Kyuubi Capers - Chapter 5

Uchiha Sasuke had returned to Konoha.

That was the word on the street, anyway. Everyone had a friend of an uncle of a friend who had seen Team 7 come back in the dead of night. Everyone knew that Sasuke was inside the city walls. No one had actually seen him, but everyone knew.

No one had actually seen him, because Uchiha Sasuke was comatose.

Only the members of Team 7 who had been dispatched to retrieve him knew the entire story. They'd rooted out Sasuke at one of Orochimaru's hide-outs and engaged him in battle. Sasuke had tried to use the Sharingan on Naruto, and both of them collapsed.

Naruto might have known the rest of the story, but he, of course, was also comatose.

Both boys were brought back to Konoha in their current condition.

The two of them were kept in a top-security wing of Konoha's hospital. When they'd arrived, the Hokage tried to put them in separate rooms, but Sasuke's condition had deteriorated so quickly while being apart from Naruto that she had been forced to reunite them.

No one was allowed to see the two boys but the Hokage herself, their jounin and ANBU guards, and of course, Yamato, who was present nearly twenty-four hours a day to control the Kyuubi. Most of the remaining Konoha Ten had made some effort to sneak in. Ino got the farthest using her clan's mind-transfer jutsu. She'd even managed to touch the door knob. After that, all of the chunin had been sent on intensive assignments, leaving the professionals to tend to the two patients in peace.

Sasuke's chakra levels remained dangerously low, while Naruto's were dangerously high.

A week had gone by with no sign of improvement.

Hatake Kakashi was sitting in a chair by the door, reading Jiraiya's latest Make-Out Tactics. He appeared as relaxed as he always did, save for one hand resting almost casually on his weapons pouch. Yamato sat on the floor, casting the seal jutsu on Naruto's sleeping body. Kyuubi's chakra had been stronger than usual, most likely because it had been some time since Naruto had been conscious to suppress it.

"How long do you think this will take, Senpai?" Yamato asked quietly. He'd barely slept for a week, and even with high-level ninja training, his body was showing the signs of fatigue. Kakashi flipped his book shut.

"Who knows," he said idly.

"If the Hokage can't even tell what's wrong-"

"She'll figure it out," he said. I'm failing my students again, he thought. It was all he could do just to stop Sakura from barging in on an hourly basis. Thank God for intensive assignments.

Sasuke looked nearly the same as he had when he'd left. He was older, and he'd grown more handsome, Kakashi admitted. Upon his arrival, the clothes Orochimaru had given him had been quietly but swiftly removed and replaced by a clean hospital gown. He looked just as he had when he was hospitalized following Itachi's attack.

Before he'd tried to kill Naruto.

Hours passed before Tsunade returned, looking as exhausted as Kakashi felt. She was carrying a pile of medical literature, books and jutsu scrolls, that she plopped down on a table next to Sasuke's bed. They had long since given up pretending to be quiet since there were patients in the room. Sasuke and Naruto might as well have been extra furniture.

"Go and rest, Yamato," Tsunade said brusquely. He nodded, thanked her, and left. Once he was gone, Tsunade turned to Kakashi. He did not have to ask for an update before she gave him one.

"As I suspected, all of the tests came back perfectly normal," she said. "There's nothing physically wrong with either of them. This is almost certainly a case of a jutsu gone wrong." Kakashi took in this information, and nodded silently. Tsunade pulled a bottle of sake out of a drawer and poured herself a glass. She sat down and faced Kakashi, her expression serious.

"May I ask you some questions, as their former jounin-sensei?"

"Of course."

"Are you aware of any jutsu either of these two might have learned that would produce this effect?" He thought for a moment.

"Naruto? Certainly not," he said. "Though at this point, who knows what Sasuke can do." Orochimaru had made it his goal to learn every jutsu in the world. It wasn't outside the realm of possibility that he'd discovered one that placed the user into a coma. Tsunade was thinking the same.

"It doesn't make any sense for Orochimaru to teach his prized vessel a jutsu like this, though," she mused. "It leaves Sasuke at risk, and if Orochimaru wanted him incapacitated, he could easily do it himself." Kakashi nodded his agreement.

"So, this was an accident?"

"Definitely an accident." Tsunade picked up a scroll and briefly glanced through the contents. "All three of the reports say that Sasuke looked at Naruto with his Sharingan before they both collapsed, simultaneously. Genjutsu?" Kakashi slid his headband up, exposing his own Sharingan. He'd done this before, every day and then some, but still, he looked Naruto and Sasuke up and down carefully, in case there was something he'd missed.

"It's not a genjutsu," he sighed, tugging his headband back over his left eye. Tsunade plopped down in a chair beside him. For the first time since Kakashi had known her, her expression showed her true age.

"I'm completely stuck. All roads lead back to the Sharingan," she sighed. "I spent most of the day trying to find Uchiha records on the damn thing. Shizune's still down at the compound. Damn clan secrets." Her expression turned dark. "One of the only two surviving members of that clan might die, just because they were so hell bent on holding on to a scrap of power." Kakashi closed his eyes, and remembered how Obito had been. The Uchiha were certainly a mistrustful lot. Sasuke was no exception.

"You know more about it than I do, I'm sure," he said. Given the accelerated effects using his Sharingan had on his body, he had his suspicions on what a lifetime of heavy use would do to the health of even a full-blood Uchiha.

They had never been an especially stable bunch.

"Anyway," Tsunade said, pouring herself a second glass of sake, "I'm running out of options. Inoichi is coming here now to see if he can find any clues." Kakashi stared at her. He didn't know the man that well personally, but he knew who he was.

Yamanaka Inoichi, head of the Interrogation Department.

Using mind-transfer jutsu on even a healthy person was risky for everyone involved.

"Is that safe?"

"Would you rather I leave things like this?" she asked sharply, gesturing at the two unconscious boys on the beds. Kakashi said nothing. Her expression softened. "You know we can't risk going into Naruto's mind," she said, "but Sasuke should be fine." She paused. "Don't give me that look, Kakashi. You knew we'd have to interrogate him eventually." Kakashi was not aware that he had been giving the Hokage a 'look.'

He just wasn't sure anyone could understand what was going on in Sasuke's head, even if they cracked it open and tried to read it like a novel.

A polite knock on the door broke his thoughts.

"Hokage-sama?" People from the Interrogation Department were always extremely punctual. It was one of the many reasons Kakashi had never considered joining.

"Ah," Tsunade said, quickly stashing the sake. She turned to Kakashi with a sympathetic expression. "You're welcome to leave, if this makes you uncomfortable."

"Someone needs to be here to stop him if something goes wrong," Kakashi pointed out. He was, after all, the jounin guard on duty.

"Please," Tsunade snorted. "I can handle one little Uchiha brat."

"It's not him I'm worried about." Tsunade's face darkened, and she nodded. The lengths Naruto would go to for Sasuke were ridiculous. Neither one of them would be at all surprised if he managed to break out of a coma just to stop someone from the Interrogation Department from laying a finger on his best friend.

Silently, they agreed that Kakashi should stay.

"Come in, Inoichi," Tsunade called. The door creaked open, and a trim blond man stepped in. Kakashi did not miss the way his lip curled when he saw Sasuke on the hospital bed. Inoichi Yamanaka, Shikaku Nara, and Chouza Akimichi were extremely close- as far as Inoichi was concerned, the injuries Shikamaru and Chouji had sustained chasing after Sasuke were wounds inflicted on his own sons.

Kakashi wondered briefly if Sasuke even understood the damage he'd done, or if he understood, but truly didn't care. Neither one matched the student he knew.

"Thank you for coming on such short notice." Tsunade greeted Inoichi politely. Inoichi nodded.

"You wanted me to look at Sasuke?"

"Please," she said. "He and Naruto's conditions are linked to what we believe was a poorly performed jutsu. Anything you can find in Sasuke's recent memories will also help us to cure Naruto." So, she had noticed Inoichi's disinclination to help as well.

"Of course," he said neutrally, and he moved to Sasuke's bedside. Kakashi forced himself to remain still as Inoichi moved through some quick hand signs, all before reaching out and pressing two fingers against Sasuke's forehead. Sasuke did not react. Only a few seconds passed before Inoichi withdrew his hand, a troubled expression on his face. Tsunade frowned.

"Did you find something?" she demanded. He hesitated for a moment, as if struggling to find a way to put what he'd seen into words.

"Yes and no," he finally said. Kakashi knew that the Fifth Hokage hated vague answers.

"What does that mean?"

"Sasuke is…" Inoichi trailed off, searching for the correct adjective. The one he gave was not what Kakashi had been expecting.

"Missing."

Missing?

"Missing?" Tsunade said sharply.

"It appears to be very similar to what happens when the mind-transfer jutsu fails," Inoichi explained. "The mind remains in limbo for a few minutes before returning to its proper body. Since the mind can't operate without the body, the problem usually fixes itself in a short time. If Sasuke has been like this for a week, however, something is preventing his mind from returning to his body." He looked at Tsunade curiously. "How did he learn a mind-transfer jutsu?" Tsunade ignored the last question, doing her part to maintain the Uchiha clan's secrets, wittingly or unwittingly.

"Is Naruto the same way?" she asked instead.

"Without going in, I can't be sure."

"Sasuke's chakra level dropped suddenly when he was separated from Naruto," Kakashi supplied. Inoichi digested this information.

"It is possible," he said slowly, "that his mind is inside Naruto's body, and that- something- is stopping him from returning to his own body." All three of them knew exactly what that something was, but Tsunade said it out loud.

"Kyuubi."

The fox again.

The effects it had on Naruto were as plentiful as they were random. Sometimes they were beneficial- the accelerated healing factor had saved Naruto's life dozens of times- but for the most part, they seemed neutral at best, and horribly painful at worst.

Trapping Sasuke inside Naruto's body definitely fell into "horribly painful."

Well, at least now they had a documented reason of why not to use mind-transfer on a jinchuuriki. They still had one problem, though.

"If Sasuke is trapped inside Naruto," Kakashi asked, "then where is Naruto?"

They were interrupted by a massive surge of chakra escaping from Naruto's body.

Since these explosions had been happening regularly since Naruto was brought back to the village, they all knew exactly what to do.

"Get Yamato," Tsunade barked at Inoichi. He disappeared immediately. In an instant, Kakashi and Tsunade were at Naruto's side, forcing his limbs down, stopping his movements. The demon chakra was making it difficult for even Tsunade to hold him still.

"If this keeps up," she panted, "he's going to injure himself." Kakashi frowned.

"And if Sasuke's mind really is trapped inside Naruto's body-"

He was interrupted by a loud crash.

Both he and Tsunade turned sharply to look at the other bed.

Sasuke had somehow managed to break the lamp on his bedside table and send all of Tsunade's medical literature tumbling to the ground. But now, he was sitting up, hair disheveled, expression both vague and wary, his eyes boring into Kakashi's. His fingers were wrapped tight around the hospital sheet.

When he spoke, his voice was just as cold and demanding as it had always been.

"Who's trapped inside who?"

Ta-da. This fic has seven chapters total. FYI.