A/N: Chapter Warnings: Mild Violence, sexual tension, mentions of blood
Chapter 3: The Mission
Sasuke was on his way to meet with Kakashi to go over the final layout of the rebuild. A part of him wanted to avoid his former home but he knew this would bring life back to a space that once held so much heartache. Today he would sign off on the final design with the master builder and construction should begin immediately.
Shikamaru met him at the entrance to the Hokage's office to walk him up. The young advisor spent the entire walk complaining about wedding plans. The conversation made his mind wander. What did he want for the future. These questions seem to be plaguing his thoughts more often lately.
He followed Shikamaru into the small office where Kakashi was sitting at this desk, it appeared the paperwork surrounding the elder had doubled. Two men were standing by over the desk look at a map. He recognized Tazuna from the first mission they ever went on in the Land of Waves. Tazuna looked older than he remembered, his grey hair was turning white, his large beard was also fading in color with his age but his dark eyes lit up when he saw the former rogue ninja. That would make the younger one most likely his grandson, the annoying brat Inari, who wasn't a little brat anymore, he looked to be about 15 now. "Sasuke, look how you've grown!" He was dragged into a hug. The old man reeked of sake.
"Hey, I was going over the final draft with everyone, as soon we get your seal of approval, we'll get started on the clean up right away." Kakashi laughed at Sasuke's obvious discomfort.
"Tazuna, Inari," the Uchiha greeted, pulling himself from the old man's embrace. He looked over the blueprints with the two builders. It seemed his vision was coming alive on paper, and suddenly he felt excited for something. Something in his future to look forward to.
"I think that about covers everything... Sasuke can I speak to you for a moment." the Hokage smiled. The two builders packed up the prints and said their farewell leaving the three shinobi to talk.
Sasuke furrowed his brow slightly, "What about Kakashi?"
"Actually, I have a mission for you if you want." The elder suggested.
"A mission?" Sasuke asked suspiciously. He already informed his elder that he was taking time off to oversee the rebuilding of his former home.
"Yes, there's a small village in the Land of Fire near the southern border, Kisaragi Village, that has been affected by an epidemic. I'm dispatching a team of medical ninja to see what's going on and assist in recovery, I would like you to accompany them," the Hokage explained.
"As you know most medical ninja aren't usually skilled in battle, and while this case should be straight forward, we can't be too careful..." Shikamaru added.
"Are you asking me or telling me?" Sasuke side eyed his former sensei. As soon as he heard the phase 'Medical Ninja' he already knew where this was heading.
"I'm asking... besides I figured you might be interested once you knew who your team will be," Kakashi jested, leaning back and chair with a huge grin covered by his mask.
Before he could inquire into what the Hokage was implying there was a light knock on the door. Not like he really needed to inquire... his meddling elder was always butting in his life he already knew where this was heading.
"Come in." Kakashi called out cheerfully. His grin intensified.
Sasuke knew the old man was up to something... And there she was. The pink-haired doctor he had walked home the night before, and two other people dressed as medical staff entered the office. She offered him a sweet smile as they made eye contact as she walked up to stand beside him.
"It's been a while since I've been on a real mission," Sakura said excitedly, "I've bought Hakui and Iyashi, both are skilled in medical ninjutsu." Sakura was wearing her lap coat over her jonin uniform. The young brunette and the older man were wearing the standard medical ninja white uniforms with the red logo on the chest stood behind her. Sasuke observed the two, neither looked like they had never seen battle, if things got out of hand, which most of the mission he ended up on seem to, Sakura would have no one to watch her back.
'I've already explained the mission to Sasuke," the Hokage looked at him with a mischievous smile. While he couldn't see the old man's face the look in eyes gave him away.
Sakura looked over at him, "oh, Sasuke are you coming along too?"
"I guess so."
X
Sasuke knew the village they were heading to he had passed through it briefly during his atonement journey. The small village wasn't anything remarkable, in fact he barely remembered it. At full speed it would still take them two and half days to reach. A sense of urgency was heavy in the air. He had not spoken to her since they planned their route and left Konoha, but they picked the most direct route through the forest instead of taking the more wrap around route of the well-maintained road.
Sakura was pushing so much finely controlled chakra into her feet propelling herself forward Sasuke found himself struggling to keep up without full on sprinting and he wasn't the only one. The other two were also struggling to keep up. At this rate she would leave them all behind.
"Sakura! Slow down!" He called out to her.
She slowed her pace, "Sorry! I just want to get there as fast as possible."
"That's understandable, but we can't leave them behind," Sasuke landed to the tree branch beside her and pointed back to Hakui and Iyashi barely in view they were so far behind them and panting heavily trying to keep up, "we should stop at the next village and let them rest, they'll be no good if they're exhausted."
He could see she was about to protest but only frowned instead, "I'm worried, almost 100 villagers with strange symptoms... I want to get there before it gets any worse."
"I understand, but they aren't shinobi like us they need to rest, beside I heard your campfire cooking skills haven't improved much over the years," he laughed as he took off on to the next branch.
"Hey! IT'S HEATHLY!" She yelled as she chased after him.
He teased, "... and flavorless!"
He couldn't hold back an audible laugh and from that point forward his only goal was to stay out of reach of her rage. She got worked up way too easily and it was amusing to get under her skin a little. Perhaps this mission wouldn't be so bad after all.
The village was coming into view. Sasuke dropped to the ground and stopped, waiting for the rest of the team to catch up. Sakura appeared next and started walking past him, she stopped and attempted to punch his shoulder, but he visibly recoiled so she couldn't connect her fist. The last thing he needed was his only remaining arm shattered.
"What? Don't tell me you're scared of me," she walked away smugly, "you only wish I would cook for you." She waved her hand dismissively as she walked into the large fence surrounding the tiny village. 'Did she just make me jump?'
He huffed under his breath, "she will pay for that."
"Oh my... we're so tired," Iyashi announced as he joined Sakura and Sasuke at the main entrance of the village.
"Don't worry, we're going to stop here for the night." Sasuke explained and followed Sakura into the village. He glared at her back the whole way to the inn.
X
This village wasn't as large as the Leaf, which meant there weren't many choices for food. The group ate bowls of soup with rice and drank tea in a restaurant near the inn. Sasuke continued to glare at her from across the table while she chattered away with their teammates. He was deciding how to get her back for teasing him earlier, he didn't want to hurt her... maybe a good scare.
"Well, I'm going to turn in early," Sasuke yawned as he stood up. He dropped some money on the table for his portion and walked off, a mischievous smirk crossed his face as he made his way back to the inn.
As soon as he was turned the corner, he bit his thumb and whispered, "summoning jutsu." Now to wait. He was having a hard time keeping a straight face the decided it would be better to hide in his room as to not give his plan away.
He just sat down in the chair at the little desk beside his bed and he could hear them entering the inn. They must have finished up shortly after he did, they weren't far behind him. He heard them all saying their goodnights. He took a deep breath in. It was a struggle not to smile.
"AHHHHH! SNAKE!" Sakura's screams echoed through the entire building. He chuckled, 'got you.'
*Thud*
"You jerk, you put a snake in my bag?!" Sasuke's door slid open with a force so intense it also almost bounced off its track. Sakura stormed up to him and dropped his small snake summon into his lap.
"You're not scared of a snake, are you?" His grin was ear to ear, he could barely hold back his laughter, he had to look away to keep his composure.
She looked like she was about to lose her mind with rage, but she paused, and her entire expression changed. She looked bemused for a moment before returning to a smug grin.
"Do not think for a minute that you'll have the last laugh." She snarled. She waved him off with her hand as she disappeared back to her room.
That wasn't the reaction he was expecting. What was she up to? He kept his guard up as he got ready for bed. No way she was going to pull a fast one on him. He pulled his shirt off and changed into loose black sweatpants and crawled to bed. He was lying down for a while trying to sleep when he heard the door open.
"Who's there...?" Sasuke's voice trailed off and went speechless. It was Sakura. She was wearing an oversized light grey tank top and... just panties... His eyes fell to the white lacy fabric that hugged her hips. His breath caught in his throat. The moonlight through the window highlighted the creamy skin of her exposed body. Her soft pink hair was messy and hanging loosely around her face, her doe emerald eyes were half lidded with lust. She sauntered across his room until she was standing at the foot of his bed. Sasuke's breathing shallowed, he pulled himself to rest on his elbow. "What are you...?" 'What is happening?'
Sasuke couldn't finish his question because he was frozen in place now. He could feel her warmth from between her thighs as she was straddled his hips. He inhaled sharply. Now that she was on top of him, she started pulling at the tank top she was wearing, wasn't wearing a bra either. His hand twitched, he was fighting the urge to reach out and touch her. Her top lifted higher and higher up her torso exposing the waist band of those lacy panties. Her skin looked so soft. He wanted to know what she felt like under his fingertips.
"Sak...ura...?" He murmured softly. She dropped to put her weight on her hand, the other pushed against his chest. Her face was inching closer, his eyes closed as he leaned forward to kiss her. But nothing happened.
"Sasuke... wake up! Where leaving soon." She whispered in his ear, but she sounded like she was yelling from miles away.
He opened his eyes expecting to see her, but he was alone, hugging his pillow and staring at the wall of the inn as the sunlight trickled through. A dream?
"Sasuke! Are you awake yet? We're leaving soon." Sakura knocked on his door again.
"Yeah, I'm up, I'll meet up with you in a bit." He called out. He rolled on his back and exhaled sharply. Was that seriously another dream about her?
"This is going to be a long mission after all..." Sasuke muttered to himself as he packed up to meet up with the rest of the team.
X
Every time she came into view, memories of the dream Sakura flashed in his mind. He tried hard to shake the thoughts from his mind. He wasn't about to let his hormones acting up interfere with his mission...
The group still had another day of travel and would camp for the last night. There was no village to stop at on the rest of the route.
They set up their camp as the sun was setting over the horizon. Hakui worked on dinner and Sasuke announced he would take the first watch.
He was leaning against a tree near the water when he sensed Sakura approaching, her chakra was becoming familiar to him as he spent more time around her.
"Sasuke... can I talk to you for a moment?" she asked, coming to stand in front of him.
"What's up?" He replied coldly trying to avoid eye contact. His face flushed a little being so close to her after that dream the night before.
"It's about the mission," she explained, "When we get there I want you and Iyashi to stay behind. Let me and Hakui go ahead."
"Why?"
"We don't know what's causing this illness in the village, and we don't know how it spreads. I'll be fine with my 100 healings jutsu. I'm immune to poisons, illnesses and fatal wounds. If we all go in together and it's airborne, I'll be more worried about the team. Instead, I want you and Iyashi to look around the area surrounding the village for anything out of the ordinary. We'll meet up in the evening and I'll let you know if it's safe to enter."
Sasuke couldn't argue with her logic, if they all got infected and it wasn't curable it would be a waste of time to come here, but the idea of her going into the village without his protection made him feel some type of way he couldn't explain, it was deeper than discomfort. "What exactly should I be looking for?"
Sakura paused for moment to think before responding, "start with looking contaminated water sources upstream, that could be a likely source... Iyashi is familiar with poisonous plants and venomous animals he can keep an eye out those," she trailed off, he could see the gears in her mind turning, "I'll know more when I triage the sick."
Sasuke nodded, but frowned slightly, "we should have a signal in case you run into trouble."
"We have flares we can send up," she suggested, "we use them in the field to inform others in the medical team where we are if we need assistance."
"Okay, get some sleep, I'll wake you up when it's your turn." Sasuke glanced at her quickly, he was unsettled by how beautiful she was in the sunset with the breeze blowing her hair. Maybe it was dream still haunting him.
"Alright, make sure you get some rest."
X
Sasuke had been running beside the river that flowed into the village's water supply system most of the day. Iyashi had gone into the forest to search for plants that could be the cause of the illness. They were supposed to meet up with Sakura and Hakui within the hour, and he was so anxious, he couldn't stop looking at the direction of the village looking for a signal. There was nothing in the water that looked suspicious. He decided it was time to head back.
Sakura was already waiting for them. She didn't look pleased.
"Lady Sakura, where's Hakui?" Iyashi asked as he rushed to her side.
"She's tending to the sick, go join her, I need to talk to Sasuke." Sakura ordered firmly. Her fists were shaking. She looked like she was on the verge of tears. Something was wrong.
"What's wrong Sakura?" he asked as they watched Iyashi run through the gates.
"I sense a strange chakra around the sick... I think it's a jutsu causing it," Sakura explained. "It's draining their chakra and causing chakra fatigue like symptoms, there are 72 who are affected and 31 that didn't make it, most of them are children because their chakra's networks aren't fully developed..."
Sasuke held his chin like he was thinking, he looked up and saw tears forming in her eyes. "Sakura are you okay?"
"They were children!" Before he could stop himself, he pulled her to his chest. She sobbed into his shirt, her fists balling up the fabric. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and let her get it out. He knew how she felt about children's welfare, this must be hard for her to see.
"We'll find the caster," he reassured, he tilted her face up so that she was looking at him, using his thumb he wiped her tears, "we'll figure it out."
She nodded and smiled through the tears and wiped her eyes with her palms, regaining her composure.
"Sorry...," she looked away blushing.
"It's okay, you've always had a soft spot for children," Sasuke started walking towards the gate, he looked back at her with his Rinnegan, "Let's go."
He wasn't even at the gate yet, but he could sense the aura of death around the village. Sakura jogged up to walk through the entrance beside him.
"Keep your guard up." Sasuke ordered. The small village looked tattered and unkept, not much better than the Uchiha District. It was oddly silent, no children playing in the street, shops abandoned and empty. Poverty and despair all around was the first thing to come to mind. The few villagers that he did see looked starved and dirty.
"The sick villagers are this way," Sakura pointed towards what appeared to be an old, crumbling shrine, "can you use your Sharingan to confirm my findings?" She kept her voice low.
"My eyes see everything," Sasuke lowered his voice, "I'm already on it."
He followed her into what was now the quarantine area. Rows of motionless sick children line the walls. Such an overwhelming number of children here. The place smelled like illness and death. He activated his visual jutsu, while he couldn't see the chakra network as clearly as a Byakugan user, he could still tell that every single one of the sick had strange dark purple chakra interrupting their chakra points.
"It's as you suspected." He whispered, "I'll go-"
"Lady Sakura," a young man interrupted as he walked in. "I'm Giichi the leader of this village," he eyed Sasuke as he spoke, "you don't look like medical shinobi."
Giichi had short brown hair, blue eyes, sharp facial features, but his clothing was far nicer than one else they had come across so far. Something about this village leader rubbed Sasuke the wrong way.
"That's because I'm not..." Sasuke side eyed the village chief.
"Oh... the guard mutt...," Giichi shot at Sasuke as he walked past to grab Sakura's hand, "welcome Lady Sakura."
Did... did he just get called a dog? Sasuke had to blink a few times to register the insult. He snarled under his breath. He definitely didn't like this guy. The guy was fawning over Sakura like Karin always acted around him; it was disgusting to watch. Sakura was blushing slightly as the chief laid on the moves. Sasuke couldn't stand to watch this anymore. He left the shrine trying not to let it bother him, he wasn't worried about her safety as the pervert's chakra network wasn't developed at all and didn't have the ability to use jutsu's and even if he tried taijutsu, well, good luck taking a hit from Sakura's fist.
He started walking around the village, the more he ventured around the less he turned up. He tried using his visual prowess to look for clues but turned up nothing so far. In the center of the village was a mansion, it looked clean and brand new, it was so out of place. He assumed this was where Giichi lived. He could sense multiple chakra signatures coming from inside but nothing that really stood out.
He wanted to investigate further but saw Sakura and the village leader walking into a field, the other two medical ninjas were following behind them, where was he taking them?
Sasuke caught up and followed the rest of his crew as they were led behind the livestock pen to a small shed at the back of a field, it was as far away from the shrine as they could be. What an odd place to put the medical team they requested.
The chief opened the door to the one room shed, garden tools still hung on the walls, three bed mats were rolled out on the floor... why only three?
"I thought Lord Hokage informed you there would be a group of four coming?" Sakura inquired, also picking up on the strange sleeping arrangements.
"Oh, yes, Lady Sakura, your room is in the main house with me." Giichi was flirting with Sakura again. Was that the plan? To separate her from the group? Sasuke felt something wet on his hand, he looked down, blood, he was clenching his fist so tightly he made himself bleed.
Sakura stepped back, moving closer to Sasuke and the others, she almost backed into him she now mere inches away. Sasuke's hand slipped behind his back to grab his sword.
"I appreciate the thought, but I would like to stay with my team," Sakura rejected, "in the leaf we stay with our comrades."
"Oh... is that so... I guess... I'm sorry it's not the best accommodation but we wanted to keep you all far away from an area that could be contaminated, we are still unsure how this sickness spreads." Giichi explained before excusing himself. That was bullshit if he ever heard it, the mansion was the center of the village, he just wanted to separate Sakura from them.
"I think he likes you, Lady Sakura," Hakui teased her mentor, "I also don't think he'll bring us another mattress..."
"It's okay, we can take turns on watch," Sakura set her travel bag down. She summoned a fully stocked workstation with a microscope and various other tools, using a scroll she had packed away. "Hakui and Iyashi can you start drawing blood from all the patients, I would like to run some tests."
She looked over at him but didn't get a chance to say anything because he cut her off, "I'm not going anywhere," Sasuke sat down on the floor under the tiny window. He waited until their two companions left to get the samples, "there's something suspicious about this village."
"I noticed that too," Sakura agreed as she set up tools, "testing their blood could give me more clues."
"I don't like the village leader," he added off handedly.
"Don't worry about it, I'm used to it," she chuckled.
"What does that mean?"
"Oh, every time I'm on missions I always get men flirting with me or giving me love letters," Sakura laughed, "He probably wants to get me alone so he can get all handsy."
Sasuke clenched his fist again. He wasn't aware she got this kind of attention but what did he expect? She was beautiful, strong, and a respected doctor known worldwide. Was he jealous? No. The guy was just suspicious. That's it. No other reason at all... and... He wasn't doing a good job of convincing himself...
Sasuke rested his chin on his knee and spent the rest of the time watching her set up. She was so focused on her work. This was the first time he really stopped and observed her doing something she was passionate about. Did she always bite her bottom lip like that when she was concentrating?
Was she always like this? Or was this the first time he stopped to really see her. He thought for a moment of asking her if she needed help but decided against it. He would just observe from afar and just take her in. What else had he missed over the years while he was out acting like a fool?
"Lady Sakura, we have the samples," Hakui came running in with a box full of vials of blood.
"Thank you, can you return and do pain management while I run some tests." Sakura instructed.
X
Sasuke took the second watch. He was sitting on the roof of the shed overlooking the field. He was waiting for everyone in the village to fall asleep before slipping into the shrine to check the memories of the sick. He wondered if the caster knew that they were on to them and what relationship the caster had with this village. He was positive the caster was still in the village as people were still in the early stages of infection. Sakura estimated it took around 2 weeks from infection to death. So, what was the end game?
What he really wanted to do was get into the mansion and check out what was really going on. The three chakra signatures he had been sensing in the main house were strong relative to the rest of the village. Perhaps he was just being too paranoid, but something wasn't sitting right about this whole situation and his intuition was rarely wrong. When he checked over everyone earlier, he tried to undo the jutsu but couldn't, and it seemed Sakura wasn't able to with her medical jutsu... maybe someone with the gentle fist technique could since it seemed to affect and drain chakra from the chakra network.
He let out an audiblyely sigh and laid down on the roof looking up at the starry night sky. He would need to be on the move soon. But this village was only half of his problems. He still had not figured out what he was supposed to do with Sakura. He hadn't really considered what romantic feelings he had towards her until he witnessed someone else flirting with her. Seeing her blush for someone else stirred up emotions he wasn't aware of. He looked at that scar forming on his hand. She had been blushing around him since they were children, back then it annoyed him... now... he liked knowing he still had that effect on her after all these years.
He knew how she felt about him... but how did he feel about her. His only real reference for romantic relationships was his own parents. He was so young back then he didn't really get it. Memories of his mother always making his father lunch for work, his father always making time to take his mother on trips, they really seemed to love each other, didn't they? What was love? Did he love her? He enjoyed her company, and it was obvious he was attracted to her body, however, that was just lustful thoughts. He sighed again. It was time to go.
Sasuke effortlessly snuck into the shrine. Using his Sharingan searched the memories of everyone. They all shared the same memory of the village leader and two other men feeding them from a large pot of soup. Is that how they infected the village? Did that mean it was some sort of bacteria or virus? He was unable to pinpoint the date. He needed to tell Sakura right away
He was just finishing with the last of the sick when he heard a loud bang from the direction of the shed. 'Sakura!' Sasuke ran as fast as could until he was in range and used his Rinnegan to switch places with the scattered pieces of broken boards littered the area, the side wall of the shed had a large hole in it. There was only one person who had the physical strength to do that type of damage. He got closer and he could see blood. It was splattered everywhere with a trail leading into the woods behind the field. Where were Sakura and the others?
Sasuke looked inside the shed and froze. His mind when blank before panic set in. Sakura was lying in a pool of blood. The wound in her side just below her ribcage was deep, the pool around her was growing by the second. It looked like someone swung a sword through her, but she was able to fend them off by putting them through the wall, or so it appeared. The other two were injured as well.
He snapped out of his shock and ran to her side, "Sakura! Sakura!" He had basically no knowledge of medical ninjutsu. He knew he had to stop the bleeding as soon as possible. The only person he could think of that had the ability to help her was Sakura's former master, Tsunade, there was no way she could make it in time. Sasuke dropped on his knees, her blood seeping onto his pants. "Sakura...?"
Wait a minute. There was steam rising from her wound, was this the power of the 100 healings mark? He noticed the black lines coming from her seal wrapping around her face and body. She was trying to move her hand, covering her palm in her own blood before resting it on the floor. Was she trying to summon something... The giant healing slug! That's right, she summoned it during the war to heal everyone. Sasuke placed his hand over hers and started infusing his chakra into her. "Summoning Jutsu!" Hopefully this worked.
A large white and blue slug the size of a large dog appeared beside them, "Lady Sakura!" Katsuyu gasped when she saw the condition her master was in. The slug broke into smaller versions of herself and started attending to the three injured medical core team members.
"Can you save her?" Sasuke asked the summoning creature.
"My strength is directly tied to Lady Sakura's chakra. I'll try my best." Katsuyu explained as she covered Sakura's wound with her mini slugs.
"If I infuse my chakra through her will that help?" Sasuke asked as he sat down and pulled Sakura's body into his lap. Her blood started dripping on him, thankfully it was starting to slow down as her wound closed. His shirt and lap were completely soaked with her blood now. There was so much of it everywhere. Could she even survive this level of blood loss?
"Yes, that'll help greatly!" the slug queen replied, "Master Sasuke, you need to hold her still or I can't reattach her body correctly."
Sasuke looked down, he didn't even realize he was trembling, "sorry...," he mumbled.
"She will still be very weak after I heal her," Katsuyu explained.
"I won't leave her side," Sasuke said more to himself than anyone else. He thought about sending a shadow clone to follow the blood trail leading away from the shed but didn't want to exhaust his chakra reserve before she was healed. He always swore he would never let emotion rule his decisions, but he was holding on to the lifeless body of the woman who cared for him so much. He knew he screwed up; he was supposed be on watch. He had gotten complacent and so used to traveling alone and this mistake could have cost him dearly.
He could hear footsteps running toward them. Sasuke summoned his Susanoo's ribcage to wrap around them, providing a protective barrier to keep her safe. He extended it to cover his injured teammates as well. With her on his lap he couldn't really do much to protect them. His Mangekyo Sharingan and Rinnegan were both fully activated.
"Lady Sakura!" The village chief and small group of villagers gasped as they ran into the shed, "what happened here?" Giichi demanded.
Sasuke snarled and pulled Sakura closer to his chest. He used his Susanoo to shield her from their view. "We were attacked..." To be honest, he had no idea.
"Hey there's a trail leading into the woods," one the older balding men pointed out, "let's follow it and catch whoever hurt the doctor!"
The group of villagers that had accompanied the chief ran off to follow the attacker. The leader looked at the scene in front of him and claimed he would go check on the sick and backed away and ran off. Sasuke wanted to follow them but couldn't bring himself to leave Sakura in this condition.
He had been infusing his chakra in her for almost an hour before she started stirring. His breathing was getting heavier as exhaustion started to take over. He could no longer maintain the Susanoo. The violet barrier around them disappeared.
"Sas-uke?" her voice was barely audiblye.
"Sakura! You're awake," he brushed her hair from her face, she struggled to move but was in much pain, she whimpered and collapsed back into his embrace, "don't try to move you're not completely healed yet."
"I'm sorry," she apologized as she rested her head against his chest.
"I'm the one who should be apologizing," he injected, he rested his chin on the crown of head, "I was supposed to be on watch."
"How are the others?" she asked, wincing again.
"Katsuyu is taking care of them," Sasuke answered, "what happened?"
Sasuke flushed when Sakura shifted in his lap, "there were three of them, they were wearing Anbu masks. They had already attacked Hakui and Iyashi before I woke up, I was able to fight them off but got wounded. I shouldn't have dropped my guard, I'm sorry."
"It looks like you injured at least one of them, some of the villagers when after them."
Sakura groaned again, she was trying to move but ended up gripping the wound on her side, "I know what's causing the strange chakra, I think that's why we were attacked."
"Just rest for now," he ordered. Sakura laid back against him and closed her eyes. The blood leaking from her side finally stopped and the wound was almost healed.
X
Sakura groaned and shifted her weight trying to get comfortable, she was still drifting in and out of consciousness. Pressed against something hard and wet, she was trying to find a dry soft spot to rest against, but no matter how much she moved around she couldn't find a comfortable spot. When she finally opened her eyes and immediately blushed; she was still on Sasuke's lap. He was looking away from her, his face was redder than a tomato. That's when she realized that in all her attempts to move away from his blood-soaked clothes, she had basically dry humped him. So that hard thing she was feeling under her was his... Oh!
"Sorry-," she murmured softly, her face turning redder than his.
"How are you feeling now?" Sasuke asked changing the subject while looking at anything but her.
"I think I'm fully healed but I'm almost out of chakra," she answered, forcing herself to sit still, "I have food pills in my bag." She wanted to move to go get her bag, but she was mortified at the thought of moving again. She was wishing she could be anywhere else than here.
Neither of them wanted to move and both remained in an uncomfortable red-faced stand-off, "uh yeah," Sasuke summoned the arm of his Susanoo to grab her bag from against the side wall. He dropped the bag in her lap.
Sakura tried to open her beige side bag as carefully as possible. She pulled out a small box with food pills. She offered Sasuke one. Memories of Naruto complaining about them came to mind, but he too had exhausted so much of his chakra and to be honest, he couldn't really move even if he wanted to. He grimaced as he put the food pill in his mouth. 'Hey, it's actually surprisingly good.'
"You look surprised," Sakura giggled, "and you thought I couldn't cook."
Sasuke couldn't help but chuckling too, "Naruto is the one going around telling everyone that, just so you know. I'll admit it's better than the fish, rice and berries I lived on during my travels."
"I'm going to kill him when we get back!" Sakura growled while making a fist.
"Looks like you're feeling better," Sasuke laughed, "what did you find out?"
"The caster is an insect user. I found tiny bacteria sized insects that feed off chakra in the blood samples earlier. I'm willing to bet they are what's siphoning off their chakra, not sure what the reason is," Sakura explained. "What did you find out Sasuke?"
"I believe they ingested these bugs, all the villagers I checked out had been served a weird looking stew by that Giichi guy and two other men I didn't recognize," Sasuke answered with a puzzled expression. Why attack Konoha Shinobi over something like this?
"That's weird... I wonder what their after...," Sakura was pondering out loud when she shifted her weight again. Sasuke flushed again, his body was betraying him, "umm... I... should... check on the others."
"Yeah... I... uh... should get cleaned up," Sasuke blushed as two scrambled to separate from each other. It was hard to tell whose face was redder.
"Hey Sasuke," Sakura was facing away from him checking on their teammates, "thank you."
"Try not to get killed before I get back," he replied before walking off.
X
Sasuke followed the trail the attacker... or attackers... left behind. They may have wounded Sakura, but she was able to inflict a massive amount of damage to at least one of them. He had a feeling they would run towards the water. If they were still in the village or a member of the village, they would need to clean themselves up and do first aid.
He didn't have to walk very far before coming across a small river, this is where the trail ended. There wasn't much blood here, so it appears they ran off on the water to hide their trail. He used this visual jutsu to scan the area but there was no one around. He sighed. If they did have a serious wound, Sakura and her team were the only doctors in the area.
He checked the area again to make he was alone before changing out of his blood-soaked clothes and washing her blood off.
He had just finished getting cleaned up and changed when he heard voices coming towards him. He quickly jumped into a tree and hid. Two men walked up to water's edge just downstream from where Sasuke was.
"You failed," one man snapped at the other, "the doctors survived."
"She almost killed Tadami. You didn't tell us she could fight back or that she had a shinobi with her!" the partner shouted back.
Sasuke couldn't see who they were from his current vantage point, and he didn't recognize either man's voice. He was deciding if he should confront them and put them both under genjutsu to get the answers he was seeking. He decided he would wait and see what information they gave out in this conversation.
"I went down to finish the job and he was already there. He's got the Sharingan I think he's an Uchiha." The second voice pointed out.
"If those leaf doctors figure out what we are doing here they will send more shinobi. It'll better they're killed now, and we can tell the Hokage they never arrived."
"I understand that but how do we take on the Uchiha? Wasn't he hailed a hero in the 4th Great Ninja War?"
"I'll figure it out. Maybe we can just infect him like the others."
So, whatever they were up to involved harming the villagers and making sure Sakura didn't figure them out. Listening to people plan his death was quite unsettling. Sasuke decided then he would confront them and get to the bottom of this. Sasuke jumped from his perch to where the two men were standing. He recognized one the men immediately. He was the one who showed up with Giichi when Sakura was hurt and said he would follow the trail of the injured attacker. Which is probably why their injured accomplice was able to get away.
The other man Sasuke recognized from the memories of the villagers. He was short, balding with dark beady eyes.
Sasuke pulled his Kusanagi on the two men, "So you wish to challenge me?" Neither one looked hurt from what he could tell, so there were others they were working with. He activated his Sharingan putting them both under his genjutsu. "What is happening here?"
"We take the insects to larger villages and infect the people so we can rob them and return home with our spoils." The balding man explained.
"So, you slaughter an entire village just to steal from them?" Sasuke replied in disgust.
"Yes." They both answered in unison.
Sasuke continued his interrogation, "Why did you summon medical ninjas from the leaf here?"
"Giichi did, he is not one of us, but we convinced him to trust us as travelers from a distant land. We spiked the food that we brought with us. No one suspected anything, we should have taken care of him sooner, but we didn't want to cause chaos in the village."
Sasuke frowned. So, the village leader was innocent and oblivious to what was really going on around him. He was truly disappointed that perverted man wasn't an enemy.
Sasuke continued, "Who is the jutsu caster?"
"Our partner, Jiro."
"How many of you are working together?"
"There are four of us." The pair answered in unison.
"Disgusting," Sasuke pointed at the bald man who had answering his questions, "follow me." He needed to arrest and take them all to leaf for their punishment and atonement. He decided to drop them off with Sakura and others and fill her in on what he's found out.
Sakura looked surprised when Sasuke returned with the travelers. He explained everything he had learned so far. They discussed what to do next and decided to update Kakashi and request the Anbu to take the prisoners back to Konoha. Sakura wanted to stay until all the sick villagers were healed. Sasuke agreed that they would stay. As if he was going to leave her here alone after what happened last night.
"Alright, I'll find the other two. I'll put them under a genjutsu and get the caster to release the jutsu."
X
A/N: We will be going back to regular Sunday Posting after this chapter I just wanted to mess with Sasuke a bit.
I hope ya'll like this chapter.
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