Time ticked by, and Gaara was not amused.
After deciphering the message with Temari, he had to bring in the Council who, after being riled up from the last meeting that lasted nearly five hours, were reignited. "We should've placed a higher bounty on that undeserving brat!"
The girl hasn't been seen since she escaped during the Konoha-Suna Joint Mission Operation. It was a deep shame for Suna, losing a promising shinobi and embarrassing themselves with Konoha, again.
No one really understood how she escaped from the infamous Sharingan no Kakashi, and in Gaara's books, that made her one of the deadliest missing-nin that Suna has ever produced. To escape someone of the caliber of Hatake that easily indicated that any attempts of retrieving her back for trial would be useless. Too slippery. It also didn't help the fact that without any sightings the past few years, it was as if she left the continent all together.
He sneezed at the thought, rubbing his nose.
The Council was highly doubtful that her message came with good intentions, which then began interrogations part eighty-five. Gaara was getting pretty tired of seeing the same people who had the same story. Nothing ticked off her former friends and comrades, they all think it's some elaborate scheme that she's pulling.
He ruffled his head, calling for Kankuro. "Gaara? Are you still worried about that message?"
The boy sighed, "Yes. Very."
Kankuro crossed his arms and closed his eyes, recalling past memories. "Tamako was always keen on these types of things, she was good at predicting. I still don't understand why she ran off, or why she knew all of these things, but..." He trailed off, almost smudging his face-paint, "I think her intel is right."
Gaara had a couple hours before dusk, and he wasn't sure if the Akatsuki would attack him immediately at dark, or wait until midnight. He recalled the words of the council, especially Lady Chiyo, who demanded another interrogation. Wanting to keep this quick, he signaled to Kankuro and the older sibling nodded, disappearing.
It didn't take long for his brother to arrive back with Tamako's former teammates, Raidon and Aneko.
They were decent shinobi, back then they were the top contenders to become chunin, but after Tamako was promoted, they were separated and seemingly stagnated in skill. When the girl defected, they seemed to almost drown in speculations and mistrust. It was only recently last year they were able to gain back the Village's trust.
Alongside the two, was his older sister Temari. His sister was always headstrong when it came to the Shouton User. Temari was the last Suna Shinobi that Tamako talked to before defecting, and Temari took it hard. His sister always cried out, why didn't see the signs!?
Temari slammed her hands onto his desk, "She's a brat, that one! But we can't underestimate her. She was once rejoiced as Suna's Prodigy. If we choose to take this opportunity and track the chakra remnants of her message, we may be able to capture her!"
That was the option the council called for, and they clearly wrapped Temari into it, using her emotions against herself. He turned to Tamako's former teammates. "The two of you were once familiar with Tamako." He paused, then gestured to the floor. There was chalk around the message, ensuring that no one crossed over it. "Do her words seem authentic?"
The two's eyes widened, and they scrambled to get a better look, gaping wide as silence consumed the room. The pair read each sentence carefully, even saying it out loud to get a better grasp of the riddle.
"In all honesty, Kazekage-sama," Aneko began, a palm on her chest with misty eyes, "We aren't sure if Raidon and I truly saw Tamako. Yes, we were her teammates, and we trained nearly everyday together but—"
Raidon cut in, "—but she could've been using a false mask. Tamako is intelligent, she only does things if she thinks there's merit or will be beneficial for herself." He nods at his words, "You may be able to grasp a better answer with her former Academy friends."
Gaara has spoken to these Academy friends before. They didn't provide much detail, but if it meant they could get any closer to verifying the answer, he nodded. Kankuro left the room again, but it only took him a short while to come back with three people at his side.
"Ikina Kaii, chunin of two years. Hoki Nanami, recently promoted chunin as a medical nin." He paused and glanced up from the riddle, "Uta, promoted to chunin last exam."
The three saluted.
"This is something that stays in the room, can I trust you on this?"
"Hai!"
Gaara nodded, "We recently received a message from Kurisutaru no Tamako, she speaks of a traitor within our ranks and an infiltration tonight. Do you believe in her authenticity? What do you think of her motive?"
The three are silent, scanning the floor as they mouthed each line of the riddle.
Kaii is first, who groans into a fist, "Tamako was..." He trails off, "... a strange child. She is incredibly vocal and motivated. She once trained for eighteen hours straight with only water breaks in between, so she has a motive."
Gaara already knew of her workaholic tendencies, but nodded for the boy to continue.
"She once spouted that she'll never die until completing her lifetime goal which had to do with unrooting something, saving a weasel and uncovering the Rabbit Goddess. I'm pretty sure she was just spouting out childish imagination." Kaii pauses, then gestures at the floor. "But after reading this riddle, I believe she is referencing something I still cannot understand."
Unrooting, saving a weasel and uncovering the Rabbit Goddess. These were all three very different goals that didn't correlate with each other, but it was said in such certainty that it would be in this particular order. Gaara quickly jotted the three phrases.
Nanami and Uta glanced at each other before nodding, it was Uta who spoke. "Tamako's behavior got increasingly more... she was stressed, after the return from Konoha Crush. The announcement of the Fourth Kazekage murder clearly shaken her enough where she cut contact with both me and Nanami."
"That's when we figured out that Orochimaru duped us..." Gaara trailed off, "So that's when she started to slip up. And it was soon after that we ordered a subduement, and Hatake Kakashi failed." Gaara concluded, lifting up the parchment paper to the window. His eyes widened at the sight of the sun.
"Nevertheless, all dismissed, we'll discuss this topic tomorrow at noon."
If, there was a tomorrow.
. . .
She meets up with Itachi at dawn by a tea shop. Kisame beside him, sitting on those little seats looking so strange and not in his element, out of place even. The seat creaks when she passes by, taking a seat by the Uchiha.
Her journey across the land wasn't just for some boring healing episode, no she went with intent. The intention was to find a cure for this poor weasel.
During her one-year journey, she ordered the boy to write down each symptom he felt each day, and after combing through the journal, circling the ones that appeared the most, she could nearly diagnose it.
She was hundred percent sure that his Mangekyou Sharingan was the main perpetrator, weakening his immune system and causing the bacteria to multiply and infest his lungs. It's only by gods blessing that it hasn't attacked his spinal health or brain health, but she would never say that out loud. The boy already thinks his entire life was a failure, he had no god.
"It's kekkaku, or tuberculosis."
It all adds up, persistent cough, weight-loss, night sweats, high fever, fatigue, loss of appetite— he has them all and then some. The backlash of his Sharingan has weakened his immune system that allowed the TB bacteria to activate at his weakest and multiplied like crazy. It's only due his chakra, the strength his spine while he does chakra maneuvers, and the large chakra pathways in the brain that all Uchiha are born with that ensured this bastard of a bacteria didn't get any funny ideas.
The cure is a combination of antibacterial medication, and in this continent, there weren't a lot of choices. TB is a bacteria that can learn to fight against medication, that's why the patient has be given a mixture of dosages that are tailored to each TB patient.
"Kekkaku? His eyes widened as if everything in the world added up. "Father had it, when I was younger."
Tamako nodded at his words, "It's a illness that hides and strikes when you are weak." She noticed that after her travel, he now rested his arm against the opening of the Akatsuki cloak. His illness was getting more severe. They won't be able to fully cure him until they pop those eyes out and replace them, but she'll do her best to lessen his pain, reduce the symptoms and slow down the rate at which TB runs rampant.
She nearly teared up at the thought but quickly hands him another pill box. This time, not anti-inflammatory, though she's been ordering him to take it after a coughing phase and restocking as usual. These were pills of equal variant of antibacterial from the Elemental Nations, another she painstakingly created by combining the pyrazinoic acid and ammonia. This was especially hard since she had only taken two entry-college level biology classes, but after traveling to the Land of Redaku, a small desert country, she found a traveling scientist who was all too curious about her own Kekkei Genkai.
After creating multiple scientific items for the man, mainly flasks with highly purified crystal, he agreed to experiment on antibacterial mediation. She knew these names, but it was only gibberish in this world. That particular drug took years, often resetting and piling all the information onto a clipboard for the man to read. Every time she reset, she always enjoyed the look of astonishment the man held for her, asking if she were a genius.
No, she is just a cheater.
With glowing palms, she held them against his chest, letting her Medical Chakra run around wilding around his lungs that zipped anything she didn't particularly like. It's a painful process, but Itachi said that the results were worth it, he would be able to breathe for a little more longer than usual after each session.
Kisame always kept an eye on her, watching for any sly movements but after a year of her disappearing, he nearly slaughtered her on her return, upset that she left Itachi untreated for too long and that he was getting worse. She had to leave, what she was doing was undoing one-percent damage, and the bacteria spreading ten-percent faster.
Things like this required medication, and Itachi was so far-gone that simple medication and chakra just wouldn't do, not with her skill level.
Oh, how she wished she could just kidnap a particular pinkette.
Her palms dimmed, stepping away from the older Uchiha and taking a good glance at his complexion. He looked slightly better, less pale. His stress-lines were worse from last year and guilt coursed through her.
Just a few more months. A little bit more and she can kill Danzo. She has to be patient.
"Take one pill every day after a meal, preferably in the morning. Take your inflammatory medicine as needed, but no more than six pills a day." She lifts her palms to his forehead, glowing green. She unwinds the stress away, just for a moment and check's on his eyes. They didn't look so good. "Just, please hold on, it'll be over by the second snow." She mutters quietly.
He nods.
She gives one more look at the sick boy, not so much of a boy now. Almost a young man, nineteen now.
Then, she bows at Kisame and disappears. Her arrangement with Itachi is only known to his blue-skinned partner; anyone else was a spy. She dearly hoped that these precious minutes she stops by every once in a while wasn't caught by either Zetsu or Obito. It would spell disastrously and they'll know immediately that she's the one who extracted Itachi's eyes for Sasuke.
It also brings her attention to an even larger issue, Sasuke's original eyes. Canon never really discussed what happened to them, Tamako had a feeling that Obito kept them somewhere but after his death, no one was really sure.
She had to make sure Sasuke trusted her enough to do the procedure herself. Had to prove she was loyal to the cause, get Obito to trust her enough.
Tamako groans, her fingers scratching her head and tussling her hair. She has a lot of work to do.
Character Status
Name: Tamako
Class: The Gamer
Age: 16 Years Old
Title: Momma's Little Gem
Status: Worried (-5% Vitality)
Level: 379
HP: 18,570- HP Regen: 1 per 1 seconds
CP: 17,000- CP Regen: 1 per 1 seconds
Strength: 307
Vitality: 399
Wisdom: 435
Intelligence: 396
Dexterity: 401
Agility: 400
Luck: 380
Fame/Infamy: -2100
Sunagakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Konohagakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Yukigakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Kirigakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Iwagakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Kumogakure no Sato acknowledges you and hunting you
Akatsuki is wary of you (25/100)
Money: 15,783,370 ryo
Unspent Points: 410