Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of its characters. This is just fan work for other fans and not for profit in any way.

Chronicle One: Shinobi in the Mist (Version 1.93)

Chapter 6

Kane waved off the two nurses as he groggily woke up. It felt like he had the worst hangover in his life. The bed that he was sitting on was one of many in the white walled room. It appeared that he was in the hospital ward. Well, at least he was alive. He suspected it could have been a whole lot worse. The nurses continued to pester him, urging him to lie down and rest and not to strain himself.

"I'm fine," he reassured them. "Can't you see that I'm totally coherent?"

"Master Kane," one of them objected. "You've suffered severe head trauma and you need to lie down and rest."

Kane ignored them and instead, tried to remember what had happened. He was having a very nice day when something had gone awry. He remembered the scent of wildflowers and cherry blossoms. He remembered a girl, a beautiful girl with pink hair. She was with him and they were making love. They were passionately enjoying each other's company when she had sent a chakra imbued punch at his head.

'Damn it,' he swore to himself. 'Why do all the pretty ones turn out to be enemy ninja from another country?'

Just then, two more medical personnel walked in followed closely by a kunoichi.

"I already told you guys that I'm fine."

"With all due respect…" one of them started but Kane held up a hand to forestall him.

He turned his attention to the ninja girl who he recognised as Kiara.

"Let me guess," Kane directed his question to her. "Worabi's pissed off."

"Master Kane," the black haired girl replied in a surprised voice. "You've recovered."

"It'll take more than one punch to kill me."

"We were unable to find the paper amongst your belongings," the girl informed him. "That girl must have taken it. With you unconscious, we were afraid that its contents might be lost."

"So I'm assuming from your statement that you haven't caught the ninja who's responsible for all this?" Kane asked.

When the girl indicated in the negative, Kane silently swore to himself. He was never going to live this incident down. Worabi's probably pissed off enough to mouth off to all his superiors on how he majorly screwed up on his job. "Go ahead Kiara, rub it in."`

"Sorry sir," the kunoichi apologized. "I'm afraid we still haven't apprehended the culprit."

"It doesn't matter. That information alone is useless."

"Do you recall the information?"

"Yes," Kane replied. "Even though I feel like I'm having the biggest migraine ever, I still remember it."

"We have to ensure that the information is not lost," the shinobi informed him.

"Don't worry, I won't be forgetting that information."

"What if you suffer a post traumatic stroke or a delayed brain bleed?" the black haired ninja girl asked. "We can't risk losing that information."

"Did Worabi send you to get me to open those plans?" Kane asked the Kiara. When she nodded in the affirmative, he sighed, exasperated at his situation. "Fine I'll come and unlock those damn plans."

"Sir!" the medical staff exclaimed as the mist Jounin stood up.

"I told you I'm fine. Just leave me alone. I promise if I don't feel well later on, I'll come back and rest."

The four medical staff looked at each other but was powerless to stop the man as he walked out. Kane slowly staggered into the corridor with the ninja girl following close behind. She waited patiently for him, seemingly intent on letting him take the lead. Composing himself, Kane orientated himself before making his way through the building.

"You must think me a hopeless womanizer to be taken off guard by an enemy kunoichi."

"I assumed you thought it was safe because there were people watching your back." Kiara replied.

"Truth be told, I would've probably done the same even if they weren't watching my back," Kane admitted.

"I suppose everyone has their weaknesses."

Laughing at her reply he grinned. "So you think I have a weakness for women?" He didn't blame her for thinking so. He seriously screwed up this time.

"Well, you didn't check to see if she was a ninja before attempting to seduce her" she commented.

"She was a very good actor. I really just thought that she was a normal girl trying to avoid her ex-boyfriend." Kane suddenly paused. He thought back to the eyebrow guy who appeared to be Sara's boyfriend. "Oh shit. The boyfriend must have been in on the act, which means there's at least two enemy ninja out there."

"I'm sure the teams out there would notice if an unknown ninja showed up," she reassured him. "They'd be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary."

"Maybe you should go out and inform the teams just to be sure."

"I will but I have to make sure that you correctly remembered the information that was entrusted to you. If you forget, we'd have one more problem on our hands."

"I didn't forget," he told her. Why did everyone mistrust his memory? Just because he was a bad judge of character didn't mean that his mind was incapable of remembering nine simple seals. Kane suddenly missed his footing and staggered.

"Are you alright?" Kiara asked him in concern.

"Yeah I'm fine," He replied as he held onto the wall for support. "Could you lend me a hand?"

The ninja girl grabbed the Jounin's arm and pulled him up. Kane steadied himself against her shoulder. He inched forward a few steps while being supported by the girl.

"I'm just still a bit dizzy from my head trauma I guess."

"Oh come on and let's get this thing over and done with," the black haired kunoichi told him, exasperated from the delay.

"Ok ok, relax," Kane tried to placate her. He began moving again with the girl's aid. He smiled inwardly to himself. It was nice having a pretty girl holding him and supporting him as they walked along. It was even nice enough to feign dizziness for.

Sakura silently swore. Kane was a good deal taller than her and he wasn't that light. This mission had become increasingly trying on her nerves, not to mention exhausting. They finally rounded the hallway and came to a wide corridor. The double doors at the end were guarded by two mist ninjas. 'Finally,' Sakura thought to herself. Now that Kane had led her to the plans, she just needed to grab them and get out.

"Sensei?" one of the ninja guards asked. "We thought you were in the medical wing being treated for a head trauma."

Kane quickly stood up from the girl he was leaning on. "I'm quite fine. Nothing could keep me down for long."

Sakura raised an eyebrow at him. Had he been faking the dizziness all this time? Did he just feign an inability to walk by himself as an excuse to put his arms around her? Didn't he just compromise himself barely an hour past due to his womanizing ways?

"Worabi sent Kiara to tell me to open the scroll with the plans," the Jounin told the two other ninja. "The medical staff thinks I might suffer some delayed brain bleed or some crap and pressured me to do this before my head loses the information."

"Sir, we were told not to let anyone into this room," one of them objected.

"Oh don't worry," Kane reassured them. "I've got an access key to that room." He rummaged through his pockets. "Ah crap, the medical staff must've taken the things in my pockets. Kiara, could you use your key?"

"Sure," Sakura replied as she took out the keys she pilfered from the real Kiara and walked towards the door.

"Kiara doesn't actually have access to that room." Kane's said out loud. The man's words stopped her in her tracks. "But then again, you're not Kiara are you."

Sakura's heart had leapt up when he uttered those words. 'Shit,' she swore to herself, 'he made me.' The two ninjas in front of her were startled, but had quickly reached for their weapons. They were eyeing both her and Kane suspiciously, not sure what to make of them. Kane was unarmed and injured and these two ninja appeared to be only chuunin. This shouldn't be that hard of a fight.

Moving with lightning speed, Sakura dropped the keys and unleashed two punches at the ninja on her left. The man knocked away her first attack and blocked the second. A big mistake. Sakura's punch, even though blocked, broke his arm and slammed him into the wall behind him. Suddenly, the sound of hand seals being formed reached Sakura's ears and she quickly rolled off to the side of the corridor. An instant later a large torrent of water slammed into where she was mere millisecond ago. Leaping up from her roll, Sakura sent two shurikens flying at Kane. The Jounin stopped his ninjustu attack and ducked out of the way. With the blast of water gone, Sakura turned and sent a round kick at the other chuunin. The ninja ducked the attack and countered with a sweeping low kick. The leaf Jounin leapt and avoided getting tripped but the other ninja quickly responded. He jumped up and sent a barrage of blows at her. Sakura's eyes flashed in concentration as she dodged and blocked each attack. Seeing a pattern, her hand flew out and caught one of the punches. The girl quickly grabbed the other's ninja's arm and twisted it up. The chuunin yelled in pain but Sakura also heard another sound; the sound of more hand seals being formed. She quickly swung the chuunin around, right into Kane's water prison technique. Seeing that he'd caught a fellow mist ninja in his large water sphere rather than the kunoichi, Kane released the technique. However, before the sphere of water was halfway collapsed, Sakura fired off a power punch right into the trapped chuunin. Her fist shot into the falling body of water, easily cutting through the liquid. Her chakra imbued hand connected with the chuunin, the force of the blow causing him to fly backwards sending water spraying everywhere. He flew backwards into Kane and the momentum sent them both crashing into the back wall. The wall cracked under the force of the blow and the two mist ninja collapsed in a heap.