sasumi questions, slightly amused, as Hanada-san handed her a bowl of miso soup on a tray.
"Well," Naruto said, launching happily into an explanation, ignoring Sasuke's rolling eyes, "After I totally kicked the asses of the Council a week ago, me and the bastard were trying to figure out how to break you out. I said that we should just explain everything to ol' baa-chan, the Hokage, by the way, 'cause she's awesome and everything. But no, he starts whining about us getting in trouble and all that bitchy stuff," Naruto ducked a fist at this point, "And he's so loud that Kakashi-sensei overhears and drags us off to see baa-chan anyway!"
"Idiot, I wasn't responsible for Kakashi, overhearing," Sasuke said, before Sasumi could say anything, "he was sitting on the ceiling listening the whole time."
Sasumi frowned slightly, turning her face towards Kakashi. It took her awhile to recognize the feeling, but eventually, she realized that she was annoyed. She had no reason to be, though. In fact, the Hokage knowing had probably saved her life. Why was she angry?
Hanada-san also seemed perturbed, "Why did you go to the Hokage?" she asked him.
"I had orders to give any information I had concerning the matter," he said, "And because their were rumors about Sasumi being a spy-"
"So that's it then," Sasumi said furiously, "Always following the rules, are we?"
The second the words left her mouth, she regretted them. Of course, he had wanted to persuade the Hokage that she wasn't a spy, and with Naruto and Sasuke's information he had more evidence. She was his teammate as well, and after all-
"Those who abandon their teammates are trash."
Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, and Hanada-san looked confusedly between the two of them and Sasumi clamped her right hand over her mouth in horror. She bowed her head low, so low that her bangs touch the sheets.
"I-I shouldn't have said that," she said, keeping her head low, to show sincerity, but also because she didn't want to see his face, "You have my humblest apologies. I-"
Kakashi took a step and she tensed, almost expecting him to hit her. But then the door shut and she realized that he was gone.
She pulled her knees up to her chest and buried her head in them, ignoring the questions posed to her.
"I shouldn't have said that," she whispered.
"What do you mean?" Shikamaru asked, coming to sit on the edge of her bed.
"I shouldn't have," she whispered, "I knew that I shouldn't say things like that, but I was mad, and didn't even know why. Shit!"
Naruto and Sasuke both looked nonplussed and Shikamaru doubted whether they'd heard her swear before either.
"Why?" Naruto asked almost timidly, "Why was he mad after you said, I mean, what did it mean?"
"It was the way he was before," she said, taking fast into her blanketed knees, "After it happened, everything was about rules, not matter the consequences. And then during the war, she got captured and he wouldn't try and save her, but Obito did, and when Obito died, he got his eye because his own eye was ruined…," she gave a shudder, and the doctor put her arm on her shoulder, "And this is why I hate them! I hate these eyes, they ruin everything!"
"'Obito?'" Sasuke started, "Was he an Uchiha? Is that how Kakashi got his Shari-"
Shikamaru made a waving motion with his hands to shut him up.
"The absolute idiot," he thought, "And I thought Naruto was a moron!"
"Ummm…Sasumi," Naruto said, looking concerned, "Want me to get you some ramen? 'Cause ramen always makes me feel better when I'm depressed."
"Never mind."
Sasumi gave a soft noise that could have been a laugh, "I think I'll pass," she said.
"Really, Sasumi-san," the doctor said, arm still on Sasumi's shoulder, "It's not your fault. He'll forgive you, you'll see."
"How is it not my fault?" she asked, head still buried against the blankets.
"Everyone makes mistakes, Sasumi-san," the doctor said.
"Yeah!" Naruto said, warming on the topic, "Like that one time when I accidentally dyed all that guy's laundry pink on that one mission! And then there was that time, where-"
"Don't be an idiot, Naruto," Sasuke interrupted, "You did that on purpose."
"I did not!"
"Right."
"Well, maybe he was being a bit of an asshole, but it wasn't my fault!"
Shikamaru rolled his eyes and thought longingly of his bed.
"Mmm…nice and warm…"
"-and then," Naruto continued, loudly, to the doctor's horror, "When I tripped and broke my kunai-"
"How do you break a kunai?"
"I dunno, it just broke!"
"The handle or the actual blade?"
"The handle, you stupid bastard, what else?! Though, that'd be pretty cool if I could break the blade just by falling on it…"
Shikamaru felt like an old man. A tired old man, that is. All he wanted, was to go home, take a nice long bath and go to sleep.
Eventually, Naruto and Sasuke got too tired to continue bickering (a miracle if there ever was one) and Sasuke hobbled on his crutches back to his room (to Naruto's delight) and Shikamaru went home.
His mother was furious when he walked in at about ten-thirty, but Shikamaru managed to escape her wrath long enough to get into the bathtub, where she didn't dare follow.
All in a day's work.
Walking out of that room, Kakashi was furious.
The reaction of most of the shinobi and Council members that had found out Sasumi, or Sazumi, or whatever's true abilities, was caution. In Kakashi's case, there was also a feeling of betrayal, especially when he found out that Naruto and Sasuke had known all this time. He felt that she should have told him. But then again, why would she?
Sasumi had never been very social, always preferring to stay silent than ask for help, and at long last he knew why. He didn't want to know what kind of sick tools had been used to cover those scars, all those scars. It had been hard to take in that his student, even though she was one of the strangest he'd ever seen, had been a torture victim and had escaped, killing her guards gaining her a place among the worst criminals alive. It was even harder to take in that Sasumi could just look at him and know. Know everything there was to know about him, and today she proved that she'd seen one of his worst memories.
"Oh, Obito," Kakashi thought staring out into space on the roof of his apartment, "What would you have done?"
Obito, he knew, would have just made a stupid joke, and gone on with life. But Kakashi, Kakashi couldn't do that. He could be late everyday, he could say cheesy things about protecting comrades, and literally see through Obito's eye, but-
"Don't be stupid, Hatake," he thought, "You saw her face when she realized what she said. She didn't want to say that."
But that didn't necessarily mean she didn't mean it.
Kakashi sighed, "I'm acting like an insecure teenager."
"Hey, hey, Kaka-sensei!"
Kakashi winced. Just what he needed.
"Ne, Kakashi-sensei, are you trying to ignore me?"
"No."
"Sasumi's really sorry, you know."
Kakashi didn't say anything for a few seconds.
Then, finally, "I know."
Naruto blinked and sat next to him, orange clad legs swinging from the edge of the roof in a childish manner.
"Are you okay?" was his next question
Kakashi raised his visible eyebrow in vague amusement, "What are you implying?" he asked in mock anger.
Naruto apparently took him seriously and paled, "Er…I mean, well, I was just asking, you know…"
"Are you thinking that your sensei's getting soft in his old age? Huh?"
"No-I was only just…er…"
"Well, good to have that cleared up!" Kakashi said and, suddenly feeling inexplicably cheerful, grabbed Naruto by his collar and proceeded to drag him away.
"Oi, lemmmego! Owww, you bastard! Kakashi-sensei, what the hell are you doing?!"
"I just remembered that the new Icha Icha book is due to come out this week. I wonder if it's in yet?" he mused.
"NO! PLEASE, ANYTHING BUT THAT!"
In the end, Kakashi ended up dragging a screaming and pleading Naruto down the streets of the slightly shady part of Konoha. At least until Naruto escaped and ran for his life (and virgin eyes.)
Four months laterNaruto hopped from roof to roof, ducking a soapy frying pan that an angry woman had thrown at him. Hey, it wasn't his fault that he tripped and fell into her laundry!
And now he was going to be late, even later than Kakashi-sensei. Then again, he actually had a valid excuse, so…
"Hey!" Naruto yelled, stumbling as he landed on the bridge with a loud thump, "Hey, Kakashi-sensei, baa-chan want-"
"You're late," Sasuke told him furiously, as if he didn't know.
"It's not my fault," Naruto said quickly, "But, Kakashi-sensei, baa-chan wants us to come to her office now!"
Kakashi-sensei frowned slightly, "Now?"
"Yeah! She wants to talk to the whole team and just forget about today's mission," then feeling like he should elaborate, Naruto said, "I know, she would usually send a bird, but since I was there anyway, she just sent me to get you, and I really think we should go there now, because she didn't look happy, and-"
"Why were you in the Hokage's office?" Sasumi asked mildly.
"Err…well, I was sorta trying to steal the Hokage robe thing, but that's besides the point," he said quickly.
Sasuke snorted.
"Hey! What the hell are you laughing abo-"
"Right," Kakashi-sensei said, "Let's go and try not to kill each other in the process, shall we?"
The Hokage was not happy when they finally showed up, and proceeded to yell at him for five minutes straight. Yes, Naruto had counted.
"Er, Hokage-sama?" Kakashi-sensei asked modestly, "Forgive my intrusion, but you did call us here, correct?"
"Oh, yes," Tsunade-baa-chan said, "I have a new mission for you, your first B-Class I believe."
"Yes!" Naruto shouted, "Haha, no more patrolling, gods I'm so sick of that!"
"Shut up, brat!" Tsunade growled, looking quite deranged as she swigged sake, "Now, look, you're going to be going to the Sand to deliver a scroll to a potential spy."
"Huh?"
The blonde-haired woman sighed, and brushed her bangs out of her eyes, "For the past few months, we have received information from the Sand that suggests one of our emissaries there is leaking information to other powerful nations like the Rock. The plan is you're going to deliver a fake scroll to him, and you," she pointed to Sasumi, "are going to look into his memories and see if he is in fact the spy, or if he knows who the spy is. Understood?"
Sasumi blinked, looking quite surprised to be mentioned, and then nodded.
"What happens if he's not the spy?" Sasuke asked, "Do we take the scroll back?"
Tsunade-baa-chan blinked, "Hmmm, I hadn't thought of that. Well, I don't really care all that much, though I prefer that he didn't know that we suspected him. So do whatever."
Naruto stifled a laugh at the look on Sasuke's face. Then he remembered something, "Hey, wait, baa-chan, isn't Gaara in the Sand?!"
She gave him a look, "Last time I checked," she told him, "Sabaku no Gaara was the Kazekage of the Wind Country."
"Yeah, yeah," Naruto said flippantly, waving a hand, "Same thing."
Kakashi-sensei smacked his forehead, Sasuke rolled his eyes, and Sasumi looked vaguely amused.
They were given a day to pack, and Naruto spent most of it trying to figure out what this 'sunscreen' was that Sasuke and Sasumi were talking about. Eventually he gave up, and packed a few changes of clothes, his pajamas (with the awesome hat, no matter how much Sasuke made fun of him), and of course, some ramen. 'Cause after all, who knew if they had ramen in the Sand?
They left early the next day, 'cause apparently the Wind Country was really far away. Or something like that. Baa-chan had said that while the Sand was aware that they were coming, she wanted them to finish the mission and leave as quickly as possible. When Naruto had asked why, Tsunade had said something about not being seen and looked pointedly at Sasumi. Naruto got the picture after that.
Sasuke acted like a bitch the entire time, probably because he was still mad that Gaara had put into a coma. Yeah, that was probably it. Naruto was kinda excited to see the other jinchuuriki and wasted no time in telling Sasuke so. Which resulted in another fight. Which Naruto totally won. Right.
The Sand was really…sandy, actually. And the sand got everywhere. It kinda sucked and Kakashi-sensei kept saying cryptic things about running out of water. Bastard.
The ANBU at the gate of the Hidden Sand Village looked suspicious, but after Kakashi-sensei showed the proper identification they let them grudgingly in. People looked at them strangely in the Sand. Like they were going to attack them. Naruto was used to these kinds of looks, but these people didn't know that he was the holder of the Kyuubi, right? He could tell that Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke were a little unnerved by this as well. Sasumi just ignored them.
They checked into a seedy inn and dumped their things there. Naruto immediately wanted to see Gaara, but Kakashi-sensei told them to stay put and went to scout the area.
"This is boring," he complained.
Sasuke scowled, but said nothing.
"I'm hungryyyyy!"
"Shut up, idiot."
"That time of the month, Sasuke-chan? OWW! That hurt!"
"It was supposed to."
"You're a bastard."
"And you're an idiot."
Sasumi wordlessly stands up from her seated position and passed Naruto to open the window.
"Wait! Sasumi, stop!"
She turned around, blinking at him. He ran up to her and put his hand horizontal to his head and moved it out in front of him.
"Aha! I'm taller than you now!"
Sasuke, who had been watching with slight confusion, rolled his eyes with that annoying superior look on his face.
"HA! That's what you think now, but wait 'til I get taller than you!"
"Ha, you wish."
"You asshole-"
Kakashi-sensei didn't come back for a long time and when he did, Sasumi and Sasuke were already asleep, wrapped up in their futons. Naruto had to resist the urge to color on Sasuke's face with permanent markers several times.
"You're late," Naruto said, though the effect is kinda ruined when he yawned.
"And you're blond," Kakashi-sensei told him.
…Naruto figured that was fair.
A/N: Haha! It's done!
Next chapter will be more exciting, I promise! They'll be Gaara and it'll be cool and yeah…(Is still in shock that it's already chapter twenty-one)
Anyway, many thanks to Sleeping Soundly (my beta.) So please review and I'll be happy!