Let the Bodies Hit the Floor
Date: July 6th, 13 aNb
Days Until Final Stage: 26
Time: 2:15 PM
"Forest of Death Tower Control to Hospital Triage Actual."
Sho Inugami, who was relaxing against the now-empty triage zone wall, satisfied with the successful collection from Kane Suzuki that had taken the better part of 40 minutes to complete, cracked his knuckles once.
After all, THIS was the moment HE'D been waiting for all day.
He was not alone there; Nakahito and Kimiko were seated in the orange zone chatting about who knew what while they waited for what Sho had promised would be some of the most exciting moments of the day…
The Final Stage of the Chuunin Exams consisted of tournament-style one-on-one fights that would be held for an international audience of Kuge-level movers and shakers as well as Konoha residents that either had the funds to purchase tickets or won a lottery.
The Inugamis were amongst the former and they ALWAYS attended the Finals when held in the Village.
Because of the importance of the audience and to respect their time, the Final Stage would typically have no more than 3 phases: quarter-, semi-, and final match. This meant that there were almost always preliminary matches to narrow down the fight pool unless enough people voluntarily quit to make them unnecessary.
With 21 candidates clearing the Second Stage, Prelims were a foregone conclusion. Fights where the wounded would be diagnosed and receive initial treatment from none other than…
"Hospital Triage Actual." Inugami replied, causing his teammates to look in his direction; he'd returned to the courtyard without them sensing his presence. "Triage zone is closed out. How many preliminary bouts are we looking at?"
"One candidate voluntarily quit, leaving us enough for ten matches that will be starting in approximately five minutes; we've just loaded the names into the randomizer. Estimate first casualties arriving at +10."
"Ten minutes; copy that, Tower Control. We'll be ready." He looked at his teammates. "Hito, can you inform the ER staff we'll need at least ten gurneys out here and then check to make sure Jeitsy didn't get himself vamped out of existence by Satou?"
A flustered and disheveled Hiro Jeitsy exited the ER entrance at that point. "I'm FINE, no thanks to you! Like sticking a raging drunk in a room with nothing but methyl alcohol. Asshole."
"Just the gurneys, then, Haruno. Kimi? Can you drag the target tag board over here, please?" Team 13 jumped to action as Sho looked placidly at Hiro. "Do you want to tell me your tale of weal and woe, Jeitsy? You've got 8 minutes before the proverbial shit hits the fan."
The younger medic-nin shrugged. "Meh; it's not that long or good... But when will I ever get to bitch about being stuck in close confines with a chick that HOT? I - eventually - got 3 pints out of her…"
There was no lewd suggestion from Ohs.
'Come on, Inugami, you've only had that asshole along for the ride for two and a half months; stop missing him!' The white-haired teen castigated himself. 'Not to mention what he TRIED to do with Motoko-sa!'
"...and the really sick thing is that she was asking about YOU the entire time!" Jeitsy finished, a disgusted look on his face.
Sho's gray and green eyes blinked. Amaya was STILL interested in him?! He figured she would have moved on by this point... "Shit… And what did you tell her?"
A wry grin crossed Jeitsy's lips as he lightly thumped Inugami's sternum with the back of his right hand. "I told her I was more scared of pissing YOU off than I was scared of someone effectively de-fanged between the pheromone blocker and the detector around her neck." He said proudly. "Although, I admit, she's a close second on the scary factor, but for an ENTIRELY different reason than you! She strikes me as the kind that, given half a chance, could suck your soul out through your dick without thinking twice about it!"
A short bark of laughter escaped Sho's lips. "And then come back for seconds for anything she missed the first time!" Nakahito Haruno returned, pushing one of the rolling beds into the concrete courtyard; the other 9 trailing behind him by civilian program residents on their ER rotation. "That's great, everyone; line them up starting beside where Kimiko put the…"
There was a sudden pop of displaced air as a white-hooded emergency tech materialized with a masked figure, who was immediately dumped on Haruno's gurney, exactly as Inugami had visualized.
"Yoroi 'Vampire' Akado!" Sho announced, recognizing one of Aniki's teammates. "Make sure to strap down his limbs!" He ordered and the residents jumped to obey.
"The dude's unconscious, Sho! He's also a Leaf nin…" Nakahito protested.
"He's also a chakra siphon, Haruno! If he touches you long enough he could rip every single dram of molded chakra out of you faster than a man-hungry Satou working a dock gets what she wants after a military ship comes back from months at sea!" The red-clad teen took a healthy step back. "Hey, nice to see you DO have a sense of self-preservation!" Hiro and Kimiko both laughed as Inugami hands began to glow green with the Mystical Palm in diagnosis mode. "Okay, Jeitsy; pop quiz time… Bruising to the underside of the jaw, his left wrist, and sternum. Cracked xiphoid process and false ribs makes this fellow..?"
"An unlucky bastard that I'm happy to see like this because it helps my double-ot-nothing bet with you?" Inugami laughed again at that. "But seriously…" Hiro's own hand glowed. "Akado got his dome rung, but I'm not picking up any signs of a concussion. Low priority, dangerous patient label: civilian doctor treatment only to deny him a target for his siphon ability until we're sure he's right in the head… Or as close to it as Yakushi-senpai's teammates come."
"Precisely." The senior medic-nin agreed as the residents started wheeling him away for treatment. "What's the story with him?" He asked the medic that had delivered him.
"The Uchiha."
"Ah; enough said." He looked at Haruno. "Pinkie's would be boy-toy made the Finals."
"No surprise there." Kimiko and Nakahito agreed in unison.
There was a short wait, maybe six to seven minutes, before two hooded medical ninja appeared. One was holding a black haired young man with happuri face shielding held in place by his Otogakure forehead protector. His left arm showed signs of explosive trauma at no less than three failure points while his right…
"Holy shit..!" Nakahito gasped as he noticed the second medic-nin was holding a severed human arm, suspended in a bubbling fluid bath. "That guy lost his arm!"
Haruno's teammate leapt right into action. "Concussive detonation to both forearms. Right is fully severed at the midpoint of the radius and ulna… What the fu..?" The medic lifted the arm where it was still attached to the sound ninja. There was a surgical-grade tubing installed between the two forearm bones and blood was dripping from it. He sniffed the tube as Kimiko turned away in disgust. "Subcutaneous weapon system, but I'm not smelling a chemical propellant; must be chakra based. The way the metal fans outwards…" He checked the ninja's left arm and made a clucking noise. "You poor bastard; you got matched with the worst possible opponent for you!" He looked at Hiro. "Shino Aburame made the Finals; that's going to cost you..."
"How the fuck can you possibly know that?!" Jeitsy demanded as Sho turned the ninja's remaining hand to his peer. Hiro's jaw fell; a vaguely circular metal cap had been installed in the palm of the Oto ninja's hand that was clearly clogged shut by Kikai Mushi beetles.
Inugami grabbed his walkie and twisted the dial to the PA system control and Sho's next words boomed from the open ER doorway. "Kimura-sensei and his orthopedic trauma team to OR STAT for traumatic forearm amputation; limb is still viable!" He tossed the walkie to Hiro, who nearly fumbled it, before Sho helped the hooded ninja medic put the injured teen on the next gurney. "OR bay, critical condition." The resident nodded as he pushed the rolling bed at a quick time pace, the medic-nin caring for the severed arm keeping the pace.
* * *
Time: 2:30 PM
Motoko Hata, still racked with the ambivalent feelings her Sho-sa's actions had caused, finally returned to the Hospital.
"Kimura-sensei and his orthopedic trauma team to OR STAT for traumatic forearm amputation; limb is still viable!" Sho's voice boomed like a burst of thunder over the PA system.
Hearing it after so many days apart set her heart racing.
The swordswoman closed her eyes, trying to tell where her boyfriend was, but all she got was this murky, muddled sensation; like Sho both was and was not there at the same time.
'Kind of reminds me of what I sensed from him during that Hide and Seek mission…' She thought as she decided to change tactics, homing in on Kimiko - whom she could sense clearly - and running in her direction.
Hata looped around to the back of the Hospital, where her friend and Sho's teammate was located. Peeking around the corner as covertly as possible, she saw her boyfriend help a severely injured teen onto a gurney and order one of the residents to race him to the OR.
Sho-sa suddenly froze before letting out a weary sigh. "Kimiko… We're two down, eight to go… Would you..?" He asked, sounding pained as he pointed in a direction without looking.
Her direction!
'But Sho-sa isn't a sensor-type!' Hata thought as her jaw unhinged slightly. 'How does he know I'm..?'
"Hey, Momo…" Itou whispered as she approached the corner of the building. "Can we talk for a moment?"
"What the fuck is going on, Kimi? Why did Sho-sa clearly ask you to talk to me instead of facing me himself?! And why in the names of the Gods would you agree?!"
Kimiko pulled Motoko all the way around the corner so that Inugami could focus on the next arrival that manifested with yet another audible pop. "Okay, before you get too upset…"
It took Itou just a few moments to give Hata an abbreviated recounting of the first conversation that Team 13 had had with their missing teammate. "...He even agreed that he's probably handling this the wrong way, but it's like…" The water specialist paused, at a loss for words.
"Like he knows he's taking the wrong route, but it's one that will still eventually get him where he's going and he's taking it only because it's the one route he knows by heart." The swordswoman sighed, remembering what Karin had said about how her brother handled things when he didn't know how to deal with them. "I just have to be patient." She bit her lower lip. "Okay, I'll give him the time he needs, but when he's done with this triage session, would you tell him I got invited to Tanaka-sensei's wedding for tomorrow evening and I'd like him to be my plus one? And that the same rules we agreed to for the Gala would apply?"
"I can do that." Itou nodded before pausing. "Just out of curiosity…"
There was another pop of displaced air followed by… "Oh, my God; Tenten-chan!!" A shocked and horrified Nakahito cried out.
Kimiko shot Motoko an apologetic look. The swordswoman shook her head. "Go; Nakahito needs you." Itou hugged her friend and disappeared back around the corner.
Hata gripped her chest, feeling overwhelmed with conflicting feelings that were somehow even worse now than they were at the 44th Training Ground medical outpost. Her heart pounding in her chest didn't help drown out Sho-sa's voice and sense: both so close yet so far away. Unable to take it, the kunoichi bolted away from Inugami, clipping - and nearly knocking down - Miho Hyuuga, who'd come to check how her team was doing at managing themselves. The orange-haired girl glanced an apology to the Jonin as she managed to lock onto the target tag in her bedroom and teleported away.
"Oy vey…" Hyuuga sighed, covering her face with one hand.
* * *
Time: 2:35 PM
As Kimiko disappeared around the corner a new casualty arrived. The hooded medic was having some difficulty with him because his limbs were flopping about unnaturally.
'Par for the course that is Misumi "Boneless" Tsurugi…' Sho Inugami thought, recognizing Aniki's other teammate. "Wait… What the..?" He muttered aloud as Nakahito helped get the candidate on the gurney with a grimace.
"Dude, it's like holding an animal that's missing all its bones!" Haruno's grimace was queasy.
Sho's glowing hand swept over the body. "Both his humeri and all his ribs have been crushed." He announced at last, but no damage to the internal organs for a small miracle… He'll be in agony when he wakes up, but he should be able to use whatever ability that makes his bones malleable to help orthopedics reconstruct the bones from scratch. "Critical priority. Page Kimura's second stringers and tell them he'll need rib plate surgery… Assuming there's enough bone left to attach the plates TO."
Inugami looked at the hooded medic; the same one that had brought in "Vampire." Inugami pointed to "Boneless." "Do I even want to know?"
"Suna Puppeteer. He snapped the Suna kid's neck, only for it to be the puppet in disguise."
"And the master returned the favor. Yeah, that tracks… Misumi was always on the bloodthirsty side." Sho sighed, looking in the direction Kimiko had vanished; it was so difficult to keep his focus on this conversation. His resolve to find forgiveness within himself before going to see the woman he loved was getting harder each second Motoko was so close; even if she was out of sight! "Guess it's just down to Kabuto for my bet…"
"Oh, Yakushi withdrew before the preliminaries even began."
Sho froze even as Jeitsy silently celebrated behind Inugami's back; his worst case on the double-or-nothing had been dodged. "What?" He asked in complete disbelief.
The hooded medic nodded. "I'm honestly surprised he isn't back here yet. He said something about still being injured from his fight with someone called Dosu and worn out after fighting some Rain ninja."
'That makes no sense…' Disbelief melted into confusion. The Yin Healing: Wound Destruction technique we developed would have fixed any non-fatal injury in seconds, if not minutes. And while I was concerned about Muto's Genin attacking me, none of the Rain ninja I saw - Muto's or otherwise - signing those waivers struck me as having the kind of stamina required to beat me, let alone Aniki, in a battle of attrition!'
"Oh, my God; Tenten-chan!!" Nakahito cried out after another pop of displaced air. His teammate's audible distress snapped Sho out of his headspace.
He looked over to see a young woman in the medic's own age range: probably from the Academy year Sho was originally slated to join before that explosion had stolen nine months of his life and the black hair he'd inherited from Saki-obaasan from everywhere except above his left eye. That patch had been preserved only because he'd defensively covered his eyes with his forearm and his thumb had protected the follicles in that small section of his skull. She had a number of cuts on her that were too cleanly made to be from a metal blade.
Inugami ran up as Itou and Miho-sensei reappeared from behind the wall. His senses told him that Motoko-sa was no longer in the area, which was both a relief and a disappointment. Nakahito had taken the kunoichi with the sleeveless peach top and red edging, carrying her over to the nearest gurney.
The medic-nin looked at the wounds, which he closed with barely a thought. "A wind-based attack. She had to have fought one of the Sand or Sound ninja; none of the Leaf candidates are capable of Wind Release…" He frowned. "I'm sensing some swelling at the T12 and L1 vertebrae junction; she landed on something hard that was maybe three or four centimeters wide…" Images of the three missing Suna candidates and the three from Oto flashed through his photographic memory. "The woman from Suna; that massive fan of hers would be the right size."
Nakahito was fidgeting. "How bad is it, Sho? Will she ever walk again?"
"Breathe, my man. Breathe…" Hiro said, clapping the fire user's shoulder. "We'll give her some Loxoprofen for the swelling and she'll be back training by the morning. She's BARELY a low priority case; the shock to her spinal cord from the landing is the only reason she's still out cold. In fact…"
His hand glowed and the kunoichi's eyes fluttered open with a moan. "Did anyone get the name of that bitch that just laid me out and folded me like a pair of clothes..?"
"Temari Kazekage." Jeitsy replied instantly. Everyone looked at him. "Why are you surprised? My betting pools are open to everyone and Suna Ryou spends just like Konoha Ryou. A number of the Sand ninja bet on the three children of the Kazekage making the finals… Well, two of them; each and every one of them shuddered when anyone placed bets against the youngest one, Gaara."
"Make a path!" An authoritative voice ordered. Everyone looked up to see a group of eight ANBU ninja, the leader of which wore a bird-like mask that was mostly white with the upper left quarter was forest green. The ninja gathered in the center of the triage stage got out of their way…
Everyone EXCEPT for Sho Inugami.
"Move, boy!" The ninja ordered.
'Well, THAT was the wrong way to handle it…' Miho Hyuuga thought with a secretive smile. The leader was the ninja that had replaced Miho in ANBU when she'd accepted the assignment to run Team 13.
"This is the triage zone for the Chuunin Exams and I am the one in charge here. No one passes through without my permission." Inugami said firmly; standing his ground.
"I told you to m…" The ANBU leader, clearly intoxicated on his new authority, tried to use a single hand to brush Sho Inugami aside…
The man blinked and suddenly found himself face down on the ground; the medic-nin's knee driven deeply into the small of his back to compress a pressure point that cut the feeling below his waist. The offending arm was being pulled in a direction it was not meant to go in.
"Ho, damn…" Nakahito chuckled remembering a prior fight with Sho. "Been there before…"
'He's so fast…' The kunoichi on the gurney thought as she stood with Haruno's assistance. 'I mean, he's not at Lee's level with his weights on, but easily as fast as that bitch that ended my Chuunin Exam run.'
"Does someone other than this idiot…" Inugami jerked the ninja's arm until he cried in pain. "Care to explain why you think those masks give you any right to disregard medical protocols?"
"Kakashi Hatake ordered us to bring the Uchiha here under guard." Another bird-masked agent, this one with an hourglass motif decorating it The remaining seven shifted around to give Inugami a view of an unconscious Sasuke. "An S class Bingo Book threat is targeting him." This caused a stir between the assembled Genin.
"See? Was that so hard?" The medic-nin asked the agent he had pinned as he snapped his fingers. Jeitsy immediately tossed him the walkie. "This is Inugami. I need the high security wardroom on the third floor opened. I'm sending a group of eight ANBU up with a priority patient. Full lockdown protocols." He let the leader go, who slowly rose, nursing his bruised ego and back. "Next time, don't assume that just because someone's young, it doesn't mean they aren't capable of putting you on your ass… And remember that medical protocols exist for a reason."
"Little fucker…" The ANBU breathed softly as he led his team inside without further issue.
Miho Hyuuga shook her head, chuckling softly. "Sho-kun, have you ever heard of a 'career limiting action?' Because that could be one."
"Who is he going to complain to? My Jonin instructor, who was present but didn't order me to stand down? The Commandant of the Medical Corps, who was taught by and succeeded the position from my Grandmother? My parents, who would applaud me for adhering to protocols? I wish him good fucking luck!" Hyuuga just shook her head in bemusement. "I need a moment to look into this further... Hiro, you're in charge until I'm back."
"Da, ser, moy kapitan!" Jeitsy replied sarcastically in one of the five Roshsyan phrases he'd managed to learn and retain over the years of their families' friendship.
Itou looked at Tenten; she'd spent some time with the prior year's top kunoichi while learning Ocean's Fist from Might Guy. "How is your team making out, Tens? You're the first one to come through that was so minimally injured enough to talk to…"
Tenten sighed. "I was the first one from Team Guy to go. I think I lasted all of 30 seconds because my opponent kept blowing all my weapons aside with that stupid fan of hers."
"There was a pretty long gap between the third casualty and you." Hiro Jeitsy pointed out. "If your fight was so short..?"
Tenten looked at Nakahito with a smirk. "Three words: Sakura versus Ino." Miho looked confused; she hadn't had a chance to meet Nakahito's cousin because of the timing of Team 7's mission to Waves and her team's mission to Rivers. "Mortal frienemies." The pink-clad kunoichi clarified.
Kimiko and Hiro did some snorting chuckles while Nakahito closed his eyes and began making some praying gestures. "And..?" Haruno asked hesitantly.
"Double knockout. Both lost."
"Oh, thank every single one of Sho's Gods…" The fire specialist gasped in relief, leaning on the gurney for support as his knees nearly buckled. He saw his Jonin's confusion. "If either of them had won outright, they'd be rubbing it in the other's face for months. A draw means they'll be spending that energy trying to figure out something else to fight about, which is fine by me; it'll at least be quiet."
The others laughed as a fresh pop of displaced air echoed in the courtyard and Jeitsy moved to check on the new arrival; a kunoichi from Otogakure. "They were both up in moments and chose to stay and watch the remaining preliminaries." Tenten clarified. "Let me start from the top… So, the pairings are being selected by a randomizer…"
* * *
Time: 3:00 PM
'Honestly, it's disgusting just how easy this is…' Kabuto Yakushi thought to himself as the security guard snored; off to lalaland thanks to the Temple of Nirvana Genjutsu. The Otogakure spy was watching through the cameras in the high security ward where Sasuke Uchiha slept off the sealing of his Heaven Curse Mark. An oxygen mask covered his mouth, bandages covered his eyes, and securing straps covered by a blanket kept him from thrashing in his sleep.
'What should I do..? Lord Orochimaru wants to dye Sasuke his colors, but everything I saw of him during the Exams suggests a prideful arrogance that might be too volatile to control… Perhaps it would be better to simply kill him and take his Sharingan for implantation in Lord Orochimaru's next host? It'd blow my cover here, but if the plan goes off as anticipated, this Village dies in a month.'
'But even if my cover is blown, I'll need to stay hidden in the Village to note any changes to procedures or protocols until the Crush begins as scheduled during the Finals. After Konoha receives it's deserved fate for what they did to Lord Orochimaru and myself, I'll be free to try and find a way to cure Kimimaru since the Hashirama cells were ineffective. Apparently he's already got something similar pumping through his veins to allow the bone manipulation his Kekkei Genkai permits to replace anything he uses almost instantly and mold his flesh to do so without injury.'
'If I can heal him, his absolute loyalty, Earth Curse Mark AND the installation of a set of pure blooded Sharingan would make Lord Orochimaru nigh invincible for decades. Long enough to produce progeny with the Shikotsumyaku and raise them with the same absolute loyalty!'
Suddenly, Sho Inugami appeared in the security camera. He was holding a command walkie as he spoke voicelessly through the display. The lead ANBU looked at him with seeming skepticism even as he unconsciously rubbed his right collarbone, but permitted Sho entrance.
"Well, well… I might have just found my way in, thanks to you, Otouto…" Yakushi murmured to himself, impressed that his young friend had been out in charge of something significant today, as Inugami took a brief look at both the curse mark and the ring seal around it. The frown on Sho's face was impressive as he reached into his jacket and extracted a small camera - Anastasia had a passion for photography that all three of her children had inherited to varied extents - from the storage seals concealed there. He took two shots before returning the camera to its resting place.
Before the younger medic-nin left, he touched the ANBU leader's shoulder; his hand glowing green as he made a slight bow of contrition.
Kabuto checked his watch. The preliminary matches should be about halfway done at this point. "I'll give them another hour to fall into the lull of routine… Maybe by then I'll know what I actually plan to do!"
* * *
Time: 3:10 PM
Inugami returned to the triage courtyard after passing off the camera with the shots of that odd curse mark combined with an impressively tight Evil Sealing technique to one of the JRD guards, asking they get it to his father. Kurando, in addition to being the director of the JRD, was a specialist in chakra and other magical effects. The curse mark on Sasuke reminded Sho of the one on Anko Mitarashi - he'd never met the Tokubetsu Jonin, but Kurando had shown his son pictures after being puzzled by the mark for months - but there was something DIFFERENT about this one; the white haired teen could feel it in his bones, but what it was eluded him.
Hopefully it would be obvious to his father's superior experience.
As he entered the yard, the residents carted off a female Sound ninja, reviewing concussion protocol amongst themselves.
'Well, at least I didn't miss anything too major.' Sho thought. 'That kunoichi from Team Guy is clearly recapping a fight between Sakura and Ino and everyone is still more or less where they were when I left, so there clearly weren't any real surprises to catch their attention.'
"...and then BAM!" Tenten clapped her hands for emphasis. "They both throw a right cross, hitting each other hard enough to send their forehead protectors - and themselves - flying! They tried to get up, but they were both so worn out that the proctor called it a double KO."
Right then, a new arrival appeared.
Or rather TWO new arrivals, given the whimpering bark that came from the slumped over figure as Akamaru's tiny muzzle popped out of Kiba Inuzaka's fur lined hood.
"Holy shit; Kiba lost?!" Itou gasped in surprise as Haruno helped get his friend over to a gurney. "Since Sasuke already went, I figured Kiba was a lock…" She grinned at Jeitsy. "Glad I didn't place a bet on that."
"It's bad enough he's already hit three of his four double-or-nothings!" Hiro complained, pointing at Sho.
The senior medic frowned. "I knew 7 and 8 were in… Chouji beat up a girl?!" He asked in disbelief, pointing in the direction the Oto kunoichi was taken.
"Shikamaru." Jeitsy said glumly.
Inugami's face screwed up in genuine confusion. "Shikamaru won a fight? Dude's a friend, but he's so damned lazy sometimes… At least my seeming laziness in the Academy was just an act!"
Kiba groaned as he woke up again. "Oh, good God, I can still TASTE that fart! I'm gonna be sick..!" He clutched his nose and suddenly let out a scream of pain. Akamaru hopped out of Kiba's jacket and put a paw on his owner's chest, whimpering sympathetically.
Inugami stepped up to Kiba, forcing his hand out of the way. "Your nose is broken and you just made it worse!" In a single violent move, Sho yanked on his nasal cartilage to set it back into place. Inuzaka let out a cry of pain as he lost consciousness again. Akamaru started growling, like he was about to attack. The medic glared at the hound-nin. "You should ask Kyouran how well that course of action worked out for him!" The small dog shivered and made a plaintive whimper. "It's fine as long as you don't actually bite me."
"You speak Canine?" Haruno asked in surprise.
"Why does everyone get surprised by this?" The medic asked, slightly irritated. "I have a photographic memory and I've heard Akamaru and Kyouran talking to their trainers often enough to have at least a rudimentary understanding of their languages. After Roshsyan, they were a walk in the park; linguistically." He turned his attention to Akamaru. "So, who did this to you and Kiba?!"
The puppy made an embarrassed-sounding whimper.
Inugami's jaw unhinged.
"Who was it?!" Everyone around him demanded.
The medic-nin covered his eyes and began laughing. "So you're telling me that the final three matches are between the other two members of Team Guy, the last Sound ninja, the last Sand ninja, Hinata-chan, and Chouji 'I've never met a potato chip I didn't love' Akimichi?!"
Nakahito Haruno frowned and began ticking fingers. If his eyes could have bugged out any further as he reached his last finger, Inugami would have needed to push them back into his skull. "UZUMAKI?!" He roared in utter disbelief while Kimiko let off a squeak of excitement. "Damn it, I had bet 3,000 Ryou on all three members of Team 8 making the Finals!"
"I tried to warn you that you'd be better off betting on them individually." Jeitsy pointed out with a grin. "The payout was lower, but…"
"Shut. Up. Hiro!" Nakahito growled.
"Could be worse... Raiden bet 10 large on Doghouse here!" He patted the unconscious Kiba's arm.
That's when all Hell broke loose.
There was a massive pop of air as four hooded medical ninja appeared with a stretcher between them. "Twelve year old female in cardiac arrest!"
Sho Inugami snapped into action, giving the gurney carrying Kiba a forceful kick out of the way and pulled a fresh one over. "Put her on here!" He ordered as the stretcher was lifted up and the patient transferred as gently as possible. The white haired teen was suddenly atop the gurney, barely visible over the wall of white clad medics. "Ah… Fuck, fuck, fuck!" The walkie came into view. "I need the Jyuuken Treatment Team to OR2 RIGHT THE FUCK NOW!" Inugami shouted, clearly on the verge of losing his shit. He looked at Miho, who had a look of abject horror on her face. "Miho-sensei… MIHO-SENSEI!" The Jonin startled, her eyes looking up to her student. He touched a specific part of his uwagi. "Yes or no, Sensei?!"
The kunoichi was clearly torn.
"I need an answer, Sensei! We've got maybe three minutes before the Jyuuken cascade is fatal! She's YOUR responsibility; it's your call, but I need it NOW!"
The next words clearly hurt her to utter. "No. Under no circumstances!" She cried, slumping to her knees as her two confused Genin knelt to check on her.
Sho gave her a curt nod. "Understood! Clear the route, any means necessary! Let's GO!" Inugami began to blaze like a star as he turned off all the internal limiters to access nearly 90% of his chakra instantly. It was a sight Miho Hyuuga herself had only seen one time before; when the young medic-nin had to help save Lord Daimyo Mizuzaki the 27th in River Country. Unlike then, a green glow began to shine around the medics still blocking the view of the others as Sho began to dump all that power, all at once, into his Mystical Palm jutsu.
The medics began to move and a head of dark, purplish black hair in a pixie cut became visible as did a dainty hand in a cream jacket that hung limply off the gurney. His hands were positioned like he was doing traditional CPR chest compressions on her sternum. "Come on, Hinata-chan, you've made it this far; don't you let that bastard, Death, win! YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO DIE ON ME TODAY; DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!"
The gurney disappeared into the ER entrance as Nakahito felt a pain seat through his belly that he hadn't felt so intensely in two years. "What… the… fuck..?!"
* * *
Time: 3:15 PM
Halfway across the Land of Fire, Hiashi and Hanabi Hyuuga were bowing before a small shrine that the Hyuuga Lord always brought with him when traveling. Inside the shrine was a photo of his late wife and mother of his two daughters, although Hanabi's knowledge of her was purely anecdotal, having been under a year old when Mother had died. There were also photos of Hinata and her mother, Hinata holding Hanabi, and others.
Hiashi always made it a point - whether home or abroad - to pray and burn incense once a week at a minimum.
The embassy shook for a second; while the majority of the Land of Fire was tectonicly stable, the capital was relatively close to the Land of Hot Springs, which had been split off to make a buffer country between Fire and Lightning.
"Father, look!" Hanabi Hyuuga gasped, clearly disturbed.
Hiashi grimaced as he noticed the incense vase for the shrine had broken to pieces during the minor quake. Two of the three incense sticks were touching the glass on the photo frames directly over Hinata's images. The older man quickly doused the incense and began to pick up the pieces of the vase.
There were nine of them.
'An ill omen to say the least… But Hinata is as safe as she can be in the Exams and I'm certain I can count on her team to keep her that way. In the unlikely event she makes the preliminary fights - if they are needed - I ordered all the Hyuuga assigned to the Forest Tower to code the randomizer to match Hinata against Neji, whom I have no doubt will make it to the Finals. Hizashi's son knows how to break someone's spirit through psychoanalysis and Hinata-chan has too much of her mother's sweet spirit and not enough of her strength…'
"Pack your bags, Hanabi-chan. We're returning home tonight instead of tomorrow morning."
"Yes, Father."
* * *
Time: 3:20 PM
Miho Hyuuga paced back and forth in front of the double doors of operating room number two, constantly looking up as if expecting the red "Surgery" light to turn off at any moment.
'Did I make the right call..? Sho has those Hashirama cells; Hinata-chan could already be back on her feet if I'd said yes, so why didn't I?!' The acting Hyuuga Lord asked herself as she continued the fruitless pacing.
'"The problem is that there are a RIDICULOUS number of unknowns in the way of long term effects. I'm going to have to arrange for constant monitoring of the Princess's health for years to come – if not the rest of her life – praying that I haven't merely kicked the can further down the road…"' Her Genin's words as he talked about using the Cells on Princess Kanna echoed in her skull.
The Jonin sighed. 'He knew that I knew the risks and could make informed consent; something he didn't have a chance to do with Kanna because she was so close to death. He was willing to violate the same protocols he beat up an ANBU Tokubetsu Jonin over... The only thing stopping him from unilaterally saving my cousin was that I had to give him permission. I made the best call of two equally bad choices… Right?"
Hyuuga finally sat on one of the benches, burying her face in her hands out of frustration. 'But what the hell happened in that fight?! Nakahito and Kimiko clearly didn't catch the significance of Sho ordering the Jyuuken Treatment Team to come in; especially since there were only two Jyuuken users in the prelims! I mean I know Neji's had an issue with the Main Family since Hizashi-ojisan's sacrifice, but to beat Hinata to this extent?!'
She felt someone sit beside her. "I am so very sorry, Hyuuga-san." Tenten, one of Might Guy's Genin and teammate to the ninja in question, whispered softly enough that Nakahito, who was holding an openly sobbing Kimiko on the bench across the way, wouldn't hear. "Maybe if I hadn't been so badly injured they rushed me here, I could have talked Neji down before it went this far…"
Miho smiled at the younger kunoichi sadly. "To be honest, Tenten-chan, this explosion's fuse was lit so long ago, most people forgot it was even burning… I know Kakashi-senpai was attending the preliminaries; he'll be able to tell me exactly what happened." She noticed the slight flush in the features of the girl with the twin buns on her head. "And I promise that I'll take care of this before Hiashi-ojisan gets home; to make sure cooler heads prevail."
"OH, SON OF A BITCH!" Nakahito suddenly shouted, jumping to his feet as he let Itou go. He'd finally put the pieces together. "It was Neji Hyuuga that did this! I'm gonna beat his ass until he's in worse shape than Hinata-chan!"
"Nakahito, sit down. You won't be going anywhere near Neji." Miho sighed. She really had hoped it would have taken him more than ten minutes to figure it out.
"No, Sensei!" Haruno shot back as he quickly checked his weapon pouches. "I cared about Hinata-chan for the longest time and while it stings deeply that she's only got eyes for…"
"HITO!" Kimiko Itou shouted before her best friend could out NaruHina to the injured girl's family.
The hotheaded teen paused briefly. "...someone else, I won't stand by while..!"
Sho Inugami slipped out of the OR and proceeded to slap Nakahito Haruno on the back of his head hard enough to drop him to one knee. "Would you stop being a complete idiot?!" He hissed. "The procedure on Hinata is very delicate, concentration-intensive work and you are making so much noise that they sent me out here to shut you up. Now, are you going to do that willingly or do I have to show you how NOT ready to face a determined Hyuuga you are?!"
Haruno picked himself up, spinning to face his teammate, ready to shout some more…
And then he saw deep red blood staining the front of Inugami's white jacket with the powder blue edging.
Hinata-chan's blood.
The OR light was still lit; Inugami had been forced to step outside to deal with his outburst - an outburst that could have endangered Hinata, and for what? To make him feel better about not being there to protect someone that wasn't his to protect?
For half a second, Haruno thought he saw Kanna standing beside Inugami, her arms crossed and giving him a look of frustrated compassion.
Two weeks since he'd seen her last and he was already backsliding into bad habits.
The fire specialist took a deep breath, centering himself the way he had found had worked during Miho's anger management Genjutsu sessions. 'There will be time to beat the ever loving shit out of Neji later…'
Nakahito exhaled. "Is Hinata-chan going to be all right, Sho? Does she need me to donate blood to help her?!"
Tenten leaned over to Miho, whispering. "Hyuuga-sensei? Who was that woman with white hair that appeared beside Inugami-san for a few seconds?"
The Jonin smiled gently and whispered back. "Just Sho using a minor Genjutsu to make Nakahito see his girlfriend to help calm him down."
"Girlfriend? You mean Hito and Kimiko aren't..?" The younger kunoichi shook her head. "Never mind; it can wait."
"She just coughed up a little bit of blood, Nakahito; she hasn't lost enough to need a transfusion. It looks worse than it is." Haruno visibly relaxed at Inugami's words. "The Jyuuken Treatment Team is still working at purging the effects but as far as I can tell, the Cascade is attenuating."
"As far as you can tell?! What do you mean by that?!" Nakahito demanded, his voice rising.
"Haruno, raise your voice one more time and I swear to the Gods I will knock your ass out until the Finals next month!" The medic-nin replied tersely with a sigh. "Do you see a Byakugan in either of my eye sockets?"
"Um… No." The fire specialist admitted. "And to be honest, you're scary enough with normal eyes; you'd be a nightmare scenario if you had a Kekkei Genkai."
"That's why I said 'as far as I can tell.' I can't actually see what the JTT is doing, but they were highly anxious when they started, but they're less so now, ergo…"
"She's getting better."
"Precisely." Inugami agreed. "They'll be at it for at least another hour. In the meantime, I should…"
"Tertiary Orthopedic Care Team to OR3! Severe crush trauma inbound!"
"What's going on, Sho?!" Haruno asked, confused. Inugami shot his teammate a look that screamed, "REALLY?!" A sheepish look crossed Nakahito's face. "Right… You were right here when the announcement was made; you literally can't know anything more about it than I do. I mean what does all that medical gobbledegook mean?!"
Sho walked towards the corridor. "You ever crush a soda can to make it fit in your recyclables bag?" Everyone nodded as he looked down the hall where Hiro Jeitsy was leading a gurney. The younger medic looked at his friend, moving aside to give Inugami an unobstructed view. "Damn…" He sighed, turning back to the crowd, a sad look on his features. "Kimiko; Tenten-san… I'm so sorry… I promise we'll be doing everything we can for him…"
Itou looked confused. "What do you..?" Her hands shot to her mouth in a gasp of horror as a severely injured Rock Lee was rolled past to the next OR bay.
Tenten shot to her feet. "Oh, my God; Lee!" Then she blinked. "Holy shit; he took his weights off!" Everyone looked at her confused. "If he didn't he'd have broken the gurney!"
"Just how much weight are we talking about here?" The medic asked in confused disbelief as he and the two Genin kunoichi followed after the injured Taijutsu specialist. "Those beds are rated for up to 200 kilos!"
"At this point, I honestly don't know… It could be 450, 4,500, or something in between. All I know is it's a ridiculous amount and when he asks me to help put weight on him for pushups I have to put it in a storage scroll to move it…"
'He was so fast that even Sho couldn't even follow him AND that was with him weighed down with somewhere between 10 and 100 times his body weight?! What the fuck?!' The fire jutsu user thought to himself as he remained in the middle of the lobby.
"I recognize that look." Miho Hyuuga chuckled for the first time since her cousin was rolled into the OR. "As insane as that sounds, I'm 90% sure his Jonin, Might Guy, is now up to 10,000 kilos of extra training weights." She frowned at him. "Aren't you going with the others?"
The Genin shook his head. "Rock Lee and I don't really like each other, Sensei; first time we meet him he hit on Kimi and less than ten minutes later he was gaga for my cousin." The Jonin frowned, trying to recall the events Nakahito described, but couldn't. "Oh, it was during the mission at Ichiraku's while you were out trying to determine why Fukamichu was interested in Kimiko." He clarified.
Nakahito was silent for a few minutes. "How are we going to punish Neji for what he did to Hinata-chan?"
The way he phrased his desire for vengeance set Miho's teeth on edge. "WE aren't."
"But Sen-"
Hyuuga's hand came up sharply, cutting him off. It was a testament to the five months they'd been teacher and student that Haruno did actually shut up. "For starters, we do not know what happened during the fight between my two cousins." Nakahito's jaw fell open. "Yes, Neji is to Hinata what you are to Sakura, so this is - quite literally - a Hyuuga family matter." She put her hands on his broadening shoulders. "You are my student and I care about all three of you deeply and I respect your personalities and opinions, but in this case, none of you are Hyuuga by blood or marriage; you have NO say in how we will deal with this - IF we deal with this!"
"If?!" Nakahito practically roared in utter disbelief. "Hinata-chan nearly DIED, Sensei!"
"I am very aware of that, Haruno-san." The Genin flinched at the formal honorific being added to his name. "Far more than you could ever HOPE to imagine! But the fact of the matter is the Preliminaries, like the Finals themselves, are INTENDED to be injury-causing conflicts. There are times when a mission might demand you to realistically hurt an ally or even blood kin to sell your story. Would YOU be able to stab Kimiko realistically if failing to do so means you BOTH die? Because that's how the real world works!"
"No… That can't be a real choice you have to make!" Nakahito protested, a pain even worse than the memory of his parents' deaths, chilled the Genin to his marrow.
"Unfortunately, it is, Haruno-san." A new voice came from behind.
"Kakashi-senpai." Miho Hyuuga breathed as the senior Jonin that covered half his face walked up and gave her a hug.
"I figured you would be here." He handed her a video tape, which she took with a sigh. "The match between your cousins… I don't envy you this judgement call. There's clearly more to this than meets the eye and it's not something the Byakugan will be able to see."
The legendary copy ninja put a hand on Nakahito's shoulder. "Because you've grown up in an era of peace, you've never seen the truly dark side of the shinobi world." He lifted his bandana-style Leaf plate, allowing Nakahito to look into the three tomoe Sharingan; causing the Genin to shiver in instinctual fear. "When I was your cousin's age, I fought in the Third Great Ninja War, a newly minted Jonin and leading the other two members of my post-Academy Genin squad. One was an Uchiha; a happy-go-lucky type like you. We never really got along until that mission… He awoke his Sharingan…" He touched the scar just below the black-flecked red eye. "THIS Sharingan... in the middle of battle. When our opponents caused a cave-in, he shoved me and the girl he liked - our third teammate - into the one spot his Sharingan told him was safe… A spot only big enough for two."
Nakahito felt his mouth sink in awe. Kakashi's unnamed Uchiha teammate embodied everything Haruno hoped to be!
"Obito was half crushed under the rocks. With his dying breath, he asked Rin, our medic - the girl he loved enough to lay down his life for, to replace the eye that I'd lost in the fight with his still-intact Sharingan; a belated congratulatory gift for my Jonin promotion." He pulled his mask down. "Because of that, the friend I didn't deserve lives on in me even though he's been gone since before you were born."
Nakahito was silent for a moment. A part of him was still fuming at Miho-sensei's question, but a bigger part of him wondered… "What about the girl? Is Rin still around?"
The senior Jonin's face - what was visible of it - turned sad. "Rin…" He sighed. "Rin is a story I'll tell you when you're older, Haruno-san, but no; she was gone less than a month after Obito."
Miho Hyuuga suddenly gasped as she sensed a wave of bloodlust and triggered her Byakugan to locate the source. "Senpai!" She pointed up and away from them. "The ANBU teams you sent to guard Uchiha..!" Hatake looked at her, confused. "They're dead; every one of them! And I see someone holding a scalpel to your student's throat!"
The older Jonin darted from the room faster than even Miho's eyes could follow.
* * *
Time: 3:25 PM
Kabuto Yakushi watched as Chouji Akimichi was delivered to the courtyard. "And that's number ten…" He drummed his fingers on the monitor desk as he looked at the time. "Damn it; I wanted to wait at least an hour before taking on the ANBU, but those brats were done too quickly! Kakashi will return shortly and he'll undoubtedly take a position to protect the Uchiha from Lord Orochimaru's plans for him. Just as well I decided it's better to let the Sharingan come to full three tomoe maturity in Sasuke's body…"
The Otogakure spy quickly checked his equipment. One "snake fang" curved kunai; great for slashing attacks and - if you were skilled enough - still able to be thrown end-over-end for piercing strikes. Basic medical kit including scalpel. "Not nearly enough… Guess I'd better check the 'Go bag.'"
Yakushi slid up his sleeve and peeled away a layer of waterproof makeup to expose a storage seal tattooed directly to his flesh. It had taken both him and Lord Orochimaru many attempts to find a spell-form that worked - the failed experiments usually resulted in the storage space forcibly ejecting its contents into the flesh of the lab rat - but it guaranteed no one would find it.
Pressing his thumb to the seal, a specialized equipment bag materialized. Combat senbon similar to what that irritating Genin kunoichi that Lord Orochimaru had sent as an additional misdirect - with the exception of Dosu, none of them were worth much of anything - although HIS were coated with a layer of blended Black Mamba and Russell's Viper venoms and a few other concoctions of his own design: a powerful paralytic and a necrotizing hemolytic that liquefied the victim from the inside out.
"That will do… And now to destroy the evidence." He reached into the bag and pulled out a small EMP device with enough power to completely fry the security cameras and their digital backups. Ironically enough, like the young man that Kabuto had come to think of as his Otouto, Yakushi was incapable of utilizing Lightning Release, necessitating the use of an actual device.
As he set the EMP directly on the security camera system, the last thing he did before starting the 20 second timer was to verify that Sho was still outside OR3 - which he was - before assuming the form of the younger medic-nin. He double-checked himself in the mirror, making sure his corrective lenses that he actually needed to function had taken on the green tint that Inugami's usually possessed.
"That should work." Kabuto confirmed to himself in Sho's voice as the EMP detonated. Because the security office was shielded against external attacks, it also meant that the device's chaos-causing potential was limited to just the electronics in this room.
Kabuto quickly made his way to the wardroom on the third floor on the southwest corner of the Hospital. The "glass" windows of the room had been replaced with Okito Tanaka's diamond sheets and were able to withstand a tremendous amount of external punishment, but - for emergency escape purposes - they were designed to be breakable by hitting four specific cleavage points.
'I wonder if Lord Orochimaru has figured out a solution for dealing with the Diamond Turtle's Kekkei Genkai? It's nearly as inconvenient to deal with as the Wood Release that his old Hashirama cell experiments unlocked in that Tenzo fellow… There are other Senju clan descendants that might be capable of using it, although their ability to use Wood style would be paltry compared to Tenzo… And even he is nothing compared to the tales of the Shodai Hokage's prowess.'
As the disguised Kabuto neared his target, he saw Kakashi Hatake approaching the hospital out of the corner of his eye. 'Damn; he's back even faster than I expected!'
As he reached the wardroom's double doors, he rapped two fingers on the glass. The ANBU leader sighed and made a gesture. An ANBU with a boar mask opened the door…
And immediately took a poisoned senbon to the eye for his trouble. Additional needles flew and struck the unarmored shoulders of the other seven before the first began clawing at his throat as his windpipe spasmed shut.
"It's a shame medical protocol dictates a full lockdown for situations like this…" Kabuto said to the leader, reverting to his own appearance as the rest of his men began collapsing. "Because otherwise there would have been people within earshot that might have heard you cry for help with your last breath…" The ANBU leader with the white and green mask collapsed in a near silent death rattle.
"Now then; Kakashi won't take long to come and check on his prized student… Which one looks closest to my body type..?"
Ironically enough it was the one with the boar mask.
"Dead Soul Technique!" Kabuto intoned after making a quick set of seals. A variant of the Puppetmaster jutsu that "Master" Sasori had taken to new heights even before he'd joined the ranks of the Akatsuki, the dead ANBU began to respond to Yakushi's telepathic orders.
In a matter of minutes, the Oto spy had not only swapped clothes with his first victim of the day, but had even stitched a copy of Kabuto's own face, crafted by using the same Shoshagan technique that Lord Orochimaru had used to replace those Hidden Grass ninja on a cloned copy of Kabuto himself - another handy item he'd kept in his "Go Bag," and applied a scent neutralize to the air to make it impossible to tell who was alive and who was dead.
Yakushi, now dressed as the Boar ANBU, dropped to the floor by the window and proceeded to stop his heart, keeping the blood flowing by sheer force of will and chakra circulation.
The stage was set.
'Go.' He mentally ordered his cadaver puppet, who proceeded to exude raw bloodlust that Kakashi wouldn't be able to miss.
The bodies had hit the floor… Now it was time for the ultimate game of cat and mouse - spy vs. counterspy - to begin!