Chapter 11 - Slight Illumination

It took three days for the blood to be processed.

This is what happened on the third day.

At around 3 or 4 in the morning a boy was caught trying to sneak out via the village gate, and he was raising a terrible fuss, so they held him at the guard station until they could figure out just who he belonged to.

In the holding cell nearby there were two other men, and a woman. The woman was there for getting into a fight with her boyfriend, which she loudly refuted at any chance as being "fuckin' unfair, 'cos he totally deserved it;" one of the men had had too much to drink and was currently asleep, drooling on the floor; the other man was from the Taki syndicate, and he'd pulled a sword on a bar owner who happened to be a retired jounin and would not tolerate any of this crap in his establishment. The underling that was with him at the time had been allowed to go get Nobuhiro, so he could bail him out. He still hadn't arrived, but that didn't stop the guy from asking about him every five seconds.

The boy sat very quietly in his chair next to the guard's desk, trying not to look any of them in the eye. He left his bag on the floor.

He was very quickly identified as Hanamura Yukio, and someone ran to get the Hokage and Yuuhi Benio. When asked what he had been up to, he didn't respond.

In the time that it took for the message to get there, the drunken man had awoken, wobbled to his knees, and thrown up in the toilet in the corner; the woman had yelled at him for it; the man from the Taki syndicate had stopped yelling for his underling and started yelling at Yukio.

"…hey! Hey, kid! Don't I know you from somewhere?"

Yukio kept his eyes forward. He shook his head, as if shaking off a shiver. He didn't reply.

The man moved forward, crouched like he was holding a sword, even though they'd taken it away from him. He was bald, and his robes were a faded red-purple, like a bruise. "No, no, could swear I know you from somewhere. …the hell do I know you from?"

"I don't know. Stop bothering me," Yukio said. His voice was hoarser than usual.

"Please be quiet, sir," the chuunin guard added, flatly.

"Shut the fuck up. An' don't give me no lip, kid. I'm just tryin' to - wait, wait, you're one of us, ain't you?" The bald man was in the cell because he had drawn his sword when the owner of the bar he'd been drinking at demanded payment for his extensive order of refreshments. He was still reeling from both the drinks and the ass-kicking the man had given him. "Izzat how I know you?"

Yukio didn't say anything. He clenched his fists.

"No, wait, only guys with red hair are the Boss and… hey, wait."

"Is the Naruto-san here yet?" Yukio said.

"Show me the back of your neck, kid."

"He should be here soon," said the chuunin guard. He yawned. "Just hold tight."

"I said, show me your neck." The bald man was drawing closer to the bars of the holding cell, and Yukio kept his eyes fiercely focused on his hands.

"Leave the kid alone, you dick," the woman said. Though the fight was long since over, she still had some spark left in her for provocation.

"The fuck did you say?"

She smirked, behind her smeared mascara. There was a wad of tissue in her nose, and the blood was turning brown. "Just told you to leave the kid alone. You dick."

"If you weren't a lady," he said, shaking an alcohol-loosed finger at her, already forgetting about Yukio, "I'd punch your face in."

"How lucky for me," she replied. She knew she'd have a black eye in the morning, and she was proud of it. "Wouldn't matter, anyways. Already got my face punched in once for the night."

"Please be quiet," the guard said again. The door to the holding station opened.

"Honda, ya moron, what kinda idiot thing did you get yourself in trouble with this time."

Nobuhiro had arrived, unshaven, his robe hastily put on, knife shoved under his belt. Yuki was still rubbing his eyes, barely awake, a smattering of other syndicate members behind them for support.

"Oh, Nobuhiro, I been waitin' for forever," the bald man, Honda, said. "It's these damn ninjas, they-"

"Save it. You can explain yourself later." Nobuhiro glared at the chuunin guard. "Well, you gonna let him out or what?"

Yukio's eyes widened. His knuckles turned white. He kept his head down.

(As it happened, Yuki did the same.)

"Technically, charges weren't pressed, so I'm allowed to release him," the guard said, carefully. "Though if action is sought later…"

"Well, it won't be, so I'd appreciate it if you let my friend outta there, thanks very much," said Nobuhiro.

The guard sighed, getting his keys.

"M'real thankful to ya, Nobu," Honda said. "Honestly, the way people run things 'round here."

"From what I heard, you got drunk an' pulled your sword on a ninja," said Nobuhiro. "So it's less a case of them bein' assholes an' more a case of you being a dumbass."

Honda's face, already rosy from wine, flushed even further and he mumbled something resembling an apology. The woman in the cell with him scoffed. There was tired laughter from behind Nobuhiro, but not beside him. He noticed this.

"…Yuki, what's the matter."

Yuki tried very, very hard not to look to his left. "Nothing, brother. I'm just tired."

Nobuhiro noticed anyways.

He narrowed his eyes, rubbed them, as the guard let Honda out. "Who's the kid?" he asked.

"A guest of the Hokage," was the reply. The guard shut the cell door behind him.

"Thought he looked familiar." Honda was stumbling a little.

Nobuhiro scowled, searching Yukio's face. His eyebrows lifted.

"Can't be…"

"No," Yuki said, softly. "Please, no."

That was when Naruto decided to show up. "Yukio, where were you?"

He shoved past Nobuhiro, parting the sea of thugs without much effort. Yukio didn't say a thing, rooted to the chair, even when Naruto knelt to eye level with him, worried expression and everything.

"What the - the hell are you doing here?" Nobuhiro said, eyes blinking from the jostling.

"Seriously, are you okay?" Naruto continued. "Where were you? You had me an' Benio-chan worried sick!"

"Hokage, what are you doing here?"

Naruto finally noticed. "Nobuhiro-san?" He stood. "I could ask the same for you, y'know."

"I'm pickin' up one of my guys, what are you doing?" Nobuhiro said. Honda stumbled back into the fray, but he wasn't given his sword back. "It's four in the damn morning."

"I'm here on personal business," Naruto said. His face hardened into something like a smile. "Nothing for you to worry about, y'know?"

"Personal business? Personal business? The hell does that even mean?"

Yuki was beginning to regret that he wasn't holding his brother's knife, in addition to his own sword.

"A friend of mine went missing, an' I'm here to pick him up, now that he's been found," Naruto said, glancing at Yukio and back. Yukio remained frozen. "We were searching for him all day yesterday and-"

Nobuhiro didn't even let him finish. "What, so you'll drop fuckin' everything for one of your own, an' you find 'em within a day, but you can't even find a single girl who's been missing for at least a month?" He reached for his sword, in its black case. "I cannot believe the disrespect I am seein' here."

"Brother, calm down, please…" Yuki said, quietly, holding onto his sleeve. "They'll find-"

"Nobuhiro-san, we have our entire staff looking for Lady Kiine, y'know? It's not like we haven't been trying!" Naruto could feel that anger radiating out of Nobuhiro, hot and dangerous. "There were only three people looking for Yukio, and they-"

"Whole staff, huh? Whole staff? Gah, it's a wonder I even thought I could even trust you," Nobuhiro said. "If three people can find some snot-nosed punk after a day then your 'whole staff' shoulda found Lady Kiine in a couple-a minutes!"

"Well, you haven't found her either, Nobuhiro-san. We're having as difficult a time as you." Naruto was made of stone, but he couldn't help himself.

"That's it." Nobuhiro had his knife in his hand and he was holding it sideways. It was a very sharp knife.

Naruto's muscles tensed.

"Stop it, Nobuhiro. Please, put down your weapon."

Yukio was standing.

"Who the—who said that?"

Yuki wanted to disappear.

"It's me, Nobu. You found me. So you can stop, now."

It was Kiine, her red hair cut short, dressed in the clothes of a commoner boy. There was cold fire in her blue eyes. "I'll say it again… Please, just… put the knife down. I don't want you to fight this man."

"L-Lady Kiine…" Nobuhiro's hand fell. The room buzzed, with words, with surprise, with worry.

Naruto didn't know what to say, or to think.

From the back, Honda slurred, "I knew you looked familiar…" He was leaning on his underling's shoulder. Nobody had given him his sword back yet.

Everything began playing out like a film, or a television show, where Naruto was just observing, where he was just a viewer.

"Lady Kiine, where in the world have you been?" Nobuhiro continued.

"Here. The Hokage's been keeping me as his guest."

"Keepin' you as a… guest? You mean you knew she was here?" Nobuhiro said, glaring at Naruto. His face turned red.

Kiine spoke before Naruto could explain, but he doubted he'd have been able to say anything. His throat felt thick. "No, Nobuhiro, he didn't. Don't blame him for any of this." Her voice sounded different; there was no playfulness in it, no light. It was dark, and unnaturally soft. "Put away your knife, please."

Nobuhiro did. Click. The men behind him tittered and buzzed and mumbled.

Naruto couldn't speak. In hindsight it was painfully obvious. Right under his nose.

"But… how, I mean, we were lookin' for you everywhere…" All of Nobuhiro's anger seemed to have disappeared, replaced by a chilling sheet of worry. "How the hell could he not have noticed you if you were staying with him?"

Naruto asked himself the very same thing.

"I was very careful. Obviously, I've been in disguise, using a false name. There was nothing to suggest that I was who I am until you started looking for me here." She gave a cold, hateful glance in Yuki's direction. "I didn't want to be found."

Naruto saw Yuki mumble something, but he did not speak.

"I'm sure that Papa's very mad at me," Kiine continued, quietly. She looked at her feet.

"Lady Kiine, he's furious. You've caused him an enormous amount of trouble." The worry sounded strange, coming out of Nobuhiro's mouth, but it was genuine.

"The Hakaza family's askin' questions, too," someone said, from the back. He was quickly and harshly told to shut up.

Naruto had a million questions, and he could have asked them, here. But the words just wouldn't come. The mysteries remained mysteries.

"…I'm sorry for all of this, Nobu." Kiine sighed, tired, defeated. "Let's just go home; I don't want this to get any more out of hand. Too much trouble's been caused already on my behalf."

She bent down, gracefully, and picked the rucksack off the ground. She turned to Naruto.

"I can't… thank you enough for your hospitality, Hokage-sama. You've treated me very well, and I apologize for any trouble my family's caused you. We'll be leaving now. Immediately." She shot a glance at Nobuhiro, who shot a glance at the rest of the men, who began to rustle and shift in anticipation. Yuki stood very still, his hands clasped together. "I promise, we won't trouble you anymore."

She spoke to him like a stranger, like a dignitary, like his daughter.

"Sure, I'm glad I could… have been of service, y'know…"

Everything just felt so wrong. A few minutes ago, this was Yukio. Hanamura Yukio. This kid still was Yukio. Right?

But… Yukio was a farmer's son. Benio's student. Naruto's friend. Yukio didn't call him Hokage-sama, he called Naruto… Naruto, he called him by his name. Just like he called Yukio by his.

"Otherwise it'd sound like I was some weird important guy, yeah?"

He couldn't imagine Kiine saying this, even though, even though…

Yukio wasn't… this cold, unfamiliar girl. The change was so sudden, and shockingly noticeable. Why didn't he see it before?

Naruto struggled for words and almost forgot that he was supposed to be the Hokage, there. "I just… don't understand why you didn't tell me who you were right off the bat, y'know…?" he said. "I mean, y'could have saved us a lot of trouble…"

She took a very long time to answer, pursing her lips, chewing on her thoughts. "…I had my reasons," she finally said, her voice sterile. "I'm sorry for lying to you about my identity." Kiine bowed, slightly. "Again, thank you for treating me so well, regardless."

But it was his duty as Hokage, he couldn't let his feelings get in the way of these things.

The Taki syndicate had found who they were looking for, had reclaimed what they had lost, and there was no reason for them to stay any longer.

He didn't want Yukio to go, but Kiine had to leave. The representatives of the syndicate had been causing so much trouble, anyways; the village had been plagued by their presence.

He wondered, again, why he hadn't noticed, why he hadn't noticed.

He managed a smile, he tried to warm it up at least a little. "It was really great having you around, though, y'know? You should… come visit again, sometime."

Kiine barely smiled back. "I… had a good time, but… I doubt we'll ever meet again. I'm sorry."

Naruto tried to tell himself that it was okay, but he just… couldn't.

He didn't want her to go. But here she was, leaving.

Kiine turned to face her father's men. "Come on, Nobu. I want to go home."

Nobuhiro put his enormous arm around her, and they began to leave the room, together.

"…thank you for your assistance," he growled, before barking at the rest of the men to pack up, get the rest of the guys, and get going.

Yuki was the last to leave, staying as far away from Kiine as possible. His mouth was drawn tight. He was rubbing his eyes as he closed the door to the guard house behind him.

A very, very long time passed.

"…send the word out that Taki Kiine's been found. I'm going home," Naruto told the guard on duty, who stood behind his desk, more than a little overwhelmed.

"Sir, I, I can't leave my post," he replied.

"Oh. Uh. I'll take care of it, then," Naruto said. He left.

The word was indeed sent out.

But Naruto didn't really go home, staying at the Hokage Manor instead.

Benio, when told, had nothing to really say about the whole ordeal. Naruto told her to get back to Haruhi, she needed her rest. He'd be fine. Reluctantly, she obeyed.

Haruhi didn't wake her up to tell her he was making breakfast, a few hours later, preferring to let her sleep. He knew how much she hated being bothered.

The drunken man in the holding cell, now sober, wandered off at sunrise without so much as a memory for his trouble, though he was nursing a horrid headache.

The woman's boyfriend came to pick her up too, apologizing, a bandage over his broken nose, his arm in a sling. "I forgive you, ya asshole," she told him, and grinned, her bruises aching with her smile. "Besides, you are never gonna believe what I saw while you were out getting stitched-up."

Nadeshiko made breakfast for Inou, and left the house as the sun was rising. Ino found it there on the kitchen counter a few hours later, when she woke up to make food for everyone else, Inou still asleep. She didn't say anything about it, heating it up and setting it out with all the rest of the food in the morning.

By 8 AM, word was starting to get around.

Inou woke up late, panicked and feverish, and his mother insisted after he came downstairs, half-dressed and delirious, that he sleep in and take a break from training for the day, no matter what he or Sasuke had to say on the matter.

He tried not to sleep, but he couldn't help himself.

By noon, practically everyone knew about Kiine.

Hanamura Yukio, that red-haired boy? You know, the one they all thought was the Hokage's son? Yeah, were they ever wrong about that. Not only a girl, disguised as a boy, but a crime family princess at that! You know, that Taki Kiine that everyone was saying to look out for.

Boy, if that wasn't sensational.

Sakura's thoughts on the matter? "Freaking figures."

She heard the whole story from an intern when she started her shift at the hospital, in the early morning.

"Freaking. Figures," she said again. And Sasuke had said it had all been a coincidence.

He came to revel in his victory, later that afternoon. "Blood tests come in yet?" he said, almost casually. He'd caught her at her table in the hospital cafeteria at lunch.

Sakura wanted to punch him.

"No, not yet," she said, instead. She was dissecting the bento lunch Kenji had made for her with an almost murderous intent. The octopus-weenies didn't even stand a chance.

"I told you it was just a coincidence."

Sakura wanted to punch him hard.

"I know you told me that," she said, and glared at him. He was smiling, slightly. "What, happy you were right?"

"No, just amused to see you still believe in rumors like this. You should see the look on your face."

Sakura wanted to punch Sasuke halfway across the city.

"Don't you have anything better to do?" she said.

"Not terribly. I told my students to go find themselves some lunch. We're meeting up later."

"Then you'd best get back to them, hmm?" She gave him a sarcastic smile.

"Guess I will. And anyways, you know what they say. Fool me once…"

She rolled her eyes. "Just go already."

So he did.

She sighed deeply, eyes returning to the bento, long since destroyed. There was a sort of ache in her chest, something like guilt or worry.

Ino was a much stronger woman than she was, if she could put up with that every day.

…even with Sasuke out of the house so much, Sakura still worried. So, so much.

Kenji found her in the late afternoon, poking his head into the clinic, where she was checking the breathing of a four year old who was probably just coming down with a slight cold, but it was still worth making sure about. "Hey, Mom?"

She looked over her shoulder. "Ah, Kenji. I'm a little busy right now, can it wait?"

"Yeah, it can wait. I'll just be outside. It's something you probably wanna see soon, though. 'Kay?"

Sakura's eyebrows shifted higher, lower. "Sure, I'll be right out, as soon as I'm finished here."

The child she was examining couldn't stop staring at Kenji, eyes wide, mouth hanging slightly open.

…well, considering Kenji, who wouldn't? The boy was only eighteen, but he was nearly seven feet tall - where in the world had that come from? - and he always had to duck when he came through a door-frame. He had a face made of sharp, intimidating angles, and a mouth full of very white teeth.

Inside, however, he was all fluff and sunshine, and his black eyes, much like his father's, were warm. He smiled at the child and waved his hand at him. "My mom's gonna take good care of you! There's nothing to worry about, little guy."

The child giggled, and sniffled a little bit. Kenji left, and Sakura continued the examination. It was just a slight cold, as suspected.

"So what is it you needed to show me, Kenji?" she asked, after seeing the mother and son off with some good advice and a reassuring smile. She closed the door to the examination room behind her.

"Well, those blood tests you ordered a few days ago finally came back," he said. He was holding a manila folder, and Sakura must have made a face because he immediately added, "I know, I know, I heard the whole story, but Suiko-chan at the labs said you'll still want to take a look at these."

"Why's that?"

"Just... look at them, she said."

So Sakura did.

She asked Kenji, after the initial reading, "Are you sure this is the right report?"

"Absolutely." Kenji stood very patiently, holding his elbows with his hands.

She read over the results again, not sure if she should smile or wrinkle her forehead in more confusion.

"…Kenji, did you read this?"

Kenji shrugged. "Only sorta. I'm not that interested in these things, Mom."

"Of course, of course." Her voice was distant, her mind already processing the raw data, coming to conclusions.

Then, suddenly, it hit her.

She decided that maybe it was more worth it to smile.

"…can you go tell someone that I'll be heading off for a little bit?" She closed the folder.

"'Course, Mom. Why's that, though?"

"I think Naruto is really going to want to see these."

Coincidence her ass.

She was going to punch Sasuke to the moon.

But she had to talk to Naruto first.