16

Shikaku looked exhausted. There wasn't too many other ways to put it.

"Dad?"

Shikaku grunted.

"What happened?"

Shikaku sighed. "There was a fire, earlier today."

Shikamaru cocked his head to the side. "And? Your job doesn't concern fires."

Shikaku gave a thin smile. "Not normally, no."

He didn't elaborate.

With a sigh, Shikaku stood and made his way over to the kitchens.

"As it is, I only came back to get something to eat, before I head back to my duties. Tell your mother I'll be back in a couple hours."

Shikamaru nodded.

I waited until he finished his quick lunch before leaping onto his shoulder. He looked amused, but didn't try to dislodge me.

It sounded like he was doing something interesting, so I wasn't going to let myself just get left behind.

With a final goodbye to Shikamaru, we disappeared in another burst of smoke.

God damn, that Jutsu was useful. Allowing for extremely fast travel over considerable distances, what's not to love? Well, aside from the minor disorientation and utter lack of visibility, anyway.

The disorientation passed quickly enough, alongside the smoke.

I'll admit I was surprised about the destination. Instead of appearing inside the Hokage's office, like I had expected, we instead appeared outside the hospital.

I glanced towards Shikaku, curious. Why would he be going to the hospital?

Shikaku didn't look back, even as we moved up several floors and passed by a dozen rooms.

Finally, we reached our destination; a door on the fifth floor, the numbers '5-9' printed on the front.

Gently, Shikaku knocked twice, before slowly opening the door and ushering inside the room.

The wave of malevolence told me who was inside, long before I could actually see.

I looked around, seeing a normal hospital room; a bed, white walls, some chairs.

What was anything but normal, however, were the occupants. The first was obvious, a blond shock of spiked hair, a tattered orange shirt, coupled with the faint pulse of malevolence hidden underneath it all; Naruto.

My eyes drifted towards his arm.

It… well, to be blunt, it looked horrifying. Covered in gnarled and raw burns, completely uncovered, the flesh itself almost seeming to twitch and wriggle.

I tore my eyes away, looking at the other occupant of the room.

Hiruzen looked like he had seen better days. Even though his expression looked like it had been carved from stone, there was a great deal of concern in his eyes as he looked at Naruto, but, even from the doorway of the room, I could feel his nearly palpable anger.

There was no doubt, he was Furious.

"Hokage-sama."

"Shikaku-kun."

Neither said anything more, a silence falling over the room as Shikaku sat down in one of the spare chairs.

I took the opportunity to get off Shikaku's shoulder and sit on the foot of the bed.

A minute passed before Shikaku broke the silence.

"He'll be fine, then?"

Hiruzen nodded. "His regenerative factor has already healed most of his wounds. Burns take longer to start healing, but they regenerate faster. He's been sedated until then."

Shikaku adopted a thoughtful expression. "You know, if I wasn't aware of why we know that in the first place, that might have been somewhat horrifying."

For a second, Hiruzen allowed a tiny smile. It vanished as fast as it appeared.

"It shouldn't have happened in the first place. This breach in our security is unacceptable."

Shikaku glanced at him. "Do we know who did it then?"

Hiruzen smiled again.

There was nothing kind in this smile.

"Ibiki and Inoichi are currently running interrogation, but, we do know that, whoever they are, they are not from this village, and they managed to circumvent the Barrier."

Despite himself, Shikaku winced. "Which means that we have to reengineer it again."

"Indeed, I've already sent word to Jiraiya, and instructed the Barrier Team to begin experimental modification."

For a second time, they fell into silence. Neither said anything more.