Here's Chapter 7! Enjoy!

Chapter 7: An Unwanted Mission (Part 4)

For rookies like these guys, they were good in covering their tracks; they were lucky I wasn't the Sensory Type ninja. Despite that, I was able to locate them and Kabuto in which they were in another clearing a few miles away from the previous clearing. I slowly walked into the clearing as they all eyed me hardly as well as I did vice versa. I was mostly eyeing at Kabuto's current state in front of me, which doesn't look good. His body remained with burns and scratches from that Lightning Style jutsu he received and I could from where I was that his body was also covered in deep kunai wounds. His blood pumped heavily out of his wounds as it created a puddle around him; him soaking on his own blood was a dangerous sign that he wasn't gonna make it in this state. I took into note that it had been a few hours since the moment the Leaf kidnapped Kabuto, meaning there was a chance that he could've caught a dangerous infection possibly with all of those opened wounds. I knew Kabuto's immune system was above average, but even something like this could cause some serious effects.

For some reason, seeing Kabuto like this built rage and adrenaline within my chest.

I showed my displeasure of the way they treated someone like this as I received a scoff from the damn captain.

"So, did you finally make a decision yet?" The captain questioned smugly as he positioned his sword near Kabuto's neck. "Remember, it determines whether he'll live or die."

I clenched my teeth tightly, containing my anger. Once I relaxed, I took a deep breath in then out.

"I surrender." I simply answered, earning sighs of awe from his comrades. "I'll go back to the Leaf willingly."

"Smart move, little girl." The captain grinned cockily, slightly dropped his sword.

"On one condition." I added solidly, then earning gasps of shock.

"What do you mean 'on one condition'?" He repeatedly irritably.

"You let me have Kabuto first so I can heal him." I clarified calmly, ignoring his annoyance towards me.

He tsked at my wish. "Forget it! That wasn't part of the deal!" He snapped impatiently.

"But it wasn't specified." I pointed out simply. "Knowing you guys, you probably had one of your comrades turn into Kabuto to trick me and cause a diversion to knock me out then take me back to the Leaf in that state."

The captain remained quiet as I continued. "And even if that over there is Kabuto, his body is exposed to contract dangerous infections and such, since you heartless jerks never batted an eye on his health. It's only fair that I treat my companion."

I could see the rage and annoyance on his face as he clenched his fists. The reason for this had nothing to do with me because he was the only one at fault for putting everyone in this situation; if he had just treat Kabuto's wounds, this would've been done a lot sooner. Unfortunately that couldn't be helped right now. Finally, the captain huffed loudly and nodded in defeat.

"Alright fine, you can treat your friend." He agreed hesitantly, then threw a glare at me. "But not completely. We don't want him disturbing our duties."

I had a blank expression on my face when he interjected that one detail. "Fine, whatever. Just let me see him over there." I repeated impatiently.

He nodded and moved aside to let me pass by him. As I kneeled down in front of my partner, the Leaf team stood around the both of us for caution. It wasn't helping at all; it made me feel I was in a stuffy room and I was the type of person who liked personal space. I glared up at the captain to give him the hint that I felt uncomfortable in which he of course shrugged it off and dismissed my glare; for Leaf ninja, they were total jerks at the very least. I started using my medical ninjutsu to examine Kabuto's condition, and I could feel all of their eyes on me as they watched my every movement. My anxiety grew higher and higher as seconds then minutes went by.

I would say it was minute ten when the captain lost his patience and snapped.

"Why are you taking so long!? We don't have all day!" He spat exasperatedly as his body was towering over me.

"Then just take a nap to pass time." I commented lowly, mostly to myself but apparently some of them overheard me.

"What do you mean by that?" The captain questioned suspiciously, examining my movements carefully.

I glanced up at his squad that were standing over me with my Sharingan already activated as I gazed at them, receiving gasps of shock and confusion.

"Just what are you—?" He was immediately cut off by his appalled facial expression.

His comrades realized this and moved their attention towards their leader.

"Sir, are you okay? What's the matter?" One of the chunin asked concernedly, receiving no answer from him.

"What the hell? Why isn't he answering?" The second chunin asked in fear, getting more nervous by the second.

I noticed that one of the other chunin were glaring down at me, in which I couldn't care less.

"You! What the hell did you do?" He seethed in question, wanting an answer from me.

So I graciously gave him an answer.

"It's his fault for not knowing when to shut up." I answered smugly, raising even more suspicion within their team.

Then, they all mocked the same reaction as their captain had. The next thing I knew, I was around a group of human-fleshed statues. Idiots, they remembered my honorable talents in medical ninjutsu, but they forgot that I was also an expert in genjutsu. They should've known easily since Itachi Uchiha was my mentor/trainer, and they had to learn that the hard way. I shook my head in fake disappointment and made a hand sign as I focused my chakra. I activated my chakra scalpel once again and easily brought down the group of Leaf shinobi, resulting in me sitting in a pool of unconscious bodies and blood.

I then took Kabuto's still body and removed all of the sealed bounds that restricted his movement. Once I removed the sealed tag covering his mouth, I held him close in my arms as I gazed at his unconscious face. A bit of weight was lifted off my shoulders when I noted he wasn't in so much pain. I also noted that he wasn't wearing his glasses and I immediately looked around for it until my eyes landed on a pair of glasses which were laying on the ground near one of the chunin; they had probably confiscated it just in case Kabuto tried to escape. I carefully reached over to grab the glasses as I still held Kabuto. I put them in my weapon pouch for safe keeping and then used my strength to get on my feet while still holding my partner.

I wasn't going to lie, he wasn't light at all and I wasn't implying he was fat because he wasn't at all. Possibly because he had a lot of muscle? That thought made me slightly blush and somehow made it easier for me to carrying him. I then jumped on a high tree branch and briefly glanced over at my deceased enemy with no emotion whatsoever. Turning away and holding Kabuto in bridal style— which was sort of ironic –and swiftly moved through the branches as I reminded myself that we still had a mission that was yet to be completed.

However my main concern was Kabuto's health.

I was sitting comfortably on my knees as an injured Kabuto laid still in front of me on a sleeping mat within our tent. Luckily, I was able to mimic the hand signs to summon our tent from that scroll I had seen Kabuto using. I had my medical bag sitting right beside me for his treatment I was about to perform. Just before I was about to begin healing him, I had to remove his shirt since his injuries were too great and it involved full examination and treatment. With that in mind, I took out a kunai knife and slowly cut through his upper clothing until I was able to slip his shirt from him without causing more damage. When I took a good look at his wounds, my mind decided it wanted to focus on something else.

Even with the deep wounds, cuts, and burns on his torso which was covered in blood, I could still distinctly see his toned, tanned, masculine body he had underneath his baggy clothes. I knew he was heavy for a reason, and this was the proof to my hypothesis. The sight of his toned body and his perfectly tanned face without his glasses made my mouth slightly water; I was simply dazing over his amazing figure, almost forgetting the fact he needed medical attention. But the sight of him in front of me was so mesmerizing to the point where my heart was pounding rapidly for him. It even made me feel slightly lightheaded which said something about me: I was such a girl; I kind of understand how Sakura and Ino drooled over Sasuke because of this. Although I wasn't sure if either of them saw Sasuke topless, the slight I was seeing was something they would dread for.

Finally after a year of drooling, I snapped out of my trance and obtained my focus once again. I then got started treating Kabuto by first checking if he contracted any infections or bacteria through his opened wounds which he luckily didn't. But for a precaution, I injected him with a needle that contained antibiotic liquid so that he wouldn't carry nothing harmful until he was completely healed. Then came the hard part: healing his physical wounds. I wasn't saying it was hard because it was hard but because the extent of his injuries and the amount of it he endured. Plus, he suffered internal injuries, which made it more complicated for me; it would take a lot more chakra than any other treatments I had done before to heal Kabuto.

I had no choice; if I don't do it, it would take a while for Kabuto to full recuperate even with his Yin Healing Wound Destruction ability.

I knew what I had to do so I had to prepare for the consequences I would receive later. Taking a deep breath, I placed my hands on his chest as focused my chakra to my hands until a bright light-coloured chakra was visible. As I treated his deep slits and gashes on his chest, I noticed how slowly the muscle tissues were repairing. It came as a slight surprise since my medical ninjutsu was very advance and effective and the fact that his wound weren't regenerating as fast as usually, it meant that his injuries were much more fatal than I originally thought.

It took a while but I finally managed to fully repair all of his muscle and skin tissues. I sat comfortably down on my knees as I sighed tiredly; this was the longest extensive treatment I had done in a long time. Now that his torso was treated into perfect condition, my next task was to treat his limbs which also took a lot of chakra. Regardless, I brushed the annoyance aside and activated my medical ninjutsu again and treated both arms and legs until they were completely healed. I moved away from my patient to see the final results which happened to be perfect; his body was literally good as new. I vaguely examined him one more time to see if any internal damage that needed to be tended, but I didn't sense anything wrong with him; he was all healed up.

I couldn't help but smile gladly at that; I felt more relaxed and secured now that Kabuto was okay. It was probably because I now don't have to explain to Orochimaru how Kabuto died on me since the situation was already awkward enough. But nevertheless, I could breathe now that he was no longer in pain. Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain piercing through my head causing me to feel a bit light-headed as I used both of my hands to keep me from falling on the ground. Sweat dropped off of my forehead as my head hung weakly, forcing me to stare down on the ground. It doesn't surprise me that I was this tired after constantly using chakra today for two battles and extensive treatment on my partner. If anything, I was surprised that I hadn't fell unconscious or even fainted.

But I couldn't just take a nap right now; there were things still need to be done. I reached over to my medic bag and took out a big role of bandages. I moved myself closer to Kabuto and carefully wrapped the bandages around his torso until it covered his entire abdomen. Then I wrapped the bandages around his upper right arm and his lower left arm. I finished it off by gently wrapping his forehead with bandages and tied it tightly. I threw the role aside and gazed at Kabuto's current state for no particular reason.

After staring daggers at four eyes got boring, I went through his bag and took out the scroll that had the list of medicinal herbs Orochimaru requested. I then realized that out of the twenty-two rare herbs that were needed, we had collected sixteen of them; meaning we needed six more to complete our mission. We were so close to finishing this mission, it really sucked that Kabuto wasn't able to move due to injury. I could just wait here until he was able to search for herbs again, but that could take a while since he wasn't even conscious at the moment. Then there was the idea that I should just go find them on my own and leave Kabuto here to rest, but that would be time-consuming since these herbs were really rare and the fact that I was alone on this made it even more difficult. But I really wanted to get this mission over with and do something that I actually wanted to do. So I had to go and do this on my own.

With that in mind, I gathered all of my weapons and my other belongings into one bag then I lifted my bag and placed it on my back securely. I picked up the scroll with the list of herbs from the ground and placed it safely in my weapon pouch. I was ready to go at any time until I realized it was getting a bit chilly in the tent; the wind started changing its behaviour resulting in the slight drop in temperature. I knelt down next to Kabuto and reached over to grab one of the folded blankets in the corner he was laying at. I unfolded it as I placed it on top of Kabuto until it covered him from the neck down. I then stared down at his peaceful, sleeping face blankly as I assured myself that nothing else was going to happen to him during my absence.

I allowed my hand to reach to his face and gently hold his cheek, similarly how he did it to me last night.

"I'm the only one now who can complete this mission, so I'm heading out to do just that." I told him softly as my thumb rubbed his cheek just as soft as my voice.

I shut my eyes as I was holding back the overwhelming feeling in my chest then opened them to reveal my crimson Sharingan eyes as they stared down at my comrade.

"So, don't get yourself into any more trouble, okay?" I demanded hardily, blindly glaring at him.

Without wasting any more time, I got up and walked out of the tent leaving Kabuto laying there unconsciously on the sleeping mat with a thick blanket covering his whole body. I was about a meter away from the tent, then I weaved some hand signs. I used a bit of my chakra to activate a genjutsu barrier that I learned years ago by Itachi; it was a protective barrier used to keep enemies away from a certain area and they would be trapped in a genjutsu if they dared to go anywhere near it. With this, I felt comfortable by the fact that Kabuto wouldn't be ambushed or bothered now if this barrier was up. Nodding in satisfaction, I swiftly turned and started treading through the forest greens, in search for the remaining rare herbs. This could go either way now that I was the only herb hunter left out of the two.

I wondered how many plants I could acquire before Kabuto woke up. I prayed for all six because I wanted this mission to be done already.

Sorry for the short chapter all of a sudden. Anyway, hope you guys are enjoying my fanfic so far. I'll see you soon.