Shikamaru was the one who asked Shizune in an impatient/pissed tone that was rare in the lazy shadow jutsu user, "Well what did you find?" Up in the branches Kakashi curled his legs up against his chest and cringed while his mind growled, Bastard. I don't think they heard you in Iwa.

He turned his head and looked towards the small group huddled fifty feet or so away and noted that Hinata, Kiba, Shino, Neji and Lee were all looking towards Shikamaru with frowns on their faces as Sai walked up and tried to distract them with several lewd, and not very well executed jokes. As Shizune moved in closer to Shikamaru and told him what she and Sakura and Ino had found.

"We found faint traces of healed up broken bones. Some partially healed internal injuries. A partially healed bruise on the back of her head. We think at one time it was bad enough to cause her skull to fracture a bit and cause brain swelling-"

"Kakashi said that her memory was off, would something like that do it?" Tenzou asked. Shizune shook her head.

"Maybe at first. Because brain injuries are tricky but not now. Her memory issues probably stem from something deeper."

"Alright, continue-" Shika said as Shizune listed several other things that they had found that was consistant with torture. It seemed like she was trying to avoid what she and the others had found during the vaginal exam.

She stopped speaking for a moment and took a deep breath then finally said. "We found only a little tearing in Naru's soft tissues and because rape is such a violent act, we feel that it's safe to assume that if anyone did touch her- they didn't touch her there. They probably used uh...her other- Althought we didn't find any scarring, we can't completely rule that out..."

"Thats enough Shizune-" Tenzou snapped the look on his face pained.

Shizune shut up and nodded her head and started to walk away then stopped and said, "Kakashi I know that you're listening so let me make this very clear. Whoever forced you to hurt Naru- they probably had such a thing planned for a while during her captivity. Now you need to pull yourself together and ask yourself why. Why you when they could have had her themselves."

Kakashi blinked at her words as seething rage churrned in his gut. Why? She had said. He knew the why of what had happened. It had been to destroy two of the leaf village's most fierce and powerful shinobi. He's have to be a moron not to know that.

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"Does anyone else find this mission peculair?" Neji asked as Sai all but ran to Sakura once she walked out of the hut looking sad and wiping at her eyes with her hands. Kiba, Shino and Lee all leaned forward a bit on their seats and saw the young Root hug Sakura.

"You mean aside from the fact that everyone is acting sort of crazy? No. Not peculiar." Kiba said as he looked away from Sai and Sakura hugging as Lee said.

"I think Neji-kun is right. Something peculair is going on and we're being left out of it."

"What do you think it is?" Hinata asked quietly, suddenly deciding to join in the conversation.

"Whatever it is it has to do with Naru and Kakashi." Neji said as he settled back to observe the others in the hopes that he'd be able to piece things together and help if he could.

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It took about an hour of coaxing before Kakashi finally came out of the tree. And the only reason he bothered to come down was because Shikamaru had sighed and said he was going to go collect Naru.

A split second later Kakashi dropped down out of the tree, landing on top of him and knocked him to the ground where he wound up eating dirt while the copy nin jumped to his feet and ran into the hut and carefully re wrapped Naru in the blanket that he'd more or less stolen from the hotel they'd left, and scooped her up.

He stared at her sleeping face for a moment and felt the need to cry again, but ruthlessly shoved the need aside. Telling himself firmly not to torture himself with the 'what if's' that he'd recently become aware of.

He'd only drive himself crazy if he did that. And then he wouldn't be of any use to anyone; least of all Naru who was defensless and in desperate need of him to protect her now. He got to his feet slowly, not wanting to jostle Naru too much because it would wake her and stepped out of the hut to find that everyone else was ready to go and was waiting on him to give the word.

He glanced from one face to another and took a deep breath. Going home would end this chapter of his and Naru's story. But it was the rest of the story that he dreaded. Still...

He did miss the village and it's people. Missed the warmth and comfort and safety it provided.

He and Naru would heal much faster once they were there. Wouldn't they? He wasn't totally sure of anything anymore. But he did know one thing. He didn't want to be here where he had been forced to ride out the aftermath.

He longed for the familiar sights and sounds of home. "Alright... Let's go home..."