AN: Well, hello everyone. I just want to apologize for how long it's been (over a year). Things change, including priorities. I'm hopeful that it won't take me a full year to get the next chapter out to you. I've got a writing schedule that works pretty well. Regardless, you should all give a huge thank you to darksoulwolf who encouraged me to get my rear into gear! Thanks again darksoulwolf.

Because it has been so long, I'm going to try and give a quick summery of what has been happening. Here goes!

Basic rundown: Sakura sent on her first mission as a medic ends up in possession of an unknown scroll which just happens to activate sending her into the past with a badass sword which channels fire.

Last couple of chapters: In River country, Mai (deep cover agent for Whirlpool country) finally meets the unknown shinobi who killed off all the undercover operatives working inside the River palace. Realizing she's dealing with an Uchiha, she tries to escape only to be caught and tortured near death by Mandara.

After seeing Itachi and Kabuto alive, Sakura flees Konoha knowing that she more than likely can't resist killing one of them and changing the past – which she refuses to do. During her flight, she finds Mai's body determines that the only option left for her is to return to Konoha and face punishment for leaving. Stabilizing Mai and fighting off a group of nuke-ninja drains Sakura dry of chakra. She passes out just inside of the Fire Country borders.

Minato discovers Sakura has gone missing and sends Kakashi and a team after her. They find her body as well as Mai. They start bringing the girls back to Konoha after sending reports back to Konoha expressing the need for medical attention.

Hotaru (heir to the Kawa clan of Whirlpool) receives a letter from her father ordering her back home so she can marry the heinous Kyou-dono (prince of River). Furious, Hotaru refuses to do that unless Kokawa (leader of Whirlpool) demands it. When her father receives the letter, he immediately disowns her and sends a letter to Kyou-dono canceling the agreement. When Kyou-dono learns of the dissolving of the marriage, he orders Mandara to destroy Uzu for betraying him.

Kushina deals with a hospital stay after having a false labor scare.

Phew, I think I covered the high and important parts. For the fluff and details you will just have to read it again!

Disclaimer! Even after a year (!) I still don't own Naruto (or Harry Potter for that matter *sulking*). So please don't sue me. I need to keep what little money I do have; Christmas is coming after all…

14 - Nearing - 14

When they were (in Kakashi's estimation) five hours out of Konoha, the field-medic team he'd requested finally met up with them. After finding an easily defendable spot for the medics to work, Kakashi motioned for his group to descend. Seconds later, the medics were examining and testing the two unconscious girls. It only took a minute for Kakashi realize the two were exactly as bad off as he had anticipated.

"She's slipped into a coma. Chakra shock induced. I need the immune stabilizers stat and get me the I.V. kit she needs fluid! Type O!"

"Her wounds are reopening. Lao-san get over here and closes those gashes now. I need Type A over here." The medic's voice lowered in confusion. "There is something wrong with her brain." A frown of concentration marred his face as sweat beaded his forehead.

Kakashi watched in tense silence as the medics worked in controlled chaos to keep the two ninja alive. His lips pressed into a thin line as more and more instructions were yelled between them. Then, predictably, his eye twitched. He knew that girl was bad news, but this was too much.

Once the thorough examination had been completed, the main medic working on Sakura moved over and conferred with the other before getting up and moving towards Kakashi. He looked far too grim for Kakashi's peace of mind.

"Report." Kakashi's voice was gruff, annoyed at the world. The medic didn't seem fazed.

"We have them better stabilized. The pink-haired one has slipped into a chakra shock coma. Depending on the severity of her chakra loss, she could wake with in day or never at all. We will know more when we get her back to Konoha. She is cleared to travel once we finish this blood transfusion."

Kakashi nodded curtly as he spared the girl a heavy lidded (one eyed) glare. It was too bad she wasn't awake to fully appreciate his frustration. Kakashi sighed and motioned for the medic to continue.

"The Uzu shinobi is in much worse shape. She has been tortured extensively. Suffering from severe blood loss coupled with multiple contusions and internal trauma. We will need two hours max to stabilize her for the travel home. She had been patched up rather well but the constant travel has negated most of it, but it did buy her enough time for us to reach her."

"Without this help, would she have made it long enough for your arrival?"

"No."

Kakashi folded his hands over his chest and looked towards Sakura again. What happened to them? "Will she recover?"

The medic hesitated. To Kakashi that pause was more telling than the medic's next words. "Her brain has suffered some sort of chakra attack. It seems as if her chakra is surrounding her own brain in an instinctive self-defense. The dense chakra cocoon is slowly killing it. I will need to speak to Kabuto-sama regarding her treatment. There is nothing we can do here."

Kakashi blinked once as his mind whirled and absorbed the new information. He dismissed the medic who immediately went back to Mai and began to assist in her healing. After sending one of his ANBU escorts back to Konoha with the medics report and the expectation of their own estimated arrival, Kakashi was left with only his turbulent thoughts for company.

Kokawa stood, his hands clasped behind him, looking over his domain. It was a ritualistic motion, engrained into his movements. The scene, one that had hardly changed over the years, always seemed to settle something in him. Having clear proof that his village was alive and well allowed him to face all of the (not so alive and well) business in which he dealt daily. But not this day. The village was calm as it always seemed to be this early in the morning. He was not. The churning dread that had lingered in his gut had finally surpassed the calming influence of the village.

Kokawa sighed. Unhappy eyes moved towards the Kawa clan's homes. It seemed to him more and more these days that his son's actions were heading up all the dread in his mind. True not all of his current worries could be laid at Nejikeru's feet, but nearly all could be traced in some way back to his greedy son's ambitions. After Nejikeru had inherited his father's place as head of the family when Kokawa became the Leader of Uzu, Nejikeru felt it was only his right to eventually take his father's place as head of Uzu as well. When Nejikeru realized that Kokawa had no such plans, Nejikeru's outrage had been glaringly obvious. Kokawa's perceived slight had sullied the waters between the two; and after many other disagreements, Kokawa now possessed no influence over his son's actions. He was paying dearly for that now.

It seemed his son's latest scheme to increase his influence could not have occurred at a worse time. If there was ever a good time for such a venture. What could have possessed his son to make a deal with River? Even knowing how much greed dictated his son's life, Kokawa never guessed his son to take such a risk. Granted the prestige and political power gained from the marriage would be significant. Whatever the reason, Kokawa did not have the ability to sway his son's actions. He did, however, have the ability to check the motives of River Country. Or so he had thought.

The disturbing letter he received not too long ago from Minato-sama concerning Mai's condition spoke of a strong shinobi presence inside the palace walls. Which went a long way in explaining why his spies had not reported in. A presence Kokawa knew Kyou-dono did not have within his own forces. River did not have a shinobi village after all, and Kyou-dono's personal guards were nowhere near powerful enough to utterly destroy Mai like the preliminary Konoha ANBU indicated. Where had such a high level shinobi come from? Surely, if he had hired a nuke-nin of that caliber someone would have noticed him in the area before Kokawa lost all communication within the walls. But, maybe not.

That was the best case scenario. What was even worse to contemplate was that another village had brought ambassadors to Kyou-dono. He had seen the intel reports coming in from the Kawa compound as he still remained in the dark about the movements within the River palace. He knew now that the marriage plan had failed spectacularly. Knowing Kyou-dono's temper if the boy did have an alliance with a village, he would demand they make Nejikeru pay for withdrawing from the marriage agreement. The only good thing about an unstable and emotional leader was that more often than not it was easy to predict how they would react when angered.

Not that knowing an attack was coming was at all a good thing. In fact, an attack now would be disastrous. Uzu was not ready for another war. It was far too soon. They hadn't even begun to recover from the last shinobi war. Which all led back to the gut feeling that all of this uncertainty courtesy of an unknown threat would be decided one way or another very shortly.

Kokawa took one more look back over his still rebuilding village before heading back into his office to start on paperwork. He really hoped he was wrong about all this. He was far too old for war.

The intoxicating rush of sadistic glee Madara felt when he entered the cave crashed outward like a physical force. Kyuubi's lips pulled backwards as his captors amusement curled around him with a vice like strength. Nearly high on success, Madara merely laughed, his red eyes spinning.

'Be silent flesh bag!'

Kyuubi's frustration was a living thing inside him. He'd never wanted a being's total annulation like he wanted this damned human's.

"Oh," Madara's hypnotic voice, so different than his previous tones, instantly caught the attention of Kyuubi. "Why should I not laugh at the 'King of Demons, the all-powerful nine tails'? One I so easily sealed here. You are pathetic!"

Kyuubi's rage exploded as he lunged for Madara. 'I will escape!' He vowed to the being who dared to cage him like a dog . 'When I do your clan shall fall to my wrath. You will watch their meaningless deaths before you join them in hell.'

Madara chucked from just beyond the barrier as he turned his back on the Kyuubi. Mocking the demon till the end.

Completely enraged Kyuubi launched himself at the barrier again pushing with all his considerable power. His thunderous howl cut off abruptly as he felt something give. Startled, he probed the barrier searching for the potential weak point. He found it. A tiny spot on the infuriating barrier that kept him encased. Satisfaction burned within him. Teeth exposed in a parody of a grin, the chakra beast pushed. The tiny weak point grew into a slightly larger weak point.

Kyuubi's grin grew until it nearly split his face in two. Soon, very soon, he would be free to enact his revenge and Uzu would burn under his rage.

On a hill overlooking the cave, Madara's slash of a mouth twisted in a sadistic grin as his plans fell perfectly into place.

Itachi was bored. He leaned his elbow on his knee, rested his cheek against his fisted hand, and pouted. Having nearly been caught practicing kunai throwing (with live blades at that), he didn't think he could risk training anytime soon. That left him with precious few ways to pass the afternoon.

Sleeping was out as he was still too hyped-up on adrenaline from his work out and near exposure. Besides, sleeping an afternoon away wasn't Itachi's style. He didn't want his mother fussing about him worrying if he was sick. So, no sleeping.

He supposed he could go play with his little brother. It would please his mother. But Itachi knew for certain that his mother had invited her friends over for the afternoon ensuring there would be several kuniochi cooing over his little brother. Itachi did try to make his mother proud of him, but he had limits. Spending an afternoon with kuniochi in full 'civilian girl' mode was out. His stupid little brother wasn't worth the coos and pinched cheeks.

He sighed forlornly. If only there weren't so many people at the house. Then he could work on physical conditioning. But there were too many, and he couldn't risk getting caught. That would blow his entire plan of acting like a normal child out of the water.

That left only one productive way to spend the rest of the day. Standing up, he made his way to the market area of the compound. At least there he might hear some good gossip, ah, intelligence. Yesterday, he learned from a far too gossipy jounin that "Pinky," as Itachi had affectionately dubbed her, was gone.

That had been annoying news. Though it wasn't entirely unexpected. His extensive search for her two days ago had turned up nothing. There were only so many places a civilian refugee could wander in Konoha after all. She had been at none of them. He hadn't heard any good rumors of her being at any of them either. Maybe there was more to her than he had first thought. After all, refugees usually didn't disappear the next day. As much as she intrigued him, Itachi knew it would lead nowhere. She was gone, after all.

The market was reasonably crowded. It usually was around mid-morning as people did their non-food shopping before the infamous Konoha heat struck in the afternoon. It was here the gossip mongers of the clan could be found without fail. Half way through the market Uchiha Jounin-on-Medical-Leave-and-Thus-Has- Far-Too-Much-Time-on-His-Hands-san was whispering energetically to Uchiha Tomato-Seller-san. Moving towards housewares, Uchiha Noisy-Obassan-1-san and Uchiha Noisy-Obassan-4-san were tittering disapprovingly. Finally, Uchiha Vapid-Civilian-Teenager-1, 5, 7, and 10-san were dominating the outdoor restaurant area.

Itachi's decision rested on what type of gossi-information he wanted first. Shinobi love lives and various info on recent missions, Uchiha clan news, or news from outside the clan walls. Hmmm….

Itachi's eyes watched Uchiha-Vapid-Civilian-2-san rush up to the tables housing the others of her kind and decided to visit them first.

Getting an ice crème was easy enough. He didn't even need to pay. All it took was a sheepish look and a faint blush to the owner of the stand. As expected, the owner merely said it was on the house. Being the next head of the clan had some useful fringe benefits. He wouldn't be a good shinobi if he didn't abuse them. What would father say? He thought sarcastically.

Getting a seat near to the mob of civilian gossip queens was child's play (pun intended). Listening to their "whispers" didn't even take the addition of chakra to his ears. Civilians.

"-back so soon?"

"He just left!"

"Didn't he elope with that girl?"

"Quiet! Let her talk!" Their obvious leader snapped.

The girls immediately quieted turning almost as one to the newcomer. She seemed flushed with pride at her supposed importance. Or maybe she's just that out of shape.

"My girlfriend out of the compound said that her mother's friend saw Kakashi running through the back gates early this morning."

"You told us this already. Do you even know anything else?" The leader looked less than impressed. Itachi agreed. Kakashi returning from a quick mission didn't mean that much. He went on more than most ninja Itachi knew of.

"I was just getting to the good part. He had a team with him that included two unconscious people. She's positive one of them had pink hair!"

Itachi's eyebrows flew upwards in surprise.

Kakashi was back. Minato sighed. Sakura was in chakra shock. The medics said her recovery looked very probable but naturally had no timeline for said discovery. As for Mai, the chief medic had no idea how to treat her. He would first need to know what was wrong with her. Of course, as he had no idea what caused all her chakra to nearly strangle her brain he also had no idea how to fix it. All their attempts to guide her chakra away from her oxygen starved brain had failed quite spectacularly. Looked like he needed to send another grim report to Kokawa. It seemed every day something else ominous piled on top of every other ominous sigh which had preceded it. The problem was that he still couldn't piece them together to form any kind of whole. Minato ran agitated fingers through his unruly hair.

"Dammit."

A knock on the door brought Minato out of his depressing thoughts.

"Come in!"

"Minato-sensei, sorry to bother you…"

Minato immediately brightened. "Rin! Just who I needed."

Rin blushed. "Went to check on Kushina-san, and the nurse gave me this letter for you." Rin frowned. "She looked flustered."

Minato couldn't decide whether to laugh or sigh. In the end, he just grimaced. "She's not the easiest to handle."

Rin giggled as she handed the letter over. She paused at his desk fidgeting a little.

Minato smiled. "Something else?"

"Ummm... I heard a rumor that Kakashi-kun returned early this morning." She looked up at Minato flushed at admitting to listening to gossip.

Minato nodded his face rather blank as he wondered how much about the mission had been circulating.

Rin bit her lip before finishing in a rush. "Is it true he brought Sakura back? I mean I don't know of any other pink haired girl."

Minato grimaced again he had hoped at least Sakura's involvement had been kept secret. Rin apologized for asking mistaking why Minato was upset. Minato held up a hand to stop her. "It's okay, Rin." He cut her apologizing off. "I had hoped to keep their return quiet. Though why I even bothered…" he grumbled. He locked eyes with his former pupil. "Yes, he brought her home."

"Is she okay?" Rin asked with worried eyes.

"The medic's aren't sure yet. No visitors allowed."

"Oh." She paused hesitantly. "But where is Kakashi-kun. I couldn't find him around town, and he wasn't checked into the hospital."

"I have him guarding Sakura's room. She has information I need."

Rin was quiet for a few minutes. "When can I see them?"

"Tomorrow at the earliest." Minato eyed her carefully. He hated being so blunt with her, but Sakura was a very sensitive topic right now. Satisfying Rin's concerns for her teammate and budding friend just weren't possible. "I am sorry about this."

Rin smiled at him, but it was obvious her heart wasn't in it. "Thanks, Minato-sensei, but I understand. I'll see you later then."

Minato nodded to her as she left the room. Then, he turned his attention to the letter from Nightingale. He opened it to see the most horrible looking penmanship he had ever seen. The letters were barely legible looking as if the hand had both shaking and pressing as hard as possible into the scroll. His eyebrows lifted in mild amusement as he realized some of the parchment was actually torn where the pen had evidently pressed through it. As he read it, a feeling of both amusement and exasperation filled him.

Hokage-sama,

Kushina-san has been cleared to leave the hospital effective immediately. She will still need a qualified nurse to watch her and make her stay in bed for most of the day - to keep her away from unneeded stress. Unfortunately no nurse has volunteered for this position, and I was assigned some critical patients yesterday that will need my constant care. I am unable to take on this job for you. The head medic has refused to allow her to stay in the hospital until other accommodations can be found. He has agreed to supply a newer nurse to work for the first couple of days, but after that you will need to find a caretaker on your own and pay for their services. I'm sorry that a more permanent solution must be found so soon, but her health does demand it.

Nightingale

Minato laughed. He imagined it wasn't just Kushina's health that required her to leave the hospital immediately. Kushina was a terror when she felt like being difficult. He should know. Still, she really knew how to make his day. Imagining exactly what she had put the poor nurses through amused him to no end. On the plus side, now he had a good job for Rin that would hopefully boost her confidence. He blew out a relieved breath.

Now onto the less enjoyable part of his job. He still needed to inform Kokawa of Mai's more detailed condition.

Much later that night, a black bird landed outside a single bedroom window and pecked sharply. A female's shaking hand opened the window and took the letter unable to even pet the bird in her distracted state. She opened the letter needing only to read the introduction to understand how drastically her life would now change. She only managed to read a few lines in before the letter fluttered to the floor. Alone, in her bed, Hotaru wept. Her body shaking with sobs. She was free from her family. Her bastard of a father didn't own her any longer. Why then did it have to hurt so much? Why couldn't she be stronger like Kushina?

Forgotten on the floor the agitated black script began:

No-name Hotaru,

Afterward:

I'm not completely pleased with this chapter, but after sitting on most of it for a year+… well, you understand. Some of it seems rushed, and it probably is. Hopefully you will all forgive me.

Usually, I have nonmember review here, but I'm sad to say that I didn't keep up with them throughout this past year. Just know I appreciate all your encouraging words even if I didn't get a chance to individually thank you this time.

Tg

Edited: 12/10/2011: Hopefully I corrected all the Mandara mixups. It should now all read Madara. Thanks to all the people who let me know I messed up!