Target
Ch. 9- Biology 101
A/N: A huge fucking thanks to all those who gave my new fic a look. 3 It's quickly becoming my pride and joy as I write it :D. But now you're reading this one, so read on.
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto and TV Tokyo.
xXx Beta'd with tough love by: Jhalamae xXx
"So where's Sasuke?"
Naruto immediately asked upon entering in the room. He had expected for the raven to be with them but besides them, the room was empty. A large Persian rug decorated the floor, the white spider web like pattern matching the color of the drapes in the room. Two tall windows were on the wall to his right, open slightly to allow air in. Gentle breezes wafted in, ruffling the wispy drapes. A large flat screen TV hung on the wall between the windows, with an abundance of DVDs and CDs on a shelf underneath. The remains of a few candy bars and a bottle of whiskey sat on a thin coffee table in the middle of the sofa cluster. Empty glasses surrounded the bottle, leaving watery imprints on the wood.
Across from where he was standing, there was another door. It blended almost perfectly in the wall, hiding in plain sight. It was just slightly cracked open. He could almost-
"Resting." Suigetsu cut in, drawing Naruto's attention. He gestured at the longer sofa, wanting the blond to sit down. Juugo took a seat in the opposite couch, his eyes straying to the mystery door. A cat appeared out of nowhere and rubbed its head on Juugo's leg, purring as the redhead reached down and began to stroke its fur.
Naruto followed obligingly and wryly watched Suigetsu's eyes followed his every movement. He got the feeling the man didn't really like him. Turning his gaze to Juugo, he noticed the man watching him curiously, but he felt no ill intent from the redhead. He looked down at the cat, waiting for someone to begin talking.
Suigetsu grabbed his drink off the table. Swirling the ice around, he poured more whiskey in. He took his time, allowing for the atmosphere of the room to become heavy and tense as he sipped.
As Naruto waited for the interrogation to begin, he tried to recall the majority of the overheard conversation to see if he could guess what they knew. They didn't know why the Akatsuki was after him, but they knew that Sasuke had a history with them. He would have to play it safe and play dumb for some parts, hoping Sasuke hadn't told them anything. He was sick of being in the dark and it was time he took the initiative. What did he have to lose?
"So you gonna introduce yourself or what?"
Startled, Naruto looked up at the white-haired man. "I-uh, I'm Naruto."
"Naruto…?"
"Uzumaki."
"Where you from?"
"A city a while from here." Naruto answered cautiously.
"How did Sasuke get hurt?" Suigetsu began, tackling the simple questions first.
Naruto collected his thoughts before answering. "He was out doing a hit and he was ambushed. I got him out and we came here." He explained simply.
"And how did you get him out?"
"Kakashi called and to tell him it was a trap, but Sasuke didn't have his phone with him. I went to tell him and helped him get out once I found him." Naruto twitched, staring at the ground. He could feel the other's penetrating gaze on him, but refused to meet their eyes. He mentally followed the path on the carpet, liking the swirls and intricate design.
"Why is Sasuke keeping you with him?" Suigetsu questioned, changing tactics. "What is the connection between you and the Akatsuki?"
Naruto licked his lips. Moment of truth. "I hired him to protect me from the Akatsuki. They want to kill me and nobody knows why." Hiding the Akatsuki's demand of the key, Naruto glanced up to see Suigetsu staring out one of the windows. "I'm not a member." He shoved in, recalling that they suspected him.
Juugo kept silent, still petting the cat that was now in his lap. He kept his piercing gaze on Naruto, making the blond squirm.
"You hired him? Sasuke's services aren't cheap." Juugo commented, knowing that it would be strange for an ordinary person to have such a large sum of money lying around.
The blond fidgeted. "I have enough..." He mumbled, recalling how he had to convince Sasuke to protect him. "It's an inheritance." He admitted.
"Hmm." Suigetsu hummed. "From who? You're parents?"
Naruto winced. "Yea…"
"Who were you parents? Old money? They just have enough to pass along?"
"No. I don't know who my parents are. I never have."
Deciding to steer the conversation away from the touchy topic, Suigetsu tried a new tactic. "So Sasuke's using you to get to the Akatsuki?" He supplied, trying to urge Naruto into revealing more. He turned to the blond and neared the sofa, drink in hand.
"Basically. He's using me to get revenge, as you know." Naruto hedged, feeling every muscle on his body tense as he talked himself into unknown territory. "I stay safe, he gets what he wants. It's a win-win situation." He tried to appear casual, leaning back and showing relaxed body language. He needed to give off the image that he knew more and wasn't willing to reveal it.
"Sasuke's told you?" Suigetsu asked, surprised. Eying the blond, he tried to size him up. He didn't fully believe the man, but Sasuke was an enigma. It would be nothing short of a miracle to even get him to say what the weather was.
Naruto nodded, resisting the urge to tap his foot. "Yea, everything. Even the thing with Itachi." He lied smoothly, hoping to hide his nervousness.
"He did…did he?" Juugo asked rhetorically, still keeping his eyes on Naruto, making the blond feel as if he could see through his façade. "Strange."
"D-didn't he tell you guys? It was a pretty rough conversation."
"And what did he tell you?"
Naruto blanked for a second before shaking his head. "I'm not at liberty to say." He continued, forcing himself to be nonchalant. "But if you want, I can tell you if you're right or wrong about something." Please God, don't let this backfire in my face…
Suigetsu grinned, falling for the façade. He always wanted to know what really happened to Sasuke. He wasn't about the pass up the chance to get the dirt on the raven.
"Is it true that Sasuke has no family left due to some shit that went down with the Akatsuki?" Suigetsu shot off.
"You're right." Naruto nodded his head convincingly. "They're gone. No one is left. Not one. Dead." He then shut his mouth tightly to keep from rambling.
"Damn. I figured it was something like that." The white haired man whistled. "And what about eye thing? Is that real? Or was Sasuke making shit up?" Suigetsu inquired eagerly, caught up in the gossip.
"T-The eye thing? Oh, that um.." Naruto stuttered, completely at a loss. Grasping at straws, he guessed. "Ye…No! Erm, no it wasn't."
The man looked disappointed, his face falling slightly. "I was kinda hoping it was true. It'd make a helluva good campfire story to tell."
"But since I told you, now you have to answer some of my questions. Fair's fair." Naruto carefully began, not wanting to arouse suspicion.
Both Suigetsu and Juugo gave him weird looks, causing him to panic internally. Did he go out of line?
"But don't you claim to know everything?" Juugo asked quietly, his piercing gaze making Naruto sweat bullets. "What would we know that you don't?"
"Oh, I just wanted to see if what you knew was correct." Naruto answered weakly, letting loose a feeble laugh.
Much to his relief, Suigetsu laughed boisterously. "Fair's fair." He agreed easily, seemingly loosing that tense attitude he had earlier. "What I know is that Sasuke's fucking nuts. The guy's just a sociopathic psycho."
Naruto almost rolled his eyes. Despite the fear of getting caught in a web of lies, he just wanted to know what the hell happened to Sasuke when he was younger.
"I mean, what do you guys know about him? What's happened between his family and the Akatsuki-?"
"None of your fucking business."
The entire room seemed to freeze as a familiar baritone voice hissed out. Simultaneously, three heads twisted to look at a fourth that was emerging from the room to the side. A pale and clammy looking Sasuke glared at the inhabitants of the room angrily, his eyes burning with a silent promise of death. A tense and white knuckled hand was clutching the door frame tightly.
"This conversation is over." He seethed, breathing oddly. A sheen of sweat was present on his forehead, giving the raven a sickly and ethereal look.
Suigetsu shot up off the couch, walking towards the pissed man but stopped few feet away from him. "Sasuke you shouldn't be up yet. Temari said the medication would-"
"Fuck what she said." Sasuke cut the white-haired man off sharply, silencing his protest with a lethal scowl. "And Juggo," He began, turning to the redhead who silently rose as his name was mentioned. "I'm leaving in the morning. Get it ready."
Juugo nodded, leaving the room with the cat right behind him. Suigetsu sighed and turned to leave the room, turning back to address the raven one more time. "Your stuff's upstairs, in your room." Then he departed, leaving Naruto in the room with the raven emanating a dark aura.
Naruto swallowed heavily, fearing that he had screwed up monumentally and that the raven was furious with him. He avoided looking at Sasuke, keeping his eyes on his hands in his lap that were shaking slightly. He flinched when he saw a pair of feet and legs pop into his peripherals. Sasuke was standing next to him.
"My past is none of your business. Keep goddamn your nose out of it."
Turning away from the unmoving blond, Sasuke made his way out the room and down the hall, heading into the kitchen. His body felt oddly numb and loose. He didn't like it. It's probably an effect of whatever the fuck Temari pumped into me… Sasuke thought with a scowl as he grabbed a water bottle from the fridge. He heard a chair scrape across the floor and turned to see Juugo sitting down at the round table in the dining room. Shutting the fridge door, he turned to the redhead, leaning on the tall machine.
"He didn't tell us anything, in case you wanted to know." Juggo began conversationally, turning to inspect Sasuke. "He doesn't know anything anyway." He had known Naruto was lying the moment he began to talk.
"I couldn't care less." Sasuke answered curtly, taking a swig of water. "It doesn't matter what he knows or doesn't know. It's not like he can do anything about it. What I've done and what's been done to me; nothing can change, and nothing will change."
Juugo quietly noticed that Sasuke was more talkative than usual. An effect of the drugs? Or something else? He caught on to the slight darkening of Sasuke's tone as he talked, recognizing it.
"What do you mean by what you've done? Sasuke, we've told you, it wasn't y-"
"I'm going upstairs." Sasuke ignored Juugo's question and walking out of the kitchen. It was now night outside and he wanted to sleep off the rest of the meds to regain his full consciousness. As soon as he left, Naruto walked into the kitchen, eyeing the raven carefully and avoiding his gaze.
Spotting Juugo, he stopped and stood there awkwardly, not knowing what to say. Juugo smiled at the blond.
"You know, I'd figure he'd be more mad at you. Then again, Sasuke has never been one to care what others think of him."
Naruto shrugged, not knowing what to say. "So, where am I supposed to sleep? Sasuke said he was going to sleep, and I guess that the others have gone too…" Naruto trailed off, making vague hand gestures.
Juugo cocked his head. "We don't have any spare rooms. You're going to have to stay with Sasuke in his. I'd offer mine, but I already have a couple roommates." Juggo looked down at the cat around his feet which Naruto realized was completely different from the other before. Its yellow eyes stared up from a black face, purring.
Naruto looked pleadingly at the man. "Maybe I can sleep on the couch, or the floor, or even-"
"I don't want your ass all on my couch, Suigetsu wets his bed, and there's only room enough in mine for one vagina so I'd make your peace with God and see if Sasuke is feeling friendly." A snarky female voice called out. Naruto recognized it felt hopeless.
"Oi bitch, I don't wet my bed! It's a waterbed, it leaks a bit!" He heard Suigetsu call out angrily.
"Stay with Sasuke? In his room?" Naruto paled, turning back to Juugo. The raven's earlier response had left him nervous. He had pried and now was on unsteady terms with Sasuke. The man had every right to be mad at him.
"It's the only one. I'm sure Sasuke won't mind too much." Juugo grinned warmly. "Besides, the medication he took is enough to make even him docile for a while." He then glanced down at the feline around his leg. "Hungry again?" Waving bye to Naruto, he took his cat and walked away. His voice got softer and softer the further he walked.
Alone in the kitchen, Naruto rubbed the back of his head nervously. I shouldn't have done that and now I have to go back and talk to him. I might as well be writing a death warrant… Gathering his resolve, Naruto slowly walked out of the kitchen and headed for the stairs. Reaching them, he ascended just as slowly, wanting to prolong the time that he didn't have to face Sasuke. The wooden stairs creaked under his feet, irritating him.
Finding his way back to the room, he knocked a couple of times shyly. "Hey Sasuke?" He called out uneasily. Hearing no response, he tried again. Silence.
Licking his lips nervously, he grabbed the door knob and twisted it, opening the door. The door swung open soundlessly. The room was dark, with pale moon light streaming through the door. Squinting, Naruto could see a figure on the bed. Rubbing the back of his neck, Naruto shut the door behind him before turning to address the raven.
"Sasuke?
He waited hear and answer, preparing himself for a variety of responses. Silence. Getting a tad bit annoyed, he moved closer to the bed. "Sasuke, you awake?"
Sasuke's steady breathing was his own response. As he moved forward, his eyes adjusted and he looked at the bed. The raven was lying on one side of the mattress, half in and half out of the sheets that were twisted around. He was wearing a thin gray T-shirt and black sleep pants. Sasuke's back was to Naruto. He's asleep. Naruto deduced. Grateful for Sasuke's unconscious state, he looked around the room, searching for a place to sleep. Back in the hotel, he had slept in the armchair, but he found no similar furniture in the small room.
Gazing at the bed nervously, Naruto debated with himself, playing with the hem of his shirt. He didn't want to sleep on the bed with Sasuke but he also didn't want to sleep on the floor. He wasn't some animal being punished; he had a right to sleep in the bed! Determined, Naruto stripped off his pants quietly and slid into the bed, as far away from Sasuke as possible. Tugging the sheets slowly to avoid waking the raven, Naruto squirmed around, trying to get comfortable. After adjusting his position several times, he finally drifted off.
Sasuke's obsidian eyes cracked open, sliding over to where the blond was. Naruto had snuck into his bed. Feeling oddly indifferent, Sasuke ignored the man's presence, too tired to argue. He'd deal with the little shit in the morning.
xXx
"Naruto!"
Jolting awake, Naruto's azure eyes shot wide open. He was breathing in quick and painful gasps, his chest constricting with each inhale and exhale. Blackness met his gaze causing him to feel claustrophobic as his breath hitched in his chest. He felt horrible, his whole body shaking, unable to control the tremors. Cold sweat dotted his forehead, making the air feel frigid. A feeling of terror inundated him.
I killed him. I'm a murderer. I killed that man….for what? This isn't me, how could I do that?! What kind of monster am I?
He hadn't seen the man's face, but could image what they looked like and how they stared at him accusingly. The taste of bile arouse in the back of his mouth causing him to gag.
Feeling sick with himself, Naruto latched on to the thing closest to him and buried his face in it. The material rubbed his cheeks abrasively as he shook with revulsion. His heart thudded rapidly in his chest, and his pulse roar in his ears.
"Oi, Uzumaki, snap out of it."
Sasuke had irritably woken up to strange noises only to discover that they had been coming from the blond behind him. Naruto had drifted closer during the night and was now right behind Sasuke who hadn't budged an inch. He froze when he felt Naruto's hands latch onto his shirt and felt the smaller man's face bury itself into his back. He jerked at the cold touch, feeling a sharp shock spread down his spine.
Alarm bells went off in his head as his eyes widened in surprise. He didn't like people being so close to him or touching him. He felt the wet of something soak into his shirt. Disturbed, he grimaced. Still moving sluggishly thanks to the drugs he'd taken, Sasuke moved to get out of the bed quickly and away from the blond when Naruto's pleading voice and tight grip on his shirt stopped him.
"No, Sasuke, please…just, just….g-give me a minute… I promise I'll stop.. I'm sorry.." Naruto's voice cracked, "I'm sorry, so so sorry… I didn't mean….I'm sorry"
Immediately, Sasuke understood what had happened. The idiot had had a nightmare about what had happened earlier. Tired, Sasuke wanted to reprimand him and tell him to shut the hell up, but something kept him from lashing out at the broken blond.
Gritting his teeth, he sank back down, allowing Naruto the comfort of his presence. Confused about his own reaction, he tried to regain a sense of normalcy and bring up his irritation from earlier. "What, you have a bad dream? You want me to call your mother?" He sneered, hoping to get the blond off of him with his crude behavior.
Naruto kept uncharacteristically silent, his body still shaking. Unable to see him, Sasuke felt the trembling from his hands on his back. Extremely uncomfortable with the blond's proximity and his unstable state, Sasuke resigned himself, fighting off his own drowsiness. "Just get it over with and go the fuck to sleep." He sighed, losing the sharp edge his voice had earlier. He settled down, trying to inch away from Naruto who kept an iron grip on his shirt and moved closer.
It was a while until Naruto spoke up, having slowed down his silent sniffling and trembling. "How can it be so easy for you? How can you just…kill and be done with it?" His usually brash voice was dulled, sounding hollow. "How do you get over it?"
"You don't."
Once he felt he had a better control of his emotions, Naruto finally let go of Sasuke's shirt, not embarrassed in the least. The dark of the room hid his face, allowing Naruto feel safer. The blond's ragged breathing calmed down and he relaxed, feeling drained. He had needed catharsis and was grateful for Sasuke's presence. "I, uh, sorry about your shirt." The smaller man's voice was hoarse and throaty.
"Are you normally this much of a crybaby?" Sasuke criticized harshly, hoping another crying fit wasn't in order. He hated having his personal space invaded.
Naruto shrugged off the comment, turning his back to the other man. He curled into himself, staring off into the distance. "I've always had pretty vivid nightmares. I've just…never this."
Sasuke kept silent, knowing Naruto wasn't done. Ignoring the fact that he knew exactly what he was feeling and going through, Sasuke stared off into the darkness of the room, trying to force himself back to sleep with the help of the medication.
Naruto felt a little more confident as he was hidden from Sasuke's obsidian gaze. "I never remember what I dream about, just that I'm terrified of something catching me. This time, I remember. I was being chased by Kakuzu and a bunch of other guys that I couldn't see. They cornered me in an alley and you weren't there. They took down their hoods and all of them had the same faces and the same wound. The same way I shot that man. They…they all looked at me, accusing me… I didn't mean…" Naruto stopped, the fear and guilt gripping him again.
"Then blame me."
Startled by Sasuke's abrupt comment after hearing nothing from him for a while, Naruto was confused. "What?"
Sasuke rolled his eyes and gritted his teeth. "Blame me. It was my fault you killed that man. Place the guilt on me. If you can't, then fucking deal with it and shut the fuck up. I'm trying to sleep."
Naruto turned and stared into the other side of the bed where he knew Sasuke was. Sasuke's comment drew him out of his pessimistic thoughts. He felt oddly touched by Sasuke's attempt to get him to calm down, but knew it was his burden to bear. He recalled what he overheard about Sasuke's family. He's had enough of that, he doesn't need me adding to his pile.
"Sasuke, I-"
"Trying to go to fucking sleep." Sasuke growled, cutting off the blond before he could make some stupid comment about being grateful. All he wanted to do was sleep, what part of that couldn't the idiotic blond get?
With a tiny smile on his face, Naruto tiredly drifted back to sleep, unknowingly latching on to Sasuke's shirt again.
xXx
"Naruto, Sasuke sent me to tell you to, quote unquote, 'get the fuck out of bed and get your ass downstairs. We're leaving.'"
Tensing at the unfamiliar voice, Naruto woke up underneath a mass of comforter. Groggy, he shoved it off and searched for the owner of the voice. Blinking rapidly, he recognized Juugo. Yawning, he rubbed his eyes and moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "…Leaving?" He mumbled. "Where?" He yawned again, his eyes watering slightly.
Juugo shrugged. "He won't say. In any case, you might want to hurry up. He's getting impatient."
Naruto nodded, quickly putting on his clothes and shoes. A bit more comfortable around the others, he jogged downstairs, noticing that Temari was not around, and neither was Suigetsu once he reached the ground floor.
"Hey, where'd the girl go?" Naruto asked Juugo, who came down the stairs right behind him.
"She's at her boyfriend's, Shikamaru, house. She left yesterday, so she's not gonna be back for a while."
Naruto was answered by Suigetsu who came out of one of the bathrooms on the ground floor. The white haired man nodded in greeting before slipping into the kitchen. Grabbing an apple, he bit into it loudly, following Naruto towards the front of the house.
Sasuke was standing outside, placing a bag into the trunk of the car he was standing behind. He slammed the trunk shut, looking up at the house. Seeing Naruto already up, he walked over to the driver's seat, getting in quickly.
Naruto turned to the two other males standing behind him. "Uh, bye." He said awkwardly. Juugo nodded at him and Suigetsu gave him a light wave. "Keep an eye on him. Don't let him do stupid shit." The man called out, nodding towards Sasuke.
Naruto gave him a wide, plastic smile, knowing he couldn't stop Sasuke if he wanted to. He had tried, and had learned his lesson.
Once he joined Sasuke in the car, he noticed it was different. Wanting to break the strange atmosphere surrounding Sasuke, Naruto patted the car door. "This a different car?"
"No, it isn't." Sasuke replied, sarcasm dripping off his words like acid. His normally pale face looked a little paler, with dark circles under his obsidian eyes. Reaching into the side pocket of the car, he drew out a cigarette from a pack, tapping the bottom until a stick popped out. Sticking it into this mouth, he lit the end, inhaling deeply as he shoved the key into the ignition and started the car. Not even glancing at the house, he took off, moving through the streets quickly and entering a highway.
Feeling that talking about last night was taboo, Naruto listened to the radio quietly. He wrinkled his nose as Sasuke would inhale and exhale, blowing out bunches of smoke into the car's cabin. While he didn't mind the smell, the acrid smoke irritated his nose.
xXx
Iruka walked down the hallway, glancing occasionally into the rooms he was passing. He came to as set of double doors marked :Laboratory Sector: Authorized Personnel Only. Pulling out a key card he had been handed earlier, he swiped it on the door mechanism, opening it when the light shone green. With a loud beep and rush of air, the heavy metal swung open and he found himself in a small lobby like area.
Walking up to what he presumed was the front desk, Iruka went to hit the small bell that adorned the counter. Before he could touch it, a voice called out to him.
"Commander Umino, this way!"
Turning 180 degrees, he spotted a familiar face peeking out from a door behind him. Sakura waved, beckoning him forward. She had been let go a couple days ago and was now working to figure out what was it that she and Ino had discovered before the body was taken.
"Good morning Sakura." He greeted her politely. He tipped his hat respectfully.
"Enough with the formalities. We both know why you're here." She grimaced, a dark look on her face.
Iruka nodded. When she'd called him earlier, he could hardly believe what she had been saying. But mentioning that she now had proof, he knew he had to see. Entering a small room that was in the main hallway, he removed his hat and his outer jacket, donning on specialized scrubs. Sakura waited almost impatiently.
"You mentioned you have proof?" The commander asked, slipping on a mask around his face, wrestling with his ponytail.
"Y-yes. Before, we hadn't checked well enough, but there is a section of the table that I use that leads underneath the floor. It's especially designed to deal with body fluids and other liquids that may result from an autopsy. When the incident happened, we originally assumed that all had been taken."
Iruka nodded along, knowing what she was saying was true. Exiting the small room, she led him down to yet another room, this one appearing to be an expensive laboratory. Shiny equipment stared at him, glinting in the light. A sharp, chemical smell invaded his nose, stinging slightly.
"I was cleaning the netted gate that catches anything that falls, and I found what I needed. When I cut into the body, black liquid came out." She held up a hand. "I know, I know. But when I cut into it, some of it landed on my guard mask. I had taken it off the moment it touched on me, and fell into the tray." She grinned. "The space was big enough that the guard fell through and was caught. Once retrieved, I noticed the black goo was still on there."
Iruka felt a chill run down his spine. If she could prove what she had seen, then that gave substance to her earlier statements. That would mean that they were dealing with something not human. Shoving away his thoughts Iruka nodded.
"And what was it?"
Sakura stopped walking. "That's the thing. I borrowed my mentor's lab to run tests, and I can't figure out what this is. I've never seen anything like it." She shivered, trying hard to maintain a professional attitude.
"Tell me what you do know."
"For starters, it doesn't die. Naturally, anyway."
"What?" Iruka cut in sharply. "Clarify, please."
Sakura took a deep breath. "Normally, cells have a limit to how much they can divide, how many mitotic divisions it can go through before it dies, whether by apoptosis or necrosis. At the end of each chromosome, there's this little piece that knows as the telomere. The telomere keeps the DNA on the chromosomes safe to prevent mutations. This shortens after every mitotic division until the cell dies or it reaches the DNA." Her hands vaguely waved in the air as she talked. "These cells however, have no telomeres, but the chromosomes are left intact. They have been growing since this morning and I've had to get rid of multiple cultures due to overcrowding. Their lysosomes haven't opened to release the acid to kill the cell naturally. "
"Like cancer?" Iruka asked quietly, rubbing his chin.
"Exactly. Cancer is caused by growth factors known as oncogenes. These cells have something similar, yet no mutations outside what is already present are occurring. Each sample is identical, down to the centromeres on the chromosomes. I dissected several of the cells to look into the structures and organelles to see what was so different and found that they have an abnormal amount of mitochondrion, and do not have the cyclin signaling proteins that stop cell division. It's either missing or wasn't there to begin with. The enzyme that specializes in cell death, caspase, is also not present."
She pointed towards a microscope, indicating that Iruka should take a look. Iruka complied, bending down to gaze through the lens. In the petri dish, he saw little bubbles crowding each other, seemingly shivering. He recognized the cells from taking Biology classes when he was younger.
"That petri dish has been out for around half an hour, and it's still growing strong." Sakura said quietly. "Now, when I first told you that the substance had somehow regenerated the cuts I did and the ones he already had, I meant it." Striding over to a table with her heels clicking loudly behind her, she removed a set of blown up pictures. Walking back, she showed to the commander. "I took these earlier today. My mentor, Shizune, had several frozen pieces of tissue from various dissections she was doing and let me use some for a biopsy." She held up one picture. "This one I took pre-biopsy." She held up another. "And this one was taken post.
Iruka grabbed the two pictures, staring at them with a shocked look on his face. In the first photo, he saw the thin frozen sample of tissue. In the other one, a very pink and alive chunk of cells looked back at him, dotted with black spots.
"I took a tiny amount of the black substance and placed it on the dish. Within seconds, it attached itself to the dead cells and revitalized them. Cell proliferation began and the daughter cells differentiated, morphing into an exact replica of the cells, only black. I've yet to isolate the factor what causes it to be black, but my best guess would be some sort of protein in the lipid bilayer of the membranes."
She sat on the edge of one of the stainless steel tables, her white lab coat brushing open. "They're not even attached to a matrix, they're just growing off each other like parasites."
Iruka managed to find his voice. "You mentioned something about killing them?" He set the photos down, trying to absorb all the new information.
Sakura nodded slowly. "Like I said, they just keep growing and growing. I had to terminate them manually to keep them from contaminating other dishes. And they don't even have a specific cell design; the closest example I can give you are stem cells." She licked her lips nervously and brushed pink strands out of her face. "Once they were integrated with the tissue sample, I tried to separate them, but the moment I made and incision, the black substance covered the slice and basically filled it up with more cells of its own. It's nearly completely taken over the first sample."
"Sakura, besides me, you, and Ino, who knows that you're in possession of this knowledge?" Iruka turned to face her, his own visage serious and a little pale.
Sakura's green eyes narrowed. "I know you think I'm not trustworthy, and that I'm some sort of double agent, but I swear, I haven't told anyone, not even Shizune." She snorted. "It's not like they'd even believe me, despite having proof now."
Iruka nodded, not denying his suspicions. "I ask not only for your safety, but for any other people who might have had a hand in this. If word of this gets out, and I have no doubt it will, the Akatsuki are bound to come back and finish what they started."
Sakura nodded gravely.
"Relay it to Ino and remember, it might save your life."
Leaving the rosette with the heavy truth, Iruka removed the materials he had donned and placed them back in the room he got them from. Walking alone in the maze like building, he brought out his cell phone. He dialed a familiar number, putting the phone up to his ear.
"Kakashi? Yea, I'm leaving now. We have some serious shit going on. I'll meet you at the office in a bit; I have a few more things to do. Oh, bring some coffee and I hope you remember your general biology lessons."
A/N: This took a while, I know. I had a buncha shit going on, but now I'm back on track and ready to get the ball rollin', haha. Ch. 10 is being written immediately to avoid this problem in the future. Reviews are lifelines.