Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

Question: what do you think about the third Hokage?!

AN: Thank you for your support and for your kind reviews.

Chapter Three

Rin Nohara sighed in relief as soon as her body hit the comfortable chair in her office 'God, this must be heaven.' she let herself relax further in that said chair mentally patting herself on the back for making sure to handpick it herself, as soon as she got the position as the head of the emergency department in Konoha hospital. She tilted her head back and closed her eyes as her slender fingers ran through her hair messaging her scalp, she grimaced feeling the poor state of her short brown hair which indicated that she most definitely needed a path. 'God, she missed the large bathtub in her home.'

Home … one must think that after thirty-six-hour shift and three critical surgeries that she would be allowed to go home, but NO she had a mountain of paperwork to go through. She felt miserable and even though she was only thirty-two years old and only took the position two years ago she felt like she was getting too old for this.

She was about to dig in the godforsaken paperwork when her office door suddenly burst open to reveal Mai Saito, a nurse in her staff, looking like she had just run all the way to her office and was now standing in front of her panting and stuttering to the point that she couldn't form one coherent word that Rin could understand.

"Mai, you need to calm down in order for me to understand what you are trying to say." Her calm voice forced Mai to go silent though she continued to pant heavily.

"You need to slowly take deep and even breaths." Rin instructed her with a firm voice that held a clear undertone of gentleness in it. Although Mai was a good nurse, she had the tendency to hyperventilate when startled, but again she was barely fifteen, and hopefully, she would grow out of it soon.

After a couple of seconds, Mai desperately urged her "Rin-san you have to come to the emergency department immediately, there is something that you definitely need to see."

"what is it, Mai? you need to be more specific." She was an exhausted, sleep-deprived woman in a desperate need for a bath and the last thing that she wanted right now was going all the way down to the emergency department to handle something that another doctor could have handled just fine, and since she was not paged, then it absolutely could wait.

"Kakashi Hatake is here." Well, she did not see this one coming, no wonder Mai was sent to get her.

"Is he dead? "

That was a question that she did not want to hear its answer, nonetheless, she needed to ask. Because she knew that he would never set foot in the hospital willingly, so it had to be that either he was dead or dying.

A cold feeling engulfed her waiting for Mai to answer, Kakashi was her teammate, she had known him since they were little kids and despite not agreeing with some of the choices that he made, he still was very dear to her, and she didn't want to lose him

"No … No Rin-san." Mai denied frantically waving her hand in front of her face.

Rin released a breath that she didn't know she was holding.

"then what." Rin urged her.

"he barged in the hospital with Uchiha-sama, and he was carrying a young woman." Her curiosity was now piqued.

Ami hesitated for a moment but one look into Rin's eyes made her continue "she was covered in blood from head to toe and gravely injured."

Upon hearing that she immediately shot up and headed towards the door "then what in kami sama are we still doing here chatting like that? why haven't I been called immediately? and who is preparing for surgery?"

"but that is it Rin-san we do not need to do any of this." Ami's voice stopped her.

"Huh, and why is that?!" Rin questioned turning around to look at her.

Ami hesitated for a bit then finally said "The young woman … she … she is dead. "

Ami then continued her frustration and confusion seeping through her voice "I just don't understand, there was absolutely no heartbeat, no pulse … no chakra … nothing. she was bale and ice cold indicating that she had been dead for a couple of hours, still we performed CPR, we even used the defibrillator."

Rin was perplexed, she didn't understand why Ami found the need to explain all of that to her "Then what are you doing here?! why didn't you announce her death then send her body to the morgue?"

Ami practically screamed, "Hatake-san and Uchiha-sama are adamant that she is still alive and insisted that the doctor must heal her and when he refused Hatake-san threatened him."

"what?!"

Itachi Uchiha looked at the young woman lying across from him motionless on the small bed. He found himself frowning as he carefully inspected her current state; her entire body, save her face, was covered in dry blood, her wounds hadn't been dressed, and she hadn't even been provided with a hospital gown, he couldn't help being angry at the nurses for not cleaning her properly saying that this was a job for the nurses working in the morgue now, but of course he and Kakashi refused to let anyone take her there. Though somehow looking past her current state, she looked very peaceful, like she was just sleeping, like she would wake up any second now.

He knew that for the first time in his life he was being illogical, to the extinct that he was refusing to accept the one fact about life that no one could ever deny … which is death, he was choosing to believe in some feelings that he didn't even know that he had possessed instead of believing his own eyes.

He still couldn't get the image of her lying down on the ground broken and battered out of his head, he could tell that all of her four limbs had been broken in more than one place, she had a deep gash in the side of her head, and a hole in her chest. He could see that her wounds were no longer bleeding, she was unnaturally bale, and when he steadied her while Kakashi was lifting her in his arms her body was ice cold, and there was no pulse, plus she had no chakra signature, he even used his Sharingan to detect any flicker of chakra coming from her body, but there was nothing.

Still, they somehow knew that she was still alive, there was no doubt about that, not even for a second. So, they rushed her to the hospital. The doctor said that she was dead, her heart was no longer beating, but he and Kakashi refused to believe it, even when they applied CPR and used the defibrillator on her.

She simply cannot be dead.

So, the both of them were now sitting by the young woman's bed waiting for Rin Nohara, Kakashi's former teammate and a very formidable medic, hopefully, she would give them a glimpse of hope.

"What is the meaning of this?!" Rin's grave voice rang through the room bringing him out of his thoughts and forcing him to look at her as she stood at the doorway her arms crossed, and her face shaped into a perfect scowl, she clearly looked exhausted which explained her current mood.

When she had their attention, she marched into the room till she was standing in front of them "What do you think you are doing barging into my hospital, terrorizing my patients, threatening my staff, and taking over one of the rooms in my department?! Are you out of your goddamn minds?!" she didn't for a second raise her voice, however, her voice was ice cold, and anybody could detect her obvious fury in it.

"Rin." Kakashi started to talk but he was immediately cut off "Don't you Rin me, I don't know what type of connection you had with that woman." She took one look at the young woman before she continued "But I will not have one of my precious rooms occupied by a corpse. You need to let the nurses take the body down to the morgue and you need to vacant this room immediately." Now she did sound quite pissed.

"No." Itachi spoke for the first time his voice leaving absolutely no room for objection.

"Excuse me?!"

He continued as he didn't hear a thing "As for the room, I quite agree with you, this room is not adequate enough for her so she will be moved to one of the rooms in the Uchiha wing immediately, after being properly prepared for her stay in the hospital of course."

"I cannot allow that Uchiha-sama as it is no longer a patient, it is a dead body now." Rin knew that she was just being stubborn because if the heir to the Uchiha clan wanted to admit a patient into his clan's wing in the hospital even if the patient was already dead, he would simply do that, and she would have no say in the matter.

"I don't believe that I was asking you Nohara-san." Itachi detested using his position as a clan heir, nonetheless, the situation called for it.

"Don't think that you can give me orders in my own hospital Uchiha-sama." He didn't miss the hidden sarcasm yet chose to ignore it.

"I was under the impression that the Uchiha wing was an independent wing that lies directly under my clan's authority and not the hospital." He stated.

"I cannot believe that two of the strongest shinobis in the fire nation didn't recognize a dead body when they saw one." Rin's patience was now nonexistent, her anger and frustration were reaching entirely new levels, yet she tried to keep it together somehow.

Rin sighed "This is ridiculous, I can't believe that we are arguing about a simple fact such as death." Her hands then glowed with chakra and proceeded towards the young woman's bed as she continued "But I won't hesitate to perform a full autopsy now and here if it means that you two will get it through your thick skulls that she is dead."

Rin of ,course, wasn't about to do that; she was only going to perform a full chakra examination to instantly determine the primary cause of death; as the woman had a few potential ones; it could be one of her wounds that immediately killed her, or it could be the loss of blood, she also wanted to confirm that the body had already started to decay which would hopefully convince them to drop the matter altogether, however the second her hand neared the body enough for her chakra to enter the woman's system she let out a horrified scream partially from the pain and partially from the shock as she snatched her hands away immediately.

The silence that followed was a painfully long one It took the people in the room quite some time to register what had just happened.

Rin was the first to break the silence, opening and closing her mouth a couple of times while looking at her hands in pure disbelief mixed with horror before she was finally able to form a coherent sentence "kami-sama … she … she burned me." And it was not just a small burn; her palms had suffered from a third-degree burn, and she was positive that if she had waited even for a one second longer before snatching her hands, she would have suffered from far worst, even though she didn't even directly touch the woman.

Her eyes then shifted to stare at the woman lying on the bed in awe "This … This is impossible, a dead body is not supposed to have any chakra." Yet she had clearly felt chakra the one second her own chakra entered the woman's body.

Chakra was the life force in one's body, every living being had chakra to some extent including animals and plants. Human beings of course all had chakra civilians and shinobis plus every human being had enough chakra to possess his own chakra signature, though a civilian's chakra reserve was small while usually, a shinobi's chakra reserve was much larger. Also, they were taught from a young age to utilize chakra as well as increase their reserve.

Long story short; a living, breathing being must have chakra, and a dead person doesn't have any chakra.

This girl had chakra, though it was no normal chakra as normal chakra was not supposed to burn, nonetheless, she had chakra.

Her body was dead, yet she still had chakra… she still lived.

After being a medical-nin for nearly twenty years, Rin thought that she had seen it all, but clearly, she was wrong.

With her exhaustion long forgotten, Rin gazed at her new patient, her eyes gleaming with fascination equally mixed with determination because this young woman's body held a secret … a secret that Rin had every intention to find out.

She then turned around to look at Mai, who came running into the room the moment she heard Rin scream, and whose face was now a perfect mixture between shock and horror "Mai."

But it looked like that Mai didn't even hear her, so she marched towards the girl then put a hand on her shoulder bringing her out of her trance "Mai."

"Hai, Rin-san." Mai practically screamed.

"Mai is Yumi Huyga still here?!"

"Hai, Rin-san."

"Then ask her to meet me at the Uchiha wing half an hour from now please, also I would like you to send two civilian nurses to clean the patient and to make it clear for them to clean around her open wound, they are not allowed to touch her open wounds or let anything else touch it. You will supervise her cleaning process and then take her to the Uchiha wing. do I make myself clear?!"

"Hai."

She then turned her head to look at Kakashi and Itachi staring intently at the young woman as if they were waiting for her to wake up any second now "Gentlemen, I would like for both of you to leave in order for my staff to do his job."

She then shifted her attention towards her hands "I, on the other hand, have something to take care of." Before she made her exit.

Two hours later

The staff in Konoha hospital though that they had their fair share of surprises for one day but when Hiashi Hyuga, the head of the Hyuga clan, entered the hospital followed by two Huyga bodyguards and one Hyuga medic for what it looked like to be anything but a friendly visit, they were left with confusion mixed with curiosity. But when words got out that Hiashi Hyuga was, in fact, heading towards the Uchiha wing, their confusion skyrocket, and when it was confirmed that the head of the Hyuga clan had in fact entered the Uchiha clan wing, their curiosity was at its beak and instantly several rumors were running about what was the Hyuga clan head exactly doing in the Uchiha wing.

.

.

.

When Hiashi entered the Uchiha wing followed by the Hyuga medic who was supposed to be working with Rin to examine the young woman, Itachi knew that the situation was getting much worse than he had ever expected and when Hiashi greeted him with nothing except a small nod of his head looking directly at his eyes for a brief second, before he passed him heading towards the room where the young woman was being examined.

Itachi didn't need to be a genius to figure out what Hiashi meant with that look, Hiashi Hyuga was here because he needed to confirm something with his own eyes … and after that … they will be having a talk.

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Half an hour later

The door was opened and Hiashi Hyuga walked out of the room followed by both Rin and the Yumi-Hyuga.

"I expect for her to be immediately transferred to the Hyuga wing." Hiashi's commanding voice broke the silence as he turned his head to look at Rin.

"I also expect you to make sure that the situation will stay confidential until further notice." He continued before he resumed walking until he was standing directly in front of Itachi.

"Am I allowed to have an explanation.?!" Itachi didn't bother to hide the displeasure in his voice.

"I am afraid not, as it turned out to be clan business. Nonetheless, I must thank you for what you have done up till now as the Hyuga clan will take it from here." Hiashi responded with a flat voice making sure that Itachi understood that he needed to back off.

"And if I chose to object."

"Then I suppose that you need to think about what you are going to say very carefully … before you take the matter to the Hokage." Hiashi responded before he turned around and then left.