Kakashi stood on the roof of Konohas Hospital, deep in thought, as he had been doing for hours, when the first envoy of Leaf to Sword left the village. He watched them speed of into the distance, wondering if Tenzo was leading the team or not. In short, he did everything even remotely valid to distract his mind from the crucial decision he had to make regarding Sasukes condition. It was bad enough that someone else had to decide for the boy, but he had only the most basic medical knowledge and whatever was happening to his pupil was confusing the medical "pros" as well. Damn that Hohiro and his stupid attack! After another 20 minutes of frantic thinking without coming to any even remotely clear decision, he decided to trust the Sharingan to come out on top at the end (translation to do what he did best: nothing) and went back in to tell the medics to simply leave Sasuke to heal for himself. Which of course did not mean he would not pray for his pupil, who knew, it might actually be useful...
Therewhile Hayate Gekko led his team of "envoys" (translation Anbu Special Jounin disguised by being without disguise) towards Wave. He would not have expected to get a diplomatic mission any time soon, but obviously his status as the best swordsman Konoha had at the moment, and hence probably more respect shown to him by their new "allies", made it imperative for him to go, as the evaluation of Swords potential and power were the primary goal of this "visit". Just his luck then, well at least that might just prevent the Chunin exams from being dumped into his lap again... He sighed, and nodded his team to move faster. No sense in wasting time, or he might get his usual summer cough before the mission was over.
Skillfully avoiding their attention a lone Anbu with a white, blue striped, Weasel mask followed them...
2 Days passed without any incident in Konoha, and Sakura sat at Sasukes bed as she and Naruto had alternatingly done since they had woken from their fatigue (and Soldier pill) induced sleep roughly 26 hours ago. Her crush lay motionless, only his steady, slow breaths showing that he was alive at all, his black hair far less tousled than usual, white bandages covering his eyes. Just as she wanted to sigh yet again, Naruto opened the door to the room in his usual, loud and enthusiastic way, and entered. "Hey Sakura-chan! Anything new?" He lowered himself onto the second chair in the room, putting his arms on the backrest and laying his head on said arms, looking at her. "No. Poor Sasuke is still out. Are you sure the Hokage does not know where Tsunade-hime is right now?" Her face clearly showed her concern, in addition to tiredness born out of 6 hours "Sasuke-Guard-Duty". Kakashi had told them that Tsunade, the legendary Slug Princess, was allegedly the only Medic Nin capable of actually understanding and hence treating what was wrong with their friend. Which should have led to a search, if one asked Sakura. Sadly, nobody had.
"Yep. The Old Man really does not know, and he said that as soon as she heard that Konoha was looking for her she would go into hiding. Still, he promised me that if Sasuke does not wake up by tomorrow evening, he would allow us to search her out." While Naruto did not particularly like the idea of searching for an old hag, Sannin or not, he would do it in the blink of an eye if it helped Sasuke. As judging by her expression would Sakura.
"Now its my turn, so you can go catch some sleep, Sakura-chan." He smiled his beaming smile, trying to project an aura of "He will be alright, see I am not concerned at all". Which had the expected effect. Namely none.
Still, Sakura stood and went to leave the room. "Immediately send me a Kage Bunshin if he wakes, don't forget!" She reminded the orange clad blonde for the 3rd time in their watch. Jeez, as if he would forget that, after all it was important, not like some other stuff...
And so their "Guard Duty" went on as event-less as it had been the past 2 days...
Therewhile the Hokage had called Kakashi into his office, as well as Kurenai, Azuma, Gai and Ibiki.
They stood more or less at attention while he lighted his pipe. He took a small pull of smoke, then spoke, his pipe in his left. "I have called you all to determine our course of action regarding Sasukes …., predicament. As you all know the Chunin Exams will start in 10 days, which means the other villages Chunin and will arrive within the next few days. We cannot allow our "prodigy" to show weakness once they are here, especially seeing that following our sources Suna will send all 3 children of the Kazekage." At that brows rose. That could be taken as an immense sign of trust towards Konoha. If one looked at it friendly. If not it might signify trouble, and a lot at that. "Now, while an all out search for Tsunade will not help as she would realize we were looking for her and go to ground, and Kakashi has decided that out of the alternatives our Medics presented doing nothing was the best," at that Kakashi looked somewhat ashamed, and the other Jounin eyed him with amusement as his laziness was legendary, "we did receive some info claiming she was near the northern border of Fire Country, which probably is as close as we can expect her to get any time soon. So, you two", he mentioned for Kakashi and Gai, "Will go and get her here to check Sasuke. Give her this if she refuses." With that he handed Kakashi a small yellowish book that had a lock on its cover. "And tell her she will not get the key until she has done what she could for Sasuke. You will leave as soon as this conversation is over." His voice was full of authority.
He took a deep pull. "Now, as we have no idea at all where the "development" of Sasukes Sharingan, if it is one at all that keeps him unconscious, will lead, you two," he nodded at Azuma and Ibiki, "will search the Uchiha Library for any hint on something similar. As you are no Uchiha you will not have access to their technique-scrolls, but their history files are open for outsiders since the massacre and should be helpful enough to find out if anything similar has happened or if it is something unique to the "Other Realities" Uchiha." He sighed. "I know this might take days, but still, be torough. It is our only option for now." He took another pull.
"I would have preferred to leave you more time, but I need your assessments now. Are your pupils able to participate in the Exams?" At that all present Jounin Sensei nodded, some with more vigor than others, but all did. "Good. In that case, dismissed!" And with that Kakashi and Gai left with top speed, while Ibiki and Azuma simply walked out the door. Kurenai stayed though. The Third lifted a brow. "Yes?" He drawled.
"Hokage-sama, I have researched the … occurrences mentioned in the reports you gave me, and I found no hints at all that they were powerful enough to explain the mentioned results. At least not using Genjutsu." As his local specialist discarded his assumptions, the Hokage slumped a bit. It would have been his preferred explanation, but alas, things were never easy. "Thank you, Kurenai. That will be all." She nodded and walked out of the room, graceful as ever.
Seemed he would have to keep looking for the explanation on the unaligned Ninja's disappearance, in addition to a solution for his "Sasuke problem" and organizing the Chunin Exams. Work for 2 younger men, but noone to shoulder it except him.
And so ,with creasing brows, the old and exceedingly overworked Hokage went back to work, his pipe going out unnoticed.
Sasuke stood atop the largest building in the Uchiha District, the tower of the main meeting hall. Wind gusted, thunder rumbled, almost the entire sky was filled with crisscrossing bolts and chains of lightning. The staccato of light from varying directions and darkness made the world switch from bright white light to pitch darkness, changing familiar shapes by deepening the shadows their forms produced, sharpening their edges in the flickering light. Sasuke took deep breaths of the energy-filled, yes even overflowing, air, enjoying the storm pure, wild LIFE and POWER with all his senses.
It was Wonderful.
His Sharingan plotted the path of every large, windswept drop of rain that came towards him, and spinning, jumping and twisting, he evaded them all. Yet there were large enough spaces where none fell, but the margin was dwindling, it was getting harder every second. He was sweating profoundly, his hair dripping drops of sweat towards the drops of rain he was evading, some spins sending little torrents of sweat outwards. With a huge crack of thunder lightning struck the metal rod on the roof above him, the sonic boom blasting all drops away within roughly 10 meters around the tower and throwing Sasuke out of synch. He crashed onto the wet floor, panting and with a stingy, high pitched noise in his ears. He shook his head, and shortly wondered how he had gotten into training on a high building while a storm raged. Then he remembered. He had made a bet with his cousin Kato Uchiha that he could evade every drop of water of the oncoming storm for at least 5 minutes, which now, while halfway deaf from the sonic boom and quite exhausted from his "training" sounded like a much worse idea to the twelve year old Genin than it had an hour ago. He rose, his wet hair hanging down almost like Itachis used to do (though of course far less perfectly) and went for the door. From the corner of his Sharingan he saw a triplet of lightning bolts circling each other, then spinning inward and fusing in the sky above and coming towards him, all at the speed of lightning (quite literally). Oh Sh...
Was the last half-thought before blackness claimed him.
From the safety of a nearby house a white-robed figure, its face mostly covered by the shadow thrown by a wide hood, watched as the tower was blown to pieces, the explosion rocking the whole district, crashing windows in the buildings nearby and setting fire to the meeting hall. The shadowed but visible mouth with the short, blond beard below it smiled a wicked little smile...
Sasuke woke with a little yell, as if something had startled him awake. Another, more articulated and slightly more quiet, "What the hell?" followed once he realized that he could not see anything, and his hands quickly discovered that bandages were covering his eyes.
"Sasuke!" A joyous shriek sounded from close by, with Sakuras unmistakable voice and inflection. "Please, stay calm. Your eyes are bandaged because of the side effects of the Jutsu that knocked you out. Do you want something to drink?" At that remark he realized how thirsty he was, and the jolt of adrenaline ebbed slightly. He agreed with a hoarse voice, and something was put to his lips. Ah, the joy of cool water, heaven! He drank slowly, savoring the cool liquid as much as he could. Still, the cup/glass/whatever was empty soon enough, and he leaned back into the pillow. He remembered, that insanely fast curtain of lightning coming towards him, pain and white light, then blackness. Thanks, Sharingan, for another perfectly conserved, unpleasant memory. He jolted, his Eyes! "Sakura, what is the matter with my eyes?" His voice sounded panicked. "Are they hurt? Will I recover?"
"Well, you were unconscious for about 3 days, with the Medics unable to pinpoint the reason, but your Sharingan was active the whole time, so they assumed it was because of some kind of Chakra overload or your Sharingan evolving, or both. I will call a medic-Nin, and we'll see." With that he heard her move away from his location, a door opening, and quick steps. So, his Sharingan had done weird things. He had never heard of one staying active while its bearer was unconscious, but he was still relieved (enormously so) that he was not blind. He hoped. And prayed. To whatever god he could pull out of his head.
Quick steps came towards his location, and shortly after that, an elderly sounding female voice spoke up.
"Calm down, young man. I will now remove the bandages on your eyes, but you have to keep them closed until I say so, OK?" He nodded, and soon felt the coldness of scissors sliding under the bandage on his left temple, followed by cutting noises and the removal of the bandages, then a careful removal of some padding over his eyes.
"Now, slowly open your eyes. I have dimmed the light in the room." Sasuke complied, and saw a rather dark hospital room with a somehow crumpled looking Sakura and a Medi-Kunoichi in her 50ies standing opposite him. He blinked. "Well, I can see you fine, and my Sharingan is not active, so..." he trailed off as the doctor came closer and looked deeply into his eyes.
"Huh, everything seems back to normal. It looks likes the decision to let nature take its course was the correct one. Your Sensei will be pleased once he returns." She said while going towards the windows and slowly removing the curtains, which caused Sasukes eyes to bemoan the lack of darkness as the evening sun, damped by some clouds, flooded in, though far less than he would have expected to, after 3 days.
"However, you should take it slow for another day. No Sharingan activation and no strenuous activities, just to be sure." She added, smiled and left.
Huh, Kakashi was away? Sasuke hoped it had nothing to do with Zabuza... He was startled out of his musings when Sakura charged and hugged him fiercely.
"We were so worried about you..." Sakura almost screamed, muffling tears into his hospital gown. Still, he did not push her away immediately. Not only could he understand her reaction, but somehow Sakura pressed tightly against his chest felt ….. nice. So he decided that he would enjoy the spoils of being injured for a while longer.
Naturally that was the exact moment Naruto, with his oblivious crush for Sakura, entered the room, or more precisely stormed into the room, shouting "Sasuke!" He stopped as if someone had yanked him back, his face showing signs of …. sadness? Which were however quickly overridden by joy again. "Man, Sasuke, you're back up awake!" He loudly claimed while walking towards Sasuke and the blushing Sakura which had panicky stopped hugging her crush when Naruto had first announced his presence. Great, more inter-team trouble brewing. Sasuke sighed.
"Yes, I am awake, as should be rather obvious, seeing I'm talking to you." He smirked as Narutos mouth opened, as if to shoot his own "Teme!" back at him, but then realized he had not (as his other self seemed to have done all the time) called the blonde "Dobe". "And before you ask, I am more or less fine, I'm just supposed to take it slow for a day or so." He looked at Sakura, then back at Naruto. "So why don't you bring me my clothes, and we get out of the hospital?" His eyes sparkled mischievously as Sakura blushed a deep crimson and fled the room.
With their female team member out of the room, Sasukes dressing went both fast and far less …. interesting, so soon they left the room, again in blue-black and orange.
As the 2 exited the main entrance, Sakura had been called away a Medi-Nin told them, the evening sun playing through some small clouds, a slight breeze in the air, Sasuke took a deep breath. Great air, and non-hospitalized which was almost as important.
He stood atop the Uchiha Hall Tower and took deep breaths of the energy-laden air. It felt wonderful.
"Sasuke? Are you alright?" Sasuke came out of this …. flashback? Just to see Naruto standing directly in front of him, frowning and looking him into the eye. "You suddenly stopped walking and stared into the air. You sure you are ready to leave yet?" The blondes voice sounded really worried. Well, at least Naruto would not hug him. He hoped.
"I just had some weird …. flashback or somesuch. Huh..." He came to a decision and started of towards the Uchiha district. Somehow he could not shake the feeling that this was important. "Hey, Sasuke! Where are you going? HEY!" Naruto yelled, but then obviously decided to follow him, and soon he was jogging next to Sasuke, a worried expression on his face. Nopt that Sasuke was paying much attention, instead he was concentrating on any details he remembered from his short episode, and could not shake the feeling he had been "dreaming" of it while he had been out...
Within 10 minutes they had reached the Uchiha district, and as Sasuke did not protest when Naruto followed him inside. He went straight for a rather wide hall-like building with a medium sized tower on top, stopping directly in front of its door.
"Now Sasuke, whats going on?" Naruto blurted out, shaking Sasuke out of some kind of contemplative stare. "I think I remembered something that … might be a reason for my different memories." He barely managed to remember that he had not yet told Naruto the exact reason. He would do it soon though, he was starting to trust this Naruto almost as much as he did "his", and if he had to stay it would not do to keep secrets from his … friends.
"I need to check something up on the tower. Could you stay out here and be ready for … anything unusual?" His voice almost sounded worried, so Naruto of course agreed with a wide smile. Helping ones friends was after all central to his Nindo. "Thanks." Sasuke felt relieved that he could depend on Naruto, if not much else as it seemed, and went to the tower platform. Upon reaching it a strange feeling started behind his eyes, something akin to the slight prickling feeling one had when a powerful storm was just about to break loose. On instinct (and ignoring the Medi-Kunoichis explicit advice) he activated his Sharingan which felt … odd. As if some kind of pressure was building right on the rims of his eyes. He looked down at Naruto and …. Lightning bolts flashed all around, the sky alternating between dark and all too bright, shadows dancing... ..ke! Hey? Is your Sharingan supposed to … flicker?" Sasuke concentrated on the here and now again. Flicker? He held his hand in front of his eyes, and truly, there seemed to be inconsistent, whitish light emanating from his eyes. He ran towards the next window and looked into its mirroring surface. Whitish sparks, like small bolts of lightning, were dancing around his Tomoe, and from time to time a miniature bolt shot towards the center of his eye.
What. The. Hell.
He looked around almost panicky, trying to determine if his Sharingan still did what it was supposed to do. Predicting the leaves movements in the wind? Check. Predicting how Nartuo would move? Check.
"Hey, Naruto, could you throw a Kunai at me? I need to check if my eyes are working as they should..." He said with a loud but not shouting voice. "Eh, are you sure?" Naruto seemed to worry for his sanity now, but Sasuke simply nodded.
Predicting and easily evading Narutos sub-par throw? Check. Whatever was wrong (or simply changed) with his eyes, it did not affect the predictive abilities. He focused on Naruto and cast the "Air of Honey" Jutsu. Seeing the blondes strangely slowed movements and his expression (one of ludicrously over-exaggerated "Huh?") the Jutsu-channeling Abilities had not suffered either. And checking the Jutsu-stealing abilities was pointless right now. So Sasuke tried his best to calm down, deactivated his Sharingan and jumped down to shake the still slowed Naruto out of it.
"Sorry, had to check if my eyes still worked as they should. And you were the only target nearby..." At that a short sting of pain as he remembered WHY noone except him and his friend were in the district shot through him.
"That felt weird. Can you teach me that Jutsu? Should be …. fun." Translation: Should be useful for Narutos pranks. Still, Sasuke smiled and nodded. Not that he expected the extremely unsubtle blonde to get much use out of it in the near future, but why not. And so the 2 left for the closest training ground.
It was good to have friends.
At the same time, in Waves newly declared Hidden Village (which was for now mainly a small, secluded, rocky valley rather close to the islands center, without any buildings) Hayate Gekko had just agreed to Swords main "request" and in addition been granted the right to spar against the subject of one of these requests, namely Haku.
The battle had been ... interesting, to say the least. Aside from his Kekkei Genkai, which he did not demonstrate fully, as was understandable, and immense skill with senbon the youth seemed to be of average Chunin capability, with better speed but worse strength and stamina, and so Hayate had no quarrels agreeing to Swords request of allowing him to participate in the upcoming Chunin exams. The Hokage had expected that request, and seen it as an easy way to both allow Sword more, if only imaginary so far, legitimacy as well as getting them into Konohas "debt" fast. In exchange sword had agreed to finish the bridge within the month and allow a 3-man squad of regular Konoha Chunin to establish a guard post on the Fire side.
No, it was the other request that worried him, and so he nodded his respects to Haku and Zabuza who had supervised the fight, and answered:"As you might have expected I cannot decide the other request you made. But I will deliver it to the Hokage in person as quickly as possible."
And with that he left.
Overall his "spying" mission had went pretty well. Whiile he had talked with Zabuza his men had scouted the villages. Wave seemed to like its new "Kage" quite a bit, not surprisingly seeing he had dispersed around 30% of what he and his companions had liberated from Gateau, if Hayates estimation was correct, among the bridgebuilder and other craftsmen to strengthen the economy (and literally "buy" the good will of the people) and openly slaughtered the more hated of the crime lords men, to the cheers of their former victims and their families, and provided protection.
Still, he wanted Konohas agreement to recruiting efforts in areas Fire governed but that were not directly under Konohas or any other villages control, which might prove problematic, even if he agreed that Konoha would be allowed a Veto within for every new recruit after the 3rd in the first 3 years. Still, the Hokage needed to get this message, and FAST.
And so they sped homewards, again shadowed by the mysterious ANBU.
A few kilometers back, Hohiro approached Zabuza who was looking in the direction the Konoha Nin had departed. "And? Did they agree?"
The former "Demon" and now Namikage smirked. "Yes. They fell for it. Haku will mop up every opposition he is likely to face except for the Uchiha and if our info is accurate the Kazekages youngest. We will have our Chunin and demonstrate our strength soon enough." He turned to face his former teacher. "And your project? Everything going to plan? Did you find enough ore?"
The old man smiled a tired but extremely satisfied smile. "Come and see for yourself." And with that he went towards a nearby rocky hill. Zabuza followed him, and as they reached the apex, in the rather small, around 2 kilometers to 800 meters, valley, its ground lowering itself almost 30 meters before him a building rose. It was of gleaming silver, roughly 3 meters deep, between 9 and 10 meters wide, roughly 45 meters high, and formed exactly like Kobikiri Honchos blade. Formed with Hohiros Kekkei Genkai the entirely metal Tower was near indestructible, not to mention a beautiful symbol. "Here is your Namikage Tower, The Sword, the center of our new village." The old mans voice was full of pride and warmer than Zabuza had ever heard it. "Make the best of it, boy. Do me proud."
In a small bordertown north of Fire country, Kakashi and Gai approached a garishly decorated tavern. From within the rather shrill (and pretty drunk) voice of a woman could be heard. "No, I will not let you cook my pig! I will crush you!"
Under that a rather small male voice saying "I said LOOK! LOOK, not Cook! Argh..!" could be heard, intersparsed with breaking wood.
Kakashi looked at Gai,w ho looked back. It seemed they had found Tsunade easy enough. Now to get her to go back to Konoha...would be hard.
AN: Hey, whats up? The stats show lots of you are reading this (which btw I DO appreciate! :) ) but:
Almost no reviews since last time I updated. While writing this fic in itself is fun (or I would not be doing it) I really want feedback as well. I usually don't do this, but maybe it will help and shake you a bit. ;)
I will not update until I have received at least 3 reviews for this chapter and 5 new ones in total (ergo until I have hit 37+ reviews). Maybe this will wake you up.
On Topic: In the next Chapter the Chunin Exams will start and we will hear more from Tsunade as well. And other stff I am not telling yet. So: Go review if you want to read it!