Ojos Asi [[private -- nyrax]]

Sasuke shook his head. "No. This one has medical and emergency supplies in it that should keep us alive and keep me from bleeding to death. There is an opening in the woods of the land of fire. We can travel underground and come out there, and go back to the village from there. I think there's also a place we can sleep for a few hours." Shino was out of chakra and the only way to regain chakra was rest.

Orochimaru was crazy for drugs, and without medical attention, Sasuke would surely bleed to death. He knew that he could find something to slow his blood flow.

"Good, we could all use a bit of touch up work," Shino said. Of course the only one that didn't need it was Suigetsu who really only needed to rest after his battle that he shared with Kiba. They continued to move further in to the cave until they eventually came to the area that Sasuke had spoken of. They spent some work cleaning themselves up, mainly just a few stitches or cover ups to stop Sasuke from bleeding out.

"We need to chat Sasuke," Shino said simply as he looked over towards the Uchiha.

Sasuke was looking through a medicine cabinet. "About what?" He asked, pulling out a syringe and a bottle of dark blue liquid. He read it, and then filled the syringe. He brought it to his side, where most of the blood was gathering under his skin and injected himself. Glancing back toward the Aburame, he ripped his shirt, which was already partially destroyed anyway, and started to wash the blood off his body. If he touched anything, it would give them away in the woods, and, he didn't enjoy the feeling of dried blood on his skin.

Shino leaned back against the nearest wall. "Sasuke, I consider us not only allies in arms but friends as well. You've helped me greatly and for that I am grateful," Shino began. He didn't want to be the bad guy here, he needed Sasuke to know that he was on his side. "What happened with Youki back there, I'm not going to tell Tsunade or anyone else what happened. In regards to our injuries I'm just going to say that we got found out and give no further details....but I need to ask what happened," the Aburame stated in his emotionless voice once again. "I've never seen you get pushed so far so quickly. You acted out of anger."

The Uchiha slowly sat down beside him, the drug he took helping slightly with the pain, but not enough to where he felt nothing. A soft sigh escaped him and he ran a hand through his messy hair. "I..." He mumbled. "I just never expected that." He finally admitted. "You heard what he said to me. 'You think that just becayse Konoha ordered you to kill off your family it makes you a great shinobi'? How did you expect me to react? Why would Youki bait Itachi with something like that if it wasn't true? The Third Hokage has done things, and we know more than Youki does. A spy is with him all because of the Third. Orochimaru was trained by the third, and escaped because of him." he closed his eyes tightly, trying to think.

"What if... what he said was true?"

Shino listened in silence for some time until Sasuke asked his question. The Aburame had no idea if what he was about to say was going to help or hinder, but he had to say something. "Sasuke, I know that what he said caught you off guard but it is quite possible that your anger gave us away. We're lucky that none of us are dead. But like I said, I'm not going to criticize you about what happened," Shino commented before taking a seat near Sasuke.

"Look, trust me when I say that I've known Youki a lot longer than you have. The man's a master manipulator. He gets his kicks from being well informed and using that information to hurt people. For all we know he knew you weren't Itachi the entire time and did this just to mess with you.....it's clearly working," Shino pointed out as he looked towards his friend. "You can't trust anything that Youki says. He's a born liar, and his only joy will be watching the world burn."

Sasuke looked up at Shino and stared at him for a while. "Where...Whereas that's true, why would he wait until we had all the information we needed?" Then he remembered that Youki had tried to fight with him earlier as well, but Pein had stopped Youki from antagonizing him. He sighed, feeling a little defeated, and then nodded. "I suppose you have a point. I just... I got so angry hearing him say that." Still, there was a part of Sasuke that almost believed Youki.

Shino admitted it himself, Youki was well informed. Itachi was only a kid when he killed Uchiha, and Sasuke never thought Itachi was capable of something like that. The desire to fight Itachi was starting to come back within him. He wanted to know the truth, and he wanted Itachi to tell him. Sighing heavily, the younger Uchiha closed his eyes. "I think I need to sleep for an hour. That will probably help clear my head."

Shino gave a small shrug. "As I said, Youki is one messed up individual. I cannot hope to explain everything that he does. The man is insane enough to think that Aaliyah is the reincarnation of his dead wife.....I'm not surprised at how crazy he is anymore. I just wish to kill him and rid the world of his evil," Shino stated rather simply. Shino usually didn't kill on missions as Konoha was more lenient on that compared to the mist village, but Youki was one person that he would have zero regrets when it was time to slit his throat.

"Get some rest," Shino said as he saw that Kiba and Suigetsu were turning in as well. "We should be undetected here, so I say that we should let everyone rest for as long as we need. We can go once everyone's chakra is back up sufficiently," he said.

After Sasuke went to sleep Shino remained awake for some time. In all honesty he was reflecting on the mission. Had he made the right calls? Did they do everything that they could to avoid detection? Was he successful? Or was he a failure? He didn't know, he would merely be honest with Tsunade and tell her everything that they had learn and what had taken place. She would decide how worthy Shino was of being a team leader.

Sasuke slept the longest, since his body was the most badly damaged, but he didn't complain when he was woken. He slowly got up with the others and lead them out until they reached the woods that surrounded Konoha. It was midday by then and they had hours of running ahead of them. It was a passed sundown by the time they returned, and Sasuke was exhausted.

"You guys should report the mission to Tsunade. I think I'm going to the hospital." It went without saying that his injury hadn't healed, they had just done what they can to stop him from death. He was tired, hungry, and just wanted to sleep. It surprised him, however, that they offered to go with him to the hospital. That fact made him smile and he nodded. "Okay." He went there and walked inside.

A nurse immediately came up to him, asking what was wrong. "Transfusion and a healer. Now." He said, going into one of the rooms, making it very clear that he knew the layout of the hospital and what was in each room.

The same nurse was young, probably just out of the academy. "W-What medic do you--"

"My wife, which medic do you think I want?" He asked, glaring in her direction.

The girl, blushing, but a little startled, ran to find Sakura.

The only one that seemed to even slightly hesitate on going to the hospital was Kiba. Although he didn't show it in his face or actions, he wanted to go home as soon as he could. While he wanted to make sure that Sasuke was okay, he also wanted to make sure that Akiko was okay too. He wanted to apologize for what he said and how he had spoken to her. Still, he supposed that he could wait a bit and make sure that Sasuke was alright. After all, Sakura might want to tell Kiba how Akiko was doing.

As they waited for Sakura Shino was the one that would speak first. "So does it hurt at all? You patched it up decently but you still look like you got ran over by a horse," Shino pointed out with the smallest glimpse of a smile on his face.

Sasuke shrugged his shoulders and pulled off his shirt. As soon as he did, it revealed a bruise that extended from the injury across his chest and down his torso. Blood had pooled under his skin in a cloud of blood that could put even the mist to shame. "It hurts like a bitch, actually. The sedative I injected myself with is starting to wear off." He chuckled, glancing to Shino. Although he was hurt, he could see the humor in it.

The nurse, who was still a gennin paled at seeing this bruise and how white his skin looked by comparison. "W-What... should..." The new nurse that was in the room with them had no idea what to do.

"I need a blood transfusion." Sasuke told her. He wasn't a medical shinobi, but being married one definitely aided his level of skill in this field, especially since he usually ended up in some way injured in battle.

She nodded and left the room. When she returned, she had a small IV kit, and a bag of blood. It had a blue label on it, which meant it was type O, the universal donor for all blood types. Slowly, the gennin came over to Sasuke, who was now sitting on the bed and tried to get the IV up. But, for whatever reason, Sasuke had a particular effect on women that made them weak and dazed around him. She stuck him three times without getting a vein, all while blushing and profusely apologizing to him.

So, the Uchiha took the needle and did the IV himself, and hooked up the tube, squeezing the bag so more blood entered his body faster. "I need a pail to catch all this blood."

"Right!" The gennin ran and returned with a metal pail. She started at Sasuke, shocked to see him holding a scalpel.

Sasuke looked at her as he laid down on the bed with the pail at his injured side. "I will faint." he wanted her, sounding almost concerned for how this would effect her. Something about a gennin medical ninja killing the husband of the hospital's best doctor didn't seem like the right way to end your shift.

She nodded, staring at his body.

Sasuke cut open his side, and blood poured from his body like the water behind a broken dam. It flooded the pail and Sasuke, just as he predicted, almost immediately lost conciousness.

"Sasuke is fine, Hitomi, he's not someone who--" Sakura opened the door and glared at her husband on the bed. With a grumble, she went over to him and started to heal his opened side.

After almost a minute of her healing him, Sasuke's eyes opened and he smiled at her. "God you're a beautiful sight to wake up to."

"Idiot!" Sakura said, but was smiling, despite the anger in her tone. "What happened?"

"I got into a fight with a tree. I guess I lost." he grinned at her, raising a hand to move the hair from her face. Despite himself and all he had done, he did love her.

Sakura sighed, but leaned her cheek into his hand. "Tsunade-sama is in the hospital. WOuld you like me to summon her so you can report your mission?"

"Here?" Sasuke asked. "Why?"

"An ANBU mission in Iwa didn't go so well. She came to personally heal the unit assigned to that mission and talk to them. She finished up and was planning to go home. Should I call her?"

Sasuke looked to Shino. It was, after all, his call to make.

"No offense to any of you guys, but I am so glad that I have never needed to have any sort of surgery like this," Suigetsu said as he gave a small smile. He knew it wasn't really the time for jokes considering how much pain Sasuke just might be in. Still, it made Suigetsu even happier that he was so invulnerable to pain like this. He had only felt pain about twice in his life, and both times felt excruciating. He couldn't even imagine what Sasuke was feeling right now.

Shino didn't interrupt Sasuke or Sakura as they met back up. As someone who had just recently seen the woman that he loved, he knew the importance of such moments all too well. It was only when Sakura spoke to them about Tsunade that Shino decided to put forth his opinion. "You can report to her and let her know that I am ready to make my report whenever she is ready to receive it. However, if her current matter is more pressing it can wait a short while. However, mention that my personal opinion would be to deliver the message as soon as possible."

Sakura turned to the gennin who failed to give Sasuke an IV. "Kiyomi, please go get Lady Tsunade." She said, smiling at the girl.

Kiyomi nodded and bowed to Sakura. "Of course, Sakura-san." And then left the room to find the Hokage.

"Sasuke..." Sakura whispered. "What happened, really? This injury is far too deep for a joke. How did you even get back."

Sasuke sighed. "I took a shadow shuriken to the side. I'm fine, really. I have enough medical knowledge to save my life." he sat up and kissed her forehead and then laid back down. "Have a little faith in me."

Sakura sighed, shaking her head. "I DO have faith in you, but that doesn't mean I won't worry about you." She looked to the others. "Do you two need medical attention?" She asked Kiba and Shino, since Suigetsu had proved time and time again that he couldn't get hurt.

Shino shook his head. "No, nothing that requires so much medical knowledge more than a simple bandage anyway," the Aburame said as he looked at the few cuts that he had. He'd merely patch himself up later when he got home. Right now he just needed to focus and make sure that he got all of the information down correctly to Tsunade. His personal health could wait.

Kiba also rejected the offer. "Thanks but I'm good. With Suigetsu's help I was able to dodge most of the attacks that were shot at me. She was almost on defense the entire time," Kiba admitted as he crossed his arms. "Hey Sakura, how's Akiko?"

"Akiko's fine." Sakura answered, turning her attention back to Sasuke's injury. "The number of shinobi we've had injured in the next few days brought her to the hospital. Akiko is skilled in not only chakra control, but in giving her chakra away to others. I assume that she was trained with the purpose of being able to give her chakra away in battle, and she's very good at it. Tsunade has an almost unlimited supply of chakra, but Ino, Karin and I don't. We've been using Akiko's chakra when we run out of our own to heal. I think she's with Karin now." She answered simply.

There was a pause and Sakura followed with. "If you ever say something like that to her again, I'm going to break your ribs. And if you don't believe I will, just ask Naruto how easily that can happen."

Kiba just didn't say anything as Sakura actually went about threatening him. He was growing really tired of this. Everyone just always assumed that he was a complete idiot that needed to be harmed physically in order to learn anything. Sasuke had basically told Sakura that Kiba had messed up, but not the fact that he himself recognized how bad of a mistake he made. He wouldn't even respond to Sakura, it was only going to make him angry in the state that he was in right now.

Sasuke sat up once more and whispered something in his wife's ear. She sighed heavily and pushed Sasuke back down on the bed. "Stop sitting up. You're making this harder on both of us." She pouted. There was silence for a moment, which was soon followed by Sakura's voice, "I'm sorry, Kiba." She mumbled, quietly.

Tsunade entered the room a moment later and dismissed the gennin that brought her here. She closed the door and locked it. "Well?" She asked, looking to Shino.

"Don't mention it. I was still an idiot for saying it in the first place," Kiba admitted as he decided to push what just happened away. It was in the past, as long as he made peace with Akiko than there was no point in really dwelling on it. He would just talk to her as soon as Shino made their report.

When Tsunade arrived Shino went in to a detailed report as to the events that took place. The only thing that he left out was Sasuke losing his temper in front of Youki and the conversation that took place. Otherwise he made sure to report on every detail that he considered important. "Aaliyah says that she can't be allowed to fail this mission, and you already know that my feelings will support hers," the Aburame pointed out as he kept looking towards Tsunade. "And our injuries came at the hand of Sani and Suki. Suigetsu and Kiba were able to defeat Suki while I personally dealt with Sani. Once both opponents were defeated we escaped and made our way back here."

Tsunade nodded. It seemed strange that they'd have attacked them without knowing who they were, but she just assumed one of them had slipped up and done something out of the norm for them, especially since they weren't completely comfortable with being in the body of another person. "Very well." The Hokage said, thinking this through.

Sasuke leaned against the headboard of the bed so he wasn't laying down. "Aaliyah also said something about destroying Kakuzu's body so it wasn't usable." He added. "Removing his organs, making it so the body, even if recovered, isn't usable."

Tsunade nodded again. "Yes. That was what i was planning, but Kakuzu's body was so badly damaged by Naruto's technique that I know that body is no longer that of a shinobi. If they do revive him, it might be best that he's in that body, since it will be near useless."

"Still." Sasuke added. "To have two kunoichi who perfected one of Orochimaru's techniques, especially THIS one, we shouldn't take chances. I think you should remove some of his spine. Then he'll be unable to walk, or be totally paralyzed."

Sakura bit her lip. "Shishou, I agree with Sasuke. The more we can do, the better."

Shino decided to speak up as well. "We know from the report that Kakuzu had an ability that allowed him to add more hearts to his body, however we don't know anything about how the rest of his body worked. If we damage something like his spine it might be enough to cause him to resurrect in to a completely worthless body," Shino stated in defense of both Sasuke and Sakura.

"Youki might be able to transfer the soul back, but the least we can do is try to damage the body with whatever means we can."

Tsunade sighed. "I think it might be easier if we gave her back a different body. They want all of the Akatsuki, and of all of them, it seems that it would be the easiest to give them Sasori."

"There's no way we can give them back Sasori without contacting Kankuro, and if we did that, they'd know Aaliyah was one of our shinobi." Sasuke said, feeling better, especially since his injury was mostly closed by this point.

THe Hokage sighed. "I know that, Sasuke, but Kakuzu is the most dangerous member of Akatsuki. I don't want to give him back to them."

"Knowing the Akatsuki, I assume that's who they'd want first." SAkura said, looking at her mentor. "There has to be something we can do, Shishou. We can work on his body after I finish healing Sasuke. With Akiko's chakra, I'm sure we can find a way to damage his body more to a point where it's beyond repair."

Shino stepped in once again. "Giving them Kakuzu is the only way to keep Aaliyah alive, but it's also the best way to stop them from getting the other bodies," Shino mentioned. "They'll have to realize that Konoha won't take the loss of Kakuzu's body lightly, which means that it leaves us room to add further defenses to the rest of the bodies that are within Konoha's walls," he stated quickly. "Along with that we'd have reason to warn the sand that they might try to reclaim Sasori's body as well."

"Well, the only problem with that is, Konoha already knows that someone's coming." Sasuke said, not wanting to rain on Shino's parade. "They did find out who we were, and that means they'll have a heads up. Youki has spies inside the village, Aaliyah warned us about that."

"Spies?" tsunade snapped. "Who? How many?"

Sasuke shrugged. "We don't know. If I was Youki I wouldn't tell anyone to keep them safe. We can't risk anything, so we have to assume that Youki knows we beat Aaliyah here. We should strengthen the hospital's defenses and bring all the available shinobi we have to protect this place. If we use men, as I'm sure Youki will expect us to do, it'll make Aaliyah's mission easier. As long as we put up a fight, we should be fine. Shino, Kakashi and I can guard the underground facility. Youki will see that as the best Konoha has without endangering Naruto from being taken by the Akatsuki. While we patrol the hospital, it'll give you, Sakura, and Shizune time to operate and do as much damage to Kakuzu's body as possible. If you can seal part of him in addition to whatever you destroy, it'll just work better. We need to operate under the guise of Aaliyah being our enemy. I assume that she hasn't come here in a while because of these spies. She can't be with Shino without the risk of someone seeing her."

"Ah right, I didn't think about that," Shino admitted. Clearly he had jumped in too early as he wanted to make sure that Aaliyah's plan went off alright. While he loved Aaliyah, he had to admit that he now saw why some people called those in love blind. It was a metaphor that he hadn't understood until he had fallen in love himself.

"I will stay as long as I am needed Lady Tsunade. Wherever you need me, just tell me," Shino said as he gave a small bow to the leader of his village.

Kiba let out a small yawn as he stood there. He really wanted to ask if he could leave, but he knew that preparing to help Aaliyah take Kakuzu's body was important. Still, Kiba just wanted to go home to his mate and make sure that things were okay.

Tsunade sighed. "Alright. Sasuke, I'm going to have you admitted into the hospital for the next two days." She didn't want to raise an alarm inside the village, but having Sasuke stay there would give them a window to protect the hospital. "Suigetsu and Kiba, you both may leave. Karin and Akiko are in the hospital, together. I've started to train Karin in medical ninjutsu since she seems to be able to do it to some degree on her own. Honing that skill will be important." One of the reasons Konoha was so far ahead of the other villages was because of their medical system. Shinobi lived here where they'd die in other villages.

"Shino, you may leave for a few hours. I need to select a small team of shinobi. You will likely be among them, but I need to plan this to look believable, and I think that Youki is not foolish enough to fall for you getting out and then taking another mission here as well. This needs to be small and contained, so I'll be using a small, elite force."