Chapter Eighteen

"Haruno Sakura?" Megumi said looking over the patient records. "How odd. Her sister was brought in only this morning. I wonder what's going on."

Kai shrugged as he checked the heart monitor set up next to the bed. "Who knows," he said. "Maybe someone's targeting her family."

"Maybe," Megumi said. "I'm just glad I don't have to deal with another angry Uchiha. Itachi-san was terrifying."

Kai chuckled. "Well they don't call him the crimson-eyed demon for his tea ceremonies Megumi-san."

"I suppose," Megumi said; picking up the clipboard on the bed post. "She should be waking up soon right?"

"I'd give her another twenty minutes or so before the drugs finally ware off."

"Alright," Megumi said; pushing open the door. "Then I'll go inform her family and friends."

"Careful you don't run into any more scary Uchiha boys."

Megumi rolled her eyes. "I'll have you know that I already checked and there weren't any Uchihas listed on the waiting room list. I'm pretty sure I'm safe."

"Well then get to it."

Megumi was reading the clipboard as she pushed open the swinging doors to the waiting room where two young men instantly stood, their faces at varying degrees of worry.

"I'm looking for an Uzumaki Naruto." Megumi said without looking up. "You're listed here as being the next of kin of Haruno Sakura?"

"That's right," Naruto said. "How is Sakura-chan? Is she awake? Is she really hurt? Will she die?"

"Shut up, dobe," the second boy said. "She can't answer if you keep talking."

"And you are?" Megumi asked and the boy turned his hard black eyes to face her, his stare cold and calculated.

"Uch—Sasuke," he said. "I'm Sakura's other teammate."

"I see," Megumi said. "My name is Niwa Megumi; I'm the nurse for Haruno Sakura."

"I'm well aware of that," Sasuke said. "Tell me what I want to know."

"Right…well, there doesn't appear to be any lasting damage and we expect her to wake up any time."

"Thank-you," Sasuke said; his voice abrupt as he stepped around her. "What is her room number?

"Well, I'm afraid only family is allowed into the ICU. You'll have to wait to see Haruno-san until after she's move—."

Sasuke's glare turned frosty and the deep black depths flashed from black to red twice before they returned to their usual pitch black.

"That's not an acceptable option." Sasuke said. "I want her room number. Now."

Megumi quickly backtracked.

"She's in room 109."

"Hn," Sasuke said, resuming his pace as he pushed open the double doors and disappeared followed closely by Naruto.

Nearly five minutes after Sasuke and Naruto had left Megumi released a relieved breath and managed to relax just a bit before she sighed. She really needed a less hazardous job.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Much to their surprise, Sasuke and Naruto found Kakashi already in Sakura's room by the time they had arrived. Careful not to make a sound, Sasuke slid the door shut while Naruto by-passed him to reach his cousin's bed. Her skin was pale white and the blonde winced at the clear tube that disappeared up her sleeve to what was undoubtedly a needle imbedded in her soft arm.

"How is she Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, his voice just above a whisper. "She's gonna be okay right?"

Kakashi's one visible eye was crinkled up in concern as he suddenly reached out and tugged the blanket further up his student's chest. The jerky movement spoke volumes to the silent Uchiha of his sensei's anger at the entire situation.

"They can't find anything physically wrong with her." Kakashi said. "Honesty, from her test results she should already be awake."

"This is just like what happened to Hikari-chan," Naruto said, his usually bright blue eyes heavy with sadness. "Is my entire family going to be targeted?"

"It's not the same." Sasuke said. "Haruno-sama was physically attacked as well as mentally. Her reasons for not waking are probably a combination of both. For Sakura it's simply an exhaustion of her life-force because of her contact with Okuni."

Kakashi looked up in surprise. "Okuni Moritatsu?"

Sasuke nodded once.

"That's impossible," Kakashi said, shaking his head. "If Sakura had come in contact with Okuni she would be dead. Not to mention the medic said that there was no form of chakra or life exhaustion at all. Whoever attacked her did it mentally. It couldn't have been Okuni."

"Are you sure?" Sasuke said and his sensei nodded again. "That's a rather unpleasant thought."

"Why's that?" Naruto asked.

"Because the only bloodline limit in Konoha that is capable of such a strong mental attack is the mangekyo sharingan." Sasuke said.

"What's the mangekyo sharingan?" Naruto said.

"It's a very advanced form of sharingan," Kakashi said. "It's almost extinct now in the Uchiha clan with only a very few who even know how to activate it and even less that have."

"How do you activate it?"

Sasuke shook his head. "I don't know. My brother refused to tell me."

"Well," Naruto said. "Then shouldn't we be able to narrow down the attacker that way?"

"Yes and no." Kakashi said. "But it's not as simple as you make it out to be."

"Why not!" Naruto said, clearly annoyed.

"Because," Sasuke said. "The only people that hold the mangekyo are Kakashi-sensei—."

"What!" Naruto shouted.

"And my brother." Sasuke finished. "Both of whom have solid alibis."

"Not to mention both of us rather like your cousins." Kakashi said. "Itachi's about to marry one and I'm teaching the other."

"In other words," Sasuke said. "We've reached a dead end."

Naruto snorted. "That's stupid. You just don't know where else to look."

Sasuke sent him an annoyed glare. "That's what a 'dead end' is dobe."

"What I'm saying," Naruto said with a scowl. "Is that some one else in your clan must have gotten them some how. We just have to figure out who."

"And I know just the person for the job," Sasuke said. "I'll be back. Kakashi-sensei, come with me."

Kakashi's eye crinkled up into a smile as he stood to follow the former Uchiha. He gave Naruto a brief salute at the door.

"Take care of Sakura-chan, Naruto."

"You can count on me." Naruto said, and the door slid shut once again.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Sorry," Ino said. "I can't help you guys. The techniques required to read a person's mind are far to advanced for me. I wouldn't even be able to poke at their brain let alone actually get a solid thought."

"You have a large family, Yamanaka." Sasuke said. "Ask one of them."

"An inconspicuous one of them," Kiba chimed in. "This is, after all, a mission that doesn't exist."

Sasuke nodded once in agreement.

Ino bit her lip and tried to concentrate on something other then the fact that the Uchiha Sasuke was standing, willingly, not even two feet away. Sure, she had gotten over her crush a while ago, but there was no denying that the dark haired heart-throb just had this way of making girls forget everything but their names. And sometimes even that as well.

"I could probably ask Umi," she said at long last. "She owes me a favor anyway."

"Good," Yotaro said. "But could you do it today? The suns starting to set already and we only have until tomorrow."

"I'll go over right now."

"Do you need someone to go with you?" Tenten asked but Ino just shook her head.

"It will be less suspicious if I just go myself."

Before anyone else could respond a droopy looking dog appeared at Kakashi's ankles, panting slightly from his long run.

"Oi," the dog said, causing a few of the gathered genin to jump back in surprise. "That girl woke up."

"Which girl, Pakkun?" Kakashi said. "Sakura or Hikari?"

"The pink one," Pakkun said. "But their something weird about her."

"I'm going," Sasuke said and Yotaro nodded.

"Make sure she's alright," Yotaro said. "We'll set up some sort of watch system tonight to see if we can't catch the culprit that way."

"I'm going over to Umi's house," Ino said. "I'll get back to you as soon as I find out anything."

"G-good luck, Ino-chan." Hinata said and the blonde flashed a brief thumbs up before she leapt into the trees surrounding the clearing and disappeared.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After getting her new room from the reception lady, Kakashi and Sasuke made their way up to room 306. Sasuke reached out for the door when Kakashi suddenly intervened, his own hand knocking Sasuke's away. The former Uchiha glared up at his sensei and was about to demand why he was stopped when Kakashi signaled for him to be quiet. Once the hall was completely silent Sasuke heard it as well.

"Come on Sakura-chan," Naruto said, his voice pleading. "You've got to remember something else."

"I-I'm really sorry Naruto-chan," Sakura replied, her voice teary and afraid. "But I just don't know."

Bypassing Kakashi's hand, Sasuke pulled the door open and stepped into the room. Both Naruto and Sakura jerked around to see who it was and Sakura's brow crinkled in confusion.

"Itachi-san?" Sakura said and Sasuke's eyes narrowed.

"What's going on?" Sasuke said but Naruto just shrugged.

"I don't know." Naruto said. "But it's like she lost her memories or something. It took me almost twenty minutes just to convince her that I'm really Naruto."

Sasuke stiffened. "All of them?"

Naruto shook her head. "Only the last six years."

"Naruto," Kakashi said, his voice exasperated. "That's half of her life."

"But it's a place to start," Sasuke said as he stepped closer towards the bed. "Sakura."

Sakura blushed and pulled the blanket up to her chin, as though trying to hide. "H-hai, Itachi-san?"

"I'm not Itachi," he said with a scowl. "I'm Sasuke."

Sakura's eyes went wide. "S-Sasuke-kun? W-what happened to you?"

"The better question," Sasuke said. "Is what happened to you."

Tears welled up in Sakura's eyes once again.

"I-I…I d-don't know…"

And Naruto did his best to comfort his cousin as she cried.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Ino was about to knock on her cousin's door when the sound of angry voices floated out the open window. Curios, Ino pressed her back against the wall and edged towards the opening. Listening hard she managed to make out two familiar voices, one was her cousin, Umi, but the other was slightly more difficult. It wasn't until Umi said his name that the memories were triggered.

Natsui, who was currently a guard at the prison, was her cousin's former teammate and current boyfriend. Rumor had it the two would probably get married soon. Stifling a giggle Ino leaned in closer, hoping to get some good gossip out of her cousin's little 'lovers spat' but what she heard caused her blood to run cold in her veins.

"We're going to get caught, Natsui. First Hikari and now her kid sister?" Umi said. "I cared about Shisui too but this is getting far too involved. We need to pull out before it's too late."

"It's already too late, Umi!" Natsui said. "The attack begins in two days, do you really think I could just tell Kenta 'sorry I quit'?"

"Can't you?"

"No Umi, I can't."

Umi sighed. "Alright, but I want it to be quick. The last thing I want is for a complete civil war to break out."

"I'm glad you understand, Umi."

"But after it's over I'm done got it? I don't want to be a ninja or a revolutionary or anything else that involves fighting. I just want to live a quiet life and raise our kids."

"We'd have to be married first." There was a sound of flesh on flesh. "Ow! Okay, okay! I was just kidding Umi, we're going to get married."

"First thing?"

"I promise Umi. As soon as Itachi and Sasuke are dead I'll marry you first thing."

A sound of horror escaped from Ino's lips before she could stop it as she jumped away from the house. She landed hard on the street below and tripped, falling hard on her face. The sound of the door opening caused adrenalin to race through her body as she ignored her now bloody nose.

"It's Ino!" she heard Umi exclaim and Natsui cursed.

"Don't let her get away!"

Ino didn't have to look back to know that both Umi and Natsui were fast in pursuit.

End Chapter Eighteen


Kaliea: So? So? Was anyone surprised? I hope so cause that's what I was going for. The question now is: will Ino make it in time or will she be caught? Guess we'll find out next time huh? Don't forget to review!