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Chapter 67: Revelation
“I was told to kill anybody who came through the vicinity but when I noticed Shino, I remembered what Kabuto had said,” Sasuke begins.
“Kabuto?!”
“He had a theory about this and I just wanted to see for sure. Why I express any care for this I don't exactly get but I do find it interesting how such a close nit bunch would keep such secrets from you.” As he says his last words he directs his attention towards Ino. Sakura looks towards Ino and the kunoichi looks down in a guilty fashion. “Regardless, I have my answer, now I can finish this.” Sasuke looks at the barrier shinobi directly in front of him, making eye contact and capturing him in his illusion. “Release the barrier.” Sasuke says as he appears from the shadows. The shinobi complies with Sasuke's orders under a daze like appearance and he releases the portion of the barrier he sits behind.
Sakura darts out quickly past the shinobi, tapping his shoulder and releasing him from the genjutsu, “Put the barrier back up now!” Sasuke squints his eyes in disappointment at Sakura's quick reaction to him. Sasuke holds his right hand out and the sound of chirping birds comes about as lightning crackles in his hand. He shoots out a spear of lightning but aims it past Sakura for the shinobi. Sakura notices the positioning of Sasuke's hand and she quickly moves in front of the spear as it pierces her left shoulder.
“Such a predictable move, once I kill you the rest of will be all to easy.” Sasuke says. Sasuke grips the fist that he has his spear come out of, causing several tendril spears to pierce all over Sakura's body, striking several vital organs. Sakura coughs up blood and drops to her knees and then falls.
“Senpai!” Kana yells in fear.
Sasuke begins walking towards the barrier again, the shinobi now having his eyes closed as his portion of the barrier is put back up, “Closing your eyes will help little.” Just as Sasuke comes close to passing Sakura, she shoots up with her left palm out in an attempt to strike Sasuke. Sasuke reacts without any hesitation and leaps away from Sakura's advance. Sakura just barely manages to tap Sasuke on his torso. Sasuke lands back mid distance from Sakura but he quickly falls to his knees and realizes his body something wrong with his body immediately.
Sasuke squints his eyes, now aggravated, “Tsunade's Body detachment technique.” Sasuke says looking at Sakura, “Not only that, but you have her regenerative techniques as well.” Sasuke says noticing the mark just above Sakura's cleavage.
Sakura says nothing, merely looking at Sasuke with a look of seriousness. Sakura darts out towards Sasuke and Sasuke closes his eyes. He releases a current of electricity around him as Sakura gets close and she gets electrocuted. Sasuke notices the seal begin to fade on Sakura's forehead and she's rendered paralyzed on the ground. The surge of lightning emitted also returns most of Sasuke's body functions back to normal.
“You've spared your life and that of your comrades for now. Your previous technique leaves this after feeling of discomfort.” Sasuke turns around and begins leaving, “Tell Naruto to keep his nose out of our business, when we're ready we'll let him know.”
“Sasuke...” Sakura stutters trying to move. Sasuke doesn't acknowledge Sakura anymore and he simply keeps walking until he vanishes within the shadows once again. Ino prompts one shinobi to let her out and she heads towards Sakura.
“Sakura, are you alright?” Ino begins healing Sakura to neutralize the paralysis.
“Get away from me.” Sakura says to Ino in a low tone of upset.
“Sakura, I can explain after we—”
“I said GET AWAY!” Sakura manages to swing her right arm and, what is a simple brush to Sakura sends Ino flying back into a tree. The wind is knocked out of Ino but she recovers rather quickly and she sees Sakura approach the barrier, “I don't want you to explain anything.” Sakura says entering the barrier. She begins to heal another wounded shinobi, putting her feelings aside for the moment for her comrades. Almost an hour passes before all the wounded are healed and the medical unit round up their dead comrades on the outer ring and escort the wounded back to Konoha's hospital. “Everybody, lets move out.”
~Hokage Residence~
Neji enters Naruto's office holding a scroll with the Kazekage insignia on it. “Naruto, this message just came in from Suna.”
Naruto turns his attention away from his baby and hands him to Hinata as Neji hands him the message. Naruto opens and reads the message, his look getting even angrier and more frustrated until he throws the message to the side. “The reinforcements Gaara sent to assist the Tracking Unit ended up sacrificing them to Kabuto's troops in order to secure information about Mika, which evidently turned up to be false.”
“From what I could gather before hand on the situation of the Tracking Unit, their situation was pretty dire to begin with against numbers that even outmatched Suna's unit of aide,” Neji begins, “Even with the orders to safely rescue the Tracking Unit, the success of the mission with minimal casualties were low to begin with minus the possibilities that the reinforcements may have faced in trying to rescue them.”
Naruto grips his desk, in frustration, “But still, now Kiba and Akamaru have been captured...and the other members are dead.” Naruto's sensory abilities via, his Sage Mode are active as he says this, picking up on the signatures of his comrades but only of Kiba and Akamaru. “I trusted Gaara and Suna to return everybody safely.”
“Naruto-kun, even though we're allies with Suna, Gaara as their leader must look out for his people as well. The duty of the Kage is always to their people first. Asking him to support both us and his village is too much of a burden,” Hinata begins, “It's almost essentially asking him to choose between us and his village. We can't always expect the desired outcomes, especially now.” Despite Hinata's defense for the situation, she still holds sorrow and worry in her voice for Kiba and Akamaru.
Just then a shinobi appears before Naruto, Neji and Hinata. “Hokage-sama.” The shinobi says, he looks up revealing to be the Anbu shinobi from the Land of Water.
“What did you find out?” Naruto's mood quickly shifts as he sees the shinobi.
“The Mizukage of Kirigakure is working on a project within their village's Anbu. What I was told was very shocking sir.”
“Just tell me what it is!” Naruto says with impatience.
“The project is dedicated to increasing the destructive power of Kiri's military,” The shinobi begins. He hesitates for a moment before he begins to speak again, “by creating several pseudo Jinchuuriki.” Naruto, Neji and Hinata all look with shocked expressions.
“Several pseudo Jinchuuriki? What are you talking about?” Neji asks.
“The Mizukage is dividing the chakra of their village's Bijuu and is sealing the chakra inside several shinobi directly under her control in the Anbu. The purpose of this is to get each of the shinobi to respectively master and control the enhanced powers they've been given.” The shinobi says.
“NARUTO!” Kurama shouts in Naruto's subconscious in fury, “You have to do something about this before they reach Isobu!”
“How many do they currently have?!” Naruto asks.
“The project is still in its experimental stage, however our informant relayed that the Rokubi's chakra had already been divided. So far it appears only one shinobi has received any of its chakra and that was the young Anbu member from the Chuunin Exams.”
“What about the actual Rokubi?” Hinata asks, “The Bijuu are actual entities aren't they, if they're stripped of their chakra what would happen to them?”
“Just what you'd expect...they'd cease to exist.” Naruto says in an ominous tone. Naruto slams his hand on the desk, “I have to stop this now!” Naruto startles baby Nagato and he begins to cry.
“Naruto, you have to calm down.” Hinata puts her hand on his shoulder.
“How am I supposed to calm down Hinata? When so many things are going wrong, first with Kabuto and now with Kiri is killing the other Bijuu for a selfish thirst for power...I have to speak with the Mizukage and I have to tell her to stop this or else—”
“Or else what?” Neji says, “What if you do confront the Mizukage and tell her to stop with this project and she doesn't comply with your wishes? What will you be willing to do to stop her and save the Bijuu?!” Neji's questions freeze Naruto in his train of thought and he begins to breath slightly heavier, “Would you be willing to put Konoha to war to save these creatures and sacrifice hundreds of lives for them?”
“Naruto, we are all one! You and I, and the others! We are the Legacy that the Sage left behind to you. You have a responsibility to us, you can't just do nothing!” Kurama says.
“Have you even considered the position you'd put our ally inside of Kiri? You'll be exposing that we had a spy and no doubt will the security lock down in Kiri.”
Naruto holds his head with the two conflicting voices. “I DON'T KNOW!” Naruto shouts. He bangs his head on his desk, “I just don't know.” The room goes silent for a moment until the door flies open and everybody except Naruto acknowledges the person standing in the door way.
Sakura walks into the room and she comes before Naruto. “How long has Sasuke been gone?” She asks outright, surprising Neji, Hinata, and Naruto. Naruto picks his head up from the desk and looks into Sakura's expressionless, yet serious eyes.
“Sakura...I—”
Sakura grabs Naruto from across the desk and holds him by the collar with one hand, “Don't you dare think about lying to me anymore than you already have you bastard!” Sakura shouts. The Anbu shinobi places his hand on his katana and Neji gets into a stance, startled from Sakura's outburst but Naruto holds his hand up stopping both of them.
“Leave us.” Naruto says to the others. Neji and the Anbu shinobi hesitate but they eventually comply and they leave the room. Hinata leaves as well, taking Nagato into the other room. “Sakura...how did you find out that—”
“I saw him! I saw him only a moment ago when you sent me and Ino on that mission. He said he appeared just to see something that Kabuto had theorized!”
“Sakura I—”
“You told everybody else but me and I had to find out this way?!”
“I'm sorry Sakura, I wanted to tell you but I just couldn't.”
“Why the hell not?!”
“After what happened when I finally brought Sasuke back I...I couldn't risk you getting hurt like you were back then. I just wanted to protect you so you'd never have to go through that again.”
Sakura throws Naruto down and he hits the desk, “So...so you lied to me because you wanted to protect me like I was some pathetic little girl?!” Sakura snaps.
“Sakura I didn't mean it like that, it's just...I couldn't face you knowing that I failed again.” Naruto says with remorse.
“Of all people...I didn't expect this from you Naruto.” Sakura's voice holds disappointment as she feels betrayed.
Just then Neji comes back into the room, “Naruto, Sakura!” Neji's voice holds urgency.
“What is it?” Naruto asks.
“It's Shikamaru!” Naruto and Sakura both widen their eyes and they both quickly dart out the room with Neji.
~Sunagakure Hostpital~
Masaomi and Shizuko wait outside one of the operating rooms in Suna's hospital. Masaomi paces back and forth nervously while Shizuko sits down holding her harms and gripping them. Koga appears at the end of the hallway, walking towards his frantic teammates.
“So what happened?” Koga asked.
“We don't know yet,” Shizuko starts, “They're still preforming the surgery.” Shizuko's tone is filled with nervous anxiety.
“They said they had done research!” Masaomi says, “They said that the surgery was a 50/50 shot!” He bangs his fist on the wall, “But I can't take all this damn waiting, it's been almost 3 hours!”
“You have to calm down Masaomi, we have to have faith in the medics to save her.” Koga's words don't match his voice, which holds a deadly worry hidden beneath the surface. Just then the light over the operating room goes off and it immediately catches the attention of the three young shinobi. A short moment later the doors open and a medic walks out rubbing his hands with a cloth.
He's startled by the three young shinobi right before him as he exits, “So what happened?! She's going to be alright now right?!” Masaomi says out right.
The medic lets out a remorseful sigh and looks away from the three shinobi, “I'm sorry but there is no way we can help her.” The medic says with heavy regret. “We couldn't even preform the surgery in the condition she's in.”
“What do you mean?!” Koga says confused.
“We went in, full and ready to preform the surgery but when we began, we noticed just how injured she was. Her right lung, liver and both her kidneys are in much worse shape than we thought. We didn't detect the damage until now due to her body naturally draining her chakra reserves to try to fix them. The surgery we were to preform couldn't hope to meet the expectations of aiding her damaged organs. On top of that, now her reserves are depleting rapidly as well in a fail attempt to protect those areas of injury. It's prolonging the inevitable.”
“What do you mean the inevitable?” Shizuko asks. She knows the answer to the devastating question though she holds a deep hope for something less.
“Her chakra reserves will naturally stop at some point so that she doesn't loose every ounce of her chakra and die. However, once that happens those organs that were damaged will quickly shut down and she'll die.” The medic says somewhat bluntly.
Shizuko drops to her knees and lets out a powerful cry of pain. Masaomi kneels to comfort her but he cries unbearably as well as he holds his teammate. Koga grits his teeth trying to fight back the tears, though he fails as a river falls from his eyes. “How...how long?” Koga asks.
“It's amazing to me that she lasted as long as she has, truly it is. It's as though she was fighting through all that agony and forcing herself to stay alive for some reason,” The medic begins, “Looking at the three of you, I can obviously see why. But alas...with her body just barely doing the minimum to sustain her, she will have barely a week.” The medic says in a low tone. “I'm...truly sorry.”
The medic walks past the three children and heads down the hall. Standing at the end of the hall, watching the entire ordeal is Koichi. He stands, having overheard the entire situation with Maiyuri and watches his comrades in overwhelming pain. The feeling of guilt resonates with his being, remembering what Koga had said to him back at the Chuunin Exam Festival. Koichi clinches his fist as he tries to fight back his own tears with guilt behind them.
Koichi then suddenly looks back to his three comrades, this time with a look of determination on his face. Koichi turns around and begins making his way out of the hospital, remembering Koga's. “Koga, Masaomi, Shizuko,” Koichi begins to say to himself, “I may not be able to change what happened, but I sure as hell am going to fix it...I promise you that with my life.”
To Be Continued...
Author's Note:
I couldn't meet my deadline :T_T: I'm two minutes late :T_T: I'm sorry! Anyway, I know I skipped last week, I may have a few of those weeks due to school starting back up. As a matter of fact I may end up taking a temporary vacation from Fanfiction. We will see how the first full week of school treats me to decide. However this weeks two chapter release is still on. So later on today, chapter 68 will be coming out. Chapter 69 is a nearly a quarter of the way completed so you have that to potentially look forward to on Friday/Saturday of next week. However there are no promises. If there is to be any change I will make a note of it. Until then, enjoy ^^. Read and comment on what you liked most about the chapter or disliked. To those of you who do so and also rep me as well I thank you.
