CHAPTER 16 - The sleeping father

'There is a traitor.'

"SASUKE'S NOT A CRIMINAL!!"

'Rebels near the coast.'

"A poison expert, identified as a woman…"

"Lost track of her a week ago…"

"-but I just can't, and it's killing me too!!"

A missing date…

The unconscious husband…

'Refused to open backpack for inspection'

"Do you even have proof that I did it?"

Overcoming the main artery…

"It doesn't concern you."

That blinding shadow…

"Isn't it cruel?"

Sasuke's sword on her neck…

"You're too late."

"You're too late, Mrs-"

"Hokage-sama!"

Hurrying to her feet, Tsunade smashed the crown of her head on the underside of her desk.

A groan was all she could manage before Shizune jumped on her. "Hokage-sama, it's an emergency!"

Her assistant's high pitch was drumming against Tsunade's sore eardrums. So much screaming… Why couldn't she drop the title for once? Such a despicable honorific…

Ah, they were running now. But where to? And why were there weird voices inside her head? The corridors were swimming around her. Tsunade's vision was too foggy, her legs were too wobbly, her skull was crying out in pain and her mind…

Shizune finally halted for a few seconds, allowing her unusually docile master to catch her breath. Or so the latter thought, until ice-cold water hit her face, devoid of any mercy. Leaving her no time to dry it off and gather herself, Shizune grabbed the Hokage by the wrist once again and resumed her frantic sprint, dragging a tripping Tsunade along.

But now, she was awake. How much had she had to drink?! She normally didn't pass out like this…

At least her senses were working properly again. In an attempt to wipe the remaining water off her face with her palm, Tsunade caught a strange whiff coming from the substance. Dubiously raising her hand to her nose, her eyes widened as she pinpointed the smell.

"Disinfectant?" she mumbled.

But Shizune was still running, her pants echoing off the staircase as sweat gathered around her brow. Something was up.

"Shizune!"

Upon hearing her name imbued with such authority, the woman jolted, breaking the pace of her dash. It took her a second to stabilise again, realising that her master had sobered up. When she eventually spoke, Tsunade got all the answers she desperately needed. Shizune didn't need to hear her questions.

"Hurry, Hokage-sama. The poison in Sakura's body displayed a strange activity throughout the evening, first bubbling up, then restructuring its own chemical composition." Her assistant's grip tightened around Tsunade's wrist as they rushed out of the tower, successfully silencing her. "Then, the poison began receding."

During her decades as a genius medical ninja, Tsunade had encountered self-controlling poisons, deadly substances animated by a mysterious, inner drive. Unique upon unique, and yet she had still overcome these challenges. But poisons never receded. Once in the blood, unless sucked out through an artificial opening, the substance could only ever go forward. For a receding poison to work, the blood itself had to flow backwards-

Tsunade's head whipped towards Shizune. "What's wrong with her now?!"

She averted her gaze.

Tsunade sped up. "Shizune!!"

"Sakura is having a seizure… and it doesn't seem to stop."

The life-support machines were chanting a hymn of death. An irregular, broken harmony, ominously telling Tsunade that she was powerless. She had tried. Sakura had been strapped to her bed frame, one dozen of calmants injected into her system, another virally administered. The jutsu ranged from binding techniques to healing spells to muscle melting curses, but the poison, inexplicably stagnant now, had formed a protective dome around its victim. Two hours later, the entire medic personnel either exhausted on the floor or knocked out by Tsunade's jutsu bouncing off the shield, Sakura's seizure was still twisting her body. No seizure lasted that long. Nobody lasted that long. And no poison had such conservative properties.

Tsunade was slumping on the clean white tiles of the hospital floor again. Just like last time. She hadn't done anything then, she hadn't done anything now. Just looked on, as biology defied the laws of the human body. Sakura had saved herself last time. But now, the incessant beeping told the veteran doctor that nothing of the sort would happen. Sakura wasn't fighting the poison. The poison was fighting them.

"Ts-Tsunade-sama…" a distant voice called out to her, floating somewhere above her head. A featherlight hand was placed on her shoulder, perhaps shaking her a little, or seeking to comfort her… But all she heard was the beeping. And the voices. It seemed like they wanted for her to reach out to them… if only she could, just-

Silver filled her gaze as a warm hand firmly grasped her outstretched one. Tsunade blinked, once, twice, focusing on the man kneeling in front of her, tired eye crinkling in a pained smile. "Kakashi…?"

She hated how weak and small her voice sounded. How the Hokage was begging for help on the floor. The voices were gone, long forgotten, Kakashi's familiar tone anchoring her instead. "W-what…?" She couldn't form full sentences yet, but she had to push herself harder. It was her duty, to stand there and offer a helping hand to the desperate. Not the other way around.

Kakashi seemed to understand her line of thought immediately, seeing as he let go of her hand and allowed her to pull herself up on her own. Tsunade felt grateful for that, but despised him for showing her how vulnerable she was. Why was it always him protecting her? It reminded her of another white-haired asshole.

Dusting herself off, the Hokage spoke, voice loud and tone professional. "What are you doing here?" It was a useless question, really, but it offered her a few more seconds of respite.

"Shizune called me. She wanted to see if the Sharingan had any effect on Sakura's state." Tsunade gritted her teeth. Why hadn't she thought of that?

"But it didn't. Blades can't pierce the shield either."

"What about Hizoshi's secret technique?"

She had spoken without really thinking. It had seemed a good idea in her mind. A worth testing last resort. But Kakashi stilled. His gaze locked onto hers, questioning.

"You do remember… our discussion?"

Yes. She still heard it. The voices. "You do remember that I do not agree with you?"Tsunade replied sharply. She was the Hokage anyway.

It didn't fit properly. Something was amiss in Kakashi's theory, so it wasn't right to doubt in a crucial moment like this.

"Besides, Sakura's in danger if we don't-"

"TSUNADE-SAMA!!"

The beeping suddenly merged into one, long, dizzying note. Shizune rushed to Sakura's side, whose body suddenly stopped shaking. As frightened nurses began to yell, Tsunade unceremoniously pushed Kakashi aside, joining her assistant near the hospital bed, the Copy ninja following suit.

Sakura's body was bent at the waist, abdomen in the air, a frozen, unnatural arch.

The poison wasn't moving. Her lungs weren't absorbing any air. Her heart wasn't pumping any blood.

And yet, Shizune let out a startled cry.

Sakura's eyes were open.

"Hinata-chan!"

Naruto jogged towards the reddening girl. "Yo! Say, have you seen Sasuke anywhere?"

The blond scratched the back of his head, eyes wandering around in vain. "It's been a while since I saw him. Man, I haven't seen that Sound guy lately either…"

"S-Sasuke-kun is s-still at the dungeons… I-I think." Hinata mustered up the courage to look Naruto straight in the face. "As for Hizoshi-kun… I saw him t-talking with Ino this afternoon…" Seeing his face scrunch up in worry, the shy girl boldly took hold of Naruto's sleeve. "D-do you want m-me to help you search?"

The determined look on her face must not have been enough to convince the fox boy of her earnestness, for he simply smiled and gently pulled her grip off him after absentmindedly studying her face for a moment. "Don't worry, Hinata-chan! I've got it covered!"

And just like that, he was gone.

Squeezing the hand he had pushed away, Hinata felt a bit disappointed. Her chance to prove herself to him had just disappeared…

Naruto was headed straight for the dungeons. He hoped Hinata was right about Sasuke's whereabouts. That guy had been isolating himself more than usual, which made the jinchuriki quite anxious. The rooftops were flying by as Naruto quickly jumped from one to another, balling his fists and praying that Hinata wasn't planning on looking for Hizoshi. From what I overheard last night, Hinata-chan would be in trouble…

He hadn't meant to eavesdrop. Or maybe he had. The point is, Naruto had been in the middle of his search for Sasuke, whom he hadn't found in his apartment well into the night - nor in the rest of the village - when he had smelled a delicious, telltale savour emanating from the Hokage's office. He'd almost forgotten to knock before hearing the exasperation in Granny's tone. Naruto shouldn't have opened the door, but he'd cracked it open just a tad anyway. And then Kakashi had replied.

"The last mission you sent us on... In Sound." He had paused there, hesitating somehow. The reluctant crease in his brow had hooked Naruto's curiosity further than his olfactory senses.

He could feel the tension in the room radiating off his ever-laidback teacher.

Could it be that Kakashi was finally revealing what he had discovered during his disappearances at the Rogue Village?

The man cleared his throat and started again.

"As I told you in the official report, we found a rogue town near Sound. The takeaway where Sakura was ambushed is located just above it - it's impossible that the owner never noticed the town beneath. I suspect a collaboration."

A breath.

"The Rogues were on standby. When we went in, a few were arguing - not the boss, or the 'Chief', as this guy called him - but I could sense a power struggle between the underlings. They're obeying someone from outside. The lower-ranking shinobi, relatively weak chakra, Giichi, had lost track of an external agent, a woman who was supposed to bring in the results of a poison to the Chief. The woman apparently cut off all communication and disappeared."

Kakashi's gaze flitted over to Tsunade's briefly before landing on his own gripped hands again. By default.

"This jeopardized their 'new plan', an operation they had already begun. Giichi specified they had finally found a target, most likely the test subject for the new poison."

Naruto had read this report, he knew all this. No doubt Tsunade did too. Why was Kakashi repeating himself needlessly?

"Tsunade. Giichi was being yelled at by a superior, yet still not by the Chief himself. This medium-ranking guy, whose chakra didn't pose a threat either, was getting way too worked up over the missing woman. He wasn't just afraid of the Chief, I think he was too scared to go after the woman himself."

Only when the rhythm increased did Naruto notice Tsunade's foot tapping the floorboard. Yet, Kakashi refused to react to her display of impatience.

"What bothers me is the location of this town. You know what pushes ninjas to go rogue. The Sound Village has been peaceful since the war, and even at the time, they did very little to attract enemies. I don't think Sound is the target of these guys' revenge. It's highly probable that the town is only temporary. There's no other authoritative village between Sound and Konoha. I think they're moving towards us." His chin jutted upwards for a fraction of a second, almost as if the Copy ninja had wanted to lift his head but decided against it. "Tsunade, Konoha is in danger."

Abruptly, the rhythm ceased.

"Kakashi. This was all written in the report Pakkun delivered."

No answer, no movement.

"You sent another note. In code. Elaborate."

Naruto choked. This was technically illegal. Once the official report was approved by all members of the four-man cell, a single shinobi could not send a followup statement without telling his teammates. Unless…

The blond debated whether to go in or not. Could he really intervene? Because Kakashi disregarded the rules rather often, but not when it meant lacking respect towards his peers. Unless one of them had done so first.

"Don't play with me." Tsunade had reached the same conclusion.

Excruciatingly slowly, Kakashi exhaled. His hand followed the harrowing movement, lightly ruffling his silver strands.

He pulled at them harshly.

"I really don't know yet... But, when we were investigating there, I felt a general unease."

His tone had changed, suddenly vulnerable, small, and so, so tired.

"Not just in other people, but in myself too. I could sense an immense chakra signature, much stronger than any of the rogue ninjas possessed. Far, far more powerful. But for some reason, it was faint at the same time - as if the person'd been there not long ago, but had left before we arrived. The chakra was just a linger, and yet... it was a threat."

The Copy-ninja's lone pupil flew up to search Tsunade's face as he continued with a slight grimace. "Not unlike Orochimaru's."

Her reaction was deadpan.

"Any suspects?"

"No… I'm fairly sure it's not the Chief's. It could be the woman's. If it turns out to be hers,

this would mean her strenght is beyond anything a single Leaf team could handle." A hardened eye found the floor.

"And?"

"What do you mean?" This time, Kakashi looked genuinely taken aback. He had apparently not expected the Hokage to be calm about this. Even less that she would ask for more.

"You're still holding back." Offhanded, her voice held the undertones of an order.

Ultimately, the defeated sigh came from the slumping shinobi.

"On the way back to Konoha, I sensed a similar chakra signature. Not exactly the same, but almost equally strong, although different in nature. Something at its core was identical though. It was for a brief period of time, so short that I first thought the stress was going to my head."

Surprisingly, Tsunade respected his following silence.

As a result, Kakashi's demeanour began to shift; almost in desperation, his upper body shot up - his guarded eye froze Tsunade in place.

"You know that Hizoshi is a Sound ninja, right?"

Naruto's own eyes widened.

"He never proved it to us."

"You don't mean-"

"The sensation came from him."

"Kakashi. You can't just accuse allies without any consequent proof-"

"That's why I didn't want to let you know, but he should still be monitored-"

"Kakashi! You do realise that we would be breaking the trust we worked so hard to build with the Sound Village?"

Tsunade's glare effectively shut him up. Kakashi retracted back to his sagging position.

"Suspecting Hizoshi would be like breaking our peace agreement. A declaration of war."

"I know."

"I hope you do."

Naruto had been on the verge of leaving, knees trembling uncomfortably.

"Tsunade?"

"What?" she snapped.

"I comfirmed the Haruno involvement with the rogue village."

"What? And you only tell me this now?!"

Now she was properly reacting, slamming both palms on her desk and leaning forward, teeth bared.

"One of the rogues said he'd hosted a pink-haired man and his female companion for a week, a month prior. Claimed they were travellers looking for a shelter." Finally coming clean, the silver-haired shinobi rushed to continue before Tsunade could speak the words lodged in her throat. "It looked like their interaction stopped at that, but if the time of their stay is correct, then Mebuki cannot be the external agent."

Tsunade's mouth closed. She blanched, suddenly underwhelmed. The grand revelation was nothing she could hold on to, no safety line she could wrap herself and her pupil in.

Had she wasted her time?

Even from the distance, Tsunade's face was as readable to Naruto as a picture book. He could feel her disappointment, embedded in deep dismay. And when she pulled herself together, Naruto could feel it to. The Hokage coming to life.

She beckoned her subordinate to elaborate once again.

"Giichi said the woman had been in the village too at that time, preparing for the next phase of their plan, something to do with the Land of Tea sending in regular updates on a failed poison…"

The next word had been said so quietly, so ominously that Naruto almost didn't catch it.

"Corpses."

Corpses. But the result of a successful poison is exactly that. What was special about these dead bodies? While this question worried the jinchuriki, Tsunade had been concerned by another piece of information.

"Couldn't this Giichi have lied to cover for Mebuki? Should they be colluding, this would be highly likely."

Kakashi just kept sighing, as if he had too much air inside he couldn't manage to free.

"I'm not sure. The disappearance of the agent was clearly making him distressed, so much that if he'd been afraid of her, he wouldn't have risked openly revealing her identity like that." And then he rubbed his face, voice dropping anew to an uncertain near-whisper. "Besides, the man who hosted the couple said something strange, which made me doubt whether he really was talking about Sakura's parents."

Naruto couldn't discern his curious "Hmm?" from the Hokage's.

"He said..."

BRAAOOOOOOMMMM

The ground shook as smoke and dust suddenly filled the previously clean air.

Naruto felt it in his gut before he could even see it.

The ceiling of the Interrogation District was blown off.

His legs weren't carrying him fast enough- it was the same as that night, before Sakura's body had been found. An overwhelming cold shower of pure dread clouding his judgement and hyperfocusing his senses simultaneously.

Sasuke was there. Without a doubt.

"Shitshitshitshitshit-", the blond muttered, pouring every last ounce of chakra into his overworked legs.

He was dedicating his life to becoming to Hokage.

Failing to save one friend was unacceptable.

Failing to save two would simply be the death of him.

"SASUKEEEEEE!"

The name was his fuel; Naruto thanked the heavens and his pride equally when he reached the burning building, easily jumping two stories down through the gaping hole, all that remained of the double-layered concrete ceiling. Sasuke's drawn katana was gleaming in the dark, catching the last rays of a red sun.

In front of him, emerging from the ruins of a once reinforced cell, an inhuman shape was cackling uncontrollably, sectioned chains rattling on the fissured floor as Mebuki heaved her still-out husband onto her frail-looking back. All that Naruto could clearly make out were her teeth, pristine white turning an unsettling shade of red under the looming sun, and her demented green eyes pouring an endless flow of treacherous tears.

"Sasuke, BACK AWAY!"

He knew it was stupid, that nothing would reason the Uchiha in a situation like this. The culprits were right there, escaping under their noses, and Sakura was still lying in the darn hospital.

But if Sasuke had even the tiniest bit of presence of mind to listen to Naruto, then Sakura would be the only one lying there.

"He said they were shinobi."

Sasuke engaged.

Mebuki retaliated.

"STOOOOOP!!"

Reaching out in a last-ditch attempt to grab ahold of his rival, Naruto collided with Sasuke's back as time abruptly froze.

Nobody was moving. The leisurely movement of the thick smoke and the taunting dance of fine dust particles were all that indicated time hadn't really come to a halt.

At a loss, Naruto wildly looked around, suddenly feeling left out. Mebuki and Sasuke were staring into the depths of darkness pouring out of the eviscerated corridor.

Naruto never saw it. Never heard it.

But Sasuke did.

"Sakura?"